A/N: hey guys…long time no see. Sorry it's been a really long time- I've had lots of work. I'm almost finished with my second paper, and I've sort of lost some interest in the story- but I'm back now, so I'm going to try and finish this story and my other one, before I finally stop. But anyways, here's the fourth chapter. Hope you guys like it.

Zuko opened his phone to look at who had just sent him a text. It was Mai. He stared at the phone for a minute before closing the device and stashing it into his pocket.

Katara gave him a knowing glance. "Who was that?"

"No one." Zuko answered automatically as he went back to what he was doing.

Katara smiled as she stole a glance at her phone. She put it back into her bag and fished out a bright red folder.

"Jet said he's going to be here in thirty minutes. So, I thought that we could discuss a few things before gets here."

Zuko furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and stopped what he was doing.

Katara opened the folder and continued talking. "It's nothing like that. I just wanted to know if you'd help me with something." She looked up at Zuko and smiled. "I was thinking of planning Jet a surprise birthday party."

Zuko shrugged his shoulders and carried on with his work. It sounded like a good idea, but he didn't know how that would affect him.

"I'm pretty solid with the ideas and the decorations and the other things like that, but I need a little help with the guest list. Since I don't go to your school, I don't know who should be invited or not. That's where you come in."

Zuko groaned. He wasn't too keen on wanting to help Jet. But in a way he was helping Katara, so instead of protesting to have no involvement, he agreed to help.

"What do I have to do?" Katara's eyes quickly lighted up as she pulled out a few sheets of paper, and handed them to him.

"The first page is the template of the invitation. You can make how many copies you need with it. My house fits about sixty people, so you may use that as a guideline. Make sure to tell them to get to my house thirty minutes before the time on the invite, and they can call me if they need help getting directions."

Zuko looked over the documents carefully. He had to admit that she thought this thoroughly. All he had to do was hand the invite out to people, and then he would possibly be done. He slowly folded up the pieces of paper and put them into the pocket of his apron. He turned to look at Katara.

"Is that it?"

Katara nodded. "That's it. And of course you're coming to the actual thing right?"

"Ummmm…"

Katara pouted. "Ahh, come on Zuko. I don't trust all of those people in my house while I'm not at home. I need someone to make sure they don't do anything stupid. Besides, it would mean a lot to Jet if he saw you were there. He is your friend."

Zuko tried not to roll his eyes at her comment for her sake. Jet couldn't care less if Zuko made it or not. It would only matter to him if he and Katara were going to make out at this event. Then he would want Zuko to be there front and center so that he could rub what Zuko didn't have in his face.

"I guess I could come and manage them for you," Zuko answered. "Why aren't you going to be there to supervise?"

"I'm planning to take Jet to dinner and then take him to the house. I'm guess that's a two hour time slot. But you wouldn't have to be there the whole time- just forty-five minutes beforehand to put out the snacks and to let people in."

"I guess I could do that."

"Yay! Thanks so much Zuko. I totally owe you one!"

"Don't mention it." Thankfully their conversation ended just in time for Jet to stroll into the door and have no idea what was happening.

"Hey, babe. How was school?" Jet stopped at the right side of her and pecked her on the cheek. Zuko thought it was strange for him to be so reserved, but didn't say anything.

"Nothing much. We should probably go over to our booth." Katara slid off of her seat and followed Jet to the table. Before she got there, she quickly turned around, smiled at Zuko, and continued over to their seats.

BREAK

Zuko stood near his lockers watching masses of people passing to get to their homerooms. Even though there was ten minutes left until the bell rang, most people wanted to be early so that they wouldn't get detention for being late.

"Who are you looking for?" Jet had magically appeared next to Zuko, startling him.

"N-n-no one." Zuko sputtered. He hadn't expected Jet to be in the hallways. In the morning he was usually finishing up homework he didn't do at night, or meeting with his tutor.

"Don't you have a thirty minute tutor session before school starts some days?"

"Yeah, well … she wasn't here." Zuko glanced over at Jet for a second before facing the hallway again. "So are you going into homeroom now?" Jet inquired.

