I woke up about 10 minutes later and stared out the window.
It was storming pretty badly so the ride on the highway was pretty quiet with the exception of the jazz playing on the radio. As we neared the turnoff for my street, blaring lights and a siren stopped us.
A fallen tree blocked the road and a man ran over to the car. Zuko rolled down the window and he told us we would have to take the back road. Zuko nodded, rolled up his window and turned around.
"Where is the back road?" I asked sleepily.
"Umm it runs behind town and it is a much longer trip but hopefully there aren't any fallen trees."
I yawned and instead of making that odd sound that tries to pass of as talking I just nodded.
"I'll wake you up when you get home."
I nodded again and did as he asked me, the lulling sound of that rain and Zuko's quiet breathing soon had me asleep.
"Yes, sir I was just showing her around town and I took her to a restaurant for dinner." I heard Zuko say.
"It shouldn't take that long to get home though." My dad said questioningly.
"A tree fell on the main highway so we had to take the back road. She fell asleep before we even go to the back road. Sorry it took so long sir."
"It's okay, when she didn't answer her phone we got worried. Thanks for showing her around though."
I moved around a little bit and opened one eye.
"Katara!" my dad shouted. I jumped and opened my other eye.
"Yes dad?" I asked my voice groggy.
"Sweetheart get out the car and go to bed." He said softly. I opened the door and started to step out when I yawned. The strap of my camera bag was wrapped around my feet and I tumbled out the car into the wet grass.
I rolled a few times and then just fell asleep.
The next morning I woke up feeling extremely dirty and I smelled like grass. I was wrapped in an old blanket that we keep in our house and was on the basement couch. I slowly stood up and walked up the stairs. My parents were sitting in the kitchen cracking up.
"Katara-"
"Don't say a word." I said through clenched teeth. I slowly made my way upstairs and stripped as I walked through the hall. By the time reached my bathroom I just grabbed a washcloth and jumped in the shower.
After I was done I went to my room, dried off and got changed. I opened my door and was met with a note.
Dear sweetheart,
Next time you take your clothes off as you walk through the halls remember to take them to your room.
Love mom
I laughed and checked my phone clock; I had about 25 minutes to stop at Starbucks and go to school. As I was getting my backpack ready my phone started ringing. I answered it without checking to see who it was.
"Hello?" I asked as I checked my camera for water damage. I smiled happily when it turned on as it normally did.
"Hey, It's Azula. Wanna ride with us today?"
"Oh yeah sure. It will save me gas." I said while looking for a sweater.
"Oh hush" she said with a laugh. "I'll be there in like 2 minutes. Are we going to Starbucks?"
"Yes!"
"Okay see ya soon!" she said before hanging up.
I grabbed all my things and headed downstairs. "Hey, I'm riding with some friends."
"Who?" my mom asked.
"The boy who dropped me off yesterday and his little sister."
She nodded and turned to talk to my dad. A car honked and I turned to leave.
"Bye guys!"
"Bye sweetheart." My dad said.
I walked out the door and was met with a gust of cool air. I shivered a little as I walked to her little blue car and smiled when I saw Zuko.
"Hey guys." I said calmly. "This sweater is not thick enough."
"Hey! Let's go! We need to hurry to Starbucks!" Azula yelled like her life depended on it. I laughed and climbed in the car. She whipped out the driveway and raced down the street to the main highway. I gripped my seatbelt and stared straight ahead. Zuko glanced at me in the rearview mirror and started laughing.
"You obviously haven't driven with her before." He said while he turned around.
"No I haven't." I squeaked out. I squealed a little as she drifted around a corner and started driving even faster towards the town. We arrived at the Starbucks within 3 minutes of leaving my house even though it's a good 10 minutes drive. I opened the car door and jumped out the car, I stood there holding onto the door dramatically gasping for air.
Zuko and Azula laughed and headed into the little coffee shop. I glared at the back of their tall shiny black heads and mumbled under my breath.
We ordered our drinks and rushed back out to the car. I buckled my seatbelt and closed my eyes the entire ride to school.
Once we arrived at school, we all grabbed out coffee and walked leisurely into the school. Thanks to Fox's crazy driving we managed to get to school with a good 15 minutes to spare. Mai was walking down the halls without her friends following and memorizing her every move. She stopped directly in front of me and smiled.
"Can we talk?"
I nodded.
"Alone?"
I sighed. "It's actually no point, because I'm going to end up telling both of them, whether Zuko cares or not, exactly what you told me so umm yeah."
She laughed a little. "Well okay. I want to apologize. I was a major bit-"
"Don't curse!" I said quickly before she could finish the word. I ignored Zuko's laughing and nodded for her to finish.
"Okay, I was being a major female dog and I want to know if we can start anew."
I stared at her. Something told me this was a prank but I went along with it. "Yeah I actually wanted to apologize after I was mean to you about your jeans yesterday."
"Oh my gosh, she really did." Fox said before sipping her coffee.
I giggled, "What can I say? I'm nice like that. And yeah let's start over. Hi I'm Katara."
"Mai," she said before shaking out her hair a bit. I glanced at the clock on the wall.
"Hey we're going to head to class. See ya there."
As soon as we were out of her hearing range I started talking.
"That's a lie. All of it." I said calmly.
"How'd you know?" Zuko asked extremely confused.
I sighed. "She glanced left. When people lie they naturally glance left. Something about the left side of their brains has to do with creativity or something like that."
