A/N: Can't believe I'm actually sticking with this weekly updating, let's hope it stays that way XD I had a lot of fun writing this one, so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I had writing it.
Katara's POV:
After three lectures and a seminar later, I can't wipe off the grin that's plastered to my face. A nudge to my side breaks me out of my thoughts.
"Well someone sure looks happy." Yue jokes with a smirk. I shoot her a smile.
"I am. I knew I'd like medicine, but I just didn't realise how much." I voice excitedly. The white-haired girl raises an eyebrow at me.
"You sound a little too excited for someone who has just spent the last three hours learning about action potentials." Yue utters dryly. I go to elbow her in the ribs.
"Because we actually got to learn about diseases that occur when they go wrong. Don't you find that interesting?" I question, the girl is just about to reply when my stomach grumbles. I flush in embarrassment as my fellow student snickers.
"Well, I don't think your stomach seems to agree with you. Come on, let's head to the canteen." Yue decides as she links my arm with hers and starts steering us towards the lunch room. When we enter, the smell of food hits my nostrils, making me realise just how hungry I am. The two of us goes to join the queue and while waiting I take this opportunity to find out more about my new friend.
"So how have you been finding the move to uni?" I query curiously and watch as the girl crosses her arms over my chest.
"It's alright, but it would be much better if my dad would stop checking in with me all the time." I quirk an eyebrow at her tone and tilt my head to one side.
"Aw but that's sweet." I express, only for the student to shake her head.
"It would be, if I wasn't getting calls five times a day." Yue grumbles. I blink twice as my jaw drops.
"5 times?! But why?" I ask in disbelief. The white-haired girl turns her head to the side, a flicker of emotion crosses her face, but it's so quick that I can't quite place it.
"He's very over-protective. It took a lot to persuade him to even let me move out." Yue mumbles. I chew my lip upon hearing this and go to wrap an arm around her shoulders.
"Well, you could tell him that you've already made a friend. Maybe that will put his worries to rest. I could even speak to him on the phone if you want?" I suggest just as my new friend looks up at me in amazement.
"You'd do that?" She queries softly and I nod my head in confirmation. A beam splits her face as she tackles me in a hug. "That would be amazing! Thank you so much." Yue breathes out gratefully and I smile, satisfied that I'm already making a difference in someone's life.
"Katara!" I look up at the call of my name and turn to find my brother waving his arm enthusiastically at me. I wave back and motion to the slow moving line. He pulls a face and holds up what I assume is his packed lunch and mouths, 'I've come prepared.' I roll my eyes at him and then mouth that I'll join him as soon as I've got my own lunch. He does a thumbs up and returns to his chattering with a black haired girl and boy.
"Who's that?" The question reminds me that I'm not alone and I glance back to the white haired girl.
"Oh that's my older brother, Sokka. Mind if we sit with him after we get our lunch?" I request and watch as the girl grins.
"Sure. I'm guessing he's showing you the ropes then?" She asks as she picks up a lunch tray. I mimic her before answering.
"I guess you could say that, he's in his final year so he's been busy with projects and dissertations. Although, he's planning to do a masters here, so I'm stuck with him for a little while longer." I joke while helping myself to a portion of grilled fish. Yue picks up a plate of sea prunes before turning to me.
"He seems nice though. It must be cool to have a brother." I cock my head at her wistful tone and furrow my eyebrows.
"You don't have any siblings?" I ask as we go over to the cashier to pay. The girl shakes her head.
"Nope. I'm the one and only child." The student answers as she flashes her debit card to the cashier. I hum in understanding.
"That explains the overprotective parents." I comment as I dig in my pocket for my purse. In my distraction, I miss the uneasy expression that flashes across her face and only catch the slight downward curvature of her lips as she pockets her card.
"That, amongst other things." Yue mutters. I frown, ready to query her further but I don't get the chance when my brother jumps out of his chair and starts walking towards us. His eyes glance between me and the girl beside me, his eyes shining with mirth.
"Looks like you're already making friends without my help." Sokka teases. I snort and link my arm with Yue's and turn my head towards her.
"He helped me make friends with one person when I was 6 and hasn't let go of it since." I explain when a look of confusion etches onto her face. A small smile slips past her lips before she turns to face my brother.
"Well, your sister is really sweet. I find it hard to believe that she would have any difficulty in making friends." The white-haired girl states sincerely, surprising the pony-tailed man. He shoots me a sheepish grin.
"Can't argue there." He voices and sticks out his hand. "I'm Sokka." He adds and I watch as Yue stretches out her arm and takes his hand, shaking it.
