The next morning, everything went, as much as it could, back to normal. Katara was up before everyone else, made breakfast while watching the news, served breakfast as Sokka and her father came downstairs and sat down to eat with them. The silence was thick as a fog, but manageable.

"Oh, I won't be home until eight or nine tonight. I have a date." Hakoda explained awkwardly, as if it was just a 'pick up bread on the way' thing.

Sokka nodded through a mouthful. "Got it, Dad."

"Whatever." Katara mumbled into her cup of coffee, trying to keep her noise level down for the sake of her hangover.

"I've been noticing you staying out late, Katara. I understand if it's your way of getting back at me, but-,"

"You don't understand jack, dad." Katara snapped, her voice sharp as a razor.

Hakoda froze before replying. "I may not be in your good book, Katara, but I'm still your father and that's no way to speak to me. At least leave a god-damn message when you plan on staying out, I nearly called the police last night."

"Sokka knows where I am all the time." Katara waved some French toast on her fork for a moment before putting it in her mouth.

Hakoda believed this to be a bluff. He turned to Sokka. "Where was she last night?" his forearms rested on the edge of the table.

"Suki took her for ice cream, then they went back to Suki's and got drunk." Sokka shrugged in thought.

Katara smiled briefly, but bit her lip as a knife scraped on a plate and her hangover surged up. "Yup. So, I'm going to grab my bag, and then we can go." She addressed her brother, getting up and heading for the arch leading into the hallway.

"Got it." Sokka answered as she left. He glanced up from his food to see his father looking worriedly out the window. "What's up, dad?" he asked carefully.

"She's like your mother, you know. She can win an argument over what color the sky is." Hakoda pulled a face, staring at the rain falling on the windows. "But she's also too headstrong for her own good."

Sokka thought on this for a moment, leaning back in the kitchen chair and looking up at the ceiling. "It's a defense mechanism. It's like a shield she puts up to keep people from hurting her. I don't know if it's a good thing, but it works for her." He sighed, getting up and grabbing his rucksack of the back of his chair. "See you later Dad. Have fun on your date." He gave a curt wave, before disappearing out of the house, keys in hand.

Katara's first lesson of the day was English. It was a wonder she'd managed to get up that morning knowing such a thing, or not to pull the tricks teenagers globally pulled; the coming in late and saying you had a doctor's appointment, or some shit like that. When she reached the lesson, she was late, having run to the bathroom to knock back some aspirin between homeroom and the lesson. She pushed the door of the classroom open and stepped two paces inside, opened her mouth to apologize for her tardiness, but was cut off before she could do so.

"Miss Marina." Donovan turned to face her.

'Fucking hell; if I don't put her in her fucking place, she's going to terrorize my English lessons all year.' Katara thought to herself darkly.

"Where have you been?" Donovan put her hands on her hips and gave Katara a look that screamed 'If I could I'd have you expelled because I don't like people who kick back'.

Katara grunted in annoyance. 'Fuck it', she thought, reaching up and pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. "I've been in the bathroom knocking back aspirin, you self-important bitch." Katara spoke calmly, moving her hand from the bridge of her nose to her temple, trying to soothe her hangover.

She walked toward her spot next to Zuko, who, along with the rest of the class, was gawping at her. If she'd been standing beside herself, and she could've been, she'd also have been gawping. But, if she were standing beside herself, that would mean she'd be at least partially schizophrenic and that meant one half of her would be drunker than the other, so at least one of her wouldn't be able to stand. 'Whoa, Katara, that's some logic you got there.' The devil on her shoulder whispered.

Mrs. Donovan's fingers drummed against her rotund, fat belly as she pulled a face and glared at Katara. "Are you drunk, Miss Marina?" she seethed.

Katara scoffed a laugh and pushed her chair from the desk. "To a degree." She answered flatly. "Not as drunk as I'd like to be." She turned and sank into the chair, her bag falling to the floor limply.

"I'll be calling your parents." Donovan crossed her arms over her chest.

Katara smirked. "Unless you know the number for hell, I don't think you'll be able to do that."

Mrs. Donovan huffed a breath of irritation. "I've had just about enough of your antics, young lady."

"I was going to say the same thing, except for the 'young' bit." Katara answered disinterestedly, leaning down and opening her bag. Zuko elbowed her to stop, but she didn't.

"Miss Marina, I suspect you believe you are impervious to the authority of your elders due to your lack of authority at home. I'll schedule a parent-teacher meeting and contact social services if this continues." Mrs. Donovan said it out, in the lesson, with other students around, and approached her desk while writing a note on something.

