Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar.

Chapter 25

Popularity

If it had not been for sharing first period with Toph in the morning, Aang would have found the rest of the day to be incredibly boring. He didn't even luck out enough to share lunch with any of his friends. Toph apparently got first lunch period while Katara and Zuko got second. He got boring, long wait, third lunch. By the time he got through the line and paid for his meal, his stomach was practically screaming at him. Unfortunately, one look around the cafeteria reminded him that his friends were not there.

"Maybe the roof," Aang said to himself.

The trek was not too long for his stomach to put up with, but it was still not very happy with him. Up on the roof were few other people. Apparently not many of the third lunch students liked this spot.

"Aang!" he heard someone call. "Hey Aang!"

Over by the fence, Aang found the source of the voice. A few of his track teammates were waving for him to come and join them. Happy to see some familiar faces, he did. The one who had called him was Yuan, a first year just like Aang. He kept his semi-long brown hair tied back in a high ponytail and his green eyes were always welcoming and kind. He was also incredibly friendly and Aang usually paired with him when they ran drills and stretched. Then there was June. She was a sweet girl in her second year, but had a major competitive streak. Most of the guys avoided her, but she was a lot less intense when she wasn't wearing the team uniform. She had short black hair like most of the boys on the team, but her figure was feminine enough for everyone to recognize her as such. Even if her personality did not. Then there was Kei. He was another second year, and he was a bit of a school tough guy, but there was something different about him today.

"Hey, guys!" he greeted as he sat amongst them.

"Check it out, Aang," June said. "Look what Kei did to his hair."

Kei ran both hands through his short bushy, red hair. Aang would not have thought anything of this at all, except for the fact that yesterday Kei's hair had been brown.

"What did you do?" Aang grinned.

"Well, you shaved your head, so I thought I'd try something out there too!" Kei laughed.

"Man, if you guys keep this up I'm gonna have to do something too," Yuan smiled.

"How about a mohawk?" June suggested.

"No!" Aang shouted excitedly. "You should do a no-hawk!"

"What's a no-hawk?" Kei asked. Aang put the side of his hand to Yuan's forehead and traced a straight line over the center of his head.

"That would look so stupid," Kei frowned. Then he grinned. "Do it!"

"How about something a little less crazy?" Yuan asked.

"No-hawk! No-hawk! No-hawk!" the others began to chant.

"No! No no-hawk!"

"C'mon, Yuan! Do it!"

"What are we doing?" another young man asked as he sat down. His hair was a shaggy, brown mess that tangled its way down to his shoulders, and his hazel eyes smiled like Aang's.

"Hey, Teo," June waved. "We're gonna give Yuan a no-hawk!"

"Cool! I'll hold him down!"

"Aang, this is Teo," Yuan introduced, obviously giving up the fight. "Teo, Aang."

"I know you," Teo grinned. "You're that major new track star."

"I wouldn't say 'star'," Aang blushed.

"Better watch your back though. I'm gonna be just as famous as you when I make first string next year."

"Teo's on the rise on the soccer team," Yuan explained.

"Hey, I've actually heard about you too!" Aang said. "You run circles around the first stringers already from what I hear."

"Yeah, but the coach doesn't want to make a first year first string," Teo frowned as he took a bite of his sandwich. "Fine by me though. I'm gonna leave 'em in the dust next year!"

"You leave 'em in the dust now," June grinned as she ruffled the younger man's hair.

"Boy, am I glad you guys are here," Aang smiled. "Lunch yesterday just kinda stunk."

"What are you talking about?" Yuan asked.

"Yeah," June piped in. "You were sitting with a whole group of people yesterday. They were laughing, telling jokes, and all that good stuff. Plus, I think that chick was hitting on you."

"And you would know, wouldn't you, June?" Kei grinned. June pushed off the ground enough to stretch her leg out and kick Kei's thigh.

"Ow! Watch it!" he warned. "I gotta use that later."

"But it was so weird," Aang said, ignoring the exchange. "She just dragged me over to her table and I didn't even know anyone. I was trying to remember their names, but they were all talking at once and I could barely breathe!"

"Welcome to popularity," Kei said. "Get used to it. I have to deal with that kind of attention all the time."

"Yeah, when you're at home with your mom," Yuan laughed.

Lunch promised to be much more enjoyable for the rest of the semester now that Aang had found some friends. Teo in particular was going to be a lot of fun. Aang could just tell. He was such a spirited kid, and Aang liked being around him.

After a few hours of mind boggling math and dealing with strange, useless-in-daily-life science formulas, Aang was happy to be making his way to the track field where he would be meeting up with his friends. And Toph. By the time he reached the field he could already see her sitting in the front row of the bleachers tapping her bare feet on the ground. Her face was plastered with an annoyed look as it rested in her cupped hands.

"I didn't do it," Aang said as he approached her.

"Not yet anyway," she chuckled as he plopped in front of her and began his stretches. "So when did the coach decide to have practice outside again?"

"Probably today. There's a note on the gym doors."

"Oughta make Hot Head happy," she replied. "He'll get to play inside for the rest of the semester."

"What about you? Don't you prefer the gym?"

"I like to do my playing outside," she answered, poking him in the head playfully before resting her head in her hands once again.

