Chapter 6

Would you come to my office?

Korra was blinded with unreleased tears. And fury. And disappointment. She had worked so hard to do well on that stupid exam and she still failed. Thirty percent of her grade was ruined. She tried her best, and still failed, just like everything else in her fucking life. She felt like that hopeless kid trying to Water Bend all over again. She was convinced that Asami was debating her grade just to make her feel better.

I can't do this. I'm not smart enough for college. I couldn't even do well enough on my entrances to get into a fucking major. I guess it's for a good reason that they didn't let me in.

Her angry pacing turned to slow sulking.

I never should have come. I'm not good enough for this. I can't do this.

She collapsed onto the floor and buried her face in her knees. All of her emotions were coming out in bursts. She clutched her hair and tried to silence herself, hoping no one would be coming down this corridor.

Come on, Korra. You're better than this.

Apparently, I'm not.

It's one test.

It's thirty present of my grade.

Grades don't define you.

They do when they determine whether or not I can stay in college. This is all I've got going for me right now.

You are more than this.

"Korra?"

A hand gripped her shoulder. She was pulled up and led into a room a few twists and turns away. She found herself sitting in a comfortable chair with the smell of evergreens in her nose. The room was quiet, minus her erratic breathing, as a hand rubbed her back. She cleared her eyes and looked around. The office was small but sophisticated. The golden nameplate "Dr. Suri" caught her attention.

"Korra, what's wrong?"

She sighed and pulled her bag onto her lap. She grabbed her crumpled exam and handed it to the Dean. "I failed." The words burned on her tongue and in her ears.

He shuffled through the pages with an incredulous face. He leaned forward to catch Korra's eyes.

"Korra, you didn't fail this exam." She opened her mouth to argue, but he held up a hand. "I used to be a chemistry professor at this University before I started working with the administration and eventually became the Dean. I taught the very course you're taking. And I can tell you, without an ounce of doubt, that you did not fail this exam." He emphasized his final five words.

The Dean moved to the other side of his desk and hit a button on his phoning device. It looked similar to the contraption that Asami had given her to listen to the Republic City Radio Stations. The Southerner watched with cautious eyes, wiping a few stray tears away. The line rang on the speaker.

"Hello, this is Dr. Sentai." Korra's heart dropped into her stomach.

"Yes, Dr. Sentai, this is Dr. Suri. Would you come to my office?"

There was a pause before he responded. "Of course."

He hung up and turned to Korra. Her knuckles were three shades lighter around the arms of the chair. Dr. Sentai entered the room with a distasteful look. He sat next to the Water Tribe girl and ignored her.

"You wanted to see me?"

"This test." The Dean slid the papers in front of the professor. "You and I both know you graded this with bias. And you and I both know that she should have passed this exam." He leaned forward and folded his hands together. Korra and Sentai shared the feeling of intimidation radiating off of Dr. Suri. "But what I know and you may not know is that you can get fired for this. You will lose your job over prejudiced grading and holding back a student's potential. If I see this happen again, I will write you up and put you on suspension. Do you understand?"

Sentai leaned back into the chair before giving a single nod of acknowledgement. Korra sat, petrified, beside him. She didn't dare try to look him in the eyes.

"Regrade this exam and give this student the grade she has earned."

The chemistry professor rose to leave with the test, but the Dean raised his hand.

"You'll grade it here. So I can see."

He sat back down and graded the exam. Korra felt lightheaded as she watched the angry strokes of his pen across her papers. He handed the test back to her with obvious spite. Her eyes unintentionally met his as she reached out for the bundle. Instead of wincing like she wanted to, she felt her gaze grow intense. She had no idea where this flame was coming from and desired nothing more than to put it out. She had no such luck and stared him down, both of them clutching the test, until she wrenched the exam out of his hand. Sentai spun on his heel and left the room with a slam of the door.

"You can sit down, Korra."

Sit down? She looked down at her feet and the chair behind her. When did I stand up? The flame inside of her dimmed. She slid back down and returned to her bewildered state.

"I'm sorry this happened, Korra. But I'm glad we got this sorted – " another call interrupted his statement. "Sorry, Korra, I have to take this. If you could," he motioned for the doorway with a flick of his hand. It took a moment for everything to click. Once it did, Korra scrambled to her feet and grabbed her things.