Katara felt cold all of a sudden, goosebumps on her skin and outrage in her chest. She smacked her dry lips, glancing at Zuko to see if he too was surprised with the teacher's words. His eyes were wide, but his mouth was shut. Katara couldn't say the same for herself, or a few others in the class. "You know what I'm impervious to?" Katara crossed her arms in her seat and glared up at Mrs. Donovan. "I'm impervious to your bullshit." She seethed angrily. "And it has nothing to do with the authority I get at home." Katara exhaled carefully.

"Well then enlighten us as to why to feel the need to disrupt my English lessons." Donovan took her note from her desk and slipped it into her pocket.

Katara let a calculated caesura ensue, blue killer's eyes piercing into the teacher's. "Let me ask you a question, Mrs. Donovan. Have you ever seen someone you love get their brains shot out through the back of their head?" she licked the inside of her mouth; it had gone dry. Zuko felt his chest tighten, his hands clasping in tight fists beside his friend. His face turned for his eyes to fall on her. Darkness, like that of a demonic possession was eminent in her voice, her eyes were fixed on Donovan as if deciding how she'd like to see her die, and her face was calmed, expressionless and dangerous.

Donovan stared.

"Have you ever seen someone's forehead get ripped open by a bullet?" Katara's voice was a simple whisper, as deliberate as that of a serial killer.

Donovan paled.

"Have you ever seen a dead body fall to the ground?" Katara felt as if someone else had taken over her body, her voice and her mind. She was reminded of 'The Lady Of The Shadows', from The Dark Tower series; a schizophrenic woman who only remembered blanks of the other's memory. "Heard the crack of a compromised skull on hard concrete?"

Donovan's fingers trembled.

"Now tell me, Mrs. Donovan; if you'd seen all that, do you honestly think you'd ever be afraid of being late to a lesson? Or give a shit if you disrupt someone's English lessons?"

Donovan fainted.

Fingers and hands and legs shook and trembled in the classroom, of those who didn't get up to see the teacher on the floor. Katara's killer eyes fell shut as she grabbed her bag from the floor. Oh, yes. She belonged here; Senior Advanced English was where she belonged. Katara had taken every person in the classroom to the alley where the girl's life had changed. They had smelt the smoking bullet, felt the racing heartbeat, screamed the girl's voice in their heads and watched the killer flee. Scarier than re-living that horrible day had been the voice in which she'd spoken. She'd never heard it before. She knew the words to be her own, but the tone … that voice was like that of a murderer.

Zuko watched as Katara seemed to regain control of herself. She stared at the teacher on the floor for a moment and clutched her bag to her chest, as if she were afraid that whatever had taken control of her would come back. She was on her feet, but barely. She would fall if she didn't move soon. He was sure he heard her whisper her own name and 'what did you do?', but that would have been madness.

Katara swallowed hard, more scared of herself than she'd ever been before. She gripped her bag tight as she left the room, eyes on her back as she did. She grabbed the door handle and pulled it open. It was only two steps out that she broke to a run, trying to flee from herself, the bag on her shoulder hitting against her legs as she did. Tears rolled from her eyes as she ran, and she burst around a corner and smacked into someone. She stumbled back a few steps, disoriented, looking for a face, tears rolling down her cheeks in upset.

A concerned face met hers. "What's going on?" they asked.

It was a teacher, a man. Katara ran around him and made for the stairwell where she and Suki had spent most of yesterday. At the bottom of this stairwell was a door the opened out into corridor F, and in that corridor was a door out into the rain, where Katara would stop and grab something to brace herself against, possibly a wall or something. Her eyes were hazy with tears, and her hands batted at her cheeks to dry them. When she finally got out into the rain, she was led back inside by the groundskeeper, and escorted to the Principal's office.

By lunch hour, Katara had been informed that she'd be having sessions with the school counselor every second lesson on Tuesdays and fourth lesson on Fridays. Coincidentally, that meant that Katara had spent an hour talking about birds with some guy she didn't know to keep off the subject of her mother's death. Plus, Katara was in a heap of other shit; they were considering dropping her back down into Junior Advanced English, or Senior Intermediate English, as well as the grudge Mrs. Donovan was going to harbor against her for making her faint in front of a classroom full of students.

Among other things, now Sokka was going to know Katara had seen Kya get shot, and then so was Hakoda. That meant a whole other round of counseling. And Zuko and Lydia?

Bullshit was going to flare up like an asshole with explosive hemorrhoids.

