C'est La Vie

Introduction

[SK]
"Sokka!" a voice called up from downstairs. "Katara! You're going to be late for school!"

Sokka opened one eye slightly, peering around the room. His computer and posters looked like they were staring at him as the light peeked into his room from behind the curtains. He was wearing his usual pyjamas and was sprawled out over the bed with his bed hat hanging on his ear.

"I'm up dad!" Katara shouted back. "I've been up for about half an hour." There was a pause. "Haven't you got work?"

"Yeah," their dad called back upstairs. "But knowing Sokka, you wouldn't be able to get him up. I thought I'd spare you that anguish."

"Thanks," she called, giggling slightly.

"I can hear, you know," Sokka said, rolling off his bed and hitting the floor, hard. He usually did this when he couldn't wake up. He was having such a good dream anyway, he could fly! Flying was a dream of Sokka's and when he told Katara she explained to him that it meant that he felt like he was trapped.

Katara pushed his door open. When Sokka pulled over his curtains and looked over, he saw that she was already ready for school. "Seriously," he murmured, rubbing his eyes. "You're ready already?"

"Yes lazy butt," she scolded. "It's the first day at high school for me, I wanted to make a good impression."

"No point," Sokka said, thinking that he would get her back for the "lazy butt" comment. "High schools a rough place, they'll rip you to shreds."

"Unlikely," Katara replied, shaking her head. "I have a big brother to protect me," she mocked, putting a mocking emphasis on the big brother second. Katara didn't look at all phased.

"You're going to feel different at the end of the day," he informed her, standing and stretching his arms over his head and yawning loudly.

"Can I leave now then?" Their Dad shouted. "Is Sokka up?"

"Yeah, Dad," Sokka called. "See you when we get home!"

"Bye Dad," Katara returned. "Love you!"

After a couple of seconds, they heard the door shut and there dad get in the car. Sokka and Katara lived in the rougher side of the city. They didn't mind much, though they sometimes had to walk further to school to avoid the gangs. Their dad worked in a factory and they didn't have a mom, she had died six years ago. It was leukaemia (Katara, who wanted to be a doctor, knew it was Acute Differentiated Myeloid Leukaemia) and it had been dreadful for them, but they were just starting to get used to it.

"Didn't you set an alarm," Katara asked, after kicking some of Sokka's magazines under his wardrobe. "Or your phone, or something. Do you even care that it's the first day?"

"Nope, nope and nope," Sokka responded, waving her half shocked expression away. "Now, can I have a little privacy, I need to get dressed."

"We need to go in ten minutes Sokka," Katara reminded him and he shooed her out of the room. "I'll put some toast on for you."

"Thanks Katara," he said and shut the door.

Sokka did care that it was the first day of school and after he had heard that Katara was downstairs he sighed deeply. He hated school, he hated the work, he hated most of the school students, he hated P.E and homework. He really didn't go back and sometimes he wished he could sleep all the time. He felt sick when he thought that, it was wrong for him to wish his life away when his mother was taken from him when she was only thirty five.

Sokka pulled on his jeans, a blue top and a brown, full length jacket that he always wore (his dad gave it to him a few months ago and he hadn't parted with it. After lapsing into thought on the following day, he shut his door behind him and trudged downstairs, his hands in his pockets.

When he reached their modest kitchen he saw Katara buttering some toast. "Have you already eaten?" he asked, noticing only four slices of bread (which was how much he usually ate).

"Yeah, about an hour ago," she told him, not turning around.

Sokka, sensing what was really going on, walked up behind her and put his hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it sis, I was only joking earlier," he explained, trying to comfort her. "You're going to be fine, everyone is."

Katara hummed to herself for a moment. "Yeah, I suppose your right," she said, turning to him and smiling broadly. "Now," she said, passing him a plate of buttered toast, "eat, you have a long day ahead of you."

Sokka took the plate from her. As she walked away to grabbed her bag, he stopped her. "Here," he said, passing her a piece of toast. "It will ease your stomach."

"Thanks Sokka," Katara said, eating the toast quickly. Sokka never gave away food, so this was quite a big deal. They were good siblings, closer than most. The loss of their mother had pulled them together. They helped each other through the good and the bad and they helped their dad, who took the death worse than either of them, though he tried to be a man.

Katara opened the door and stepped outside, looking around the bustling streets of people rushing to work. She breathed in the polluted air and it didn't bother her, she was trying to take in the light that was shining down on her. The paths were crowded, as they always were and she looked into the sky, what could the day bring?

[A]

"Guatso," Aang complained. "Why the city?"

"Aang, be calm," Guatso comforted. "Your parents left their trade house to us and we couldn't afford the farm. You know that and I know it must be tough, but we're almost at your new school, just try and rough it out."

"I know," Aang said, leaning his head on the window. "I just wish there was something I could do to make it easier."

"You'll enjoy school," Guatso told him.

