I was nearly to The College of Kyoshi, my school I go to that teaches the usual subjects. We have Math, History, Science, Literature and all the usual B.S that us students just "Love". Now the school itself was named after Avatar Kyoshi, an Earth bender born and raised on some peninsula somewhere close to the Earth Kingdom. Ba Sing Ce before was ruled heavily by some warlord but I haven't gotten that far in my history class, nor do I really care, today's history and future seems more important. I had actually walked the opposite from the market streets, instead I walked through a park, my favorite part of Republic City.
No battle's, fights, assassins or bombings. It seemed like a utopian society all by itself, knock on wood. When your not continuously running into tree hugging nomad's the place was nice. However when I walked to school, it was usually on the edge, unless I had extra time then I cut through the park but the walking on the edge of the park was the quickest.
Where I walked was in between. That's when I saw out of the corner of my eye one of those environmental nomads running up to my. I took a long sigh, oh god here we go... I thought to myself. "Wait there young fella don't 'ya want to know how to save the world!", he said wearing the most bizarre plain white and brown robes, I've ever seen. Do you want to know how keep you noes?, I smirked at this thought, "Um no, no thanks I'm going to be late for school", I lied, I didn't feel like walking through the park because I wanted to avoid... this guy.
"Here takes these seeds, they'll help save the world! Don't forget to stay in school!, he left running off to the next person he saw, I stood there with the seeds in my hand and a "what the hell just happened" look on my face. When he was out of sight, I tossed the seeds over my shoulder and walked on. Crazy man, he's not even aware of what's going on the the world, but It must be nice running throughout the world seeing every day as an adventure. I laughed to myself, old fool. I walked on until I reached the corner revealing the front of the school.
Crossing the street and entering the front gates, revealed the large front courtyard, students were showing off their bending, throwing Frisbees, and just hanging around talking. Some were sitting on the steps that led up to the front of the school. "I swear if someone offers me more god damn seeds again I'm going to kill them!", said a student walking by me. I laughed at my similar incident. Students showed off their bending, fire, water, wind, and lighting to those who were more advanced. One of them being Lee.
Lee was an advanced fire bender, he was tough, skilled and a total ass to Ruan and I. Luckily he was already entering the school so he didn't see me but that doesn't mean we would get under each others skin, I hated him. I walked closer to the steps, a Frisbee nearly took off my head, followed by a kid my age running after it. Class hadn't started yet so I might've well catch up on my rest, which was interrupted earlier then it needed to be by Bo. "Did you hear about the sand pits? They say the avatar blew up a building!", I overheard a group of people talking. Everyone seemed to agreed. Great more Equalist bullshit, please I get enough of that from my teachers, I thought to myself.
I tried to Ignore as much of the surroundings as possible. I continued onto the front steps of the college steps, then I stopped. Seeing her sitting in the middle of the steps and talking to her friends made me nervous, Kya. Kya was amazing, beautiful, and a very skilled water bender. I never knew what to say to her, she was a bender so I was kind of uneasy, Thank you Bao. I think I said "hi" to her..once but that had to be a long time ago and during a assemble in the great hall. She wore a long blue dress. She seemed to always wear blue or red, but I really didn't care, I liked her a lot.
Kya had long black hair, tan skin, and was blue eyes. Out of all my classes she was in one, and that was my last class. Although she wasn't in many there was something about seeing her in the end that made my day. I began walking up the steps, getting closer to her, I really didn't want to seem eager or nervous but the least I could do was say "hi", what did I have to loose? All of a sudden I was thrown off balance when an arm hooked around my neck, trying to reclaim my balance I caught whoever had been there.
Some people had looked to see what had happened but had lost interest almost immediately. "Khai, man welcome back to hell or school... not sure what the difference is", said Ruan digging his knuckles into my head. We laughed a bit at the incident then I fully regained my balance, and we continued to walk up the stairs. "You scared the shit out of me man, where did you come from?", I replied.
He pointed at a random direction, where my head turned. I saw nothing turning back the knuckle of his middle finder tapped hard against my forehead. Ruan laughed, "Just like my father ya know?", Ruan said cheerfully laughing. "Your an ass", I said back rubbing my head. "And your gullible, how do you expect to outshine your brother if you can be caught off guard so easily. C'mon Khai, I'm like your mentor in a way.
We reached the top of the stairs and went inside the main entrance, we had the main hall where people stood and talked before the it was time for class and then stair cases leading to the second floor. I shoved Ruan, showing my "respect" to my "mentor". Blue Drapes hung on the wall with golden letters of C and K on the front.
