o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
Toph and I sat cross-legged at the edge of camp staring at each other. Toph had just told me everything that happened before she met me, and now all I could do is sit in a puddle of shock.
"You should have told me," I scolded Toph.
"Well, there's nothing you can do now… Just live with it."
"Live with it?" I nearly shrieked.
Toph rolled her unseeing eyes and nodded.
"You shouldn't be so lighthearted about this… Your parents must be worried." Frustrated, I yelled loud enough for Lee to look up from his seat by the empty fire pit.
Toph replied dryly, "Oh yeah, I'm sure they are."
"Don't you care?"
"Why would I?" She asked, completely unconcerned for her parent's feelings.
"They're your parents." I reminded her, scrunching up my forehead.
"So?"
"What do you mean 'so'?" I asked her, getting even more annoyed with her. Parents had always been a sensitive subject with me, whenever a friend would complain about a parent, it always made me angry. I always wanted to scream 'At least you have parents!' but I never would. I hated others pity.
"Exactly what it means. So what?" Toph stood up, and I could tell she was angry.
I took a deep breath to calm myself and ten stood up so I could be shoulder to shoulder with her. "You don't like your parents?"
"I can't stand them." She answered honestly. "That's why I left."
"But they're still your parents!" I half-laughed, half-shouted. "You can't just get up and leave them!"
"Well, they weren't very good parents…" She mumbled.
"It doesn't matter, you're only twelve… You can't just run away." I was glad Toph couldn't see the angry expression on my face.
"I thought you understood." She looked at me, a wierd expression on her face. "I can take care of myself. I always have."
"No, you haven't. From what you've said, you're just a spoiled rich kid who's throwing a temper tantrum. I bet you never had to work for anything." I yelled, loosing my own temper at her selfishness.
"This is not a temper tantrum!" she yelled back, her face red.
My control snapped. "That's not the way I see it… You said you left because you're parents don't let you do anything or have any freedom. But have you looked at this through your parents eyes? You're a good fighter, but do they know that? You've let them think you're made of porcelain or something. You've never showed them how strong you are, so they're probably having a heart attack right now because they think their 'poor little bind and defenseless daughter' is going to die out here."
Toph's upper lip curled. "I just want to prove that I'm not helpless-"
I interrupted her with a laugh, not caring that she could crush me like a bug if I made her angry enough. "You're risking your life to prove something?"
"Man, I can't believe that I actually thought you understood me. I remember that when we first met you said 'You may be blind, but you're not helpless.' That was the only reason I came with you. I would have helped you with or without the dice. Now I see that I was wrong. You never believed me; you just told me what I wanted to believe."
"No… Toph." Sensing the depth of this problem, I softened my voice. "I never said you were helpless. It's just… There are so many things that could happen when you're out here on your own."
"I'll be fine." She grunted through clenched teeth.
"I know… You could kick anyone's ass." I told her, trying to give her some kind of peace offering, I hadn't brought this up as some kind of attack on her.
She smiled at me. "Damn right!"
I smiled. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"Sure." Toph said offhandedly, but I knew she had accepted my apology.
I calmed myself and then asked the one thing I never thought I would. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No." Toph grumbled, knowing I meant her parents.
"You sure?" I asked with a smile, nudging her shoulder with mine.
"Yeah."
I sighed and then looked over at her. "You know… I don't even know who my parents are." I began, hoping that if I shared something about myself, then she would do the same. "That's why I got so angry at you."
She looked at me with her unseeing eyes. "Really?"
"Yeah. I grew up with a foster family, but my real mom gave me up when I was born." I clenched my eyes shut, I was not going to cry in front of her and Lee.
"What's a foster family?" Toph asked curiously.
The wave of tears passed unshed, and I was able to speak. "They are people who take kids in for a while and take care of them. But it never gets personal, like with a real family." I told her, leaving out the fact that I had been to three different foster homes.
"That sucks." Toph muttered, but I could tell she was being sympathetic, not sarcastic.
"Yeah, I'd kill to meet my mom or dad." I stared up at the sky, unwilling to look at Toph or Lee, who I'm sure, was listening the entire time.
Toph was thoughtful for a minute. "So these… foster parents… Were they good? I mean, did they give you lots of freedom?"
I smiled slightly. "Well, they had a lot of strict rules, but I was able do some things on my own at least." I looked at her. "But they had lots of rules for a reason, They didn't want me to turn out like a lot of other foster kids."
"How do they turn out?" she asked curiously.
"A lot of them end up hating the world, and become really… troubled." I said for a lack of a better word.
Toph nodded and stayed silent.
"You're going to go back home after were done, right?" I hated bringing up the subject again, but I had to know.
"Maybe." She mumbled.
"I think you should." I told her knocked her on the shoulder softly.
