Katara was innocent. At least, that's what she kept yelling as Dr. Jeong Jeong dragged her down the halls. As they passed classrooms, students would peek through the door windows to see what was going on. Katara's mind raced wildly. What would they do to her? Where would they take her? A prison ship? A labor camp? The military?
Katara tried to think of how to explain the situation. No, there was no way she could possibly get out of this. Dr. Jeong Jeong was a firenation citizen, Katara was a colonist, there was no such thing as a fair trial when it came to a fire nation citizen's word against the word of a colonist. A small sob escaped Katara as she realized she would be separated from Gran Gran and Sokka after two years of pulling strings and crossing fingers to keep the three of them together, Katara had done something so stupid and ruined it all.
Dr. Jeong Jeong told her to sit on the bench outside the main office and went inside. Katara thought about running, Aang, Sokka, and her had gotten all the way to the Southern Air Temple unnoticed, surely Katara could hide from the police somewhere. No, when they went to the Air Temple no one was searching for them, if she tried anything like that now colony security would increase ten-fold and Katara would never make it out. And if she ran, her punishment would surely increase.
She sat there expecting the worst, so she didn't quite understand when Dr. Jeong Jeong handed her a pink detention slip. Katara read it.
Katara Wolf. Grade 9. Spoke out of place. Saturday Detention.
Dr. Jeong Jeong stared down at her, a scowl on his face. "Stealing is never prohibited in my class, you should have just asked for it! Remember, failure to attend detention can result in colony removal so make sure you are on time!" Dr. Jeong Jeong turned and walked back down the hallway.
Katara sat there shocked, still holding the stolen waterbending scroll in her hand.
She usually would never even think about doing anything to get herself in trouble, but since learning that Aang was the avatar, she had a motive strong enough to allow some rule breaking.
The day earlier she went to the library and combed the entire water tribe section. Everything in the school library was censored by fire nation officials and received additional approval from the colony head of education and the school itself, so of course Katara couldn't find anything on how to waterbend. She had just about given up when happening to see a fire nation student in line to check out a scroll at the front desk.
It was unusual for someone to check out a scroll since all the fire related scrolls in the library had been transferred into ebooks, which meant the only scrolls left in the library would have to be from the other three elements. Katara grabbed a book from the new arrivals shelf and got in line behind the student. Katara inched closer to look at the scroll that dangled loosely in the student's hand. It was definitely water tribe, it looked pretty old too, probably from the Classic period in the north.
The student reached the front of the line and the librarian scanned the scroll. "Interesting choice. Not many fire benders are interested in waterbending techniques."
Katara couldn't believe it. So there was waterbending material in the colonist restricted section. Katara quickly checked out her book and followed the fire nation student out of the library. She followed him from a distance for almost an hour, waiting for an opportunity to take the scroll. She knew it would be dangerous, but what other choice did she have? She couldn't possibly make it to the restricted section without a flame card and all the librarians knew by now that Katara was from a water tribe.
After an hour, the student got into a car and drove away, taking the scroll with him. Katara was certain she would never get an opportunity like that again, until the next day in Dr. Jeong Jeong's class. Halfway through class, the student from yesterday walked inside and asked the teacher for a missing assignment. He took a few papers and walked past Katara to get to the door.
As he passed, Katara saw the scroll inside his open backpack. She carefully snatched the scroll and hid it under her desk. Katara thought she had successfully stolen the scroll without anyone knowing, until after class. Dr. Jeong Jeong had stopped her in the hallway, searched her backpack for the scroll, and began dragging her to the main office.
When Gran Gran heard about the detention she yelled and demanded to know why. Katara showed her the slip stating that she had spoken out of place. Gran Gran scowled, "You should never speak out of place. Especially to a fire nation citizen. The Fire Lord actually burned and disowned his own son because the boy spoke out of place. How could you be so careless, Katara?!"
Sokka sat on the coach smiling. "Congratulations, Katara. You're officially a burdened trouble maker like your big brother."
Katara acted sorry and upset, but secretly she was thrilled. Not only had she been saved from terrible punishment, but for the first time she had discovered a fire nation citizen who must be a rebel. Dr. Jeong Jeong could be her key to finding the Order of the White Lotus.
Suki stretched on the outskirts of the field, watching as Sokka aimlessly kicked the soccer ball around. Even though he didn't appear to be aiming it anywhere, he seemed incredibly focused on kicking it as far as he could, he then would run after without giving himself a moment to breathe. He was pushing himself tirelessly. Suki couldn't help but be amused by this childish display of sports anger.
As Sokka went to kick the ball again Suki caught his cleat with her own, forcing him off balance and making him fall down.
"What the hell, Kyoshi! I can kick you off the team for a move like that! What are you even doing here there's no practice today!"
Suki crouched down to look at him. "I know, it's not like you to just suddenly cancel practice without any explanation."
"Why should I explain anything to you?! I'm the captain!"
"Why would you cancel practice just to come out to the field and practice anyway?"
"What about you? You look like you're about to practice too!"
"Because I am. My bus doesn't leave till four and I need the practice."
Sokka stood up. "Fine. But you have to stay on the other side of the field and if you interfere in my practice I will have you kicked off the team!" Sokka picked up his ball and stomped off to the other side of the field.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Sokka looked back at Suki. "What?"
"Whatever it is that's making you cancel practice and then work till you faint."
"Mind your own business!"
Sokka was embarrassed by the entire situation. As he stomped across the field he did for a moment think that he had been wanting to talk to someone about it. No. Definitely not. He felt uncomfortable knowing that Suki was watching him kick his ball around, he could literally feel her eyes watching him. Something was weird about that girl, but in a way, he liked having her on the team. They couldn't go for ten minutes without fighting, she was always criticizing his rules, and she was as competitive in sports as Sokka was at the dinner table. But her presence made Sokka want to push himself, he worked harder for fear of being shown up by girl, and she was getting along great with the rest of the team.
Since her arrival, the soccer team's attitude had switched from being "So who's going to kick our ass this time?" to "Whether we win or lose we do it together". She had a way of making people feel like they were part of something, everyone wanted to do their best, not impress others but because they really wanted the team to do well. Sokka personally was proud of the progress they were making even though he knew that it was really all Suki's doing.
Slowly but surely, she was making him into a warrior.
Detention was quiet. Katara had arrived ten minutes early and now waited in the empty classroom, reading her literature assignment. Soon, a tall senior boy walked in and sat in the middle of the room. Katara had seen him around but didn't know his name. He had unusually long brown hair for a boy that he kept back with a hairband and his clothes were made for earth kingdom colonists. He seemed somewhat nervous about being there, like he expected something bad to happen.
Katara cleared her throat. "Um, hi. I'm Katara."
He turned around. "Uh, hi. I'm Haru."
"What are you here for?"
Haru smiled nervously. "Oh, just a little harmless mischief. What about you?"
"I spoke out of place. Looks like the guard is going to be late. Do you think we're in the right classroom?"
Haru's nervousness grew. "I don't really know. Maybe you should go …"
Haru stopped as another boy, tall and handsome, threw open the door, walked in, and slammed it shut again. Katara's heart rate picked up. Jet smiled mischievously. "All right Haru, let's go."
