Short chapter is short. But motivation is out the window! Noo! D: Also, don't own Avatar, but wish I did. Wish I did soooo much...
A sudden loud bang jerked Lupe awake, and she fell out of bed for the second time in two days. "All Benders report to the training yard for their first day of Bending training!"
Bending training?
Lupe had put Firebending…
Zuko had taught Aang Firebending…
She was out of bed and pulling on her uniform before a bystander could have blinked. Of course, if there had been a bystander, they would been a pervert or a creeper, because Lupe was a girl who, while admittedly fond of ice cream and chocolate, had a somewhat attractive figure and looked younger than she was.
Everyone else was trickling out of their rooms slowly, rubbing their eyes and expressing dissatisfied sentiments with the time. There were a few hourglasses distributed about the dorm area, but Lupe had no idea how to read the symbols on them that indicated time. A few guards were wandering the area, encouraging students to get downstairs and outside for practice. All of them had sadistic grins on their faces, visible under their helmets.
"All Benders to the training yard!" Someone yelled. "Hurry up! Move your feet!" Several guards were Firebenders, and used their power to lash whips of fire at students' feet. Multiple burns were received, as well as orders to see the Healers during breakfast.
"I did not sign up for this!" A young girl, in her early teens, wailed next to Lupe. "I'm here for Zuzu! Zuzu! Not to get up at unholy hours and run around!" Uh-oh—she was a Zuko fangirl too? It was beginning to look like she might have some competition for him…
"Lupe! Hey!" Meep weaved through the crowd to come up between Lupe and the young girl. "Oh, hey you! What's your name?"
"Fyre Elaine." The girl sniffled. It looked like she was catching a cold. "I—I thought I could…maybe…well, it's a university for Avatar…and Zuko's just so hot…"
"You're young for him." Lupe snapped.
"You're old for him!" The girl protested, glaring at Lupe. "What are you, seventeen? That's a whole year older than him! I've got a better chance with him than you!"
"Wh—I'm nineteen, you!" Lupe snarled. She attempted to launch herself at the annoying girl, but Meep caught her by the back of her collar before she could.
"Beware of lemurs!" Meep screamed, pointing up. The students (currently in a short hall that had two huge doors to the outside) all looked up, and saw that all the ledges above their heads were filled with silent, creepily-staring lemurs.
"…oh God."
"G'd m'rn'n…" Karen muttered, rubbing at her eyes sleepily. "'t's t'm f'r cl'ss…"
"Er, maybe I should take over?" Iroh suggested. Karen responded by walking back two steps, collapsing to the ground, and starting to snore. "We never should have set her alarm clock for three a.m…now I know what 'I'm not a morning girl' meant."
"Well, should we start the Bending lessons now?" Pakku put in his usual sarcasm. "Or maybe we should serve everyone tea and tell them stories about the good old days?"
"I'd like ginseng." Piandao said with a straight face. Bumi started to snort-laugh, one of his eyelids twitching madly, as Jeong-Jeong's lips curled up slightly in an amused smile. Pakku slapped his forehead with his hand. Iroh let out a bellowing laugh, then turned to the assembled student population, half of whom were seeming disappointed that Zuko was nowhere to be seen.
"All right everyone, this is your first day of Bending training!" Iroh announced to the group. "You will be taught by a member of the Order of the White Lotus, except for the third of you that are Airbenders, who will be taught by Aang."
"Aangy!" Several girls squealed.
"Where's Zuzu?" A large group off to one side demanded angrily.
"My nephew will not be appearing until it's time for him to teach his class." Iroh replied calmly. "In the meantime, you would do well to pay attention to the matter at hand. The lemurs are ready to swarm if anyone attempts to stampede the Avatar." He pointed to the lemurs, who had relocated to some nearby trees. "Now, Waterbenders with Master Pakku, Earthbenders with King Bumi, Airbenders with Aang when he appears—"
"WAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Aang screamed, crash-landing in front of the group of students. He popped up, dusted himself off, and twisted around to give a thumbs-up to Appa, who was circling in the sky anxiously. "Thanks buddy! It works!" Then he turned to Iroh and asked, "Have you introduced me yet?"