"Maybe." She repeated.
"Well, I hope you do…" I brushed down my shirt a little and then put my hands on my hips. "I'm going to the stream we passed by earlier and try to waterbend." I turned away and mumbled, "And most likely fail miserably."
"Ok, I'll join you later." Toph waved me off like we didn't just have an argument and make up all in the same hour.
I skipped out of camp, relying on the same itch that led me to water last time to do the same. And sure enough, like a blood hound catching a scent, I was able to follow the feeling right to the stream. It was a bit of a walk, but I was sure I wouldn't get lost again; I could find the water easily, and then follow Toph back to camp where Lee would have meat ready for me to cook.
The first thing I did when I got the stream was take off my pants and run for the water, I still wasn't comfortable enough to strip down… Being raised in the city taught you that you can't even do that in your own bedroom if you had your window open. So with my top on, I did a running dive into the refreshingly cold water.
I dunked my head and got as much of the dirt out as possible; it still amazed me that the people here didn't bathe every day, something that would be unacceptable in my time.
With a sigh, I leaned back and allowed myself to float across the surface of the water.
Yesterday had been hectic. Even more hectic than today. We got to Gansu mid-afternoon and bought more fruits and vegetables and some supplies. We walked away with another canteen, two sleeping bags for Lee and I (Toph said she preferred the floor, and since it was hot and the nights only got down to seventy degrees, I didn't argue). The first dose of agitation for the day was when, an hour into our journey into the next town, I realized that we had forgotten to do what I had originally planned, which was trade my extra clothes for spices. We had a dilemma then, go back for the spices, which we desperately needed, or continue on. We ended up going back, putting us even further behind schedule.
But that wasn't even the hectic part. What really made yesterday horrible was Lee.
What aggravated me the most about him was how damn quiet he was! The entire time we were shopping, he just followed silently behind us, arms crossed, with a glower on his face. He said nothing unless he had to and didn't even give me attitude when I commanded him to carry all of our stuff. I was horribly mean to him too, I insulted him at every chance I got and did everything in my power to make him miserable.
What happened to the Lee we originally met? That lee would have fought back.
But nothing, no reaction at all from Mr. No-Emotion. Obviously, I would have to get creative to really get a reaction out of this guy. Well, anything from my time would probably be considered creative to these people. Hell, all I probably had to do was put his hand in warm water while he was sleeping.
I smiled to myself and laughed. And that's exactly what I'll do.
I jackknifed my body and sank under the surface of the water, expelling all of the air out of my lungs so I could sit on the bottom. I stayed there until the last moment and pushed myself to the top.
"Alright, time to stop playing around…" I said to myself. I had to learn to waterbend before I got back to camp.
I walked towards the shore until only my calves were submerged in the water and looked down at it until the water from my hair dripped into my eyes. How would I do this?
Start with the small things, I thought to myself. This is just like when I had to get my body moving after I first got here. When I was lying on the forest floor, I had to work from the smallest up, pinky before the hand.
I cupped my hand around some water and brought it up level to my chest. "First objective… Don't let the water drip out." I said aloud.
But no matter how hard I tried, drip by drip, the water started leaking out between my fingers. I sighed and let it drop. "Let's just do what I did last time." I said to myself and nodded, aware that I would look crazy if anyone had been watching.
I trekked my way over to the shore and got out of the water, letting the warm air blow dry me.
With my clothes clinging to my skin, I shook myself like a dog in a vain attempt at getting dry faster, but I just ended up looking like just that, a wet dog.
Giving up on my appearance, I crouched down and put my hands over the water, readying myself to bend it. With an exhale, I brought my hands up and the water shook and followed tentatively. My waterbending looked like a Chihuahua, nervous and twitchy. I let it drop and tried again, straining my hands for more control, but that just made things worse.
I rolled my eyes at myself after a minute and sighed, I had to think more like water. Be relaxed and let it flow.
I made my wrist go limp and then shook it a few times to get the tension out of my hands and then placed them over the water again. The water gave a tad bit of protest, but flowed toward my hands smoothly and beautifully.
I allowed myself a small celebratory clap and then got back to work.
The next objective was to make a ball of water hover midair.
I did the same moves again and created a small wall, without hesitating, I dropped my arms and tried to use my mind to will it to stay.
Needless to say, I failed. I tried again, but then failed. Frustrated, I waved my hands over the water like an idiot in a vain attempt to move the water.
"You don't know how to waterbend?" A voice said from behind me.
Lee had the strange talent of sneaking up on me, but this time I didn't jump or scream, I just turned around and glared at him, embarrassment showing on my face. "What do you want?" I asked him, straightening up and ignored his question.
Lee shrugged his shoulders and walked to the bank of the river. "Just cleaning my knife." He replied and held up a knife I hadn't noticed him holding.
