"AHHHHHH!!"

Aang's entire body seemed to scrunch up on impulse. He didn't even have time to turn his eyes back into the game, as the shielded boulder named Toph lunged forward without a warning.

"Stand your ground, kid!" he heard one of his teammates say from afar.

Toph had only been a few feet away, and was smirking on the inside as the boy propelled from her rock shield to the ground. With the vibrations that she felt from her feet, this boy was as light as a feather... and her victorious tackle on the new kid made her smile proudly.

Sliding across the earth like a soil skateboard, Toph's feet went to pass the young airbender's ground, immediately changing her attention to the football. Her senses told her that a teammate had just taken hold of the football, so she slowly kept her ears open for any sound of a hovering object nearby, and her feet were keen on finding the next player at her grasp.

It was like air over the field was drenched with soot, Earthbenders and Non-Earthbenders tackling each other for a leather-bound football in a matter of seconds.

Aang's shoulder pads had relieved him from the rocky ground as he landed with a slight bounce on his side. He grit his teeth as he stayed there, practically smelling the dirt, mad at himself for letting this girl take him down so easily... and in front of Katara.

As he struggled to move his should pads back in place and regain himself back to a standing position, Coach Bumi blew his whistle to announce the end of that play.

"Touchdown for the Flying Boars!" the man announced in his slightly musical voice, with one of Toph's teammates successfully holding the football at the endzone. The Earthbenders then released their rock solid formations to be ready for the next play.

The boy coughed out some of the gravel soot that had invaded the air in front of him, and opened his eyes to see some of the players walk back to their positions in the field. He couldn't even bear to look over his shoulder to see if Katara had watched all of that humiliation... it was painful enough just swallowing it all in his stomach.

Toph was sliding herself to her own tackler's place, but she impulsively stopped as her nerves noted how the boy was still on the ground, and she felt his grief through her toes. She didn't say a word, nor did she seem to turn her head and acknowledge him more... but Aang did watch her firmly frowning mouth suddenly change into a sigh.

It was the last thing he could've expected from this rough-housing little girl, with those black marks below her eyes that practically screamed ferocity, but the boy left his prejudices behind him once again... as Toph bent over to lend him a helping hand.

"Get up," came her slightly-annoyed voice, but Aang already knew she meant well. He took her hand and with one swift pull, hoisted himself back up into a standing position.

"That's a good sport, Toph," commented Coach Bumi, grinning at how his toughest player was gradually warming herself up to the newcomer. "Now... could you please try and be less aggressive with the new kid?"

Toph's head turned to Coach Bumi, giving her shoulders a shrug to say 'sure, whatever' before she moved back in place for the next tackle. But Aang knew that it was ripping the girl's love for the game... pretending to give less than her all.

"It's okay, Coach..." Aang began, moving back to his own standing position to face Toph once again with a grin. "I don't mind a tackling challenge from a little girl."

A chorus of uncomfortable whispers suddenly commenced from various players in the field. Toph's eyes blinked, quickly returning her face into a charged fierce look.

"Uh-ho, you sure about that, Twinkle-Toes?" came her driven voice, grinning teasingly.

"Positive," Aang dared to reply, noticing how a player's knees were shaking fearfully behind Toph.

Coach Bumi's eyes raised themselves, realizing how this new boy had dared to drop the "little girl" comment on Toph at his first day in gym class. On one side, the man appreciated that courage, but on another side, Bumi was praying that the boy could make it through the entire day without a broken bone in his body.

"Alright, then let's keep this game going! Earthbenders, SHIELD!" Coach Bumi didn't let any more time go to waste, watching a small friendship slowly forming between two bold opponents.

Instantly, the Earthbending players once again shielded themselves with the rocky ground, and Toph managed to make herself look more like a boulder this time. Aang could not guess how heavy she had become from the gravel and the dirt that was summoned from the nerves of her very being.

