Shadowstarr

No Worries

Chapter 9

Betrayal

The six teenagers stared, wide eyed, at the phone in Toph's hand, frozen in their seats as if Darth Vader really had just walked into the room.

This phone call meant bad news, considering how thin the ice that Toph and her family skated on was. At home, Toph even being in the same room as her parents meant that anyone in the vicinity was in terrible danger of being hit by one of the passing chairs or other objects that the Beifong family took pleasure in throwing towards each other.

This phone call meant that the wall that Toph had tried to build between her parents and herself when she ran away from them was about to be broken down.

This phone call also meant, of course, that Toph was busted.

"Wh-What's wrong?" Song asked uneasily, oblivious to the problem, but sensing the tension in the room anyway.

The others managed to ignore her completely, continuing to watch the ringing phone with dread. "Umm, ok…." Song said, obviously puzzled. She looked over at Toph, her confusion clearly etched in her face.

"Hey, aren't you gonna pick that up?"

Finally, Toph looked up at her, and, in a blank tone that clearly implied: "I'm pissed, so don't continue to talk to me if you don't want to die", replied: "No."

"But…" Song pressed, not catching the "pissed" part. "That's your mom on the phone, right? You must have been in this RV for, like, weeks without talking to her! Don't you-" she hesitated, seeing the bitterness in Toph's eyes.

The others waited, knowing that this wasn't something that Toph was likely to take lightly.

"What?" Toph spat out angrily. "Don't I what?"

"Don't- " Song recoiled at Toph's glare, but continued on, trying to get Toph to understand. "Don't you… miss her?" she finished in a small voice.

The room held its breath, knowing that the odds of Song not making it through the conversation alive were very high.

Toph glared at Song, clenching her fists and breathing deeply.

Aware of what dangerous territory Song was on the verge of entering, Sokka finally broke the tense silence. " Hey, Toph, why don't you-"

"I'm going to take a shower," Toph interrupted him in a deliberately slow, calm voice. Her friends watched quietly as Toph walked across the room, past Song, (who, in her defense, only flinched a little), and into the bathroom.

As the door slammed shut behind her, the obnoxious ringing was finally silenced by the voicemail, leaving a bewildered Song to stand, staring at the closed door, in silence.

"Listen, Song," Katara was saying a few minutes later. "I really hope you aren't too upset with Toph." Katara's inner peacemaker was desperate to apologize for her friend's actions. She really didn't mean anything, and-"

"Really Katara, don't worry about it! I know she didn't mean anything! She was just upset!" Song stopped for a second, looking down. "I just really wish I could understand her relationship with her parents. I mean, I'm so close with my mom, and Toph is so…"

Song trailed off, not wishing to offend anyone further. "I just wish I could understand, so I won't upset her anymore."

Katara looked at her, apparently contemplating something. "Song…" she finally said, looking at the closed bathroom door to make sure that Toph was still in there. "Do you really want to know what happened to make Toph so angry?"

Song nodded fervently. "I mean, I really want to help her…and, maybe, if I knew the problem, there would be something I could do!"

"Okay." Katara looked doubtful, but she began anyway. "Well," she said.

Song leaned in, in order to hear the other girl's words more clearly.

"Toph…wasn't born blind."

Song tilted her head. "What does this have to do with her parents?"

"Well," Katara said again, making sure, once again, that the bathroom door remained closed.

"When Toph was a baby, there was this…incident…and her parents-"

"Hiya, Sugarqueen," a loud voice interrupted. "How's it going?"

The two girls spun around, jumping out of their conspiratorial huddle to find Toph standing in front of them, her hair dripping water onto a shirt sporting the words: "My anger management class angers me!"

"H-hey Toph!" Song said, trying and failing to put on an innocent face. "We were just-" She was saved the trouble of coming up with an excuse by the Harvey Danger ringtone that came suddenly blaring from the phone in her pocket. Song looked down gratefully.

"I-I gotta take this!" She squeaked, and ran out of the room, pulling her phone out as she went along.

"So," Toph turned to Katara, folding her arms across her chest. "What was that all about?"

Katara looked guiltily back at her, trying to find a way to explain why she was suddenly blabbing Toph's life story to random hitchhikers.

Before Katara had the chance to respond, Song's sugary voice came calling from the other room. "Hey, Toph!" Song called, apparently done with her phone call. "Could you come here for a sec?"

Toph looked towards the sound of Song's voice, rolling her eyes and giving Katara one last death glare before going to see what Song wanted.

"What?" Toph asked harshly, aware that she and Song were still on very shaky ground.

"Well, Toph, I'm really sorry about what I said before, and I wanted to apologize properly."

"Properly?" Toph asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yeah." Song said. "I mean I wanted to be able to really talk to you, like, in private, 'cause I feel really bad." She continued.

"So I convinced Zuko here to pull over here for a few minutes so we could walk outside and talk!"

Toph looked towards Zuko, grimacing. Of course he wouldn't say no to his precious Song.

Dang hormones.

Toph looked at Song, who was smiling at her. Well, thanks a bunch, Zuko! Toph thought. Thanks to you, I'm off to have a delightful talk with Little Miss Happy over here!

Toph sighed. "Fine," she said. "Let's get this over with."

Two minutes later, Toph was walking alongside of Song, trying to pretend that she was actually listening to what the other girl was saying.

"So, you know, I really wanted to say sorry for what I did. It was so mean of me! I'm not usually that rude to people, you know? My parent's always say-" Song stopped, mid-blabber, not sure if it was safe to mention parents in front of Toph. Toph kept walking, totally ignoring the awkward silence that had just fallen between them. "I- I'm sorry, Toph." Song began again, this time speaking with a softer tone. I really do want to apologize…" She stopped suddenly, staring confusedly ahead into the clearing that was lying in their path.

"What's wrong?" Toph asked, wondering why Song had stopped so abruptly.

"N-Nothing, Toph." Song replied, her eyebrows knitting together. "Let's just…let's just go straight ahead into that clearing, okay? Keep walking."

Toph's confusion was enhanced further when Song suddenly broke out into a run and disappeared into the shadows ahead.

Wow Zuko, Toph though sarcastically as she walked ahead, trying to find Song. You sure know how to pick 'em!


Harvey Danger blasted through the parked RV, filling the vehicle with noise.

"Hey," Aang said, looking towards the phone. "Song left her phone here."

Ignoring the obviousness of his comment, Katara walked over to the phone, picking it up and flipping it open in order to silence it.

"Well that's really not good, what if she-" She paused mid-sentence, staring at the name that flashed up on the "missed calls" list with wide eyes.

"This is…" She said, keeping her eyes glued to the screen.

Life was about to get a whole lot harder.


Toph walked into the middle of the clearing, wondering where Song had run off to.

"Where the heck did she go?" she thought, turning her head around to try and hear Song.

The heavy footfalls that reached her ears were definitely not Song. Not only were they not the usual graceful skip she usually associated with the happy girl, but there were two pairs of footsteps instead of one.

Toph knew what would happen a second before it did.

She began to run forward, but it was too late. A strong hand reached out to cover her mouth, and another pair of arms grabbed her from behind. Toph just stood there helplessly, unable to move.


Back in the RV, the four friends stared at the phone in confusion, wondering why Lao BeiFong would be calling Song.


"Hey Toph," Song's sickly sweet voice reached Toph's ears before the girl even stepped out of the shadows.

"I'd like you to meet my friends." Song pointed to the two men who were currently holding Toph still.

"Xin Fu and Yu."


A/N: Well, that was satisfying. It's really not that great, but I'm glad that I finally wrote it!