Avatar (the last air-bender) inspired, because why the hell not. enjoy

16. freak

I'm a one of a kind, a special snowflake, unique to the rest of my sort. Ever since my family died, that is.

8 year old me had made the mistake of interrupting my father while he was working, I had meant no harm, I just wanted to ask him something. I wanted to show him my drawing of him and mom, it was supposed to be a father daughter bonding moment but instead of him taking the drawing thanking me for it, he took it and without even looking he set it on fire, then he told me to leave and I did, crying. My mom was my everything but one day she just disappeared, it's like she just vanished of this earth, no sign of her leaving. Again I cried, but I had nowhere to run to, so I went to one of the training rooms and started punching a bag. Shooting random fireballs everywhere, a guard found me there and he soon became my friend. His name was Zuko, he taught me how to fight and how to control the fire within my body.

I was 14 when my father really pissed me off, he always did but now he had managed to make it so bad, he had me shooting all kinds of fire to him. He deflected all of it and sent me to my room, only to send Zuko to get me an hour later. Zuko told me to remember what I had learned and to not be afraid, as he brought me to one of the arena's. my father was there, he spoke to me in a cold emotionless voice, "you have been training I see, enough to attack your own father. Take this opportunity to show me what you've got" and then he started the match. I dodged all the fire he threw at me and showed no mercy as I drove him back into the corner and watched as the man burned to death. I was enjoying the sight while I should've payed attention to the heartless son of a bitch, as his last act of hatred he send one last spray of fire my way, it was too late for me to dodge of deflect it and I was hit by it on my right arm and shoulder. Leaving a nasty scar that starts in my neck and goes all the way down my shoulder onto my arm and only ending where my fingers begin. My father was dead, my mom was gone, it was just me who was left. I send everyone home and lived by myself in the big house and kept training, I needed to become stronger.

I'm a misfit, a weirdo, a nerd, I should kill myself, I'm not worthy of living, I'm a bitch and many more things, if you believe the kids from my school.

Since the first day of school I was always the target, I dressed different than the others and wore my make-up different. I never payed attention in class but still got A's on most tests, which called for a lot of attention I didn't need. It got worse when I got burned, I showed up at school one day with my right side completely covered with bandages. The name calling turned physical and not long after that I had my first fire outburst at school, which caused me to get bullied even worse. I just ignored them and focused on finishing the last years, after that I wanted to go to college, have a fresh start somewhere else. But that time was yet to come and every day after school I'd run to a nearby empty factory and let out all my anger. Dragons of fire would often fly through the building as I controlled them, the movement of my body was followed by the fire. That's always the case, meditation is key. When I concentrate hard enough I can summon fire at any given moment in any situation, also, martial arts. I looks really cool already but ad the fire and it's lit, sorry for the pun. My father manipulated fire with his anger, his angry self, used all of the anger to bend fire. He was much weaker than me because I don't try to manipulate the fire, I'm one with it, I live in it, I breath it. To become more powerful I must learn to find inner peace. One day in the empty building someone walked in on me, he called the police, who tried to take me in. they thought I was a dangerous individual but I got away by setting the place on fire. I ran, cut off my hair, disappeared in the city. They stopped looking about six months after they first found me but with every tip they'd still send someone after me, I'll never forget the name of the boy who ruined my life. Jesse Swanson, he was the one kid in school that was nice to me, he must've followed me one day after school. When I was living in the city I was homeless and that was a big shock since I grew up with a lot of money, I changed my appearance like I said but I also changed my name. I even got a fake ID with it, Rebeca Mai Mitchel. My mom's name was Mai, so I went with that. for four years I lived on the streets, stealing and fighting for food. I lived towards the day I could go to college, my father had it all planned out for me, and that hadn't changed after his death. So all I had to do was gather what little belongings I had and get my scrawny ass on a plane, well, that didn't happen of course. I walked, it was only three days from LA to Barden University.

I'm an introvert, I build a fortress around my heart, I'm always looking over my shoulder, looking for something that's not there. I shrug all the harsh words off like they mean nothing to me, like they can't hurt me. But deep down inside me there is a little girl crying, she's always looking for someone she can trust, she can talk to, looking for someone who lets her be herself. But I learned to show no weakness, so that girl stays deep inside. So I keep pretending to be fine while I'm slowly falling apart.

It's not difficult to put up this façade, to pretend everything is fine when it's not. I thought I could have a fresh start here, well I was wrong. Guess who showed up, Jesse Swanson! I swear the next time I see him I will kill him, no wait, killing is too easy. I will hurt him like he hurt me, yeah, that. I put all my stuff in my room, and with all I mean this one bag that holds all my possessions. I go out for a bit and get myself some coffee to go, it's cold when I'm back so I quickly heat it. While doing this I'm not paying attention and I walk into some person, throwing the hot coffee over my shirt. "fuck!"

"oh my god are you alright? I'm so sorry I wasn't paying attention"

I take off my shirt without even thinking twice, not realising that it might be a weird thing to do in the middle of the hallway, luckily it's empty, in front of this stranger. I look up and see a redhead stand in front of me with a shocked expression on her face, she's looking at my neck, slowly down my scars.

"I'm sorry, I have to go. I'll see you around" and I quickly make my way back to my room.