This time, the boy forced himself to look ahead at every moment, getting his mind to focus solely on the girl in front of her, instead of the one probably watching him from the sidelines. In fact... Aang imagined the lovely girl with hairloops standing right behind Toph on the field... telling himself that the only way to get to her was through a solid tackling of the boulder.

Aang was ready for the challenge as Bumi's whistle commenced the play, gritting his teeth to take on the rock shield. Toph's rock formation slid aggressively towards Aang, and he refused to break that eye contact that brought so much more stamina to her game. The boy shoved his hands forward and held on to the girl's force tightly as she attempted to push him limply out of her way... but Aang knew he couldn't let the girl win.

He was determined to get to Katara. Aching arms and knees did not even seem to acknowledge themselves as Aang pushed that boulder towards his favoring direction, letting that moment of intensity practically summon his inner Earthbending ability. The boy had only gotten few short lessons to Earthbending up until then, from visiting teachers who had come the Southern Air Temple to support the Avatar-in-Training... but the rock movements, all the ground-trembling drills he had done were not even close to the intensity and passion he was now experiencing with Football.

He felt the air again fill up with thick soot from the trampling and movements of the ground, and Aang still pushed with all of his might to get Toph from tackling into his territory. The boy could feel his toes dig into the soil below his as he pushed forward with all of his might, not taking his imaginary eyes from a lovely girl named Katara... and the imaginary hug that was waiting for him at the endzone.

Of course, the inspirational force he brought to Toph was not enough to send the large boulder into the air, and the female Earthbender concentrated more and more on the ground beneath her, as if communicating with her natural element. It was like her rock formation had suddenly turned to pure marble then... because the next thing he knew... Toph gave one forceful, valuable shove against the boy and his face greeted the soil-driven ground.

Monkey-feathers... I almost had her! Aang groaned with a mix of disappointment and excitement, knowing he had brought an intense challenge to the toughest player in the field. He looked up to the railing to see if a certain dark-skinned beauty with hairloops had caught a glimpse of this boy's determination.

But she was gone, and Aang bit his lip with grief.

Where'd she go? He wondered. Apparently, she had only stopped by to wave "hello," but it didn't make any sense. Why had she been outside? Most classes were held inside the school building, weren't they? The boy tried hard to keep possibilities from brewing in his mind.

It wasn't long before one of the players from Aang's team – a NonBender – had managed to take hold of the soaring football, leaping into the air with such agility and grasping the football tightly before hitting the ground hard. Victoriously.

Coach Bumi blew his whistle to call the end of that play. "... and the Moose-Lions have the lead in the field! All players move into the new field line!"

Toph promptly loosened her rock shield once again to walk herself to the new part of the field..

When the coach blew his whistle the third time, the little Earthbender decided to try something different; rather than fusing rock onto her entire body, she summoned the gravel to reach only up to her lower body, letting her bare arms take hold on the airbender's shoulderpads. She had a mischievous look to her, and the boy wondered if this was some sort of trick, but nevertheless, his tough demeanor remained in tact.

Aang's hard grip stayed on Toph the entire time, and with grit teeth, he pushed the Earthbender a couple of feet from where she started.

"Get your feet wider apart, and tilt your frame a little," Toph mumbled tersely, as if this were not at all related to football. "It'll keep you from falling over like an idiot."

Aang nodded in reassurance, but quickly remembering that the girl was blind, he said "got it!" With his slightly more comfortable tackling position, Toph found herself at a decent level to put all of her might into the game. As the two tackled each other, the girl's skin summoned more gravel from the ground, shielding her frame and her arms like a magnet.

Her resistance became much stronger, and yet this time, as she pushed Aang limply in her favored direction, the boy did not fall to the ground. She heard him groan with disappointment, yes, but her feet did not register any body hit the ground. Much to her surprise, the boy had simply just staggered backwards, as if catching his own weight with the lightest touch of his feet

Toph pursed her lips at that odd defense mechanism. Ah ha!, she said to herself, knowing that her first senses and vibrations with this Twinkle Toes were dead on.

