#i don’t like that word anyhow but I do find the book cringe inducing at points

[beauzos]

Still reading The Book Eaters. About halfway through now. I’m ngl this book is pretty bad. Neat concept, odd execution at times, cringe-inducing dialogue. Easy to read though so I think I’ll finish it?? Though I had a second here earlier I thought about just DNFing it and moving on lol

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Wan High Weeping (Part 49)

Azula studied her reflection, she was still getting used to feeling satisfied by what she saw. She ran a brush through her hair, set it to the side and looked at the time. She still had plenty of it, more than enough to perfect her makeup. First she slipped out of her sleepwear and turned to the mirror again. Yue had been correct--not that it surprised her--she still didn’t have the toned, athletic look that she was aiming for but she was slim to her content and comfort. She found her uniform, her old uniform, and pulled it over her head, savoring, in full, the way it fit her. It was still tight in the chest, not that she had any complaints there, at least she had earned one thing for all of her suffering. She swept her hair over her shoulders, trying to decide if she wanted to wear it loose or wear it up.

“You almost ready?” TyLee shouted, bringinging her moment of self-appreciation to an abrupt halt.

“I still have to put my makeup on.”

She heard TyLee groan from the other side of the door and she wonders if the girl was beginning to regret letting her live there for the school year. “Can’t I get dressed and then we can put on our makeup together?”

Azula rolled her eyes and unlocked the door, beckoning TyLee in. As she walked passed she muttered. “You already have makeup on.”

“It isn’t how I want it yet.” Azula replied.  She leaned against the wall and waited for TyLee to re-emerge. At the sound of the shower turning on she decided that she might as well get breakfast out of the way. These days, it was an endeavor she didn’t put much thought into save for deciding what she wanted to eat.

Since the trial, the rest of the year had been generous to her. She’d slipped once or twice more before fully settling into things. And Zuko had his own share of close calls. But by June, she had gotten herself to a comfier spot. A place where she didn’t mind moving the team practice to the beach. At that point, she thought herself to still be on the softer side.

But at that point it bothered her significantly less.

A few kind words on her beach photos had certainly helped. Particularly the ones wherein Chan asked for a second chance and Teo threw their relationship status in his face. Such was the nature of their relationship, a steady flow of bickering and testosterone.

As she ate, Azula wished Zuko luck with his GED prep classes and Ursa with her book signing. She ran through her comment feed. Zirin had posted a picture of she and the rest of the team, Nagako with a newly re-secured position. With any luck, they would keep the momentum she had started for them. She hoped to go up against their team this year.

It had been tricky to explain why she had chosen to leave them. But a few of her goals, required her presence back at Wan High.

Mostly she wanted to feel out what it would be like to live with TyLee before deciding to room with her in college. But a discussion with Yue made her realize that she wanted to wrap up what she began at her old school. She wanted to spend her final year with Mai and TyLee, they way they’d began high school.

“Still want to touch up your makeup?” TyLee asked.

Azula glanced at the time. “We still have to pick Mai up.” She hoisted her bag over her shoulder and drew out her car keys.

“Can I choose the station his time?”

Azula was certain that Mai would just love the pop numbers. “Sure, Ty.”

She watched her scramble into the passenger's seat, where she made herself at home. It brought a sense of comfort to open her glovebox and see TyLee’s chapstick and sunglasses again.  She was fairly certain that, one of these days, she’d open it to find a studded bracelet Mai left behind.

“Really, TyLee?” Mai grumbled. “One of these days you’re going to have to let me ride shotgun again…” she paused. “And let me chose some good music.” She tossed her backpack into the backseat before climbing in for herself.

“How can you, hate this?” TyLee turned it up a few notches.

“I will jump out of this car and walk.” Mai threatened dryly.

There was a sense of surrealism in setting foot in the school again. It was as foreign as it was familiar with its tri-colored banner and its cringe inducing slogan scrawled in purple, blue, and black, ‘Wan High wolf-bats go, go!’ But what did she expect from a school that used a hybrid-animal as a mascot.

