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Queen of the Slopes
Chapter Nine:
Secrets and Surprises

Blue eyes snapped open to the surrounding darkness of her bedroom. She felt as though she was supposed to be up for a reason, but her sleep-fogged brain wasn't functioning yet. Katara lay in pure silence, uttering nothing except her even breathing as she stared at the ceiling. Putting her hands behind her head, she couldn't help but feel as though she was supposed to be up.

On Christmas day, Katara would always wake up earlier than anyone. She would rush over to Sokka's bedroom, still in her little blue nightgown that Mommy had bought for her. She was always so excited for Christmas morning that she couldn't sleep. She would wake up hours before anyone else.

Katara supposed that was it: she was excited. But lying there on her back, still staring up at the ceiling, she couldn't figure out why.

Turning her head to the left, she glanced at her red alarm clock, situated on top of her small bedside table. Six-fifteen.

She turned back to face the ceiling, and felt excitement creep up on her. A smile slowly spread across her face, and she couldn't stop grinning. Because her brain had started working again, and she knew why she was excited:

It was Saturday, and Aang was going to teach her.

Feeling wide awake, Katara threw aside the covers, making her way to the window. Through the dim light of their outside window, she could barely make out snowflakes glittering down to rest in the white blanket. Her feet were growing cold fast, so sliding them into some fluffy slippers, she headed downstairs to make some hotch.

* * *

It was nine o'clock, and Aang wasn't here yet. Katara had all of her gear packed and ready to go, her snowpants and shoes on, her coat hanging by the front door.

They had decided that Gyatso and Aang should pick her up at the Kuruk house. Sokka was going to hang out with Suki and had no interest in going up to Bear Mt., and Toph thought it sinful to wake up so early on the weekend. That cancelled out her only other options for a car ride up to the Ski Lodge. So Katara reluctantly took Aang up on his offer.

Katara sat on Grandpa's old easy chair, looking outside for any sign of a battered old yellow car. None yet. The snow had stopped, and the sun was rising, so visibility wasn't a problem. Katara stared at the long, straight gravel road, reminiscing on who walked down it only a few days back.

In the distance, Katara barely saw a dust-cloud following a tiny speck. There they are... Katara thought. It would be a few minutes until they actually reached her driveway, so she stayed put in the chair. It felt safe, secure. Everything that she really didn't feel when she was around Aang. He was too unpredictable for her liking.

The last guy she met that was unpredictable, she had fancied herself in love with him. But Jet turned out to be a mistake. That wouldn't happen here.

Two minutes later, the old car revved up her driveway, and Katara heaved herself out of the very comfy chair and grabbed her stuff. Opening the front door, Katara glanced back to make sure the note she had left for her Gran-Gran was still on the kitchen counter. It was. Katara walked outside into the fresh snow, leaning her board up against her so she could close the door behind her.

Aang bounded up her walkway, picking up all her gear (excepting her blue snowboard) and bringing it back to the car. Katara followed him. Looking over his shoulder, he grinned at her, and she gave a quick smile back. His excitement was contagious.

After shoving her stuff into the trunk, he graciously opened the front door for her again, still grinning. She stepped inside.

"Good morning, Katara." said Gyatso, a smile visible underneath his thick white mustache. "You're looking bright and cheery this morning."

She faltered, but replied "Thanks."

"All set, Gyatso!" Aang said, ducking into the back seat of the car.

"Then off we go!" Gyatso revved the engine into start. The car shuddered for a bit, sputtered, then stopped altogether.

Aang sighed, placing the heels of his hands into his face. Katara just looked back at Aang, who groaned. It was odd how all the sunny smiles could evaporate out of his face. She looked concernedly at him.

"Aang?" Gyatso said firmly.

"I'm on it,"Aang replied, exiting the car. He went outside and to the back to roll-start the car.

"Katara," Gyatso said slowly... "I'm sorry, but would you mind stepping out of the car? It would make it easier on Aang..."

"Sure, I'll help." Katara said, opening the door.

"Oh, no, you don't have to."

"It's alright." Katara said firmly. "I want to."

She popped out of the side and came around back, to where Aang was huffing and puffing and failing to get the car down.

"Gonna help?" He asked optimistically. Katara decided to play around with him a bit.

"Oh, your grandpa insisted I didn't," she said, walking around to watch him, leaning casually against the side of the car. "I wouldn't dream of disappointing him," she said in a silky voice.