All Earthbenders were rooted to ground, and their skin was remarkably thicker than the norm. Toph knew from the start that this boy couldn't have been an Earthbender from the contrasting, almost delicate quality to his feet. At first, Toph she had assumed that this boy was simply light-weight, but with this air-manipulating quality she'd felt on the boy's feet, it could not have been more clear.

The girl grinned happily at her secret discovery. Another Airbender in Praying Mantis High.

"TOUCHDOWN for the Flying Boars!"

Coach Bumi clapped his hands, and Aang quickly turned around and saw a few of the opponents dancing and cheering at the endzone. The boy wasn't at all upset about his team, because he was just realizing how much fun Earthbending Football. He couldn't wait to master the real Earthbending technique, and was glad that he'd found a rough-ridden opponent to give him his first taste a challenge.

As he looked over at Toph's quiet demeanor, he wondered why she kept grinning at the air in front of her.

Pretty soon the game had come to an end, and Aang had managed to gain a mastery of self defense from the monumental force that Toph would bring to him. Coach Bumi could not help but look impressed at how the new kid was handling the rough tackler... even getting her to grit her teeth, which was a very rare thing to see. Beneath his shoulder-padding, the boy had broken a sweat with all his resistance, and he already felt proud of his new skills.

As an Earthbender, you need to learn to understand the opposing force, he recalled a visiting Earthbender say to him on the Southern Air Temple. Only then can you truly be able to face it, and it's ultimately your choice whether to keep that force as an enemy, or to change it.

"Not bad, Twinkle Toes," the girl extended a hand to the boy standing a few feet from her, as he was regaining himself from that last play.

"Yeah, thanks!" Aang received that hand warmly in good sportsmanship. "And... I'm sorry I called you a little girl," he mumbled as a finish.

"Meh, no big deal." She said, but then gave Aang a teasing punch on the arm, which ended up being slightly more painful than expected. "Just don't say it again."

Most of the players were heading out of the field to change in the locker rooms for the next class, and a few of the Earthbenders stayed behind to help Coach Bumi "bend" the football field back into a playable state. Aang watched with interest as all the hills of gravel were instantly becoming flat by the precise stoms and hand waves of a few students.

Toph had removed her helmet to let her face get a taste of open air again, and Aang felt like he could finally get to talk to the girl underneath the Earthbending football helmet. "Are you trying out for the Football team this year?"

Aang raised an eyebrow. "What? You mean, you have tournaments with other schools?"

"Of course, stupid. We have a full season ahead of us... the Snarling Gators over at Swamp High, the Soaring Hawks from the Royal Fire Academy – the biggest snobs you'll ever meet... where are you transferring from, anyway?"

The boy made a slight gulp in his throat. Great, he thought, I'm gonna turn into a lying Avatar.

"...and why are your nerves all jumpy? Are you trying to lie to me or something?"

"Um...Huh?" It was like the airbender didn't even have time to think. The girl stopped midway in her walk and just looked over at the boy's general direction.

"It's okay... I won't tell anyone what you are... if that's what you're afraid of." Toph said flatly. "But trust me; my Earthbending can sense a lie a mile away, so it isn't worth it."

Aang sighed, knowing that Toph had triggered the boy's worst anxiety from that morning. Strangely... he felt more relieved that someone else was already figuring out his true identity, because he already felt like he could be himself on his first day of school.

"I'm from the Southern Air Temple," he said in a slightly quiet voice to Toph as they continued to walk. "And I'm really an airbender--"

"Haha, yeah, I knew that part. And may the spirits be with you..." Toph remarked with that girlish laugh of hers, as they continued walking. Aang didn't think much of it, already feeling that he'd made a friend.

"Toph!" suddenly a voice near the edge of the field called out to the girl, and Aang looked up to notice that it was young boy, perhaps just a year older. He was wearing a pair of thick gloves and some gardening goggles over his head, and the smile that had formed in Toph's face then could only establish one thing to the airbender.

