Chapter 1: A New Home

Quick note: This story takes place in the modern world as we know it, but the characters and people are obviously from Avatar and the spirits are still a part of it. The world was once the four nations in the regular Avatar world, but over time, with the four nations mixing together, they all eventually stopped being separate and became the countries that we know today. Just an explanation to help you guys understand. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

It was a bright sunday morning when Aang woke up. He didn't realize what day it was until he had woken up enough to remember, and it made him frown. He was moving from his hometown out to California, the land of Earthquakes and drama. Though he supposed he was a little excited. He couldn't wait to go surfing and just enjoy spending his free time on the beach, but he was going to miss this place.

His guardian, Gyatso, had gotten a job offer there that he could not refuse, but that meant that Aang would have to leave the only home he had ever known. Or, at least the only home he could remember, anyway.

His parents had been killed when he was just an infant, and sadly he didn't remember much about them. He was lucky that he remembered how much they loved him, something that they had made clear throughout his early childhood. But he still missed them as much as ever.

But Gyatso was a great guardian, too. He was like a second father, even if he was old enough to be his grandfather. He had always been the one that Aang could lean on whenever he was feeling down, and Aang was grateful for that.

And then there were the friends he had made here. He was going to miss them a lot, too. Though the whole school liked him, he had a close group of friends that he mainly stuck with: Bumi and Kuzon. They had been the best of friends ever since second grade, and now he would be leaving to another part of the country, possibly to never see them again. Although he was dreading leaving, he understood that it was necessary.

Not only because of Gyatso's job, but because they had both found out that the young airbender was the Avatar. Aang would never believe it himself if he hadn't bended some water accidentally when he was practicing his airbending. As soon as they found out, Gyatso secretly contacted the order of the White Lotus and told them about their situation.

The Order then told them that they would need to relocate to a bigger city so that Aang would be able to make the announcement to the world that he was the Avatar. Aang had initially been resistant to this idea, but after some time and thought, had decided to go with it. After all, the rest of his life was going to be spent in the service of others, so he figured he might as well just get used to it now.

And even if he had complained about it all, he was a little excited. It was certainly a new adventure, if nothing else, but he was more reluctant than anything. Being the Avatar was a big deal. If something went wrong, the fingers would be pointed at him. If something went right, he would be praised for being a good Avatar. Either way, he would end up spending the rest of his life under a PR microscope. And he didn't like that thought one bit.

But as Gyatso had taught him since he was young, it wasn't about what he wanted. He was chosen to be the Avatar, and he would put aside his complaints to make sure that he would be the best Avatar he could be.

Over the next year, the young Avatar was trained in all of the elements. Having already mastered air bending, the Order had then told him he would be trained to use the rest of the elements. Fortunately for him, he was something of a prodigy. He had mastered waterbending in three months, Earthbending had taken a full six months due to him having difficulty understanding it, and firebending had taken two months, which left a month for him to master the Avatar State.

Although it was originally difficult to slip in and out of it, Aang had finally fully mastered it and was ready to be a full Avatar. But with the time that he had spent training with the elements, he had missed all of his junior year, and now he was about to start his senior year at another school.

And although he knew that he was going to miss his hometown and his friends, he knew that this was something he had to do. Besides, he could always come back to visit, right? He realized after he was announced as the Avatar that he likely wouldn't have much free time to himself. He shook his head at himself. It didn't matter. If he was going to spend the rest of his life in the service of others, he figured he was allowed to take a vacation every once in a while. He would make sure that he went back to visit them from time to time.

Though he supposed once his friends found out about who he was, they likely wouldn't treat him the same. He would be treated like he was some mythical figure, a spirit. Though he supposed he did have a spirit living inside of him, so it wasn't too far out there, but still, he wasn't looking forward to the hero worship very much.

Avatar or not, he was the same guy he always had been. The guy who liked spending time with his friends and family, the one who would rather have fun with his friends than go to a party filled with a bunch of fake people, and the one who didn't like to be in the limelight. Getting recognized for accomplishments was one thing, but having his whole life scrutinized by every decision he made… It's safe to say he wasn't thrilled about that.

"Aang?"

Aang looked up from his thoughts to see Gyatso peeking in through the door. "Yeah, Gyatso?" he finally responded, shaking off his thoughts to focus.

