If he was sneaky, perhaps today he could get in before any of the busybodies around the metalbending academy saw him. Every time he came here, someone had advice they felt just compelled to give him about how to teach the kids earthbending. Or rather, how not to teach them, since the attitude seemed to be that someone stopped being a paying customer if they ever learned to metalbend properly. Fortunately for them, Bolin was not likely to teach anyone how to metalbend anytime soon. Unfortunately for them, Bolin had a distinct intention to teach them earthbending and even lavabending if he could figure out how.

So far, his lessons with the kids had involved half the time spent throwing rocks around and half 'Storytime with Bolin.' Increasingly, the rocks had been staying on target and that target was less frequently Bolin. Today was going to be a big day for Bolin and his young charges as well. Up until now, Bolin had been teaching earthbending the way he'd learned it, scrapping with Mako out on the streets. It was good practice for learning how to throw a punch and put some dirt behind it, but it wasn't proper earthbending. But Bolin was going to do his best to become the best earthbending teacher these children had ever seen – and even better than many of the earthbending teachers they hadn't seen. And that is why Bolin had gone somewhere he had never gone in his many years in Republic City: the library.

Fortunately, this library was not as openly hostile to friends of the Avatar as another library Bolin could name and the guides were not fox spirits but spirited little old ladies. His first few attempts at finding books on earthbending did not go well, leaving him with dense books that talked for ages about the history of earthbending or droned on about the proper connection to the earth. But Bolin had finally found the book he needed: The Spirit and Arts of the Four Nations by Iroh of the Fire Nation. He did have to flip through an extensive discourse on the tea cultures of each nation, but then he found wise words about each of the bending arts, written in clear, thoughtful words. Sadly, but for an understandable reason, Toph had not left behind any writings about her take on earthbending.

So earthbending according to Uncle Iroh was going to have to do.

He paused, hearing a procession of voices going by around the corner. Just one last hallway and he was home free to his reserved room. He peered around the corner and saw that their backs were turned. He dashed out from his hiding spot. Arms pumping, legs flying. Three steps, two steps, one step. "Bolin, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sorry, running late, gotta go, people to see, things to do, earth to bend, you know the deal." The words blurred together as Bolin threw open the door, dove through the portal and slammed it shut behind him. He took a moment to catch his breath.

Slowly turning around, he found three pairs of quizzical eyes looking up at him. "Mister Bolin, is something the matter?" Zhang said.

Bolin gave them a big smile. "Oh no, everything is A-okay!" he said, putting his back against the door and preparing to ignore any knocks that might come. Even for small children, the three did not seem entirely convinced by Bolin's claim, so it was time to break out the distractions. "Guess what, I've got a big exciting surprise for you guys today."

Their eyes widened in unison. "What is it? Are we going on a field trip? Or turning the floor into lava? Or-" Akemi was nearly jumping up and down in excitement.

"Tah-dah!" Bolin exclaimed, pulling Iroh's book from behind his back. It shouldn't have come as a surprise to Bolin, but the response to this surprise was decidedly lukewarm. "Okay, I know this doesn't look like much, but we're going to do something really exciting. We're learning neutral jing!" More silence. He flipped to the page he'd folded down earlier and read, "The heart of earthbending is neutral jing: waiting and listening. A master of neutral jing strikes only when the moment is right, not extending themself too far on the attack, nor avoiding confrontation when it is needed. They are as solid and unyielding as the earth and can persevere through whatever life throws at them."

"Mister Bolin, I don't understand," Kayuh said, looking up at him.

"Okay, maybe a demonstration is in order." He walked to the middle of the room. When he reached the centre, he drew a circle in the dirt around him. Then, he turned to face the three children, planting his feet firmly on the ground. "Just try and move me. First one to knock me out of the circle wins!" The kids hesitated, glancing at each other, so Bolin continued, "Don't worry about me, I've taken much worse, believe me," he said grinning, "give it your best shot."

Evidently, they got over their hesitation and fanned out around him. The first two rocks came from the front, launched by two swift punches from Akemi. Bolin didn't move as the rocks flew towards him. He briefly saw Akemi's eyes widen, thinking he was just going to stand there and take the hit. The rocks got even closer. They were in arm's reach. Two quick jabs. Left. Right. All that was left was dust where the rocks once were. Bolin hadn't taken a single step. He gave Akemi a quick wink, then spun to stop a rock flying in from the side with his wrist. "Wait," he turned again, catching Kayuh's rock in an outstretched palm, "and listen."

It was on now. The rocks came faster and faster, Bolin using his arms, shoulders, and even his head one time, to stop the kids attempts to knock him off his feet. Then the rocks stopped. The kids looked at Bolin. Bolin looked at the kids. The kids looked at each other. Bolin lowered his arms slightly.

