Another Day in the Life Part 5
Lin took a deep breath as she stirred awake from a cozy and restful sleep. It wasn't often that she had those kind of nights. Her eyes opened slowly to the orange and yellow fabric draped across her pillow. Very quickly she realized that it wasn't a pillow at all - it was her best friend.
She shot up and looked out the window to get an idea of the time; the faintest blue glow of the dawn was seeping into the sky. Tenzin, clearly a heavy-sleeper did not so much as stir at the movement. Fearful of the consequences, Lin looked down at him and pushed back the feeling of wanting to lay back down in the crook of his arm. She shook him insistantly until he reacted.
"Tenzin," she whispered, "Wake up!"
"What?" He answered rather loudly as he awoke to such urgency.
"Shh," she repremanded and glanced sideways at her closed door. "We fell asleep. It's almost daybreak!
"Oh no..." He said blearily and sat up in her bed rubbing his eyes.
"You have to get back to Air Temple Island - Fast. If you're not there when everyone wakes up, we're both dead." She said quickly and scurried to the window to grab Tenzin's glider.
"Right - I - I'm sorry. I - I need to go." Tenzin responded, finally wrapping his mind around the situation. He stood and received his glider from Lin who was nervously ushering him out the window.
"You alright to fly?" She asked with concern, noticing the air bender's lack of coordination in this sleepy state.
"I'll be fine." He replied and climbed onto the window's ledge.
"Be careful."
Before pushing off, Tenzin looked back at her with seriousness. "I will. And - Uh... Lin, it's going to be -"
"I know." She said, interrupting his "okay" as she nodded him off.
A cool gust of early morning air passed across Lin's face as the wings on the glider opened and Tenzin was carried away by the wind. She craned out the window and watched her friend soar into the distance until he fell out of sight. She closed the shutters quietly and sighed.
Now that she wasn't worried about being caught with a boy in her room, even though it was only Tenzin, Lin began to think about what had happened. Tenzin managed to cheer her up that night in a way that no one else could and she ended up having a much better evening than anticipated. The whole night - It was a completely innocent mistake. All they did was talk...and cuddle...and fall asleep together...in Lin's bed... A weird feeling knawed at the pit of her stomach but she couldn't figure out why. After all, ever since they were babies, they would have sleepovers and it was totally normal. But, for some reason, this felt different. Maybe even good different.
To energized to sleep, Lin instead cleaned up the dishes from the night before and got a jump-start on her homework. She was just packing up her books from the dinner table to leave early for detention when Su walked out from her bedroom and into dining area.
"Where are you going?" Su asked suspiciously.
Lin froze for a moment, suprised that her sister would even ask. "School." Lin said clearly and gave Su a fierce glare before stuffing one last book into her bag.
"Why so early, I mean?"
I have detention because you couldn't just do as you're told, she thought, but decided to blow past the question altogether. "Your lunch is on the counter. I'll see you."
Subsequently feeling the sting of the consequences she was facing because of Su, and also that of sorrow for her sister's pain, Lin shouldered her bag and left abruptly through the front door.
It was a long morning for the teenager as she trudged through detention and each of her morning classes. Her mind, unfortunately not on schoolwork, kept replaying the events of the previous night, including the family drama and Tenzin's clandestine sleepover.
Though it was difficult to admit, Lin enjoyed waking up next to him; Tenzin was warm and comfortable, and he helped her acheive this wonderful sense of calm all through the night. However, there was a dire question that she repeatedly asked herself the entire morning. Was she feeling something more? Not sure if she was ready to answer herself truthfully, she deliberated instead.
Lin certainly never thought of Tenzin in a romantic way. At least - not really... Before today, she never even thought about the many attactive traits he posessed. He was good-looking, fit, tall, a skilled air bender, and most importantly, he was always - always there for her. Lin smiled at the thought. He cared about her; at times he seemed to care more than her own family. Was it possible that she was developing feelings for him?
Not wanting to be embarrassed by Bansu again, Lin hurried to her third class of the day. It was also her only course with Tenzin and she was anxious to see if there were any signs of affection that had previously gone unnoticed.
Lin sat quietly at her desk and placed the heavy textbook on the surface. To seem less obvious, she pretended to read and then looked up at the door every few seconds in anticipation of Tenzin's arrival. Eventually, the late bell rang and still there was no sign of her frined. As Mrs. Bansu began her lesson, Lin's mind continued to wander. Tenzin was never late. Perhaps he was caught. Was he in trouble? Maybe it was something worse and he had an accident while flying back to the island.
Shaking these thoughts from her head, Lin attempted to focus on her teacher's words, hoping that the day would go by quickly so she could find out what happened.
Once Lin finally got home for the day, she was suprised to see her mom at home in the kitchen putting away the dishes. Toph was out of uniform and wearing regular clothes for going out.
"Cheif?" Lin called out of confusion.
"Yeah?" Toph responded, but didn't stop what she was doing.
"Everything okay?" Lin asked carefully and dropped her backpack by the door.
Momma Toph replied with a curt, "yep."
"Then what gives? You're never home this early." the curious daughter inquired.
"I took the afternoon off. Katara called and invited us over for dinner. Apparently they have lots of leftovers from some party and they needed to call in the professionals to get rid of it all."
"Oh." Lin quickly uttered as she attempted to slow her pounding heart at the mention of Tenzin's mother. "That's nice." What if they had found out? What if that's the reason they were invited to dinner? To have some long talk about being responsible and then at the end get grounded for breaking the rules.
Toph, of course, felt her daughter's heartbeat changes, but deccided to ignore them. "Get ready. We leave in thirty minutes."