"No…I have to do something first. I'll see you in there." Jet nodded and walked off, just as Zuko spotted who he was looking for. Duke and Pipsqueak stood off on the other side of the hallway, probably waiting for the crowd to die down. He made his way over to their side of the hallway, before pulling out the papers Katara gave him the day before.

"Hey Duke, Pipsqueak." Zuko stated as casually as he could.

"What's up?" They both said as they continued to stare at the people moving towards their homerooms.

"You remember Katara right?"

"You mean that chick Jet picked up from the club? Yea, we remember her."

"Well, she's planning a surprise birthday party for Jet, and she needs help passing out the invitations."

"So…what does this have to do with us?"

Zuko handed Duke a pack of flyers. "These are the invitations I was hoping you guys could pass out for me."

Pipsqueak looked at him suspiciously. "What's in it for us?"

Zuko shrugged. "What do you want in return?"

Duke and Pipsqueak glanced at each other and looked back at Zuko. "Do our chemistry homework for one week."

Zuko took an exasperated sigh. "Fine. I'll do it. There are 70 flyers I handed to you. Katara's house holds 60 people but you may invite a couple more people in case some don't show. The number at the bottom is Katara's cell phone number for directions, and to RSVP they need to email her. Does that make sense?"

Pipsqueak nodded as he stored the papers into his backpack.

"Cool. We better get into homeroom." Zuko stated as the three made their way down the hall with the rest of the crowd.

BREAK

When Zuko came to the counter, Katara was already there, waiting excitedly for him to come. When she saw him, she smiled broadly and immediately launched into questions.

"So did you give the invitations out yet?"

"I got two of Jet's friends to help pass them out. They should be given to people by today or tomorrow."

"Cool." Katara checked off something on her paper. "So they didn't have any questions about the information?"

"No, they got it."

Katara relaxed as she wrote something else down on her paper before putting it away. "Okay, then. Thanks again Zuko for the help."

"No problem."

They both worked silently- Zuko getting ready for the afternoon shift, and Katara doing what looked like homework. Forty minutes passed before Katara moved to look at her cell phone and frowned.

"Jet's late."

Zuko stopped what he was doing to listen to her. "He has tutoring. Maybe that ran over a little."

Katara nodded. "Maybe that's it. I shouldn't be so paranoid, right?"

Zuko took his time to think the statement over. Should she be paranoid? Jet was known for getting himself into situations when he was dating someone, but this didn't really count. This was one of the first times in a long time that Jet had really dated someone, for real. Zuko knew that Jet was somewhat serious about Katara; he couldn't possibly be doing something behind her back…

"Right." Zuko answered then continued what he was doing. He couldn't help but have some doubt about his answer.

BREAK

Zuko rushed to his locker and tried to quickly put his books into his backpack. He was meeting with his English teacher over his essay and didn't realize until afterwards that he was running late for work. He knew Uncle wouldn't mind all that much, except that it was probably busier then usual. For some reason unknown to him and his uncle, Thursday nights have always been as busy as Saturday mornings.

Zuko quickly went over what he had for homework in his head. Math…History…Spanish… and of course Chemistry… wait- where's my Chemistry book?

The book wasn't in his locker, and it wasn't already in his bag. Zuko racked his brain for where he might have left it. He had a couple of study halls, but didn't use it then. The only other place he could have left it was the chemistry room.

Zuko jogged down the hall to the room and peaked in through the small window on the door. In the dark room under his chair was the familiar red book. Zuko sighed with relief then slowly creaked open the door and walked in. He maneuvered towards his desk and pulled out the book. He opened the cover to find his name written sloppily on the inside front cover, indicating it was his. Just then he was startled by a high pitched shriek. He quickly turned around to find a surprising sight- Jet with a topless unidentified girl.

Shit…

Jet was the one to speak first. "I thought you would be over at the Jasmine Dragon by now."

