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Chapter 11: School comes sooner or later

A week later…

He crossed the street feeling the most intense pain in his life even though he has been in this situation many times. He looked down and saw the bullet holes that punctured his body from his previous encounter with the cities "finest". He had his 9 mm in his right hand as he trudged on with a heavy limp. His criminal experience told him to head for the car crossing the busy Star Junction intersection.

He sprinted as hard as he could to get in its path to slow it to a stop, the pain from the wounds pounded his legs until he could no longer feel them while his other wounds continued and he pushed himself even harder as he heard the distant sounds of an encroaching police helicopter.

He wiped the blood off his face and took a split second to rest. The woman in the car leaned in to see this asshole that ran in front of her car making her slam on the brakes, she saw him lean over seeming to take a breath. She would have yelled for his broke ass to get out the damn way if there wasn't a gun pointed right at her. He shouted grasp, broken English in a thick Balkan accent.

"Get the fuck out of the car now, I'm not asking!" She put her hands up in the car and watched in absolute fear and horror as he walked up to the side of the car opened the door and grabbed her arm. She made a decision to not let this man get what he wanted and slammed on the gas, a decision which would also prove to be her last. He watched her slam her leg into the floorboard of the car and the car began to jerk suddenly. He was dragged with her.

"Shit!" He pulled the trigger on his weapon, killing the woman instantly she fell over the console and over to the next seat, dead. He got to his feet after he fell over because he was holding on to her when she pushed on the gas.

He looked behind him when he heard the distant sound of a police siren. He ran beside the car which was still moving thanks to the woman who decided to be a hero and get herself killed but managed to eat up more precious time. He got in the moving vehicle and threw the woman's corpse into the passenger seat; he adjusted himself. That's when he pressed on the gas as hard as he could and the car jolted forward.

He dodged traffic and passed by other police cars. He hit the window shattering it; he stuck his head and his arm out of the car and took aim at the police cruiser carefully. He fired once hitting the cop straight in the front left tire stopping the cruiser from further pursuit. With that he, drove into an industrial area with a closed warehouse space where he knew he could be safe for a while.

"He got out and his cell phone immediately rang. He wrestled against his wounds and his windbreaker as he pulled out the blood covered cell phone. He put up to his ear as he wiped the blood from his hand on his jacket.

"Hello?"

"NIKO! Cousin I saw you all over the fucking news just now, eighteen people dead, including 4 cops, are you mad!" Niko looked back at the car and walked towards it. He leaned over looking inside, seeing the dead woman who was now pale. He shook his head.

"Well, the deal didn't work out as planned and people got hurt but I'm fine, look I'll call you back when it's safe."

"Just be safe cousin."

"Alright." He leaned back inside the car and saw the dead woman who awkwardly lay on the seat her legs up and her head on the handle. Niko pulled himself out of the window and looked around to see if anyone was around. No one. He walked around and opened the door, he grabbed her by her shoulder and pulled her out of the car. Her feet dragged on the ground as he pulled her away.

He dropped her with a hard thud on the concrete. Niko watched her laying there, out of common sense he kneeled down and checked her pulse, she was gone.

He slowly shook his head and stood up and walked towards the car in silence, the only sounds heard was the grimy sound his footsteps on the concrete made and the distant sound of urban sprawl. He turned around and decided to say something to vent his guilt.

"Look lady, you could have just gotten out of the car and you would be on the side walk calling the police crying about how someone just stole your car right now. But no, you had to be an idiot and get yourself killed!" The body stayed in place not moving. He remembered he was talking to a corpse so he turned and walk to the car and punched the dash board and drove away to the nearest hot dog stand, looking at the rear view mirror at the body which shrank into nothing when he turned.

Meanwhile...

"Ha! What did I tell you! What did you say I couldn't do? No go ahead and tell me." Sokka looked up at Jake frustrated he lost the bet. Sokka rather annoyed, conceded.

"That you wouldn't be able to make it out alive." Jake pointed at Sokka's arrogant statement when Jake got him himself into that mess. Jake spoke to everyone in a spirited monologue.

