Kids These Days

"All the sons and daughters,
"Left lying in the waters.
"Ashes, Ashes,
"We all rise up!"

At the last line, the three little girls, standing in a circle and holding hands, raised their arms together and jumped as high as they could. Mai landed awkwardly and tumbled onto her backside, but didn't let go of Azula and Ty Lee's hands, so the other two girls were dragged to their knees. Neither one found this to be any great inconvenience; Ty Lee even giggled.

Princess Azula looked down at Mai and smirked. "Nice jumping, Mai."

Ty Lee nodded happily. "Yeah, we went really high!"

The princess threw a questioning look at Ty Lee, but the other was apparently serious. Mai just sighed and pulled her hands away so that she could get back up. As far as humiliations went, this wasn't so bad. It didn't involve her dress getting lit on fire (a favorite game of Azula, now that her Firebending was getting good), or doing something stupid in front of Azula's brother and mom, or doing one of the boring things her parents were always telling her to do. If this were the worst thing that happened to Mai all day, it would actually be quite pleasant.

Azula looked back and forth at her two friends and smiled. "Hey, guess what?"

"What?" Ty Lee supplied dutifully.

"My father heard me practicing that song yesterday, and he taught me what it really means."

"Wow," Ty Lee gasped. "I didn't know it meant anything. Your daddy is smart!"

Mai didn't look as impressed. Instead, she sighed. "Why were you practicing it? We all knew it from when we were babies."

Azula just rolled her eyes. "So that I would have it perfect for today. Duh. So do you want to hear what Father said?" Two nods, one manic and one lethargic, answered her. "Well, then I suppose I can tell you. See, a long time ago, before Grandfather was born even, the Fire Nation wasn't as perfect as it was now. Some of the islands, you know, like Shu Jing, didn't listen to the Sages or do what the Fire Lord told them to. So when they got scolded, they had a tantrum and stopped working with the Home Islands, like doing trade, paying taxes, and stuff. So the Fire Lord took his army and went to make them behave. Some of the islands got scared and promised to be good, but some actually tried to fight the Fire Lord. They called those fights the 'Final Rebellion' because the Fire Lord defeated them all, and had all the rebels killed even after they surrendered, and then left the bodies on the beaches instead of giving them proper cremation. Then he marched his army back through the rebels' hometowns, and burned them all to the ground. No one wanted to rebel again after all that."

Azula crossed her arms and smiled. "You two should already know about that from school. Do you remember the name of the Fire Lord who stopped the rebellion?"

Ty Lee tapped a finger against her chin and frowned. Then she closed her eyes and hummed tunelessly. Then she grabbed her head and growled, lips pulled back from grinding teeth. Finally, she opened her eyes again and grinned. "Nope!"

Mai yawned. "It was whatsisname, the one before Fire Lord Sozin."

Azula's nose wrinkled. "I guess that's close enough, but you really should study more, Mai. It's a pretty easy name."

"When? I'm always either playing with you or practicing my knives. I think the Fire Lord would like it better if I could kill all his enemies than if I know his grand-dad's name."

"...I guess that's logical."

"Wow," Ty Lee chimed in, "you're really smart, Mai!" The other two girls ignored her.

There was a silent moment after that, while Azula shifted her gaze up to the sun and worked her lips from side to side. "You know," she eventually came back, "we could be more efficient if we only played games that could teach us stuff, like 'All the Sons and Daughters.' That way, I could have fun, and you two would learn better."

"That's a great idea!" Ty Lee hopped to her feet in excitement. "Quick, we need to figure out which games have secret histories!" She began looking from side to side as if expecting to see clues somewhere in the garden around them.

Mai raised an eyebrow at this, but decided to let it go. "Actually, I know some games like that. Like when we play Shopping, and one person has to be the Earth Kingdom merchant who hides coins from the customers? That's kind of educational. Or when we pretend to explore the colonies and you make Zuko be the colony trash? That teaches us 'social studies.' And my Uncle said that we call it 'Water-Tribing' instead of something like 'Steal the Other Base's Flag' because Water Tribe raiders have always tried to do that to us. That's history."

Azula nodded. "Exactly! Let's play the one where we shove Zuko to the ground! But you girls have to pay attention so that you learn properly."

Ty Lee hopped with excitement. "YAY I'M GONNA BE SMART!"

Azula and Mai traded glances, but held their tongues.

END