"Well, hurry up." I told him and turned around, feigning indifference but in reality I was strangely nervous.
If I screwed up, I knew it would only satisfy him. He looked like the kind of person that liked to watch others fail.
Blocking him out of my mind as much as I could, I turned my attention over to the task at hand. If I could only get this trick to look right, I could move on to something different and harder. Then maybe I could use my waterbending to kick Lee's ass.
I smiled to myself and tried again with the floating orb of water. I brought up a small wall of water and held it there for a second, not entirely sure about what to do. If I was too tense, it would look like crap, but if I was too relaxed, I would definitely loose control of it. I had to find my happy medium. It was like the time when my karate teacher told me that in order to do a handstand, I had to find my center. Well, easier said than done. It took me weeks in order to do a handstand, and this move could take me months.
Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on my move so that instead of bringing up a wall of water, I was only bringing up a small ribbon of water. I closed my eyes and bit my lip as I tried to use my mind to cut a ball off from the ribbon, surprisingly, it worked. It hovered unsteadily, but it didn't really look like a circle, it looked like a chewed up wad of gum. For a better shape, I tried moving my-
"I don't think your doing it right."
I lost my concentration and the ball of water fell and splashed onto my feet.
I turned to Lee and glared. His face was impassive, showing no emotion. His bright eyes stared at me through hair and scar, looking at me straight in the eye.
"Why are you talking to me?" I asked rudely and cocked my hip, not caring at all about being tact.
His eyes narrowed, but he stayed calm. I could tell he was putting a lot of effort into being polite, and that just annoyed me more.
"I was just saying, I don't think you're doing it right. I thought you said you waterbend?" he asked with his arms crossed in front of his chest in a self-conscious movement.
"I do, you just saw me." I told him.
"Yeah, but not well…" He mumbled to himself, but I heard him loud and clear.
I blushed and stuttered "Why are you even here? Your knife is clean, just leave now."
"Ok, I was just going to offer you some tips, I spent some time with waterbenders before." He told me and began walking towards the forest.
I froze, and my head snapped towards his retreating back. Did he say he had tips? If he had tips, then I sure as hell could use them.
But wait, I've been nothing but a jerk to him every single one of the days he's spent with us, why would he offer anything to me? He probably expected me to give something to him in return. But what? I had nothing but a flashlight that didn't work and some Doritos… And I sure as hell wasn't going to give him my pocket knife, it had been very useful when it came to cooking.
Maybe I could ask for his help. He had to know I had nothing, so I couldn't possibly have to give him anything.
But would a guy like him really do something nice with no strings attached?
"Lee!" I yelled, giving up my mental argument. "Wait!"
He stopped and turned around.
"Um, can you help me?"
I could see his lips twitch in an almost-smile. "You sure?"
"Please?" I asked, caking on the sugary sweetness.
"Ok then, I'll help." He nodded his head and came over to where I was. "What do you want to learn?" He asked me.
"Something that I could use in a fight." So I could use it on you…
"Ok, I'll teach you the water whip then. It's a simple and basic move that comes in handy a lot."
"Alright…" I told him wearily.
"I think the best way to teach you would be to actually show you how to do it."
"Whatever you say."
"I saw you earlier…you already learned how to make a ball of water, that's the first step. Now you need to pretend that I have a ball of water, okay?"
I smiled; he was really taking this teaching thing seriously. Better for me I guess. "Okay."
"Good, what you do next, is you bend your knees in a slight crouch, like this.
Are you watching?" He asked, and I nodded. "You need to take your left hand and bring it under so that you are cradling it - one arm on top, one on the bottom, got it? Then you turn it into a ribbon and bring it up, then step down with your leg out, so you can kind of slide back up, and then step out, snapping it towards your opponent."
He looked at me expectantly, and I just stared blankly back.
"Got it?" He asked.
If you say 'got it' one more time I'll- "Can you do it again please?" I asked, cutting my mind rant off.
"Sure." He said patiently, and then demonstrated again. I stared at him in awe as he moved through the stances. He definitely looked dirty and ragged, and he probably smelled, but as he performed the technique, he only looked beautiful. His body seemed to know exactly what to do and how to do it, as if he had practiced this move for a long time. And every step was graceful and powerful, with a nimbleness that I'm sure I didn't have, but he achieved it easily. All of his instruction combined into one graceful move. Karate had never looked so wonderful.
"This is great." I said aloud. This move might actually come in handy if I could at least get it right.
I crouched slightly in the first position and looked at him for approval, but he wasn't looking at me, he was looking at my legs. With a gasp, I looked down and noticed you could see both of my legs clear up to my thighs. I had forgotten to put back on my pants after the swim.