Katara was walking down the side of the cafeteria, spying the table by the wall where her group of friends usually sat. Lydia was in her seat, Zuko was next to her, and they were holding hands. They were quite obviously a couple now. Toph, Aang, Sokka and Suki, on the other side of the table, were watching Katara.

Katara slunk like a cat toward the table, a dark look in her eyes and a dispassionate expression on her face. She looked pretty a lot of the time, but now she just looked like someone you didn't want to fuck with. She dropped her bag on the floor near them and approached the wall. She turned, leant against it and crossed her arms over her chest. "You guys are looking at me like I'm fucking crazy." She stated dryly.

Sokka was the first to speak. "Why didn't you tell us you were there?" he was calm and collected, his voice the quintessential personification of understanding.

"Because then I'd have been classed as a witness. I didn't see the guy's face, so there was no point." Katara answered coldly, shutting her eyes for a long blink.

Another long silence ensued. Lydia broke the silence. "I don't see why you felt the need to expel all that in the middle of a lesson."

Katara ground her teeth. "I was sick of Donovan. Sometimes a person has to do something stupid to achieve what they want. That's how America works." Katara snapped harshly, tightening her fists with crossed arms.

"That's exactly what it was. Stupid." Lydia answered disinterestedly. It hadn't sounded like a comment on the situation; it had sounded like an insult. Like when she was little and Sokka had said; 'be quiet, Stupid, mom's on the phone!'

Katara wanted to kick her in the face. "Whatever. I'm glad she fainted." She lied. She wasn't glad; she was terrified. "It's like, one triumph over ten defeats." She thought aloud. "If she makes my life hell until the end of the semester, at least I had this." She glanced from Suki, to Zuko, and then to Lydia. "Say what you want about it."

Suki sat up straight and turned to look at Katara. "You know what movie I feel like watching tonight?" she asked rhetorically. "Gone With The Wind."

Katara gave a small laugh, pulled from her seriousness. "Just sit up watching old movies." She thought aloud. "Like Casablanca, and It's A Wonderful Life. My mom's old collection has a ton of stuff like that. I can bring it over." She hadn't been afraid of watching her mom's old films. They were kept in a secret trunk under her parents' bed, and she always returned them to the trunk.

Suki nodded. "Drinks?"

"Soda." Katara corrected her friend; her liver had taken enough damage this week. "Company?"

Suki turned to Toph and Aang. "You guys want to join us for movie night?" Suki took a moment to think on the casualness of their inter-group friendships; they were so casual with eachother that any one of them could be counted upon for problems and guidance. And there was a knowing that none of them believed themselves to be any better or worse than each other.

They agreed at the same time Lydia spoke up. "What about us?" she yelped in annoyance. She'd practically injected herself into their group by dating Zuko, and they were still leaving her out? They couldn't leave her out, not Lydia; she was special, amazing, and individual. And much higher class than them. Perhaps they were afraid of inviting her in case of rejection, so she asked.

Suki glanced to Katara, who gave her a mischievous smirk, shut her eyes and offered a tiny nod. "You guys?" Suki added. The connections between the six of them, Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph and Zuko, were so strong that they almost read one another's minds. This meant that by the mischievous smile and agreeing nod, Suki could tell that Katara was planning on having some fun tonight toying with Lydia's head.

Zuko and Lydia also agreed, and Katara drew her phone out of her pocket. "Great; everyone meet us at Suki's at eight. Bring sleeping bags. Suki and I will get the movies and snacks." Katara typed it all out on her phone as a memo. "And nobody brings Lionel Richie unless they want their ass kicked."

The others burst out in laughter. The last time they'd had a sleepover, which had been at Aang's, Aang and Toph had been having a fight, and Zuko had produced Lionel Richie on his phone, singing 'Hello'. That had led into them talking about the movie '40-year-old Virgin', which had led them to watching it and all standing up to sing the end song together.

"Wow, Katara, your mom watched some great movies." Suki grabbed the bottom of the paper bag and turned it upside down. She plucked 'The Breakfast Club' up from the pile dumped out. "We have to watch this."

"That's a chick-flick." Sokka grunted in annoyance.

Katara groaned. "I've seen it a million times." She reached for the snacks on the coffee table Suki had snatched from the living room and brought up to her bedroom. Suki smacked her hand, scolding her. Katara met Suki's eyes and jutted her bottom lip out like a toddler.