She ran through her schedule as she wandered down the hall in search of her new locker.

Azula snapped her fingers, “find another locker to lean on.”

“Apologies m’lady.” Chan heaved himself away from her locker.

“Don’t you have a locker to get to?”

He patted the one he was currently leaning on.

“Of course that one is yours.” She muttered.

“Who do you have for first hour?”

“AP English with Macmu-Ling.”

“Oooo, advanced classes.” He drawled.

“Looks like we won’t be seeing each other very often.” Azula noted.

“Harsh.” He laughed. “I missed you.”

“Well, of course.” Azula replied with a flick of her bangs. It would seem that he would be accompanying her to class.

She stood in the doorway of her classroom and let him finish his spial about how they were letting him back on the volleyball team, so long as he promised to behave himself. “Hey, good luck at tryouts today.”

“Thanks, Chan. But you’ll find that I don’t need luck.”

She found herself a seat at the front of the classroom, nearest to the door and began arranging her pencils and notebooks to her satisfaction.

“You’re attending Wan High again!”

Azula looked up to see Katara who slid into the seat next to her.

“Yes.” She replied. “I’d like to finish high school with Mai and TyLee.”

“What about your new volleyball team?”

“If they paid attention to me at all, they’ll be able to manage without me.” She shrugged. “How is Jing-Zao?” The last she heard, the baby wasn’t faring so well.

Katara’s face fell. “I’m still waiting to hear from Suki. I can’t believe she’s missing the first day of school again.” She looked over her schedule. “She doesn’t have lunch with me this year anyways. So far, no one I talk to does. But I bet I have Usha.”

“When do you have lunch?”

“Fourth.”

“I have fourth as well. I’m pretty sure that Teo mentioned, he does too.”

“Mai and TyLee?”

“Fifth.”

“With Aang, Toph, and Suki.” Katara noted.

.oOo.

Teo folded his arms over his chest. He still wasn’t happy to be back within the halls of Wan High. Sure, the year had ended decently with Jet and Chan in their places. But that didn’t hinder Usha and Chu-Leng any. In fact, Chu-Leng seemed extra aggressive these days, blaming he and Azula for ‘stealing’ Chan and getting him removed from the volleyball team.

He’d made a point of tossing Teo’s books around the hallway.

He noticed someone picking up his books. She stooped down and felt around until her hands found what she was looking for. “You’re Teo, right?” She asked as she handed him the books.

“Yeah.” He answered. “And you’re the BeiFong kid?”

Toph nodded. “My dad said that he was interested in partnering with your dad’s business.”

“I thought that I heard him mention something like that.” He found himself stealing looks at the labrador panting next to her. “It’s nice to finally meet a promising student.”

“Thanks!” Toph smiles. “Wait a minute, you’re talking about Appa aren’t you?” She laughed. “You’re probably right though, Appa is probably smarter than most of these numbskulls.”

“What class are you headed to?”

“Art.” Toph replied. “To me it’s collage class. I’ll cut up magazine pages, glue them, and hope for the best. Either way around it’ll turn out better than whatever is going on with Kori’s face today.” She paused. “I mean I haven’t seen it, but I’m pretty sure my crafts will look better.”

“You’re setting the bar too low.” Teo said.

“You think I should try to make my pieces look better than Chan thinks his abs look?”

Where had this girl been last year?

“Where are you going?” Toph asked.

“Cafeteria.”

“Appa’s favorite place in the school.” Toph declared. “If you run into Spike before me, tell her I said hi.”

“Spike?”

“Your girlfriend.”

“Why, Spike?”

“Ya know, spike, like the volleyball thing. Geeze, Teo, Appa coulda figured that one out.” She paused. “Hey, I’ll talk to you more after school.”

With that, Teo showed himself into the lunchroom. He found Azula sitting with Katara and wheeled himself up. If there was one reason he still bothered showing up to this hellhole, it was to see the two of them. With any luck, lunch would be a more pleasant experience this year. In way of a greeting, Azula leaned over and gave him a small kiss.

