Chapter 5: Pretty in Pink

The new semester had begun, which meant a brand-new year, new classes with new professors, a new schedule, new acquaintances… an entirely new routine. As for Azula, she liked to have her routine finalized by the end of week one, so when Friday rolled around, she was absolutely thrilled by what her new routine had become. As luck would have it, her new routine included having lunch with Sokka.

It had started organically too – nothing Azula orchestrated whatsoever. On Monday, she agreed to have lunch with Jet so they could come up with new schemes to wingman each other this semester. Then on Tuesday, they ran into Mai while waiting in line at the pasta bar, so naturally Azula invited her to eat with them. Then on Wednesday, Sokka and Zuko ventured into the cafeteria together for burger day and joined their table, giving Mai and Zuko the perfect opportunity to get reacquainted. So Wednesday and Thursday, the five of them ate lunch together, and that was that.

Five friends with five different schedules and four different dining halls from which to choose, well, three excluding the strictly vegetarian dining hall, and they all found themselves at the same one at the same time. It must have been fate. The funny thing about fate though was the unfairly fickle nature of it all. It was Friday, the day Azula wanted to finalize her routine, and Sokka had to go and throw a wrench into her plans. He showed up to their table with his lunch tray and… a beautiful girl dressed in pink by his side.

"Hey guys, this is Ty Lee."

This girl was gorgeous. Tall like Mai, long legs, sparkling brown-gray eyes, thin yet curvy, large breasts… and she was clearly friends with Sokka. Azula could feel her stomach churning. Who the hell was this girl and what was she doing with Sokka?! And why did she look so familiar?

"Hi, everyone!" she greeted with a chipper smile.

"She just transferred here. Mind if she joins us?"

Yes, yes, yes. Of course she minded! But the rest of the group didn't seem to have a problem with it, and Azula didn't want to seem snobby or petty, so she unfortunately had to go along with it. "No, of course not."

"Yay!" She took a seat next to Jet. "It's so nice to meet you all. Sokka's told me so much about you. If you're as nice as he says you are, I just know we're going to be besties!"

Azula had to fight back the impulse to roll her eyes.

Sokka sat down across from Azula, next to Zuko, where he always sat.

And suddenly there were six. Sokka, Zuko, and Mai on one side; Azula, Jet, and now Ty Lee on the other.

"So, Ty Lee," Jet said, breaking the ice, "where did you transfer from?"

"Oh, I was just taking online courses last semester – "

Azula smirked.

" – it was easier for my work schedule that way."

"Where did you work?"

"All over the place! I'm a fashion model and social media influencer. You mean to tell me you've never seen me before?"

Azula gritted her teeth. Of course that's where she had recognized her. Ugh. This girl was actually somewhat famous. Azula had barely touched her lunch and yet she seemed to have lost her appetite.

"Sorry, can't say I have," Jet shrugged.

"That's okay! Hey, what about you ladies?" she asked, looking at Mai and then at Azula. "You're both so fashionable, by the way. Especially you." She focused on Mai. "I love the retro goth look on you. You should totally give me a makeover sometime!"

"Yeah… sure," Mai said apprehensively. "Sorry, I don't recognize you… I'm not really a social media kind of person."

"Yeah, she's more of an antisocial media kind of person," Zuko joked.

Ty Lee laughed. "You're funny."

This time Azula fought the urge to roll her eyes and lost. Fortunately no one saw her. "I haven't seen you before either," she lied, "but I'm sure you're wildly successful." She tried to sound as sincere as possible.

"That's probably for the best," Ty Lee smiled. "Those tabloids can be so mean sometimes. I'm taking a break right now from modeling anyway. It's time to buckle down and focus on my studies."

"What do you think you'll major in?" Jet asked.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Dance? Maybe theater? I just love performing."

How ambitious. Azula hoped her friends weren't buying into this cutesy, charming act, but they all seemed to be eating it up. Even Mai didn't look as bored as she usually did.

"You should definitely check out the cheerleading team," Sokka suggested.

"Oh yeah, that's a great idea! Thanks, Sokka." She smiled sweetly at him.

