Toph's Snow Chap 12

Chapter 12: High Fives Part 2

A/N: Sorry this is so late! I've been really busy with exams and Robotics lately. Most of the updates untill March will probably be late because of Robotics, but after that I should be back on schedule.
I'll post the next two chapters as soon as I can edit them!

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership to anything but my characters, the rest aren't mine.

Week 21 (September 29-October 5, month 5)

Third Person Xiao

Throughout dinner, Xiao tried to come up with a plan to get Kazuka back for tackling him. It hadn't been particularly embarrassing, but he had to prove to his friends that he wasn't a pushover that could be one-uped by a girl. It took until the end of dinner to come up with a plan, but when he did, Xiao was rather impressed with his genius. After dinner, Xiao and his friends Hideki, Xin and Wei went back to their room to wait for the opportune moment to pull Xiao's prank off.

Kazuka, Sara, and Li's, an Earth Kingdom girl like Sara, room was just down the hall from Xiao and his friend's room. In the middle of the night, the four boys got up and quietly walked down the dark hall to the girls' room. They opened the door as quietly as they could, and assessed the layout of the room by dim candle light. Li and Sara were in bunk beds on one side of the room and Kazuka had the other set of bunk beds to herself. Xiao walked over to Kazuka's bed and snapped his fingers near her ear to see how deeply she was sleeping. She didn't even stir. Xiao smiled, things were going according to plan.

When the boys were finished setting up their prank, they looked at their work and had to cover their mouths to keep from waking up their victims with their laughter.

Third Person Kazuka

Kazuka stirred and rolled over onto her stomach, trying to get the light out of her face. Once it was out of the light, she drifted back to sleep, but soon woke up again because she could feel heat beating down on her back. Kazuka stopped moving when she realized that the source of the heat had to be the the sun; nothing else on the ship could be that hot. Her theory was confirmed by a sniff of the air. She could smell the salt of the sea and hear the wave's crash. Slowly, she opened her eyes and sat up on her bed, looking around. Her bed was on the deck of the ship, although it wasn't sitting on the deck, it seemed to be balanced on something that boosted her high above the floor of the deck. On one side of her was the rest of the deck and on the other, all she could see was the blue chaos of the ocean.

"Caw!" Kazuka looked up and there was a sea bird, sitting on the edge of her bed. She jumped a little and squeaked when she saw it and it flew off. Laughter bubbled up from below her along with two cries of surprise. She looked over the side of her bed and saw most of the students standing on the deck below her. She zeroed in on Xiao, who was laughing hysterically, but had to look away quickly and shift her weight backwards again when her bed started to slide off the box. More laughter drifted up to her. Unknown to her, Kazuka's bed had been put off balance when she shifted her weight. As she sat there, her bed slowly tipped backward and started to slide off the side of the ship. It took Kazuka a second to realize what was happening, but by then it was too late. Kazuka's bed turned over and she fell off the ship and into the sea. She screamed as she went.

Third Person Xiao

Twenty minutes earlier...

Xiao and his friends made sure to wake everyone up so that they could see Kazuka and her friends be humiliated. Everyone gathered around the beds on the deck, snickering quietly at the sleeping girls. Li and Sara's bunk bed was on the deck of the ship and Kazuka's bed, had been detached it from the other one, was sitting on a box; higher than the other two which was where she always liked to be.

Kazuka woke up first, looking around in confusion. A sea bird sitting on her bed cawed loudly. She whipped her head toward it, jumping and squealing in surprise. This made Xiao start laughing, which started up everyone else. Li and Sara woke up from the noise. They both looked appalled at being watched while they slept and ducked under their blankets. Kazuka looked over the side of her bed, but had to move back as her bed teetered on the box. This made everyone laugh harder, but they stopped as soon as Kazuka's bed started to slide off the ship. Xiao ran forward, as if to pull her bed back, but he wasn't close enough to do anything.

"Wei, go tell the Captain someone fell overboard. Xin, find Sifu. Hideki, go find some rope or something to pull us back up with." As Xiao was talking, he took off his shoes and his shirt.

"What do you mean 'us'?" asked Hideki.

