Rie sighed. Once again, her family seemed reluctant to give her valuable privacy. They just could not seem to realize that, for a teenaged girl, privacy was an oasis in a sea preps, chores, and homework. It was her haven, her refuge, and her parents didn't want to let her be! After school and before practice, there was nothing more that Rie wanted than to sit her room, watch movies, and go online. No, her family just seemed to annoy her to oblivion.
"Marie, dear, go see what Beth is hollering for. I think it has to do with her game." The reluctant teen obeyed, sulking off to see what her little, annoying, seemingly helpless sister wanted this time.
"Rie, can you help me?" Beth's computer had an error message. Rie took one look at it, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.
"Beth, how old are you?"
"Thirteen."
"And can you read?"
Beth was indignant. "Of course I can."
Rie opened her eyes. "Then what does the message say?" Not getting a reply, Rie yelled, "It says that the program is not responding! Just click okay and leave me alone!" Rie stomped off to her room, furious at being interrupted for nothing.
Once her door was shut, Rie smiled at herself. "I think all the Avatar is getting to me. That blow-up was worthy of Zuko on a bad day. Speaking of which…" Rie looked at her watch. Swearing, she grabbed her bag. "Aw, man! Sensei is not going to be happy with me! I'm almost late!" As she neared the door, her mother halted her.
"Just where do you think you're going?" she asked in that annoying tone mothers use.
"Practice. Sensei wants me there ten minutes early and I'm almost late," Rie replied, trying to dodge her mother. Rie's mother held out her hand.
"Not until you apologize to Beth you're not. You had no reason to yell at her."
Rie couldn't believe her ears. She's making me apologize? Beth was the one who bugged me! "I'm not going to apologize, Mom. She called me in for a stupid error message!" Rie inwardly rolled her eyes. She just knew where this was going.
"She's your little sister. She didn't realize what it was."
Rie gave her mom a withering look. "Beth gets ten error messages a week, and the Not Responding one is the most common. I think she'd know what it said. I mean, I know she's an idiot, but come on. No one is that dumb." At that, Rie dodged pass her mom and made it out the front door in record time, but not in time to ignore her mom's last remark.
"You are grounded as soon as you get home! No doing anything until you apologize. Did you hear me? Marie! Get back here!" However, she was yelling at open air. Rie had escaped to practice.
Rie rushed into the small building. Bowing as she ran, she called to the man sitting at the desk. "Sorry I'm late, Sensei Kuro. My mom wasn't so keen on letting me go." The man nodded understandably.
"I see. Elizabeth?"
Rie rolled her eyes as she ducked into the changing room. "Yep. She was being annoying, calling me in for some stupid error message. I hate little sisters," she added, pulling her tunic, or whatever it's called, over her blond hair and tying her hair back with the ribbon. Exiting, she brushed herself off and bowed to Sensei. Getting up, he bowed back, and began her training.
Rie felt herself be thrown again. Koru shook his head, giving her his hand. "I told you, keep your feet rooted firmly to the ground. This is Hun Gar, what Earthbending in that show you obsess over is based upon." Rie was shocked.
"You actually saw Avatar?" Koru smiled.
"Even though cable has been invented, there is still nothing to watch. Now, remember, your feet are you roots, and you don't want to be pushed back. If you can not get thrown this time, we'll try Northern Shaolin." Rie smiled and took up her stance. She loved it when they practiced Shaolin. It was very akin to Firebending, which made sense, seeing as how Firebending was based off of Northern Shaolin.
A few hours later, Rie was heading home, bruised and sore. Sensei Koru had thrown her three times before moving on to Shaolin and then Tai Chi, during which she had being defeated, like, ten times. Wincing, Rie didn't notice that she had taken a wrong turn. When she did, she had lost all sense in direction.
"Damn! I blame my sores," she muttered, turning around to try and find her way back. But finding her way back was not what someone had in mind.
Not two feet away from where she turned around was a fork in the road. Looking both ways, she saw a light a little bit down on the right. Doing what she had been told not to, she followed the light. "If I die," she thought, "well, Beth can have my stuff." Reaching the light, Rie realized it was a portal, or some really cool light effect. Being the curious one, she stepped closer into the light and was gone.
Splash! Rie landed in some water. "Water?" she muttered. "Why is there water?" Looking around, she gasped at the animal looking at her. "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
The monkey had no face.
(A/N: Dun Dun Duuuun!)