"I'm Yue. Pleasure to meet you." My new friend politely greets in return. If anything, my brother's face brightens more as he gives her hand a squeeze before releasing it and turns to gaze at me.
"I want you to meet Toph and Teo." Sokka announces and starts dragging me over to his table while Yue trails beside me. When I reach the table, my eyes land on the black-haired girl who looks up at my arrival. She gives me a once over before returning back to her sandwich.
"So this is the Sugarqueen we've heard so much about? Meh." I flush in annoyance at the nonchalance in the girl's voice.
"Toph, I said be nice." My brother rebukes. I quirk an eyebrow and stare at the girl.
"So you're the Toph that can bend despite being blind?" I fire back, causing the girl to pause mid-chew. She swivels towards me before tilting her head at Sokka.
"You forgot to mention the more interesting parts of her personality. Who knew Sweetness would be feisty." Toph voices dryly. I clench my hands before turning to face my brother.
"Are you seriously friends with her?" I demand in disbelief, hoping he'd tell me he was pulling a prank on me. That sheepish expression reappears on my brother's face as he rubs the back of his neck.
"She's not usually that brash…" He pauses before shaking his head. "Ok actually she is, but it's more tolerable." At this he shoots the blind girl a glare. "Toph." He voices in warning. The earthbender quirks an eyebrow before blowing at her bangs. I watch as she wipes her mayonnaise covered hand on her trousers before sticking out said hand.
"Fine. I'm Toph, although you probably got that from the amount of times Snoozles keeps saying it. Nice to meet you and all that." Toph utters blandly. I stare at her in shock, never have I once come across someone who was so rude and ill-mannered. When I don't take her hand she just shrugs and lets it drop to her lap. "Suit yourself." She mutters under her breath. Just when I think things couldn't get any tenser, a loud cough from the other side of the table pierces through the tension. I eye the boy wearily until he rolls closer. My eyes widen ever so slightly when I notice the wheelchair.
"Don't mind Toph. She's just extra grouchy today because she didn't get her assignment in on time. I'm Teo by the way. It's great to finally meet the sister that Sokka keeps talking about." The boy in the wheelchair greets with a warm smile, melting the metaphorical ice that's settled around the table. I beam at him and go to shake his hand.
"Nice to meet you Teo. Hopefully all good things?" I joke as I glance to my brother who smiles uncomfortably.
"Yep, all good things. Now, why don't you and your friend take a seat before your lunch gets cold?" The boy suggests and with a nod, Yue and I take a seat by Teo while my brother goes to sit beside Toph. After introducing the white-haired girl to the rest of the table, Teo speaks up again "So you two are doing Medicine?" Yue and I both nod my heads.
"Yeah we just had our first set of lectures which was a lot of fun…" I start, but Yue quickly interrupts me.
"You mean that you found interesting. I'm still waiting for our clinical sessions." The girl states with a half-smile. I roll my eyes before fixing my blue orbs on Teo.
"You're with Sokka doing Biochemical Engineering, right?" I deduce as he nods his head with a grin.
"Yep! We've come up with so many cool inventions. You have to drop by our flat sometime to check them out." The boy suggests with a sparkle in his eye, I smile at the suggestion until a loud groan echoes from the girl opposite me. I frown at her.
"What are you studying Toph?" I finally ask nicely. 'Maybe we just got off on the wrong foot.' But when she blows her bangs again, I decide that she's probably just a problematic person.
"Teaching." Is all she says. Yue and I gape at her, flabbergasted.
"Teaching?" I echo back, prompting the girl to scowl at me.
"Yes. Why is that so shocking?" Toph demands. I swallow back the words that were on the tip of my tongue before shaking my head.
"N-no reason." I stutter, but the girl narrows her eyes.
"You're lying." She voices brashly with crossed arms. I stare at her as if she's grown two heads. 'How did she…?' Before I can think about it further, Teo speaks up.
"Toph can tell people are lying with her earthbending. It's pretty neat." He explains, before catching the expression on Yue's face and his smile falls slightly. "Well, if you're not the one that's lying that is." He mumbles. I turn back to look at the blind earthbender.
"Sorry, I didn't mean any offence. I just didn't gather you as a…teaching type." I settle on saying and watch as Toph wrinkles her nose.
"I'm not. I just enjoy telling people what to do." The earthbender answers with a shrug. The corner of my lips twitches at that response.
"Yeah, I can totally see that." I voice with a faint smile. Toph furrows her eyebrows slightly at my answer before releasing a grunt.
"Don't go all soft on me Sugarqueen." The girl retorts. This time the nickname doesn't bother me nearly as much as it did before.