"By the way I saw you starring at her again. Kya right? When are you going to make a move Khai, I'm not going to baby you forever, man.", Ruan said walking down the hallways of the first floor. I would have responded but my attention was drawn elsewhere. This guy was unexplainable, he was so quiet, I'm sure he never spoke more then a hundred words a day.
Jun was a thick, blond haired boy. He was younger then me but in three of my classes. He wasn't that tall or strong, in fact he was skinny but he wasn't at all social.
"Hey Khai, you in there? Hey!", Ruan yelled in my ear, which drew some attention. My hand quickly slammed against my head holding my ear, "A little louder please I don't think I heard you!", I said more irritated this time.
"Sorry man, but it's like you just left this planet, soon enough you had a blank stare on your face, and you didn't even answer my question", Ruan replied. I replied quicker this time but my mind was still on Jun, even though he never made a sound he was still a mystery to me and other students as well, I've overheard conversations about him.
"Yea, sorry I was thinking of that kid over there, Jun", I said thinking about how I actually said those words. Ruan gave me a really weird look. "Wow dude, first Kya now Jun, your more determined than I thought", Ruan said sarcastically. I went to shove Ruan but he had expected it this time. "You ass, that's not what I meant, I mean have you actually heard him talk to others?," I said to Ruan.
Ruan stopped and thought about it for a minute. "Now that you mention it I haven't. The guys more silent then a ghost and the only thing close enough to talking to him is hearing rumors about him from other people, it's terrible when you think about it", Ruan replied. We stopped at our lockers getting everything we needed for first period. Our lockers were somewhat close, we just we a few down from each other, lucky enough nobody was in between us at the time. A loud whistle blew, announcing to get to first period.
"But I'll bet you two will be perfect for each other", Ruan thew in at the end, laughing. I slammed my locker shut and walked over to him grabbing his shirt, I wanted to hit him, in a weird brotherly fighting sort of way, "That's not what I meant you little-!", I would have finished but I noticed that Kya was walking by. She caught a glimpse of me and I obviously couldn't help but stare back. I quickly released Ruan, who was still laughing, I turned smiled at her and waved. She smiled back but she suddenly got side tracked when one of her friends started to talk to her.
"Really cool there Khai, well I got to get off to World History so I see you in third and fourth period man", said Ruan walking down the hall. I ran my finger through my hair, embarrassed that once again I couldn't get a word out to Kya. I closed my locker and started to walk to my class but was interrupted by Lee slamming me into the lockers, three other fire benders were behind him.
"Well hey there Khai, where do you think your going?, Lee said, everybody surrounded me. "Look Lee let's not do this here man, c'mon lets be smart and-", I was cut off my the sound of Lee's hand slamming against the lockers. I looked over to see a burnt mark and a little smoke rising from it. "No no no, see you don't talk, you Equalist shit, you listen to me. Well I must admit, it's just like an Equalist to try and squeeze his way out of an situation, since your kind buys your way towards just about every immoral action, money, power, and murder", Lee said angrily.
I shook my head, "You don't buy your way to those things lee you earn-", Lee responded before I could finish by slamming his fist into my stomach, I bent over in pain just to get my head slammed back into the lockers by one of Lee's "friends", still holding my head back by my hair.
"Shut up! Your in no position to be correcting me you Fuck!", Lee said as he hit me in the side of the head sending me to the ground. Their circle that had surrounded me was now broken as I laid on the ground trying to get to my feet. Lee knelt down, "Maybe you can't get this through that damn Equalist mind of yours but hopefully you can see that if you or your family ever threaten me, my family, and friends-", This time it was my turn to interrupt him, probably not the smartest thing but his anger was his downfall as well, although he never used it correctly.
"Go to hell", I whispered to him, Lee was now furious. He tried to hit me but, predicting this I caught it. This had angered Lee even more, pressing down with his fist he lifted up his free hand and emitting flames. However one of his friends caught this and jumped in.
"Whoa Lee, not here man they'll catch you. Let's not going through another lock down.", One of his friends said. Lee stopped his fire and rose to his feet, he spat on my shirt. He cursed my name as he and his friends walked off to first period. Bending of any kind was not tolerated and if caught, the school would go into lock down for two hours even if the situation was settled, they said it was protocol. More like punishment to me. I got up brushing myself off of whatever dust had gotten on me. I had been late to first period.
(First period ended, second had started)
Unlike literature, there was something about world history that I liked. Maybe it was the interesting battle or the world sort of finding peace at the very end. However this Peace never seemed to last very long. We had learned about Avatar Kyoshi vs Chin the Conquer and how she stopped him from upsetting the balance of the world.
