Chapter Twenty-Five – Oh No
"The house of Azulon Kai, the very influential Fire District general, was vandalized in the late hours of Saturday night by what appears to be an unknown group of gang members…"
Our destruction played out in the broad hours of daylight on the news. I hadn't realized just how much we'd managed to fuck up. All of the cars sat on deflated tires, glass covering the entire front lawn, chunks of marble and stone on the grass, and the gutted, blackened Maserati sat on a bed of wood above our ominous red words. The whole living room was silent as we watched.
"There are no fingerprints left at the scene, but the police will be investigating any leads for this blatant destruction of property. Anyone with information or any knowledge as to who or what 'Kya' is, is encouraged to contact the capital police department.
"Regarding the upcoming elections – "
"Kya was your mother's name, wasn't it," Grandfather said, looking at Katara and Sokka over his tea. The whole living room was silent.
Finally the siblings nodded. Katara hadn't managed to wash all of the eyeliner off her eyes, and the resultant raccoon look made her so much more approachable than the terrifying gang Katara of last night. Sokka just looked into his tea.
Grandfather sighed, turned off the TV, and looked over at us. "You know, I understand why you did it."
God, why did he have to figure things out so quickly? Why couldn't I have a grandpa like everyone else who was oblivious? Even Toph and Zuko were silenced.
"That man destroyed my people as well. We have all lost something to him." He petted Momo, who was sitting on his lap looking at all of us. "So I'm not going to get as mad at you as I probably should. I know none of your parents raised you this way – yes, even yours, Zuko, don't look at me like that – and you all know that this kind of behavior is not tolerated in my house."
Even when he wasn't yelling, the disappointment in his voice made us all bow our heads.
"But perhaps this was necessary for you. Perhaps this is a choice that you needed to make, some closure that I could not give you. I know very well how hard it is to be young and wronged by society, unable to take any decisive action in favor of your own fate."
He stood up, as Momo jumped down from his lap. "But I want you all to think very hard as to what this actually accomplished. Did it make you feel better? Maybe. Will it do anything to deter Ozai and Azulon? Probably not. If it wins you some more votes, I am happy for you. But I sincerely hope that it did not win you more votes at the compromise of your morals and reputations. After this, are you so different from what they have done to you?"
He picked up the teapot and left the room, padding down the house to his own wing, leaving the five of us to sit in silence and the light of a few candles.
"Goddamn it," Toph muttered.
"I feel like shit." Sokka threw his head against the chair.
Zuko groaned and rubbed his eyes. "Grandpa is good."
"Now do you guys understand why I'm such a goodie-goodie sometimes? Imagine growing up with him."
"He's right," Katara said with a sigh, leaning her head on her hand. "That was really immature of us. We were acting like them."
"We shouldn't have done it," Toph said. "But I don't regret it."
After a moment, Katara shook her head. "Neither do I. I'm sure Mom's not happy with me, but at least I feel better."
"I guess we won't know the real impact till Monday," Zuko said, as Momo moved over to his lap. Momo had certainly warmed up to him – between Zuko and Katara, I hardly got a chance to see my own cat anymore. Appa was less discriminatory. He was lying between Sokka and I, getting bellyrubs from both of us. "Maybe we did earn a few more votes."
"There's no one in school who doesn't know we did that," Sokka said.
"The question is," I said, "what's Azulon gonna do about it? Is he going to realize who Kya is?"
"Probably not," Zuko scoffed. "Like he'd remember one woman out of the hundreds he's probably killed."
"Aang's got a point," Katara said. "We might be in even deeper shit over this than we were before. What if he comes after us even more now?"
"We'll deal with that when it happens," Sokka said, his eyebrows narrowed. "We did it, it's done. If he comes after us, nothing we can do about it. All we can do now is take it like men."
"And women," Toph chimed in.
He rolled his eyes. "And women, whatever."
Toph aimed a punch at him, but kind of missed, prompting a smile. "Keep punching like that, and I'm gonna have even more reason to call you a girl."
This time, her crotch shot did not miss.
"How many people in this story are going to get punched in the testicles?" I wondered out loud as Sokka rolled around on the floor, moaning in pain.
