A/N:

First off, thank you everyone for voting in the last chapter! I got a great response, which I wasn't expecting. I've tweaked the rules a little bit, but we'll talk about that after the chapter.

Two characters got eliminated in this round! Read on to find out who!

The engine was dead.

Fumbling with her keys, Korra tried once again to get her car to start with no avail. She glanced at the clock on her phone. If she didn't leave right now then she was going to be late for school. And Korra really didn't need to be late for school. She had to look good at all times if she was going to be allowed to stay on the football team.

Groaning, Korra slammed her head onto the steering wheel in frustration. Her parents were already at work and she knew for a fact that the school bus had already left. She quickly scrolled through the list of contacts on her phone and selected a number.

Asami answered on the second ring. "Class starts in twenty minutes, you know."

"I'm aware," Korra grumbled. "My car won't start."

There was silence at the other end for a long moment. "Do you need a ride?"

Korra winced. Asami was cool, but Korra still felt like she didn't know the girl all that well. She'd only been at school for a week. "I hate to ask—"

"Hey, it's no problem! You'll just owe me one. You live off Peters Creek, right?"

Korra sagged a bit in relief. "Yep." She quickly recited her address for the other girl and then hung up the phone.

Five minutes later Korra nearly fell over at what pulled into her driveway. It was a sleek, red BMW convertible and while Korra didn't know all that much about cars, she was pretty sure that this particular vehicle was top of the line in its class.

Her mouth was still hanging open in astonishment when Asami rolled down the window to the passenger's side and yelled, "You coming?"

Korra quickly shook off her shock and scrambled into the car, making sure to be careful not to get any fingerprints on its shiny exterior. Asami roared out of the driveway and zoomed down the street like a bat out of hell. Korra found herself clutching the edges of her seat.

"This is, uh, a nice ride," she managed, praying to herself that Asami wouldn't get pulled over for speeding. She was doing twenty over the speed limit at the very least.

Korra glanced over at Asami and saw that the other girl was watching her out of the corner of her green eye. "You look cute today," she complimented sweetly. Korra felt herself flush.

"I just sort of put on what was clean."

Asami giggled at that. "I like your style, Korra. It's like, indie-casual, you know?"

Korra's lips curled into a smile. "Thanks. So, I wanted your opinion on something. I was thinking about dyeing my hair—Uh, you know you just ran that red light?"

Asami pulled her gaze away from the road in order to blink at Korra innocently. "Just barely! The light turned red as I drove under it."

Korra pressed her lips together in order to keep herself from laughing in terror. "Ah, no. I'm pretty sure you just flat out ran that red light."

And then Asami gasped in excitement. "Hey! You should come to the racetrack with me sometime!"

"I think I'd pee my pants."

"Then I'll bring a change of underwear for you," Asami said with a smirk.

"Or I could just go commando," Korra joked as they pulled into the school parking lot.

Asami winked at her. "Even better, if you ask me." She zipped into an empty parking spot and climbed out of her car, grabbing her designer purse along the way.

Korra got out too, hauling her backpack and gym pack over her shoulders and stretching out her legs. "Thanks so much for the ride," she with sincerity.

Asami shrugged nonchalantly. "It was seriously no big deal. If you ever need a ride again, just give me a buzz. I don't mind picking you up. See you in Chemistry?" Her bright eyes were hopeful.

Korra nodded. "See you." She waved and then both girls parted ways.

She'd just taken a hard tackle to the ground. Wincing, Korra pulled herself up and limped off to the side lines. She'd still managed to run forty yards before she'd been yanked down by one of her teammates.

She was going to have a nasty bruise on the side of her leg by this evening, but in Korra's opinion it was worth it.

Most of the boys parted for her wordlessly, suspicion still in their eyes. The majority of them wouldn't talk to Korra, although she could tell that they were beginning to warm up to her. She hoped that after she proved herself in their first game that they'd all come around. She wasn't asking for all of them to be her best friend; she just wanted them to respect her.

Bolin jogged up to her side, concern in his eyes. "Hey, are you all right?"

Korra gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, Bo. Taking hits is part of the game."

Bolin shook his head, but smiled back at her anyway. He gently patted her shoulder. "I just…" he bit his bottom lip and trailed off. "I don't want to see you get hurt. You're pretty awesome. It'd suck if you got squished."

