"Grrr. It's over nine thousand!" –smashes scouter with one hand-

Thanks for over 9,000 hits guys. Actually, it's almost 10,000 now. THANKS A LOT!

A Long Time Ago

8 years ago

"I got you!" Aang yelled as he pushed Toph's shoulder.

"Nu-ah. My hand was on base." Toph said.

"No! Base is over there!" Aang pointed to the metal bar at the front of the playground.

"Well, now this is too." Toph hugged the metal bar next to her, at the end of the playground.

"That's not fair! You're cheating!" Aang began to pout.

"I am not!" Toph insisted.

"What's going on?" One of the teaching assistants interrupted the toddler's argument. Aang, being the good little boy he was, felt obligated to speak first.

"Toph was playing tag, and base was over there…" Aang pointed, speaking fast. "…but now she says it's over here and I caught her and she's a cheater!"

"I'm not a cheater! Take that back!" Toph yelled and moaned at the same time.

"Both of you be quiet!" The assistant yelled. "Toph, we need you to come inside. Your parents are here to see you."

"Yeah! I'm going home early!" Toph said. More than once had her parents brought her out of school before the day ended, for one reason or another. Toph had begun to expect it.

"No fair. I wanna go." Aang moaned.

"Too bad. I'm going home today, I'm going home today." Toph mocked Aang.

"Toph, stop that." The assistant said. "Now come with me." She took Toph's hand.

Toph said as she waved goodbye, but Aang didn't see.

"Wait here." The assistant said to Toph. Toph was placed in a small chair just her size outside of the principal's office. The assistant went into the office and closed the door.

Toph sat still for a few seconds before she began to fidget. A few minutes passed, which is hours for a little girl, and Toph began to swing her feet back and forth and make funny noises. After only ten minutes of waiting, Toph got up and started to pace. Then, just as she was about to go into the office herself, her father came barging out.

"She's leaving, and that is final!" He yelled, in one of his moods again.

"Daddy. Are we going?" Toph asked impatiently.

"Yes Toph. We most certainly are going. And we're not coming back."

"…what?" Toph got worried.

"I'll explain later. Just come along now." Lao pushed her down the hallway. Her quiet mother followed him.

"When am I coming back?" Toph asked.

"Just go Toph. We'll talk later."

"But I told Aang I'd see him tomorrow." Toph grew more concerned by the second.

"Just go Toph!" Lao yelled. Toph lowered her head and marched.

Lying once again, Lao didn't explain to Toph why they were pulling her out of public school. The little girl was left in her room while Lao and her mother yelled at each other. Being the tiny and inexperienced person that she was, Toph thought that all of it was because of something she had done.

She cried a little, but fell asleep when her parents stopped yelling.

"I'm gonna miss Aang." She said before closing her eyes. A part of her young mind knew that she would never see him again.

Today

Knock-knock. Toph knocked on Aang's door. After a few seconds, no one answered.

BANG-BANG. Toph slammed the side of her fist on his flimsy door.

"Hang on!" Aang yelled from the inside. Click-cluck-click. He unlatched his locks and opened the door.

"Hey skinny." Toph said.

"Hello nightmare." Aang said.

"Give it up twinkle toes. You're not good at making nicknames." She said, leaning against the frame of his doorway.

"I'll think of one for you one of these days." Aang promised.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go." Toph's thumb pointed down the street. Aang opened his screen door and relocked everything. "Race ya?" Toph took off running without Aang's approval.

"Yeah right. I'm on the track team!" Aang yelled as he let Toph get a head start.

A few seconds later, Toph felt a tiny tap on her shoulder.

"Hey!" Toph said.

"Got ya." Aang said with a smile.

"No way." Toph looked around. A small rock was by her foot. "See that rock? That's base. I'm totally safe."

"No way. You're…cheating…" Aang said, feeling strange.

"No I'm…" Toph stopped mid-sentence. "…no I'm not.

They paused.

"Did you just get Déjà vu?" Aang asked.

"No, but it feels like we've done this before."

"That's what Déjà vu means."

"Oh…well…yeah, a little." Toph scratched her head.

"…anyway, let's go." Aang said.

"Yeah." Toph walked with him rather than running ahead of him.

"Hey Toph."

"Wha?"

"I'm really glad you're my friend." Aang said.

"…okay. Where did that come from?" Toph smiled.

"I don't know. Right after I got the Déjà vu, I got this other feeling…like I needed to tell you that."

"Um…okay. Thanks?" Toph didn't know what he was talking about.

"No problem." Aang smiled back at her.