"So… how do you two know each other exactly?" Azula finally asked, her patience having worn out.

"Oh, it's a really cute story actually!"

Azula clenched her jaw.

"I was doing a photoshoot in the Southern Water Tribe over your winter break, and I got completely lost trying to find the shoot location. I can be kind of an airhead sometimes." She giggled. "I happened to run into Sokka who totally came to my rescue and went out of his way and got me where I needed to be. What a gentleman."

"Aw, it was nothing really," Sokka said.

"Modest and cute too," she continued before looking over flirtatiously at Jet. "With cute friends…"

Was this girl seriously trying to flirt with Sokka and Jet?! How infuriating.

"Hey, I like this girl!" Jet smirked. "Welcome to the group."

Azula dug her heel into Jet's sneaker under the table.

"Ow!" he shouted, glaring harshly at Azula.

"Sorry. Accident," she sneered.

"Oh," Ty Lee said excitedly, "I forgot to tell you the best part! You'll never guess who my roommate is!" She paused. "It's Katara!"

"My sister!" Sokka added.

"I didn't know you had a sister," Mai said.

"Oh yeah, she deferred for a semester," Sokka explained. "She stayed home to take care of our dad. He, uhhh… got injured. It's kind of a crazy story, I don't want to get into it right now."

"Katara's amazing, you guys," Ty Lee gushed. "Seriously, she is so friendly, smart, caring, beautiful… I am so lucky to have her as my roommate!"

Azula couldn't tell if she was being genuine in her adoration for Sokka's sister or if she was just trying to suck up to Sokka.

"Oh my gosh, I should have invited her to lunch! I'll make sure to include her on Monday."

Great, just what Azula needed. Another change. At least this time it would be someone unthreatening to any potential relationship with Sokka.

"Anyway," she continued, "I am just so happy to meet you all. I was worried about starting school in the spring semester and not fitting in anywhere. You have no idea how excited I was to find out this winter that I'd already know someone when I got here!" She smiled yet another saccharine smile at Sokka. "I still can't believe you're single – "

Azula nearly spat out her drink.

" – I bet the girlies are all over you."

"You have no idea," Jet chuckled.

Azula elbowed him in the rib.

"Oh yeah, Sokka's a real ladies' man," Zuko muttered sarcastically.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Sokka demanded. "It's not like you have a girlfriend either."

Ty Lee turned to Jet and lowered her eyes. "And what about you, cutie? What's your deal?"

"I, uhh…" He laughed nervously. "I'm single, but…"

"But you like someone," she finished for him, smiling impishly. "I can tell."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"I can read auras."

"Oh this ought to be good," Azula snickered.

"I can!" Ty Lee insisted, "And I get the sense that you all have a crush on someone…"

The group looked around suspiciously at each other.

"… except for maybe you." She looked at Mai. "You're a tough one to read. For now. I'll crack you eventually."

Mai looked down at her food.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Zuko said, laughing.

Mai cut her eyes at him but then her features softened.

"There are a lot of intense feelings here for sure," Ty Lee giggled, "I can feel it."

"So, what is my aura telling you exactly?" Azula challenged, hoping to make her look stupid. "I'm just dying to know."

"Hmm. Well right now your aura is a green-blue, but mostly green – "

"Which means…"

" – It could mean a number of things. Inner peace or personal growth… or it could mean fear, insecurity, or envy." She smiled not-so-innocently. "You wouldn't happen to be feeling jealous of someone by any chance?"

"Funny." The girl in pink sounded like she was just joking around, but Azula knew better. Ty Lee was that kind of girl. A mean girl. Having been one herself before her dad went to prison and her entire life imploded, she knew all about mean girls, and she was finally at a point in her life where she didn't want to deal with them anymore. She had to get out of there before she turned back into her old self. "Oh, would you look at that?" She looked at her phone. "Seems my battery is dead. I really should charge it before class." She got up from the table.

"Really? You're leaving?" Sokka asked. "You've barely eaten anything."

"It's all yours."

"Alright!" He dug into her food.