"No snacks 'til the others get here." Suki ordered firmly, looking back down to the pile of films and arranging them in a neat stack, before lifting the entire stack and placing it on the floor, beside her television stand. Her plasma screen would make this a great place to have a movie night. "It won't be long now." She glanced at the digital clock on her bedside table. It was five minutes past eight o' clock. Needless to say, the people they hung around with were usually tardy.

"Yeah, no. Not long. Just a few years." Sokka thought aloud.

Katara nearly jumped when the doorbell rang and its signal echoed through the house. Suki got up and ran down the stairs. She turned into the front sitting room and pulled open the door to see their four guests all on the doorstep at once. Zuko held an aged rucksack with his sleeping bag sticking out of it, just stuffed in, Lydia held hers rolled up and held in such a way by the elastics on it. Aang's and Toph's were thrown over their shoulders, and none of them had brought any pajamas except for Lydia, who was wearing them under her clothes. Probably something her 'Mammy' had told her, Katara would've thought.

"You know where to go. I just have to get the drinks and cups from the kitchen." Suki left the door open and disappeared back into the house.

Katara and Sokka were trying to figure out how to turn the television on when the crowd assembled. Aang approached and dropped his sleeping bag on the floor. "You guys have it all wrong. You need to find the remote." He looked around. He whirled to see Zuko reaching for the floor and pulling a dusty-looking, black remote out from under Suki's large double bed.

He pressed a series of buttons in order and the television fizzed to life, the sound of white noise filling the room. "Plug in the DVD player." He loosened his grip on the remote. "Katara, catch." He instructed her across the room. As she turned, Zuko loosely projected the remote across the room, and it landed with a quiet smack into her hand. Her fingers curled around it briefly before she put it down on the television stand, in front of the TV.

Zuko thought briefly about her hands; they were small, dainty, and soft, he knew from the touch she offered at his woes, as comfort for his troubles. How nice they would feel against his cheek. They were just a little too small for Katara to comfortably wear gloves without having bulges at the ends. He recalled she'd once just taken to stuffing her hands in her friends' pockets a winter ago. Her hands had felt nice in his pocket. He shook off this thought, straightened and smiled at Lydia, taking her sleeping bag from her and adding it to the pile of sleeping bags growing on the floor.

"Alright, everyone, get comfortable. Sokka, shut the curtains." Suki instructed her sweetheart, before grabbing the dozens of decorative cushions on the bed and throwing them all to the floor. "Okay, before anything, we need to figure out sleeping arrangements. Everyone sort out your sleeping bags. Bed's mine."

Katara grabbed two from the closet in the corner of the room and tossed one to Sokka. Lydia began rolling hers out beside where Zuko had set his up, and beyond that, Aang had set his on the floor, spread open, and Toph had lain hers on top and folded back one corner of it as if it where a double bed. Everyone grasped for a cushion each and put it where they planned to keep their heads. Disregarding the sleeping bag, Sokka grabbed a cushion from the floor, put it on Suki's bed and grinned at his girlfriend.

Katara kicked her borrowed sleeping bag open near what had once been her best friend, who was lounging back in his makeshift bed and dropped down to her knees to straighten it on the soft carpet. She glanced at Zuko's pillow arrangement. He had three pillows stuffed under his head, and none were left on the floor for her to claim for the night. Her arm shot out like a cobra and she clasped the pillow right under his head, tugging it free and snatching it back into her grasp.

Zuko's head fell to the sleeping bag. He propped himself up on his elbows. "Hey!"

"Oh, come on, you had three. You still have more than me." She placed her new pillow where she planned to put her head when she went to sleep. "Oh." She glared at her sleeping spot. "Suki, you know that pile of movies-," something soft and plushy hit her in the face, and she could taste some synthetic fur on her tongue. "Right. Thanks." She plucked up the stuffed bear from its haphazard spot on the carpet and put it on the sleeping back, propped up against the pillow.

"I do not believe it." Zuko scoffed from his spot beside her, pulling himself up to sit and stare at the bear. "You still sleep with a teddy bear?" he smiled. It was cute; in fact, adorable. He doubted she would ever lose her element of youth.

Katara blushed, just a little embarrassed. "Yeah, well …"

"I had one when I was little. I threw it away when I was three or something." Lydia interrupted her. "Some mangy-looking thing called Scraps." She added for a nostalgic effect.

"Scraps." Zuko turned to look at his girlfriend. "Who came up with that?" he laughed softly.

"I did. He was ugly, and smelly. And teddy bears are for babies." Lydia dismissed the conversation, a sharp tone at the end of her sentence.