"Thank-you." She half-smiled as she closed the door. She scurried around the corner and flung her back against the wall.

What the hell just happened?

(-)

Asami found Korra after searching for about two hours; she checked her dorm, the library, the quad in the center of campus where they met earlier that day, and any other place she could think of where her friend might have gone. Ironic enough, Korra was in the crowded Dining Center where everything had started. She was sitting at a table in the corner, away from the increasing commotion, staring out the window. The raven approached with caution; she wasn't sure how distraught the younger girl felt.

"Korra?"

Blue eyes turned to her with a mixture of happiness, contemplation, and overall exhaustion from the long day. Instead of the scowl she expected, Asami was greeted with a soft smile.

"Hey, Asami." Her voice was as tired as her face looked.

"Can I sit?"

The brunette chuckled. "When do you ever have to ask?"

Asami grinned and sat across from her. She kept her eyes on her hands. "Korra, I want to apologize. I was upset about what was going on but instead of trying to help you through it, I pushed my feelings onto you and made things worse –"

She stopped when she saw a tan hand raised before her. "It's okay, Asami, I accept your apology. We were both pissed, in all honesty, and my actions weren't all that great either. But I don't want to fight. Besides," Korra pulled her exam out of the blue bag beside her, "it's all been taken care of."

The engineer grabbed the test in disbelief and looked it over. "I knew you passed, there was no way you could've gotten that last one wrong because that's the answer I got, too." She continued flipping through the papers. "But how did this happen?"

Korra scratched the back of her head. "Well, I was upset on the floor in some hallway," she noticed Asami grimace but continued regardless, "and the Dean found me. He brought me to his office and I showed him the exam. So he called Sentai in and threatened to fire him if he didn't regrade it."

Asami's jaw dropped. "Are you serious?"

The Southerner leaned back and nodded. "Well, it was a little more complicated than that. Dr. Suri used to be a professor here and he taught the chem class we're in. So once he saw my exam, he knew that Sentai had graded it with bias. When he brought him into his office, he told him that he could get fired for doing that – that Sentai could get fired for grading the exam with bias. He let him off with a warning and regraded my exam." The more Korra told the story, the worse she felt. "This is going to make the semester a lot more difficult, isn't it?"

Asami saw the worry in Korra's eyes. A growling stomach pulled their attention away. The engineer raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. She knew the Water Tribe girl had a habit of skipping meals when she was busy. Although she sometimes did the same without realizing it, she held it against both of them when it happened.

"I know, Asami, I know." She looked around at the Dining Center, which was filled near its max capacity. "Why is it so busy today? I've never seen it so packed."

The older woman observed the large group of people, some of which she recognized as her acquaintances, while most were complete strangers. "From what I know, there's a big game tonight."

"What kind of game?"

"Apparently, it's called Redemption. It's a Non-Bending sport that's really big at the college, from what I hear. A large portion of the revenue that comes into the university is from ticket sales. My friend Kuru and a few others are on the team."

"Is it anything like Pro-Bending?"

The Southerner thought she saw a faint scrunch in Asami's face, but she ignored it.

"Not quite. Yes, there are two teams that play against each other, but the rest of the rules are much different." She laid her arms against the table, still crossed, and looked out of the window. "From what I understand, there's a single ball and two posts on each side of the field. The players fight over it and have to carry the ball through the goal to score."

"It sounds – familiar."

"I think it's been around for a while, but it didn't get popular until a few decades ago."

Korra's hunger sounds interrupted them once more. She stood with sheepish eyes and fumbled for the money in her pocket. Her stomach would not pipe down. Before she could count her minuscule amount of yuans, a hand clasped over hers.

"This one's on me. I never got to buy you lunch, remember?"

The Water Tribe girl sighed and returned her money, knowing that debating against this was a losing battle.

I probably owe Asami a few hundred yuans by now, not that she would ever let me pay her back.

"And get that guilty look off of your face. I know what you're thinking and you know I don't mind buying you food." She wasn't even looking at Korra; she didn't have to.

Damn, she's good.