Laughing, Korra shoved Bolin's shoulder playfully. "It's the guys on the other teams that you need to be worried about. They're the ones that are going to get destroyed." She pounded her right fist into her left palm for emphasis.

Bolin bumped his hip against hers and Korra noticed that a couple of their teammates were watching them curiously. She leaned against him, savoring the physical contact.

That's when she noticed a couple of kids sitting in the bleachers. "Who are they?" she asked, pointing them out with her finger.

Bolin squinted his eyes against the bright sun. "Those are Coach Tenzin's kids. Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo."

"Huh. I didn't know that Coach had kids."

Bolin nodded. "Yep. He and his wife are expecting their forth, actually. We're all hoping it doesn't turn out like the third one, the boy. That little kid is from Satan or something—"

"All right, all right, line up!" Tenzin shouted from the middle of the field. Immediately all the boys and Korra quickly moved to form a line.

Someone knocked into Korra's shoulder roughly, causing her to stumble forward a couple of steps. Snarling, Korra turned around to yell at whoever had bumped her, but before she could even open her mouth Mako beat her to it.

"Hey," the quarterback snapped. "Watch it!"

"What's your problem?" Korra snapped back, poking a finger into Mako's shoulder.

The other boy narrowed his golden eyes at her. "My problem, cheerleader, is that you can't seem to watch where you're fucking going. For your information, a sense of balance and direction is needed on the field."

Korra tilted her head to the side and frowned in mocking concern. "Gee, Mako, your mood today seems to be even worse than normal. Do you need to borrow a tampon?"

Laughter broke out around them and Mako's eyes lit up with anger, but before he could speak Bolin quickly stepped between them. "Okay. We've established that Mako is on the rag, now let's pay attention to the Coach?"

When Korra whipped around she saw Tenzin watching them with a cool, gray haired woman by his side.

"What an interesting team you have this year, Tenzin," the woman said. Korra could hear the tone of command in this woman's voice. Her shoulders straightened out on their own accord.

The woman's gaze narrowed in on Korra. "Girl, I'd like to speak with you. Now."

Gulping, Korra stepped out of line and walked over to the woman.

"My name is Lin Beifong, and I'm the principal of this school." The woman frowned deeply and Korra felt her heart sink into her stomach. This was it. She was going to be kicked off the team. It was one thing when her teammates teased her, or when Tenzin was extra hard on her, because she could always retaliate. But if the principal of the school didn't want her on the team, then she was doomed.

She kicked at the ground and tried not to let her deflation register on her face. "It's nice to meet you," Korra mumbled.

Beifong, however, said, "How's your leg?"

Korra snapped her head up and stared wide eyed at the principal. "Er, it's okay. It'll bruise but it's nothing that I can't handle.

Beifong nodded slowly. "I saw you get tackled. Tenzin was a little worried, but I thought that you took it well."

Korra's heart sped up in anticipation.

"I have to admit, I had my doubts," Beifong continued. "You're the only girl to ever join the football team in this town, and I wasn't looking forward to the backlash the public would've given me if I had refused you. But Tenzin told me that you've been performing well in practices and that you have a determined attitude, so I've decided to let you stay on the team—for now." Beifong placed her arms behind her back and furrowed her eyebrows at Korra. "Don't mess this up, Korra. Don't make us look stupid for letting you play, do you understand?"

Korra nodded enthusiastically, resisting the urge to throw her arms around this woman's neck in happiness. "I promise that you won't regret this! I'll be the best football player that this town has—"

Beifong waved her hand and silenced her. "That's nice. Prove it out on the field. Now go take a shower. You stink."

Korra shut her mouth and pressed her lips together, all the while jigging in place. From across the field she spotted Bolin giving her two thumbs up and she returned the gesture with a grin.

The shower was hot and it felt amazing.

Korra had been right about her leg, it was already bruising. The area across the top of right thigh was tender and she winced a couple of times as she washed off. It was going to be blue and purple by tomorrow morning. But, in a way, it was sort of a badge of honor. It was proof that she could handle herself, and it was also proof that all the boys were starting to look on her as a teammate and not just a girl.

She turned the water off and pulled the shower curtain open before wringing out her hair. The girl's locker room was usually empty during this time of day, which meant that Korra had the whole place to herself. She definitely wasn't complaining about that.

However, her heart leapt into her throat when she noticed that her clean clothes and her towel were both missing.

