Chapter 4
Pearls and Skulls, Mercedes and Motorcycles
Katara woke up on the first day of school, got her book bag packed it with necessary highlighters, pens, pencils and notebooks of paper. She went down stairs to find Sokka over the stove burning what use to be eggs.
"What are you doing?" Katara asked coughing
"Trying to cook breakfast, its not going so well." He said looking down at the pan.
"I think I'll go with cereal. Much less flame or burning there." She said with a laugh
They ate there breakfast and got in to Sokka's car and drove off to the school. The same boy that Katara had seen earlier was walking out of his house book bag over one shoulder. He pushed a button and the trunk of his car popped open. He put the bag in the trunk shut the door, looked both ways down the street. Then got in his car and drove off the opposite way.
Sokka pulled in to a spot at the high school and Katara proceeded in to the school Sokka right behind her, then went there separate ways. A young girl sitting at a bench wearing black pants with a studded belt, and a layered t-shirt sat with her messenger bag listing to music.
"Hey Toph!" she said
"Hi Katara, how was you're summer?" she asked pulling out the ear buds
"better than some…I broke up with Jet." She said
"What? Why?" she asked
"…he didn't know what I wanted out of school and life…we are just I don't know…too different…" she tried to explain "and plus he kept asking and pressuring me to…" Katara blushed "…to have sex…" she said with a low whisper.
"Oh." Toph said. "That." Toph opened her mouth to say something but the bell rang instead.
"I have to get to class…I'll talk to you at lunch…" Katara said
Katara was on her way to her first class of the day; the same boy was in her class and picked the seat in front of her. As he sat down, Katara could smell his colonel, she breathed deeply and smiled to herself, 'smells expensive' she thought to herself.
The teacher came in and started the class, passing out class room procedure and course work for the semester. As the boy in front of Katara passed back the stack of papers she smelled his colonel again tried not to blush. The teacher took attendance, "Katara?" she asked, "Here…" she responded, a few students later, "Zuko?" the teacher said and the boy in front of Katara raised his hand, "Here" he said.
Next couple classes went and were just as she expected a lot of homework and projects. She was sitting at the usual lunch table waiting for her friends to join her. She was organizing her papers in folders and noting some things in her calendar, when Aang and Toph sat down a crossed from her.
"What's going on?" Toph asked Katara.
"Nothing…yet…I already have homework…" Katara said writing down all the assignment due dates in her calendar the school provided.
"That's what happens when you take accelerated classes." Aang said with a smile
"Yeah I knew it was going to be a challenge, that's why I signed up for all the classes." Katara said looking up to her friends. She saw the same boy as before, in the street and in her class. Zuko...she thought she remembered correctly. He was walking with a tray in one hand and what looked like to be a blackberry in the other. He looked at the phone thought a minute and started to text a reply.
Katara didn't want to think about him now or who he was talking to, she had to focus on her school work and not boys, but he wouldn't leave her head. She kept watch of him every so often, he would pick up the phone read what was on the screen and then text a reply, set the phone down and eat his lunch alone.
After a while Sokka and Suki came to the table that Aang, Toph and Katara were occupying.
"Do you need a ride to work after school?" he asked, Katara opened her schedule, "Nope not today." She said looking back at her brother.
The bell rang to signify that lunch was over and everyone went to there next class. Katara walked to her class room and found a seat near the front. She was getting her folder for the particular class and her assignment notebook out with a pencil. She was doodling on the front page of the notebook when he walked in to Katara's classroom she looked up at him and a tiny blush came to her face, and quickly looked back down at her doodle.
He looked around the room and found a vacant desk, and sat down. Shortly after the bell rang, Katara looked around and found that the mystery boy...Zuko was sitting in the next row. She finally got a pretty good look at him; he had short black hair, and really brown almost gold eyes. He was wearing a button down shirt with a coordinating under shirt, with a dark blue jean and a nice brown shoe. He was very well put together, and screamed wealth.
Katara immediately loathed him, for flaunting his wealth and rolled her eyes at him. She watched him out of the corner of her eye reach in his brown message bag and get out a notebook and a pencil.
The class began and the teacher passed out class room procedures and the assignment list as previous teachers had done. She was noting all the assignments in her notebook. They were passing out books and they started on page one, and went through the basic stuff of the class, 'a building block' as the teacher said. "We will use these later in the semester and for the project." He said Katara looked through the class assignments and found the project and the requirements, 'Project will take place second grading period of the semester, student with a partner will complete following requirements' Katara read through the requirements and didn't find them to be too strenuous. When the time came Katara was going to ask to do it by herself.
Katara left to go to her next couple classes she arrived and found that she and her brother, and Jet were all taking the same elective. 'Fantastic' she thought to herself. Katara found a seat far enough away from Jet but not too far from Sokka.
Class was coming together when the same boy from before, walked in the class room. Was he following her? He couldn't because they had never met before, this school year he was new to the system. He found his seat behind Jet of all people.
The class started and Katara found her assignment notebook again and pencil and started putting the assignments in her book. 'It's going to be a long year' she thought, and sighed as she noted more dates.