Katara's day started like any other. Her alarm went off at promptly 6 a.m., and she got up to shower, get ready, and cook breakfast for Gran-Gran and her brother, Sokka, before leaving for school. This morning, she decided on bacon and toast for breakfast – easy, but filling and delicious. Sokka came downstairs as soon as the smell of bacon hit his room. Katara noticed dark circles under his eyes. "Good morning," she greeted him cheerily.
"Yeah, yeah, when's breakfast going to be ready?" he replied.
Katara rolled her eyes. "Soon. Go get in the shower – you smell like dirty feet."
Grumbling about getting "no respect in this family", Sokka went back upstairs and hopped in the shower while Katara finished up breakfast. Gran-Gran had also come down upon smelling the bacon cooking, though she was much more polite, thanking Katara for cooking them breakfast. Katara smiled at her in response, saying, "You've taken care of us while Dad's gone for so long, Gran-Gran. I'm happy to help take care of you too."
Soon, breakfast was ready and the three of them sat down at the kitchen table together, enjoying a meal before Katara and Sokka headed off to school. Not long after they sat down, the front door burst open, and Aang bounded into the house. "Hey guys!" he said.
"Aang! Are you ever going to learn how to knock?" Katara asked, a slight edge in her voice.
"Sorry," he shrugged. "I guess I just spend so much time here I forgot I needed to."
"You know you are welcome any time, Aang," Gran-Gran told him. "Though it would be nice if you knocked. One of these days you're going to give poor old Gran-Gran a heart attack!"
"Sorry, Gran-Gran," Aang said, actually sounding sincere this time.
It was true, Aang probably spent more time with Katara than he did at his own house. The two of them had been best friends since they'd met all those years ago, despite Aang being a year behind her in school. Aang, Katara, and Sokka were all close-knit and had formed their own small family (with Gran-Gran watching over them affectionately from afar).
He came into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of toast, plopping down in the chair next to Katara's. "So," Gran-Gran began, "do you kids have anything planned for after school?"
Sokka nodded his head. "I'm going out with Suki. Gonna catch a movie, maybe grab dinner. We'll see."
"How romantic," Katara said dryly. "The least you could do for her is plan out an actual date. She's already way out of your league."
"Hey!" Sokka replied, "I'll have you know that she loves my spontaneity."
"Oooo, loves," Aang teased.
"Everyone just shut up!" Sokka said, his face turning bright red.
Gran-Gran, through a chuckle, said, "Now, now, kids, let's leave Sokka alone. Sokka, just treat her with respect and you will be fine. I think you're quite the catch."
"Thank you, Gran-Gran," Sokka responded.
Soon enough, the three of them were on their way to school. The high school was close by, so on nice days (such as this one), they would walk to school together rather than asking Gran-Gran to drive them. They were all anxiously awaiting the day that Sokka turned 16 and could start driving them to school, but they were still content walking together. They were walking, talking, and laughing when they came up to the school, when all of a sudden, Sokka froze in his tracks. "Hang on, is that..?"
Katara followed his gaze, trying to figure out what he was looking at. When she saw it – or rather, him – her heartbeat picked up and she felt herself begin to tremble slightly. "Zuko's back."
Zuko. He had been a terrible bully to Katara, Aang, and Sokka in elementary and middle school before he moved away just before the start of 8th grade. No one really knew where he went, though his sister, Azula (who had continued going to school with them), spread the rumor that their dad had sent him off because he was such a spoiled brat. He was easily recognizable by the scar on his eye, which he said came from spilling boiling water on his face as a child. Zuko's torture nearly led Gran-Gran to pulling Katara and Sokka from the school and homeschooling them just to break them free, but he moved before she was able to do so. Katara had done a year of counseling to undo some of the damage he caused to her self-esteem, and he was so violent with Sokka and Aang that he almost landed Aang in the hospital once. Everyone had always assumed that this was incident that led his father to send him away, since it was the last anyone had seen of him.
But here he was, standing in front of the school, hanging behind Azula and her girl-gang slightly. Mai, one of Azula's closest friends, turned around and smiled weakly at him, extending a hand which he quickly took before entering the building.
"Well," Sokka just said shortly, "let's hope we don't run in to him at all today."
The three of them went inside and began their day as though nothing was different, though it was soon going to become difficult for Katara to ignore that anything had changed. When she came into her Honors English class, she found Zuko sitting in her seat. She had to quickly make a decision – ignore him and pick a different seat, or tell him to move. She decided on the latter. "That's where I normally sit," Katara told him, looking him dead in the eye with a scowl on her face.
Zuko looked like he might argue, but instead he got up with a sigh, saying nothing to her. Katara could feel her heart racing as she sat down, getting out a book that she could bury her nose in before class began. As she was reading, she got the sense that someone was watching her. She turned around and sure enough, Zuko was sitting a few seats back and staring directly at her. She tried to ignore it by reading, but she couldn't push it out of her thoughts. Why is he staring at me? She thought to herself. What kind of evil thing is he planning now? Ugh, I never should have told him to move – I just made myself a target!
A few minutes later, her teacher walked into the room and started class. "Hello, class. We have a new student today, so I'd like to start by having him introduce himself so you all know who he is. Zuko?"
Awkwardly, Zuko stood up. "Hi, I'm Zuko. I went here in middle school but moved to be with my uncle for a few years…"
"Yeah, after you beat that kid up so bad they almost sent him to the ER!" one student snickered.
Not commenting but turning red, Zuko continued, "You might know my sister, Azula? She goes here too. Um, that's all, I guess?"
He quickly sat back down, but all eyes remained on him. It appeared that most students hadn't forgotten who he was or what he'd done, despite him disappearing for a few years.
"Great, thank you Zuko! Next up, class, I have an exciting announcement! We are going to be working on a partners project. I'll give you a list of books to choose from, and you and your partner will read the book, write a report, and give a presentation to the class. Any questions?"
"Do we get to pick our partners?" one student piped up.
"Just this once, yes," the teacher replied. "This project is going to require a lot of work outside of class, so make sure you pick someone who you are comfortable spending a lot of time with!"
All of the students got up and began moving around. Katara tried to find a partner, but since none of her close friends were in this class she wasn't sure who to turn to. In a flurry, students were all paired up, until only two were left unpartnered.
Oh, no, Katara thought to herself.
"Well, Zuko, it looks like it's your lucky day. Katara is one of our brightest students, so you should have no problem catching up with her as your partner!"