Katara bit her lip and looked down at the bear. Maybe Lydia was right; why did she need Charlie anyhow? He wasn't young; she'd had him since she was a baby, he'd been larger than her at one time. Her mother had bought him when she'd been eight months pregnant with Katara. He was an abnormally large bear; Hakoda had been away on a trip to Japan for a corporate client, and Kya hadn't been in a state to travel, so Charlie had been her company, along with baby Sokka. Maybe Charlie was special to her because of his link to her mother.

One of his fake plastic eyes was dangling, and the bowtie he wore was in a sorry state. The only thing more special to Katara was a small chainless pendant her mother had left, of pretty, clouded glass, engraved with rolling waves above calmer currents. Katara hadn't yet worn it because she hadn't trusted herself with it. Glass broke, you see. And Katara hated wearing chains. They bothered her bosom; so Katara either wore pendants on black strings, or on chokers, occasionally. Katara wanted to wear the pendant on a choker, but she didn't have one. Her last one had gone missing at camp a year ago.

"Are we going to watch a film or sit around twiddling our toes?" Toph grabbed for the pile of movies and grasped 'Gone With The Wind'.

After movies were done, they took it in turns to re-enact scenes from what they'd watched. As the others sat on the floor, Suki and Sokka, with one of Suki's old school bags in one hand and a pink, glittery party-purposed, plastic cowboy hat, approached the door out into the hallway. Suki adopted a high-pitched, panicked tone.

"Oh, but Rhett, what shall I do? Where shall I go?" she grasped hold of Sokka's arm.

Sokka tilted his hat up a little and pulled at the muscles of his upper lip as if trying to spontaneously grow a moustache. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." He adjusted his hold on the bag and pushed open the door out into the hall, slamming it on his way out.

Toph took it upon herself to cup her hands around her mouth to make her own echo chamber as she put on an Irish accent. "Lahnd's the ounly thing wurth foightin' fer! Wurth doyin' fer! Becos' it's the ounly thing tht' lahsts!" she removed her hands from her mouth and beat out an applause for the two actors rejoining them from their spot near the door. "Bravo, you two. Now siddown' and let us show you how its done." She grabbed Aang by the wrist, having been whispering to him throughout their friends' performance.

Aang raised one hand to his throat and pressed on it, and in a raspy, deep voice, he began his line. "Not with Miss Ellen's portieres, not while I got breath'n my body!"

Toph screeched at him. "Great balls of fire! They're my portieres now!" she waved her arms in the air as if pulling the curtains down and wrapping herself in them. "I'm going to Atlanta for that three-hundred dollars, and I've gotta go looking like a queen!" Toph approached the vanity at the edge of Suki's room.

"Oh yeah? Who's goan' with you?"

"I'm going alone." Toph answered snobbily.

"Dat's what you think! I's goan' with you - with you and that new dress!" Aang put his free hand on his hip.

Toph paused and tilted her head to smile at him. "Mammy, darling." She answered in a singsong voice.

"No use to try'n sweet-talk me, Miss Scarlett, I knows you since I been put'na pair diapahs on yas! I say I's goan' wit'chu and goan' I is!" Aang finished, before removing his hand from his throat and swallowing the dry feeling in it. "Fuck, that hurts your throat." He coughed quickly, before taking a bow at their applause.

"Okay, now it's Katara's turn to do one." Toph chimed in.

"Uh, no." Katara held up her hands. "I'm not doing a one-man show."

"Zuko will do one with you." Sokka suggested.

"No I won't." Zuko answered quickly.

"Besides, which one would we do?" Katara scoffed a laugh and grabbed for the lamp on Suki's bedside table and flicked it on. Dim light flooded the darkened room.

They were silent for a while before Suki grinned thoughtfully. "Do the head-crusher scene. Where Rhett carries her up the stairs like Godzilla."

"She's heavy. And there are no stairs in here. Plus, Lydia hasn't done one." Zuko smiled at the blonde curled up at his side. He'd have described her pose as that of a cat in someone's lap, Katara would've described it as a viper waiting in the grass.

"I don't want to." Lydia answered simply, she stuck her nose in the air in thought. "I want to play Spin-The-Bottle."

Zuko cursed himself for even explaining to her what it was. She explained that she'd played it before, but under the name 'Truth-Or-Dare'. They both did the same thing, however one included a bottle and the other, quite self-proclaimed-ly so, did not. "Or we could call it a night." He suggested hopefully.