"One more unless you shut up and go to bed," Katara said with a smile as she got up and blew out the candles.
(Yes I did break the fourth wall. I'm the author this is Fanfiction I'm tired I do what I want FUCK THE POLICE)
It really did feel like we were in a gang. When we pulled up in the Mustang, Suki, Mai and Ty Lee were waiting for us, leaning up against the walls. We hopped out, and I was relieved to see that without the cover of nighttime and our badass clothes, even Suki and Mai were looking a little confused or remorseful about their actions. Without hesitating with smalltalk, we all walked onto campus to see how the cards would fall.
Sokka was right – everyone knew it was us. Freshmen stared at us with a new level of fear; sophomores granted some more respect. The Earth kids seemed impressed; they all nodded at us when we passed. We split off when we got to our lockers, and all of us watched as Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee walked towards the Fire District lockers. The sharp-eyed Fire kids rolled their shoulders and watched them walk. I couldn't tell if there was disdain or admiration in their eyes. Ozai sat on his usual bench, surrounded by cronies, staring them down. I had no idea whether we'd won or not when everyone's eyes snapped to somewhere else.
Azula had finally arrived back on campus.
It felt like the school took a collective gasp. The whole Fire District section definitely froze. I can't tell you how strange it felt to see Azula, the obvious Regina George of our school, wearing a cast, not even bothering to hide the bruises on her neck, walking stiffly. Zuko hadn't elaborated on what happened to her, but Katara bit her lip and went down to whisper something in Toph's ear, which made her cross her arms too. Something was different about her – the way she held herself, the way she looked at all of us. There wasn't the sharp blade of fear beneath her bright gold eyes. It was dulled, clouded. She breathed deeply and stared around the silent patio. When she saw Ozai her nostrils flared like a dragon, and she walked right past him. Zuko and the girls stood up and waited to see if she would come to them. She paused a moment before Zuko, her eyes trying to reach his. It was just a moment before she walked right past them, not looking at us, vanishing off somewhere – where? Her uncle's classroom?
The bell rang and snapped us out of our trance. I shared a look with Katara before we headed off to class.
It was easy to forget that in the midst of all of our rebellion and drama and shoot-outs that we were still high school students, and we actually had schoolwork. Well, Katara never forgot, cause she's Katara, and Sokka didn't forget, because he had college applications to do. But the rest of us? Zuko was emotionally conflicted, Toph no longer gave a fuck about anything, and I was kind of busy getting shot. So suffice to say our grades hadn't exactly been stellar.
So that day I forced myself to stay awake through English and Math, because Mr. Pakku and Mr. Piandao were tough and I knew if I didn't pay attention I'd have a hell of a lot of homework. But I usually took third period, Ancient Cultures with Professor Zei, as my naptime. Unfortunately, we were talking about the Air District today. And as much as I loved learning about my culture, the problem was that I was expected to contribute scholarly research on the subject, with nobody fully understanding that I left the Air District when I was eleven and didn't really like talking about the fact that my entire goddamn culture was burnt.
"Founded on very peaceful principles…no standing army, in fact…most Air Nomads were practicing Buddhists, meaning they lived by a strict moral code as well as being vegetarians…was this true for your family, Aang?"
"Mhm, Professor…"
Except for the part where my friends and I vandalized a Fire District home…you know…
"…Got the title of Nomads from the fact that they normally rotated between the four major temples, or cities – North, South, East and West…isn't it funny that Aang's last name is Nomad?"
"Mhm, Professor…"
Gotta ask Katara out to Prom soon…gotta do it before some other guy does it, like last time…I'm a rebel now, I damaged private property…means Haru should be scared of me, right?
"Now, if you'll all take out your book on the Tu-Zhang language, we can see that the root of the ancient name of the Air civilization, 'aere', is based in fact on a now-defunct religion practiced by the Air District…"
Don't fall asleep…don't fall asleep…
"…Secret rooms in their temples, called 'ventilas'…"
The fuck is he talking about…oh, God, so sleepy…don't fall asleep…Katara's boobs…
"…Actually have one here at school, one of the founders built it – "
Katara's boobs…wait, what?
