The playground that was mayhem at break, abuzz with runners, chasers and all manner of games, lies almost silent. Only the drone of traffic gives a backdrop of noise. In the middle of the aging blacktop lay the hopscotch grid. Korra could almost see the custodian grumbling just to paint it.
She must have hopped her way over hundreds of times before she walked into 'work', when no one else was looking of course. Or so she thought. Asami had a perfect view from her classroom window. Whilst she was handing out a few sheets for her students who were yet to arrive in an hour or so. A certain person in a grey suit caught her eye outside. There she was, Korra, hopping from one leg to the next through the grid with a wide grin on her face.
Asami rose a brow and moved closer to the window, watching her co-worker act like one of her students. Korra had her blazer thrown over her shoulder, exposing her toned arms as she hopped and it made her all the more intriguing.
And by God wasn't Korra captivating?
All women who stay in shape are physically beautiful, being fit, having a bit of muscle, it goes a long long way in Asami's eyes. Yet Asami could tell Korra had more to her that just brawn. Though Korra was known to be rather clumsy, a good example being the staffroom incident, it made her really amusing. She always looked so serious but actually, Asami knew deep down that she had a goofy side to her. It was strange considering Asami had only known this woman for a day and she wanted to spend more time with her, even if it was just for a 5 minute coffee break in the staff room.
Korra huffed and observed the kids running around. Of course she was given break duty, but she guessed that's what all the newbies did around here. Kuvira was out here too, on the other side of the playground.
There was is something about this old school that brung Korra more peace than she'd imagined. Apart from the screaming kids that were starting to give her a headache, here she could sink back to childhood for moment and forget the future and forget everything that's happened in the past week. It was all crazy to say the least.
"So.. have you had any leads yet?"
Korra shook herself back to reality and turned to see that Kuvira was by her side. How did she get here so fast?
"Uh.. no. Not really." Korra replied, keeping her volume to the bare minimum.
"What about you?"
Kuvira looked to her left and then to her right before she replied.
"I know that Asami and Bolin have lived in this city for a few years now." She explained.
"The other teachers are a little too old and they don't seem to be suspects. I'll keep looking into a few more that could link us to Mako."
Korra nodded in agreement, watching as the kids in her class play tag together.
"How are the classes going for you?"
"Honestly, I can't wait to get this case over and done with." Kuvira admitted.
"Schools are really not my thing."
"You can say that again."
Kuvira chuckled lightly.
"How are they for you? I know they can't be easy considering you have the younger latter."
Korra sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"It's horrible at the moment but I think I have my next 'lesson' planned."
"Well you can start by smiling. I don't think I've seen you smile once yet." Kuvira said, raising a brow at her boss.
"What? What's smiling got to do with anything?" Korra replied, looking up to her partner.
"You look too serious."
Korra scoffed.
"You're one to talk."
"What I'm saying is, smiling makes you look friendly. And in a school full of these devils, looking friendly can get you a long way." Kuvira explained, she learnt that the hard way. She turned herself so her whole body was facing Korra and she planted her hands onto the smaller one's shoulders.
"Alright then Boss, lets see that famous Miss Smith smile."
Korra pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. This was stupid, way too stupid. She took a deep breath in and then locked eyes with her partner, flashing her a toothy grin. It was awkward and clearly forced... It almost looked painful to pull such a face like that.
"Like this?"
Kuvira examined it and then winced.
"It looks awful."
Korra rolled her eyes and her face relaxed into it's normal serious expression.
"Whatever."
A smirk played on Kuvira's lips as she looked at her partner smugly. Maybe there was some way she could bring a smile out of her.
"Oh and by the way, try not to fall in the staff room again. That was really painful to watch."
All the blood rushed to the small woman's cheeks and she smacked a palm to her forehead.
"Please don't remind me of that ever again."
Kuvira hurled over into a fit of laughter.
"You have to admit, it was pretty funny."
"We've been partners for this case for almost 2 days and I already hate you." Korra huffed and crossed her arms.
Kuvira's mouth went agape and she let out an exaggerated gasp.
"Ouch Boss. That hit me right here." She said and patted her chest.
The bell rung and Korra didn't know whether to feel happy or unhappy about it. Happy because she could finally be free from Kuvira's patronising, but also unhappy because.. well kids. She gave Kuvira a look of warning and jabbed a finger into her shoulder.
"If you keep this funny business up Kuvira, your badge will be given back to Chief Beifong."
Kuvira rolled her eyes and walked beside her boss, behind the stampede of little kids. She knew Korra wouldn't actually do such a thing, it was only a small threaten.
"Come on Boss. You don't have to be serious all the time."
Korra stopped her walking and frowned at her partner.
"If you haven't noticed, a drug dealing murderer is on the loose and it's up to us to find him before anyone else gets hurt." She muttered, making sure to keep her voice down so no one could hear them.
"Of course we've got to be seriou-"
"It's nice to see the newbies getting along."
Korra's eyes flew open wide and she quickly grabbed Kuvira's hand and shook it. A forced smile appeared on her face, the awful one, as she heard the shuffling of someone else walking towards them.