Her hands curled into fists and Korra let out a scream of frustration. She knew exactly who'd done it. She whirled around and ripped the shower curtain off of the shower rod. The curtain was white and opaque and as Korra wrapped it around her body she realized that even though she was technically covered up, you could still see everything.

She set her jaw in determination and marched out of the girl's locker room, across the hall, and into the boy's locker room. Steam hit her in the face as she walked in. Complete silence descended over the room and a few of the boys let out wolf whistles.

Scowling, Korra scanned the room until she saw him. She pulled the shower curtain tighter around her body and then stalked right up to him, cheeks flush with fury.

"You asshole! I know you stole my clothes!"

Mako's back was turned to her as he pulled shoes out of a locker. He was shirtless with nothing but a pair of shorts on, but Korra was too furious to appreciate the view.

His bare shoulders stiffened in anger. "Okay, just because you're on the boy's team doesn't mean you can just invite yourself in here whenever you…whoa."

He'd turned around mid-sentence with an irritated expression. But when he saw her his face went blank and his eyes instantly dropped to her barely hidden breasts.

Blushing profusely, Korra crossed one arm over her chest in order to cover the essential bits. "You stole my clothes, you dick!"

Mako didn't seem to hear her. He stared for another long moment before he came back to himself. His gaze flicked up to her face and he looked stunned, like a deer caught in headlights. "What?"

Korra grit her teeth, but then, with growing dread, she realized that you could hear a pin drop in the room. All of the boys were staring at her, and they weren't looking at her face.

Korra drew the curtain even closer around her body and tried to fight back the tears of humiliation that pricked at her eyes.

Then a jacket was draped across her shoulders and Bolin appeared by her side. "Someone stole Korra's clothes, Mako," he said seriously. He gave Korra a reassuring smile and Korra was grateful that his eyes didn't scan over the rest of her body.

The quarterback still looked stupefied, but he managed to tear his gaze off of Korra long enough to look around the room. "Right."

"Nice ass!" someone called out from the back.

Korra sniffed and ducked her head. She absolutely refused to look weak in front of all these boys, but since she was basically naked, coupled with the fact that everyone was watching her, it wasn't easy.

Mako glanced back at her face. His expression darkened and he stepped around Korra. "Who the hell did it?"

A couple of sophomore boys simpered from where they were standing off to the right. Mako walked up to them and held out his hands expectantly. One of the sophomores sheepishly handed over Korra's clothes.

"You both will stay an hour late running laps after Monday's practice. Congratulations. Oh, and you can bet that Coach will hear about this."

The smiles melted off the sophomores' faces. Mako turned and walked back to Korra, his face and neck flushing red when he spotted her hot pink sports bra. "Hear," he muttered, dumping her clothes into the arm she wasn't using to hold up the curtain.

"Thanks," she said earnestly before turning around and heading toward the door. On her way out she viciously elbowed one of the sophomore's in the ribs. No one said anything. In fact, a couple of her teammates actually smiled at her.

"Your teammates are assholes."

Korra nodded from where she was sitting on her bed, even though Howl couldn't see it. "Most of them, yeah. They just can't deal with the fact that I'm a girl."

"Well, at least after this afternoon no one will be able to deny that you're a hot girl."

Korra laughed and scratched her dog, Naga, behind the ears. "I guess so. Although I would've rather not stripped for the entire football team. I was saving it for when we took State," she joked.

Howl chuckled on the other line. "I miss you. It's not the same around here without you."

"I miss you too."

"Someone stiffed me."

It was Saturday, around 8pm, and the dinner rush was in full swing. Korra's bangs were sticking to her forehead and all she wanted to do was get off of her feet.

Iroh looked up from where he was sitting at his desk. He gave her a look of sympathy. "It happens." He stood up and stretched his arms over his head, allowing Korra a brief moment to drool over his biceps. He tilted his head back and sighed. "Well, my break is over." He looked at the door, plastered a friendly smile on his face, and then walked out onto the floor.

Korra followed with aching feet, but she was determined not to whine in front of Iroh. So far he'd been super nice to her throughout her training, although occasionally he called her "kid", which was growing increasingly annoying.

As she made her way back to her section she froze, a deep frown crossing her face.

Tahno and a couple of his stupid friends were sitting at a table, waiting for her to come and take their order.

When Tahno spotted her he gave a casual wave and winked.

