F/N - Brace yourself, things get a little serious and scary by the end of this one. Nobody dies... but gah... it's highschool. Enjoy!
"Sokka, how many times do I have to clarify this? We're just friends!"
Katara almost threw her OmaShu script on her brother's head as she sat in the auditorium next to Suki, trying to have a small chat with the girl as they overheard another conversation from the opposite side of her searing row. Apparently, Sokka seemed to enjoy talking about his sister's personal life amongst his play buddies from the Wildnerness Club... lingering on some examples of bad choices... oblivious that it had nothing to do with his business.
'And then she shows up late for dinner, for the THIRD DAY in a row, with some lame excuse about HotMan needing to talk about his mom's party... I'm telling you, I don't trust this guy.'
Katara growled frustratingly, turning her body around completely to hit her brother over the head with her rolled-up OmaShu script. Suki shook her head in dismay, holding the girl back before she could hit her skeptic boyfriend again.
"Hey, I'm just expressing my Big Brother opinion over here..." Sokka ducked from Katara's script-swinging, "maybe if you hear it enough, you eventually agree with me."
"But Sokka, you've never even talked to Zuko." Suki raised her voice calmly, preventing Katara's veins from popping out of her head. "He probably isn't that bad of a person, either."
"Sukz... seriously?" The young water tribesman stared at his girlfriend across from Katara's shoulder, avoiding eye contact with his sister at all costs. "You're taking HotMan's side on this one!?"
"Why not?" Katara then spoke, frowning at the brow and crossing her arms. "I mean we've all known Zuko since the third grade... theleastyou can do is get to know him, and quit criticizing me about it."
"Criticizing? The guy's been nothing but trouble ever since he showed up to school with a scar on his face." Sokka scoffed over to his friends."What do you expect me to do? Bake him cookies?"
It didn't take much time for the young waterbender to raise her voice again, and the boy just pretended to hear an intriguing story from his circle of Wilderness Club buddies.
Hard to believe, but Aang and Kuzon had little success in reading their lines together onstage during that intense dialogue from the audience seating... as it seemed that the siblings' voices seemed to demand attention from the handful of people in rehearsal. Onji and Haru exchanged odd, nervous glances at each other from the wings of the stage, wondering who should be the one to take charge and stop this argument from getting worse.
Aang tried not to think about the subject matter too much, since he had long been meditating profusely on the fact that Zuko and Katara were nothing except friends. He had Toph's words of wisdom running along in the back of his mind like the cool air of the afternoon breeze, finally feeling more comfortable about this secret devotion he had with the pretty girl.
Haru sighed and quickly did what he could. "Look guys, could you... um... please deal with this outside? We have less than an hour, and we haven't even gotten through Shu's scene..."
On Ji approached the boys onstage, trying to keep them focused on the scene while the director shooed and escorted the rest of the company out the door. Katara decided to stay behind, letting Suki deal with her brother's prejudices outside the auditorium, while she held her breath and braced herself for the next scene she had as Oma.
For some reason, she couldn't remember all of her lines, and she didn't know if it was Sokka's condescending words about someone he'd never met... or if it was the fact that she was suddenly thinking about that mysterious boy so intensely... wondering why he'd gotten that scar...
It had been only a few days since Zuko had cordially invited Katara to Ms. Ursa's birthday celebration at Ember Island, and that news had seemed to spread like wildfire among the local fire nation community at the school. The girl could not understand why her brother would be so brutal about the friendship... since it was clearly not causing anybody harm... and she refused to count the many reasons as to why that boy would immediately start talking about it amongst his friends. The rumors came without a single surprise to the girl, but she didn't care.
All she cared about was that somebody was finally being recognized. It was like all of a sudden, Katara felt a responsibility to that young man... sensing that he was on the brink of losing himself completely if he didn't have the comforting arms of a friend.
And she wasn't about to fail her first official duty as the unelected Class President of Praying Mantis High. No siree.
"Hey Katara..." On Ji studied the older girl's unpleasant glance towards the stage, seeing that her mind was clearly reminiscing about that last argument. "Um, I was just about to go through the next Oma and Shu scene with the guys. Did you want to read with Aang?"
