When Worlds Collide: Book Two, Earth

Chapter Twenty

"Joo Dee?" he asked, confused. 

"Hello, Aang, and Katara, and Sokka, and Toph, and Sam," she greeted, sounding robotic. 

"What happened to you?" Sokka asked. "Did the Dai Lee throw you in jail?" 

"What?" she asked, smiling. "Jail? Of course not. The Dai Lee are the protectors of our cultural heritage." 

"But you disappeared at the Earth King's party," Toph pointed out. 

"Oh, I simply took a short vacation to Lake Laogai, out in the country," Joo Dee assured. "It was quite relaxing." 

"But, then they replaced you with some woman who's name was also Joo Dee," Katara said. 

"But, I'm Joo Dee," the woman said. 

"What are you doing here?" I asked, and I noticed she had deep bags under her eyes. So much for relaxing vacation. 

"Dropping fliers, and putting up posters is not permitted within the city," she said, pulling out one of our posters. "Not without proper clearance." 

"We can't wait around and get permission for everything," Sokka told her, looking annoyed. 

"You are absolutely forbidden by the rules of the city to continue putting up posters," Joo Dee grinned. 

Aang sprung out in front of her, looking furious. I gave him a worried glance, but made no move to stop him. "We don't care about the rules, and we're not asking permission!" he shouted. "We're finding Appa on our own, and you should just stay out of our way!" He ushered the scared looking woman out, and slammed the door in her face. 

"That might come back to bite us in the blubber," Sokka pointed out, crossing his arms. 

"I don't care," Aang fumed. "From now on, we do whatever it takes to find Appa." 

"Yeah! Let's break some rules!" Toph cheered, and stamped her foot, making the ground rise and rush towards the wall, smashing it to pieces. 

"That... was a little... a little extreme, don't you think?" I asked, staring at the damage with wide eyes. 

She just grinned, and followed the others out the door, and I had to jog to catch up. 

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"We'll split up to cover more area," Sokka decided, as I slapped glue to a stone wall, and smoothed out the poster. "Toph, I guess you can just come with me." 

"Why?" Toph demanded. "'Cause you don't think I can put up posters on my own?" To prove her point, she snatched a poster from Sokka's hand, took my glue brush, and slammed the poster to the building. When none of us said anything, she looked down. "It's upside down, isn't it?" she asked. "I'll just go with Sokka." 

I ruffled her hair as she walked by me, and then I went the opposite way of everyone else. I was away for about half an hour, when I heard shouting and fighting. I sprinted towards the noise, running into Aang along the way. He caught me with airbending before I could go down, and I smiled in thanks, before we both took off again. 

We came to a dead end, where Katara had a guy pinned to the wall. Sokka and Toph joined us, and we watched as Katara looked like she was about to rip off his head. 

"Katara, what's wrong?" Sokka asked, sending a glare to the guy. 

"Jet's back," she said shortly, and my eyes widened as I looked at the guy more closely. 

Dark eyes, tan skin, shaggy brown hair. It was definitely him. 

"We can't trust anything Jet says," Katara stated. 

"But we don't even know why Jet's here," Sokka spoke up. 

"I don't care!" I said, standing next to Katara. Partly because I didn't trust him as far as I could throw him (and I really couldn't throw him very far), and because Katara seemed to be really upset. Probably because she really liked him, and he let her down. And I knew how that felt. "No matter the reason, it can't be good." 

"I'm here to help you find Appa," Jet said, and a poster fell out of his hand that was pinned to the wall. 

"Katara, Sam," Aang sighed, staring at the poster, "we have to give him a chance." 

"I swear, I've changed," Jet promised. "I was a troubled person, and I let my anger get out of control. But I don't even have the gang now! I put all that behind me." 

"And who did you go see?" I spat harshly. "Dr. Phil?" 

"You're lying!" Katara accused, ignoring my comment. 

Toph pushed between us, and we shared a look of shock as the young earthbender put her hand against the wall. "He's not lying," she told us. 

"How can you tell?" Sokka asked. 

"I can feel his breathing and heartbeat," Toph explained. "When people lie, there's a physical reaction. He's telling the truth." 

"Katara, Sam," Aang started, turning to us. "We don't have any leads. If Jet says he can take us to Appa, we have to check it out." 

Katara and I shared a look, before sighing. "Alright," she decided, and I nodded. 

"But we aren't letting you out of our sight," I spat, glaring.