"See how I messed up, cops all over me and I still managed to run away and Sokka here thought that I wouldn't be able to make it? Well he thinks wrong again. Azula smirked as Jake put Sokka in his place. Everyone sat on the couch as Jake showed them his game console and the "oh so magical" world of video games. Katara and Aang looked at each with concerned expressions.

Katara raised her finger in question.

"Uh Jake isn't this a little… excessively violent." Jake softly gave her a joking laugh while he sat back down and played more.

"Yeah, you're probably right, but it's fun to play. I just love Grand Theft Auto though; it is not all that bad." He quickly shut it down and turned off the television and looked at the clock which was now set up next to his new bed on the floor. The room fell silent as Jake sat on his crappy, stiff mattress. Ty lee killed the calmness of the silence in the room.

"Well, it did have senseless killing and robbery. However it's not real so it doesn't matter then." Jake felt some sense of tranquility with the quiet only to be interrupted by Ty lee's comment. He knew what her problem was, if Ty lee speaks a sentence shorter than 12 words, she wants you to add a follow up comment.

"Yeah it doesn't, it's all fake in a fake world, no harm, no foul." Jake sat in continued silence. Azula sat in silence and defocused herself from the TV as she rubbed her eyes to relieve soreness. She couldn't help but watch Jake demonstrate the freedom in this "game". Killing people and getting away with it, blowing people to bits and walking away like nothing happened… fascinating Azula didn't want to attempt this form of entertainment, but she couldn't help but watch in interest. Suki was on the couch in a fetal position, lying down on her side, falling in and out between sleep and being awake. Mai and Zuko just kept to themselves and watched Sokka and Jake take turns when the other perished. Mai sat with her back leaning on Zuko and holding her legs and completely bored out of her mind trying to find some fun in watching the ceiling fan.

Jake hit the mattress and stood up to get his shoes on and retrieve a cleaner shirt.

"Crap I forgot!" Jake put on his last shoe on as everyone focused their attention to the panicked Jake. Azula leaned off her chin and sat up at Jake's sudden outburst and watched him as he quickly dressed and threw his shirt on. He stopped once he took in consideration how ridiculous he must have looked. He turned and met all the faces of his friends minus the one particular fire bender who regarded him much differently than the others. He thumbed at the front door.

"I uh, have high school orientation for my class schedule today." Suki opened her eyes and raised herself up to sit up and leaned over and lazily smiled at Sokka. Sokka was happy to see her awake, not that she got much of any sleep anyway. She looked at Jake; she heard the last part of his conversation. She stretched and asked Jake a question.

"What is high school orientation? Some sort of directional teaching or something?" Jake nodded to show she was partly correct and wiggled his hand.

"Yeah kind of… it just tells us what classes we have for the year, and the important stuff." Everyone stared at Jake who started to already feel the question they were going to ask, he sighed and saved them the energy.

"Yes, you guys can come. It's nothing like too important; it's just an in and out." Zuko took his arm which was around Mai's shoulder, off and he used his elbows to lean on his knees to speak.

"Education is an important issue and all but… They talk about it a lot in your world's news." Jake shrugged.

"I guess, I only care about the election when the news is on." Azula smirked and spoke out.

"Another thing about your news, it does brings me back to the old days all right. Almost everything they discuss involves, death, robbery, accidents, disasters, the despair the economic strife is reeking on your citizens, and war. And from what I've learned from paying attention is that other countries in fact have a somewhat... disfavor of your country."

"Ah the memories." Jake looked at Azula rather frustrated.

"First of all, yes I think the news does talk too much about death and stuff. Second, not all countries hate us Azula." Azula shook her head, in her mind there was no way anyone could so in denial. She decided for argument sake to not take it further. Jake noticed she wasn't going to add anything more so he retracted his hands and gestured towards the kitchen.

"Um okay then… I'm going to get check some things in the kitchen and then I'll be ready to go." Jake walked passed Zuko and Mai, checking his pockets. Katara looked around anxiously, and got up to follow Jake into the kitchen. Jake moved some of the mail around the table and out of the way just to clean up a little bit, because he wasn't exactly a neat freak, but there was something about a completely unorganized mess he detested. He turned and immediately jumped when he suddenly saw the dark skinned girl standing before him.