"Mm-hm. Please take the Airbenders to wherever you wanted them." Iroh nodded.
"All right! Airbenders, with me!" Aang produced his staff from seemingly nowhere, opened it, and flew off. On the ground, the Airbender students milled about in confusion, then attempted to follow him in the pre-dawn darkness. Several wandered off, only to be attacked by lemurs until they were once more on the right track.
Once the general screaming died down, Bumi and Pakku led their students off to find better environments for their Bending (the training yard had no waterfalls or huge rocks scattered about it, sadly enough, and of course the Airbenders were going to a nearby tower to practice their Bending). Iroh and Jeong-Jeong surveyed the remaining students, mostly fangirls in their teens, and gave identical shark-tooth grins.
"We're going to start with breath control, everyone." Jeong-Jeong instructed. He was in his Order of the White Lotus uniform, as all the other Masters (excepting, obviously, Aang) had been. "Sit down and begin to breathe to my count. One, two…one, two…in, out…STOP LOOKING AROUND FOR ZUKO AND CONCENTRATE!"
"Oh…my…God…" Lupe's eyelids felt like they had lead weights on them. "Thank the saint's that's over…is it time for breakfast yet?"
"Breakfast? It's time for weapons training!" Piandao laughed. "You didn't think we'd give you all sharp, dangerous objects and not at least teach you how to use them without killing yourselves, did you?" He looked around at the silent students. "…Well. In any case, you should have brought your weapons with you this morning, so please take them out and wait for instructions."
"But I didn't bring mine with me!" Lupe cried out in panic. Most of the other students voiced similar sentiments.
"Oh dear. You mean you expect us to have pity on you for being silly, forgetful little fangirls?" Pakku grinned wickedly. "Of course. We'll just postpone the lesson so you lot can go back to your rooms and retrieve the weapons you should have brought in the first place. While we're at it, why don't we just cancel class altogether and let you sleep in?"
"Really?" Someone called.
"No." Pakku frowned. "If you don't have a weapon with you, you'll be joining the barehanded fighting classes."
"Will we be naked for those?" Andy asked eagerly.
"That's it!" Lana Kirk, better known as Freeranger, screamed in anger. She'd found herself rooming next to Andy, whose constant suggestive behavior and odd noises in the night had kept her from sleeping at all. Then, this morning, after being called out at an ungodly hour and having to endure Andy at her side not-so-subtly trying to get her out of her clothing, she had been forced to accompany Piandao and a few other non-Benders on an orientational trip through the woods, both to familiarize them with the facts of their non-Bendership (more sleep time after this morning) and to test just how bad they at walking through woods.
Now Freeranger was ready to murder someone. And if that someone was Andy, so much the better.
She reached into a pouch on her belt, and took out a slightly-glowing red orb. With a cry of rage, she threw it straight at Andy, and hit the woman in the chest. It exploded upon impact, spreading red dust all over her, her clothing, and the ground immediately around her. Andy blinked for a moment…then burst out into tears.
"I'M JUST A NYMPHO WHO DRIVES EVERYONE INSANE WITH MY LEWD BEHAVIOR!" She bawled. Everyone stared at her, then turned to Freeranger in wonder and fear.
"I've been wanting to use those." She said with satisfaction.
"And now they're confiscated." Karen appeared behind her from nowhere, black leather coat billowing dramatically in the wind that appeared from nowhere. She snatched the pouch from Freeranger, and inspected the contents. "You said you knew a little jujitsu, so you should be safe. Sort of." The agent paused to think, then shrugged. "Maybe not."
"I hope those disappear like your knives!" Freeranger shot at Karen. Karen raised an eyebrow—and suddenly, something small, hard, and fast flew past Freeranger's ear.
"My knives may be disappearing…but not my cookies." She held up another one threateningly.