He was about to make a silly comment to Toph, like "oooh, somebody's blushing..." but then Aang saw how the boy was rolling a chair along the rail to meet the girl at the field entrance, and his question suddenly changed.

"Is that your boyfriend? In the wheelchair?"

That didn't come out right, and Aang could tell by the glaring look in Toph's blushing face.

"He sure is, Twinkle Toes. You got a problem with that?"

"N-no! No, I was just asking... well I noticed that he was..." Aang had to stop talking. He felt like he was causing more and more damage to a sweet moment. "Anyway, you look cute together!"

Toph's eyes narrowed dangerously once again, pretending like the boy had offended her. But then she rolled them annoyingly, said "ah, whatever... Hey Teo!" and she ran off to meet with the boy in the wheelchair.

Aang laughed, mainly from the fact that he'd survived the extreme sensitivity of a girl who could easily smash him into pieces. It was a strange feeling of comfort.

He kept walking to the entrance, along with a few of the football players who'd caught up with him, and as he passed the hugging little couple of Toph and Teo, he then found out where Katara had disappeared to.

"Great job out there, kiddo," came the sweet voice as she held out a gardening glove to wave at him. "Not everyone can handle the Toph Monster."

"You know it!" came Toph's voice from aside as she hugged Teo, who started to laugh a little.

Aang couldn't resist, and he hurried close to Katara to strike up a short conversation in those last few minutes he had. "I had no idea that Earthbending football was so much fun!"

He noticed how a fair number of students were cultivating the grounds near the football field... it must have been an entire class. Katara was digging a hole with a small gardening tool to plan some strange vegetable roots. "Do... do you play football?"

"Me?" Katara slightly giggled at the thought. "I definitely tried it once, but I stuck with Water Tennis instead. It suits me better."

Aang gasped. "You– you're a Waterbender!?" He couldn't believe that the girl he adored was also a skillful bender, and it made sense, too. The female Waterbending masters that had visited the Southern Air Temple were by far the most beautiful benders he had ever seen. They carried a certain style of grace in their art that was cosmopolitan, and visually stunning to see.

Katara looked at him strangely, thinking that this boy was easily intrigued by anything. "Yep, guilty as charged. You should come see a Water Tennis match sometime; they're just an intense as football... right Toph?"

The young Earthbender snorted. "Yeah... in your dreams, miss Water Nymph."

And Katara shook her head in disbelief, but Aang couldn't help but try to keep the conversation going.

"So, what are you doing out here?"

Teo was the one who answered. "Oh, it's our Cultural Enrichment class."

"Yeah," Katara added, holding out some more plant roots for Aang to see with interest. "Miss Wu is giving us a month's lesson on vegetable gardening. Today, we're learning how to properly plant pickle radishes and turnips for the season."

"That's pretty cool," Aang desired so much to extend his hand and grab the plant root, as an excuse to touch the very glove that was being worn by Katara's hand. His eyes shifted slightly to Teo and Toph, as the boy in the wheelchair was presenting to her a small flower he had probably planted for her in the garden.

The way that the flower's petals slightly brushed along Toph's cheeks and made her smile gave Aang such a wave of envy. He really wished he could have had a similar moment like that with the lovely girl with loops in her hair, right then and there, without a silly-looking vegetable root falling into the picture.

Toph quickly broke that long minute by saying "well we better head over to the lockers... come on, Twinke Toes, we're gonna be late!"

Aang sighed and waved a quick goodbye to Katara, which she received kindly and then went back to her gardening. The boy fought hard not to see that small kiss that Toph planted on Teo's cheek right before pushing the airbender towards the locker room's general direction.

Aang ran off with Toph behind him, promising himself that he would make the next Water Tennis tournament on schedule. Air Dodgeball tournaments didn't seem so important anymore.

Note: Yep, my first ship is Teoph. But seriously, aren't they adorable? Thanks for all the feedback so far, and I'll be sure to keep this story running faster. More characters/ships to come!