"I'm going to make sure she doesn't drown. She can't swim." he ran to the side of the ship and dived in after her.

Third Person Kazuka

Her screams were cut off as she hit the lukewarm water. She sank quickly downward, struggling against the current. Kazuka managed to get the surface where she took a life saving breath. Then a wave crashed over her, forcing her back down into the water. She spun, head over heels, in the water until she couldn't tell which way was up and which was down. Kazuka started to panic a little as her lungs began to burn for air. She struggled harder, once again, managing to reach the surface and the air her body craved. She was forced back down by a cruel wave, insensitive to her need for air. A force under the water dragged her down further as she clawed for the surface. The light from the surface was getting dimmer and dimmer as she was pulled further down by the current.

The burn in her lungs was constant now and Kazuka had to fight her brain's commands to breathe. Finally it became too much and she inhaled involuntarily. Immediately, she began to choke as her body tried to expel what it had just drawn in, bringing in more water.

I'm going to die down here.

Her vision was starting to blur and her thought process slowed. Right before she lost consciousness, Kazuka saw a shape coming toward her in the water.

Third Person Xiao

After Xiao dived in, he swam around under water, looking for any sign of Kazuka. When he came up for air, he happened to see her struggling above the water ten feet away before she sank back beneath the surface. Xiao set off toward her, swimming as fast as he could against the current. Soon he reached the place she where she had disappeared. He took a deep breath and dived. He saw Kazuka sinking in the water, her hair spread around her and her arms were reaching up toward the air. She looked like a sinking angel.

Xiao swam under her and grabbed her around the waist, swimming toward the surface as fast as he could. When his head broke the water, Xiao looked at Kazuka. She was limp in his arms and wasn't breathing.

The ship had stopped and a small rescue boat was being rowed toward them. When it reached them, Sokka reached down over the edge and pulled Kazuka into the boat. Hideki helped Xiao in after her. Sokka laid Kazuka down on the bottom of the boat and started doing chest compressions.

"Do you know how to revive people?" asked Sokka. Xiao nodded and scooted over to Kazuka's head. She looked like she was sleeping.

He reached out and checked her pulse, it was faint, but it was there. Sokka gave Xiao the command to start rescue breathing. Xiao tilted Kazuka's chin and head back, opening her airways. He pinched her nose and lowered his head over hers, opening her mouth as he got closer. He sealed his mouth over hers and breathed out. He sat up a little to see if she was breathing yet. She wasn't. He tried again, still no response. On the third try, Kazuka started choking. She turned over and threw up all the water that she had swallowed on the bottom of the boat. She turned back over and tried to sit up, but Xiao stopped her. She just laid back down, too weak to fight him.

By time Kazuka had been revived, the little rescue boat had been lifted back up to the side of the ship. The rescuers filed on to the ship, Sokka carrying Kazuka. Xiao nodded to a few people, telling them that she was alive. Li and Sara looked relieved. Sokka carried her below deck to a room that just had a bed in it. Xiao followed, but Sokka told him to stay outside while he placed the now sleeping Kazuka on the bed. A female crew member came running done the hall and went into the room, closing the door behind her.

"I don't know what you were thinking, but it obviously wasn't very smart. Both of you could have died." Xiao tried to speak, but Sokka held up a finger.

"You should be expelled from my school, but I won't do that because your parents have invested a lot of money in this and it would be a waste of talent. Instead, you are confined to your room except for training and meals. During those times, you will be alone, or working with me. When we get back to the Earth Kingdom, you will be suspended for however long I see fit. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sifu." Xiao bowed.

"You may go to your room." Xiao hurried to his room, not wanting to anger Sokka anymore than he had already had. When Xiao got to his room, his roommates were there too. They had all been given the same punishment.

No one high fived each other.

Yay! Epic action and slight one sided romance! Epic awesomeness! I'm so proud of this chapter. I worked really hard on it; I even did research on CPR. Hope you liked it!

P.S. Sorry about all the !, I'm really hyper! I just had, like, twenty M&M's, all blue and all eaten in twos 'cause of my OCD! (This will probably be a few weeks old, like most of my A/N. I write about, four to five chapters ahead of what has been posted!)

Jaa nee!