This is my first fan-fiction that I've ever published, so I'd really appreciate some reviews! Constructive criticism is very welcome! This is basically a story about the next avatar who doesn't know who she really is, while as a skilled firebender she is put up to compete for her school in a dangerous bending sport. I know that this may be more along the lines of LoK fan-fiction, but I'd rather post it here. Hope you enjoy it!

*I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra.

Sakarya looked at her reflection in the mirror. Today she was being forced to go back to school after a beautiful summer break. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried forget about it, this day had been looming in her mind the entire season. But she knew she shouldn't get herself worked up over it; everyone else will be too worried about paying attention to themselves than to other people anyhow.

Satisfied with her plain outfit of skinny jean, a line patterned shirt, and her favorite pair of brown tie up boots, she threw her dark brown hair up into it's usual ponytail. She threw on her backpack after she checked to make sure everything was in there and practically fell down the stairs going down them so fast.

"Woah, careful there eel-hound," Her father, Tazek, teased. "Don't want to break your face the first day of the school year." Sakarya only smiled, using sign language to tell him that he was oh so funny.

Her ten year old brother squeezed past his sister and the wall, "It looks like she's already broken it."

"Jocuri, be nice to your sister!" Sakarya's father yelled after the boy. She rolled her eyes and followed Jocuri and her other brother Enzei out the front door. She didn't have time to figuratively yell at him like she normally would, she could already hear the roar of the high school bus down the road. She was so happy she didn't have to deal with those two on the bus. Thankfully the elementary school now had its own bus on this route.

She walked up to the yellow machine as it pulled to a stop in front of her. The doors opened and she slinked in, finding her usual seat in the middle of the bus. She only got one or two stares from some freshman. The infamous mute girl walking right in front of their eyes. She snickered at the thought. Most people thought her muteness was a choice like a lot of other people, but her voice box was actually in terrible shape. It had been that way since she was born. But it wasn't like she could tell everybody that to their face; most of the idiots that were at her school didn't know sign language.

Sakarya bided her time of the ten minute drive to her school (she was thankfully one of the last stops) listening to music or playing a game on her phone. The worst scenarios that could ever happen were running through her mind in the background even though she kept trying to ignore them.

Everyone was standing anxiously when the bus stopped in front of the large school. The students spilled out eventually from the bus and Sakarya bowed her head as to not look at anyone. She only had a few friends at school and she knew they would recognize her if they saw her so she didn't need to spot them out.

She went through the doors and immediately appreciated the fact that she was no longer a freshman; she could see how scared some of them were, and that all of the upperclassmen were practically running over them. She pulled out her schedule to get her attention off the unfortunate freshmeat around her and studied her schedule again. First period was academic biology... great. That was with the really uptight teacher, Ms. Humi. Then she had fire elemental studies, gym, elemental practice, and national history right before lunch. Alright, she could handle all of that stuff. After that she had academic english, algebra II, study hall and... huh, her last period of the day was missing. She'll just go down during study hall to ask the office about it. No big deal.

"Oh my gosh, Sakarya!" She heard someone yell behind her. She turned in time for someone to start squeezing the life out of her. She made a choking noise and tapped on the person's shoulder to get their attention and she was dropped too suddenly back on the ground. She knew it would be Amara; the brown-eyed girl could never show enough affection to her friends. She also didn't know how to control her earthbending very well, so sometimes Sakarya would get a couple pebbles to the face. The girl was so flawed she made an amazing friend.

Sakarya signed how are you? to her friend. "I'm doing awesome girly, how are you? Was your summer awesome possum?"

A stupid smile came to Sakarya's face. I guess. I had fun.

"Oh didn't we all," Amara replied. "But then again, I did miss my view of Renu's butt..." Sakarya knew exactly who she was talking about. Renu was the school's popular guy, despite being a non-bender. Amara has pretty much been in love with him since she left her diapers.

You've never even talked to him. She had to say it. It always got Amara lost for words.

"Well... I'll do it this year!" Sakarya had heard that one before. Many times actually.

You haven't changed at all.

Amara laughed and agreed. The bell rung and spooked the both of them. They hugged and separate ways. Sakarya had to find her locker quickly so Ms. Humi wouldn't try to murder her. Locker 118, 118, 118... she got to the hall where she knew the hundreds were and almost stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who was next to her locker. On one side was the school's 'tough guy' Emi. Then on her left was Renu. Amara was going to kill her if she didn't anger Emi somehow and already be dead. She was going to be walking on glass this entire year.

The slowly approached her locker, putting in the passcode. Emi saw her out of the corner of his eye, making her swallow her nervousness. He slammed his locker and caused her to flinch. When the boy started to walk away was when she realized she hadn't been breathing.

"Don't worry, Emi's all bark, no bite," A voice on her left said. She turned her head and saw it was Renu talking to her, much to her surprise. She gave him a small smile and closed her locker, following the same direction Emi had walked off to. Time for school to officially start.

Sakarya dodged a red fireball, with it nearly singing her shirt. She glared at the person who had thrown it so quickly at her. That boy was getting way too close for comfort with his bending.

"Emi! I said get familiar with your partner, not burn her to death!" The teacher, Mr. Itsuki, yelled. She had been in elemental practice not even five minutes and her luck was the worst in the world. She knew that your partner changed so you have a different one every grading period, but she had gotten the worst person in the world to practice fire-bending with.

Emi smiled sarcastically. "Yes, Mr. Itsuki." The look in his eye was just evil.