"What?" I said, snapping my head up.
Professor Zei smiled at me. He never got pissed at me for sleeping in class, because I was a 'living relic'. "I was saying how there actually is a traditional Air District temple chamber here at school. The school was founded by the union of representatives of each of the four districts, after all."
Like Hogwarts? "Professor, where is this secret chamber?"
"I believe it's behind the science building...there should be a wheelchair ramp leading to it."
I felt more awake than I had all day. As soon as I left class, I sent a text to Katara.
Going exploring during lunch. Don't wait for me
I bought a bag of Skittles from the vending machine and headed away from our usual lunch spot on the patio, towards the science building. If there was going to be a secret air chamber, this would be the place to do it – most people were scared of the science building due to Professor Bumi's tendency to set the whole place on fire as a monthly routine. I scooted around back, avoiding the nerdy Science Olympiad kids, and found it, almost covered by ivy – an old wheelchair ramp, leading to a smaller, half-submerged building I had never noticed before. A little weird, since the Air Temples that I'd been to where always raised above the ground, but I still polished off my Skittles and went down the ramp.
I could hear the sounds of laughing and hollering and teenage raunchiness, so I was excited when I pushed open the door –
And had to gasp.
It was an Air Temple secret chamber, all right – I recognized the swirls on the ground, the skylights, and the large statue of a sky bison (some sort of flying cow – Air religions were weird). But the most distinctive part of any Air Temple, the gorgeous paintings depicting our history, were completely covered. All of the walls had been painted, pasteled, oiled, crayoned – barely any inch was recognizable. And there was a kid with a wheelchair in a Michelangelo-esque lift even painting the ceiling.
The progression of faces came pretty quick – they turned around to see me, saw my bald head, smiled, saw my angry face, and immediately froze.
"Oh, snap," the kid in the wheelchair said, "it's Aang Nomad!"
"You're damn right it is!" I said. "Why are you painting over the traditional Air District wall murals? Those are sacred to my people!"
All of the kids in there started shifting. They all looked young – freshmen and sophomores, like me. Definitely poorer; I recognized the type of clothing Katara and Sokka used to wear. The kid in the wheelchair lowered himself down with an impressive pully system and wheeled over to me. He had a shock of brown hair and a big smile.
"Dude, I am really excited to meet you. I've heard all about you!"
"And who are you?"
"I'm Teo," he replied with a smile. "I'm a sophomore too."
Despite the fact that one of my best friends was disabled, I was still unclear as to the politically correct way to look at people with disabilities – Toph didn't care if you stared at her eyes (or didn't care as long as you didn't tell her you were staring at her eyes). But pretty soon I found I was the one blushing as my eyes kept flickering down to Teo's legs in the wheelchair. They certainly looked unfunctioning – they were limp and atrophied. I put my eyes back to his face, my Buddhist self embarrassed and knowing that Toph would kick my ass if I showed even the slightest sign of weirdness of people with disabilities. But Teo was cool. He saw me looking and explained,
"There was a flood when I was a little kid, back in the Earth District. Wiped out a lot of my village, and it killed my mom. I hit my head on a rock, and the spinal damage made me paraplegic. My dad and I had to move out here so he could make a living as a technician. I've been in this chair almost as long as I can remember."
"Dude, I'm sorry," I said. Ugh, now I felt like an asshole for being mad at this kid. He was disabled, for shit's sake.
"It's not your fault," he said brightly. "Hey – you're dating Katara Hatori!"
Any remaining animosity towards this kid pretty much vanished. The fact that I was dating Katara was school gossip? FUCK YES. "Yeah, I am. Do you know her?"
"Oh, yeah! I was in art class with her last year. She's incredible! She's the one who kind of encouraged me to pursue my own artistic style."
"Which would be painting over sacred murals?"
He shook his head. "Nah, man, and I'm sorry about that. Didn't really realize they were sacred. No, I'm kind of about painting beyond the canvas. Wall murals, rock painting. Using different backings, different mediums. Kind of makes me feel less restricted. I'm gonna be in this chair for the rest of my life, so why should I paint inside the lines?"
Yeah, that's definitely something Katara would encourage.
