Katara walked into her math class and sat down heavily in an open seat. School had now begun in full force, and she already had three chapters of Spirit Tales to read for World Lit, notes to take on two chapters of A History of Bending for World History, and a major art project for Mr. Gyatso that was due on Friday. And she still had another class to go! She was beginning to understand why everyone had a mandatory study hall for fourth period - that was the only way they'd be able to keep up with all their work. At least lunch had been better, today - Toph seemed to have warmed up to her. Although she still called Katara "Sugar Queen". She'd also taken to calling Sokka "Snoozles", on account of his habit to keep staring off into space in the direction of one of the tables of seniors.
Mr. Zhao strode to the front of the classroom. "Get up!" he barked. The students all jumped in their seats and hurried to do as they were told, gathering jackets and bags. "I am assigning you seats," the intimidating teacher continued, "and these will be your seats for the rest of the trimester! I didn't bother yesterday because nobody listens the first day, but from now on, you will listen in my class, and you will not complain about your seats!" Everyone lined up against the wall as they were told, not wanting to make the teacher even more irritated than he clearly already was.
Mr. Zhao pointed at the first group of four desks. "Jin Tiáoqíng! Yue Gekkō! Song Yasashī! Chan Yūhuí!" The four students sat and unpacked their bags. He moved on to the next group of desks.
"Suki Fengshan! Yuan Shè! Katara Kuruk! Zuko Lóng!" Katara's eyes widened, and she held in a groan. Of all the people, she grumbled mentally, I have to be in the group with the one I still owe for saving my skin. Sighing, she sat down. Mr. Zhao continued barking orders in the background.
"Hi, I'm Katara," she said, smiling at the other two in her group. "I just transferred here this year." The auburn-haired Earth Kingdom girl smiled back.
"Suki," she replied. "Nice to meet you."
"And you're... Yuan?" Katara continued, turning to the lanky, dark-haired boy, who looked like he could be from the Earth Kingdom as well. He shook his head mutely and tapped the cover of his binder, on which was written "Property of Longshot".
"Longshot," Katara repeated. He nodded, looking pleased. She gave a mental shrug. Okay then.
Zuko sighed and slid down in his seat, pulling his hood farther up over his face. "Good to see you, too," Katara said waspishly.
"Please don't," he said. "Not in the mood." Suki glanced between them, one eyebrow raised.
"We work together," Katara explained. Suki made a noncommittal noise.
"Eh-hem," said Mr. Zhao, clearing his throat and glaring at the class. All conversation instantly died. "Thank you. Now, if you would open your books to page 394, we'll begin today's lesson."
As Mr. Zhao began to talk about cosine inverse ratios and finding angles, Suki leaned over to Katara. "Do you have a brother?" she whispered.
Katara nodded.
"Sokka, right?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, cool. He's in some of my classes," the Earth Kingdom girl explained. "You two really look alike."
"Gee, thanks," Katara muttered.
"In a good way! I mean, you can tell that the two of you are related," Suki whispered quickly.
"And here I always thought I was adopted," Katara grinned. Suki laughed. Zuko huffed from the seat beside Katara. She turned on him.
"What?" she demanded.
"Zhao's looking," he said, dodging the question. Suki and Katara both looked quickly up to the front, where Mr. Zhao was still teaching. He was glaring in their general direction, though, and they decided to leave the conversation for later.
Katara brought her math homework with her to the Jasmine Dragon. "Why don't you just do it during study hall?" Sokka asked, frowning at her as if he couldn't believe she was doing homework after school.
"Because there's three pages of it," she snapped. Sokka winced in sympathy.
"Well, that sucks. Zhao seems like a tough teacher. Glad I'm taking physics!" Sokka grinned. "Mr. Shokunin is a really chill teacher - he basically said he didn't believe in homework."
"Glad to hear it," Katara muttered, looking over the long list of problems Zhao had assigned.
"Anytime," Sokka said with a smirk.
Twenty minutes later, Iroh walked over to her. "Miss Katara, I will have to ask you to pause in your homework for now. We are almost ready to open the shop." Zuko walked behind her, paused for a moment, then said, "Number eight is wrong," and moved on before she could do much more than splutter. She looked over problem eight - just in case - and realized she'd used the wrong formula to solve it. She fixed it quickly, moved her things to the back of the kitchen, and got ready to serve tea.
A/N: Yeah, this one is short... I was having some serious writer's block. Homework may have been involved. Next chapter should be a bit longer. :)
Read and review! Please! I really like feedback!