Chapter 7

This was a fun chapter to write but I promise I'll start to speed things long. I just wanted to lay the groundwork for everything first. Let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its characters!

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Katara sat through the rest of the waterbending lesson listening to Master Pakku talk about the forms that they would be working on and how they would be tested on each form, but in the back of her mind one question stuck with her. What was so important that Aang had to talk to Master Pakku about it outside, what wasn't he telling her? Shaking the thoughts from her head, Katara looked over and noticed something strange, Aang wasn't wearing a jacket.

Concerned, she turned to Aang and whispered, "Aren't you cold?"

Aang, still focused on Master Pakku whispered back, "No not really, why?"

Katara, confusion evident in her voice said, "Because it's freezing in here!" Hearing her comment Aang looked around for the first time since he had sat down and was shocked to see that every student including Katara were wearing big fur coats. Then it dawned on Aang that he hadn't been cold because of the fire chakra in his body keeping him warm, but of course Katara didn't know about that.

He turned to her with a small grin and whispered, "Must be an Air Nomad thing." Katara accepted the fact and faced forward again but couldn't help but wonder if that was the truth. Just then the bell rang and the students filed out to head for lunch and Katara stopped to hang up her coat and Aang stayed back in order to wait for her.

As she walked out Aang caught up to her and said, "Wanna walk to lunch together?" Katara could see a little bit of blush in her face, it helped to calm her nerves a bit knowing that he was just as nervous as she was.

She smiled, turning to him and said, "I'd love to!" With that the two walked across the school and entered the cafeteria together. They both got into the food line and after getting their food they looked around and spotted their friends. They were all sitting at a table near the back of the lunchroom. They started to walk towards them when Aang began to notice something strange, Everyone was staring at him. He remembered back to this morning and realized these kids had that same look. Aang began to become quite nervous and tried to shy away from their eyes, sinking down and hiding his head when he sat down at the table. Katara noticed this immediately and looked around to notice everyone staring as well, and she wasn't the only one. Soon the entire table noticed and felt bad for their new friend, so they tried to distract him by acting like everything was normal, and it worked. Soon everyone had gone back to their day and few remained staring at the young Airbender. Aang was grateful that people were no longer watching him, or so he thought. In reality there were two people still staring. One of the two had long black hair and golden yellow eyes, not only that but also a constant need for attention. The other had chocolate brown hair and beautiful blue eyes, and was sitting directly across from Aang. Aang lifted his head to notice Katara staring at him, it seemed like she was trying to read him.

Aang spoke up, confused, but happy to see her eyes focused so intently on him. "What's wrong?" he asked her.

"You never told me what you had to talk to Master Pakku about earlier." She told him, sounding a little bit annoyed. Spirits, I forgot all about that, Aang thought to himself.

"Oh... that it was just scheduling stuff, that's all?" Aang told her, rubbing the back of his neck.

"He's lying." Toph said, pulling away from her conversation with Sokka.

"Toph!" Aang yelled at the blind girl.

"What, you are!" She said not even trying to defend herself.

"Aang, why won't you just tell me!" Katara yelled, now very obviously annoyed. There were so many reasons why it wasn't that simple. So Aang did what Airbenders do best... Dodge and Evade.He stood up and swiftly walked out the door, leaving the whole table shocked, except for Katara who stood up and rushed after him.

"Ah, young love." Suki said.

"Huh?" Sokka asked his girlfriend.

"Nothing" she said quickly, and Sokka went back to eating his lunch.

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"Aang!" Katara yelled while trying to catch up with him. He just kept walking until he hit a dead end and knew that it was over. Katara stood there blocking his only exit.

"Nowhere to go, now tell me what's wrong!" Katara said, in a voice that was strong yet caring and really confused Aang. She really did want to help him.

"Okay fine," Aang said, sitting down back against the wall,and patting the spot next to him gesturing for Katara to sit down, which she gladly did. "You really want to know what's wrong," Katara just nodded her head. Aang stared into her eyes, those gorgeous blue eyes, and was going to tell her everything. He was going to tell her that he was the Avatar, about how he was forced to come here, but more than that he was going to tell her how he felt about her, but for some reason he couldn't. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. So instead he lied to her, as much as it hurt him it was the only way to keep her around.

"I'm embarrassed, I already feel like I don't belong here, so when I walked into the waterbending class and realized I would be the only one who couldn't bend. So that's why I had to talk to Master Pakku outside, to explain to him that I was embarrassed." Aang told her. He felt horrible about lying to her but it didn't matter now. She was still here and that's what mattered to him.

Katara immediately spoke up and told him, "Aang you have nothing to be embarrassed about, you are perfect the way you are, and your Airbending is a gift so please don't be embarrassed!" Katara just blurted those words out without even thinking. Did I just tell Aang he's perfect, Katara thought to herself, mentally facepalming.