"I'd never." I fire back and to my surprise Toph's lips curve upwards into a small smirk.
"Good." She replies simply before opening a crisp packet. I stare at her in confusion, feeling conflicted on what to make of the girl. But I don't get to dwell on it long when I hear a loud crash. All of us swivel our heads towards the sound to find a group of students baring over another lone male student. A girl, presumably the ringleader, steps forward to push a tray of food onto the ground.
"This isn't your table." The girl growls out. The male student looks up at her, defiant.
"I don't see your name on it." He quips just as a boy sporting similar features to the girl steps forward.
"If I was you I'd move." He mutters, his voice low. I watch the display angrily, before pushing my chair back, but before I can stalk over to the group of bullies my hand gets caught in a tight grip. I look down to find my brother shaking his head.
"Katara, this isn't school where you can just tell the teacher. Leave it be." Sokka warns but I stare at him, appalled at his behaviour and snatch my hand out of his hold.
"It doesn't have to be school. No one deserves to be treated like that. I thought you knew better than that." I grit out before stalking over to the group of students. The ringleader looks up as I near and raises a finely plucked eyebrow at me.
"Who are you?" She queries, her tone bored.
"You can't behave like that." I state forcefully, ignoring her question and earning a laugh from the girl as she eyes me up and down.
"And what's a water peasant going to do about it? I suggest you go back to your little table before I get annoyed." The girl voices in a clipped tone. I flush in humiliation at the insult, for once wishing that my attire hadn't given my origins away.
"You know for someone who's meant to be at university, you sure don't know anything about being mature." I retort back with crossed arms. The girl stiffens before taking an intimidating step towards me.
"I'm going to say this once, so listen carefully peasant. I'm Azula. That over there is my brother, Zuko." She points behind her to the boy who shares her similar features, the only difference is that he sports a large angry red scar on the left side of his face. I don't get to dwell on it long when the ringleader returns her gaze back to me. "Our father Ozai pours a lot of money into this university, so I can behave however I like and if I was you I'd crawl back to where you came from if you know what's good for you." Azula explains with a harsh glint in her eye. I jut my chin out and lean forward until my face is mere inches from hers.
"Do you think that scares me?" I quip quietly. Somewhere behind me I hear a slap and I can only imagine it being Sokka slapping his hand against his forehead. Azula's orange orbs narrow and I lean back with satisfaction.
"You should be scared." Is all she says when a flash of red erupts from her hand. My eyes widen when my vision blurs with red. I'm just about to scream when I feel a rush of strong wind around me. I crack open my eyes to find rage etched on the girl's features and turn my head to the source of the wind to find Aang standing a metre away from us with his hands outstretched. He drops his arms and comes to stand beside me. He scans me for any burns before directing his hard grey eyes on Azula.
"Bending is prohibited outside lessons." Aang utters seriously. His tone shocking me considering how playful and light-hearted he appeared when I met him a few hours prior. I feel a hand on my elbow and glancing behind me I find Sokka's strained face as he pulls me back. I hear Azula snort and cross her arms.
"Great, we still have Airbenders on campus. What a shame." The firebender drawls out and I note the way that Aang's shoulders tense. However, he doesn't get the chance to reply when an adult comes running towards us. He stops and looks between Aang and Azula, his expression stern.
"You know the rules. No bending allowed. Both of you report to the chancellor." The lecturer snaps while my eyes widen and I step forward.
"No wait, Aang only bended to protect me." I protest, earning the man's attention. He wrinkles his nose at me before shaking his head.
"It doesn't matter. They both still bended." He states stubbornly.
"But…!" I start, only to be cut off by a glare from the lecturer.
"Unless you want to join them." He threatens. Before I can say anything, my brother pushes me behind him and speaks on my behalf.
"No, she's good!" Sokka quickly voices. The adult stares at me for a moment longer before nodding his head. He goes over to Aang and Azula and starts ushering them out of the canteen. Aang spares a glance behind him to shoot me a small smile before being pushed forward by the lecturer. Soon they both disappear from sight. Moments later, Zuko flickers his eyes towards me, his face grim before he elbows another girl beside him. My eyes widen when I recognise her.
"Come on Mai we should catch up with Azula." I hear him say and watch as he, Mai and another girl strut out of the lunch room. 'Great, one of my flatmates is a bully.' It's only then do I realise that the room is deathly silent. Fortunately, the silence doesn't last long and everyone resumes their prior conversations and as the chatter continues I finally release a small breath.
