Chapter Ten: Like a Girl Gone Wild


Trapped in her mother's lair, Azula has successfully stayed in her room for a day and night. However, her horrible family decides she should go to a neighbor's party. It sounds like the worst outing on the planet.

"I don't even know this guy," Azula protests, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

"You know him. He was the bassist in your father's band," says mother, as if that convince Azula to go to this party.

"Why do you speak to him? He wasn't in your band," Azula demands, glaring harder. It would make most shake and run, but not her mother. Every supervillain has her twisted rival, supposes Azula.

Ursa makes an odd expression and says, "I was married to your father for a regrettably long amount of time. We share some friends."

"Wonderful," mutters Azula.

Unbelievable.

She wants to kill her father for inflicting this torture upon her.

[X]

An hour later, Azula walks into the crowded mansion. It looks to be the zaniest ever to be listed on the Street of Dreams, and the people inside are even stranger. She does not like the music, she does not like the lighting, she does not like this place or this party.

"Everyone here is a hipster," Azula whispers to her brother.

"I know," he replies, sounding very positive about that fact.

Azula glares at him. "That's your type, isn't it? You sicken me."

She walks off to find anyone she could possibly relate to. After a few dazed moments, that anyone finds her first.

"Admiring the photographs?" says a female, gravelly voice.

Azula turns to see a young woman in her early twenties with tattoos, dark hair, and a distinctly un-hipster vibe.

"I didn't even notice them," Azula earnestly says. She glances around and sees that huge black and white prints line the walls. They look impressive, like something out of a magazine.

"They're all my dad's," comments the young woman. "He's a man of the arts. I'm a woman of the refreshments."

The young woman pushes a drink into Azula's hands. It looks like water, but Azula does not have to taste it to know otherwise. The scent speaks for itself.

"Maybe that's my kind of woman," Azula replies without realizing how flirtatious her tone is.

The gorgeous girl smiles a small and oddly knowing smirk. "My dad has a darkroom that came with the house."

"What?" Azula does not know if this is going where she thinks it is going. That feels unpleasant; she despises surprises.

The girl shrugs and explains, "It was on the Street of Dreams in the '90s. The whole place has a lot of weird and dated features."

"You… want me to see the darkroom?"

"Yes."

[X]

Azula wakes up and thinks she might be dying.

The pain in her head cannot be expressed in words, the disorientation makes her think she would fall down if she tried to stand up and the nausea makes her think she would vomit even if she failed to fall. Her bones feel like they are filled with pain fluid, sloshing around and causing a deep ache. She crawls across her bed to draw the blinds and knock the curtains open.

Azula expected more relief to come of blocking out the sun.

"Zuko," she croaks as she hears him pass her door. "Zuko, I'm dying."

He knocks—prompting her to roll her eyes—and enters the room.

"You're not dying. You got drunk last night."

"No. I didn't. I don't drink," Azula says, and although she believed that when she began speaking, she no longer thinks it is true. She remembers a darkroom and a bottle and two cups and a girl with tattoos leaning in to kiss her. "I was clearly drugged."

She clearly got wasted among photographs of trees and made out with another girl and cannot remember anything after the room stopped spinning.

"I don't think anyone is mad at you," Zuko says, turning up a palm. "Mother just looked kind of sad as she mostly carried you home from a lame hipster party. Father would have yelled."

"Did she tell him? That I was drugged, of course."

"I think she avoids talking to him, but she might need to inform him that you've also taken on getting drunk in darkrooms as your eightieth extracurricular…"

Azula thinks surprisingly quickly. "Call the police," she says.

Zuko cocks an eyebrow.

Maybe she should have thought slower.

[X]

Azula sits in her bedroom after fishing a pair of sunglasses from her bag. She has her back against her door and her feet on the carpet. A towel rests in front of her, and a bottle of the gross lemon Gatorade. She hates lemon Gatorade. Blue always has been her favorite.

A note with a name and number were in her purse, along with her phone and other boring possessions. She does not think she will be calling this June girl. Never.

She flips through her phone, preparing a call to Ozai.

And she almost vomits again.

Azula went to her recents to dial Ozai from there. She finds Ty Lee's name.

She swiftly shifts gears and taps on Mai.

It rings twice before Mai dryly answers, "Hello."

"Mai, this is urgent," Azula snarls.

"Yes?"

Azula whispers, "Did I call Ty Lee last night?"

"She would have probably told me about it if you did. Why do you not remember?"

"That is unimportant," hisses Azula.

Mai laughs. "Did you drink? Did those scary hipsters make you try alcohol?"

"No," Azula snaps, knowing that she is protesting too much.

