Chapter 4-

It wasn't possible for Shinju to have any nightmares tonight because it wasn't possible for her to sleep. As tired as she was, the noise from the countless parties in the dorms and in the apartments kept her wide-awake all night. It was also stressful being in a completely new bed in a completely new room in a completely new place. When daybreak rolled around and the sun started to rise over the mountains, Shinju just started to cry because she didn't even get an hour of sleep.

She got up for the day and went to her suitcase for clothes because she hadn't bothered to put away her things and decided to live out of her bags for a couple of days. She decided to wear more blue items of clothing than she did at home so she could finally identify herself for whom she truly was instead of blending into a crowd of only green. The scene in the morning was the opposite of the night before, dead and silent. Shinju poked her head in Zina's room and saw she was still sleeping along with the rest of the campus who partied their night away.

Shinju was hungry but the dining halls wouldn't open until classes did tomorrow. She grabbed her small bag with money inside it and headed out of the dorms in search of something to eat. With the map she had gotten yesterday, Shinju was able to find her way out of the campus and into the real city. She wandered down a street lined with shops, but she found it strange how on top of them were places where people were living in above connected to them. The more time Shinju walking around, the more she realized how bad Republic City smelt. The air was stale and polluted and everywhere she went reeked of garbage and sewage.

Shinju was staying on only one street as to make it easier to just turn around in the opposite direction when she wanted to go back. After about twenty minutes of walking she came across a teashop that looked promising. As Shinju opened the door to go inside though, there was only enough room between the door and the end of the line for her to fit herself in. Other people came behind her and waited with the door open as if it was a daily norm to wait for their morning tea in a line this long.

Deciding it would be better to start adapting to city life now, Shinju kept her place in line and waited to get her tea and pastry as long as it took for her to get to the shop in the first place. After forty minutes of being away from the university, she decided to make her way back the way she came and not get herself lost in the city. The only breath of fresh air Shinju got out of her walk outside was seeing just as many waterbenders as earthbenders around. It was also different to see so many firebenders and wondered if all of them were just as high strung and perky as Zina. Shinju was still absolutely puzzled though by what she meant when she said, "Nonbenders, am I right?"

It wasn't a surprise to continue to see the Equalists posters everywhere she turned though. Whoever the Equalists were, they were doing a horrible job getting their point across with these flyers. Seeing them more and more didn't help Shinju understand what they were about.

Shinju's feet eventually traded the concrete of the city for the green grass of the campus and made it quickly back to Circe Hall without any luggage on her this time. Climbing the five flights of stairs still wasn't a pleasure and when she got to her door, it hit her that she had left her key in her room. Shinju started pounding on Zina's door without an answer so she started yelling her name to wake her up. The door behind her opened up and a girl with bloodshot eyes and bad bedhead looked at her in anger, "Could you shut up for Spirit's sake!"

Shinju should start making a list of all the embarrassing crap she was pulling in Republic City, "Whoops… sorry. I just locked myself out of my room and my roommate is still asleep and…"

"Yeh, yeh, yeh," the girl cut her off, "But screaming and yelling is gonna get you kicked out of the dorms and then you won't have a room to begin with, so shut up!"

The girl slammed her door on Shinju and she then felt that Zina wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, so she took herself and her tea outside again. There was a pretty maple tree in a clearing not too far from the hall. Shinju went over to the tree and sat down to finally eat. For a moment it actually felt like being home under a maple tree and enjoying her green tea early in the morning, but the sudden roar of the exhaust engine from a satomobile fixed that for her. Shinju spilt the rest of her tea all over herself in a jump of terror. Looking around to see if anyone would tell her off, she simply pulled the tea out of her clothes with her waterbending but she was still upset she didn't have anything to drink anymore.

As Shinju got up to find someplace else to be, she found her answer when she saw Zina holding onto the arm of a guy who was with a larger group of people. She started to run toward the group and called for Zina to wait up. She looked back at Shinju but didn't stop and kept walking. Shinju sprinted faster and finally reached Zina's side panting.