"I should be but my meeting with a teacher went longer than I planned." Zuko glanced over at the girl who was shakily trying to put her shirt back on. "Does she know that your girlfriend Katara is waiting for you?"

Jet gave him a dirty look before turning his attention to the girl. "You should go." He wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her on the neck. "I'll see you later."

Zuko was getting pissed. How dare he make Katara wait for him everyday while he's off making out with some other girl! Especially since she's trying to plan a birthday party for him!

"So was that your tutor?" Zuko asked heatedly.

"You could say that." Jet smirked then got serious. "You can't tell Katara about her."

"Why shouldn't I?" Zuko practically yelled at him. "She has a right to know you're going behind her back."

"What does she gain if you tell her? Things are really good between us and I don't want you to be the one to mess it up."

"How can you say things are going good?! You're practically cheating on her. That shows a really solid relationship."

"Do you think that if Katara and I break up, then you can have her?" Zuko hesitated. "Well I hate to burst your bubble but that would never even happen."

Zuko struggled to find an answer to shoot back at him. "H-how do you even know that?"

Jet scoffed. "Once she's had me, she would never go for someone like you. Besides, she thinks of you as a friend."

"Maybe once she realizes what a scumbag you truly are, she'll change her mind."

"Katara goes for outgoing guys like me. She knows how timid you are and frankly, she feels bad for you. That's why she tried to get you a date for homecoming. She knew that you wouldn't be able to get yourself a girl…it's pretty pitiful if you ask me."

Zuko moved towards Jet as far as the row of chairs would allow him.

Jet chuckled. "Like I'm really going to fight you right now. It's not even worth it. I better get going- Katara is waiting for me." He smirked at Zuko and he turned around and walked out of the room, leaving a seething Zuko behind.

BREAK

Zuko went the rest of the week avoiding Jet and trying not to blurt anything out to Katara. In a way, Jet was right; Zuko's only real motive for telling Katara was that he might have a chance with her. Even though he knew that Katara would be way better off with someone else, even if it wasn't him, he wanted her to stay with Jet, so at least he could feel like he had more of a chance. Katara thought of them as friends and Zuko would have to be content with that- for now.

On Friday was the surprise birthday party. Zuko heard from Katara that there would be fifty-five people coming to her house around 7, so that meant that Zuko had to get there at 6:00. After school, Zuko told his uncle that he couldn't make it to work because of the party, and after changing his clothes, headed out to Katara's house.

Her house wasn't that far from the Jasmine Dragon. She lived in a big house on the corner in a relatively nice neighborhood. Zuko was a little nervous about being here, but once the door was answered by Katara, he visibly relaxed.

"Hey, you're here!"

Katara swiftly led him through the first floor of her house. As soon as Katara finished showing him around, they both got out the snacks and put the decorations up. Katara looked at her watch around 6:20 and left to go get her clothes on. Zuko finished putting the rest of the things up in the living room when Katara came down the stairs.

"So how do I look?"

Katara was wearing a periwinkle colored shirt with dark jeans and black flats. Zuko gaped for a second before scrambling to look indifferent. She sure wore a lot of blue, but in Zuko's opinion, it looked rather good on her. Katara smiled brightly at his reaction.

"You think Jet's going to like it?"

Zuko strained to smile but nodded. Katara finished walking down her stairs and swiftly put on her jacket. "I'm going to go. I promised to meet Jet at 6:45 for the movie, so I have enough time to walk over there. Thanks a lot for helping me out. I'll be back around 8:30. I'll call the home phone around then and act like I'm talking to Sokka, and that's your cue that I'll be home soon. Is that okay?"

Zuko nodded and smiled as she left. Now Zuko had to wait thirty minutes before everyone was going to arrive, and then he had to stay here for another hour and a half for Katara and Jet to get back. Zuko sighed; this was going to be a long night…

To be continued…

Ha ha, sorry it's sort of left off like this, but I wanted to put this part out and then finish it so you can read part of it now. So I'll try to get the rest out as soon as I can…even though I'm not really sure when that's going to be. Hope you guys enjoyed it anyways and please review!