Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar or Macbeth for that matter.
Zuko was drowning... drowning in a mob of teenage girls... but it wasn't an angry mob... it was... it was... A MOB OF CRAZED FANGIRLS! He woke up from his nightmare, secretly wishing it had been an angry mob. He hit the off button on his alarm clock so hard that it almost broke.
Zuko dragged himself out of bed for his third week of school. Excitement about homecoming was starting to build, even though it was a whole month away. Apparently, campaigning for homecoming court started next week.
Before he knew it, Zuko was in the car with Uncle Iroh. These mornings were getting shorter and shorter. A routine was forming. Time to start being Daniel and Uncle Hiro. Time to pick up Fred and Milo. Zuko didn't like Fred much, but she wasn't too bad. He'd much rather sit next to her in study hall than those other girls. But Milo on the other hand... he was annoying. And sometimes, Zuko got the feeling that Milo knew about everything.
"Good morning," Fred sighed as she got into the car. Seriously, who actually liked mornings?
"Good morning!" Uncle Hiro exclaimed. Ah, yes, Uncle Hiro did, apparently. The usual quiet followed, at least until Milo showed up.
"G-g-good m-morning," he stammered as he buckled his seatbelt. Still with the stammering? And the gaping in awe? And Zuko thought that pretending to be Lee was hard.
"How was your weekend?" Fred asked.
"All right. I guess," Milo shrugged. He glanced warily at Daniel and took a deep breath, "Hey Fre-" the car swerved to avoid a squirrel, cutting Milo off in mid-sentence.
"Sorry," Uncle Hiro smiled sheepishly.
"Yeah, go on," Fred prodded.
"Uh..." Milo reconsidered what he was about to say, "How was your weekend?"
"Good," Fred smiled, completely unaware of what Milo had been thinking. Awkward silence, as usual. Routines were boring, but they had an upside. They were safe.
The car pulled up to the school and Zuko went to English class. Zuko didn't like English. Ms. Harrison, the teacher, was a veritable demon and Zuko had to sit in front of Christie, quite possibly the most annoying girl in the history of the universe.
"You should be prince," she whispered in his ear as the bell rang and class began.
"What?!" Zuko jumped. He quickly composed himself. How could Christie possibly know? He was just being paranoid.
"Homecoming prince," Christie clarified, "You would totally win."
"Not interested," Zuko shrugged.
"Aw, c'mon!" Christie whined, "I don't know a single girl who wouldn't vote for you!"
"I told you," Zuko glared, "I'm not interested in being a prince, EVER!"
Oh great, now Ms. Harrison was glaring at Zuko. This was turning into the best day ever.
"So what did you think of the second act of Macbeth, Daniel?" Ms. Harrison asked. Daniel? Who was Daniel? Oh, yeah...
"I think the visions Macbeth sees are hallucinations induced by his own guilty conscience," Daniel answered.
"Okay, that's the first two scenes. Now how about the rest?" Ms. Harrison raised an eyebrow.
"The sun is an archetypal symbol of wisdom, love, and goodness?" Daniel guessed. He hadn't actually gotten around to finishing the act, but the sun was always an archetypal symbol of wisdom, love, and goodness.
"Good," Ms. Harrison nodded and moved on.
"Homecoming prince," Christie whispered again.
"No," Daniel repeated.
"I'm gonna keep saying it until you cave," Christie threatened in a sickly sweet voice.
"You'll be saying it forever then," Daniel sighed.
"I'll get friends too," Christie persisted.
"Not gonna happen," Daniel groaned.
"Daniel! Christie!" Ms. Harrison snapped, "Do either of you have something you want to say?"
"I do!" Christie chimed, "Daniel is running for homecoming prince!"
"Was that really necessary?" Ms. Harrison asked. Daniel wondered the same thing. He slammed his head down on his desk.
Milo knew that Fred was going to kick his butt for this, but he had to try anyway.
He put away his math notes and took out a clean piece of paper. He wrote, "Will you go to homecoming with me?"
"Hey could you pass this to Fre-" Milo started to whisper to Gabby, the girl sitting next to him. But, as usual, there was no point in it, because Gabby took the note and ignored Milo. She almost immediately returned it with a big, fat "NO" written on it. Milo turned bright red and returned to contemplating quadratic equations.
"Tell me you didn't," Fred groaned at lunch.
"Didn't what?" Milo took a seat.
"Ask Gabby to homecoming," Fred clarified.
"Uh... yeah, kinda, by accident," Milo admitted sheepishly.
"By accident? How- never mind, I don't want to know this time," Fred shook her head, "I was gonna say, that was a dumb thing to do. But it doesn't matter. I don't get it though, why does everyone get so worked up about homecoming? I'm not gonna go."
"Oh," Milo said. That was that then. So much for that idea. He started eating his lunch, trying to forget all about it.
Author's Note: Aw… Milo likes Fred… Behold the epic romance that shall play itself out over the rest of the story and beyond!
