gemsofformenos: That's the one, yes. It's like my pride and joy of a fanfic; like so far that one is my best work and the one I'm most proud of. But yeah, the subject matter is somewhat the same though I'm working with a different drug in this fic so it's also different in some ways and it isn't the central focus. I haven't heard the Cashs' version.

I was looking forward to working with Toph. She's got another thing on top of her other issues. It also kind of helped patch in some plot-holes (Toph texting in earlier chapters despite her canon counterpart being blind). Yeah, Ozai's got the biggest hand in ruining them but the BeiFong case is coming down very hard. Toph's situation is something I have a real lot of experience with. I'm hoping to kind of convey the aspects of financial instability that most people don't seem to realize exist until they find themselves in a financial rut. Feeling guilty for getting sick is a huge, huge one. "But risking her health had only doubled the trouble now." Exactly. "It may sound strange but some forms of conjunctivitis could cause permanent damage to the eyes, if it's doesn't treated (right verb used in this case, I hope)." You used the right verb :D but yeah that's what I was going for. I'm still doing some research on what diseases can blossom from pink eye. Right now I'm considering Trachoma as the main candidate.

Katara gave a frustrated groan. June had to have given her at least two hours of homework between chemistry and math and she still had a few other classes worth of work, including having to write a page for Kyoshi's, 'The Wan High Perspectives' project. A page a day was becoming so tedious and she hated dwelling on her day. She decided to name her auto-biography, 'Wan High Weeping', she had a feeling that by the end of the year there wouldn't be a dry eye left in the school. But she had to power though these assignments if she was going to visit Sokka that weekend. Yet, thinking of the visit was eating away at her focus. And so it became a cycle of fretting over not having enough time to drop by Sokka and then stressing over the amount of work she had instead of actually doing it.

She tapped her pencil against her chin as she forced herself to work out one of the equations. All the while her phone was blowing up, she had to fight the urge to answer any of the calls or texts. She kept telling herself that most of them were probably Jet and his friends, they always seemed to find work arounds to her blocking their numbers.

"Uggh, this is so irritating…" She wanted to throw her pencil down. She didn't have time to think about Jet and pals, but it was so easy to think about that when her homework was so painfully uninteresting.

She didn't spare her phone a glance until she got all of her math work out of the way. After tucking that neatly into its designated folder, she picked up her cell. As expected, many of the messages were from Jet and his crew. All of them were of the same variety, the same tactless insults. She couldn't tell if it was a good or a bad thing that she was growing numb to being accused of being a slut. She sighed and deleted them all, blocking the numbers one by one, until she finally came to something more pleasant. Aang's number appeared on her screen.

It would seem as though things were not as pleasant as she suspected after all. The message concerned Toph. 'Poppy called me earlier. She said to tell coach that Toph is in the hospital.' He added a frown emoji and a sick emoji.

Katara bit her cheek and quickly texted him back. 'So sorry it took so long to reply, math with June is horrible. What happened to Toph? Is she okay?' It makes her stomach turn to think that something has happened to Toph of all people. Truly a hospital visit is the last thing the BeiFong's needed.

She scrolled to the next message.

Suki.

She was almost afraid to open it.

Her finger hovered above the screen for some time before she finally decided to just go ahead and see what Suki had to say. It was simple and to the point, 'you better give him a good talk.' She didn't need context and she didn't know how to reply. It has been so long since she had seen Sokka and she didn't want to open their first conversation with Suki's pregnancy. So she sent a quick, 'I'll see what I can do.'

.oOo.

Shu Jing University was much nicer than Wan High could ever hope to be. It certainly lived up to its prestigious hype. It was a collection of tiered buildings with orange and goal roof tiling. It's campus seem to go on for miles, and some of the frat houses were sprinkled into the town itself. Her journey to Sokka's dorm building was lush with trees, most of them shedding their leaves. The breeze smelled of the season, a warm perfume of cider, caramel, and hot-cakes. She assumed that the cafeteria was the source, it tickled her nose most pleasantly and she longed to study there instead of her own school. Students in uniform—bright red unisex dress pants and vests with the school logo—traipsed down the sidewalk carrying on eloquent, erudite conversations. Where they would meet up for study sessions and what was on the menu in the café and an occasional comment on the weather. Everyone seemed so serious, driven, and generally well-put together. She never envied Sokka more. Everything was so fancy, even the walkway which was made of shining cobblestone.

