I don't own anything from ATLA, I do Own my OC(s) though.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know by reviewing!
I Do Not Own the image~ Bea-Gonzalez from DeviantArt owns this beautiful image!
Re-edited 7/2/23
The next stop was a tall rock behind a waterfall. These locations were pretty hard for Clara to get to, so Aang had to help her a lot using earthbending, which was amazing to watch.
I wonder what it will feel like when I can firebend...
She was pulled out of her thoughts when Pathik began the water chakra lesson.
"Next is the-"
"Water chakra?" Aang guessed, looking at the waterfall.
"Brilliant! Maybe one day you'll be a guru too!" Clara smiled softly at the old man. She had liked him a lot in the episode, so it didn't surprise her that she liked him in real life. It was just his skeleton-like appearance that had taken some getting used to.
"This chakra deals with pleasure and is located below the navel. It is blocked by guilt. Now, look at all the guilt that burdens you so. What do you blame yourself for?"
Hesitantly, Clara closed her eyes and breathed in a deep breath. She was nervous about continuing on since the last time she had a vision, it had been so difficult for her she had started crying.
She knew what Aang would see, him running away from home and hurting all those people when he lost control of the Avatar state multiple times. Clara could hear Pathik talking to Aang but tuned it out as she tried to concentrate on her guilt.
At first, she thought her vision would be about the time she had tried running away from home herself since it was something similar to what Aang had felt guilty about, but her vision was of herself in grammar school, sixth grade, and she was talking about performing at the school's talent show.
Clara and her then-best friend Angelica had wanted to sing together in the talent show that year.
"We will sing, and you know Leilani's dad's going to be there since she's dancing!" Angelica had said that one afternoon. The girls had recently discovered that one of their classmates Leilani, her dad was a talent agent. Leilani had brought her dad's old phone to show and tell, explaining his job and that he found people and made them famous.
"You want us to perform together?" Clara pulled at her hair a little before smiling.
"Two is better than one! We're the best singers in the school's choir, so of course, he'll want to make us famous singers!" Angelica had smiled so wide, her excitement visible.
Her vision then cuts to Angelica calling Clara's house on the day of the talent show. Angelica was sick and couldn't perform. She had called to tell Clara and ask her not to perform without her. This had made Clara upset. She wanted to sing! They had practiced so hard, and she didn't want to do all that work for nothing! So Clara decided to lie to Angelica and went to the show performing the song they had practiced for weeks. She had loved the feeling of singing on stage. She felt so elated and free while she sang. It was the best feeling in the world! It had gotten even better when Leilani's dad had come up to her after the show and given her and her mom his business card. In the end, Clara's mom told her she was too young to become a professional singer, promising that she could try to do it when she was older and out of school. Angelica found out about it and was so mad at Clara for betraying her.
"You lied to me! You are the worst person ever!" Angelica's face was so angry and red that it made Clara flinch. It reminded her of Malcolm when he got mad at her.
"You ruined everything! I wanted us to be a pop star team, but nooooooo!" Angelica flipped her black hair over her shoulder.
"I just wanted to sing..." Clara heard her voice tremble as she looked at her pissed best friend.
"I WANTED TO SING TOO! And now your mom won't even let you talk to Lawni's dad-" Angelica huffed and crossed her arms.
"You're getting all the attention now 'cause Leilani's dad wanted you when he would have wanted us! Now even if we perform next year, it won't be the same."
"We could try next time-" she was cut off.
"No! We're done, and you're no longer my best friend! Don't talk to me ever again!"
Clara watched as the memory played back, and she knew that they had both been kids and that Angelica had just been mad, but...
I never sang alone in public again...
"You're letting your guilt from that one incident ruin something that made you very happy, Clara," Pathik's voice echoed in her head as Clara could feel her eyes fill with tears.
"I shouldn't have done it! Shouldn't have been so selfish when she asked me to do something that also meant so much to her!"
"Even if you had not performed, was it not selfish of her to deny what you wanted to do? Being selfish sometimes is very human. We all can be a little selfish from time to time. Children, when they are young, are short-sighted, only seeing things from their point of view. You can't change what you did that hurt her feelings, but you can learn from it. Think of how your actions will affect others around you, and trust your instincts on what you believe is right. Learn from your mistakes. Your guilt from that one action has made you deny something you love, and that is why you should let this guilt go and forgive yourself."
Breathing in deeply, Clara could feel that she always knew what she did was not kind, but it had also made her discover her love of performing.
I... can let myself sing and not feel bad about enjoying it.
Clara opened her eyes and smiled softly.
The sun was slowly coming up now. Clara had just downed the disgusting onion and banana juice, choking a little from the taste, but her stomach was still grateful for the substance. What she would give for some caffeine. Every time they unlocked a chakra, it gave her a little energy boost, an after-effect, she supposed.
"Third is the fire chakra located in the stomach."
"My fire chakra would like to eat something other than onion banana juice."
Pathik chuckled, thinking Aang was kidding as he told them to continue.
"This chakra deals with willpower and is blocked by shame. What are you ashamed of? What are your biggest disappointments in yourself?"
Clara closed her eyes and jolted when she saw her brother. He was shouting at her for unplugging the TV power cord. She had been trying to get his attention for something, but he had been pointedly ignoring her. It was this fight that Clara had fought back and had lashed out at him. She told Malcolm that she wished he would die! Clara had been fourteen and was tired of how Malcolm treated her. He laughed, calling her pathetic, and pushed her down to the floor before leaving and driving off his bike.
Clara wouldn't find out until the following day that Malcolm had lost control of the bike and crashed on the freeway. He was dead, and that had been the last time they would ever talk, but that wasn't what Clara felt ashamed for.
She was plagued with thoughts that if she hadn't fought back and yelled at Malcolm, he might still be alive. Maybe it was her fault that her mom had suffered a loss like this. She felt shame for her not being sad that Malcolm was dead. Clara had been shocked by the news but... She had meant it when she told him she wished he was dead. But Clara knew that it was wrong for her to want that. And… she was sad that things had not been different between them. For her mom's sake, she had felt maybe she should have tried more with Malcolm, but… He had been a constant torment in her life!
"Your brother's poor treatment of you, Clara, is something you couldn't have controlled, nor could you control how your mother felt after his death. Bad things happen to everyone in different ways. We all lose our temper sometimes, and it's not pretty. You cannot change the past, but you can forgive yourself for your own feelings. For they are your feelings and no one else's, so you should allow yourself to feel however you wish. Bottling it up will poison your body's energy."
He remembered Dad and blamed me for him leaving when it wasn't my fault. I... I did use to wish Malcolm was different, but that was how he felt, and he held onto that anger so tightly that it caused his life to be the way it was...
"You cannot choose your family, but they are still your family," Clara said, repeating what her mom had told her. Opening her eyes, Clara giggled when Aang burped really loudly.
The heat from the rising sun felt really good. Clara couldn't remember the last time she had felt so refreshed by the sun's rays.
