Chapter 18: Confessions

Jet never did get a clear answer from Sokka. Just as soon as the words had left his mouth, Sokka tried to swallow them back up, claiming he was overly tired from an emotional day and didn't know what he was talking about. Jet didn't buy it of course; Sokka definitely had feelings for someone in their friend group. And by process of elimination, it had to be Azula. Katara was his sister, Ty Lee was gay and would never reciprocate his feelings, Mai was in a relationship, which, Jet supposed, didn't rule her completely out, but still made it very unlikely, so it just had to be Azula. Jet supposed Sokka had a good reason for wanting to keep it a secret. Maybe he somehow figured out Azula had a crush on him and didn't want to get her hopes up since he was so hung up on Suki. Or maybe Sokka felt uncomfortable since Azula was his best friend's sister and he didn't want to risk his friendship with Zuko.

On the bright side, Sokka seemed to be doing better. He was no longer neglecting his responsibilities. His hair was dyed back to its natural color, or at least a very close match. He was smiling and laughing again, and not in an erratic way like before. However, despite all this progress over the long weekend, Sokka did not show up for lunch on Tuesday. And if there was one thing Sokka never missed, it was an opportunity to eat. Jet wasn't the only one to notice his absence.

"Does anyone know where Sokka is?" Azula asked.

"I dunno," Ty Lee replied, shrugging.

Mai shook her head.

Jet looked over at his housemate. "Zuko?"

"Don't look at me," he said quizzically.

"Should we be worried?" Katara looked concerned. "You know what, I'll just text him." She reached for her phone, but just as she was about to unlock it, an announcement started over the dining hall loudspeaker.

"Hello fellow classmates!"

Jet recognized the voice instantly. It was Suki.

"This is one of your friendly student council representatives with an important announcement. We asked how you would like the remaining student council budget to be spent and the votes are in! After final exams, we will be hosting a school dance! Unlike the dance following the talent show, this one will be formal, so make sure you dress to – "

A cacophonous, dissonant scratch blaring out of the speakers made everyone in the dining hall clutch their ears. And then a new voice took over. Another voice Jet was too quick to recognize.

"I, uhh… I think I… no, I am… I… oh, how do I say this?"

"Is that Sokka?!" Zuko whisper-shouted.

Katara nodded.

"Suki… I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU!"

Jet watched Azula's eyes go wide as all the color drained from her face.

"I'm in love with you," he repeated softly. "So before you leave, I have to know how you feel! Was there anything between us? After fencing with you for the past few years, do you feel anything at all for me? Do you?! Tell me!"

With the exception of some feedback from Sokka shouting into the mic, the dining hall was suffocatingly silent.

Jet reached for Azula's hand under the table as the friend group exchanged shocked glances. The next words to come out of the loudspeaker were from Suki.

"What a sense of humor, huh," she said through a forced laugh. "I hope this little demonstration has given you all the courage to invite that special someone to the dance! Sorry for interrupting your lunch. Have a great rest of your day!"

The dining hall carried on normally, but the friend group remained stunned.

"Was that… really planned?" Ty Lee questioned.

Katara shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Sounded pretty real to me," Zuko muttered.

"Me too," Mai agreed.

Azula sat in silence, picking somberly at her food.

Jet continued to hold her hand, but it just felt… lifeless. And considering he had encouraged Sokka to tell Suki how he really felt, he couldn't help but feel responsible for Azula's pain, pain that he knew all too well.

Azula left the dining hall quickly after lunch. Her feet were on autopilot as they carried her in the direction of her class, while her mind was preoccupied replaying Sokka's confession over and over. Her chest ached and her gut churned, but in a way, she was relieved. At least now she knew the truth. He loved Suki and there was nothing she could do about it.

Out of nowhere, she felt a hand clutch the back of her arm. Normally she would have been ready for a fight, but right now, she felt no fight in her. Instead she just froze in place, turning her head slightly behind her. "Jet," she managed. She should have known.

He let go of her arm. "Guess you didn't hear me calling after you."

She shook her head. "Sorry."