"We're going to be leaving soon. Are you all packed up?" Aang looked around the room at the boxes of his things and to his bag of clothes that he had left out and nodded. "Good. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can unpack and start making our new home more comfortable." Aang nodded again and got up as Gyatso left the room. He knew his charge still wasn't very happy about leaving the only home he had ever known, but he knew that Aang understood why they had to. It made him proud that his young charge was mature enough to accept his destiny, even if it meant he had to do something he didn't want to.

Getting dressed quickly, Aang ate a donut that Gyatso had gotten him the day before and drank some water before he decided to get started. He had said goodbye to his friends the day before, due to the fact that they would be leaving at six in the morning. He would miss them, but he knew he would see them again sometime.

Within an hour, they had all of their things from their small house packed into the moving truck and started their long drive to their new home.

"Miss Aqua!"

Katara snapped out of her daydreaming as she looked up to see her waterbending master and step-grandfather Pakku slap a ruler on her desk, although with less force than he had with the other students, signalling to her that he liked her more than the other students in her class.

"You seem awfully busy in dreamland. Care to take us with you?" he asked a bit sarcastically, but she could see the twinkle in his eye. He was just messing with her. Katara was a very studious student, having the best grade in his class, but he found that she often would space out when he would go into one of his lectures. Not that he could blame her, as if he was given the choice, he himself would not give said lectures. Waterbending was not something to be learned from a book, but something to be learned from experience and practice. Unfortunately, the school only allowed Waterbending practice if there were long lectures accompanied with it, which usually meant that they would have a long, boring lecture before they would actually be allowed to practice their bending.

Katara smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Pakku."

"That's Master Pakku to you," he said in a fake-serious tone, once again with a playful gleam in his eyes. Before he and her grandmother had started dating, he had been rather grumpy. And he still was from time to time, likely due to old age, but since then he had become considerably more relaxed.

Now done with his teasing, he made his way back up to the front and resumed his lecture as Yue leaned in next to her. "Good job, slick," she teased, making Katara laugh and roll her eyes. She and Yue had been best friends since Kindergarten, where they had bonded over teasing Katara's brother Sokka. They had done it for different reasons, however. Yue had a crush on him back then, and teasing him was her way of letting him know how she felt. He didn't understand what that meant, however, and considered her a bully that hated him. As he grew up, he finally saw Yue's teasing as what it really was and in ninth grade finally asked her out. Katara of course had teased him because he was her annoying brother.

Katara was happy that she shared this class with Yue. Besides this and cheerleading practice, she and Yue didn't have any other excuses to hang out with each other. Of course they would hang out after school, but ever since Yue and Sokka had started dating, there wasn't much time for them to hangout during that time. They had a girl's night once a week to make sure that they spent some time with each other, along with a couple of their other friends, but the class and practice were the only times she got to hang out with her alone. Or, at least without so many of their friends being around.

Despite being popular, Katara made it a point to only stick close to her closest friends. That, however, didn't stop people from trying to get her to go to parties and such. And although a party sounded like a good time, she knew what really happened there. People would do drugs and drink and get into trouble, and her father had raised her to be a good kid, and she wasn't about to let him down after all he had done for them.

Katara's mother had died when she was young, and Hakoda was left alone to take care of their two children. Though not completely alone, as her Gran-Gran had volunteered to help him with their upbringing as well, for which he was very grateful for.

She was grateful to both of them. From what she had seen of her classmates, most of their parents didn't really care if they got in trouble or not. Several of them had been arrested on multiple occasions and their parents didn't seem to think anything of it. It was nice to know that she had a parent and grandparent who actually cared about her and her brother.

As Pakku's lecture finally came to near the end, the bell rang, making all of the students cheer. "Now, now, don't get so excited yet," Pakku shook his head at them all as he gestured for them to sit down, making them all groan. It was the last class of the day, and they all just wanted to go home. Not to mention those who had practices to get to and such. "I didn't get to finish my lecture, so Monday we will pick up where we left off. And as for your homework, you will do everything on the list I gave you at the beginning of the year twice." The class except for Katara groaned, making Pakku roll his eyes. "Oh, don't be such a baby. You all can do it. Now go on, get out of here," he dismissed them as they all got up and walked out of the room.