"I told you to leave it." Sokka snaps angrily. I don't get the chance to respond as the boy I was defending suddenly steps in.
"Thanks for defending me, but you really should be careful. Azula and Zuko aren't people you want to deal with." The boy expresses cautiously. I sigh and nod my head.
"Yeah, I'm starting to realise that." I say just as my rapid heartbeat starts to return back to its steady lull. "I'm Katara, by the way." I mumble, still caught up with what just happened.
"Haru." The boy introduces with a smile. I raise my eyebrows in recognition.
"So you're my other flatmate." I say as I recall my conversation with Aang. Haru appears surprised before broadening his smile.
"Well in that case, thanks for standing up for me flatmate." He voices gratefully, but Sokka is quick to interrupt.
"No don't thank her! She'll just get the ridiculous idea of doing it again." My brother spits out. I cross my arms at his behaviour.
"I told you I can't stand by and do nothing!" I bite back. Sokka gawks at me before slapping his forehead.
"You almost got your face burnt off! If Aang hadn't stepped in…I'm supposed to protect you, but I can't do that if you're throwing yourself into danger!" The pony-tailed man expresses furiously.
"I can protect myself Sokka! I just didn't expect her to actually use bending. Now that I know, I'll be better prepared with my Waterbending." I counter but the boy shakes his head vigorously.
"You can't! If you use your bending on campus without permission, you could get kicked out." Sokka reveals, my jaws slacken at this news.
"What?!" I shout as my brother pinches the bridge of his nose.
"I thought you read all those terms and conditions?! You're always so annoyingly precise about everything." The pony-tailed warrior complains. I shoot him an embarrassed look.
"I might have been a little too excited about getting accepted into Medicine to have read the fine print." I admit shamefully. I hear my brother grumble incoherently before he raises his eyes to pin me with a steely gaze.
"Katara you can't use your bending outside lessons, at least not where any of the staff can catch you. I know how much studying medicine means to you, I don't want you to blow your future." Sokka murmurs. My eyes soften at his brotherly concern and I release a quiet sigh.
"You're right. Thank you for telling me." I mumble, kicking at the ground until something hits me. I snap my head up to stare at my brother in worry. "Oh my gosh what about Aang?! Is he going to get kicked out?" I fret while my brother and Haru share a look. It's Haru who answers me.
"I doubt it. It's such a privilege to even have him attending this university considering his level of intelligence. He'll probably get away with a stern telling off." Haru reassures with a smile and my shoulders sag in relief until my brother decides to speak up.
"It's a shame that Azula won't get kicked out." Sokka mutters, I blink in confusion before recalling what she said.
"That's not fair! She deserves to get kicked out. Just because her dad supports this university doesn't mean she can get away with whatever she wants." I criticise vehemently. The two men exhale heavily.
"That's just how it is I'm afraid." Haru mumbles. "Your brother is right, you need to be more careful, especially now that you're on her radar." My flatmate warns, eliciting a curse from my brother.
"Katara, you have to promise me that you won't get yourself involved again." Sokka pleads, I open my mouth, ready to protest, but when I see the scared expression on his face I clamp my mouth closed again. I bite the inside of my cheek hard before nodding.
"I promise." I mutter and find myself enveloped in my brother's tight embrace. I rest my chin against his shoulder, but the churning in my stomach stays with me for the rest of the day.
A/N: So I managed to squeeze a bit of drama in here for you guys XD Honestly I wasn't expecting that frigid introduction with Toph, but it just flowed out while I was writing and then I realised how fitting it would be and a great parallel with the show since Katara and Toph kept butting heads.
Also, I know, the whole teaching idea sounds crazy, but Toph does open a Metalbending academy in the comics and she definitely enjoys telling people off so in some strange round-about way it kind of suits her?
And, Katara being that overexcited med student? Yep, that's so me heh XD
So I think I've pretty much introduced all the key players in this story, there might be a few others here and there but these are the main ones. Now I can slowly get into the story. I've got so many cool ideas floating about in my head and I can't wait to show you guys.
Anyway thank you so much for reading. Please drop me a review so that I can hear your thoughts. I love hearing from you all.
Only medic term here was action potentials and I'm not entirely sure how to explain it, but I'll try?
Action potential = an electric current that travels down nerves/neurons to reach the brain/spinal cord which tells the brain/spinal cord to carry out an action. It's basically electrical information in the nervous system.
Oh also some people have asked about what pairings I'm going to use, but I'm really not aiming to go down the romance route at all unless something unplanned happens while I write. If there are any pairings it might be Aang and Katara, but that's it. Hope you still keep reading regardless.
28/11/20