Four Elements High School: Junior Year

Chapter 8: Knee Deep

Warning: This chapter contains spoilers for 'The Search' comic. You have been warned!

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Ever since Mai had met her literature professor, Noriko, she had been curious about her. Mai recognized her eyes, her voice, she felt as though she knew her somehow. But she just couldn't put her finger on it. So in late September, after a few weeks of nervous glances from Noriko, Mai started asking the staff some questions about her. 

"She started teaching here about, eh... three years ago," said the music theory professor, who seemed a bit scared of Mai, "She said that she had just gotten her masters degree." 

Interesting enough, but that barely told Mai anything. 

"She had just moved to Hira'a when she started teaching," said the fine arts professor. 

That would mean that she had been in Hira'a for three years, and it had taken six to seven years for her to go to University, so the last time Mai would've seen her would've been almost ten years ago.   

"She got married the director of the community theater after 6 months or so of living here, and they had a daughter." Mai's general curiosity was starting to turn to an obsession at this point. She missed having a goal, an objective that went beyond the next test or essay. She had to figure out who this woman was. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn't help but feel as if it were important.

"I know it's not good to pry into other's personal matters," the sweet elderly lady who worked in the creative writing field said, "but I can't help but wonder if she was running from something, maybe an abusive relationship. She never talks about any family that she had before she came here." It had taken over a month for Mai to get this far, but after hearing this information, she had an idea of who Noriko really was. 10 years ago. It couldn't be a coincidence, because that was when Zuko's mom had left. 

"You don't have to hide from me," she said to Noriko at her next class, "Do you want to know how Zuko's doing or not?" 

~~~

"Toph, do you need help finding your way?"

"Mom, I know the layout of our house," Toph sighed. She stepped into the kitchen and ran her hands along the counter top, which was thankfully marble. Now, she was going to find every metal item that she could. Toph rarely ventured into the kitchen. All her food was cooked for her by the servants, but she had calculated that the most metal in her house would be in the kitchen. First, Toph dumped all of the silverware into her bag, forks, knives, spoons and all. Next, she found all the metal bowls. It wasn't the easiest task, and she made a lot of noise, searching through the cupboards, but Toph felt almost drawn to the kitchen appliances that were metal. She could feel what was metal and what was not, as if she could sense the fine particles of earth within it. After she had a few pounds of stuff, Toph shoved it all into a plastic bag, and then shoved the bag into her backpack.

"I'm going to school," she said loudly to her mother from across the room. 

"Remember we have that dinner with Glacier Moon industries right after class," she said. Toph, not really listening, shouted a quick reply before walking outside, directing her chauffeur to Four Elements High School, and pondering how she would learn to metalbend that afternoon. 

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It was almost fall break, so at lunch there was a buzz of excitement around the school as Aang, Katara, Toph and Sokka discussed what they would be doing on their week off. 

"Fall is the best season to see the airbenders," Aang was saying happily, "The countryside is amazing, and the leaves turn all of these beautiful colors."

"Lucky," Toph said, "I'm probably just going to be at my parents' dinner parties all week." Toph knew she would have to be on her best behavior during these parties. If she could prove that she was was the perfect daughter during that week, she would be home free, and most likely wouldn't have to go to Ba Sing Se High School. 

"Well, we aren't doing anything," Sokka said, "We should hang out."

"Yeah," Toph said, knowing full well that that wouldn't happen, not with her parents' watchful eyes on her  

~~~

"Alright Lilylivers," Toph said right after school, "today we're going to metalbend." There wasn't as big of a reaction as she'd hoped, "Aren't you going to say something?"

"Sifu Toph," said Penga, "You're already so amazing. If you metalbend, I won't even be surprised." Hmm, tough crowd. Toph sighed and took a spoon from her bag of metal objects. She held it in her hands, feeling the smoothness of it, but searching for something rougher, wilder beneath it. After holding it for a while, she felt something. A little twinge of movement from the spoon. Toph gritted her teeth and planted her feet into the ground. Wait, and listen. The spoon levitated about an inch off of the ground. 

"Yes!" Her earthbending students' eyes widened, but then they seemed to realize that she was Toph, and they believed she was capable of anything. 

But I can't even stand up to my own damn parents, she thought. Toph continued to levitate the fork, twisting and controlling the metal, until it had morphed into the shape of a triangle. She tried to teach metalbending to the other students, but they weren't able to do it. 

At least I'll have all year to try and teach it to them, Toph thought with a smile. They went back to regular earthbending, Toph still feeling the euphoria of what she had just accomplished. They had just started working on earth armor, a high level technique, when she heard a voice that chilled her more than any other. 

"Toph? W-what are you doing." It was her mother. She and her father were sitting in a car that was pulled up outside the school. Toph suddenly remembered the words that her mother had said that morning. 

Remember we have that dinner with Glacier Moon industries right after class, but she hadn't realized that her parents would be coming to get her. Toph was frozen in place. 

They knew, they knew about everything.

"We're so disappointed in you, Toph," her father said, pulling her in the car, "and you can say goodbye to Four Elements High School. We're going to work on transferring you as soon as we get home."

~~~

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