When Worlds Collide: Book Two, Earth

Chapter Nine

By the time Aang's class was finally over, I had managed to teach Katara and Sokka all the letters leading up to C.

Yup. Three letters. I even tried singing the alphabet, but since I can't sing a note to save human kind, it didn't exactly work out too well...

"No, Sokka," I said for the fifth time. "B comes after A. And Katara! C comes after B."

Sokka furrowed his brow, and stuck his tongue out, concentrating. "Okay. Make a triangle without the bottom line... And then... um..." he trailed off, staring at the unfinished letter.

Okay, maybe we haven't really made it to C yet...

"No, Sokka, you make a triangle with a line going through the middle," Katara scolded.

I sighed, and face-palmed. "You know, it would be so much easier if I was a teacher," I muttered to myself.

"Sam, how do you finish the A?" Sokka asked.

"You're close. Just add the line through the middle," I told him. I groaned when he drew the line going straight down. "Okay, new plan. Give me the paper and pencil things," I said, taking all writing utensils away from them. I then wrote down the letter A, and drew the little dotted thing all along the top of the paper. "Now trace it," I demanded. They began to trace the letter, and I just sat down on the ground, holding my head.

My poor teachers. My poor, poor teachers. How do they deal with this all day, every day?

"Hey guys," Aang said, exiting the dojo. "I don't think Master Ue is the Earth Bending master I'm looking for."

"Shh!" Sokka hissed, concentrating on tracing the letters. Aang looked at the paper, and scrunched his nose in confusion. "What are you-?"

"Shh!" Sokka and Katara both shushed. I chuckled and Aang looked at me.

"I'm teaching them how to write my language," I explained. "Apparently it's harder than I thought."

"Cool!" The monk proclaimed. "Can I learn too?"

I grinned. "When my headache goes away, I'll teach you the first letter, and make sure these guys aren't failing too bad," I told him.

"The Boulder is totally taking back the belt at Earth Rumble Six, tonight," a guy said, walking by.

"He's gonna have to fight his way through the best earth benders in the world to even get a shot at the champ," the guy's friend said.

Aang smiled, and rushed to catch up with them. "Excuse me, where is this earth bending tournament, exactly?" Both guys turned, and even from where I sat, I could see the scorn in their eyes.

"It's on the island of Nonya. None-ya business!" The guys laughed, and walked away.

Sokka laughed as we walked towards Aang, so I shoved him. Katara looked at me, and I smiled.

"We'll take care of this," Katara said, patting Aang's shoulder. We then took off, running towards the boys and giggling all the way.

"Hey strong guys," I said, walking up to them, hiding my face behind my fans. They grinned, and turned to face us.

"Well how can we help you?" the guy with brown hair asked. He was pretty cute, tall, and tan. His friend was also tall, with a big tuft of hair on top of his head. Katara and I giggled, fluttering our eyelashes.

"We were just wondering where that earth bending tournament was?" Katara asked.

The guys grinned, looking at each other. "Well, maybe we could tell you, but what are we going to get in return?" they asked.