"With practice like this, how do you hope to stand a chance against me?"

Aang turned to the new voice to see a familiar pattern of black and green striped hair.

"Kaze! What are you doing here?"

"Keeping an eye on the competition," he grinned. "You'll never be able to catch up to me, you know that right?"

"I dunno," Aang grinned back. "Last time I managed to keep up okay."

"We'll see. For now, I'm just gonna sit over here and distract you while you try to run down the track without tripping yourself up."

Aang shook his head with a smile as Kaze sat a few rows behind Toph in the stands. He gave Aang a quick thumbs up as the coach bellowed for him to take his place on the track with the other first years on the team.

"So he your boyfriend, or what?" Kaze asked Toph when he was sure Aang was out of earshot.

"What's it to you?" she asked shortly.

"Whoa, down tiger," he replied as he stepped down a row closer. "Just curious. So, what's he like? I mean why'd he join the track team?"

"Why are you playing twenty questions with me?" Toph asked, lifting her head from her hands. "If you wanna know about Twinkle Toes so much, why don't you ask him?"

"Twinkle Toes?" Kaze echoed with a laugh. Before Toph could snap at him, she felt another set of vibrations coming towards them. They were energetic and a little rough, but Toph recognized them as one of Aang's teammates.

"Yo," a girl's voice said.

"What?" Toph replied.

"Bite my head. Just came to say hi."

"Hi," Toph said, not really interested in being bothered by another person.

"You're Toph, right?" the girl asked.

"Duh," she answered bluntly. "I've only been at just about every practice this year and helped your coach boss you people around for like a month."

"Nice to meet you too. I'm June."

"Whatever."

"Not very social, are you?" Kaze asked.

"You've known Aang for a while now, right?" the girl asked.

"What is with you people?" Toph yelled as she felt Twinkle Toes' vibrations disappear in a sprint. "Why are you asking me? He's right there! You're his freaking teammate for crying out loud!"

"Best friends often have embarrassing stories they can tell," Kaze answered. "Know any good ones?"

"This I gotta hear," June agreed.

"Okay, let's get one thing straight here," Toph said as she stood up. "The only one who's allowed to give Twinkle Toes a hard time is me. Got it?"

"What is he, your boyfriend?" June asked haughtily.

"Yes!" Toph screamed. "Yes, he is!"

"Oh. I see." June's voice had an obvious tone of disappointment to it. Since when was Twinkle Toes attracting other girls so much? First it was those girls she had heard about sharing lunch with him yesterday, and now this one! At first Toph had thought it would be good for Aang to have a few friends around school so he wouldn't be lonely without her and the others around, but if these were the kind of friends he was going to be making then she wasn't so sure any more. It was a relief when she felt Aang's airy footsteps heading towards them, but he was not alone.

"Hey, June," Aang waved. "Toph, I know you haven't really gotten to know anyone else on the team, but these guys are cool. That's June, this is Yuan, and Kei's the one in the middle of the track getting ready to run."

"And here I thought you only had girl friends," Toph grumped.

"Insecure?" Kaze commented.

"Don't you have somewhere else to be?" June asked him.

"I suppose."

"You aren't going to stay?" Aang asked. "At least tell me how I did."

"Not bad," Kaze said as he sauntered past Aang. "But I've seen leaves blowing move faster than that."

"I guess I'll have to try a little harder then!" Aang grinned broadly. Kaze raised his hand in the air in farewell as he walked away.

"I hate that guy," Kei said as he joined the group, sweating from his run. "He always looks down on everyone and acts like he's superior to us."

"But he can back it up," Yuan said. "While we were all on vacation, I heard that he set a new district record for the schools. He ran the hundred meter in ten five."

"Looks like you got a lot of work ahead of you, Aang," June said after letting out an impressed whistle.

"It is impressive," Aang agreed. "It'll be real fun to race him again."

The coach began screaming for the group to rejoin the team, and Toph found herself becoming ever more angry when June's vibrations fell into step next to Aang's. It was not that she did not trust Aang. In fact it was quite the contrary. She would never think that Aang was responding to June because he was far to dense when it came to girls to realize June was trying anything. It was June that she did not trust. So Toph rose to her feet and walked after them.

"Hey, Aang," she called. He turned back to face her and the others came to a stop as well.

"What's up?"

Toph reached up and placed her hand on his warm cheek. Then, she moved it down to his neck and wrapped her small fingers around the back of it and pulled him down towards her. Aang was surprised to be the recipient of a short, but oh so sweet kiss. Blinking the heavenly reaction that Toph's kiss usually gave him out of his head, Aang smiled dreamily.

"Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"

"No reason," Toph said as she pushed him towards the others. "Just wanted to."

"Dang, June," Kei was saying when Aang caught up. "You were too slow in this race too. Someone beat you to the prize!" The left side of his face contorted in pain as June's foot smashed down on top of his. "I was still using that!"

More than a little confused about what had just happened between his teammates, Aang returned to practice with his mind on other things.

A/N: Popularity is such a curse . . . I think. Kasamari has never been very popular, so I wouldn't really know. Anyways, reviews are in high demand! Just like the next chapter! You supply for Kasamari, and Kasamari will supply for you!