Gradual Changes

Racing the Wind

Racing the Wind

All Friday morning Toph walked around the cafeteria with that "I-know-something-you-don't-know" grin on her face. Aang had no idea what it was that Toph was planning, but every time she got that look on her face it made him nervous. She had been talking in a hushed, excited whisper with Katara when Aang came back to the table with their food.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"You'll find out after school, Twinkle Toes," Toph replied with a smirk.

"Is it something I'm gonna like?"

"Yes."

"Does it have anything to do with the dance?"

"No."

"Track meet?"

"Yes."

"Is it gonna hurt?"

Katara leaned over to Toph and whispered something in her ear.

"Probably."

Aang was not fond of that response at all. He continued to pester Toph throughout their first period class, but she just smiled at him and told him he would know soon enough. It was torture. Class after class all he could concentrate on was whatever Toph might have in store for him to get him into the race against Kaze. Not the track competition against the other school, but the race against Kaze. That was all it was anymore. Now that the scholarship was gone, Aang knew he had no reason to run other than that. A small pang of guilt hit him at lunch when he joined his track teammates and Teo on the roof.

"Hey, Aang!" Teo hollered.

"Hey, guys. Ready for today?"

"More ready than you," Kei laughed as he knocked on Aang's cast. "Sucks that they can't get you outta that till tomorrow."

"I'm sorry you won't be able to race," Yuan nodded. "Kaze really needs to be brought down a notch or two."

Aang looked around his small circle of friends and noticed that once again June was not present. He felt guilty for being there. They were her friends first, and now she seemed to be ostracizing herself from them because of him.

"She's over there," Teo told him, pointing across the roof.

June sat by the fence on the opposite side of the building. She was picking lonesomely at her food and staring out at the grounds. Aang gripped the fence next to him and pulled himself to his feet. Kei passed him his crutch and, with his tray in his free hand, he made his way over to June.

"You gonna win today?" he asked as he set his tray beside her. She just turned at looked at him in bewilderment. When he smiled at her, she turned away. "Don't be like that."

"Don't be like what?" she asked.

"Talk to me. Don't shut me out. We're supposed to be friends, right?"

She turned on him with a pained look.

"I can't be 'just friends' with you and you know it!"

"Maybe not if we leave you two alone together," Kei's confident voice said. He and the others dropped down by the fence and resumed their conversation. "So, are you gonna win today?"

June did not answer. She only turned her back on them as they continued to talk.

"I know I'm going to win," Yuan said proudly. "I won't let anyone stop me."

"And we all know that I don't lose," Kei boasted. "I'm not slow like someone else I can mention."

"Who would that be?" Teo asked slyly.