Wednesday, Lowsun 14th, 2184
"Korrin worked us so hard!" I said to Taylor as we worked our way through the lunch line, "Well, she worked me hard. Tami got off a bit easier cause she's been working with Korrin for a year now, but anyway, we worked a lot on my Water bending and it was super fun."
"That's good." She replied as she moved forward.
"What did you do all morning?" I asked.
"Pretty much talked with Ursa and hung out with Ezra as he showed me around to our classes. We saw the others in the halls a few times, but for the most part I watched him Fire bend." She said, grabbing some fruit, a granola bar and a bottled water.
"Are you not hungry?" I asked as we walked to the table our Team had claimed.
"Eh, I'm more snacky than anything." she said, "I didn't finish my coffee till 11ish, so I constantly had something all morning.
"Ok," I said, "But you know you need food to survive. I know coffee is filling and it sounds like you haven't done much yet, but you need to eat more than just some fruit and a granola bar all day."
She sighed, "Yeah I know, I'll grab some extra snacks for later, ok?" She turned back to the line and I walked alone to our table.
"Hey, Avatar! How was the morning?" Hayden called as I approached the table.
"Pretty good!" I laughed, "How bout you guys? I wanna hear all about it." I sat down beside Jinn, and him and Hayden filled me in on their mornings with Kennedy, Lee and Willow.
When Taylor sat down beside me, nibbling on the granola bar, I didn't think much of it. Until half of lunch had gone by and she'd barely eaten.
"Tay," I whispered to her, "You good? Do you need to go somewhere else?"
"No, I'm fine." She said, in the tone that always told me otherwise.
"Come on, we're gonna go find someone to talk to. Maybe Korrin will be in her office." I grabbed her hand and pulled her, unwillingly, with me to the second floor.
"I'm fine, seriously, we don't need to talk to anyone." She kept saying as I wandered the second-floor hallway with her in tow.
"Taylor, look at me," I stopped and she looked at me, nervously, "No matter how many times you tell me you're fine, I'm not gonna believe you. You know why?"
"Because you never believe me." She said,
"No, because I know you well enough to know when you're lying. You're not fine and you probably never will be, if you don't stop this "not eating when I'm stressed" thing, you could get really sick, and hurt because of it!" I said, maybe a little too loudly.
"Hey," a voice called from an open door, "Everything good over there?" We turned to see a short girl leaning against Master Raven's open door. The girl nodded at us and we followed her inside.
"Not really..." I replied, towing Taylor behind me. "Um, who are you?" I asked as she closed the door behind us. The girl that stood before us was not much taller than me, but pretty muscular for a kid. She wore a beige tank-top, a shirt that crossed and tied in the front, left open, green shorts and green and white ankle cuffs. Her black fluffy hair fell in her eyes and she almost looked like a boy if she didn't have the voice of a girl.
"I'm Master Raven. You must be Avatar Evangelene and the famous non-bender Taylor." They replied.
"Famous?" Taylor asked, "How am I famous? I've only been here for a few days."
"Well, word spreads quickly among the Senseis and Masters." Raven said, walking over to their desk and kicking their feet up. "Now, what's this I hear about not eating?"
"Well, umm..." Taylor trailed off.
"She won't eat properly." I said simply, "And I told her she needs to eat but every time she gets stressed or overwhelmed, or overthinks about something, she doesn't eat properly."
"Ah, you might have an eating disorder if it's a problem with food, but your metabolism could just be very low. I had an eating disorder, so trust me when I say, I understand how you feel. I know you don't know me very well yet, but if you'd like to talk to someone about it, I'm here. And I'm on a break right now too, so now would be the best time to do it." They replied, urging her to share her thoughts and feelings with at least one person.
"That would be helpful, thank you." Taylor said, and I felt her relax beside me.
"Ok," They said, "Do you mind leaving us Evangelene?"They asked.
"Yeah, for sure." I said, heading to the door, "I'll just wait outside." I stepped into the hallway and pulled my phone out to text Tami.
[Me]
Hey Tami, I took Tay to talk to someone about her not eating, so she's in Raven's office right now talking with them.
I said, sending the text down to her.
[Tami]
Ok, that's good. Be back soon cause the break's over soon.
She replied, and sent a picture of everyone else, sitting at the table we'd left them at. Hayden was hugging Jinn, Lee was sticking her tung out at Ezra, who had his face smushed up in a weird way, Tami looked like she was cheering for something, while Kennedy and Willow crossed their eyes, Willow's mouth stuffed with fries.
I laughed and texted back,
[Me]
Don't have all the fun without us! 😝
[Tami]
Lol, we won't!