"Get him!" Akemi cried out, rushing forward. The two others followed, abandoning their earlier plans to earthbend him out of the circle. Instead, they tackled him, Kayuh jumping on his back, Akemi grabbing hold of one arm, and Zhang rushing him straight in the stomach. Bolin held for just a second, then feeling his balance waver, let himself topple to the side, making sure he wouldn't land on any of the children. They ended up in a pile, laughing and wrestling Bolin to the ground.

After a few moments Bolin plead for mercy and the children let him pull himself up to sit cross-legged on the ground. They grinned at him and he couldn't help but beam in response. "You waited and listened! I'm so proud of you guys!" The kids' faces were much too small to contain their smiles. He held up one finger, trying in vain to still his face to seriousness, "And that is the essence of neutral jing." His attempt at being serious didn't last long, breaking into a grin just as eager as the children facing him. "Okay, who's next?"

Four hands went up in a flash. "Hey! No fair, you can't put both of your hands up!" Zhang said, sticking his tongue out at Akemi.

Bolin pointed at Akemi's left hand. "Eenie, meenie, miney, mo. Touch a 'dillo on the toe. If he sticks 'ya, don't say no. Eenie, meenie, miney mo." Bolin stopped, pointing at Zhang's raised hand. He winked at Akemi, "Things might've been different if I only had three hands to count."

Zhang leapt to his feet. "Can't touch me!" he was almost skipping, as he ran to the circle where Bolin had stood just minutes prior.

"We'll see about that!" Akemi responded, getting to her feet with little fists raised.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Bolin jumped to his feet and ran in between them. "I know you're all super good earthbenders, but I can't have you throwing rocks at each other!"

The children looked puzzled. "Then how are we going to practice neutral jing Mister Bolin?" Kayuh said.

"I've got the next best thing!" Bolin ran over to a closet near one side of the room, hoping that his request had panned out. "Yes!" he said, proudly pulling a bag out of the closet and dumping the contents on the floor. A bunch of cloth balls spilled out and started rolling across the room. "When we first started training to be pro-benders, they taught us how to dodge and how to take a hit with these. Since they're made of cloth and full of fur, they don't hurt that much when you get hit by one. Plus, they're not made of earth, so you can't cheat by bending them."

The children were not as enthusiastic about this idea as Bolin, but Kayuh and Akemi walked over and each picked up a cloth ball. Akemi tossed it from one hand to the other, getting a feel for the weight, while Zhang settled into a fighting stance in the middle of the room.

"Remember, wait and listen!" Bolin punctuated each word with a sweep of his arms. He bent down and picked up two cloth balls of his own. "All right, get him!" He launched a ball at Zhang and saw Akemi do the same. Zhang had seemed to flinch when Bolin called forth the attack, but he settled back and took a breath as the balls hurtled towards him. One. Two. Just as they were about to reach him, Zhang stopped their momentum with two quick jabs. "Great job!" Bolin said, throwing his remaining ball as he bent down to pick up another.

Zhang's grin seemed to egg Akemi on, who cycled through grabbing and throwing as fast as her little arms could manage. Zhang's confidence grew as he blocked each of the oncoming throws. But he hadn't been careful enough. Instead of throwing the ball she first picked up, Kayuh had quietly crept around to the far side of the room, lining up right behind Zhang. She lifted the ball over her head with two arms and hurled it right at him.

There was an audible `thunk' as the ball clocked him right on the back of the head, sending him sprawling forward. "Got him," Kayuh didn't raise her voice by much, but her tone was a bit smug.

Bolin walked over to Zhang and helped him up. The boy rubbed the back of his head as he shot Kayuh a scowl. "That was really good work," Bolin said, "you were really getting the hang of it. You just need to listen to everything, not just the one in front of your face." He clapped his hands together. "Alright, Kayuh, you were the one to knock him down, so you get to go next."

"I'm ready," she said, squaring up in the circle. Once again, the children started to throw the balls as though they were earthbending. Yet Kayuh took a slightly different approach to the game than Zhang; where he had planted himself firmly and knocked each and every ball out of the air, when the first throw was about to hit, she merely leaned out of the way. Then she caught the next throw and used the ball itself to guard against the following two throws. She dodged and weaved around incoming throws, lasting slightly longer than Zhang before two simultaneous throws left her nowhere to go and knocked her off her feet.

Last to go was Akemi. She had clearly been watching the others' strategies, but she put a unique twist on it. She caught the first throw, just as Kayuh had. Yet where Kayuh used it to block the next couple balls, Akemi wound up and threw it right back at Zhang as hard as she could. It caught him off guard and knocked him down. "Hey, hey! Wait and listen! Wait and listen!" Bolin shouted, but things quickly spiraled out of control. Zhang and Akemi were throwing back and forth as quickly as they could manage; Zhang blocking the oncoming throws and Akemi knocking them out of the air with a well-placed throw in return.