"Where's the fun in that?" Katara intercepted mischievously; this was her chance. Lydia was ill equipped for the game, and Katara had a poker face nobody could match. "I think that's a great idea, Lydia."

Lydia made a face of surprise. Of course, all her ideas were great, but this girl clearly didn't like her. She ruled it as a simple feat of logic; the girl had decided to give in to the fact that she was joining them, whether she liked it or not. "Alright, then. Do you have a bottle?" she glanced to Suki.

Suki reached under the bed and produced a large, empty, 660ml bottle that had one been home to the king of beers; Budweiser. "This should do."

"Jesus, Suki, do you just have a stash of empty beer bottles under there?" Aang gave a short laugh.

"Probably. I never clean when I'm drunk." Suki shrugged and put the bottle down in front of her. "Okay; everyone in a circle." She used her hands to form an imaginary circle around her. It soon became a reality, with her friends taking their places. "I get to go first, 'cause it's my house, my room, and my bottle." She grabbed a bare plate and slid it under the bottle so it could spin better, as it probably would spin as fast as a car with no wheels on the carpet. She first turned it so fast that it jumped off the plate and nearly hit Toph in the face, if not for her supreme catching skills. She tried again. It spun.

And it spun a little more.

It slowed at Sokka.

It stopped on Toph.

"Toph." Suki smirked deviously. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare." Toph grinned.

Suki thought for a moment. Toph would easily be able to hear things at her best, so possibly a sight-challenge would be fitting. Fuck it, she went for the traditional task; a physical challenge. "Take a punch to the arm from the strongest person here."

Toph raised one hand to punch herself.

"No. Other than you." Suki laughed. "Zuko, punch her in the arm." She motioned to him.

"Hard or-,"

"Have a guess, genius." Sokka interrupted.

Zuko reeled his arm back and his fist flew through the air toward Toph's upper arm. His knuckles jammed into her arm and she flinched in pain. She stared at her arm, afterward, before raising an eyebrow and looking at him questioningly. He had pulled the punch, at the right moment; so nobody could tell. Toph was thankful, because she knew he packed as mean a punch as she did when he was angry, or protective anyway, but the precision with which he managed it … Toph was impressed. She said so.

"Impressive." She nodded slowly. "My turn." She grabbed for the bottle and spun it skillfully. It spun fast for a long while before beginning to slow around Toph again.

It halted before Zuko. A grin split on Toph's face.

"Revenge." Toph bared her teeth in a devious grin. "Truth or dare, Sparky."

"Dare." Zuko answered boldly.

"Dare you to make out with Lydia. Right here, right now; make it official." Toph was on the edge of exploding with the screwball-ic nature of her dare.

"It couldn't really get more official." Lydia intercepted, referring to a now widespread knowledge of their escapade the prior night.

"Not according to us; we just see you holding hands and whispering. You chicken or something?" Aang chimed in with an equally roguish expression.

Katara raised a hand to one side of her face in dread. Her fore and middle fingers pressed against one of her temples. She glanced up to see the dare in action, before glancing back down and feeling her stomach and heart lurch in horror at the same time. She moved her hand from the side of her head to the bridge of her nose. "I thought we were mature enough not to need to do a dare that pointless."

"We are, but you're not." Suki noted, elbowing her friend.

As if things could get any worse. Katara turned her head to glare at Suki, her stomach sinking a little lower. "Shut up, Suki." She snapped quickly. The last thing she needed was to give Lydia more bullets to fire at her. According to the blonde, Katara was stupid for her scene in English, childish for her teddy bear, and now … 'FUCK.' The devil on her shoulder kicked Katara in the neck. 'Strangle her. Strangle Suki, right now!'

Lydia, who'd pulled away from Zuko now, felt her mouth fall open in surprise. "Hang on," she laughed mockingly. "You're a virgin?" she asked, almost accusingly. 'vuh-gin' was what Katara heard, but she put two and two together.

Katara turned red and pinched the bridge of her nose again. "Thanks, Suki." She mumbled into her hand.

Suki pulled a face. "Oh. Sorry." She apologized.

Katara looked back up. "Yeah, I'm a virgin. Whatever." Katara dropped her hands into her lap. "It doesn't matter."

"'Course it does!" Lydia gave another patronizing laugh. "I mean, it explains, doesn't it?" she looked to Zuko as if for verification. If he'd had as strong a connection with her as he did with the others, she'd have known his look said 'stop. Don't go there'.

