“H-how did you…?” Clifton was shocked. July started sobbing, which made tears go down my face, too.

               “Help me outta here, please,” I pleaded. Clifton bent down and reached his arms out, helping me out of my grave, literally. I embraced them both, really happy to see them again.

               “What on earth happened?!” July yelled, pulling away from the hug. “You died in that fire! And now… you’re here.” She whispered the last part.

               “You’ll never believe what happened. No one will. So don’t laugh when I tell you, and don’t either of you dare tell anyone. Promise me that.”

               “We promise,” Clifton said. “But we thought you were gone forever…” Clifton gave me a quick hug. “Now, please explain.”

               “Clifton, don’t get worked up. And July, don’t spaz.” I told them the whole story as fast as I could, not leaving out any details, even about me being able to bend and the seemingly budding romance between Zuko and I. Clifton was serious the whole time, but July giggled at the Zuko part.

               “But-just now-how did you make the dirt go up off you?” Clifton asked.

               “No idea.”

               There was a moment of silence, and then they both gave me a big bear hug.

               “We missed you,” Clifton said. “But how are we going to explain this to everyone?”

               “Well, one thing’s for sure. We can’t tell anyone what really happened. Just say you heard me screaming or something and dug me up, and I’ll say I just woke up and shouted for help.” I noticed my surroundings. The sun was already set, and you could still see a bit of light on the horizon. We were in the Greenfield Cemetery, which I recognized because it was two blocks away from my house, and my grandparents are buried here. Wait, I thought, my house! My parents! I whipped my head around, looking at my gravestone, and hoping I was the only family member buried from the fire. I widened my eyes when I saw two other gravestones next to mine, but relaxed when I saw it was only my grandparents. I sighed, relieved. But there was one other rather large gravestone on the other side of mine. I gasped as I read the two names: Kaitlyn Jannese and Walter Jannese.

               Tears went down my face as I read my parents names over and over, failing to accept the fact that they’re gone forever. Dead. Forever. I’ll never see them ever again.

               “No…” I whispered, falling to my knees in front of their graves, sobbing.

               “I’m sorry,” July said quietly, sitting down next to me. Clifton came over and placed his hand on my shoulder as a gesture of sorrow. After a long silence, Clifton suggested that we go home.

               “Where will I be staying?” I asked, wiping my nose on my sleeve.

               July spoke up. “My house. Clifton and I were going to have a sleepover anyway, so you can join. Just after my mom freaks out about you being alive. Also, my dad is gone on a business trip, thank goodness. You know how strict he is. Well, he won’t be there to ruin it.” July saw the look of sadness on my face from the topic of parents, and quickly said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

               I interrupted. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. Now why don’t we get going?” I quickly changed the topic. We had a very quiet walk back to July’s house, and before we went inside, I stood in front of my burned-down house for a few minutes, thinking of all the memories that were there. Eventually I pulled myself away from the site, and we entered July’s house.

               “Hey, Mom! We’re home!” July shouted.

               Her mom shouted from up the stairs, “Be right there, dear!” there was a few clanging sounds and a bang, then the short woman came down the stairs. “I made you two some-“she noticed me, and her eyes were as big as plates. “It couldn’t be!” she ran over to me. “Is it possible?” she inspected me. “You’re alive!” she hopped up and down and hugged me, kissing my cheek. “Now we’ll need to tell the school, the government… they all think you’re dead! How are you alive and well?”

               We told the fake story, and since she was so happy for me to be back, she didn’t ask for any other details to see if we were lying.

               “Well, why don’t you three go back to the Sleepover Room? I made some ginger cookies for a snack. I’ll go call up whoever needs to be notified…”

               We headed up the Sleepover Room. Since we usually hung out at July’s house a lot, her mom took one of the former Storage Rooms and made it into the Sleepover Room, which had a few sleeping bags, a TV, and lots of pillows and games and media stuff. Yes, her mom is quite a neat freak, but it’s very useful most of the time.

               The next day, all of us just hung around in  that room since it was a Saturday. July’s mom suggested that we contact our friends to tell them the news of me being alive, but we just decided to wait until Monday. we were too lazy anyway, and we didn’t really have any other really close friends.

               When we actually got up out of the sleeping bags, we did what we would usually do when we hung out during the day-take a walk. July’s father was going to be home before noon anyway, so we wanted to avoid him until he would go to bed to catch up on sleep. We ended up sitting near the lake about a half-mile away, but it was worth the walk. Usually walking a distance like that would seem to drag on, but we had so much to talk about, so it wasn’t that bad. But when we reached the lake I felt happier and calmer. I felt strangely connected to it. I sighed. Ever since I got back in the normal world, I’ve been wondering if I can still bend. It seems ridiculous, but I’ve been dying to try it out. it would be pretty cool if I could, though…

               The topic of bending did eventually come up, though, since we were talking about when I made the ground shoot up when I was in my grave. And they were wondering how it felt to bend. Clifton wasn’t entirely interested in the topic of bending. I don’t think he believes me, I concluded to myself.