"I found this place second semester last year. You know, this isn't a big art school, and they weren't really even willing to give me bigger canvases to use. So I kind of began using this as a canvas. We all did. None of us really fit in, you know. So this became our place."
I finally looked around. The paintings were definitely like nothing I'd ever seen. Instead of the clean lines and clear colors of Air painting, this art was messy, unfocused, blurred, with pulsing colors and sweeping strokes. There were different styles – some more Impressionistic in the corner, a whole side of the wall spray-painted in graffiti style, but all of it had a heartbeat, not just the people and animals whose faces peaked out, but even the abstract lines that covered much of the space, all of it folding in and exploding out, moving and bursting in deep blues, fierce purples, screaming reds. The few splashes of white were perfectly rendered, giving pause at points in the artwork. There was even one space where the Air paintings were not covered, and the serene bald head of an Air monk stared out from the chaos. He didn't look very pissed to me.
"I kind of used the air as an inspiration," Teo said. "You know, freedom. Movement. Independence. Abstraction. Letting it all kind of flow, riding the tides."
"Damn," I finally said after a pause. "I gotta admit…I really don't think the monks would be mad at this. In fact, I think they'd be kind of happy. This is what being an Air Nomad is all about."
I turned to him and said, "Would you mind if I brought my friends over tomorrow at lunch?"
"No problem," Teo grinned.
"Oh, Teo!"
Leave it to Katara. She set one foot in the Air chamber and immediately lost her mind. She walked around the room, babbling on and on in art lingo about how the juxtaposition of the chiaroscuro created an atmosphere of introspection and allowed for greater expression of the subliminal cortexes (can you tell I hadn't been paying any attention in Art class?). Then she immediately swooped down to give Teo a big hug and what kind of looked like a kiss on the cheek.
It's okay, I immediately thought, she can't leave me for him, his junk probably doesn't work.
Oh, my God. Asshole of the year award, right here. God, I could just see Grandfather shaking his head at me. I made a mental note to make some sort of burnt offering to make up for probably the most dickish thought I had ever had.
Mai actually smiled and didn't smoke inside so she didn't obscure the images, which was pretty much the highest compliment she could pay to a human being. Ty Lee giggled and flirted with Teo, and even Zuko looked reluctantly impressed. Apparently enough time with Mai had given him at least some sort of admiration for art.
Unfortunately, as we all knew would happen, this entire field trip was lost on Toph.
"So…we're supposed to be looking at colors?" She said, walking in.
"And painting," Sokka said. "It's so cool, Toph, there's like stuff swirling around and all these people…and colors…"
"I get that, Captain Obvious, which colors?"
"Purple…blue…red…"
She sighed and ran a finger through her bangs. "Of course the three colors I don't remember," she muttered under her breath.
"Oh, Suki, look at that guy poking out! Doesn't he look like Grandpa?"
"No shit, he does! What's that cow thing?"
"He's got horns or something…his face looks just like a fatter version of Appa's though."
"Imagine if Appa had horns!"
The two of them burst into giggles while Toph stood stiffly. "Oh, sorry, dude, there's this like cow thing, with six feet…it really looks like Appa, it's super creepy – "
"Guys, come look at this one, there's a flying lemur! It's like our school mascot!"
Ty Lee grabbed them and they moved over to the other corner. Toph exhaled and leaned up against the wall, only to have a freshman yell –
"Wet paint!"
"Fuck," she grunted, standing up. "Sorry, bro." She reached over to tough the side of her shirt, and her fingers came back bright blue. "Christ." She wiped them on her shorts and had to cross her arms to keep her hands from falling on her wet shirt.
"You're blind," Teo said, coming up to her.
"An excellent observation, Watson."
"No, dude, I mean, you can't tell, but I'm in a wheelchair."
She raised an eyebrow. "Really? A fellow disabled?"
"Yes, ma'am."
She smirked. "Discuss to me your feelings towards the Disability Services Office."
"Hmm…a bunch of fucktards with little sympathy or respect for the disabled?"
It provoked a smile. "Whaddup, new best friend."
"I've heard of you. You do fighting. Like MMA."
