"Morning Sokka!" Mr. Everett greeted him kindly as Sokka walked into the classroom, handing him a piece of paper, "I was able to grade last week's tests! Good job!"
"Oh, thank you!" Sokka nodded, looking at his test and smiling to himself. He got an A-, it might not be a perfect score, but he knew he would just do better next time.
Sokka looked over the class, usually he was the first one there but lately a familiar raven haired girl had been stealing that from him. She sat alone at her desk, pencils perfectly aligned to her paper; head leaning into her hand. She didn't move to look up to him,
"You're here early," he muttered, wondering how she was even able to consistently get there so early every morning. Maybe Mai was much more of an early riser than he gave her credit for, or maybe Azula had demanded they all arrive early just to piss him off,
"More like you're late," Azula taunted as she looked down at his test, "Yikes."
"What do you mean yikes!" He said, ripping his test from her eyes, "Like you could do better-"
He was quickly interrupted by Azula shoving her test in his face, of course she would have a perfect score, "Let me know if you need a tutor, I hear this class can be hard for the small minded."
"Not sure how you got in then, considering the only thing your mind knows how to do is please your father," Sokka rolled his eyes, shoving her paper out of his face. He watched her grit her teeth in anger as she glared at him,
"Is that all you got?" She snarled, "Whenever you lose an argument you pull out the dad card. I thought you were better than that Sokka?"
"Not my fault you're a daddy's girl." He snickered, shaking his head, "Maybe if you loosened up a lil Zula, you wouldn't be so easy to mess with."
"Whatever you say loser," She sighed, placing her test neatly into her backpack. It wasn't long before the bell rang and the rest of the class had placed themselves in their seats,
"Good morning everyone!" Mr. Everett greeted happily, "You all did so well on last week's tests I've decided to pull back on the homework for this week!"
All the other students were quick to rejoice, but Azula didn't move an inch. She just sat there perfecting her lesson notes, and he could admit it, he was a bit jealous of her handwriting; his notes never looked so nice.
Azula didn't say anything else to him for the rest of the class, he didn't want to admit that he wished she would. He missed messing with her and hanging out with her all the time. He would never say that to her face of course. If he told her he was sure she would laugh at him, before reminding him that they were never friends.
When the bell rang Azula was the first to rush out of the classroom. The hallways were already crowded but she surfed through them easily. Sokka tried to keep up with her but she was already gone, leaving him behind with only the whispers of the students around him,
"I heard the new girl used to live here, but had to move because she was expelled for putting someone in the hospital!" Someone whispered,
"I heard Azula will hit any guy that dares to even look at her!" Someone responded,
"Really? Cause I heard she's head over heels for Chan!"
"Wait seriously? Isn't Ty Lee dating him?"
"Yeah and she's best friends with Azula too!"
"I wonder how their friendship will hold up after Ty Lee's date with Chan!"
Sokka rubbed his forehead as he picked up the pace. He could feel his blood boil even though he knew none of that was true. Where did they even hear those things anyway? He could see the first one; she never had been good with people; usually was too violent, but why would anyone think that she liked Chan? Unless Chan had told them that, seemed like something he'd do. Fucking prick.
He had been friends with Ty Lee almost as long as she had been friends with Azula. They weren't as close but he thought he knew her well enough to not peg her as the type of girl to date Chan. Chan was commonly known as a womenizer, just took girls out to have sex with them before leaving them in the dirt. Sure Ty Lee liked dating around but she never really slept with people, at least not to his knowledge.
One thing is for sure, if Chan was using her, he would get what's coming to him.
He could tell that Azula was pissed when he walked into the classroom. She was staring down at the papers on her desk ;organizing them; keeping them all in perfect stacks. It made him remember when they were kids, she would always insist on organizing his room whenever she came over while parents were fighting.
Their classmates were clearly trying their best to avoid looking at her, they did not want to be the target of her anger,
"You okay?" He asked as he sat next to her,
"I'm fine," She said gritting her teeth.
Sokka sighed in response, if there was one thing about Azula that might never change, it was her pride.
Azula had been dragged to lunch by her small friend, who insisted that they needed to eat with Chan and the rest of the football team. Ty Lee wanted to merge their friend groups so they could all sit together, but it was clear Mai and Azula wanted no part in it.
Ty Lee hadn't even gone on one date with Chan and was basically ready to marry herself to him, it was giving Azula a headache. Could Ty Lee not hear all the shit spewing from Chan's mouth? The whole school was gossiping about it! Mai tried to talk sense into her before school started. Insisting that Chan was only using her, and that he was nothing but a fake. All Ty Lee did was insist that Chan was no longer a womanizer and that he had "changed".
So now here they were, picking away at their food as their smiley friend chatted away with Chan and his friends. Mai was leaning her head on her hand as she looked at her phone in boredom while Azula was considering whether or not this was worse than sitting with Zuko and her ex friends.
Most of the people at the table were too scared to even look their way, but sadly one of them wasn't as smart,
"So Mai," Ruon-Jian said as he slid his chair closer to her, "How are you?"
