Mako took a step back, looking me up and down as if he couldn't believe what he saw while Bolin's mouth practically fell to the floor.
"You're our what?" Bolin asked, his eyes as wide as saucer plates.
"Your sister." My answer was short, my arms crossed over my chest and my eyes looking everywhere but them.
"We don't have a sister," said Mako, shaking his head.
I opened my mouth, planning on pleading them to listen, but nothing came out. Both brothers looked at me as if I were a creature that had never seen before. Bolin looked down at his feet and Mako glared at me. "Please," I whisper. "Listen to me."
Mako turned around from me, saying, "Why should we listen to you? We don't even know you!"
Everything I had planned on saying to them disappeared and silence fell between us. Mako started walking across the training room to the door on the other end, and Bolin followed after hesitating. I watched them go, my hands curling into fists so that maybe they wouldn't shake so much, and yelled after them, "Please! I've come to this arena so many times trying to force myself to tell you two! I've only just found out myself a couple weeks ago! I'm sorry!"
Mako didn't pause, but Bolin turned half to me, biting his lip and questioning his action on leaving. I took a couple steps forward, pulling a piece of paper from the pocket on my trousers and wrote on it, holding it out for him to take. "Just take this paper. It-it has my address on it. In case you have questions, you could stop by..." My voice trailed off.
"We don't want your answers even if we did have questions," Mako snapped, leaving the room.
Bolin stood not too far from me, my eyes begging him to take it. "Are you really-" He stopped himself from asking, took the piece of paper, and ran out of the room and following his older brother. Our older brother.
After the arena I didn't go home. It was late, past curfew by several hours, but I didn't want to go home. I walked along the river, my fists shoved in my coat pockets and my hood covering my head, leaving my face too shadowed for anyone to see. Somehow at some point my walk turned into a jog, then a full out sprint. I didn't know where I was going, I just ran. Perhaps I was in a part of town that I had never been in before, because nothing looked familiar. Eventually I reached the sea and the edge of Republic City. Avatar Aang's monument stood in the distance. I turned around, and ran. By the time I got home, I didn't know what time it was or how long I had ran.
I sneaked to my room, changing into a pair of clothes that I work out in, and then to the basement. The basement held nothing but my punching bag, a desk with a missing leg that held the pile of towels and other things I kept down here, and an old couch I find myself sleeping on more often then my bed. I wrapped my hands with blue gauze and slipped on my white gloves.
I took my stance at the punching bag; my feet apart, my knees bent slightly and turned to the right a bit while my upper body twists to face the bag. My hands punch at the bag, twisting my hips and stomach each time to add power to the hit.
Jab, cross, hook, cross.
Repeat.
Jab, cross, hook, cross.
Repeat!
Jab, cross, hook, cross!
Each hit became less powerful in strength and more powerful in rage, until I had tears running down my cheeks. My arms started to feel weak and shaky. I walked over and sat against the wall, my knees pulled against my chest with my arms crossed over and my face buried so my tears could never see the surface. It was the first time I cried since my parents told me the truth, roughly two weeks ago. And now I couldn't help but replay everything that had happened at the arena.
Things I could have said. Things I should have said. Now the only real family I have thinks I'm a liar. I would have thought that too. I'll never get the chance to talk to my real siblings now, and ask them what our parents were like. If I looked like them, sounded like them, or resembled them in any other way. Mako, Bolin, I pleaded mentally, the last of my tears coming as I let out a small whimper, Please let me talk to you.
I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew I was laying on the concrete floor, my hands under my head. The side of my face was red and cold from the floor, and I rubbed my cheek. What time was it? As I moved to stand, my body ached from the long run last night. My thoughts immediately flickered to what happened at the arena. I should go see Bolin eventually. Mako won't listen to me, but Bolin might.
The door opened, and my Mother's head poked in. "Shai? Are you awake?"
I groaned. "Yeah, I'm up. Why?"
"Well, some people stopped by to see you." Something in her voice was off.
Walking up the stairs, I asked, "Who?"
My Mother's face was tense with worry. "Bolin and Avatar Korra."