               “Hey, Clifton, I know you’ve never liked Avatar and stuff like that… but do you even believe me? about me being able to bend? Now that I think about it, do you even believe that I was actually in this different realm? Be honest with me,” I said. Clifton stiffened and then heaved a sigh.

               “No,” he said softly, “I don’t really believe you.”

               July looked angry for a few seconds, and then raised her voice. “Clifton, come on! She’s your best friend! How could you not believe her?!”

               “It’s just not realistic! It just probably was happening in her head! Maybe she was just in a coma! There are so many realistic explanations, and it just rules it out.”

               “So many scientific explanations! Don’t you ever think outside the box? She’s clearly telling the truth! Why can’t you even believe your best friend?”

               “There’s no evidence whatsoever, don’t you see? And since you’re obsessed with the show, you obviously just believe her since you wish it was all real!” Clifton argued. By now they were both standing up, and they continued arguing. Why can’t they just get along? They could just accept each others’ opinions! It’s not that hard!

               In the midst of their bickering, I just lost it.

               I jumped up. “Enough! Stop it, please!” I yelled, throwing my arms up. Clifton and July then looked like they saw a ghost. They were staring past me at the lake. I dropped my arms, and heard a splashing sound behind me. I turned around and then back at my shocked friends. Uh oh… I think I just waterbended…

               “Did I just…?” I faced my friends.

               “You did. There’s your proof, Clifton.” July had got an excited look on her face. “I can’t believe it! You actually waterbended! Can you do it again?” she started jumping up and down.

               “Calm down, July. I’m sure she can do it again. Why don’t you try to… you know, make the water float like you just did.” He was in awe, and he was trying very hard to hide his amazed expression.

               “Okay… I guess.” I walked closer to the lake with my friends behind me. I decided to try the push and pull motion Katara had taught Aang in the earlier episodes. I wasn’t as surprised this time when the water moved back and forth. I dropped my arms and sighed.

               “I wish I was an earthbender instead. It’s more fun,” I said. July walked to my side.

               “Maybe you are,” she said. “Because remember when you made the ground shoot up when you were in your grave? Maybe you should try earthbending, too.”

               “But it’s impossible to bend two elements! You know very well that the only person who’s ever able to bend more than one element is the Avatar, and there’s no way I’m anything close to the Avatar. It’s supposed to be impossible to bend in this world anyway!”

               “C’mon, Liz! Just try? For me?” July made puppy dog eyes, which made me laugh.

               “Okay, okay. I’ll try.” I noticed that Clifton had been being quiet the whole time. “Clifton? You okay?” I asked softly, stepping next to him.

               “Yeah, I guess it was a bit of a shocker to see this actually happening with you able to bend…” he seemed to be looking off into space, like he was thinking hard about something.

               “What is it? You’re hiding something.” July said suspiciously. Clifton glanced at me with pleading eyes for me to defend him.

               “I know you too well to let whatever you’re hiding go. Sorry. So what are you hiding?”

               Clifton sighed. “It’s not a big deal. I was just thinking about something that I got notified about from one of the other guys from school. He texted me earlier and told me about these new kids that moved in down the street from him. He says they’ll probably be going to our school, but he also said they were an odd bunch. Two girls and three dudes.”

               “That sounds cool! I can’t wait to meet them!” her eyes shimmered at the thought of meeting new people.

               “Yeah, that’s nice,” I said, relieved at the change of topic.

               “Now don’t you think you can get out of trying to earthbend,” July smiled. I groaned. She ran off to find a rock, because the probably wanted to start with something easy, like a pebble. Or that’s what I thought. She came back with a rock that was about as big as my hand, but a bit heavy. She placed it on the ground.

               I took a deep breath and got ready for July to be disappointed at the fact that it’s impossible for me to bend anything else. I concentrated on the rock and lifted my hand up a bit, and the rock wobbled a bit. I was surprised, but July urged me to try to lift it more. Pulling my hands up more, I got it about half a foot off the air and then dropped it. It was hard to earthbend, but I somehow did it.

               “Oh, that was amazing! Do it again, do it again!”

               “I don’t know if I can. It’s tiring.”

               “I got a better idea,” July said with a grin. She explained her rather simple plan, and we decided to put it into action. Her idea was to have me take my shoes and socks off and then try to bend. Pretty much to copy Toph. To my surprise, it worked better than I thought it would. It was suddenly easy to earthbend, and I felt more connected to the earth than to water.

               '”Good job,” Clifton said when we left in the afternoon. “It was really cool.”

               “Yeah, it was. You’re awesome, you know that?” July added.

               I smiled in satisfaction. It felt so good to have my best friends back. I had felt like a part of me was missing in the Avatar world. But now-I feel so much better.