Katara rolled her eyes as if disinterested. "I know you're about to go on a rant about me being immature and childish, so I'll cut you off and say it's actually a mature decision not to do something stupid and jump into bed with any person who looks at me the right way. Not that you guys are slutty or anything; just that I have certain beliefs about what a persons first time should be like." she shrugged diplomatically. Yep. She'd done it; managed to unease Lydia and suggest that she herself had more class than the blonde girl. Now, she just had to wait for the reaction.

"And the Oscar goes to…" Toph announced dramatically, deepening her voice for the pretense. She resumed her regular tone, glancing at Zuko. "Okay, Sparky, spin-o el bot-tel-o."

Zuko shook his head with a small laugh and reeled the bottle expertly. It spun so fast it looked for a second like a simple brown blur, but it slowed eventually, near Katara, and stopped on Suki. He offered a mischievous laugh and leant forwards to settle the round. "Truth or Dare."

"Truth." Suki answered carefully; she didn't like the sound of his voice.

Zuko grinned even wider. "Ever made out with a member of the same sex as you?"

Suki bit her bottom lip and stared at him. "Are you serious?" she pulled a face, trying desperately to seem aloof, and pretend like he was mad.

"I'm dead serious. Have you?" Zuko's intense eye contact became steadily more uncomfortable.

Suki grunted in annoyance. "Once."

Zuko's mouth fell open; he hadn't been expecting it to be so easy from her. He'd suspected, but he'd also suspected he'd have to pry the truth out like a dead man's hand on a money sack. "No way." Lydia was also staring.

"Oh, my god." Toph stared, her mouth agape, but the corners twitched up.

"When? Where? WHY?" Sokka stared at his girlfriend as Aang and Katara simply exchanged knowing glances.

Suki raised a hand and massaged her tensed brow. "Me and Katara-,"

"YOU MADE OUT WITH MY SISTER?" Sokka screeched in disbelief, before glancing at Katara, and back to Suki.

"No, I didn't make out with Katara." Suki exhaled tensely. "Katara and I took Aang to that techno club downtown, and we started drinking, and after we were really, really drunk, Azula came up to us, and Mai and Ty Lee had taken off to go to some guy's band practice. She'd been on tequila all night, and I was drunk, and between boyfriends, so … I don't know, it was spur-of-the-moment…"

Everyone turned to stare at Zuko, who gawped in astonishment. He was petrified in horror. "YOU MADE OUT WITH MY SISTER?"

Suki shrugged as if it were nothing as Toph burst out in laughter, falling onto her back and clutching her stomach, howling. "Hey, I told you the truth." She answered solemnly as the others wiped away tear tracks of laughter.

Sokka sat up and stroked his chin in thought, never having laughed at all. "That sounds like it was really hot." He glanced to Suki. "Was it … did you like it?"

Zuko moved to get up, his hands turning into pincer shapes, ready to choke the Marina boy. Toph grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Chill, Sparky. I'm sure Katara wouldn't freak if you made out with Sokka. Ooh! I know what my next dare is."

Zuko glared at her for a moment before she changed her mind. It was a few moments before the others noticed Katara and Aang each covering their faces and laughing silently, shaking their heads in memory. "What are you two laughing about?" Zuko snapped sharply.

They just kept shaking their heads.

Suki frowned. "What's so funny?" she raised an eyebrow.

Katara managed to look up; her face was red. She opened her mouth to answer, but only shut it again and glanced to Aang for help. Aang was still shaking his head, but now making eye contact with Katara and saying with his expression 'no, you do it'.

"Guys, if you don't tell us what happened, I'm going to make you sleep in the back yard." Suki sat up a little straighter and glared from one to the other.

Aang exhaled heavily and nodded in submission. "Katara asked to borrow my phone, because her temporary one didn't have a camera. She took a picture."

The others all exclaimed in surprise, and Suki turned bright red. "You'd better have deleted it." She seethed.

Aang pulled a face that said 'sorry, no I didn't'. "Whoops …"

"Delete it. Right. Now." Suki glared at him.

Aang swallowed hard and reached into his pocket, before handing his gray Sony phone to Suki. "Here. You can do it." He smiled nervously.

Sokka suddenly heard his phone beep in his pocket, shortly before he heard two other blips. He swallowed hard; Katara had bluetoothed the picture to him, Toph and Zuko. They all grasped their phones, pressed 'accept' and stared at their screens. Suki wailed out at Katara, who was expertly navigating her cell phone behind her back, simply by her familiarity with it.