"Katara!" She flinched when he yelled her name, scaring her. She put her hands up in front of her.

"Sorry for startling you, I just wanted to ask you something." Jake laughed feeling stupid for being frightened. She looked to see if the others were nearby; she turned and pointed towards the open tray on the island counter in the middle of the kitchen.

"Hey want one more of those." Jake looked behind him and groaned, he shook his head,

"Katara, you already had like three cinnamon rolls. I would think that's enough don't you think?" She grabbed his shirt by his shoulder and pulled him closer.

"Look, those are very, very good, and I want one now and its delicious sweetness and warm fluffiness in my mouth so just please let me have one!" Jake surprised at her aggressively implied ultimatum, tried to back away from her but she had him in a tight grasp so he stood there.

"Um Katara, I never said you couldn't have another, I was just saying that you already ate three whole cinnamon rolls just calm down." She looked at the tray and back at him and slowly relinquished his shirt, attempting to straighten it back to normal.

"Oh… I'm sorry, uh nice shirt, now if you'll excuse me…" She rushed off and snatched one of the dark brown, icing covered roll off the table and took a bite out of it. She had discovered these delicacies two days ago when his mother brought them home for dessert. Mai, Azula and Ty lee walked together inside the kitchen.

Mai walked to the cupboard to get a glass of ice water, she then walked over to the fridge and pulled a bottle out of water out of it and twisted the cap off and poured the cold contents into the glass and turned around with the glass to listen in to pay attention to what was happening. Ty lee wanted to ask a few questions about Jake's school.

"So Jake, what's your school like?" Jake made faces trying to think of answers she didn't ask for but wanted to know.

"Well… the name is Wingmen High; it's pretty big and full of people."

"Anyone you know?"

"Yeah all my friends go there. Uh, most of them are on the football team." Azula leaned on the counter with her arms crossed. Mai pulled her lips away from the edge of the glass and asked a reasonable question.

"What topics are you taught?" Jake sighed as he received another question.

"Well I have to take English II, Geometry, Biology, and World history. I chose to take BCIS, Athletics, and Communication applications." Mai looked down nodding, just satisfied he answered, not really caring as opposed to Ty lee who hung on every word he said. Azula had a mixed interpretation but mostly stayed uninvested.

"So you have to learn a lot?"

"Nah not really, I just do the same things over and over everyday… Azula you have something to say?" Azula lightened up as she returned with a question.

"Fine since you seem so keen on my input for your self-serving conversations, how old are the students?"

"Most of them range from fourteen to eighteen years old; um they all cut up into different grades. Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth grades, I'm in Tenth grade and so are my friends." Jake noticed the kitchen clock.

"Look guys I need to get going so if you want to come, let's go." Mai sighed and took a long sip and finished off the rest of her drink and placed it on the counter as Ty lee and Azula followed Jake out of the kitchen. Katara noticed they were leaving and quickly closed the tray lid and followed them while eating the other half of the iced roll. Jake gestured for the others to follow him.

"Alright then, Suki are you awake enough?" Sokka moved his shoulder where Suki laid her head out of sleepiness. She lifted her head off his shoulder and stood up with Sokka and sniffled.

"Yeah… I'm ready, let's go." She wrapped her arm around Sokka's and leaned against Sokka's body as they walked behind everyone. Jake turned the knob on the front door, only to have it stopped forgetting that it was locked.

"Yeah I should've figured." Azula slyly giggled to herself as she placed two of her thin fingers over her lips. Jake heard a minute sound of humorous snickers of someone taking advantage of his misfortune for their own entertainment. Jake slightly turned his head towards the sound while he took the keys in his hand, flipping through them. He kept his head forward as he turned eyes at Azula and noticed her pale hand on her small mouth. Jake found the key and opened the door, Aang sighed as he led everyone through the door.