The little girl fumbled with her side bangs slightly, nervous over the tone of voice that Katara would choose for her. Much to her surprise, and Aang's... the young waterbender smiled in disposition as she went up the stairs to the stage.
"Yeah, of course. I'm... sorry about the fuss back there..." Katara said, casting her eyes over to the stage wings in embarrassment. "My brother's really been on my case, lately."
Kuzon snorted uncontrollably, and Aang quickly elbowed him near the ribs in response. The young girl grinned dismissively as she sat herself next to Aang on the same boulder box, not hesitating to give the boy a small hug with one arm as she did so.
Aang looked elsewhere shyly, but not really minding the blush on his face... or the fact that their arms were so close, he could almost lean against the lovely girl easily.
As Haru re-entered the theatre, approached the stage easily, directing his attention to the eager cast members on the stage. "I think we can start off when Oma and Shu are beginning to Earthbend inside the caves for the first time... now this is going to be really special."
Haru turned over to acknowledge his shy little stage manager once again, who immediately smiled to her cast members in return
"On Ji and I came up with an amazing choreographed routine for the Earthbending sequence. It looks a lot like the traditional bending, but even better... with a twist of interpretive, dramatic flare... thanks to this girl's impressive dancing ability." He smiled, feeling confident as he leapt onto the wooden stage of the theatre, clearly about to demonstrate to the cast how this Earthbending dance would look like.
"On Ji, care to join me?" Haru lent a kind hand out to his fellow stage manager, and the young girl could not help but blush shyly as well... impulsively looking over at Aang.
"I– it's okay, Haru..." she then said nervously. "Um... I'd much rather watch it to see how it looks... it's not completely done yet."
"Aw, come on On Ji!" Kuzon kicked her playfully from his seat, acknowledging the open hand that Haru was still holding out for her. "Here I'll even drum the beat for you, if you want. Is that cool, Haru?"
"Sure that's fine." The young man's mustache moved into a hopeful grin as the young boy got up to get bongo drums, but looking slightly hesitant about the idea of dancing by himself.
"Yeah we'd love to see you dance," Katara then offered her own words of encouragement, and Aang followed with a nodding to the head.
The girl remained hesitant under her bangs, glancing over at the young airbender's silver eyes that practically gleam brilliantly at her. On Ji took a deep breath then, and slowly accepted Haru's hand at his side for the dancing demonstration. Kuzon sat back on his own boulder box with the drums, waiting for the cue from the director.
Haru and On Ji braced themselves, turning to face each other for the respectful bow of the waist that commenced any formal dance... and quickly, Kuzon started the uplifting, spiritual beat of the drums.
Aang was so eager to see this combination of Earthbending shoves and pulls with the traditional Firebending slides and jumps that he had always heard about at the Southern Air Temple. His eyes rose as he recognized the usual squating-punch position that Toph would make during her Football drills, and On Ji and Haru had done it together, facing their small audience with smiles on their faces. They did a few more rough lunges with their arms in unison... over their heads, across from each other, and as the bongo beat continued more intensely, Aang beamed seeing that their feet and shoulder movements were becoming more like a Hip Hop dance.
It almost reminded him of the crunches and arm locks that Jet would usually do with the Oak Tree clan... but with more dramatic Earthbending powerplay. On Ji was stepping up a little with the knee-bending and hip locks, while Haru managed to keep his movements at a less intense level. It showed how Oma was slowly discovering her Earthbending spirit among the caves... and those graceful turns she made with her ankles... it was salsa!
Katara noticed it too, seeing those endurant turns of the arms and twists of the feet that usually came from Firebending dances. On Ji was skipping a little as she moved closer to Haru, making a powerful Earthbending punch to the sky with a grin as she looked up at Haru's face. Aang was delighted – this was probably a deep moment of passion between Oma and Shu, like remembering why they were creating those caves. Aang could not help but blush and keep watching. And then Haru stepped up, bringing stronger and sharper Earthbending squats and curving his back in as an intriguing Hip Hop pose. On Ji looked like she was echoing his movements in the background... giving those moves a more graceful, Firebending quality to them. The young airbender could not wait to tell Jet about all these moves!