Yue wasn't very happy with the homework they were assigned. Not that she minded practice, but they had a long list of things they were supposed to practice. With cheer practice taking two hours and doing the list twice which would be another hour, she knew she would be exhausted later. Katara didn't mind, however. She was very close to becoming a full master herself, and despite also having cheer practice, decided to embrace her homework to hone her skills even more. "As if we didn't have enough to do," Yue groaned.

Katara just laughed at her friend's annoyance. "Oh come on, Yue. 'Don't be such a big baby'" she imitated in Pakku's voice, making them both laugh as they headed towards cheer practice.

"So," Yue began as they reached their lockers and switched into their outfits. "Have you heard that Jet's going to ask you out?"

Katara rolled her eyes as she quickly brushed out her hair and made sure her loops were intact. "He already did."

"And?" Yue asked excitedly.

"I said 'no'," Katara replied as if it was obvious, catching Yue completely by surprise.

"What do you mean, you said 'no'?" she asked in confusion. "I thought you liked him?"

Katara laughed a little and shook her head. "No, I said I thought he was cute, not that I liked him. He's a jerk and a bully. Why would I go out with him?"

Yue thought about it and realized she was right. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. Still though, he is pretty cute. Are you sure you don't want to give him a chance?" Katara gave her a look and she gave up with her hands in the air. "Okay, okay. Sorry I suggested it."

The young waterbender smirked at her friend and led the way out towards the field. "Cute or not, I don't date jerks."

"You haven't dated anybody," Yue reminded her.

Katara snorted and rolled her eyes. "Because most of the guys in our class are either jerks or pervs, and I'm not dating either."

"But what about that Zuko guy? He's cute and he's not a jerk or a perv," Yue offered.

Katara had to hold herself back from puking. Zuko was their neighborhood friend since she was little, and was like a second, less annoying brother to her. "No, Yue. He's just a friend. Besides, he's dating Toph, anyway, even if I did like him, which I don't," she assured her.

Yue rolled her eyes. "Okay… what about Haru? He's cute and nice."

"He is," Katara admitted. "But he's also very boring. Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy and all, but he's about as plain as it gets. I'll pass, thanks."

Yue groaned in frustration. "Come on, Kat! Just go out with someone!"

"Why?" Katara shot back. "I don't need to have a boyfriend. When I meet somebody I like, and if they like me back, then I'll go out on a date with them. But until that happens, I am just fine hanging out with my friends." She smiled slyly at her. "Why, do you want to get rid of me that badly?"

Yue blushed and rolled her eyes. "You know it's not that, Kat. I just know how happy I am with Sokka and I want you to find someone that makes you happy, too."

"I appreciate that you're thinking of me, but I'm fine, Yue. I don't need a boyfriend," Katara reminded her. "When a guy comes around that I actually want to go out with, I'll let you know." Fortunately for Katara, they had finally reached the group of cheerleaders and were prevented from their conversation going any further.

"Alright ladies! The Boulder is going to show you how to cheer!" The Boulder shouted as they all lined up. Despite being a professional football player in his youth, The Boulder had decided that he wanted to try something else after his early retirement due to a severe concussion. Fortunately for him, the only thing it did was make him lose his will to play football. Instead, he opted for something he had enjoyed watching and now enjoyed teaching.

"We already know how to cheer, coach!" one of the girls shouted back at him.

"Well, The Boulder's going to show you how to cheer better!" he responded simply before he began their routines.

Katara and Yue couldn't help but laugh a little at their teacher. As much as neither of them wanted to make fun of anyone, seeing a grown man attempting to teach young high school girls to cheer was rather amusing. He was actually a good coach, but it was still rather funny.

As they practiced their routine, Katara accidentally stepped on the toes of the girl behind her. Looking over her shoulder quickly for a hasty apology, she paused when she recognized who she had stepped on.

"Watch your step, peasant!" Azula hissed at her before resuming their practice. Katara rolled her eyes and got back to it, all thoughts of an apology wiped away from that comment. Azula, though not technically royalty, more or less thought of herself as such due to her family's wealth, and made it clear to others just how much she believed that.