Azula had nothing but contempt for Jake and took pity on him when things didn't go his way, and for some reason, she loved being the bane of Jake's happy mood. Azula was the last one to exit as Jake watched her form with an intent she welcomed. Her smile went away, she stroked his arm to return the attention. She knew the others were making their way to the car and with Toph wearing shoes, she wouldn't be able to sense what she was about to do.

She strolled past him placing her hand on his back and kissed him on the neck. He rubbed the spot she just touched as she slowly walked away. Jake then locked the door behind her and trailed her every step.

She knew she had him under her spell and could do whatever she wanted with him. Azula always believed that even someone convicted to their most cherished ideals can still be utterly attracted to someone who wasn't exactly a paragon. Given his large attraction for her, she would be lying to herself if she said she didn't care for him or that she didn't reciprocate the attraction. She asked herself if she truly wanted to extinguish this heart and to expose the hypocrisy of his so called belief of good and evil just because she could.

She always loved torturing countless others during the war because; she reveled in her personal malice of hurting others. Even though she liked to occasionally toy with Jake and do a minor bad deed of manipulation, she was beginning to feel some sort of empathy for him and there was something about Jake that made her feel a little less empty inside, not to mention that he was never anything but nice and cordial to her.

On the way there...

Aang noticed a large, silver stand of seats with a field that looked propped up for something like an event.

"Jake what is that used for?" He pointed at the bleachers which blinded them due to the reflection of the sun. Jake put his blind up and squinted through the intense white light.

"Oh that's the bleachers for football games and such; we play there every other Thursday for when we play home games." Azula, once again sitting in the middle, only difference is Katara sat on the passenger side, still licking her fingers of all the sticky goodness from the roll she savored. Zuko probed.

"Do people actually show up to your games?" Jake laughed.

"Yeah, we have a lot of people come to watch us play but, not nearly as many as the varsity, but we have our fans too." Jake realized he said something they had no idea about.

"Varsity, being the older, more elite football players." Aang nodded all relaxed and leaned on the door as they approached a large building. Ty lee tapped his shoulder and Jake slightly turned and payed attention to her as she asked a question.

"Is that your school?" Azula then spoke as if on cue.

"Nope, Jake just decided to park in a lot completely unrelated to where we were going." Jake laughed softly as he nudged Azula to try and calm her down.

"Yes Ty lee that is my school, Wingmen High… a place where young minds go and lay their heads on their desk and fall asleep to cope with the boring, pointless lessons." Katara finally tuned in with the rest of the world.

Jake turned and parked in a space and turned the car off. Jake leaned back into his now warm seat and look around towards the back.

"Alright um, look if someone comes up to you for anything, just tell me and I'll take care of it, if I'm not there then just say you're a friend of mine okay?" everyone lazily shook their heads, probably just to acknowledge he spoke to them. Jake pulled the keys out and slowly opened the door half way and turned to look inside, wondering why they haven't done the same.

"Let's go." everyone pulled the handles on the doors.

"So Jake you like this school of yours? You seem to lack that… hmmm what's the word? School spirit." Ty lee ran up and draped her arm around his shoulders Jake continuing to walk towards the school with the Gaang. Azula really didn't mind, she was assured of his attraction to herself, she just floated on as they walked between two large pillars that led to multiple doors into the building. Jake broke away from Ty lee to hold the doors open for them, Ty lee walked ahead to not block the way, Katara walked in with Aang at her side as Mai stood next to Zuko, but both couples were not holding hands or standing too close to keep up appearances.

Mai thanked Jake as she walked by him, Jake nodded and turned back to see Suki and Sokka laughing about something, probably one of those jokes he always misses, he pressed himself flat against the door as they went through the door. Jake annoyed with missing something, looked back at them and turned to see the last person to enter, of course it was Azula.

She just stared, mocking him, shaking her head while he keeping a straight face and watched her stroll on past him slowly on purpose. Jake moved off the door and let it slam closed loudly; he winced at the loudness of the noise and apologized to some of the people standing near the door area. They were in the cafeteria with multiple tables set up with lines of student of every type. The football players Jake had known and befriended since his 6th grade year with which he hung out in the center of the commons area. Jake grabbed Toph's arm and guided her back to the group, otherwise she would've met Mr. Brick wall, and he wasn't very forgiving to blindness.

