Class Project - Pt. 3

"Whoa! This is all your house?" Aang marveled at the size of Toph's mansion.

"Yep." Toph leaned against her wall, unenthused. Dressed with fishnet gloves and skull berets, the punky tomboy stood out among the French paintings and Roman statuettes like a sore thumb.

"This place is…wow!" Aang took off his old hat, a raggy grey skull cap with a light blue arrow on it. Like Toph, Aang didn't belong amongst the expensive furniture and high ceilings.

"Yeah, yeah. Can we get our project done already?" Toph didn't feel like giving Aang a tour of her marble prison she was forced to call her home.

"Uh, okay." Aang smiled. Toph lead him to her room. Only when seeing her gentle frame from behind was Aang's attention pulled away from the luxurious home. He gulped, realizing that he had never been in a girl's room before, except for Katara's.

The door to Toph's room was pure white, like the walls surrounding it, except for a big CAUTION sigh in the middle and the words ENTER AT OWN RISK in red underneath it.

Toph kicked open her door and Aang slowly, and nervously, entered. Her room was nothing like the palace outside. The walls were painted brown, like they were made of wood, but most of them were covered with posters of heavy metal bands. Her floor was…actually, Aang couldn't tell what color her floor was. Clothes, bottles of soda, CDs and other knickknacks were scattered over every inch of the ground. He thought he saw a carpet maybe. She had a computer hidden under a few t-shirts, a dartboard above her bed and a cabinet with a TV.

"Well, sit!" Toph said as she collapsed onto her bed.

"Where?" Aang looked around for a chair.

"There's a chair behind ya!" Toph pointed to a tall lump of clothes on Aang's left. "Just push the clothes off." Aang hesitated. "Come on!"

Aang grabbed the piles and pushed them off. He accidentally touched one of Toph's bras and immediately blushed. Toph didn't notice.

"So, what's the project gonna be on?" Toph leaned over her bed and opened a hidden mini-fridge (which was also covered with clothes). She pulled out two sodas and threw one to Aang.

"Um…I was thinking that we could…" Aang struggled to catch the icy can. "…we could do a project on weather or something. Maybe the North Atlantic Current and how that affects clouds and wind patterns?"

"That sounds boring." Toph said abruptly.

"…oh." Aang looked down at the floor.

"I mean, come on? Who is going to take that seriously?"

"Well…do you have any better ideas?"

"Something…exciting! Like…I don't know. Earthquakes! Yeah, something hardcore! Maybe volcanoes! Or something…really bad ass."

"Um…okay. I guess. What about tornadoes?"

"Yeah, that'll work." Without warning, Toph burped. Aang jumped, feeling it. Even though he had virtually no experience with girls, he had a few (positive) preconceptions of how the fairer sex acted. Toph was not what he expected.

"Okay, so…do you want to do the research and I'll do the writing? Or should we work on each step bit-by-bit?" Aang asked.

"Work?" Toph's eyebrow rose. "We just thought of a theme. Isn't that enough for today?"

"What? No, we should…"

"I've got an XBOX." Toph pointed to her cabinet, which was buried in yet another pile of clothes.

"Where?" Aang asked.

"It's…somewhere in there. Anyway, the controller is over here and Halo is in the thing. Wanna play?"

Aang looked at Toph with uneasy eyes. "You know, you don't really act like…"

Toph stood up and glared at Aang. "Like what?"! She sounded defensive.

"Like…ya know. Like a rich person."

"So what?" Toph lay on her back.

"So…your room is a mess."

"The maid is on vacation this week." Toph chugged her soda.

"You have a maid? Wait, it's only been a week and your room is like this already?"

"Yeah and yeah. Again, what do you care?"

"I don't. But you should. I mean, don't your other friends complain about this mess?"

"Go to hell!" Toph yelled, almost screaming, and then looked away from Aang.

"What?" Aang asked, shocked that she got so angry so fast. Toph rolled onto her side and faced her wall, refusing to make eye contact with Aang. "You…Toph…do you have any other friends?"

Aang asked merely trying to be nice. But Toph, as she usually did, took his friendly gesture the wrong way.

Toph rolled over, sat up straight and began to speak louder than normally.

"You know what? Maybe inviting you over was a bad idea." Toph growled at Aang. "Why don't you just go jump off a bridge or something?"

"Hey, I didn't have to help you with this project." Aang was starting to get angry with her.

"Newsflash! I never wanted your help in the first place."

"Yeah, well I don't want yours now!"

"Then why are you still here, dork? The door is right there." Toph waved to the exit.

"That's the smartest thing I've heard you say since I met you." Aang walked towards the door and put his half-filled soda can on Toph's chair.

"Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out, skinny." Toph lay back down on her bed.

"Shut up you spoiled rich girl!" Aang yelled.

In one quick motion, Toph jumped up, grabbed Aang by his arm and poked her finger on his nose threateningly.

"Don't …EVER…call me a spoiled rich girl ever again. I am not! I am NOT! Got it?" Toph barked. Aang began to sweat.

"Or what?" Aang didn't think before he spoke.

"Or I'll smash that shrimpy little body of yours like those two bullies did…" Toph stopped mid-sentence, realizing that the only reason Aang got beaten up was because he was protecting her.

Aang's face shattered, becoming indescribable. His expression changed. It becamse the kind of look a person can only show after knowing what it's like to be picked on over and over again, to be told that you are worthless so many times that it becomes common place, to have nothing and still have something taken away from you.

Toph immediately began to swell up with guilt.

"Okay, look Aang, I didn't mean that." She tried to fix the damage, but it was already too late. Aang pushed her off his arm.

"It's no wonder you don't have any friends." He turned around and left her alone.

"Aang!" Toph yelled at him, but he was already half way out her door. "Dammit!" She pulled on her hair and yelled. "God Dammit!"

To be continued