The GAang and the Fire Nation School

Chapter 10: The Party Begins

Finally up to chapter 10! I hope I don't all of the sudden do bad. Usually when you reach a point you think that's great, it ends up bad or something. Well, that won't stop me from finishing this!

I do NOT own Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I also don't even know anyone who knows anyone who owns something Nick-afflicated...I think.

Morning had come quickly for everyone in the cave. The sun shown into the cave and alerted everyone to wake up for the day. The girls started to do straighten and fix their hair while the guys started to feed the animals before leaving off for the village. The invitation was with Sokka as he carried the important stuff like that, war-related or not. The party was to take place at night at the cave mentioned when most stores close for the day. The directions to the cave seemed to be accurate for everyone else, but these 4 haven't lived here long enough to know what they meant by "turn left after passing the tree with half a branch" and "head forward for awhile until you reach a fork in the path."

Heading to Keiji's and Gramps' house in the village, everyone of the kids that attended the school were always whispering to the GAang "see ya at the party tonight." Lucky enough that they were whispering instead of shouting it, since the school still opposed parties and other wild-related things on school-nights. Reaching the house, Toph knocked on the door for everyone. Keiji, who looked like he just woke up judging by his little bed-head, let them in. Gramps was making some hippo cow patties for them, but he also had lots of fruits for those like the Avatar sitting in a bowl at the middle of the small kitchen table.

"These directions are simple," said Keiji, who was reading the invitation scroll on the couch while the others were feeding on some fruit. "The tree with half a branch is along a narrow path that leads to a harbor. And there's an even smaller path that separates from that small trail."

"Sho yoo cin deed oos dair?" asked Wan with a mouth full of food.

"Yeah, we can lead you there," replied Gramps, handing out Wan, Amaya, and Midori small plates of the meat. "I'm coming too since I'm not going to stay here by myself while knowing you guys are going have the party of the year. It'll give me good memories of my past."

"Really? You had parties too?" asked Kuzon after he swallowed his last piece of an orange.

"Sure. Before my 1st child was born, my friends and I had parties almost everyday. Though not all of them were fun."

"Why?"

"Well, mainly because some idiot would sneak Earth Kingdom cactus juice into the drinks and everyone starts acting like they drank everything at a bar. But other than those times, it would always be fun!"

"I can't imagine everyone in a room acting like Sokka when he drunk cactus juice," said Amaya quietly to herself.

In an alley...

He opened his eyes slowly to find it morning time. In several hours, he would reveal himself to his target and attack. But in the meantime, he had to do plan how he would do it. If I find him before the event, I could take him out, but I would draw to much attention from everyone, he thought. But if it were only kids at a party they weren't supposed to have, things will be different and easier to get away with. It was decided. Even if he found the Avatar before the party, he would still wait until it was time.

Putting on his cloak and hood, he exited the alley. Every one of the kids seemed excited about tonight. If only they knew what was going to happen, they wouldn't be so excited, he thought. He looked around to see if he can find anyone that could possibly be the one he's looking for without showing his head. Everyone was wearing normal clothes and not one of them had long enough hair to cover Airbender tattoos on their foreheads. This could take awhile...

Much later that day...

"Keiji! Help me carry this crate with us!" yelled Gramps from the living room.

Everyone besides Gramps was hanging out in Keiji's room, looking at what he did before they showed up. Surprisingly, he had similar toys to what they all had when they were younger. None of them being tools of torture or things that can be used as weapons, well, besides if you threw it at someone hard enough. After Keiji left them to help Gramps, they started talking to one another.

"I didn't know people in the Fire Nation were so similar to us," said Midori, bouncing a small rubber ball on the floor over and over.

"I know," started Amaya, "it makes it hard to believe that the people you were told that were evil act and play the same way you do."

"Similar stuff or not, this is just 1 person," said Wan, crossing his arms. "I'm sure everyone wanting to join the Fire Nation army has at least 1 dagger or knife in their room somewhere from a soldier they know."

"Do you always--?"

"Ok, we're ready to go!" yelled Gramps from the living room. "We're not going to wait for you guys if you think you're too cool to listen to your elders!"

They all came out to see Gramps standing in the living room, waiting. Behind him, Keiji was pushing a crate that was the half the size of a person. He pushed it all the way out of the door before he started complaining.

"When you said 'help', I actually thought you meant for me to 'help' and not to 'do' by myself," said Keiji, giving an annoyed look.

"Respect your elders and do what I say Keiji," replied Gramps like nothing was wrong. "Anyway, let's go. And if you want, you can help Keiji carry this crate with us if you want to."

It was sunset in the village. They spent the last several hours playing indoor games that Kuzon used to play whenever he was too tired to play outside. It made the day a bit faster, but the day was still traveling as slow as a snail crab. Forced to push the crate while the others walked ahead, Kuzon and Keiji worked together to push whatever the crate had down the crowded street. It was a good thing the other 3 had to wait up for Gramps, or else Kuzon and Keiji would be left behind. Still, it wasn't easy pushing the heavy crate fast enough to keep up with them.

Everyone looking either just stared or chuckled at the 2 pushing Gramps' crate. They didn't know why they had to bring it with them to the party, but Gramps seemed that he really wanted to bring it with them, for whenever they would stop to catch their breath, Gramps would yell at them to stop being a bunch of "sissy-la-las."

