I do not own Pokemon or Avatar.
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Chapter 2
The next week crept by slowly. Shagar endured each day as it went by, barely paying attention in any of her classes. Her mind was still on that camp. It was a break from her regular, boring school life; an opportunity to explore something completely unknown to her, and make the best of it. She was unsure if the camp would still be there by the next weekend, but even if it wasn't, it was excuse to leave the school grounds and explore the surrounding territory. This time, she decided, she would bring her friends. Just like her, they always complained about their lives being boring and unexciting, repeating the same schedule everyday and living like brain-dead zombies.
But finally, Friday afternoon came, almost like a holiday. Shagar sat on the floor of Mrs. Meyer's classroom, surrounded by the other sighing students. The sun was beginning to descend from the sky, signaling that school was soon to be dismissed.
At least the last half hour of the day was free time. After that, school was dismissed and the students were free from the school rules. They could do anything they wanted until nightfall: go into town, participate in extracurricular activities, hang out, or anything else they could think of.
Mrs. Meyer sat at her desk, quickly writing something. Probably a message to one of the teachers. Shagar thought. The Butterfree's antennae twitched as she looked over what she'd written. Then, with a satisfied look, she rolled up the paper, tied a ribbon around it, and set it aside. Her antennae twitched again, and she fluttered over to the window. Mrs. Meyer studied whatever was going on outside and went back to her desk. Shagar also took the time to glance out the window. The younger grade levels had already been dismissed, and were frolicking happily in the field. She gave an innocent sounding sigh, hoping Mrs. Meyer would hear it and dismiss them. She didn't even notice. Oh, never mind! Shagar thought.
Almost as if on command, Mrs. Meyer fluttered up and signaled to the class.
"You're dismissed!" She said, and gave a sigh herself. Even the teachers got sick of being here every day.
Shagar stood up and made her way to the door. The students in her class rushed out like a wave on the water and ran to greet their friends in the field. Shagar did the same.
Freezachu was sitting under the trees across the grassy field with her eyes shut, lying in a relaxed position. She was a Pikachu-like Pokemon with light blue fur. Icicles hung from her ears and tail, and she had three dark blue stripes on her back, of which the third one was a tad longer. As far as she knew, she was the only one of her species.
Shagar figured Freezachu's class must've gotten out early. Mrs. Galvan often let her class out early, as did Mrs. Talbert. The rest of them sometimes waited ten minutes after the other classes got out to be released themselves.
Shagar pushed the thought out of her mind and sat down beside her friend.
"Hey," she said as a standard greeting.
"Hi," Freezachu said in reply. She took a deep breath. "I'm so glad it's Friday."
"Definitely," Shagar agreed. "Oh, I wanted to ask you something. Would you be willing to go on a little trip with me?"
Freezachu's ears pricked. "How long of a trip?"
"A couple of days. We should be back by Monday."
"Where would we be going exactly?" Freezachu had to get every bit of information.
Shagar couldn't help but smile. "I found a camp." She said. "A Fire Nation camp. It's about five miles from here. We could get there by tomorrow and have a whole day to explore it before coming home."
"A Fire Nation camp, huh?" Freezachu's expression was a mix of concern and curiosity. Shagar could tell she wanted to go, but her instincts were telling her not to. Both of them had experienced the Fire Nation in the past. The two of them had been separated from their parents in Fire Nation raids. She could understand if Freezachu decided she didn't want to come.
Freezachu's expression suddenly turned very thoughtful as she mulled it over. For a long while, Shagar sat in silence, waiting for an answer.
"I'll come," she said at last. "Is anyone else coming?"
"I was going to ask Aliela and Kinko," Shagar answered. She knew Aliela would come, but she wasn't entirely sure about Kinko. She'd changed so much since Shagar had met her. She never seemed to want to go out for adventure anymore, but rather just sit on the sidelines and watch. It irked her to no end.
"I'll go find Aliela, you find Kinko," Freezachu hopped up and raced toward the opposite side of the field.
Kinko was a spring green, canine like Pokemon with long, thin ears and a vine-like tail that split at the end. Tiny icicles hung from them, and running down her back were three purple hourglass markings. Her eyes were a deep green.
She sat alone near the main building. When Shagar reached her, she explained her plan to go to the Fire Nation camp. It took a lot of persuading, but Kinko eventually agreed.
The two of them met Freezachu and Aliela near the bottom of the cliffs on the far side of the field.
"What time are we leaving?" Aliela asked. The Zangoose had a great sense of adventure and Shagar admired her for it. She knew Aliela would want to leave right away, but they needed to do at least a little bit of preparation first.
"We need to pack some supplies before we leave." Shagar replied. "Not very much. Just enough to get us through a day or so. We could each pack enough for ourselves and meet back here in twenty minutes. How does that sound?"
"What do we need to bring?" Kinko asked.
"Food and stuff." Freezachu answered bluntly. "I dunno, bring an apple or something. Just don't over pack."
"Back here in twenty minutes then?" Aliela checked, glancing at her peers.
"Yep." Shagar gave a slight nod.
"Okay then. See y'all in twenty minutes." Kinko gave a wave of her tail and started back toward the school. Shagar followed, heading back into the portables. Despite Curtsinger's rule against hoarding, most kids kept their own secret stashes of snack food anyway. Since it was nearly impossible to sneak food out of the cafeteria, most kids went into town on the weekend and bought more snacks than a Machamp could carry. A lot of them even had part time jobs at snack stands or stores, which is where most of them got their money anyway.
Shagar's stash was hidden behind the shelf everyone's blankets were stored on. No one was in the portable at the moment. Everyone was off somewhere, doing their own thing. Shagar reached behind the shelf and felt around for something she could take. Pulling out an apple, a few nuts, and a left over cookie she got in town yesterday, she stuffed it all in a brown leather bag and flung it over her shoulder.
Taking into careful consideration that she may have been seen, she made a quick scan over the room before racing out the door toward the meeting place.