She faintly heard a series of goodbyes, but all she could focus on was trying not to cry, and she hated herself for it. When did she become so damn sensitive?! Ty Lee was just so annoyingly cute and peppy, obviously her friends would fall for her charm. They probably already liked Ty Lee more than her. Soon she'd have Sokka, Jet, and maybe even her stupid brother wrapped around her finger. Considering every important person in her life ended up abandoning her at one point or another, it was only a matter of time before her newfound group of friends did the same. At least now they had a replacement. And a warmer, more amicable one at that.

No, no, no. Something was off. Something was definitely off. Azula was not the kind of girl to forget to charge her phone. Something must have upset her.

Jet scarfed down the rest of his pizza and made a quick excuse to leave lunch early, grabbing his pouch of fries on his way out. It didn't take him too long to spot Azula.

"Azula, hey!" he called after her. "Wait up!"

She kept on walking.

"Hey!" He was slightly out of breath when he caught up to her. "What's going on with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, I know you're upset."

"I'm fine," she huffed. "I told you, my phone died – "

"Just stop," he cut her off. "In what world is Azula not prepared for class?"

"I just…" She stopped and looked down at her feet. "I had to get out of there, okay?"

"Not okay. Why are you so upset?"

"It's nothing!"

"Please don't tell me you of all people feel threatened by her."

"Oh, this is rich coming from you," she said derisively. "All making googly eyes at her!"

"I wasn't making googly anything!"

"Whatever. I'm not going to stand here and listen to you tell me you don't find her attractive."

"Of course I find her attractive! She's super cute. I'd bang her in a heartbeat – "

"Oh, so that's how long it takes you," she taunted.

"That's not what I – ugh." He sighed. "Look. You know I'm not gonna sugarcoat things for you, princess – "

"I told you not to call me that – "

"You know I'm always gonna be real with you and tell you the truth, so shut up and listen for a second, will you?"

She glared at him.

"Ty Lee is no threat to you. You know how I know that?"

She crossed her arms.

"Because Sokka and I have been texting all through winter break and he never once mentioned her to me. If she really made that big of an impact on him, don't you think he would have said something about it?"

"I don't know," she grumbled, "do you even talk about stuff like that? About girls?"

"Actually…" That's when it dawned on him, that now was the perfect time to come clean. Maybe she'd be mad at him for waiting this long, but he couldn't keep this a secret any longer. He had to tell her about what Sokka told him in the locker room on the last day of finals. "Yeah, we do. And, ummm… there's something you should know."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Sokka used to have a crush on you. He told me – "

"Wait, what?! When?! How did you not tell me about this? A-And what do you mean by 'used to'?!"

"It was back in high school – "

"That makes no sense! We didn't go to the same high school, we lived nowhere near each – "

"Stop interrupting me and maybe you'll get your answers!"

She released an aggravated sigh.

"Apparently your nerd decathlon teams competed against each other in nationals his senior year, your junior…"

"Oh…" She thought for a moment, her brow furrowing. "I remember the second-place team was from the Southern Water Tribe… that was him?! The kid with the ponytail and glasses?!"

"He still wears a ponytail…"

"What did he say about me exactly? He seriously had a crush on me back then? We didn't even talk!"

"I don't know, he said something about being enamored with you, that you were brilliant or something."

"Well, he's not wrong…"

"See? He said you were confident, powerful, and beautiful… and you're still those things, so just be yourself and stop being so damn nervous around him – you'll win him back, I know you can. And you know I'm not just saying this to make you feel better."

She smiled softly. "You really think I'm beautiful?" she asked, her soft smile turning into a playful smirk.

Oh shit. Did he really just admit that? "I-It doesn't matter what I think, only what Sokka thinks. And you know Sokka's smart enough to see through Ty Lee's act."

"I hope so…"

"She's mastered the art of winning people over. If I can see that, others can too. So again, she's no threat to you, you hear me?"

She nodded, smiling. "So… are you going to finish those fries?"

"I brought them out just for you." He handed them to her; she greedily dug in. "Figured you'd be hungry."

"If it weren't for that stupid bitch, I wouldn't be," she muttered through a mouthful.

He laughed. "Just promise me you'll come to lunch on Monday, okay?"

"Okay," she said reluctantly. "I promise."