Aang paused, smirking as he muttered under his breath, "Betty."

That charged Katara into gear.

"Just cuz your grandpa asked me to doesn't mean I can't!"

"Whatever. And don't call him my grandpa."

"Oh... your dad then?" She guessed.

"Nope."

Katara's puzzled look must have prompted him further: "I'm adopted."

This was unexpected. Katara lurched from her place on the car. "I'm sorry... I didn't know..."

"No worries." Aang replied without skipping a beat. "You're surprised." He said after glancing up at her. It wasn't a question.

"Well, yeah..." She said slowly, beginning to feel useless and pushing on the car herself. "You're a lot like him..."

"Really?" Aang asked, looking over at her. He seemed to take it as a compliment.

"Except the mustache," Katara said cockily, still pushing. "I don't think you can grow one of those yet."

Aang laughed. The pushed the car to the small hill of her driveway. It was here that the car finally sputtered to life. Aang and Katara both raced down the hill after it, him laughing the whole way down. They tied.

"Gyatso!" Aang said heartily, entering the left side of the back seats. "You could've at least waited for us!"

"Shame on you," Katara joked, entering on the passenger side. In the back seat. With Aang. Katara felt put on display up front. Aang was just another kid. She couldn't help but feel more respect for the man though, after her newfound knowledge of his and Aang's connection.

"Are you alright back there, Katara? I wouldn't want you uncomfortable." The seats felt perfectly fine. But Katara suspected Aang told Gyatso a little about her, and one of those might've been along the lines of "she doesn't like me."

"I'm good. Thanks though!"

Gyatso didn't worry too much over it as he glanced back at her. Instead, he smiled.

Off they went.

When they arrived at the Ski Lodge, Katara's stomach flopped a little at the sight of the mountain. She couldn't help but notice that her pulse was pounding in her ears. She inhaled, frigid air chilling her throat and not quite seeming to reach her lungs. It came out in a shuddering exhale.

"You ready?" Aang asked, coming up to stand next to her. She whirled around in surprise, before smirking.

"Ready to beat you?" She scoffed, "Any day."

Aang simply turned to call out "Bye!" to Gyatso, who was backing out and making his way down the hill. Katara joined him in waving. Aang started walking up to the ski lift, humming something that sounded like "secret". Katara jogged uphill after him.

Strapping on their snowboards, the pair slid down the lane and into the line. Neither one spoke. Aang seemed to get that about her. Took him long enough, Katara thought.

As soon as they were on the ski lift however, Aang immediately asked her, "So, what exactly do you expect to get outta me today?"

"I spoke to soon..." Katara muttered to herself.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. What'd you say?"

"What exactly do you think I'm gonna teach you today? I'm curious..."

"I don't know... Whatever the heck your "oh-so-precious secret" is, I guess..."

Aang smirked. "Hope I don't disappoint you." He said, grinning.

"Oh," Katara said smoothly, "I seriously doubt that." And suddenly, it wasn't jokes anymore. It was game time again. Aang seemed to notice too, the way her voice had changed, the way her body seemed to stiffen underneath her clothes, the way her cold blue eyes narrowed as she resumed looking off to the side and away from him. He wished that friendlier Katara would come back. She had big, warm, bright blue eyes. But it seemed that those eyes, that Katara, disappeared every time she snowboarded.

Vaguely, Aang wondered why...

"Why do you act like this?" Katara faced him, and Aang mentally kicked himself for letting that thought slip out.

Katara turned away again, chin resting on top of her hand, staring out at the early morning sky.

"One time..." she said slowly, "something happened when I was snowboarding..." She was almost murmuring to herself: "That's why."

Aang didn't pressure her for details.

At the top of the trails they both hopped off of the ski lift, sliding down past the intersection and to the top of Claw Trail. Once again, Katara felt as though the icy mountain wind whipping around her couldn't quite satisfy her lungs.

"So..." Katara asked.

Aang simply turned to her. "So what?"

"Well, you know! Big, amazing, secret of yours? What is it?"

"Oh, that..."Aang said, chuckling. He seemed to be growing more and more nervous by the second, as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "The secret? Well... uh... um..." Katara's piercing blue eyes hit him, and Aang thought it would be better just to get it over with:

"See those trees down there?" He asked, pointing to them.

"Yeah..." Katara said slowly, placing her goggles on and following his index finger.