Aang noticed how between every three or four moves, the couple would look at each other lovingly within their dance. So far he spotted two moments where they would draw their faces so close, they were almost rubbing their noses sweetly. His heart was leaping as he noticed all the symbolism that was going into the dance... and knowing that he would be sharing this awesome dance routine with the amazing girl sitting next to him.
I'm gonna learn to dance like that? The boy could not feel more motivated to memorize his lines, exchanging smiles with Katara as she also seemed to be quite impressed.
But then something caught his eye during the last few moments of the routine... in the way that On Ji was doing her backward walks and her leaps for transitions. Her feet were so graceful in those fractions of a second, as if they had been barely touching the floor at all. Aang noticed her arm positioning, how they spread out at her sides like draping and invisible tarp. It was all happening in slow motion to the young boy... almost as if he had seen those classical movements before.
And then it hit him. The arm pose, especially... that slow raising of the arms to the sky, and quickly chopping them down to the side into like a sharp 'T.' On Ji had done it perfectly.
It was one that he had seen the young women perform at the Western Air Temple, usually right before they would take off like funnels into the air... spinning their intricate costumes of orange, brown, and white into the soaring sky...
No way... he thought suddenly, raising his eyes to the girl... it couldn't be.
On Ji and Haru completed their Earthbending dance promptly with an intimate wrapping position, their side arms reaching out at an angle... and the girl's light body resting on one of Haru's squatted knees.
Katara and Kuzon had immediately applauded the two amazing dancers in response, but Aang just sat there, flabbergasted, confused... and almost completely entranced by the young girl's eyes as she smiled shyly at the end of her graceful dance. Aang could not get the idea out of his mind... suddenly remembering how Zhao had mentioned how he despised all these strange kids that Roku took into the school without him knowing.
... was On Ji an airbender!?
"You know, you've really gotta find some other place to crash after school... you're distracting me."
Mai had been returning from a drink of water at the school, getting herself ready for another afternoon of painting when she heard that familiar voice call out to her by the oak tree. The day was terribly, uncomfortably hot for the afternoon, but nevertheless... the girl did not let a little sun ruin her day at work. Apparently, she wasn't the only student that day who was defying the powers of the heat that day.
"How am I distracting you?" She asked him nonchalantly, tried not to cringe in disgust by the sweat protruding from his shirt.
"I can't concentrate with your pretty face." Jet smiled, as if fully unaware of the sun that was raining down on him with his dance practice. He was all by himself, too.
Mai had practically fallen immune to this boy's flirtatious attempts, after hearing them for over a month, and just brushed it aside with a simple "I'm here to paint, stupid."
Jet laughed, while practicing a certain stomping move with his feet. "Yeah, I've noticed."
This senseless sort of talk was making the girl more eager to get to her art, but she chose to give the boy a piece of her mind. "And you seem to be here all for the sake of being a huge pain. I don't even understand why you dance so much. You're not even that good."
It was then that Jet stopped with his dancing, froze, and took a greater sense of ease while not taking his eyes off of the girl in front of her.
"Wow, you just insulted me... with the largest amount of words I've ever seen come out of your pretty mouth." Jet smirked loosely towards her, but rubbing one of the temples on his head iwth a hand. "Did I forget my birthday?"
Mai refused to even respond to that, watching Jet continue to massage his temple below his strands of sweaty wet hair. He spoke again.
"What makes you dare to say that I'm not a good dancer?"
She knew he was going to bring that up, and Mai sighed, knowing this boy's weak attempts too well all of a sudden. The least she could do was be honest about her extraordinary sense of artistic detail.
"You're about a quarter of a second two slow on the arms, and you make it look painfully obvious that you're trying to impress someone." She said to him faintly, her arms crossed, yet noticing the boy's eyes lingering as if from a slight dizzy spell. "I certainly hope it isn't me. Trust me, you'd be wasting your time."
Jet just stood there, then, covering his eyes with a hand from the sun as he gazed at Mai. Much to the girl's surprise, the boy's smirk seemed to melt away by the intense heat, and it may have been possible that his eyes were frowning at disappointment. He then placed his arms on his hips, still looking at the girl without much of anything to say.
He studied her face, for what seemed minutes in silence between them, and Mai was looking back at him with interest... almost admiring that angry look he was creating.
"Has it occured to you at all that maybe..." he said flatly, "...you just might have hurt my feelings just now?"