"What a jerk," Yue whispered to her.

Katara laughed and nodded. "Tell me about it. Earlier, I saw her yelling at Ty Lee for not getting her the right kind of water." She shook her head in disgust. If there was one thing she hated, it was bullies, and Azula was certainly no exception. "Actually, now that I think about it, Jet and her would be perfect for each other."

Yue snickered a little as they did a back-flip. "Yeah, I bet they would be. Then they could be the school's bully couple." They both looked at each other and laughed.

"Aqua, Flores! Focus! We have the first game of the year coming up soon!"

"Sorry coach!" they yelled back before they resumed their practice.

Two hours later, their practice was finally over and they were walking back to their cars. "Well, at least that's over," Yue sighed in relief.

"Yeah," Katara laughed. "Now we get to go home and do homework."

"Yay," Yue said weakly, making them both burst into a fit of giggles as they finally reached their cars. "I'll talk to you later, Kat!"

"Bye, Yue!" Katara shouted back before getting into her car. She had thought she would see Sokka, but then remembered that his practice on the team was longer than their practice. Which when coupled with his struggle to do homework already likely meant that he wouldn't be getting very good grades this year.

As she drove through the seemingly endless roads filled with people, something caught her attention: A large moving truck. It wasn't the size of the truck that caught her attention, but how brightly colored it was. It wasn't like any moving van she had seen before. Upon closer inspection, she saw that there were no advertisements or anything on it, making her curious. Did whoever was driving it own it? Shrugging it off, she pulled up next to it at a stop light and waited for it to turn green when, on an odd impulse, looked to her right and was surprised to see a young man driving it and what appeared to be an elderly man taking a nap to his right. Looking at the driver, she couldn't help but be surprised at how good-looking he was. She couldn't see his lower half, but his top half had a gray short-sleeve shirt to match his piercing gray eyes. He had short, jet-black hair and a look of concentration on his face.

As if feeling eyes on him, he tore his eyes from the traffic light and looked right into the young waterbender's eyes, slightly gasping at how beautiful she was. They both felt themselves lost in each other's gaze, not noticing anything else in the world but each other. This didn't last long, however, as the light turned from red to green and the people behind them became impatient, honking at them to go.

With a blush, Katara waved and smiled at him, making him smile and wave back at her. She smiled wider and, quite reluctantly finally started driving, with him next to her. They drove the same way together for a few minutes when, much to Katara's disappointment, the young man had to take a right, as she watched him drive away from her.

Who was that guy? He looked to be about her age. Maybe he was new. Maybe he would be going to her school. She mentally slapped herself. For all she knew he could be a jerk just like the rest of the guys at her school. But then again, there was a certain kindness in his eyes. And when they had looked at each other, his eyes had never left hers, so he wasn't a perv. Part of her wanted to just forget about it, but a larger part of her wanted to officially meet him. Snap out of it, Kat! She mentally chided herself. You'll probably never see him again. Stop it. With a sigh and a sinking feeling in her gut at the thought of not seeing him again, she drove the rest of the way home and went inside. Looking around, her father wasn't there, likely because he was at work.

Though she was grateful he was supporting them, she wished he didn't work a night shift. But she saw him in the morning for a little before they went to school and she saw him on weekends, so it all worked out. Changing into her training clothes, a blue sports bra and a pair of matching workout pants, she also put her hair up into a ponytail and made her way outside.

As she set up her practice dummy that she had purchased for herself with her birthday money, she couldn't help but think about him again. Whoever he was. They had only been able to look at each other for a few moments, yet… It almost felt like they had spent an eternity looking at each other.

Feeling frustrated from this, she decided to take it out on the dummy, sending a dozen spikes of water from the small pond that was located in the center of her backyard. The poor dummy was then impaled and knocked over, but she just used the water to pick it back up. Normally this helped her, but her frustration didn't appear to be getting any better.

This time she decided to send a large fist at it, hoping by extension it would feel like she had punched it. Of course she knew she could hit it herself, but the ice fist was on her list, so she did it anyway. She was disappointed, however, as it didn't make her frustration go away.

Now very annoyed at herself for getting so messed up over just seeing this guy, she took a large amount of water from the pond and turned it into a large spear, hurtling it at the dummy. The dummy was then sent back into the fence, breaking off a piece of it before Katara let out a long sigh. It still hadn't worked.