"Whoa Toph watch it." She wrestled out of his grip, he let go to avoid angering her further.

"Yeah, I don't need your help! I can still see, the only problem is, the fuzzy and blurriness of my sight with these stupid, pointless… shoes and you're to blame you idiot!"

Aang took time to notice all the different people, and observed their behavior, and watched all the unusual clothing and hairstyles. Meanwhile Ty lee relished in the looks she was getting from all the jocks, nerds, geeks, and jealous girl friends who walked passed them and talked amongst themselves, questioning who she was. Katara also got a lot of stares as well, she just stuck close to Aang and disregarded it as just boys being boys. Sokka clutched to Suki instinctively and made harsh looks at all the attention Suki got as well.

"Yeah what are you looking at? Something to see? Keep walking. In your dreams pal!" Suki slowly looked up as her fiancé forced her shoulder to be crammed into his grip with him yanking on her. Suki firmly pushed herself away.

"Sokka relax, no guy is just going to walk and take me off to wherever."

"Yeah not if I have something to say about it." She marveled at ignorance and stupidity she had become accustomed to. Mai uncaringly watched as Katara suddenly jerked around to see Jake being pushed by a rude person running by. Jake was pushed into Katara as Toph's face had collided with his back shoulder blade concluding her blind collision course.

"Ow my nose! Move it you idiot!" With one quick movement with her leg and he was swept to her side two feet away, which again startled him as he moved across the smooth floor like a he had greased his shoes. He extended an arm towards Toph.

"Hey sorry, but…"

"Yeah I told you to stay out of my way and the next time, I won't care if we are around people!" She crossed her arms as Jake sighed and put his hands down, not wanting to stir further anger from her. Jake returned his attention to Katara. Katara had a question that bugged her since she met all these new people.

"What do you want Katara?" By now everyone had stopped but was occupied with all the new sights being introduced to them.

"Well I was wondering since your world has many different cultures such as ours, but I just wanted to know what kind of culture we looked like." Jake smiled to himself at the thought of trying to pick one out of the many races to label his friends who he, as of two weeks ago, thought were non-existent. He walked towards the booth while his body language told her to follow and so did everyone one else. Azula observed her untouched, pale hand. She watched how all the lines and creases traced upon her hand and she wondered…

"Are my hands large enough to completely wrap around his throat? They look a bit too small for the job, meaning I would have to press with my thumbs rather hard into the main tunnel if I wanted to strangle him to death. Well either way it could be done I guess, but one would take longer than the other and no point in wasting energy. I could do it while he is asleep and he would never be able to stop me. What's the fun in that? It's like squashing a bug which hasn't been fun since 6 years of age."

She quietly laughed to herself as her morbid thoughts ran its course and she put her hand down at her side and kept walking stopping once Jake had reached a small line to retrieve his schedule and move ahead, he returned to the conversation Katara had brought up.

"Okay, On the show I pictured you guys as being Asian or pacific islander of some kind. Well maybe not you and Sokka, anyway… but after meeting Azula and the others, you guys look mostly…" He turned his head as he couldn't help but chuckle. Katara leaned in becoming frustrated with Jake's abrupt. He turned back around and mumbled words that would we all draw different feelings from.

"… Asiatic but not fully, kinda like you're mixed in with white or something." Katara seemed a little confused at the simplicity of the answer. He continued.

"Well not you or Sokka of course, you guys look like dark Native Americans." He turned back around and grabbed his schedule and turned around and pointed with the pink paper in hand.

"Well, let's go see where they are." He walked passed Katara and didn't so much as take two steps before being stopped due to something clinging to the back of his shirt. He turned around startled only to be met with Katara looking at him.

"No that answer alone will not do." Jake looked at Aang who shrugged and took a step back making hand signals to Jake trying to guide him on how best to proceed. Jake couldn't understand.

