Second Coat of Paint

Chapter 5

To a chill P.E. teacher who pretended not to see when I couldn't do something...

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So this chapter is really two chapters wearing a trenchcoat, or in other words, I refused to cut anything out of fear of things happening too fast, so here you go...

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"Azula, it's an emergency!" Mouse yelled as soon as the bell marked the end of Math class.

Azula stood up and whirled, searching for the girl. She didn't really want to think about how she ended up as the girl's protector, but that was essentially what it came down to. It was like Miss Omori said, it was cowardly to prey on the weak. It would have been no problem for Azula to intimidate Mouse, the girl was harmless, but to intimidate the older girls who picked on her, well, that was fun. And actually, a challenge.

"What is it, Amaya?" Azula turned again and found Mouse standing in front of her desk with her sleeve drawn up, revealing the drawing of a dragon she dubbed Sparky yesterday when Azula drew it.

"I was careful, but it got smudged anyway... I smudged away his eyes. Can you fix it?"

"I wouldn't exactly call that an emergency."

"Azula, he can't see like this!" Mouse looked genuinely distraught. It was just a few weeks ago when this girl wouldn't even look at Azula and now she felt comfortable to yell. Nothing like a mouse anymore... Amaya, then.

"You are aware he isn't real, right?"

"He can still hear you!" Amaya covered the drawing's head.

"Let me see what I can do..." It was nothing really. Just a dot and two lines of her writing brush. It wasn't a lot of trouble. It just took a few seconds.

Yet, when she was done Amaya looked at her like she'd changed the world.

"Oh, thank you, Azula! I'll be so much more careful this time," the girl said, then turned around and walked back to her seat talking quietly to her drawing the entire way.

That girl really was strange...

Azula smiled slightly, watching her go.

"You like that she's your friend now," Ty Lee blurted out.

"No." Azula made the smile disappear. "I just do it to see her talk to that thing. It's funny."

"No... I think you like making her happy."

"That's ridiculous."

"Hey, Princess..." They were interrupted by Crooked walking by with a book. "I have a question."

"Is it an emergency?"

"No, but I promise, it has nothing to do with personified dragon drawings..." She got a nod from Azula. "Any idea what a schism is?"

"It is a division of a group into opposing factions."

Crooked nodded and quickly jotted that down into the book. "Thanks."

"You're on chapter five then, I presume?" Azula asked, noticing the book was the one Miss Omori had given to the both of them.

"Yeah... But you're probably already finished with it." Crooked looked down. Sora. Sora looked down.

"Sora." Azula made her look up. "I did, but five's a good one. And if you want to ask anything else, I'll probably know."

Sora nodded and walked off, but not before giving an awkward smile. No one besides Amaya was really used to the new Azula yet.