"Where do you keep your history notes?"

"In my notebook."

"No, really."

"In my house."

"I'm already in your house."

"Why are you in my house?"

"To find your history notes. Where are they?"

"My backpack is in my closet."

"Thank you."

Mai hangs up.

She tries to call Ty Lee eighty times. Ty Lee does not answer.

Azula lies down on her towel and waits to die.

[X]

On Monday, Azula sits with Ty Lee and Mai, analyzing the former closely. She still does not know if she truly did talk to Ty Lee on Saturday night, and she must know. At the moment, she sits and studies the scraps of script for the school play.

She has no choice but to be in it, not that she minds much. Of all of her limitless extracurriculars, drama is not half bad.

"So, what's the play?" Ty Lee asks as Azula finishes reading the fourth page.

"Antigone," Azula answers.

Ty Lee squints. "What's Antigone?"

Azula expected that one.

"It is about four siblings, sort of. More like two sisters, but their brothers are important. They're all the children of Oedipus and his mother—"

"He had sex with his mom?" Ty Lee exclaims, stunned. Two freshmen briefly turn to stare.

Azula cocks a condescending eyebrow. "And in other breaking news, Darth Vader is Luke's father."

"Huh?"

Mai sighs and rubs her temples. "Sarcastic, Ty Lee. She's being sarcastic."

"Anyway, the brothers killed each other and the new ruler of Thebes, King Creon, decides to properly bury one brother and refuse burial to the other. Antigone buries her brother illegally and gets caught. She essentially just sprinkles some dirt on him in the adaptation I saw, but same thing. Some middle stuff happens and then everyone kills themselves like the Halley's Comet Cult."

"Does Antigone kill herself?" inquires Ty Lee, surprisingly interested in something other than manicures and lipgloss.

"Yes," replies Azula.

Ty Lee screws up her face in thought. "But it's named after her."

Azula tries not to throttle her. This has become taxing. "It's an old Greek tragedy by Sophocles. In almost all tragedies, for example Shakespearian ones, the titular character always dies. Think Hamlet." Pause. Ty Lee does not know what that is, and so Azula tries again. "Think Romeo & Juliet."

"Oh," Ty Lee says, nodding.

Azula hands Ty Lee the papers. "You should try out too. You'd make a really good tree."

I would like having you at rehearsal, Azula thinks.

Then she thinks about the distinct memory of making out with a strange girl. Then she thinks about how much she would love to do that with her best friend. Then she thinks about not thinking and fails.

"Really?" Ty Lee asks and Mai groans.

"I do," Azula purrs.

She does have the supernatural ability to make insults sound pretty.

Mai will give her that.


Chapter Ten: Like a Smoking Gun


"I'm so excited to meet your grandparents!" Ty Lee exclaims, slamming her sister's car door shut. Azula stares at the formidable house in front of her.

"My mother's parents," she halfheartedly corrects.

"Why do you hate them again? I can't keep track of all the people you hate and why sometimes," Ty Lee says as they walk up the stone path.

"I don't hate them. I simply do not associate myself with my mother's family or friends. I have my father's parents and they're awful enough on their own," Azula remarks, knocking on the door.

Bunny wraps herself around her future stepmother as they wait. It feels like waiting for a guillotine to fall. The door opens and suddenly Azula is being hugged by a woman wearing cheap perfume. Her husband stands behind her.

As Azula steps back, she decides that she would rather fight ten ferrets than look dear Grandma Rina in the eyes. Their parting ten years ago was… awkward, to say the least.

"This must be your fiancée. The engagement announcement was cute," she says, beaming at Azula, Bunny and Ty Lee.

Azula nods at her fiancée. "She picked it out. She also picked out the guest list."

Ty Lee slaps Azula's elbow. She has a very bad feeling about this family reunion.

"Thank you," Ty Lee says, "for taking us in on such short notice. Azula tried really hard to get us a hotel room."

"Well, how about the grand tour?" offers Rina.

Azula watches Ty Lee and Bunny step inside and takes a deep breath. It does not look like any home owned by one of the Shinohais.

[X]

Ty Lee watches Food Network downstairs as Azula locks herself in the guest room and frantically dials her stepmother's phone number. After four calls, she finally answers.

"Mai, this is urgent," Azula hisses, glancing over her shoulder.

"Yes?"

"I am in my mother's parents' house. Will you come distract them?"

"I would rather die. Why are you in your grandparents' house?"

"My mother's parents' house," Azula vehemently snaps. "I tried to stay with Ty Lee's sister but then Bunny was attacked by a ferret. There was also more dirt on the floor than there was outside and our bed was a half-deflated air mattress, which weighed into my decision."