Why was she getting so frustrated? She had seen him for all of a minute, and yet, looking into his warm gray eyes, it had seemed like she knew him her whole life. Shaking her head at herself, she removed the dummy from the fence, put the broken piece back on with a hammer and some nails, and decided to get through the rest of her practice before she got back to her practicing.

As she went through the list, she couldn't help but notice her frustration still wasn't gone. The poor dummy was taking quite a beating, and if she didn't calm down, would likely be torn to shreds. And she didn't have enough money to get another one. Taking a deep breath, she made herself focus until she had gotten through everything on the list twice, but she couldn't help but notice afterwards that the dummy was pretty scratched up.

"What did you do to that poor thing, Katara?"

Caught by surprise, Katara looked to her left to see her Gran-Gran shaking her head disapprovingly at her. Katara laughed nervously and shrugged. "Sorry, I kind of… got a little caught up in my training," she lied.

Kanna simply rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Katara. I've seen you when you're focused on your training. You certainly get excited, but this is the work of someone who has much frustration," she told her as she pointed to the arm that was nearly sliced off.

Katara blushed and smiled sheepishly. "Okay… maybe I was a little frustrated," she admitted, wiping some sweat from her brow and walking inside while Kanna brought her a water bottle from the fridge. The exhausted waterbender chugged it down before Kanna decided to question her.

"So what were you frustrated about?"

The young waterbender was hesitant. It was so silly. It didn't make sense to her how not talking to a guy she had seen for a few moments had made her frustrated, but it did, and she wasn't sure how to say it. She finally decided to just tell her what happened.

"Well, when I was driving home from practice, I saw this weird moving truck. It wasn't like any other I saw. It didn't have any advertisements or anything on it. And when I pulled up next to it, I looked to see who the driver was and saw this guy…" she trailed off awkwardly. She had never talked to anyone about boys. She hadn't liked any boys up to this point.

Kanna laughed a little, making Katara blush in embarrassment. "Okay then, go on," she motioned for her to continue.

Katara shrugged and looked down at her hands. "I don't know, I just… kind of wanted to talk to him. For a little while it looked like we were going the same way, but he made a different turn and he was gone. I guess I wanted to meet him."

"Ah, I see. Well don't give up hope just yet, dear one. You may meet him yet," Kanna smiled before grabbing a water bottle for herself.

Katara took the last sip out of the water bottle and smiled to herself. "I hope so."

Aang was still in a bit of shock from having seen the beautiful girl in the car next to him. He had heard that California had a lot of beauties there, but he hadn't expected to see one so naturally beautiful. The young Avatar didn't know anything about make-up, but he couldn't see anything on her as far as he knew. She was just so effortlessly beautiful, it had taken him by surprise. And she had smiled at him.

Her smile was as beautiful as she was. It had simultaneously made him happy and scared. Happy because she was smiling at him and scared because she was smiling. At him. Aang had never really been self-conscious before, but seeing her smile at him like that, even if it was a good smile, he still had felt like he should fix his hair. Not that it had needed fixing, anyway, as it was too short and didn't move at all no matter how much he messed with it.

Still though, it was a weird feeling as she had smiled at him, and all he could do was smile and wave back, and when she smiled wider, his heart had leapt. But as with all good things in the world, it couldn't last very long. His distraction with her had caused him to make a wrong turn. Being so preoccupied with her beauty, his mind had been on autopilot and made a wrong turn. If only he had been thinking properly. He was supposed to keep going the same way she was.

But he knew there wasn't much he could do, as she was long gone. Deciding that he could think about the girl more later, he got back on the proper course and finally made it to their new neighborhood. Finally arriving at their new house, he couldn't help but wonder if the car that was parked across the street belonged to the girl he had seen. He knew it was a long shot, but it looked exactly like it. Though he supposed there were likely hundreds of cars exactly like it in the city. Shaking his head at himself, he gently nudged Gyatso. "Gyatso. Gyatso, wake up." Gyatso's snores eventually stopped and his eyes fluttered open, taking his surroundings in as he looked at the numbers on the garage door.

