Well, the fourth installment of Fortifying Elements has arrived, so I hope you enjoy.

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By the time seventh period had rolled around, Katara's anger had simmered down, especially after Honors English I, one of Katara's favorite classes. Although she was not particularly fond of teacher, Mrs. Dee, who had an eternal smile upon her face, Katara had been placed in a desk next to a girl, Ty Lee, and the two had become fast friends. Apparently, Ty Lee knew Zuko somehow. Katara had been unable to figure out the relationship through all of the other girl's fast-paced babbling.

Unfortunately, Katara had gym now. Physical Education wasn't what had Katara's spirits in the dumps, though; she rather liked gym. But of all the gym classes of the day, Zuko just had to be in hers.

"All right, kids! I want boys on the left and girls on the right!" the gym teacher walked in, decked out in a short-sleeved Boston Red Sox shirt, a pair of blue gym short, tube socks, worn down white tennis shoes, and a huge wresting championship belt wrapped around his waist. Katara looked at him and could barely contain her laughter; she walked over to the right side of the gym and sat down next a girl with thick sheet of black hair reaching down to her waist, half of it covering her bored-looking face.

Before Katara could talk to the other girl, the gym teacher stepped up to talk. When she looked to the middle of the gym, she caught Zuko's gaze, and he gave her a sharp glare. Katara scoffed as the gym teacher began to speak.

"Good afternoon. You may know me as The Boulder, four time professional wresting champion" – he patted the recently shined belt just barely encircling his girth – "but I expect all of you to address me by Mr. Vass."

"What an idiot," the girl next to Katara muttered under her breath.

The blue-eyed girl smirked, "Along with most of the school," Katara murmured back.

"That's for sure." The girl took a strand of her hair and spun it around her finger.

"I'm Katara," she spoke, feeling a little silly.

The other girl regarded her with indifference, "Mai," she responded in a dull tone. She returned her attention to her hair, "What's with you and Zuko?" she asked monotonously, and it took Katara a moment to realize Mai had asked something.

Katara shrugged and flicked a gum wrapper on the wooden floor away from her, "He's just a jerk. He got me detention tomorrow. My first day of school and I'm already in trouble." As she spoke, Katara was aware that Mai stiffened next to her, "How do you know Zuko?"

Mai was quiet, "I know his sister," she answered shortly, clearly not wanting to elaborate further. Katara took the hint and the conversation ended there. She returned her attention back to Mr. Vass. She couldn't be sure, but the freshman thought that the gym teacher was comparing school to a wrestling match; Katara felt herself drifting away from whatever Mr. Vass was saying.

By the time the last class of the day had ended, Katara felt she had learned nothing except that sitting for ninety minutes on a hard wood floor made her backside fall asleep. She trudged out to the bus feeling half-dead, her energy all spent on trying to stay awake that day.

The freshman climbed up the stairs and took advantage of being one of the first people on the bus by claiming a seat three rows from the front as her own. Katara leaned back into the plastic seat cover and stared out the window.

"Hey, Katara, what happened?" Jet sat down next to her and pushed some of his brown hair out of his tanned face. "You don't look so happy."

"Zuko happened," Katara spoke with a shrug, "I can't stand him. And I have at least two classes with him." She held in a groan and set her head on the glass window, looking at all of the high schoolers walking to their buses or cars.

Jet clicked his tongue with a shake of his head, "I told you to stay away from him Katara," he said as if he were speaking with a child.

Katara nodded with a roll of her eyes. The rest of the bus ride passed in a blur until Katara realized that she stood outside her house and couldn't remember how she had arrived.

"Is the grass that enjoyable to watch, Katara?" Toph asked sarcastically. The seventh-grader laughed and walked into the house behind Aang.

Katara snapped back into reality and followed her foster-siblings in, dropping her backpack next to the door and onto the outdated off-white carpeting that had seen far too much. The Vanns' cat Momo ran into the room and jumped onto the back of the faux leather couch, followed shortly by Appa, the family's sheepdog.

"Where's Sokka?" Katara asked once she entered the kitchen and found that her older brother seemed to have vanished.

Aang leaned against the counter, "I thought I told you, he went out for soccer. Tryouts are tonight. He won't be back till late." The seventh-grader's bald head reflected light from the kitchen lighting fixture just hanging by a thread, or in its case, a wire. Aang ran a hand over the skin atop his skull, "You know, I've been thinking about growing my hair out. What do you think, Katara?"

"Um … sure," she muttered under her breath.

"Is something wrong, Katara? You seem out of it," Aang asked with concern wading through his voice.

Toph laughed from her seat on the faux leather couch, "Can't you tell, Aang. Katara's found herself a bo-oyfriend," Toph mocked in a sing-song voice.

"I did not," Katara shot back.

"Do, too," Toph returned.

"Do not."

"Do, too."

"Do not."

"Do, too."

"Do not!"

"Do, to-o," Toph continued on, barely able to control her hysteria.

Katara groaned, "I do not have a boyfriend!" she screamed and tore out of the kitchen and down the hall to her room.

"I can tell you're lying!" Toph yelled back in the midst of her laughing. The comment earned her the satisfaction of hearing Katara scream into a pillow.