“Toph said to tell you she said hello.” Teo set his lunch down. “I’m pretty sure she wants me to say hi to you too, Katara.”

“She’s back in school again?” Katara asked. “I thought that her parents were still deciding on that.”

Azula shrugged. “I get this feeling that Toph had more say in that than her parents.”

“Did we invite him to our table?” Teo asked.

“He tends to invite himself to places.” Azula replied. But she let Chan take a seat anyhow.

“Good afternoon, ladies and nerdass.” He wrigged his brows.

“Not attractive.” Azula commented.

“Not even slightly.” Teo agreed

Katara rolled her eyes. “You know, I don’t think that I’ve ever met a group of friends who insult each other the way you three do.”

“With mountains of affection?” Teo asked.

“With great creativity?” Chan added.

“More like, with great truth.” Azula mumbled.

“Truth?” Teo asked.

“You are a nerdass and he is a dumbass.”

“And you are a smartass.” Chan declared smugly.

“Exactly. With great truth.”

“Please leave me out of this group activity.” Katara requested.

“Are you sure?” Teo asked. “It’s a real good bonding activity.” He unwrapped his sub sandwich. The sound of clicking heels brought his good mood to an abrupt halt.

“You’re really sitting with these nerds?” Usha scoffed.

“As opposed to sitting with yours?” Azula asked.

Usha ignored the comment. “Come sit with Kori and I, where you belong, Chan.”

“I think, I’ll pass.” Chan replied. “I was kind of hoping for a quieter year.”

Usha sniffed. “You’re really going to sit with the fat bitch and the whore?”

Teo raised his hand. “And the cripple.” Usha’s lip twitched. “Beat you to it.” He flashed the most shit eating grin he could muster.

.oOo.

Azula listened to her ramble on and on about her supposed better table. She almost felt bad for the girl, she didn’t realize that she had already been dropped. If not, she was about to be, her removal from the volleyball team had cost them state. Azula couldn’t imagine that they had taken well to that.

Really, she ought to warn her, but she was looking for a little entertainment to go with her lunch. “Do me a favor.” She muttered. “Let the girls know that I’ll be filling in for you.”

Her face bunched up in disgust. “They’re not going to let you back on the team.”

“The choice isn’t theirs, now is it?”

Usha balled her hands and stormed over to Kori.

Azula hated to admit it, but the woman had put a question into her mind; did she really want to go back to a team that didn’t particularly want her around? But the school only had one volleyball team. She looked at the ball poking out of her backpack.

“You’re not a fat bitch.” Chan said.

“Not what’s bothering me.” Azula replied, though she appreciated the reassurance.

“What is?” Katara asked.

“Usha took over the team after I left…” She trailed off. They would probably tolerate her so long as she could get them to state where Usha had failed. But it wouldn’t be like the Xi River team.

“Are you considering not trying out?” Teo asked.

“Trying out was never part of the plan.” Azula replied. “Coach already handed me my spot. Try-outs started the week before school started, anyhow. I’m trying to decide how much shit I’m willing to put up with this year.” She supposed that she would attend practice and see which girls made the cut again and go from there.

Whoever they were, she hoped that they would accept her back without a hassle. It weighed heavily on her mind until the final bell and followed her to the gymnasium.  

“Good to have you back, Azula.” Coach put a hand on her back. “I’d like you to meet the JV girls. They’re a rowdy bunch and I was hoping you could help me shape them up.”

“It’d be my pleasure.” Azula replied. It was an opportunity. Should the varsity team hassle her, she could spend some time with the JV girls, that is if she could handle the unchecked zeal of a gaggle of underclassmen.

“You look nice today.”  She turned around to see Kori. Of course she was handing out compliments now. That was just Kori’s nature, to suck up to anyone who even looked like they could make it to the top.

“I am aware.” Azula replied stiffly.