"He's...always been like...that," said Keiji, pausing at times to catch his breath. "But he does that...because...he thinks it'll make you stronger and more inde...pendent when you're older."

"Wish I would care...about that more," replied Kuzon, equally as tired.

Behind them, around the corner of a shop selling clothes for boys, a cloaked figure saw. He noticed everyone staring at something and whispering about it. Instead of just a funny looking scene with 2 boys pushing a crate by themselves, it was more than what he expected. A normal boy with another normal boy with long clothes and a headband, covering all of his tattoos, he thought. That's him. I'm not going to wait any longer.

But as soon as we was about to remove his hood, a bunch of kids starting running into his field of fire, jumping and running around. By coincidence, they decided to stay there. Stupid kids! After he tried to move around, they moved to in front of again, and this time, bigger kids joined their little game of tag. Grunting in frustration, he walked right in the middle of the game and caused one of the older kids to run into him. But as soon as the last kid was out of the way, the 2 boys pushing the crate were gone. He spat on the floor in anger. I'll just stick to the original plan.

They turned for the small path right when the kids behind them were growing louder from their game. The path was a small dirt path through the grass that led up one of the many hills. If it kept heading upward, then it would reach to the biggest mountain on the island. But many trees were along the path, so they had to go through zig-zags through the path, which made it even harder for Kuzon and Keiji.

When they had to move the crate to the left or right away from the trees, one of them had to get in the front and try to drag it while telling the other which direction to push it. It was complicated, real complicated, until they finally reached to where the others stopped. Amaya, Wan, and Midori were looking at Gramps, since he told them to stop. Finally right behind them, Kuzon and Keiji rested while panting heavily.

"Finally!" yelled Kuzon. "Hey, 2 of you guys...push this now...we're exhausted."

"Sure. You and the other Earthbender can use your bending since no one else's here," replied Gramps. "We're at the tree with half of a branch."

They looked up to see a big tree, but with absolutely no branches or leaves on it. But on the side of it, out of the trunk grew half of a branch with a small leaf growing on the end of it. They then saw Gramps look left and point at a smaller trail with his cane. The dirt was thinner there and the grass was much thicker and bigger.

"Good thing it didn't rain last night, or else our feet would be soaked in this path," said Gramps, turning for the trail.

Turning for the trail, all of them continued while Kuzon and Midori earthbended the crate forward as they moved. Gramps was about to follow when he heard a stick snap behind them. As the others went ahead, he looked to his side with the corner of his eye. Something was there and he knew it. Leaning down and picking up a pebble, Gramps threw it to where the sound came from. He hit something, but it ended up a rabbiroo running out and squealing in pain.

"Sorry!" yelled Gramps to the creature. "Next time I'll throw a lighter rock!"

"Gramps! Coming?!" yelled Keiji from ahead. He stayed behind a bit to see what Gramps was up to.

Gramps looked back one final time before he caught up with the others. Behind a distant tree trunk, however, sat the cloaked man. He was looking from behind the trunk of the tree. The pebble thrown that hit the rabbiroo was where he stepped on the stick. He managed to get behind the tree before being seen. That was a close one, he said to himself. This man's probably seen everything. I'd better stay here until it gets dark. With that, he started to begin to see if he can be as patient as he needed to be.

After going through a couple of directions explained on the instructions, they reached to a cave that was in the large mountain. The trail was hard to climb due to its steepness and they had to assist each other, especially Gramps, up the trail. But after the helped each other, they had to all push up the crate they accidentally left behind. They were afraid some others were already there and didn't want to risk being caught earthbending. After a few several attempts, everyone except Gramps pushed the crate up to where it was flat from there to the cave. Some torches were lit on the outside to light the outside a bit, yet it was still pitch-black on the inside.

Walking into the large cave, they looked around to find nothing within the darkness. Midori was going to say something earlier about what was in the cave, but Gramps and Keiji told her to shush before she could finish. After taking more steps in, every torch in the cave was lit and everyone revealed themselves. Every kid from the school was there and all screamed "SURPRISE!!"

All of them were surprised, that's for sure. Gramps and Keiji chuckled a bit after seeing their reaction. The 4 turned to face them.

"You knew about this?" asked Amaya.

"Of course. All other scrolls said it would start before sunset," explained Keiji. "Yours said after sunset so they could prepare for this. That's why we were actually stuck carrying this worthless crate of rocks. Besides, you didn't think I got a scroll too, did you?"

Keiji sat on the crate they pushed and dragged with and Gramps leaned on it. For proof, Gramps reached into his cloak and revealed a scroll. It looked exactly like the one they received. They turned around to face everyone again. Otin, Moto, Feri, and On Ji were in the front of the group while the Flamios started to play.

"We wanted to give a thank you party for making it so much fun lately," said On Ji, while everyone nodded and spoke in agreement. "Anyway, now that we're all here, let the party begin!"

No rabbiroos or children were harmed in the writing of this chapter, except the one rabbiroo who had it coming.

Anyway, I hope that made up for the short chapter I had last time. Wonder if anyone tried what Keiji and Gramps did to Aang to slow them down for a surprise. Anyway, don't forget that this is the day where Gramps starts to tell people and their history by looking into their eyes, that'll be in the next chapter. Couldn't help mentioning that before someone said that, lol.

Thanks for reading, please review, and hope you enjoyed! TMT