The girl's eyes thinned, with the feeling that he was finally getting the message straight. "Perhaps."
"Do you feel sorry about it?" the boy said, a bit softer this time, as if wanting to get an honest answer.
Mai just stood there, her slender back towards him as she looked over to the woods, trying hard not to sigh. Her lips pursed with frustration as she did not know how to respond back to Jet. Another handful of seconds seemed to pass by under the sun, before Jet attempted another question.
"... Do you even have a pulse?"
The boy had clearly said this with a bit of humor, acting as if he were in real concern as he approached her quickly. It was then that Mai realized his angry looks had all been a trick. "Here, let me check--"
His hand had barely brushed the sleeve of her arm before she reacted violently with a swish, turning around to have one of her sharp knives glint into existence.
"Don't... you... touch me."
The girl's nostrils were flaring as she breathed angrily in front of the boy, and Jet cautiously raised his hands to her, taking a small step backward.
"I didn't take anything -- I swear," he said calmly, but not taking the slight grin from his face.
Her eyes locked with his, as if her mind were refusing to go back to that sudden, almost humiliating chase she had done after him in the woods. What captivated her at the moment wasn't his sudden surrendering pose, but that he remarkably did not seem to be afraid of her at all.
Instead, he looked concerned... almost sorry for her... like he already knew this was all just a defense mechanism. And as much as she tried to compose herself, it frightened Mai, to think that someone she had barely known had immediately expected the worst from her, inside and out.
"How does it feel, Miss Sharpy," The boy then asked her, "to be the only person in the entire school who sees her life as one big dead end?"
No, she thought... I won't listen to him. It's a trick. He just wants to mess with my mind... that obnoxious... intimidating...
"Please, leave me alone," Mai then said quietly, assertively. Dangerously.
"I'm sorry, Mai," Jet said calmly, but with a sense of sadness and defeat in his voice. His eyes were beginning to linger strangely, as he looked up to shield his eyes from the heat. "I can't promise you that."
The girl's eyes frowned in response, lingering themselves out from under her bangs, wondering what the hell of an explanation this young man had to give her now.
"You see," Jet suddenly felt a drop of sweat trickle down his left ear, and his eyes pressed themselves to the ground as he continued to speak to her. "The thing is... I already made a promise this year... and that's become a lot more than what I bargained for."
Mai's eyes shifted confusingly at him, studying Jet's face with all of his hesitation and will.
"But I'm not giving up on it. I won't."
A daring hint of a grin came upon Jet's face, then, right as he blinked away the sun's light from above him.
"Anyway... I noticed that your paintings have gotten a little edgier lately... the brush strokes remind me of that long swirly bark of the Redwood trees. They look good."
The girl's eyes thinned dangerously at him still, as if not blinking or wanting to return into an ease until he clearly backed away from her.
"And thanks for the dancing advice. I'll know what to work on for the weekend."
He turned back around towards the Oak Tree, and without a moment's notice brought himself back in his first dancing position in the choreography. Mai was too overturned by the boy's sincerity, and his cryptic use of language... she turned around and found her way towards the canvas near the woods again.
She had made one last glance at the young man dancing – rather poorly with rhythm -- near the oak tree, before glancing at her own easle and deciding that she indeed could not stand in this area of the school any longer. She would not be able to concentrate near that Oak Tree anymore.
The girl was just about to lift up her canvas to fold her easle up, when another unintended glance brought her towards the Oak Tree, and she noticed that the boy had momentarily stopped dancing. He was crouching slightly, his hands to his knees and looking at the ground, panting as if he were suddenly struggling for so much breath.
Mai sighed with impatience, wondering if this was just another trick of his to get attention... and she looked back towards her easel to fold up and leave his sight completely.
But then, an unexpected sound came. It was like someone had accidentally dropped a bag of rice, but as Mai looked back up to the distance... there was nobody else around her.
Nobody except that stupid boy, as she noticed... whose body had all of a sudden appeared to be on the ground.
Mai blinked, in disbelief. What the hell is he trying to do? The boy's body was slumped as if he'd strangely decided to take and afternoon nap in the middle of his routine, and his arms were sprawled out... crawling... attempting to get himself to the Oak Tree's shade.