Gritting her teeth, Korra pulled out the small notepad that she wrote orders on and clicked her pen. She walked up to their table and forced herself to smile. "Hello, I'm Korra and I'm going to be—"

"We know who you are, sweetheart," Tahno interrupted. He smirked up at her, eyes running over her form. "You don't seem to be beaten up too badly. I'm guessing practices must be treating you well?"

Korra took a deep breath in order to calm herself. "They're going well enough."

"I have to admit," Tahno said casually, "I can't wait to compete against you on the field. Granted, it won't be much of a victory, since beating your team shouldn't be too hard—"

"Can you just tell me what you want?" Korra pleaded. She was so tried that she didn't care if she looked pathetic in front of her rival.

Tahno's expression cooled a little. "Bad night?"

She shrugged one shoulder, refusing to answer.

Tahno's smirk faded into an actual smile. "We'll have a pot of jasmine tea and a plate of those little cake thingys."

Korra nodded, scribbled down the order, and walked away, not bothering to glance back at him over her shoulder.

She walked back into the kitchen and spotted Amon with a cigarette dangling from between his lips.

"Hey, um, I don't think you can smoke—"

She hushed up at the look that Amon sent her. She stood there and waited as he prepared a pot of jasmine tea, all the while trying very hard not to glance at his scar.

Amon had barely spoken two words to her since she's started working at the Jasmine Dragon. This type of behavior didn't seem unusual for a guy like him, but for some reason it bothered Korra.

A couple of minutes later she was dropping the teapot off at Tahno's table and he, blessedly, didn't have a derogatory comment to offer.

However, moments later, right as she stepped up to his table in order to drop off his plate of tea cakes, she spotted the looks his friends were giving him. It looked as if they were egging him on. As she turned around and started to walk away, he slapped her ass.

She squeaked so loudly that half of the restaurant turned and stared at her.

Furious and embarrassed, Korra turned around, grabbed Tahno's nearly full cup of tea, and dumped the scolding liquid into his lap. He yelped in pain, but Korra had already fled to the office before he could so much as curse at her.

Iroh looked up at her expectantly as she walked in.

"I just dumped tea on someone," she admitted, hands wringing in nervousness.

He blinked up at her for a moment before saying with eerie calm, "Why did you do that?"

"He smacked my ass."

Iroh's whole expression changed. He stood up swiftly and glared over Korra's shoulder at the door. "Are you kidding me? Move, Korra. I'll deal with this."

"It's okay," Korra said, trying to reassure her boss. He looked like he was ready to murder. "I already got him back."

Iroh turned his head in her direction and caught her eye. "What did you do?"

Korra forced herself not to roll her eyes. "I poured tea on him!"

"Oh, right." He fidgeted on his feet and ran a hand through his dark hair. "Come on," he finally said. "We've got to deal with this."

But when they walked out, Tahno and his group of friends were already gone. On the table was a $10 tip.

A/N #2:

The characters eliminated in this chapter were: Tenzin and Lin. Neither of those characters received any votes, so I axed them.

It's safe to say that Iroh dominated the votes for the last chapter. If you'd like to see another character have their chance at our lovely Korra then make sure to vote!

A Few Simple Voting Rules

—No anonymous votes! I still got a bunch of anonymous votes for the last chapter. Once again, if you vote anonymously then your vote will not be accepted!

—You can only vote for one person. If you're indecisive like me, then I do apologize.

—If for whatever reason you would like to keep your vote private, you may message me your vote and I'll count it. **Please only PM me with your vote on here! I had quite a few people send me their votes via tumblr. I accepted them for this chapter, but from now on if you PM me your votes outside of this site then they will not be counted!**

—NEW RULE. To keep things organized for me, I'm putting in place a cutoff date for voting after each chapter. So, for this specific chapter you may vote up until July 16th. That way I have time to figure out how the next chapter is going to go without new people voting and constantly tilting the scales.

A reminder of Korra's love interests:

Asami

Mako

Bolin

Tahno

Howl

Iroh

Amon

And so the playing field narrows. I encourage everyone to participate and vote for their favorite (or at least the person that they want to see continue). Participating is super important for this story to stay afloat and for each character to have a fighting chance.

Once again, thank you to everyone who participated last chapter. You guys helped jump start this story. I appreciate and love you guys! Now, VOTE! :D