Sokka

After Katara left with Kali, I was stuck with Mr. Gloomy Pants.

I stuck out my hand. "Nice to meet you, Zuko."

He stared at my hand until I dropped it awkwardly. "Follow me to our room." With that, he turned around sharply on his heel and walked briskly towards what I assumed to be the dormitories.

When we finally reached his room, his side looked like he was the emo-punk poster teen of the year. There were posters of bands with names like Stabbie McStab Stab and Death to All Anti-Hipsters. His bed was completely black, and so was his desk. I looked down at my blue and gray stuff and wondered how he survived with all the black.

Zuko heaved a long sigh and pointed to my bed. "That's your side of the room. Unpack your stuff so I can 'escort' around the campus and 'familiarize' you with the school."

He didn't sound too pleased with the whole 'escort' and 'familiarize' part.

I started unpacking while Zuko turned on some music. I expected it to be some screaming heavy metal, but it turned out to be something sad and lonely and about New York.

"Cool song. Who plays it?"

"LCD Soundsystem."

"Cool."

That was the extent of our conversation. I unpacked quickly and we headed off.

"That's the fan arena," said Zuko, pointing a grassy area where a bunch of girls in elaborate costumes whirled around with fans. There was one girl who caught my eye. She had shoulder-length brown hair and was clearly the leader of their 'group' they had.

"Who's that?" I said, pointing to her.

Zuko's mouth pulled up slightly. "That's Suki. Don't even try. Every single guy who's ever asked her out has been turned down and beaten up pretty badly."

I snorted. "Please. No lady can resist my charm."

Zuko gave me a look. "Okay then. Go ask her out."

"R-right now?" I gulped.

"You said no lady could resist your charm."

I swallowed my fear and walked over to the girls. I turned around to look at Zuko and he just pointed to Suki. I gave him a glare and continued walking.

I got over to Suki, who just ignored me. I stepped in front of her and waved. She stopped and glared at me.

"What do you want? We're in the middle of practice."

"Hi, I'm Sokka. I'm new here. I couldn't help but notice how beautiful you are and-"

"If you're asking me out, the answer is no. Now go away."

I cocked my head. "Why not?"

"Because you're a womanizer. It's written all over you."

"I'm not a womanizer!"

"Yes, you are. All of us Kyoshi Warriors have excellent hearing. I heard you and Zuko"-she spat out his name like it was poison-"talking all the way over there. Now leave."

I put my hands up in surrender. "Okay. But please, just consider it."

'Whatever." Then she went back to practicing.

I walked back over to Zuko, muttering to myself.

"How'd it go?"

"YOU KNOW HOW IT WENT!"

-V-V-V-

Kali and I were walking around campus when I saw Aang. His head was shaved bald and he had blue tattoos all over him.

I nudged Kali. "Is that who I think it is?"

Kali's eyes widened. "Yeah! I've never been so close to him before. That's Aang, the last airbender and the Avatar. That's why this school is on the map now; he came here for training and stuff. Hey, do you remember what happened to all the airbenders?"

"I think there was some disease that only existed in airbenders genes, or something. And all of them were, activated by something. The only reason he survived is because he escaped ahead of time. That's all I know."

"Then you would be correct," said a cheerful voice behind me. I turned around, and there was Aang.

Kali flushed bright pink. "Um, sorry. We didn't mean to gossip about you."

He laughed. "It's okay. I'm used to being the source of gossip." He turned to me. "Who are you? Are you the new girl?"

"Yeah, that's me. I'm Katara. Nice to meet you." I held out my hand, and to my relief, he actually shook it. "Would you mind helping Kali show me around? I'm sure you have some stuff to add on about the school too."

He beamed at me. "I would love to! I remember how it was to be a new student; you're lucky you have Kali here. She's been here as long as I can remember."

Kali giggled a little, and I wondered if she had a crush on Aang too.

-V-V-V-

I couldn't believe Uncle had saddled me with the new boy. I was so angry that after he was properly shown around I dumped him at the sword-training arena and went over to the firebending arena for some frustration release.

I pumped out fist after fist of orange flames. Nothing seemed to take the annoyance out of my bones.

I was in the middle of a complicated series of moves when suddenly there were other flames pounding along with my own. I stopped and looked to my side. There was a girl I had seen before, but never thought about. What was her name…Chloii? Wasn't that it? She was wearing black Nike shorts with flames and a black tank top. It was a little hard to concentrate on her face.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Chloii. You're Zuko, right? Son of the headmaster, nephew to admission's officer and counselor?"

I scowled. That's all I ever was to most people. "Yeah, that's me. What about it?"

"I've been assigned to be your new sparring partner."

I scoffed. "But you're a girl!"

Her grey eyes narrowed, and she walked straight up to me, maintaining eye contact the whole time. "Listen here, Zuko. I am Chloii Cooksey. I am 16 years old, 5'8, and 135 pounds. I don't care if you are high and mighty in this school. Object to fighting me again, and I will kick your butt so hard you'll be throwing up my toenails. Understand?"

She intimidated me, to say the least. I nodded weakly.

"Good. Now shut up and fight me."

Written by I-Am-My-Own-Biggest-Mystery