He was still panting. This couldn't have been a trick, she thought, and the girl stepped out of her own shade to try and get a better look to boy's act... but then it occured to her.
The sun. The scorching heat that it brought this entire week... and that boy... he had reluctantly chosen to practice outside in the sun all those days.
And the boy's crawling got slower.
Oh no.
"Jet?" Mai called out to him, raising her voice to him only by a notch.The boy was unresponsive to her at that distance and she saw his stomach still moving to take in air. She couldn't see his face, but it was curled up inside his body tightly, like he was in pain. There was nobody else outside the school, and the girl was almost hesitant to face the boy she had so quickly turned away from.
She set her easel down completely and walked towards him.
He'd moved his body slightly, with his chin pressed harshly against the ground as if to breath in the dirt, and the girl's eyes widened from the exhausted, painful look in his flushed face. He was clutching his stomach with an arm.
Her walk quickly became a run, immediately approaching the boy with panting breaths. Jet was breathing painfully, caving into his stomach as if it were the source of all the intense heat flowing into his body at the moment. When Mai pressed a hand onto his arm... it was like touching a warm copper surface of a radiator.
She'd suddenly forgotten how to breathe.
"H– help..." Mai called out to the air around her, looking for someone. Anyone.
"Please, somebody. HELP!"
The girl looked around, frantically, holding the boy's head up from the ground to prevent it from drowning in grass and dirt. His eyes were shut closed and his breaths came in deep ventilation, and Mai could not think of anything to do but to hold him closely, her long sleeves covering his flushed face from the scorching sun above.
Her eyes were betraying her as she breathed, slowly beginning to glimmer down at the boy as she sat there, helpless for what seemed the longest seconds of her life. Mai shut her eyes, wondering if just believing would be enough to cure him.
Suddenly two figures appeared at the corner of her eye from the school's entrance, clearly having heard the girl's voice in the previous attempts... and it wasn't long before Smellerbee cried "Jet!?" and broke into a run with Longshot towards the Oak Tree.
Mai had not even known these kids' names, and seeing them approach her all of a sudden... she felt very out of place. It was like she was unceremoniously recruiting herself as part of the Oak Tree clan, holding Jet like that, and as the other two friends glanced at her in a puzzled, extremely concerned way... the pale girl held on to him even less.
The girl with the cropped red hair crouched down to study her friend, hearing his groans as if they were the result of an excessive beating.to the stomach. She did not hesitate to place hands on his shoulders.
"Oh god, Jet... what did you do to him?" Smellerbee turned sharply towards the pale girl as she watched her examine her friend's body.
Mai was taken aback from those interrogating words.
"I... nothing– I just left... and..." Mai suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable hanging on to Jet's upper body, but as she moved her hand to his forehead, she flinched at the heat.
Smellerbee gasped in reaction and immediately checked it herself. "He... he has a fever..."
Mai replaced her trembling palm over Jet's forehead to lift him and roll him forward on his side, blocking the sunlight with her own body. His eyes were shut tightly, his hair sodden from sweat, and she couldn't think of anything else to do except watch him panting for breath so desperately.
Smellerbee placed a fingertip towards Jet's parted lips, realizing they were very dry. Longshot was furrowing his brows in concern as he carefully crouched near Jet's neck, and felt the underside of his friend's jaw for a pulse.
He didn't blink once.
"I think it's heat exhaustion..." came his extremely tranquil voice, and he looked at Smellerbee."Bring him into the shade; I'll get Nurse Yugoda."
And not a moment too soon, Longshot got up and dashed towards the fountain of the courtyard, the pain in his ankle immediately leaving him.
Mai exchanged an awkward glance with the scrawny girl who was still sitting next to her, and quickly hid her paleness and concern under the bangs in her eyes. Smellerbee glared at her skeptically, but not without a glance over to her friend as she caressed his cheek. He was still breathing, thank goodness, but it was so stiffled and weak, the boy could still not open his eyes.
"Come on, grab one of his arms. I'll take the other one..." the younger girl asserted directly, and Mai silently stood up and did what was suggested, not taking her eyes off of Jet's flushed face.
How in the world did that happen so quickly?