Suki tossed Aang's phone back to him bitterly and grabbed for the bottle, before spinning it and crossing her arms. It spun around twice, slowing and stopping at Lydia. She looked over the girl once or twice, thinking of a suitable truth or a feasible dare. "Truth or dare."

"Truth."

"Did you and Zuko bump uglies last night?" she asked, a smile slowly sporting onto her face.

Lydia looked to Zuko for permission. He gave a small nod and she replied with a proud smile. "Yes."

"Really? I had no idea." Toph spoke up sarcastically. "Okay, Blondie, spin the bottle."

Lydia wrapped claw-like fingers around the neck of the bottle and guided it slowly along a circular path, before letting it spin. Once. Twice. Thrice. It slowed around Zuko. It stopped pointing ominously at Katara. Katara bit her tongue, to keep from biting her lip; Lydia would've seen her bite her lip, and she couldn't let her know she was uneasy.

"Katara." She began menacingly. "Truth … or dare?" she asked it like the announcer of a game show.

The blue-eyed girl swallowed the dry feeling in her throat. She knew Lydia had to have had some suspicions about Katara's friendship with Zuko; to choose truth was dangerous; she had a large secret that she couldn't risk spilling. "Dare." She answered seriously. She immediately regretted it; this girl quite obviously disliked her enough to make her do something dangerous.

"I dare you … to …" she paused to think about it. It had to be something to make her uncomfortable; seriously uncomfortable. She had her suspicions that Katara liked Zuko as more than a friend; why else would she be so jealous, apart from the obvious reasons; everyone was jealous of her, and she knew it. But she knew Zuko couldn't possibly have the same feelings for Katara; he had Lydia! He loved her, obviously, not to mention how intimate they'd been the night prior-

"No. Truth." Katara corrected herself, her fingers taking hold of the fabric of her own shirt and twisting it in discomfort.

Lydia gave another short grin. "Why did you try to kill yourself?"

Katara's face paled to a color so white, she doubted it was even documented. She looked to Zuko, whose face screamed he was cursing himself. Her face of hurt soon dissolved into bitterness and she looked away. "This game is stupid." She exhaled heavily, before twisting around and pushing open the sleeping bag she'd borrowed from Suki.

The others had fallen deadly silent.

"Maybe it's time we hit the sack." Aang suggested wisely, turning and grabbing for the sleeping bag set up he and Toph had put together.

"I think that's the best idea all night." Suki answered, pushing herself to her feet and climbing onto her bed. Sokka got up and joined her, simultaneously kicking off his shoes.

They lay in their spots for a moment, before Toph spoke up for a moment.

"Hey Sokka."

"Yeah, Toph?" he answered, just as Suki curled up to him.

"Who do you think would win in a fight? Blue Spirit or Sylvester Stallone?"

"Depends."

"On?"

"I think Blue Spirit could whip Rocky, but I think Rambo would give him a run for his money."

"That's what I thought." She yawned tiredly, cuddling up to Aang.

They all shut their eyes to go to sleep. Katara, however, lay on her side, her back turned to Zuko and the others, thinking. How could he have gone and told her about the one thing she'd neglected even to tell him for so long? Him, her best friend. It was a betrayal beyond comprehension; beyond words or actions. Possibly beyond forgiveness. Katara shut her eyes tightly, trying to block them out, and hugging Charlie as tight as she could.

A/N: Whoa, this is one long chapter. Hope you liked it :) I would put in a preview for the next chapter, but I haven't even started it :\ REVIEW please; encouragement helps my thought process! Love you all!

Random piece of my life; uh ... i have a sheep in my bedroom. Yeah. My mom owns a farm, if you've read my profile you'd know, and we went up yesterday and saw this two-day old lamb next to its mother, who'd been killed and half-eaten by a walker's dog. This is why I hate walkers who go on your land. We tried to get the lamb to latch onto another ewe but they kept head-butting it.

She came home with us, we discovered she was a girl and I named her Pingu, after a childhood television show character. Pingu was a penguin with a seal as a best friend. Anyway, Pingu is my roommate now, and I got her to suck on the bottle too, by myself! It took her a while to get it. There are pictures of her on my facebook.

Look me up, she's so tiny! It's Hanna 'Rhi' Rhys, and I have a manga girl with blue hair as my profile picture.

Anyway, it's like I had a baby; she keeps waking me up for food, I'm running on fumes with sleep, so I rarely get time to write. I'll work on it when I can; theres no signal in my room and she likes me to be in there with her, so what else am I gonna do? I dropped out of school too, so its almost like I'm taking child development! :) Check her out on FB! REVIEW!