"Well... see how there's an itty-bitty strip of white in-between? The trees, I mean?"

"Yes..." Katara said, growing impatient.

"Well, uh, that's it!" He said.

Katara whipped her head around to him, letting out a low "What?"

"All I did was see that bit of white and try to jump right there, so I wouldn't hit the trees..." He said, gulping. "And er, when you were on the track, if you had jumped, you would've hit a tree. So that's it, I guess." He held out his arms wide, as if to add a rousing Ta-Dah!

Briefly he saw Katara's eyes switch from confusion to surprise to anger. And barely saw her powerful wind-up. He ducked the punch just in time, and still on his snowboard, decided to make a hasty retreat down the trail.

Katara didn't miss a beat, flipping her board sideways and after him. "I'm gonna kill you!" She called out, eyes alight with fury.

Aang didn't seem to doubt the fact, as he crouched down in order to speed up. She mimicked his pose perfectly, keeping in pace with him, and once again Katara felt a strange role-reversal in the situation.

But now she was mad at him, and zipping down the hill at top speed, she didn't care much.

She realized that she was gaining on him— Aang, who seemed to be always one step ahead of her! Smirking in triumph, she made ready to give him a rousing WHACK on his head. All she could focus on was Aang, her body on auto pilot as she nosed down the hill, right on his tail. Her eyes remained firmly on his back and that ridiculous hat of his, not noticing that the slope had leveled out and was now slanting upwards. He was so, so close, just barley out of reach—!

And all of a sudden, Katara was no longer on the snowy earth. She was soaring, flying, hurtling through the air. She had gone off of the jump.

She caught a quick glimpse of Aang before he disappeared through the huge, thick green tangle of branches. And as she began to descend, Katara realized that she was soon going to be facing the same problem.

She couldn't help it— Katara let out a horrifying scream that made the hairs on the back of Aang's neck stand upright.

Somehow, a thought ran through her head: follow Aang, and you're ok. Trusting it, she instinctively began to re-create every move he made, before he had disappeared entirely from her sight. She was moving down through the branches, which only brushed the sides of her face.

Finally, she saw patches of familiar white below her. She landed in the thick, powdered snow somewhat un-gracefully, not used to all of this extra snow. Her unsteady landing caused her to lurch forward, but she caught herself in time, momentum breaking past the mounds of un-smoothed patches as she zoomed past the various trees, a body disappearing into the pale light ahead of her.

And sliding into the bright daylight, Katara found herself on the regular Claw trail again.

Alive.

Katara could've knelt down and kissed the snow if she wasn't so utterly shocked.Purposefully slowing herself down, Katara saw out of the corner of her eye, Aang was slowing down as well, and headed her way.

"You did it!" He cried, as amazed that she had survived as she was. "You're ok!"

Feeling absolutely numb all over, Katara forgot entirely that seconds before, she was trying to mash him to a pulp. She nodded slowly. "Yeah... yeah I did..."

"That's great!" Aang told her, grinning form ear to ear. When she didn't respond, he added tentatively, "Isn't it...?"

Seeming to regain some sense of feeling, Katara felt her left cheek smarting. She was pretty sure a branch had whipped it on her ride down. As if a wave of exhaustion washed over her, she felt so very, very tired. It crossed her mind that she had woken up extra-early this morning... Without a pause she stopped and plopped herself down in the snow.

"Erm..." Aang said, stopping next to her. "How 'bout we just take it easy? Go to the Ski Lodge, grab some hot chocolate, call it a day?"

Katara nodded. Sticking out his hand, Aang helped her upright, and they both slid down the rest of the way.

Right before they stopped in front of the lodge, Katara grabbed onto Aang's coat. He turned around, cringing, expecting a whopper of a punch.

She didn't. Instead, she said: "I'm still not done with you yet. You can't get away with teaching me just that."

Aang smiled as they reached the Lodge, bending down to unstrap his boots from his board. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Katara took her board off likewise. Heaving it under her arm, she looked up to find Aang holding open the thick wooden door to the Lodge for her.

"Hotch on me!" He said cheekily.

Katara smacked his arm, though not nearly as hard as she could've. "Not a word about this to anyone. Got it?"

Aang nodded, smirking. "It'll be our little secret." And they both entered the lodge.

Like it? Hate it? Please comment!

So, were you disappointed with the big "secret"? Katara sure was! *is shot*