Chapter 4
Katara
Katara walked to the office to pick up a new timetable after her diary fell in the rain; though the actual book survived the timetable ink was all smudged.
"Hello my name Joo-dee" The women sitting behind the desk had straight dark hair and a large smile that seemed to be constantly there even when she was talking, "How my I help you?"
"Oh..Um my timetable got all smudged so um please can I have a new one?" Katara asked unsure and slightly disturbed by this woman.
"Of course what is your name?" Joo-dee said, still smiling
"Katara, Katara Asul."
"Ah Ka-ta-ra." She pronounced each syllable separately as if she was programmed to do so. "Yes the headmaster got a letter from your father saying that you should have the best waterbending teacher to make up for your lack of training. ... Long Feng agreed so here is a letter to give to master Pakku." Joo-dee said picking up the papers from the printer.
"Th-thank you!" Katara was surprised that Hakoda could write a letter to her new school but couldn't pick up the phone to speak to her for...years.
"Do you know the way to the room?" Joo-dee asked. Katara was sure it was meant to be kindly but her smile meant that it was slightly creepy.
"Uh...No." Katara said truthfully but still she was still half wishing she had said yes so that Joo-dee wouldn't escort her. She had the door open and close behind her and a breath of fresh air swirled around her ankles.
"Um…Koko wasn't in today." A recognizable voice said behind her, she whirled round before thinking and there he was standing a foot away from her. He was looking down at a piece of yellow paper in his hand showing that he was on office duty which meant he was conveying messages to and from the school office. He was wearing the same top as earlier but seemed a lot drier. 'Huh?' Katara thought confused, 'How did he get so dry?'
As his head slowly raised Katara's breath caught in her throat and when she met his eyes her cheeks blushed a bright red. When he saw her, his right hand clenched into a fist crushing the paper.
"Ah well don't worry Zu-ko." She mispronounced Zuko's name the same way as Katara's, "Please show this young lady to waterbending class 1a."
Zuko grunted and went back out the way he came. Katara guessed that meant for her to follow.
Zuko
When Zuko walked into the room he hadn't even noticed that there was anyone else in there and spoke to Joo-dee without even looking. He moved his head up from the sheet in his hand to look at Joo-dee and found himself staring into a pair of light blue eyes. 'Oh shit!' he thought as Katara's cheeks were flushed with color. When Joo-dee asked him to show Katara a room, he just grunted not trusting himself to speak.
Katara
Katara stood outside classroom W5, she'd past many waterbending rooms on the way, and in one, she saw many young girls of about eight learning healing. She gulped hoping her inexperience wouldn't put her as far back as that. She knocked on the door and when she heard a voice say enter from within the room she took a deep breath and stepped inside.
"And how may I help you little girl?" said a voice, saying the last to words with a hint of taunting. The voice came from a man old enough to be Katara's grandfather. He was wearing northern style water tribe clothing and had long white hair and a mustache with a small beard though he was bald on top. His gray eyes pierced Katara's as he waited for an answer.
"Um I'm supposed to be in this class." Katara said nervously. A few boys snickered at this remark. When Katara looked at the class, she realized they were all boys. "I…err…have a note from the headmaster." She tried to force some confidence into her voice.
"Well bring it here." Pakku said with a note of impatience.
Katara walked up to the front of the class trying desperately to not trip over her own feet. Pakku took the note and read it quietly for a minute. Katara fiddled with her grandmother's necklace nervously as the boys sat staring as her silently. Finally, Pakku turned around and made a seat out of the snow that covered the floor. As did so, he said,
"I'm sorry I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding." He sat down, "The headmaster didn't tell me you were a girl. In my tribe it is forbidden for women to learn waterbending." Katara stared at him in disbelief.
"What do you mean you won't teach me?" she marched up to him saying, "I didn't travel across the world so you could tell me no!"
"No!" he said bluntly. The boys still stared.
"But the must be other female waterbenders!" Katara stated hands on hips.
"The women learn to use their waterbending to heal. And I'm sure one of the classes would be happy to take you in despite your bad attitude."
"I don't want to heal I want to fight!" Katara flung her hands out in anger.
"I have to follow my tribe's customs and rules!" Pakku replied still sitting on his chair of ice and snow.
"Well your rules stink! You!... You big jerk!" And with that she stormed out of the room.
After she stormed out Katara didn't go to any waterbending classes and just practiced as much as she could at home and when she was wandering the school alone during the classes. The week after the incident Katara was called to the headmaster's office where she found Long Feng and Paku, as well as the other heads of bending, sitting on a tiered platform. Sokka was with her to, being her guardian. Seeing all these teachers in front of her Katara suddenly felt very small and unimportant. She gulped.
"What do you want me to do? Force master Pakku to teach you?" Long Feng boomed.
"Yes." Katara said bluntly then she thought for a second, "Please."
"I suspect he might change his mind if you swallow your pride and apologize to him." Long Feng continued. Katara looked at her feet, ashamed.
"Fine" She said with a glare
"I'm waiting little girl" Pakku said with a sly smile.
"NO!" Katara screamed, "No way am I apologizing to a sour old man like you!" she flung her hands behind her out in anger breaking to nearby vases by accidentally bending the water out of them. "I'll be outside if your man enough to fight me!" she said pointing angrily at Pakku. Many of the teachers gasped in shock, Pakku just frowned. Katara marched out. One of Katara's other teachers, who was sitting there, said,
"I'm sure she didn't mean that."
"Yeah I think she did." Sokka replied, hands in his pockets. Then he turned and was following Katara down the steps struggling to keep up with his younger sister. "Are you crazy Katara? You're not going to win this fight!" he said but she just took off her jacket and flung it in his face.