"Ah, I see. We have made it. Good job, Aang," he smiled, proud of his ward. Though he trusted him, it was a long drive, and he knew Aang liked to drive fast. But fortunately for him, Aang hadn't been pulled over once. Getting out of the truck and seeing how it was late, the two decided to grab their air mattresses, clothes, and some food and water to satisfy them for the night.

Gyatso took the key that had been left for them in the mailbox where he had been told it would be and opened the door, making Aang gasp in amazement. The inside was beautiful.

"How can we afford this place?" Aang asked in amazement as he admired their new home.

Gyatso chuckled and stepped inside. "Partly because of my new job. It pays very well, so we'll not have to worry. Also, because you'll soon be announced as the Avatar, the Order of the White Lotus gave us this house. Not only that, but they told me that you will be paid a hundred thousand a year so you won't have to get a day job."

"Really?" Aang asked excitedly. Not that he minded working, per se, it was just that he knew it would be difficult to be the Avatar and hold down a job. Not to mention the hundred thousand a year salary was certainly a nice bonus.

"Yes, really," Gyatso smiled, patting him on the back. "And it will be well-earned. I have no doubt you will be one of the best Avatar's yet, young one."

Aang smiled at this. "Thanks, Gyatso. That means a lot to me." Yawning a little, Aang looked around the house and found a large staircase that likely led to their rooms. Normally he would prefer a smaller house. He wasn't one for flashy or expensive things, but he had to admit, this house was nice.

Gyatso laughed and patted him on the back. "I see you are tired. Why don't you go upstairs and pick your room so you can get some sleep?"

"Aren't you coming with me? I thought you'd want to pick your room first," Aang scratched his head in confusion.

"No, I'm not going to bed just yet. Thanks to you, I got quite a good nap," Gyatso grinned, making Aang laugh a little. "I'm going to take some time to meditate, but you go ahead and pick your room. Just don't take the master room," he said jokingly.

Aang grinned and shrugged. "No promises," he smirked before running up the stairs. Gyatso laughed at his ward and shook his head before he set his stuff down and went outside to meditate under the night sky.

The young Avatar made it up the large staircase and looked around, seeing five rooms. "Wow, we have too many rooms," he laughed, shaking his head before he looked at each of them. Although he knew Gyatso had been joking, he respectfully decided to let him have the master bedroom. Gyatso had done so much for him, he deserved to have the nicest room in the house.

Finally deciding on the room next to it, he walked in and set his stuff down. Turning on the light, he blew up the air mattress and put it in the center of the room. He didn't bother to take out all of his clothes yet. He would end up putting most of them in his dresser later, anyway. Satisfied with his work, he grabbed a water bottle from his bag and took a sip, enjoying the refreshing taste on his tongue.

As he lay back, he couldn't help but think of the girl again. She was so beautiful, it was hard for him to get her image out of his mind. An idea came to mind as he dug around in his bag and produced a sketch pad and a pencil. Ever since he was little, he had always had an affinity for art. And he had a natural talent for it, too. Though he enjoyed drawing, he felt like his drawings weren't that good, despite what everyone else told him. Still, even if he didn't think they were good, that didn't mean he was going to stop.

With the image of the girl in his head, he started sketching all he could remember about her. Her pretty face, her caramel-colored skin, her beautiful chocolate locks, and best of all, her ocean blue eyes. Once he had finally got the image of her from his mind to the paper, he couldn't help but smile. Even if he didn't like his own drawings, this one wasn't that bad to him. It actually looked like her.

He couldn't help but stare at her picture. It wasn't anywhere near as good as the original to him, but it was something. He wondered if he would ever see her again. Doubting it, he took one last look at it and laid it next to his mattress, knowing he would likely look at it again in the morning.

As he felt himself start to fall asleep, he wondered if she might go to the same school that he would be going to. He supposed he would have to wait until monday to find out. Gyatso had made sure to move on a Friday so they could get there and rest once they arrived, then Saturday would be when they unpacked everything, Sunday would be finishing up the last touches and then resting, and then he would go to school on Monday. Although he was dreading it, he knew there wasn't much he could do about it. Besides, maybe she would be there.

With that happy thought, he pulled the blanket over himself and fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of the girl with the piercing blue eyes.