Trapped in the romanticized image of college life, for a moment she forgot about her troubles. She spied a group of students lounging in the grass on picnic tables, reading and soaking up the last of the moderately warm weather.

With any luck, Sokka would take her for a latte in the café.

She hustled the rest of the way to his dorm area, where he was waiting for her outside with his hands stuffed into his pockets and a skateboard in the other. His hair was wet and he smelled like shampoo. He wasn't in uniform, but instead a white t-shirt and blue flannel pajama pants. He cast his skateboard aside and pulled her into a hug. "It's about time you stopped by! I haven't heard from you since your first day of school! How is everything?"

Katara sighed, her eyes already welling up, "it isn't good, Sokka." She gave herself a moment. "Toph is sick and they won't leave me alone."

Sokka's brows knit. "Here let's go inside."

She followed him into the dorm, it smelled much less pleasant—it was definitely the boys' dorm, alright. It reeked of stale pizza and body odor. "How do you stand the smell?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Eh, ya get used to it." He chuckled. "I probably contribute to it."

"Ew! Sokka, that's gross!" She missed him so, so much. It was almost like nothing changed at all. She could almost pretend that he wasn't dodging responsibilities.

"Anyways, who won't leave you alone?"

"Jet." She mumbled.

"Him again? I thought you broke it off with him?"

"Yeah, that's why he's calling me a whore. He handles rejection worse than Zuko!"

"Am I going to have to have a talk with him." He cracked his knuckles, "ya know, this kind of talk."

Katara laughed. "That would be nice, but I don't want you to lose all of this." She gestured around the dorm. "He's a minor and you're an adult now, you could get in serious trouble. Even if you didn't, his friends would keep it up."

"Which ones? Chan and Azula?"

She could give him a whole list. "Yeah, Chan. And Chan's friend, Chu-Leng. Sometimes the rest of the volleyball team. But it's mostly Jet, Smellerbee, Pipsqueak, and Duke. Azula…that's kind of a long story but her friend, Usha…" That woman always had the worst things to say on her social media pages.

"It seems like the whole school is after you." Sokka sighed.

"Yeah, it kind of does. And none of the staff can do anything about it because it's 'just name calling'. I don't know what to do. I wish you were still there, they weren't this bad when you were there with me."

"I don't think it would be a good idea for me to be at Wan High right now…" he trailed off.

And she couldn't help herself. "Why? Because it would be harder for you to avoid Suki? She needs help you know!? I know you're my brother and that I should be on your side but…" She took a breath. "But you both…had sex. You're a dad and you have to deal with that!" She had risen her voice much louder than she had intended.

"Not so loud please, the guys…"

"Don't need to know?" She filled in. "That's the great thing about being a guy isn't it? You can keep it hushed. Suki? Every knows! It's kind of hard to hide an entire baby bump." Katara didn't realize how furious the situation was making her until she finally put it out there.

Sokka flushed.

"I can't believe you, Sokka!" She sputtered. "You'd come all the way to Wan High to beat people up for me, but you're afraid to go help Suki out every once in a while."

"She broke up with me, Kat!"

"Because you ignored her any time she mentioned the baby."

"I don't know how to be a father." Sokka confessed softly.

"You can learn. Just like every new dad."

"I have to study, this is tough stuff…"

"Suki has to study. She still wants to go to college too." Katara argued. "But she can't just avoid things like you are. She doesn't have a choice at this point." She shoved her phone at him. "Call her, Sokka. And tell her that you're going to help her with the baby. You can start by helping her pick a name."

"Can we go back to talking about bullies? I can handle those."

"Sure, after you call Suki." She replied. "Trust me, I need advice. But Suki needs support more right now."

"Okay, you win, Kat." Sokka lifted his hands. "I'll call and then you let me help you out."