"Undefeated champ."
"That's awesome. I think painting is kind of like my fighting, I guess."
Toph's face softened. "Want me to sit on the ground so you don't have to feel like I'm talking down to you?"
There was a pause, and Teo said, "Yeah, actually…that'd be cool."
Toph wiped off her fingers, plopped down on the ground, and started talking to Teo. I was just beginning to be pulled away by Katara to go study some of the other paintings (apparently they were ones Ms. Yangchen had talked about), but I saw Sokka realize that Toph wasn't with him, and pull away from Suki and Ty Lee to go find her.
He paused when he saw Toph and Teo on the ground, clearly shooting the shit, and when Toph actually laughed at something he said, I watched as his face fell in on itself, his eyebrows furrowing. He turned back to the wall, and I saw him take a good long look at the profile of Suki's pretty face.
When the bell rang, we all managed to extract ourselves from the gorgeous temple and head over to the main building, all of us gossiping and laughing as Toph and Sokka stayed uncharacteristically quiet. Just as we were about to part ways, Katara gasped –
"Oh, yeah, look, I need to pick up something for art class at Michael's after school. Can you guys wait for me until I talk to Ms. Yangchen about it? Should only be fifteen minutes after the bell or something."
"Whatever," I said. "Meet in the gym to go home?"
Everyone nodded and dispersed. I grabbed Katara's hand as we walked to art class together, and she didn't pull away. I felt like the king of the world as we walked through the halls together, her fingers tight in mine.
"So you liked his art?" I asked.
She gave a little turn towards me and smiled. She'd worn her hair in loopies again. "Yeah, he's always been good. He tore it up last year in Art class."
"Guess I'm having a bit harder time with it."
She leaned up and gave me the tiniest of pecks on the cheek before we sat down. "Don't worry babe," she said softly, "I'd take your noodle drawings any day."
Boobs…boobs…
"You have to be careful with this derivative, it's tricky – "
Toph's boobs…big white boobs…
"You'd be surprised how many of you forget to carry the X – "
Suki's boobs…what do Suki's boobs look like?...Suki's boobs…
No, Sokka, focus, Toph's boobs…
"Okay, well, that's all for the day, you're free to go!"
Boooooobs….wait, what?
"What?" Sokka said, snapping his head up.
Mr. Piandao rolled his eyes. "If you'll stop fantasizing about women, Mr. Hatori, you're free to go. We finished early today."
Sokka glanced at the clock. Five minutes left on the bell? Fuck yeah! The rest of the class was already up and running. He threw his stuff together, waved at Mr. Piandao and headed over to the gym.
To his surprise, Suki was there, packing up her martial arts equipment. He stared at her for a minute before realizing that she had her karate class last period of the day.
"Sup, Hatori?"
She was wearing just a bra and Spandex. Hair falling from under her bandana. Staring at him with an eyebrow raised and a cocky smile.
"Hey," he managed. "What's up?"
"Nothing much," she said, picking up some of the dummies. "Y'all meeting here to get Katara's art supplies?"
"Yeah."
"Well, don't just stand there, come help me."
"Right!" He dropped his bag and ran over to pick up some of the dummies with her. She offered him a smile and kept working. He hadn't realized how nice it was for a girl to actually smile while looking into his eyes. It'd been a while…since Yue, really.
"What is up with you today?"
"Huh?"
"You're all pensive. Something the matter?"
"Oh," he said, throwing the dummies into the back room. "You know. College letters come out soon. Got to figure out if I have to apply for jobs."
"I feel that," Suki said with a nod. "Did that last year when I was applying for scholarships. It's a bitch."
"You're still going to Gaolin State?"
"Yessir. One of the few girls on their martial arts team."
"Oh. Surrounded by a lot of guys?"
"It'll be a nice change of pace, really. The Kyoshi Warriors are great, but sometimes you need men to calm you down. I don't like the teasing though. My dojo could get pretty awful with the name-calling. There's only so many times you can get called a 'karate cunt' before it really starts to sting, you know?"
"Yeah, totally. The lax team were a bunch of assholes. That's why I wouldn't mind a sports scholarship. Kind of get to feel the camaraderie I felt with my team back in the Water District."