Aang was shocked, did he hear her right. "Do you really mean that?" Aang asked her, searching into her eyes for some kind of indication that she meant what she said.

It was now or never. "Well, yeah!" She said shyly, smiling up at him. Katara had just told him that she thought he was perfect, and then reaffirmed it. What is happening!, was all Katara could think when Aang pulled her into a tight hug. She gladly hugged him back and they sat like that for several moments, in each other's arms. Aang finally spoke.

Without pulling away at all, Aang whispered in Katara's ear, "Thank you Katara, for everything."

"Of course Aang." She whispered back with a smile on her lips. Finally they pulled away and just started into each other's eyes. Both of them taking in the view. Just then the bell rang, interrupting their moment. They both stood up brushing themselves off and said their goodbyes before parting ways.

Both of their next two classes passed by relatively quickly as they were both excited for their 7th period. It was the only class that the whole gang had together. Finally it was time, the bell rang and everybody began to head to their last class of the day. Aang was the first person there and quickly found a seat before realizing that their teacher was none other than Principal Iroh himself. They greeted each other and Iroh walked back towards the front. A girl stepped into the class and immediately spotted Aang and made her way over to him. Something about this girl rubbed Aang the wrong way. She had long, neat, black hair with two strands hanging down in front of her face. She also had Golden -Yellow eyes that seemed to hold a bit of rage in them. After making her way over to Aang she stood in front of him and said, "Let's see, Grey eyes, Blue Tattoos, you must be this Airbender everyone's been talking about. I know you're new here so let me make a couple of things perfectly clear. I rule this school, and I wont have you or anyone else getting in my way, so for your sake. Stay out of my way! As if on cue the rest of the gang walked in, with Zuko leading the way.

Zuko immediately turned to see the girl and in a very annoyed voice said, "Azula, you're in this class?"

"Hello ZuZu, yes as a matter of fact I am, I was just having a nice conversation with this Monk here before you rudely interrupted." She then stormed off to the other side of the room and sat down. The gang rolled their eyes and took their seats. The desks were arranged in rows so they didn't have to worry about anyone being left out, especially Toph. Katara sat down in the desk next to Aang, Sokka next to Suki, Zuko next to Mai, and Toph in the back since she wouldn't be able to see the board anyways. The group began to talk amongst themselves until the whole class was there and the bell rang. Iroh stood from his chair and walked to the front.

"Hello class and welcome to The History of Tea!" He started. Everyone just gave him either a blank stare or a confused look except for Zuko, who laughed at his joke. Zuko was the only one who truly appreciated his Uncle's tea jokes. Noticing everyone else's looks he figured it best to clarify. "That was a joke." With that everyone let out a relieved sigh and laughed. Once the class had calmed down Iroh continued.

"My name is Principal Iroh, but you can just call me Iroh, and welcome to History 101. This class will cover everything from the formation of the four nations to the current leaders of the world. It will also include everyone's favorite topic though" he said, glancing over at Aang, he continued, "The Avatar." At this Aang took a big gulp and looked down. Everyone else began to whisper among themselves but Iroh calmed them by saying, "Yes I know, it's an exciting topic, especially now that new Avatar has not been announced, but we still have time before we begin this section. I believe we will begin this section in the second quarter." At this Aang took another big gulp and tried to calm himself. Katara noticed this and asked if he was okay, however Katara was not the only one who noticed the boy's strange behavior. Azula took note of this as well. Aang told Katara that he was alrighta nd sat in silence for the rest of class.After some time class was finally over and school was out for the day. They said goodbye to Iroh and began to head back towards their dorms.

While they were walking Aang suddenly stopped causing Katara to stop too. Katara asked if he was alright and an idea came to his mind. He began to walk again and he started to speak.

"You know you never answered my question this morning?" He told her in a sly voice.

"What question?" Katara asked him, not entirely sure what he was talking about.

"This morning in science, on the note, I asked if you were busy tonight. You never answered me." He told her with that same sly grin.

"Oh, no I'm not busy, why?" She asked him, wondering where this was going.

Aang stopped again and looked at her. "Well I was wondering if you wanted to go get dinner later?" He told her, feeling a bit nervous.

"You mean like how we got Breakfast this morning?" She asked him in a playful tone that made them both smile.

"This time I promise that we'll actually get food though." He told her using the same playful tone.

"In that case, I'd love to." She told him with a wide grin on her face. They both laughed and continued walking until they reached their rooms.

"I'll meet you here at 6, okay?" Aang asked the beautiful waterbender.

"Sounds good, I'll see you then." She replied with a smile on her face. They both opened their doors and walked inside to get ready for dinner.

To Be Continued...