A couple of days later and I'm yet to run into Swanson, he's lucky. I haven't seen the redhead either, I go to the diner next to campus and order some food. I'm slowly eating a pancake when someone sits down in front of me, it's the redhead.

"hey!" wow she's always happy isn't she "it's good that I saw you here, I wanted to make it up to you so I'm getting you coffee"

"you really don't have to"

"I know but I want to, I'm Chloe" she offers her hand and I take it

"you can call me Beca"

"Beca's not your name?" I shake my head "then what's your name"

"it's Rebeca but I hate it" Chloe nods understandingly and the conversation flows freely, it's nice talking to this girl. Her hair is like flames but her eyes are like the water that can kill the flames, in other words, she's perfect.

"Ash?" I shoot an apologetic look to Chloe and turn to Jesse Swanson, he's facing to Chloe "hi, I'm Jesse, a friend of Ash" I'm glaring his way and can feel my hands head up,

"Jesse, how nice it is to see you again. How have you been? Ruined many more lives?"

He's looking at me with anger in his eyes, he has no right to be angry "no I haven't, but with you I'd do it all over again" he steps closer, it takes all of my self-control to not use fire right now. "they were supposed to lock you up, you're a freak" he spat the last word with venom

"You're such a naïve little shit, I'm not Ash, I'm Beca and you got nothing on me. So you're gonna walk out of here without a second thought and if I ever see you around one of my friends, I will kill you"

Jesse turns around and walks away, he shouts back "find friends first Ash, you were never great at it"

In the meantime Chloe has been standing there without saying anything, it must've been really weird witnessing this. I sit down and cover my face with my hands

"what was that"

"Jesse Swanson"

"who's Jesse Swanson"

"he's the dude that called the police on me while I was doing nothing wrong" I take my hands away and look Chloe in the eye "I was playing with fire and he saw something he shouldn't have seen, the fucker was so scared he almost peed himself and he called the cops. I ran, I had no family and no way was I going to prison for something I hadn't done"

"is that how you got those burns?"

I shake my head and a small smile appears on my face "nope, that was another time"

Chloe chuckles and I swear it's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard "are you a pyromaniac or something"

I think about it for a sec "well, I guess you could say that. but don't worry, I'll try not to start anything" I'm glad Chloe hasn't asked more questions but I'm pretty sure they'll come soon, cuz I look at my watch and see that I have to go to class. We say goodbye and exchange numbers with the promise to do this again some time.

I'm only human.

I'm on my way to meet Chloe and that's when I see them, Jesse has Chloe pinned on the wall and she's struggling to get out of his grip. I get so angry I don't even think about what I'm doing, I run to the two, grab the boys shirt and throw him to the side. He quickly gets up and smiles an evil smile. I look around me and see that we're alone so I unleash hell on him, shooting fire at him in a few shift motions. Jesse's not a bender so he might be able to dodge the first stream but after that there's not much he can do, he starts screaming as soon as he gets hit. I stop and let him get up, he's limping as he makes his way over to me. Even now he's too stupid to give up, he throws a punch but I catch it and burn his fist. I make him sit down on his knees in front of me "I knew you'd still be there Ash" he grins and I let him fall to the ground and watch him slowly get up again.

"look Jesse, there's this new trick I learned" I say with a smirk plastered on my face, I rub my hands together until I feel the electricity flow through my body. I keep going right up till the point where I feel like I'm about to explode, that's when I lead the energy to my hands and it comes shooting out in the form of lightning bolts, hitting the boy right where his heart's supposed to be. He screams again but it stops when his heart gets fried, then he sinks in and lays there, dead.

I snap from my anger and turn back to a frightened Chloe "are you alright" I slowly approach the redhead, afraid she'll run or something.

"how- what- why would you" and that's when she faints, I catch her just in time and carry her back to her room. I put her in bed and wait for her to wake up, I know that I have some explaining to do and I don't want her to be alone when she wakes.

Not much later she opens her eyes, I quickly get up from my spot on the ground and sit on the side of the bed "hey, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, I had the weirdest dream ever, Jesse was talking to me and he said he was gonna, but then you came out of nowhere and save me. But then you shot all of this fire at him and the next thing I know, he's dead" the redhead thinks for a second and starts saying something "it was-" but I cut her off.

I sadly shake my head "that wasn't a dream Chloe, I'm from a family of fire-benders, which means exactly that. my mother and father raised me, and trained me. Until my mom disappeared, she just vanished, then my dad he started to hate me. I never knew why but this one time he challenged me into a duel, those are secret in our family and are fought to the death. I won, my family was gone but I tried to live my life as normal as possible, there was this empty building not far from school where I'd practise sometimes and one day Jesse walked in. he called the cops and I ran, I went to LA. In the city I was able to vanish and that's also when I changed my name, my name used to be Ash Ozon. Named after my great, great grandfather. Now it's Rebeca Mai Mitchel. Anyway, I lived on the streets for four years before I came here and met you, I'm sorry for not telling you but I was afraid. Because I really like you and I don't want you to leave" I wait for Chloe to respond, she grabs my hand and I look up to her face, there's a smile on it, she's like super pretty when she smiles.

"if you'd let me finish, I was gonna say, it was really hot. Listen Becs, I'm not mad that you didn't tell me, I was just a little freaked out, oh and I like you a lot too" I smile at her and pull her in for a kiss, our first kiss. It feels like a thousand fires erupt in my body, and I can only hope for them to last forever.