"Definitely."
He picked up the wood boards and walked behind her, watching her hips move. Smaller, quicker than Toph's. Her skin warm, like hot tea, rather than cold, like ivory. "You ever get kind of…tired of hanging out with the sophomores and stuff?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, I love our gang and all that, but I don't know, sometimes I want to vent about going to college and it's stuff they don't have to deal with yet. I'm kind of jealous."
"Well, there's Mai."
"Yeah, because Mai and I totally have deep talks about life all the time."
Suki chuckled and stood up. "Well, dude, you've got me. I'm right there with you. All filled with teenage angst with an angry world pressing up in me trying to get me to settle down and fall in line."
"Yeah," he said, her words reaching right to his heart.
"Don't worry," she said, moving to the center and bending down to pick up the pads. So that's what Suki's boobs looked like. "You're gonna be fine. You're smart, you're motivated, you've got a great heart. Even if you don't get accepted, any boss who isn't a dipshit would hire you. Besides, you know Katara's gonna make sure you're as happy as a gangster in a gun store next year. She's not gonna let you go anywhere you're not happy."
"Thank God for Katara," he agreed, watching her roll up the pads and walk over to the room. She passed him and he caught a whiff of her smell – sweat and some kind of warm, musky perfume. He couldn't stop it. He grabbed her hand.
"Suki, have you ever…you know…felt something for me?"
She stopped and stared at him. "Uh, Sokka?"
"Have you?"
She bit her lip and looked in his eyes. "Yeah, totally. You're a good looking guy. But you know, there's you and Toph."
He didn't answer. She released her lip and looked up at him.
"Isn't there?"
Those blank, white eyes. The anger held in her eyebrows. The feeling of her cold shoulder on him, the mixed signals he'd been receiving for months now. He could barely hold a conversation with the girl who took his virginity. Her laughter next to Teo today.
"No," he finally said. "There isn't."
Suki blinked up at him. She didn't live with them, she didn't know, she didn't know, she didn't know –
He grabbed her around the waist and kissed her.
They fell together like stones down a narrow waterfall, bodies fitting right in sync, Suki throwing her hands right over his shoulders. He closed his eyes. Oh, my Lord, this felt so good.
Katara and I held hands all the way to the gym, her other hand gripping tight to her paper bag of various sea glass and crystals, her medium for this week's art project. We didn't talk, so I wasn't surprised when the gym was silent as we came up.
But that was before we opened the door and saw Sokka and Suki kissing, plain as day, in the corner of the gym.
Katara almost dropped her bag, and I had to bite back the 'shit' that rose up in my throat like bile. Oh, my God, holy shit, what the fuck, oh my God –
Katara and I looked at each other and communicated instantly and silently. Okay, this wasn't terrible, there was still five minutes before we were all supposed to be here, maybe they'd be broken up before Toph came –
But there were at least three other entrances to the gym, and not all of them were loud and creaky. The smallest entrance, right towards the front, opened silently, and Toph walked in, her backpack over her shoulder, slinging her cane, bangs hiding her face.
Katara immediately thrust her art supplies into my hand and moved right out to the gym floor, preparing to break Suki and Sokka up, I don't know how she was planning it, but thank God Toph was blind, she didn't know what was happening, we could break them up –
"Damn, Kyoshi," Sokka said throatily. The other three of us froze. Toph snapped her head up. "Where'd you learn to kiss like this?"
Oh, no.
In the span of a heartbeat, we saw it all pass on Toph's face. Her hands started shaking on her cane. Katara pressed her hands to her face as we saw it all come tumbling down, oblivious to the kissing couple in the corner.
Toph gripped her cane, turned tail, and ran right out, letting the gym door slam shut behind her.
Aaah cliffhanger! Because we need more drama in a story classified as Humor (anyone else notice that? Need to change it...) Anyway, I'm sorry for doing this to you again, but I promise I've already started writing the next chapter so it should be up soon. I'd say more but I'm very sick and having a quarter-life crisis (hence some of the ridiculousness of this chapter), so I'll just say that I love you all and I hope you enjoyed! Please review! Mwah - PVB