A. N. : I debated for a while if I should keep my idea for this chapter or change it after last chapter went in a slightly different direction than planned, but in the end I decided that breakdowns are better appreciated in small doses. So you get Fire Nation propaganda, as was the plan.
Kuzon is a disruptive element.
Kwan can have no certainty about how much of Kuzon's behaviour is due to his being a colony boy, and how much is just his looking for attention. Either way, something has to be done.
Teaching has always been one of the great pleasures in Kwan's life. She enjoys sharing the history of her Nation with children, enjoys seeing understanding and pride on their faces when they manage to remember a particularly important fact, enjoys their curiosity at more obscure anecdotes. Most of all, she enjoys sharing the pride she feels at being part of the great Fire Nation.
Which is why Kuzon making light of the Oath infuriates her so.
His improper outfit, she can forgive – disgracious scars notwithstanding, his being embarrassed would certainly be a hindrance to his ability to focus on the lesson. Lack of manners, she can understand – no matter what, colonies are still only that, and colons mixing with Earth barbarians cannot have any positive effects on their spawns. She only hopes the new environment and the influence of proper Fire Nation citizens will solve some of it. He seemed receptive when being taught how to salute properly, after all.
But making fun of the Oath and of the Fire Lord, and worse even, encouraging the other children to laugh at it too ? Unforgivable. Barbarian blood just can't explain everything. This is pure disrespect, and if Kwan believed in corporal punishment, she would without any doubt introduce Kuzon's hands to a ruler. But Kwan only believes in learning.
It is this belief that lead her to remind the class of what it means to be a part of this Nation, what it means to bear the weight of history on their shoulders. Remind them of it by making them remember it themselves.
And she is proud of her students, as even their wrong answers show that they worked and paid attention to her lessons. Some dates are amiss, but there is understanding of the way decisions were made and battles won and colonies established.
Or well, there is – most of the time.
Kwan rubs her temples as she stares at Kuzon's test.
It is as if this child never went to school in his life, or went in some other world where events are both the same and different. No dates, events twisted to look unnecessarily cruel, half the page blank. And there is the objection he raised when the test began – is this a trick question, the Air Nomads didn't have an army –
Never in her life has Kwan heard something of the like. As if the Fire Nation army would commit such acts and kill civilians. Now, Kwan isn't naïve and is aware that incidents happen, that collateral destruction is sometimes inevitable, but this – this sounds straight out of Earth Kingdom propaganda.
Well, it would surely explain the mess in front of her, as well as the mockery Kuzon made of the Oath. But for a child to be exposed to propaganda of this level, there must be something really wrong with his parents.
Kwan will need to question Kuzon tomorrow, and if her suspicion is confirmed, the director will have to be informed. In the worst case, the National Guard will be involved. Kuzon's parents should be held entirely responsible, but he will probably need to by re-educated and freed from the lies he's been fed.
She sighs.
Maybe Ming Wa is right, she is becoming too old for this. She could retire, Ming Wa could close her restaurant for a few months, and they would travel for a while, just the two of them. Kwan always wanted to visit the Sun Warriors ruins, and she knows Ming Wa has taken an interest in pirate recipes recently, so they could visit a Sea Walker village too.
Maybe. In a few years. First, Kwan has to take care of the current situation.
She writes her last corrections and puts the paper on the done pile.