I mumbled an apology and ran to the pants, yanking them and my shoes and socks on. With a red and heated face, I made my way back to Lee, who really couldn't meet my eye, and I couldn't really blame him.
I cleared my throat, trying to get the lump down, and got back into the first position, glancing up again for his approval, but feeling way more self-conscious this time. His face had a brilliant red color to it that traveled all the way down his neck.
I was about to ask him, albeit sarcastically, if he'd ever seen a girl's legs before, when it occurred to me… He probably hadn't. I blushed even more; my first lesson when I came here was that revealing clothes did not fly, so why would bare legs be any better?
"Sorry." I said again.
"Just keep going. You're doing good." He cleared his throat and looked at me, serious again, but still with a twinge of pink on his face.
I went on to the next move, imagining there was a ball of water and I was cradling it, but this time, apparently it wasn't good.
"You need to relax. You're a waterbender, not an earthbender."
I relaxed my hands completely and started from the top, this time to his satisfaction.
"You know…this doesn't make me obliged to like you…" I told him between poses.
"Good." He grunted, but it had an edge that hinted at laughter.
I smiled and continued until Lee stopped me. "Good, you got it. Now try it with water."
"Crap." I muttered.
He shook his head. "Get a ball of water."
I nodded and easily grabbed an orb. "Are you sure?" I asked him, not ready to look like an idiot just yet.
"Do it."
"Okay, okay…" I crouched and tried the water whip, slowly this time, but right when I got to the part when I had to bring the water down, I wasn't able to concentrate well enough to keep the water steady. In a desperate move to save myself, I tried to stretch it out and send it forward anyway, but it all just came crashing down, ending up looking like a wilted string of water than a powerful whip.
Frustrated, I sprang up and crossed my arms over my chest, not looking at Lee.
"Try it again." He commanded.
I looked at him, about to refuse, but the look on his face told me that he wasn't going to take no for an answer.
With him by my side, criticizing me when I needed it (which happened to be a lot) I repeated the move over and over until I could do if backwards, sideways, and upside down.
I looked up at the half moon in front of me, thinking of the spirits that put me into this world. When I got back to my time, I would start karate again.
Still… There was one unsolved mystery… I looked at Lee and asked the question I had been dying to ask. "Why are you helping me?"
He stared at me for a moment. "I want to."
I did not believe for a moment that he didn't expect anything for his help, "Well then, what do you want in return?"
His eyes narrowed instantly. "I just wanted to be nice, can't you just accept it?"
"From you? No." I crossed my hands across my chest and scowled.
He took a step towards me and practically growled. "You're a jerk, you know that? I wanted to help because we had something in common. You didn't have a mom, and I spent most of my life without my mother. That's all, happy?"
I was shocked into silence. "You really don't want anything?"
"I don't."
"Oh…" I said, and to be honest, I was utterly speechless. I know no one that would do something nice for me without expecting anything in return, and it made me feel ashamed and awkward. Everyone I knew in my time had always expected something. If you gave someone a birthday present, it was only so that when your birthday pulled around they would do the same for you. If you donated anything to a charity or church, it was to get a write off on your taxes, or so you could get into heaven later on. Everything had to be gifted back some way or the other.
"Whatever. I'm going back to camp." He turned to leave.
"Wait." I told him and he stopped and faced me. "Thank you." I said, and I really meant it.
What he did next really couldn't be considered a smile; it was more of a lip twitch, but to me, it meant the same.
I stayed behind for a while so I wouldn't accidentally meet him on my way back to camp, I would hate to see him after what I accused him of.
The entire walk back to camp, I thought about Lee. He had been nice to me, but I had thought he wanted something in return. Hell, the fact that he didn't want anything in return made me want to give back even more. The only way I could do that is through my cooking. I would whip him up something delicious as a gift for his generosity.
As soon as I got back to camp, I found Lee sitting near Toph's earth tent skinning something that resembled a chicken. I nodded thanks to him when he handed it over and headed for the fire pit. I knew exactly what to do.
I put a flat rock over the fire to heat it up and got to work. Sacrificing one of my two bags of Doritos (I remembered once saying I wouldn't share them with him, but I let it go. I had to make some kind of sacrifice in order to make this feel like a gift), I got a rock and used it to smash the tasty chips into crumbs. I added some spices that I thought smelled good and rolled the chicken-like meat into the mixture, coating it evenly with the crumbs.
With a smile, I put it on the hot rock and cooked it until it was done, letting it sit so it could soak back up all of the juices.
I handed the dish out to Toph and Lee and sat down to eat my own. I took a bite and smiled; not bad, but still a worthy gift. I turned to Toph and saw that she was devouring her food, probably not even tasting it, but Lee was eating slowly, savoring it.
I still might not like Lee, but watching him eat my food with such obvious delight made me happy.
o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o