"Are you… how are you holding up?"

"Don't worry about me," she smiled halfheartedly. "I'm fine, really."

"Azula, you don't have to pretend – "

"It's strange." She looked away pensively. "Right now I'm more worried about how Sokka must feel after getting rejected publicly like that. I-I know Suki made it seem like it was staged, but still… that must have been humiliating for him. Why do you think that is?

"Huh?"

"That I care more about Sokka's feelings than my own… I must be in denial, right?"

"I think what you're feeling is called empathy…"

"No," she dismissed, "that can't be right."

"You're a good friend. You care about Sokka and just want him to be happy."

"Even if that's not with me…" She noticed Jet had an odd expression, as if he were fighting back words or information. Or maybe he just didn't know what to say. "Anyway… you should be with Sokka right now."

He cocked his head. "Okay, but… what about you?"

"I have to go to class. Just go make sure Sokka's okay. Alright?"

"Yeah, alright," he exhaled. "Guess I'll catch you later then."

"Later." She watched him take off in the other direction and closed her eyes. All she wanted to do was lie down in the grass and disappear or scream or something. Sokka didn't love her. Sokka loved somebody else. But she didn't have time for self-pity. History class didn't care about her heartbreak; it would start in fifteen minutes whether she was there or not. And life would continue to move on.

Nothing was more evident of that than the text message she got in the middle of class.

Jet: Sokka is fine.

Jet: Just a heads up. Suki agreed to go to the dance with him.

Jet: You good?

Truth was, she was good. She was happy Sokka would get to take the girl he loved to the dance, that he could have this moment with her before she graduated. Life moved on, and so would Azula.

Feeling generous after receiving a large tip from a pretty girl at the student center café, Jet decided to pick up some take-out from a local hibachi place and treat his friends to dinner at the house. Besides his housemates, Azula and Katara were the only two to show up on time. But because Ty Lee was so spacey and Mai just didn't care for things like punctuality, no one was surprised when they came waltzing through the door twenty minutes late. What shocked them, however, was Mai showing up looking the way she did, as if she had just walked through an atomic glitter bomb.

Normally dressed in dark colors and minimal makeup, Mai was wearing a tight-fit light pink sweater beneath a bolder pink fuzzy fall coat, white jeans, tan ankle boots, and a white knit cap. Her black hair was styled in two braided pigtails, and her makeup was just, well, pink. Pink and sparkly.

"Hey, everyone."

"Wow, Mai!" Katara beamed. "You look super cute!"

"Thanks," she smiled bashfully.

"Doesn't she?!" Ty Lee grinned.

"Well, that's certainly a change," Azula commented.

"Yeah," she laughed. "Ty gave me a makeover."

Jet sighed with relief, worried for a moment that Mai was having a nervous breakdown just like Sokka had.

"What do you think?" she asked her boyfriend.

"Uhh…" He flashed her an uncomfortable smile. "You look beautiful no matter what."

"Yeah, you look great, Mai," Jet agreed, though he much preferred her more gothic look.

"Yes, very pretty," Sokka added, sounding completely uninterested in her appearance. "Anyway, guys, can we go back to talking about the dance now? We need to get some people together to help organize it."

"That sounds like a student council responsibility," Zuko scoffed.

"Yeah, but for a dance this extravagant, they can't do it all alone." He turned to the more agreeable firebender. "You should do it, Azula. I know how much you love taking charge and organizing things."

"Only if Jet's helping me," she grinned, looking up at Jet with a diabolical gleam in her eye.

"Yeah, okay," he groaned sarcastically.

"You too, Mai," Azula sneered, turning to her roommate. "It'll be fun."

"I'll have to pass on this one. Sorry."

Azula raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not really in the mood for a dance."

"Wait… you're not going at all?!" Ty Lee questioned.

"I don't like dancing," Mai shrugged. "Why would I go?"

"Because – because," she stammered before giving up and turning to Zuko for help.

"Guess I won't go either," he said nonchalantly.

"What?!" Sokka blurted. "N-No, you have to!"

"I don't like dancing either. And if Mai's not going, there's no reason for me to go."

