Chapter Four — Frantic

"Perhaps you two can become civil with each other if you spend the next six Saturdays together," says Yugoda slowly. "I think your behavior is deserving of those detentions."

Her reasoning for Saturday is because the probending coaches would get Azula out of anything after school; they want her on their team too desperately. But they can't demand to keep her Saturday mornings free.

"That is unnecessary," Azula protests, but she closes her mouth when she sees Yugoda's face. It is the same one she got when she asked to be relieved of her dreadful partner. "Perhaps you could just break us apart and make sure we are never close to each other."

Yugoda stares at Azula with a cocked eyebrow.

"I will see you on Saturday from eight to ten."

The two girls turn and go to collect their abandoned things.

Azula can feel herself panicking.

Ty Lee is pretty lackadaisical about the whole deal.

Azula's father will kill her. She cannot believe this, and she does not know how to tell him. As she frantically gathers her things and watches people stream into the hallways, she feels her heart racing. The moment she thinks she has it together, she drops everything on the floor. It bursts like a grenade and the shrapnel of school supplies sprays everywhere.

The unlikeliest of people starts calmly picking up the pencils and textbooks.

Ty Lee. Of course she is unfazed by these Saturday detentions. She probably is only disappointed that she cannot go shopping for a month. Azula will lose everything she has and her father might even send her away for disappointing him, like he did to Zuko more than once.

"I got it," Ty Lee says, dropping things into Azula's bag. "Wow, you have a clean backpack. That's so weird!"

Azula stands up, looks at her and ponders the many responses that fly through her head.

She decides to say nothing and slings her bag over her shoulder, and walks out of the classroom. Ty Lee sighs as she gazes after the princess.

Then she runs after the princess, frantically trying to catch up with her. Damn, Azula can run fast. Ty Lee is huffing and puffing when she finally grabs Azula's arm outside on the front lawn of Sozin High.

"What do you want from me?" Azula demands and Ty Lee finds herself face to face with blue fire.

"Nothing."

"So, you chased me like I was on fire for nothing?" Azula does not quench the flames, but Ty Lee does not step back either.

"I'm sorry. It's really my fault what happened. I didn't mean to get us stuck in Saturday detentions."

"It does not bother me. I will probably get out of it anyway. My father is an emperor, after all."

Ty Lee cocks an eyebrow. "You're still shaking."

"Yes. I have to get home before the school informs my father of what happened. I think my shaking is understandable. Not that I need to explain myself to you or anyone else. Just because you got hot and learned to dress properly does not mean my feelings towards you have changed."

"I don't even know what your feelings towards me are!"

"Mostly… disgust. Being told to work with you is like being told I have to eat raw sea prunes. You're essentially a sea prune."

"Why? What did I ever do? We used to be friends."

Azula puts out the fire, but she is not as moved as Ty Lee hoped she would be. "Used to. I already said I do not have to explain myself. Now get out of my way."

Ty Lee steps aside, because she cannot win this fight, no matter how much she wishes she could. Azula will never be her friend again, but Ty Lee is pretty sure she isn't enough of a sea prune to Azula to resist sleeping with her.

That seems to be how it goes.

Azula got pretty first. She has to understand what it is like.

Ty Lee then thinks about Suki and has a bitter realization that Azula did what Ty Lee is doing to Suki to Ty Lee, which is super complicated sounding, but it's a gross sensation.

She is a sea prune, but not for whatever Azula thinks.

She is a sea prune, because she has done something awful to her best friend.

Suki was her only friend before she got pretty.

Ty Lee has a lot of apologizing to do, but not to Azula.

How could she have gotten so obsessed with ruining the princess that she started to ruin the one true friendship of hers?