"Worse now that you're talking to me," Mai sighed refusing to look up from her phone. Azula snickered as she took a bite from her sandwich,
"Ah no need to be so mean Mai!" He chuckled, wrapping his arm over her shoulders; pulling her close to him, "There are much better ways to show your affection."
"There are but you don't deserve them," Mai said, shoving him off of her, making him topple out of his chair and onto the ground. The people around them quickly stopped talking and turned to the boy was sitting now on the floor,
"I've always loved girls who play hard to get," He said as he pushed his hair back; starting to push himself up, but before he could a foot shoved him back to the ground; digging deep into his chest,
"Don't even think about it," Azula glared, watching him squirm under her foot. Mai seemed pleased but Azula couldn't say the same thing for the rest of the table,
"Get off of me bitch!" Ruon-Jian snarled,
"Aw what's wrong? Can't take it rough," She smirked, kicking him hard in his side before stepping away from him. He was coughing on the floor before Chan came over to help his friend up. Chan glared at her, clearly trying to find something to say, but was interrupted by the teacher quickly running up to them,
"What's going on here?" Mr. Everett said as he walked between them,
"Nothing Sir," Azula lied, "Ruon-Jian just slipped on his own ego, but I'm sure he will make a speedy recovery." She could almost swear she heard Sokka's distinct laughter from a few tables away. It almost made her smile,
"It's true," Mai insisted before either of the boys could respond, "He knocked the wind out from himself, it was quite odd"
"Right," Mr. Everett said, narrowing his eyes; looking back and forth between the girls and boys. Mai was quick to nudge Ty Lee's shoulder before he could say anything else,
"Yes! He honestly just fell onto his chair!" Ty Lee spirited out,
"Onto his chair?" Mr. Everett questioned,
"She means out of," Azula insisted, wrapping her arm around Ty Lee, "Forgive her she tends to get tongue tied."
Ty Lee pouted at Azula, clearly upset about the whole situation, but Azula just shrugged in response. Chan was staring daggers at the girls while his friend was leaning against him, trying to catch his breath. The teacher sighed and shook his head as he walked over toward to injured teen,
"We should probably bring you to see the nurse, okay Ruon-Jian?" Mr. Everett said, trying to sound sure of himself, he clearly wasn't sure what to do in this situation. Ruon-Jian only nodded in response; he was still fuming but was in no position to argue, "Chan would you mind helping him there?"
"Of course," Chan gritted through his teeth. The teacher led them away, leaving the girls alone,
"Azula! What the hell were you thinking!" Ty Lee said, "You could've gotten in huge trouble!"
"That guy is a creep, he deserved it." Mai insisted, "I know Chan is your boyfriend now or whatever, but I am not sitting with them at lunch."
"Me neither, I'd rather sit with Zuko and the loser gang over there, than sit with these assholes." Azula sighed, "Seriously Ty Lee, what do you see in him?"
"He's nice to me! You wouldn't understand!" She pouted in response, marching away from them. Azula and Mai gave each other a look before sighing and packing up their bags,
"If he hurts her-," Mai started,
"I got it covered, don't worry ." Azula stated, walking away from her friend.
The rest of the day they were unable to find Ty Lee anywhere. She even ignored them at cheer practice and quickly left with Chan when she got the chance; not saying a word to either of them.
Mai still drove her home, both of them were silent but Azula knew they were both worrying about their friend. Father might shun her for that but she didn't care. It's not like he would be too mad if she ended up beating the crap out of Chan anyway; he might even be proud of her.
Azula could see Ursa waiting for her on the sidewalk. Her arms were crossed; foot tapping on the concrete,
"Damnit," Azula whispered under her breath,
"Want me to stay?" Mai asked,
"Don't bother, I'll be fine," Azula insisted, stepping out of the car, "See you tomorrow."
Azula shut the car door and waited for Mai to drive away before she turned toward her mother,
"Azula," Her mother said sternly, "Any idea why I got a call from Ruon-Jian's mother today?"
"Who?" Azula lied, quickly trying to walk past her before the conversation progressed further. Sadly she was stopped suddenly by Ursa grabbing her arm and pulling her back,
"Don't lie to me!" Ursa said, "She said you pushed him onto the floor and kicked him until he was unable to breath!"
"That's an over exaggeration," Azula sighed, yanking her arm away from her mother,
"But you did hurt him didn't you?!" Ursa questioned, raising her voice,
"I think he did more damage to his pride than I could ever do to him," Azula snickered,
"This isn't funny young lady!" Ursa yelled, "I better not hear about you hurting anyone else! Or-"
"Or what?" Azula sighed, "It's not like you can get rid of me."
Ursa stood there speechless, staring down at her daughter, "Azula I don't-"
"Save it," Azula said, walking away from her mother into the house. Ursa was frozen outside as the door slammed in front of her,
"Azula?" Her brother questioned as she kicked off her shoes. She ignored him, pushing past him to run up the stairs and into her room. Azula looked out her window as she placed her bag away in her closet, it was still bright outside. She could see Sokka in his room looking towards her, their eyes locked for a second before she quickly shut the curtain; blocking the light from her room.
At the very least Ursa wouldn't bother her for the rest of the night, maybe she would actually find a way to get rid of her, wouldn't that be a treat.