Aang had been home schooled out in the country by Guatso all of his life, having contact with some of the children of local famers, though not that often. He was far above his age in his knowledge, he always got top grades in the exams his dad made him sit. He was entering High school with straight A+s, he just picked things up quickly.

"You'll meet some new friends," Guatso explained.

"I don't miss my old friends," Aang lied.

Guatso just nodded and smiled, turning the corner after the light. Aang looked as the foreboding school stared at him. The building was spread over a huge space and four stories high, the central building being five stories. Aang looked at the students walking to street. The school, even at the paths, were divided. There were gangs of older teenagers laughing and smoking and spitting.

Aang looked over and saw Guatso raising an eyebrow, seeing the same thing that he saw. "You know what Aang?" he said, turning his attention forward again. "I'm now glad you dad taught you martial arts."

"Why?"

"No reason," Guatso chuckled.

Aang turned back to the window. Out of all of the students, only two took his eye. Out of those two, he truly only noticed one. There was a boy, he was quite tall, with his hair tied back in a short ponytail and a long brown jacked, and he had large headphones around his neck and was talking to the person beside, the one who Aang was really looking at.

Her hair was curly and dangled around her sides, by her shoulders. Even though they were driving quite fast, times seemed to go slowly as he looked upon her. She was wearing a blue, woollen jumper which went up her neck. Aang could see a necklace with a strange sign on it. She had slightly baggy jeans on and converse shoes. She must be a freshman, because her backpack was on tightly and she looked nervous.

As they drove in front of her she met Aang's eye. Aang smiled at her and she did the same, waving slightly. Time seemed to be going a little slow for Aang at the moment as the car pulled away. When he looked back at the school and how large it was, he realised he probably would never see her again. Heck, he had never seen anything so big, it looked like the White House.

Guatsu stopped at the roadside near the school. "Ok then, Aang," he said, unlocking the doors. "Have you got everything?"

"Yep."

"Bag?"

"Yep."

"Phone?"

"Yep?"

"Books?"

"Guatsu," Aang moaned, though there was an undercurrent of laughter to it. Surprisingly, Aang was not feeling as nervous as he was before. It must have been the smile from the girl he saw, it made him feel like the new school, the new life, was friendlier than he had given it credit for. "I'll see you later then," he said, opening the car door.

"Aang," Guatsu said, catching him on the shoulder before he got out. "Do be careful."

"I will," Aang said, smiling as he got out of the car and shut it behind him. Guatsu was Aang's grandfather and since his parents had died (when he was a baby) Guatsu had looked after him. Aang and Guatsu used to live on a farm, and they had for the first fourteen years of Aang's life. However, recently, there was a huge economic crash, and Guatsu had lost everything except the small apartment that they used sometimes to visit the city.

[T]

Toph was rare, incredibly rare. Her parents were too protective, they always had been. This stopped however, when their doctor let them know that Toph had a rare neurone deformity that meant that she could feel tiny vibrations and create a picture and find her way around. She was completely blind, born that way, but she never had any trouble seeing and that was difficult to explain to people.

"I'll walk to school, mum," Toph told her, pulling on a top and trousers, not knowing the colour or style. She didn't care what ever it was.

"No you wont," Toph's mom scolded. "You need to wear these clothes, anyway, you're wearing your pyjama bottoms!"

"Fine," Toph moaned, snatching the clothes out of her mom's hand.

"You're dads going to drive you, again.

"Can I walk tomorrow?" Toph asked. "I don't know why you're worried. I can see better than either of you, so I'm not going to get hit by a car and I'm fourteen, nobody's going to abduct me." She paused. "Hi dad," she said after a second.

Her dad had just stepped through the door behind her, evidently trying to sneak up to her. He stopped and shook his head. "It doesn't matter, Toph," her dad explained. "You can't be too careful."

Toph mumbled quietly to herself. "Oh and sweetie," Toph's mom said. "Maybe you could try and make some friends in the new school."

Toph had a history of being abrasive. She didn't like people and there problems, it had always infuriated her, and she told people to leave her alone whenever she had the chance. He parents hated that, they always wanted their precious little Toph to have friends, maybe be a cheerleader, but at least be a normal girl. Not a violent, abrasive prodigy. A prodigy she was, she was already doing the junior year at the school when she was fourteen, just starting when everyone else her age was a freshman.

"If you were nicer to people they'd give you a better time," Toph's dad informed her. They were in the car now, driving to Toph's new school. "Count yourself lucky, Toph."

"Why's that?" she asked. Her dad had never said she was lucky, even though most doctors she had met had told her she was a medical marvel, something that even the best doctors had never seen before. Had it not been for her, as her dad was a judge, she would be going to a top school. However, Toph had been expelled from three different schools for various reasons, and now she was going to an ordinary school.

"You only have to endure two years at this place," he explained. "Most kids have four."

"Yeah," she agreed, smiling, "I suppose that is an up side, however small."

Toph leaned her head out of the car window and shut her useless eyes. I wonder what this year will bring, she thought.

End of Chapter 1