"Zuko, want to join us for lunch?" Sokka asked as they left their fourth period class.
"You and Katara? Sure," Zuko replied. He had already gotten more comfortable being around Sokka than with most of the people in his life. But, that's probably because he's never had many friends.
"Well, not just me and Katara, we'll have my buddy Aang, Toph, and-SUKI!" Sokka drawled, yelling out the last part when a red-haired girl walked by them.
Zuko was left bewildered and in the dust, having just been walked to his fifth period, yet not really knowing where to go from there. He shook off the shock from the piercing, loud screech just blasted in his ear and walked into his fifth period-math.
Zuko groaned. He had always been pressured to do his best, but even then that was only around a B. Which he got quite a beating for, and he blamed it all on math.
Another reason for his tired, low groan was the state of the room. It was a normal-sized classroom with desks situated in groups. Zuko hated when he had to sit in groups, that meant he had to participate, which also meant people getting a good look at his scar, or the bruises the littered his arms and face. The room was also equipped with posters depicting people making horrible math puns-obviously, this meant he had one of those teachers.
Zuko didn't feel the need to elaborate on that.
He stood awkwardly in front of the door for a few minutes before the teacher walked in.
"What're you standing there for? Oh, you're the new student, aren't you?" a man said from behind Zuko.
"Yes."
"Well, don't just stand there, go on, sit with Katara over there," the man was obviously his teacher, but he just seemed too gloomy and unsmiling to be a teacher, or have the classroom that he did.
Zuko wandered to the back of the classroom, sitting down in the only two-person group in the room. Well, at least it was supposed to be that way, but it was only two people now that Zuko had joined, which meant Katara had been alone previously.
It didn't seem like it was because she had been left out, however, as a small young-looking (but still had to be a teenager, right?) boy was talking fervently to her, along with an (ironic) man-type character that had a goatee. The odd pair was completed as a trio with the addition of a normal-looking boy in an oddly long wheel chair, one of which Zuko had never seen before.
When Zuko sat down, class started, and while it seemed that the trio in front of them didn't want to stop talking, both Zuko and Katara took dedicated notes.
Eventually, class ended, and Zuko gathered his things. Katara was quicker than him, though, so he had to catch up to ask her, "Hi, Zuko here, and your brother asked if I could sit with you guys at lunch, but he ran off with some girl I assume is named 'Suki' and didn't tell me where you guys sit."
"Oh, you're sitting with us? Cool, follow me, and we can get there together," Katara said smoothly, barely looking at him.
A brown-haired boy with a piece of wheat grass in his mouth walked by them, and Katara seemed to shield her face as they moved down the hallway.
"Um, OK…"
"Did you say something?" Katara turned, and looked straight at him for the first time since second period.
"No, nothing," Zuko said. He knew what it was like to have to avoid people in the halls, he'd always stayed away from Azula in high school.