"Oh… hey, ummm…" it wasn't surprising that she had forgotten her name already.

"Shinju." she was embarrassed she had to remind her.

"Ah, yes! Shinju darling. How are you this lovely morning?" Zina faked a smile as she spoke.

"Not so good. I locked myself out of my room this morning and I was wondering if you could let me back in through your door?"

"Well, you see, I was heading with my boyfriend here, Zeno, to the bending gym to watch him work out…"

"She can come with us," one of the other boys in the group suggested, but Zina's face made it seem like the worst idea in the world.

Shinju knew Zina didn't want her tagging along and she thought just watching guys working out was ridiculously stupid, but she was also extremely curious about this bending gym, "Alright, I'll come."

Zina's face sank, but that didn't stop Shinju from joining the group as they walked down the main walkway until they got to a huge building complex. Inside, there were many people playing ball sports or lifting normal weights. They made there way down a long hall and then came to a door to a separate larger gym. The door though was covered in Equalists flyers and painted with big, red characters that read, "DOWN WITH BENDING."

Zeno went up to the door and started to tear down all of the flyers in rage, "Those no good geeks! I don't see why we let nonbenders into this university!"

"Don't worry, Zeno, baby," Zina came up behind him and tried to calm him down, "I can get my daddy to talk to the dean about this and maybe then we can get those losers off our campus for good."

Zeno kicked the door open and rest of the group filed in after him without making a sound. The gym itself was huge and so much nicer compared to the other gyms. There were two huge pools of water for bending, crates of earth plates with targets on the walls, and every surface was made of the space was covered in fireproof material. Eyeing the water, Shinju started to make a break for the pools until she heard Zina clear her throat more loudly than she needed to from behind her. Shinju turned around to see all the other girls sitting by the wall and Zina pointing at the chair next to her to tell Shinju to just sit and watch.

Disappointed, Shinju did as she was told like a child and sat by the wall. The boys started to do reps of different exercises involving their bending while the girls watched in awe and amazement like they had never seen a member of the opposite sex before. None of them seemed to be very concerned with what was on the door when they came in. Shinju could now make the connection between the Equalists and nonbenders, but it still didn't make any sense to her. She knew asking Zina who the Equalists were would make her look like an idiot, but she could really care less at this point and brought herself to the nerve to say something, "So, who did that to the door back there?"

All Shinju got at first were blank stares of disbelief until Zina broke the awkward silence, "How in the world did you get into this school and not know who the Equalists are?"

"I'm not even that smart and I know who the Equalists are!" the girl next to Zina exclaimed.

"My father says they're nothing but a bunch of terrorists!" another one of Zina's friends said.

"The people who graffitied our door weren't the actual Equalists, but they were loser students who had nothing better to do. The real Equalists though are some serious shit," Zina started to get her emotions really involved in her answer, "They go around attacking innocent benders like they own the city but they're really just cowards too scared to ask for what they want the right way."

"But what do they want?" Shinju dared to ask.

"They want to take power away from benders and destroy our way of life. I swear if they could, they would actually go around and wipe out every last bender altogether," Zina didn't even look at Shinju when she spoke, but just stared ahead toward they boys exercising but she could tell that she wore a blank stare.

"But why would nonbenders have any less power than people who can bend?" Shinju was still not understanding the concept Zina was explaining to her.

"I knew someone from outside the city wouldn't understand. You probably hardly know any nonbenders yourself and don't know what they're like," Zina was quick to judge.

"I know plenty of nonbenders. My brother is one!" Shinju started to feel enraged by her comment.

"And you think you're the only one!" Zina had broken her image of being only a perky, happy go lucky girl after that. Shinju knew then that she pushed it too far and just sat there for the rest of the time in the gym so she could gain entry back to her dorm room. Not another girl said anything for the rest of the boys' practice session.

Sorry the 3rd chapter was so long and how I lied about Korra coming soon. I'm taking much longer and going into much more detail about Shinju's character than I thought I would.

Thanks for reading so far!