It took Bolin bending a wall of rock between the two to cool tempers to the point where he could speak. "Akemi cheated! I didn't know we were allowed to fight back!" Zhang said, after Bolin lowered the rock wall.

Akemi stuck out her tongue. "You just weren't thinking hard enough," she said.

"Akemi, I mean, that was really good, but you didn't exactly wait and listen," Bolin said, "you need more neutral jing!" His hands went wide with the last two words.

"I broke his root, that's what I was told to do by my old teachers. At least before I came to this school where people don't want to teach anything," she started, then noticed a hurt look on Bolin's face. She ran over to his side and hugged his side. "I don't mean you Mister Bolin. Your lessons are the best!"

The other two came over, Zhang somewhat grudgingly, and joined the group hug. "You guys," Bolin said, stifling a sniffle, "you are the best students a teacher could ever ask for."

Kayuh's head popped up. "Does that mean we'll get to learn lavabending next?"

Bolin grinned nervously. "I think we might need a lesson or two more about neutral jing before we start on lavabending. But I will tell you the story of the first time I lavabent next time."

The four separated from their group hug. The kids looked at each other and shrugged. "As long as we keep getting to learn real bending, we can wait," Zhang said.

"And listen!" Akemi chimed in, causing Bolin to break into laughter.

He bent himself a stool and sat down and the three kids sat down cross-legged in front of him. "So, there's something I've been wondering. Kayuh, Akemi, you two didn't grow up in earthbending families, so how did you end up in an earthbending academy as earthbenders?"

Akemi and Kayuh's faces fell and they looked at each other. Neither spoke right away, so Zhang said, "They don't really like that question. When they first came to school, some of the kids would bully them because they weren't Earth Kingdom enough." He glanced at the two girls. "I guess that's how we became friends, one of the other boys was picking on them, so I-"

"Zhang dropped him in a hole," Kayuh said, a hint of a smile creeping back onto her face.

"And then dropped some rocks in that hole," Akemi added and started to giggle.

"Oh, well," Bolin said, "good for you?" His voice betrayed a slight lack of confidence in encouraging such direct solutions to problems. "But you don't have to worry about that with me. My big bro Mako is a firebender after all! And my best friend is the Avatar. And my most wonderful girlfriend in the world is an airbender."

All three brightened up considerably, their faces betraying all the questions they wanted to ask. After answering a couple rather personal questions about Bolin's life, Akemi shared a bit about herself.

"My grandpa came here when it was just the Fire Nation colonies," Akemi said, "Grandma lived nearby, but couldn't bend at all. When Mom was born, she also couldn't bend. My dad moved here from the Fire Nation when Grandpa said he and Mom could get married because he got some really important job. But when I was born, pretty quickly, they realized I was an earthbender. Dad and Grandpa were really mad then," she looked down and continued, "Mom encouraged me to keep practicing my bending though, so I did. Eventually Dad decided that I was going to learn like a firebender, even if I wasn't one, so he got me some firebending instructors."

"Wait, he got you firebending instructors?" Bolin said, "But you're not a firebender!"

She shook her head. "No, so we just did footwork and breathing and stuff. It was still fun, even though I couldn't do the real bending training. Eventually Mom convinced him that I should learn earthbending from actual earthbenders, so they put me here."

"But the teachers here don't want us to learn anything," Kayuh added, lips curling into a pout. "Even when I was living at the South Pole, I could at least watch my friends learn waterbending and pretend I was bending with them. People weren't half as bad there as they are here."

"So why did your family move to Republic City?" Bolin said, turning to look at Kayuh.

"It was a couple years ago. Things got scary at home when those Northern soldiers showed up. So, Mom packed up and moved us here to the city."

"What about your dad?"

"He stayed behind to help Chief Tonraq." Silence stretched out in response. Kayuh looked up to see the concern on Bolin's face. "Don't worry Mister Bolin, my daddy didn't get hurt. Now he travels back and forth between the South Pole and here to help Chief Tonraq."

Bolin exhaled in relief. "You had me worried there!"

Just then the door opened, and the usual lady came and gathered up the kids. "Don't forget, you promised us more waiting and listening tomorrow!" Zhang called over his shoulder as the three walked towards the door.

The lady seemed flabbergasted. "I've never seen these three like this in my life. Whatever you're doing, keep doing it." Bolin absolutely beamed in response. To his surprise, just as the lady was leaving a somewhat familiar old face walked through the door; Lu Zhao, the metalbending teacher he'd met on his first day at the academy.

The old man looked excited as he came over to clap Bolin on the shoulder. "Boy, have I got some news for you!" He led Bolin over to one side of the room as he started to give Bolin the exact news that Bolin did not want to hear.