"And the hotels were full?"

"Apparently, yes. Some golf tournament. I don't know how to interact with them."

Mai laughs. She only laughs when she thinks of something particularly cruel, and Azula braces herself. "Didn't they pick you up from the hospital?"

"Yes. That was the last time I saw them."

"You were like seventeen."

"I know. That's why I need you to come to my aid."

"There is nothing you can say to convince me to do that."

"I beg to differ."

"I'm hanging up now."

Click.

[X]

"What are we even fighting about?" Ty Lee exclaims at three in the morning. She has definitely not made a good impression on her in-laws. Again.

They have been at it for almost an hour, and silence fell moments ago as they stopped to catch their breath.

"These awful yellow pillowcases," replies Azula, although she knows what Ty Lee meant. Maybe Ty Lee will take that bait and Azula will not have to talk about her second thoughts.

"We're not fighting about pillowcases. The pillowcases were the straw that broke the chameleon's back."

"The camel's back," Azula corrects under her breath.

"Whatever. Both of those work," Ty Lee snaps.

Azula snarls, "I want to leave this awful place and go home."

Ty Lee contemplates their conversation for a few moments. Figuring out Azula has never been easy, but Ty Lee thinks she might be getting the hang of it.

"You don't have to be scared," she softly says, taking Azula's hands gently in hers.

Azula pushes her away. "I am not scared. I have no fears."

"You have fears, Azula," Ty Lee replies.

"No. Nothing is capable of scaring me," Azula fervently insists.

"You fear failure and rejection and attachment…" Ty Lee feels like that is not enough. "And probably clowns. Most people are afraid of clowns, so I think it's a fair guess."

"I am not most people," snaps Azula.

Ty Lee tries to smile. "Okay, so you're not afraid of clowns. You're definitely afraid of the other things I said."

"And you are not nearly as afraid of me as you used to be."

"Because I see the human in you."

"That's not cliché," sarcastically says Azula.

"It's romantic. Sometimes romantic stuff is cliché."

Azula shrugs.

This fight is not worth it.

[X]

Azula walks downstairs and breakfast waits for her. She finds it to be too kind; it cannot be good news. Well, maybe she has just lived in New York for too long. Kindness is a synonym for suspicious in the northeast.

"You look very healthy," sweetly says Rina, handing Azula coffee that hopefully is not poisoned.

Azula had hoped no one would mention that. But, of course, nothing ever works out for Azula Shinohai. According to herself, at least.

"Thank you," Azula forces herself to say, sitting down beside Ty Lee. "So, I heard you moved from Arizona but I never found out why."

"My mom lives here," explains Azula's mother's mother.

Ty Lee interjects, "How sweet of you! My mom moved here to be closer to my two sisters."

"Which is an entire third of their daughters," Azula coldly adds, sipping her coffee.

"Three sets of twins," Ty Lee explains with a small, friendly laugh.

Azula devotes the entirety of her attention to the chipped blue mug.

"They do run in families," says Rina.

Ty Lee gestures at her daughter, whom is messily devouring waffles. "Bunny isn't one."

"She's such a nice little girl," remarks Rina.

"You clearly don't know her well yet," Azula purrs. "She's a scam artist and tantrum addict who will probably hug you and then bite off your ear." Pause. "I'm stunned she isn't my daughter by blood."

Rina inquires, "She's from a previous marriage?"

Ty Lee replies, "A previous engagement. We never got married. I ran into Azula and left him for her."

Azula's mother's mother remarks, "It's just like your parents. That's adorable."

"What about your parents?" Ty Lee turns to face Azula, curious.

Azula begrudgingly admits, "My mother was engaged when she met my father at a Halloween party. She had her fiancée with her as a date but went home with my father that night. Such a colorful history of cheating."

Rina asks, "Where did you two run into each other in such a big city?"

"Outside of a… theatre," Azula explains, feeling warm when she thinks about that cold day. "It was snowing and I offered her a ride."

That is the story they agreed upon. It is not as romantic as the truth, but more flattering to the content of their character than the reality.

"Were you in the play?" Rina asks Azula. "You were so incredible in Antigone."

"That was a long time ago," Azula scathingly replies. "Ty Lee was a professional dancer. She went to New York for ballet school originally. I own an oil company now and also have never made a bad investment. It certainly pays better than Broadway."

Ty Lee cleans off Bunny's sticky hands and says, "We should get going. My family will all be there by now and I haven't seen them in forever."

Azula silently stands up, wonders if she should say goodbye, and walks to the door.