They both carefully tried to drag him a few feet under the Oak Tree, not speaking a word to each other. Their eyes were looking down to the boy as he was still unresponsive to them... refusing to make a sound except for a few groans... and Mai felt herself trembling by his weak state, she just closed her eyes and crossed her arms for warmth, leaning against the tree. She could feel the goosebumps forming onto her skin.
Smellerbee gave her another skeptical look, before sitting down next to Jet again and placing her hands onto her friend's cheeks. "Jet, can you hear me? It's Bee..."
The girl's husky and childish voice made the young man stir, bring him to open his eyes under the shade of the Oak Tree, looking over to Smellerbee in his weakened state. She couldn't see his face, but from what she could notice he was still breathing slowly, and the girl immediately looked away in mere sadness... and perhaps in slight atonement of herself.
And when the boy shifted his head slightly, taking in a small glimpse of a girl who was leaning against the tree... it was like Jet concluded that this all must've been a painful, hallucinating dream in his head. His body still panted softly for air, and he fell back into Smellerbee's eyes once again before closing them in her comfort.
The skinny girl felt his clothes, how he was sweating through them profusely, and immediately decided in action. "Listen, Jet..." she spoke to him in his half-conscious state. "I'm gonna go get some water... Mai?"
She flinched at the sound of her name, not expecting it at all.
"Quick... help me take his shirt off."
"What?"
"You heard me, Sharpy," Smellerbee husked, moving Jet's frame to sit himself up. She began tugging at the lower part of his thick green shirt. "His body needs to cool down, fast... so quit standing around and help me."
The tall, pale girl's eyes glimmered, frowning as she looked over at the girl named Bee as she tried to hold steady to Jet's weight. He was so limp, and her skin still felt bloodless and numb from just seeing him like that... but she knew she had to help.
But how could she, if she never had to help anyone before?
"Listen... um, Bee..." The girl tried to sound reasonable, despite of the gripping situation before them.
"Smellerbee," came the correction with bite."And hurry up, so I can go get the water!"
Mai did not want to argue, being how stressful the situation was for the girl, so she bit her mouth and went back over to Jet... placing a nervous grip on his sweaty shirt and undershirt to lift them up while Smellerbee held onto him. From what they saw from his back, his skin seemed to have turned a shade of red in a matter of minutes... and as Mai slowly brought the fabric over the boy's shoulders... she noticed the markings of a tattoo on his left arm.
A pair of small Chinese kanji symbols, etched in black ink, and it spelled out one word.
Freedom.
It wasn't long before Smellerbee lifted her head and noticed Longshot hurrying back to the Oak Tree with the school nurse, an elderly-yet-fit woman with a long plait named Yugoda. Among the few tools of aid she carried in her bundle, the young girl spotted a water canteen, and sighed in relief.
"Set him up against the tree. Quickly," came the old woman's velvety voice and assertive orders as she sat herself under the Oak Tree shade, laying out her aid on the grass. Mai was quicker to respond this time and tossed the shirts aside to bring Jet's body into full rest against the tree's trunk, along with Smellerbee's assistance. The nurse placed his head back so he could breathe easier, in an attempt to diminish the flushing red of his cheeks. She took out a dry cloth and opened the canteen... immediately showering the boy's head and shirtless frame with its cold water.
The pale girl suddenly seemed more interested in looking at the painting material she had left behind in the distance, crossing her arms uncomfortably as she sat next to the boy. Longshot was the only one who caught her uneasy gaze.
Jet didn't open his eyes, but as Yugoda slowly peppered the water's coldness onto his skin with the cloth, the young man seemed to stir anew. One of the nurse's hands seemed to be bending... locating the temperature of the boy's head at the temple.
"The water will help him for now," she said calmly up to Longshot, who had been standing against the tree the entire time. "But his body temperature is astoundingly high. I cannot lower it on my own... it's too delicate."
"Will he be okay?" Smellerbee asked, her voice almost sounding like a little girl's. Yugoda turned to her and gave her a reassuring grin, placing her palm fully on Jet's forehead.
"He needs plenty of rest, and with the scorching days that we've been having... he'll need to stay out of the sun for at least a week."
"A week?" the young girl's voice suddenly returned to normal, exchanging worried looks with Longshot. "But... but Street Fest is this weekend!"