Once again Jun had been in that class, he sat in the very back of the class. He almost seemed sinister, he never spoke unless spoken directly towards and even then it didn't seem like much. Although he did show emotion at times but even then he was still a mystery. After a couple hours had past, a the lunch bell had rung. Lunch was pretty cool, there were tons of things to eat here if you didn't bring your own food, not to mention you could eat anywhere. I chose to eat outside with Ruan, seems like the only time to actually get freedom from this place.
I walked outside, down the main stairs and entered the main courtyard. Hundreds of people ate outside almost every day, I ate with Ruan at a table shaded by a tree near the edge of the campus. I brought my own lunch of a sandwich and an apple. They sold drinks there which always gave Ruan a reason to bring money. "How goes it?", Ruan said reading a book.
"Well I got jumped by Lee and was late to first period, so my day was pretty awesome. Since when do you read.", I said changing the subject. I could tell he was really into it. "I'm not actually sure how this happened either, kinda weird actually", Ruan said taking a bite from hit chicken. We talked and laughed about life, and crap we took from class.
"So how did it go with Kya today?", Ruan said putting his book down and focusing on his drink. I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. "That bad huh? Well look at the bright side, you still have next period and your in her class at least you can say hi", Ruan said. It would be really nice seeing her in fourth period and who knows maybe I'll talk to her. We talked more about Kya and Ruan kept on his book, "Now that you mention it why am I reading this?", Ruan said closing the book. As he put down the book a full view of Porter sat in the top branch of the tree that shaded us.
"Son of a-!", Ruan said surprised, quickly standing up, "You stare at people for a living or is this you sense of humor?", Ruan said. I Turned around and looked up as Porter as he sat there eating an apple. I got to my feet as well, and wanted to get him back for kidnapping me and Ruan, but it was clear Ruan didn't remember a thing. He laid there and smiled. "If it helps, I had my name on it.", he laughed at himself. I looked down and saw the letters J.C carved heavily into the bottom of the tree.
Porter jumped down and stuck out his hand towards Ruan. "Johnathon Porter, nice to see you, uh again and conscious", He said. Ruan looked confused as hell, yea he definitely didn't remember him. I pushed his hand down and shoved porter against the tree. "Whoa now Khai, let's not get violent, I'm just here to talk", Porter said activating his hidden blade. I didn't know what to do, I didn't think I could trust him yet but what choice did I have, he was there wasn't he? Might as well hear what he had to say.
Porter hopped down from the tree, he and I sat at the table. He wore Blue pants, a texture I was unfamiliar with, black combat boots, and a grey short sleeve shirt. Ruan was still standing with a confused look on his face. "So you guys know each other?", Ruan said cautiously as he sat down. I sighed "unfortunately", I said drinking a cup of water. "Relax Khai, I'm only here to talk", he said peeling his apple with his hidden blade. His weaponry was pretty advanced, but maybe it was just all new to me. Everybody knows the army has all the cool toys before the people do, but still Porter looked to young for that stuff.
"Talk? Are you kidding me the last time we talked you-", I stopped I really didn't want Ruan to know what had happened, not because I was embarrassed or anything but there was just no need to right now. "I'm not sure how to respond to all this so..pretend like I'm not even here", Ruan said picking his book back up. His attention span was amazing.
"Relax Khai, I'm not here to kick your ass again, by the way call me John, we're not doing this army shit now, were at your school relax if you can", John laughed. I didn't know how to feel but maybe I could get some answers like where he was from. "Whatever John, just where are you from", I asked stressfully.
John noticed that I was annoyed with him. "Look Khai we've had our struggles (he said this with a sinister smile) but lets put that behind us now we're at your school, tell me about it. About our location, you wouldn't believe us anyway, we come from a place you wouldn't think existed", John said. That just got me more curious, those types of answers really just annoyed me more.
"John-", I was interrupted by the sound of sirens going off on the streets. Off school campus, armor vehicles arrived almost surrounding our school. It got very much attention of everyone outside during lunch. They all starred as more armored vehicles blockaded the main entrance on school grounds. Some had actually driven onto the grass. The back doors busted open revealing Equalist soldiers in their armor while higher ranked one came with black hooded robes and their masks.
One in general had pulled up very close to us but we had been near the back of the school. He was yelling out orders as Equalists surrounded the whole school. I look around there was no escape. One hooded Equalist in general had hopped out of his vehicle he wore an all black hooded robe with his armor underneath partly showing. His mask, I will never forget his mask. It had a large crack running up diagonally. I was terrified of what was about to happen next.
Porter had broken the silence. "oh no", he whispered to himself. Ruan had finally realized the situation we were in and put down the book. He took out a device that had almost looked like a radio except it was much smaller. "John what the hell are you doing, what is that?", I demanded.
"You wouldn't believe me Khai, I'm calling in my squad, we'll need them"