"I know. I don't care!" she replied still marching. "Some one needs to slap some sense into that guy!" They'd reached the bottom of the stairs. Katara turned around and saw Pakku at the top. "So you decided to show up?" she asked him. He just walked calmly down and ignored her. "Aren't you gonna fight?" she asked angrily but all he said was:
"Go to the healing rooms with the other girls where you belong." Katara grabbed a waterwhip from a pond nearby and hit his neck. Pakku stopped.
"Fine!" he said, turning round, "You want to learn to fight so bad? Study closely!" he finished with a glare. He took the water from two nearby pools and swirled them around himself. Katara ran round to fight but he just pushed the water towards her and lifted her up. She landed nimbly on her feet and one hand with a grunt. Pakku started swirling the water around encasing him and Katara in a circle of rushing water.
"Don't worry," he said moving his hands to keep the water going, "I'm not going to hurt you." The water was pushing Katara further and further towards him and she was almost tripping over her own feet. Suddenly she flung her arm out and bended the water away. It went towards the nearby crowd that had gathered to watch. Everyone dodged. Except Sokka.
"Ow!" he exclaimed as the water hurled him away. Katara ran towards Pakku again but he used the water on the floor to create a wave of ice. Katara just slid up it and did a forward flip to land on a podium at the bottom of the stairs. Pakku melted the ice 'wave' and flung it towards Katara but using the water on the podium she twisted her feet and froze them in place while bending the water around her.
"You can't knock me down" she said forcefully to Pakku. Meanwhile the crowd at the top of the stairs had grown larger and they cheered. Someone shouted,
"Go Katara!" She didn't bother to find out who and jumped down from the podium. She ran towards Pakku who created an ice barrier, which she knocked down and started trying to punch him but he dodged. Then using the water that was his ice barrier he swirled it behind him and picked up Katara to plop her into the nearest pool. He smiled at his victory. But Katara emerged and shook off the water. The kids at the top cheered and some were dancing with happiness. Katara pulled up a round cylinder of ice and flicked slices of it at Pakku who just broke them with his arms. One came so near his face that even as he leaned back he saw his reflection. He looked at Katara with an odd expression on his face. By this time, Katara was out of the pool and on her feet, she was whirling water around and hurling at Pakku.
"Ugh!" she exhaled but he just bended it to his advantage picking up more and more water. He created a wave behind him and as Katara began to run towards him, he pushed all the water out at her. She gasped and before she had time to even stop, the water was upon her. She picked up by the force of the water and knocked back right to the bottom of the stairs. People in the crowd glanced at each other anxiously. She exhaled slowly and a cloud of warm breath came out then in a blink of an eye, she was up on her feet. She caused the two towers of ice pots behind Pakku to fall upon him. He stopped them easily in cloud of ice particles, turning them into snow.
"Well" he said, "I'm impressed, you're an excellent water bender." By this time, Katara's hair was coming loose and was falling onto her face.
"But you still won't teach me will you." Katara said more as a statement than a question.
"No!" he said glaring yet again. Katara picked up some water and flung it towards him.
"Ugh!" She exclaimed. The ice rolled up to try to knock Pakku over. But he created a tall ice tower to avoid it. He melted it and rode a wave gaining fast on Katara. She directed a stream of water to disrupt the wave's path. Pakku just froze the water instead, sliding along it. As he came round to Katara, he knocked her off her feet. Her necklace went flying but Katara neither cared nor noticed. Pakku whirled around and landed nimbly on the edge of the pool of water while Katara feel on her face, her long brown hair had come out of its neat plait. She looked up at Pakku breathing quickly. Pakku bended the water from the pool into a tall, towering tornado which turned into a spiral directly above Katara. He then froze the water into tens of ice shards to encase Katara where she stood. The crowd looked on in disbelief. Katara glanced up and started struggling and grunting to try to escape her icy cage.
"This fight is over" Pakku stated walking away from Katara.
"Come back here! I'm not finished yet!" Katara yelled to Pakku's back.
"Yes you are" Pakku said continuing to walk away. Then he looked down and suddenly stopped. "Huh!" he gasped he bent down to pick up Katara's necklace, which had come off in the fight "This is my necklace." He said holding it up for inspection. His face softened when his hands grabbed either end.
"No it's not! It's mine, give back!" Katara shouted from her icy prison still struggling to get out. Her hair loopies were dangling in front of her face. Pakku seemed to ignore her and continued. "I made this sixty years ago for the love of my life." Pakku looked up now seemingly staring into the horizon but it was obvious that his mind was elsewhere, in the past, "For Kanna." The ice javelins melted around Katara; freeing her she looked at her hands then looked up saying,
"My Gran-Gran was supposed to marry you?"
"I carved this necklace for your grandmother when we got engaged" Pakku said with a touch of sadness, "I thought we'd have a long happy life together." He continued then looking down at the necklace again, he said, "I loved her" Katara looked at him suddenly feeling sympathetic for the old man.
"But she didn't love you did she?" she said "It was an arranged marriage" she looked at Pakku as he turned his head and started to walk forward. "Gran-Gran wouldn't let your tribes stupid customs run her life" Katara continued as Pakku looked at the floor, ashamed. "That's why she left! It must have taken a lot of courage" Katara said the last part thoughtfully as Pakku clutched the necklace to his chest.
"Ok" he said after a moment shocking the whole crowd.
"W-what?" Katara stammered.
"I guess you're right," He sighed giving her the necklace, "They are silly customs. I suppose you can learn. You could make a good waterbender with-"
"Oh really!" Katara almost screamed, "Thank you master Pakku! Do you really think so?" Pakku frowned down at her and she stopped dancing around.
"As I was saying, you could make a good waterbender with lots of hard work." He said. Then Katara slowly walked away until she was out of sight, only then did she jumped in the air and shout: "YES!"