Leaving For The Summer

"DON'T spend all of your time goofing off. You have lots of time to read and study your…oh, who am I kidding? You're all going to sleep till noon and play the iPod all day."

"Dang. You caught me." Toph said with a smirk. Mr. Pakku glared at her, then continued with his annual summer vacation speech.

"Anyway, at least try to stay out of trouble. As much as I think some people would feel right at home behind bars, there are some of you that would probably not want to go to jail."

He looked at the clock. Officially, school ended at 2:59, but he had an extra ten minutes.

"You all can leave early." He smiled. Some of the students hesitated, but Toph leapt out of her seat and charged for the door.

"I'll see you tonight twinkle toes." She waved to him.

Slowly, the crowd of students snuck out of the room, forming into groups of friends as they left the class. Some, leaving forever.

Aang took his time. He had been in a horrible mood all day. He wanted to tell Toph something before she went out the door, but missed her. Well, two things…but he was afraid to say just one.

Hours passed. Toph didn't tell Aang why, but she "commanded" him to wait at the crumbling wall where she liked to hang out. The skinny boy patiently counted the few stars in the darkening sky as he waited.

He saw a few cars pass by, each with a soft purring engine that would fade away after making a loud buzz.

All alone, Aang rehearsed, talking to himself over and over, saying the two very important things that he had been wanting to her for a while now. He was nervous, very nervous, but he knew that he'd have to tell her. Tonight! He wouldn't get another chance.

As he was practicing, very suddenly, a powerful thumping noise came down the winding road and an engine as loud as a chain saw roared. A green Hummer flew down the empty street, blaring incredible music out of from the tinted windows.

The Hummer spun stopped, screeching, leaving black streaks in the highway, and then turned towards Aang. The car drove up the little hill and stopped at the far end of the crumbling wall.

Aang got nervous, sure that some enormous headbanger would step out of the truck and attack him.

The music shut off, the car turned off and the door open and… "You, twinkle toes! Check. It. Out!"

"Toph?" Aang yelled.

"Yeah. I got- whoa!" Toph yelped. Trying to climb down from the giant truck, she fell and landed face first into the ground.

Aang ran to her rescue and pulled her to her feet.

"Thanks." She brushed herself off, brushed the brown dirt off her brown pants. "I just got it today." Her thumb pointed towards the metal monster.

"Today? You failed your driving test!" Aang reminded her, yelling a bit.

"My dad pulled a few strings and got me another test. With a different tester. And he was so happy that I passed, he bought me Godzilla here." Toph patted the hood twice.

"Godzilla?"

"Big. Green. And made in Japan." She grinned.

"Hummer's are American cars."

"Details, details." She ignored him.

"So is this what you wanted to show me? Just you new toy?

"Just my new toy? This thing could eat you! It's a beautiful…"

"It's a gas guzzler. It gets like twelve feet to the gallon."

"It's a mobile house! You can put a damn television inside. Come on, let's go for a ride." Toph grabbed his wrist and pulled. Aang's heart leapt.

"Uh, wait. Before we go…"

"Huh?

"Before we…go…there's some things I want to tell you. Important things."

Toph's smile vanished. She sensed an awkward moment approaching.

"…okay." Toph sat down on the wall, hands in her pockets.

Aang plopped down beside her. He inhaled.

"I…don't know where to begin." He looked at her and saw the tomboy looking back at her new car. "Hey. Are you even looking at me?" Aang asked.

"Yeah." Toph's head spun back towards him and the strands of hair in front of her eyes jumped up and down. "Damn bangs." She blew at them again.

"Here." Aang held his hand out.

"What are you doing?" Toph backed a way an inch.

"Hold still." He said. He rubbed his hand on her forehead and brushed the hair out of her eyes. Toph stared at him, slightly afraid of his touch. "There." Aang said when all of the hair wad out of her eyes. "You look much better now."

Toph paused and ran her fingers across her side bangs, which were now pushed over her ears.

"…thanks." She said, trying not to sound timid.

"No problem." Aang smiled, probably more nervous than she felt.

"So…what is the problem?" She tried not to look at him in his eyes.

"Oh. I…have some bad news."

"Bad news?" Toph kind of listened to him. She kept rubbing her bangs and looking at her reflection in her car's side mirrors, experimenting with the new look.

"Yeah. Gyatso…you know what he does, right?"

"Gyatso?"

"Can you listen to me please!"

"Sorry." Toph's hands dropped to her side and her bangs fell back over her eyes. Aang didn't touch them again.