Zuko and Fox stared at me. "Okay then if you feel that way. We'll just pretend we know exactly what you are talking about." Fox said.
I laughed a little. "I'll see you in second and third hour Zuko."
He nodded and jogged off to the stairs. Fox and I quickly grabbed our things from our lockers rushed to class. A short girl and an average height red haired girl were dragging desks behind Mai's row of desks. I recognized them as some of the girls in Mai's posse.
Fox and I stopped walking and stared at her.
"What are you doing to my classroom? Did I say that you could move my chairs?!" Mr. Duffy yelled from behind us.
Fox burst out laughing and then walked to the desk that she sat in yesterday. I followed her to the back of the room and sat down. Mr. Duffy was still talking with Mai, his voice slightly lowered. Most of the class was talking and obviously didn't care that Mai was getting in trouble with the teacher.
"Everyone sit down! Today we are going to get our books and I want an outline of Chapter 1 by Thursday morning. That means you have tonight and tomorrow night to get this done people." Mr. Duffy said as he walked around passing out books to people.
"I'll give you 10 minutes at the end of class to start your work, but for now open to page 5 and we are going to start taking notes."
The first 30 minutes of class somehow managed to fly by even though we were only on page 10 by the time Mr. Duffy said we could start out homework. Fox and I turned our desks to face each other and worked for a bit when a loud popping sound filled the air.
Everyone turned around to see what looked like a freshmen holding her face. Mai was glaring at her with evil look in her eyes.
"Seriously who told you that you could talk to me? I didn't that's for sure. So why don't you turn around and go back to your class and if you ever insult one of my friends like that again I will ruin you. Do you understand me?" she said to the girl.
"Whoa! I'm pretty sure whatever she did doesn't mean you should slap her and embarrass her in front of a bunch of upperclassmen." I said. Mai glared at me and gave me a look that said 'shut up.' Too bad for her because I never did take orders well, I stood up and walked over to the girl. She was about 5'0 feet tall and had a white-blond hair.
"Mr. Duffy can I walk her to class or wherever she needs to go?"
"Yeah go ahead. Mai come speak with me in the hallway."
"Hey Zula grab my stuff if I'm not back when the bell rings." I called out. I put my arm around the girl's shoulder and asked her where she was headed.
"Umm Biology. Mai is my cousin and my mom told me to ask her if I could borrow some money to buy lunch. I left my wallet at home. I didn't even insult her friend though! I just said that her purse looked like it had a stain on it. It actually did though. But… thank you."
I laughed a little and gave the girl a side hug. "You are very welcome. If you need anything let me know. Also my locker is 129 come to me at lunch and I'll give you some cash okay?"
"Really?! Oh wow thanks so much!" she squealed.
She pulled me into a hug and then raced off down the hall. I laughed and made my way back to the AP American History room. Mr. Duffy and Mai were still talking. I quickly walked past them and back into the room. The second I got to my seat the bell rang. Fox handed me my things and we walked out the room.
"I didn't get her name." I said absentmindedly.
"Huh?" Fox said as she opened her locker. I turned my combination and repeated my statement.
"Oh well who was she?"
"Mai's younger cousin. She was wondering if she could borrow some lunch money because she accidentally left her wallet at home."
"So she slapped her for that?"
"No, apparently she made a comment about one of the girl's purses."
"That chick is crazy." She said as she slammed our lockers shut. The walk to the third floor was oddly silent. It was as if someone muted the sounds of the entire high school.
"Azula and Katara!" a deep voice called out from behind us. We stopped and turned around only to step back and look up. One of the tallest boys I had ever seen was standing in front of us.
"Oh hey Aeron, what did you need?" Fox said while grinning brightly at him.
He looked down at her and smiled. "I needed a picture of you two for yearbook. For the best friend's page."
"But we don't like each other." Azula said.
"Yeah, she's just my friend until I leave this place. We aren't gonna be best friends."
He stared at us until I cracked a smiled.
"Whoa! Y'all had me fooled for a second. Besides everyone knows y'all two knew each other before this year."
"Nope. We met yesterday. But we just really like each other." I said with a grin.
He looked down at Azula and smiled. "I guess people can't resist her charm."
I stood there awkwardly as they flirted with each other. It was cute but irritating at the same time.
Aeron finally remembered that he was supposed to take a photo and then he looked at me. His eyes were two different colors. One was a golden-brown color and the other was a rich deep brown color.
"Wow you have pretty eyes and you are tall!" I blurted out. "How tall are you?" I said before staring at his eyes again. They were just so pretty.
He laughed a little. "Thanks! I'm 6'6. My grandpa was freakishly tall and he managed to pass that on to me. Let me take the picture so your brother won't get mad about you being late to class."
"Oh he'll be fine. Come on Katara! Hey what's your middle name? Saying Katara all the time gets tiring."
"You are the laziest person I've ever met. And it's Blix. It's Swedish for Joy or Cheer."
They both stared at me.
"That is so cool." Aeron said. I smiled and wrapped my arm around Azula's waist.
"Smile!"
flash.
"Let me see!" Azula said cutely before Aeron leaned down and showed us the picture.
"Aww we look so pretty!" I exclaimed. "Now come on! We have to get to class!"
"Okay. Okay, see ya Aeron." She said softly.
He smiled and nodded. "I'll text or call you later."
We turned a corner and started up the stairs to get to the art room and Azula still hadn't stopped smiling.
I just sighed happily and thought about what it would be like to have someone like that in my life.