Sokka opened his mouth to object but the words died on his tongue.

"Well I'm happy to help organize!" Katara said eagerly.

"Me too!" Ty Lee cheered. "Planning this dance is gonna be so much fun!"

The group tossed around ideas as they served themselves dinner. Sokka seemed to be the most excited about it, undoubtedly because Suki was his date, but Katara also seemed even more hopelessly optimistic than usual, and that was saying something. Had she already found a date, or… was she waiting for a certain someone to ask her? The thought was fleeting, however, because when the friends regathered with their food in the living room, they had become a group of six rather than seven. Mai was not there. Maybe she was having some sort of meltdown…

Jet gave Azula a stern look as he desperately attempted to communicate with her psychically.

"Umm." Azula stood up. "I'll go check on Mai." She took off in the direction of the bedrooms.

Hm. So it seemed Azula could read his mind after all. He shuddered at the thought.

Azula found Mai in Zuko's bedroom, but since Mai was on the phone with someone, Azula excused herself as soon as she walked in.

"We're just about to have dinner," Mai said into the receiver, "can I call you back later? Okay. Love you too. Say hi to Tom-Tom for me. Bye." Azula already had her foot out the door, but Mai called after her. "Hey, did you want something?"

"No, not really," she said, stepping back inside the room. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Um." Azula wondered why Mai sounded so defensive. "With your new look, you saying you're not going to the dance, and you shrinking away to Zuzu's room during dinner, I just wanted to check up on you, that's all."

Mai rolled her eyes. "Ty thought it would be fun to give me a makeover, one dance this semester is more than enough for me, and Mom called to see when I'd be home for winter break…"

"Yeah, got it. My misunderstanding. I'm glad you're okay." She tried to leave the room again but Mai kept on speaking.

"Are you okay?"

Azula froze in the doorway. "Yes, I'm fine."

"You've just seemed… extra snippy and anxious this week."

She exhaled sharply through her nose. "You know what? No." She turned around and closed the door behind her. "I'm not fine. I'm… miserable."

"Why?" she asked, concerned. "What happened?"

She was quiet for a moment before the words spilled out in a jumbled mess. "Sokka's going to the dance with Suki."

"Yeah, so…? Oh." Her expression softened. "You like Sokka."

"I've had a crush on him since freshman year," she murmured before moaning dramatically with despair. "Pathetic, right?"

"No, I don't think so," she assured. "I'm just… surprised, that's all."

"Why?"

"Well I know you kept denying it, but I just thought you liked Jet."

Azula glared at her.

"Okay, okay," she sighed. "Well, just because Sokka's going to the dance with Suki doesn't mean that you can't dance with him at all. I'm sure Suki wouldn't mind you stealing him away for one dance…"

"Suki, Suki, Suki," she said derisively. "I can't stand her."

"Azula…"

"Sokka was so brave putting himself out there like that, only for her to reject him in front of the whole dining hall!"

"Okay, calm down." Mai gestured with a nod of her head to Azula's hands, which were engulfed in flames by her sides.

Azula hadn't even realized she was firebending. "Whoops." She extinguished the fire.

"Don't you think you're being a little unfair? Sokka can't help how he feels, and neither can Suki."

"I know…"

"Hey…" she said in a comforting voice. "Now that Suki's graduating early, maybe Sokka will open his eyes to a new relationship…"

"Yeah," she grumbled. "Maybe."

"Do you think you'll go to the dance even if you don't have a date?"

"Date or no date, I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to dress up," Azula chuckled. "I've been dying for an excuse to wear that new chic gold dress with the sequins on top…"

"Well there you go."

"I really think you should reconsider skipping the dance. It's not going to be the same without you."

"Eh."

Azula caught Mai looking in Zuko's desk mirror, checking her reflection with a contemplative expression. She got the impression Mai had something deeper going on inside her head, but whatever it was, she clearly wasn't ready to talk about it and Azula didn't want to overstep any boundaries and pry.

"Guess we'll see," Mai shrugged.

Azula smiled.

"But don't count on it."