But Mr. Itsuki wasn't finished. "I'm serious, Emi. Remember what happened to poor Hitomi last year?" Sakarya shivered at the memory. Emi had been in her class last year as well, though he was never her partner. But one of his partner's had angered him, and she was sent to the infirmary with first degree burns. That girl was never the same, which was why her parents put a restraining order on Emi and moved her to a different school. Everyone knew he felt bad about how his temper got the best of him, but it had scared them too.

"Yes, Mr. Itsuki," Emi said again, only seriously this time. The next fireball was much more controlled, but when Sakarya took it from him she could feel the pulsing shield around it. He had a lot of trouble controlling his power. That was not good for both of them. She sent it back to him and it repeated. This was what always happened with a new partner. You were paired with someone with the same bending as you, you would keep a control ball of whatever it was that you were and pass, and talk. It was some kind of bonding thing according to Mr. Itsuki. Except that Sakarya couldn't talk, so all of her partners hated her. But they never talked to her about it. They were as silent as she was.

As the minutes went by, she could feel the fire coming from Emi pulse more and heat up. He was getting irked for some reason. She pretended not to know, but it only got worse.

"Why don't you talk?" He blurted out, letting the fireball grow larger. She shrunk it and shrugged her shoulders. "What does that mean?" His temper was getting worse. As if by some miracle Mr. Itsuki called an end to the class and she ran to her backpack. When the bell rang she gave Emi no time to force his question to be answered.

In the hallway Amara caught up with her to head to the only class they shared, national history. They talked about bits and bobs, and Sakarya blatantly did not bring up the Emi situation, especially not the Renu-locker thing. She just escaped death, she didn't want to have to do it again. Once they arrived to the class and seats were assigned, Mr. Ayumu started the class with talking about the most important thing to have ever happened to the United Republic; the Avatar line.

"As you all know, Avatar Aang started this nation. What you don't know, is how he came to become the leader of so many people and what he had to do. That is what we will be incorporating into our first few lessons," He explained. A kid raised his hand and Mr. Ayumu let him speak.

"What about Avatar Korra? And theories about the next Avatar?" He asked.

Mr. Ayumu nodded his head. "Very good question Hachiro," He said. "We will learn about Avatar Korra next semester. As for theories about the next Avatar, we will discuss those as they come along. Would anyone like to bring one up?" He asked.

A girl raised her hand. "That the Avatar isn't needed anymore," She said. That was the one that most people believed, but Sakarya wasn't so sure. There were still a lot of problems with the world, so there was no way that was true.

Mr. Ayumu chose another student to contradict her. "There are still many reasons that the Avatar is still needed. Not everything is, you know, cool with the Spirits yet. And there's a whole bunch of high level crime in the world. Not to forget that our last president was an embezzler. You would think the Avatar would be needed to have prevented that, right?" The boy said.

Satisfied with that answer, the female student let the conversation be settled. Another student soon raised their hand and the process went on.

The Avatar kept dying at infancy, the Avatar is hidden, the Avatar doesn't know who they are, the Avatar is in the Spirit world, the Avatar was kidnapped. There were so many theories out there. People once said that they didn't need the Avatar, so why, after fifteen years, do a lot of them still believe that it is out there? Avatar Korra had died just before her age group had been born, so that was where the governments of the world were looking but to no avail. Avatar Korra's death was terrible, so a lot believed that she was angry and did not allow another Avatar to be born. But that made no sense. The Avatar had no say in that according to legend.

Amara snapped her out of her deep thinking when she all but jumped on her to get Sakarya's attention.

"Come on, the bell rang," She said.

Oops, sorry. Sakarya got all her stuff together and headed out the door. She went through the rest of her day pretty well. No nearly burned shirts, locker accidents, or something equally worse. The school lunch had almost made her barf though. That stuff did not taste good, and it wasn't even healthy. Seriously, slop is not human food.

Now it had gotten around to study hall and the teacher had let her go up the office to ask about the missing eighth period ordeal. Turns out about eight other students were in the office at the same time. The office woman had them all sit down, and some even had to sit on the floor. sakarya was of course one of those people. She didn't really know any of these people, and apparently none of them knew each other because no one was talking. It was actually kind of creepy how silent everyone was.

The woman cleared her throat out before she started talking. "The eight of you have been chosen to be part of a special program that has just started in this school. All of you are aware of the regional and world competitions of bending, correct?" Of course they all knew, it was like their own real life Hunger Games. Except there was no death, fortunately. It was where special students from around the world were put in a ring and it was basically like a karate competition mixed with Pro-Bending. It is really dangerous but no one has died yet. Sakarya sat straight up when she realized what this was... oh no...

"With the permission of all of your guardians, the school has chosen you to represent it in the competitions. You have all shown a high level of capability in your respective bending abilities. I know it sounds daunting, but it is mandatory that you at least go to one competition before quitting, just so you know what you'll be missing out on," She looked at them what seemed a bit like pity. "Your last period of the day, and after the school day has ended if you wish, will be when your practice is. You all have study halls right before then so you can come down then as well. There are only a few of you, and the school does not want to cause jealousy over what has happened, so it is required for you to sign a document stating that you will not release this information to someone who will abuse it until our first competition."

The nine of them just shared blank looks with each other. Only one of them was smiling, and two were actually starting to shake in fear. Sakarya felt like she might join them at any moment. Why would her parents ever agree to this?

One by one, they each signed the document. They had this not even an hour from the moment the pen touched the paper. One thing Sakrya knew for sure, was that she was not the right person to do this. She could feel it. This was not going to end well.

Hope everyone liked it! Please leave a review if you want, I'd really appreciate it! :)