"Gyatso works for a lot of charity organizations. Orphanages, disaster relief, cancer things…"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. He's a regular boy scout."

"Yeah." Aang looked down. "Well…he's got a big job coming up for the summer. It's some…summer school thing. I don't know, it didn't really make sense to me. But he's gonna get paid. Tax free paid. And we…kinda need the money."

"And he's taking you with him?" Toph wasn't worried.

"Yep." Aang was.

"Where is it?"

"New Jersey. By the beach."

"Wow! You're going to the Jersey shore. Awesome man. Congrats." She punched his shoulder. "When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow." Aang rubbed his arm.

"Great. When are you coming back?"

"…" Aang didn't answer for a second. "In three months."

"Three months!" Toph yelled. "That's…the whole summer vacation!"

"I know. That's the bad news." Aang sighed.

"…oh." She paused. "That…kinda sucks." She said.

"Yeah"

"But hey, at least it's at the Jersey shore and not some redneck town in the middle of nowhere."

"Yeah. At least there's…" Aang gulped. "…there's something else I want to tell you though." His thin fingers dug into the grey stone he was sitting on. "Something…I've been wanting to…"

"You alright? You look a little…red."

"It's…nothing. Really." His voice cracked. "I just have to talk about something that has been…bothering me."

"…A-alright." She guessed that he was going to say something that would make her uncomfortable.

"Remember…" He pivoted himself and looked at her. "…remember the dance few months ago?"

"Oh. That." She laughed. "I think I know what you are going to say."

"You do?" Aang's eyebrows jumped up.

"Yeah. But you don't have say it. I understand."

"…really?" Aang didn't believe her. He was sure they were talking about two different things.

"Yeah. Really. We've got a really good friendship and romance would…ruin it. I get it Aang, I really do. I'm a big girl now so…don't think that you need to apologize or anything. I'm over it. I mean, I'm okay with it. You're really nice…"

"I love you." Aang cut her off.

"What?" Toph's face turned to stone and her hands, which were gesturing with her words, froze as well.

"I…I love you." He looked at the ground, then at his hands, then back at her. "It took me…a…" He coughed. "…long time to realize it. The worst time of my life was when you stopped speaking to me. I never…feel right without you. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. And I…I…I love you Toph."

There was a long, deafening silence. They both could hear crickets chirping from fifty feet away. Toph didn't budge; she kept staring at Aang with empty, almost scared eyes. Aang could only imagine what was going on in her head. Her cute, amazing head, he thought.

"I know that I kind of just blurted that out but…"

SLAP!

"OW! What the hell was that for?" He yelled, rubbing his cheek.

"You jerk! Where do you get the damn nerve?"

"What did I do now? I thought you would be happy?"

"I have spent months trying to get over that damn dance and all that lovey-dovey bull crap out of my head, and now you…God! Now you think it's okay to just throw that on me like that? Again? After what you said to me already?

"Look, I know what I said before, but this is just how I feel now!" He sat up, still holding his swelling cheek. Her head wasn't so cute all of a sudden.

"Jesus, you are such a guy! When I say I want a relationship, you turn me down. But when you want one, you think that I have to feel flattered or something and just…go for it? It's not all about you, airhead!"

"I…that's…that's not true. I don't think like that." Aang suddenly doubted himself. Toph-logic was a powerful force to reckon with.

"And on top of that…you're leaving tomorrow? You tell this me now! We could have at least talked about it or…" She swung her arms up and down, but didn't finish her sentence.

"I wanted to tell you before I left. I wanted you to know."

"Well, maybe I didn't want to know! Did you ever think of that? Maybe I didn't want to have to think about this for my whole summer vacation, while you're not here! You are…argh!"

With both open palms, she pushed Aang's chest. He fell back onto the ground, with a thud.

"I don't know what I see in you." She waved her hand at him and walked back to her car.

"Where are you going?" Aang scurried to his feet.

"Back home!" She yelled without turning around to look at him.

"What about me? How am I getting home?"

"Run! You're a track kid, you'll be fine!" She opened her Hummer's door, then looked back at him. "Don't write to me when you are gone! Don't call or email or anything! For the next three months, you are ghost. You don't exist, you dumb jackass!"

Toph got into her Hummer and slammed the door so hard that it sounds like it could have broken off.

Aang heard her rev her engine and watched her front lights flicker on and off. She revved it again…and again. Then she turned her car off, got out and went to her trunk.

"What happened?" Aang asked.

"I'm out of gas." She pulled a red gas can out of the back of her monstrous truck. "And don't talk to me!"

Aang IS such a guy, isn't he?