“Whatever.” The girl grumbled. “Usha looks better.”

“She tries.” Azula muttered under her breath.

.oOo.

“Uno, bitch!” Haru threw down his final yellow card.

“Come on dude, let someone else win!” Teo frowned.

“How about you get good!?”

“Long-Shot, tell him to give us a chance.”

Long-Shot looked to Aang.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to win, Teo.” Aang replied. “Haru hasn’t lost a game of uno in his life.” He pulled out his iPod, “see.” He pointed to a string of digital tally marks. “That’s my losing streak.”

“Wow, dude. You won’t even let your boyfriend win?”

“He needs to get good too.” Haru replied. “In this world it’s wreck or get rekt.”

Teo groaned, Haru was getting to be worse than his dad as far as awful jokes went. He checked his watch. “Alright guys, time to wrap up.” He braced himself for a little mockery and some smooching noises from Haru.

“What, is it girlfriend time already?” He didn’t fail to deliver.

“Come on, Haru.” Aang said sheepishly. “I think we could use some us time too.”

Normally he wouldn’t rush them so much, but Azula promised him that she had something special to give him. Evidently, he was hoping for some comic con tickets and an offer to cosplay with him. One day they’d get there. The doorbell rang and he hurried to the lower floor as fast as he could wheel himself.

He greeted Azula with a hug. Her hair was slightly disheveled and she was still in uniform. “How did practice go?”

She set her duffle bag on the floor. “It went better than I thought it would. Kori is going to be a problem, but the other girls are willing to let by gones be by gones.”

“You look exhausted.”

“I had to remind them of who they are dealing with.” Azula shrugged. “Is your dad home?”

“He’s in the garage, why?”

“I was hoping that he could join us.”

“Why?”

She pulled out a slip of paper. “I might have mentioned to my mother than he needed a little help getting his business going.”

“Are you serious?” He asked.

She slid the check across the table. “He’s treated me well, your father. Better than mine did.”

Teo wheeled forward and pulled her into a hug. She made herself comfortable in his lap and draped her arm around his neck. He kissed her forehead. He heard a cough from behind. “Sorry, dad.”

“No please, continue.” The man said half-sarcastically. “Don’t let your old man ruin your night.”

“Actually, dad, Azula has something she wanted to tell you about.”

“Practice went well, I take it!” He declared excitedly. That was one thing Azula could provide that Teo couldn’t; talk of sports. Every other time he invited her over, his father would embarrass him with talk of how football was back in his day.

“It went fine.” She replied. “But there are other things that I’d like to discuss more.” She took the check back from Teo and handed it to his father. “It’s for your repair shop. Think of it as a thank you for letting me spend the night and what not.”

.oOo.

Azula made her way back to TyLee’s house. Hopefully she and Mai would arrive around the same time as each other. She imagined that their first days had gone just as eventfully as hers, and hopefully as well. Her car still smelled strongly of TyLee’s perfume. She turned on her radio, feeling as though things were finally falling back into place.

Falling back into a comfortable normal where she was comfortable in her skin.

A new sort of normal.

A better normal than the one she’d had before. A more natural and effortless sort of normal. The kind of normal where she knew that she was going to get an earful from Ursa for not calling her sooner. The kind of normal where she knew Zuko was going to text her with a new pun from Iroh.

The kind of normal, she didn’t have to fight for.

That didn’t leave her with the impression that she could lose everything that comforted her in a heartbeat.

She supposed that, for all of the hurt and humiliation, she was glad for the accident. It would seem that it has given her more than it had taken.

She pulled into the driveway to see Mai walking Tom-Tom towards TyLee’s house. It would seem like they’d be stuck catching the midnight show. Not that it mattered, they had always been good at killing time. Perhaps one of these days, she would invite Katara to join them, if the girl had some spare time. She shut her car off and greeted the pair--and Tom-Tom.

In a few minutes they would be piling back into her car and heading to the mall. Just as they had when they were three years younger.

A new normal.

Yet a familiar normal.