"And he has The Duke's camping trip next Saturday," Longshot added almost mutely.
"I don't believe this. Jet, you idiot..." Smellerbee punched the bark of the tree lightly at her frustration (making the nurse wince with fright) and her thick eyeliner immediately stared at the pale girl who sat with them.
It was a cold, uncomfortable glare, and Mai's skin seemed to jump as she saw that look with confusing eyes.
"Bee, it's okay," Longshot gathered his friend, comforting her with a hand on her red hard.. "We can still compete without him... we'll just have to adjust a few parts to the line-up."
The young girl with cropped hair said nothing, biting her lips in sadness and disappointment as she stared into the bark of the tree. Mai could not help but sigh, turning her eyes to Jet, who still seemed to stir in a half-conscious breathing state.
Yugoda spoke up again, sincerely and with intent: "Let's take him over to rest in the healing quarters for now. Is there a way we could contact his parents right now?"
This time, it was Smellerbee who winced, sadly glancing at the ground. Clearly, Yugoda did not hang out with the Oak Tree clan very much.
"Um... does a landlady count...?"
It took a moment for her to process the information with her sad, shifting blue eyes, but Yugoda nodded in understanding. "Yes, that will do. We'll send her a message through our delivery hawk."
She then picked up her things from the aid pile, and began to unfold a long, thin sheet of fabric in front of Mai, while Smellerbee and Longshot worked together to lift Jet up from the tree.
"Here," she said to the pale, worried girl with her arms still close to her body, "put this blanket over him so it can cover his head and shoulders." The woman handed her the soft cloth, and Mai looked at it, and then at Jet, whose weight was being supported by the effort of his two closest friends.
Something just didn't seem right, at that moment, for Mai. Her hands were shaking from an uncertain pressure as she held that blanket in his hands, staring over to young boy's semi-conscious, helpless face... and the cold eyes of a young girl with brownish-red hair, who only seemed to desire that this pale, useless girl fall off the face of the Earth.
It wasn't like she cared about the boy, anyway.
"I'm sorry." Mai's voice trembled as she spoke, bringing the soft cloth of the blanket back into the Nurse's hands as she was picking the aid from the ground. "I... I can't... I have to go."
And before Yugoda's concerned face could ask if her everything was okay, she fled. She felt her small feet pace off into the edge of the woods, not turning her head back to hear what Smellerbee must have been muttering about her as they all entered the school building. She felt dizzy, forgetting just how far the painting easel had been placed in the distance, yet nevertheless running faster to her safety.
Her artwork. Her home... where paintbrushes could express everything that she couldn't say in words... feelings that had somehow dried up her body and abandoned her self worth for as long as she could remember. Blood seemed to rush along her arms, and a tight knot clenched larger and larger inside her stomach... that the girl almost doubled-over in pain.
It was always pain... but nothing would ever come out. Not a single tear, or cry, or the absolute longing for somebody to hold her.
Mai stared towards that fresh canvas on the easel, almost like it seemed to stare back.
This was her world. Blank. Meaningless. Doubtful of any reason... or want... or desire. How could a simple tattoo on a boy's arm suddenly make her clench up more with fear?
The girl panted in breath as she sat in front of her canvas, looking elsewhere, for anything that could possibly weigh in the heaviness she was feeling inside. And then suddenly, she turned her head towards the darkness... the endless trail that a certain boy had unexpectedly marked for her to take once on a ridiculous journey. Sensing the breeze and the noises of the woods calmly inviting her in, Mai knew what she had to do... and slowly, carefully, she picked herself up from the easel... and walked into the unknown.
Only this time, she did not bring her knives.
A/N - Sorry, I love these characters too much, and I kinda have a soft spot for Mai. Hopefully by the end of this whole story... you will too!
And I just wanted to point out, I love dancing! I was trying to combine certain dances with the different cultures and here's what I concluded: Earthbending is hip-hop, breakdancing; Firebending is salsa, flamenco, capoeira; Waterbending is Western waltz and Eastern belly-dancing (depending on the Northern and Southern tribes, respectively); and Airbending is ballet, and Riverdance-inspired soft-tap. Cool, eh? If you have any suggestions, please tell me! --MM