"Thanks Kuvira for the tips, I will certainly be using them." She exclaimed.
Kuvira chuckled nervously and nodded, turning to the new face that joined their conversation.
"Good morning Bolin."
"Mornin!" He said, he was in a rather jolly mood for a morning.
"How are you guys?"
Kuvira flashed him a smile.
"I'm good thank you. How are you?"
"Pretty good actually." he said and then turned to Korra, waiting for her to answer his question.
"I'm.. great." Korra answered and then pretended to check her wrist watch.
"And I'm late, see you guys later."
"That's if you can find the staffroom." Kuvira called out and she earned a glare from her boss who made her way back into the school. She was in trouble that was for sure.
<->
With a notepad rested on her knee and a pen in hand, Korra gazed over the million pairs of eyes that were looking back at her. They were all beady, all wide with wisdom and it was almost scary. They were all so full, so small.
She cleared her throat and looked at each and every student that sat on the carpet in front of her. Opal's words rung in her head over and over, she had a game planned out of some sort. Well, it wasn't really a 'game' but she hoped it would work. It was her only shot to actually get some sort of information out of these kids.
It took Korra a while to get them all settled like this, so quiet on the carpet with their legs crossed, all bunched up whilst they looked at their new teacher.
"So.. I have a game planned out for you." she said and their eyes seemed to light up just a little brighter.
"What is it!"
Korra winced at the unexpected yell, it shot straight through her ears and hit right into her head, adding to the headache that was alreading pounding against her skull.
"It's called, who's your dad and what does he do." Subtle Korra.. real subtle. Somewhat proud of her idea, a genuine smile appeared onto her lips. A hand raised in the cluster of children.
"Yes?" Korra called.
"Is your dad a fireman?"
Another hand raised but the child shouted out anyway.
"I bet your dad is really big, is he a police officer?"
Not bad kid.
"No, no. What I meant was you tell me, who's your dad and what does he do?" Korra repeated, earning a few 'ohs'. With the tip of her pen, she pointed to a girl that sat on the far right.
"Alright, we'll start with you."
The little girl got up, a wide smile on her face as she begun to explain what her father did.
"My dad works on computers and he's the boss of his own company."
Korra hummed and moved onto the next kid that sat next to her. Not her.
"My dad watches Tv all day long."
Not him either.
"My dad doesn't live with us anymore." Korra rose a brow and got her pen at the ready. it was a boy, blonde hair, blue eyes. She couldn't see any sort of resemblance to Mako.
"He lives in the fire nation and he drives a Taxi." She wrote down this piece of information, completely baffled that this 'game' was actually working to her favour.
A girl stood up, her smile didn't necesarrily reach her eyes.
"My dad's divorced. my mum's divorced." Korra took note of that too. As the line went down and after many stories about what random strangers do for a living, Asami's son Hiro finally was up next. For some odd reason, Korra really wanted to know what his father did.
He got to his feet, sending a warm smile over to his teacher.
"I don't really know what my dad does." He said, twiddling his thumbs.
"I haven't seen him in a long time. He lives somewhere else."
Korra's heart sank. Asami raised him on her own?
Another girl stood up.
"My dad works as a urologist." Korra opened her mouth to say something but decided against it. Thank you.. for that.
After a few more minutes of going around the class and a decent sized list of possible leads, her blue eyes caught something at the back of the room. It was a little girl sitting on her own at the back. She wasn't facing Korra at all, as if she had completely secluded herself from the group.
Korra frowned and the whole class followed her gaze, shuffling around on the carpet to look at the poor girl.
"That's Tikkani. She doesn't talk much." Hiro said.
Korra frowned even more and put her notepad down on the side. She made her way over to the lonely girl and knelt down beside her.
"Hey." she said as she reached and placed a hand onto the little girl's shoulder. Tikkani jumped at the sudden contact and Korra made sure to retract her hand straight away. She was a small girl, smaller than the other kids here. Her dark hair was tied back tightly into a pony tail and her eyes were a golden brown, just like Mako's. But Korra had seen distress in those eyes, it wasn't unfamiliar to her. Something wasn't right here.
"Are you alright?" She asked and all the little girl did was nod slowly, turning her attention back to her swinging legs. That's when Korra noticed them. The spreading of purple with yellow blotches all over her legs which were slightly covered by her skirt. Bruises, too many of them to be from a little fall on the playground. Korra definitely needed to speak with this girl's parents.
Korra pointed towards the bruises on her tiny legs.
"These look like they hurt. How'd you do that?"
Tikkani curled her legs under the table in an attempt to hide them slightly.
"I fell." She muttered, keeping her eyes away from her teacher.
Korra sighed, that's a lie and it was obvious. Maybe she shouldn't really talk about it here, especially when the whole calss is watching. With that thought in mind, Korra got up and returned back to her orignial seat. She kept an eye on that girl all day and she circled her name twice on her notepad of suspects.
At the end of the day, Korra did try and speak to Tikkani's mother who picked her up from school. But before Korra could even get a word in edge way, Tikkani closed the car door and her mother sped off down the road, leaving Korra looking stupid at the side of the road. Something is definitely off with that family and I'm going to find out what.