Azula was well-accustomed to being the smartest person in the room. After all, her knowledge of military tactics was unparalleled by even the seasoned generals and admirals that had earned a spot on the Royal Council. If one were to ask her any question about any military engagement in the past 150 years, she could rattle off the answer almost without even thinking about it. She could visualize even the most complex battle formations and maneuvers in her head instantaneously, and read people like they were unrolled scrolls. And it was she, not Iroh or Ozai or any of the rest, that had figured out how to conquer Ba Sing Se without shedding a single drop of blood. (Technically, lightning strikes didn't cause bleeding.)
However, no matter how intelligent she was, the fact remained that her formal education had only lasted through the sixth grade. Even before Ozai had removed her from school so she could devote all of her time to ruling whenever he didn't feel like it, her attendance had tended to be spotty. The older she got, the more this grated on her, particularly since Zuko had made school mandatory up until age sixteen with exceptions only in the most desperate of circumstances. To set a good example, he had finished his own education during his first two years as Fire Lord.
This would not do. Azula could not sleep soundly at night knowing that her brother had made an achievement that she herself had not. Therefore, during her second stint in the mental institution, she'd made arrangements for Zuko's tutors to come to the institution to teach her as well. She had thought it would all be a breeze just as everything else in her life had been, and most subjects were indeed easy. However, there was one exception. Within weeks, Azula realized that she was facing possibly her most challenging enemy yet…
ALGEBRA.
Who could have ever guessed that she'd have difficulty with math, of all things? She could do simple mental calculations all right, but now she had to deal with the annoying entity known only as "x." She had to see that little fucker so many times that it almost didn't seem real anymore. The worst part was when fractions got involved. Or exponents. Or sometimes, even both at the same time.
As if the math itself weren't hard enough already, Azula also had to deal with the intrusive thoughts she got from how some of the problems were worded. When she was asked to "sketch" a graph, she imagined herself with a fancy sketchbook and ink stick, carefully drawing the graph a tiny bit at a time while it posed for her seductively. And instructions to "let x equal" such-and-such number led to thoughts of the "x" groveling at her feet, pleading with her for permission to equal that number. While images like that might have been amusing at other times, they were exceedingly distracting when she was trying to do homework or tests.
Sometimes, while trying to solve particularly headache-inducing equations that asked her to "find x," she was sorely tempted to just circle the x, draw an arrow pointing to it, and writing "there it is."
But she refused to let a bunch of numbers and symbols get the best of her. Somehow, she managed to memorize and regurgitate enough stuff to pass her tests. And then, a couple of months before she was discharged, she finally got her diploma, and Zuzu threw her a little party in the mental institution's gardens. As she held that sweet, sweet piece of paper in her hands, Azula vowed that she would never use algebra again for the rest of her life. And she never did.
A/N: Azula's intrusive thoughts are based on my own that I suffered in my high school years, although the second one had to be adapted a bit because IRL it reminded me of the Bible. I got the "there it is" joke from an LJ icon I saw circa 2006, way back at the dawn of history.
Unfortunately, I did have to resort to using a Western character, because I was unable to figure out which characters were used in Chinese algebra before they started using the Western ones.