"What do you mean by Asiatic or White, you just give an answer that bland and expect me to understand? No, tell us what that means." She let go of his collar as he looked around surprised at her persistence.

"Alright, Azula and all the others except you and Sokka, look slightly like me and him." He pointed to a passing student and he looked at her again.

"It just means you look like normal, everyday people just like everyone else who attends this school." Katara she turned her head and eyed him.

"And I look Native American?" Jake shrugged as he pointed at Sokka.

"Well yeah, that's a minority population and you still look normal, beautiful, but normal." Jake cringed a little at his use of the word beautiful, it was just a blurted answer and he suddenly motioned for them to follow. He stopped once he saw Ty lee making a spectacle of herself.

"Ty lee, no handstands in public. Please get on your feet." She smiles at him and gracefully flips over to get her footing. She was drawing a crowd and the attention was making him nervous.

"Jeez Jake you just need to relax and slow down." Jake smiled as he threw his hand at her and turned down the hallway to hide his face while Ty lee walked with him. Zuko pointed out the soda machine followed by Mai rolling her eyes at her husband's short attention span. Toph held onto the back of Sokka's arm to help her navigate. Aang grabbed Katara's hand and lead her down the hallway. She was slightly stunned at Jake's remark which made her smile as she walked.

"Beautiful?" She spoke under breath. Katara walked on as Azula squinted her eyes at Jake after hearing Jake. Azula was peeved at his words to Katara.

"Self-indulging idiot. He'll see, I'm all he will ever need or get for that matter." Azula couldn't even believe herself when she realized that she was jealous of Katara, even though Ty lee came off almost desperate trying to get Jake.

A few lost walks down labyrinths of hallways and reaching different classrooms later…

"Hey guys come on its right here, now that I know where it is we can leave." Mai had begun to have enough of the constant walking.

"Finally, my feet were starting to hurt. However it was nice to see your school, even if it was a massive waste of not only my, but everyone else's time." Jake was beginning to get frustrated at her attitude even though she was the designated Debbie downer for the group. Jake led the group around a corner and bumped into someone. He stumbled back and rubbed the sore spot on his chest.

"Whoa, hey Isabella!" The girl smiled when she saw him,

"Jake, I haven't seen you at all over the summer!" Jake tilted his head with concern. She took the message written by his face.

"I'll see you around this year okay?" Jake waved as she walked away smiling. Azula walked with Jake and open handed hit his shoulder, she didn't hold back. He gripped his shoulder.

"Who was that?" Jake grimaced at his hurt shoulder as he turned behind to see everyone walking behind him.

"That was Isabella; she was my friend since eighth grade." Azula nodded and she looked at Jake rubbing his shoulder and looked around to see if anyone was looking, no one. She reached out and rubbed his arm. The group were speaking amongst themselves and she took the small window of time as an opportunity.

"Oh come on you weakling, I didn't hit you that hard." Jake rubbed it as he walked out the door, and out the parking lot. Suki walked up to Jake as they were walking through the parking lot.

"We're going to go back home and I'm going to take a nap or something because I'm actually very tired."

"Fine by me, I'm a little tired too, and with Sokka here holding on to me like a dog with his bone." Suki sniggered as Sokka clinged a little tighter to her. They has made their way back to Jake's car.

"Hey I saw their looks; I didn't like it that's all." Suki followed his lead when they reached the car and went inside.

"Yeah your school is pretty nice, there is a lot of trends and clothing and hair styles and tons of cute guys." Jake grinned at her last remark and Ty lee climbed inside the car with Jake. Katara, Toph Zuko, Aang, and Mai then also stepped inside the car.

"Beautiful…" Katara said to herself. She was seated close enough to Jake to where he could hear her mumbling and chose to not look at her as he pulled the car out of the parking lot.

"What was that Katara?" Aang asked her as he made his way into the seat next to hers and closed the car door. She snapped out of it.

"Oh… nothing." Jake shrugged and drove the car forward. Azula silently took notice of Katara's words and her actions. She didn't mind Ty lee's attempts to catch his attention, but Katara was someone Azula found very threatening.

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