Unless you guys take forever up there 😋
Lol, I'm just kidding. I know it's important for her to talk to someone about this. It's gonna be real tough on all of us if we're the only ones dealing with it, so it'll be good for her to talk to Raven about it.
[Me]
Yeah, I'm glad that she chose to talk with them. I did kinda have to force her up here, but at least she's talking cause she wants to.
[Tami]
Yeah, that is really good.
Outta curiosity (and cause I'm worried, as always) do you know what this one's about this time?
Usually her not eating has something to do with stress or trauma.
[Me]
No clue 🤷🏽♀️but Imma go with stress for this one
[Tami]
Sounds about right
I bet it's how new and overwhelming everything is. I was super stressed like that when I first go there. It's crazy and chaotic, and really hard to get used to. We'll just look after her and keep an eye on how she's doing.
[Me]
Yeah, that we will🫡
I stood there for a while, just scrolling through my phone and waiting for them to be done. As the time got closer to1pm, I kept anxiously checking to see if Tay was gonna come out yet. Getting a bit impatient, I opened my texts again to scroll through my recent messages. There was a message from Lynn that I'd seen, but forgotten to reply to, so I started replying.
Suddenly, the door behind me gave out as Taylor opened it. We both screeched as I fell backwards, but I caught myself on the doorframe and she laughed, letting me back into Raven's office.
"All good?" I asked, looking between the two of them.
"Yep, I think so." Raven said, "But I've got another question for you two; have you heard of my GSA club?"
"Yeah, we passed the room the other day when Hayden took us on a tour." I replied, "It's got a really cute door." I added.
"And we're queer, so I know at least I was thinking about joining it." Taylor said, "I don't know about you though." She said, turning to me.
"Yeah, it would be cool to join." I replied,
"Cool, then I'll see you in the club room tomorrow after school?" They asked, giving us a hopeful look.
"I think so. We haven't really talked about clubs with The Team yet, but we'll do that tonight."
"Ok, I hope to see you then!" Raven called as we left.
"Hey! You're back!" Tami said, jumping up to hug us both.
"Oh good! You missed some drama with Jasper," Lee started, "He walked past us gloating about being the fastest. Again." She rolled her eyes.
"I have a love-hate relationship with that guy." Hayden said.
"Same." Jinn and Ezra joined in.
"Why do you hate him?" I asked, "He was pretty nice when we met him the other day, I don't see how he could be that mean of a guy?"
"It's cause he has this superior air to him. He thinks he's better than everyone else, but he doesn't rub it in your face unless he's feeling especially rude." Lee explained, "He's almost two faced. He's super nice to most people, he's a Sensei's pet and is amazing in school, but he'll just turn around and bully kids, yell at teachers, and skip school. Ursa's had to track him and his goons down a bunch of different times because they skipped school."
"Geez, remind me to never skip school." Kennedy replied.
"Yeah, same here." I added.
"Oh, you wouldn't be able to get out, no matter how hard you try!" Tami said, "You're the Avatar, there's no way they'll let you leave school grounds without talking to the Masters first!"
"Why? What's the worst that could happen?" I asked.
"A lot, actually." Taylor piped up.
"And what exactually do you know about all this?" I asked, looking at her sideways.
"I've been doing some reading the past couple nights. The library has everything from informational books for Tellurians, to fantasy books, to historical biographies, and just about anything you can think of. Anyway, I found some books about the Avatar and I've been reading them during the nights when I can't sleep."
"Come on, do I need to be checking up on you every night now?" I sighed, "I'm glad you found some good books to read, but you also need sleep."
"That's besides the point, what did these books say?" Tami asked, "I never knew there were books with stuff on the Avatars."
"Well, there is. For the most part, they explain things like bending, Spirits, balance and chakras, but there was this really cool section I read where-"
"Wait, what's a chakra?" Willow butted in for the first time, "What did I miss? I zoned out for five minutes and you two are back and you're talking about chakras?!"
I laughed, "Wow Willow, you're so observant. But she's right, what're chakras?"
"I didn't read a whole lot about them but basically, they're various focal points that are used in a variety of ancient meditation practices. Collectively denominated as Tantra, or the esoteric or inner traditions of Hinduism. The concept of the chakra arose in the early traditions of Hinduism." She explained.
"That was a lot." Kennedy said,
"Did you memorize that from the book? Cause that was almost too perfect to be your own words." I added.
"Haha. Yeah, so what if I memorized if from the book?" Tay said, rolling her eyes.
"You're such a nerd!" I laughed.
"Why's she a nerd?" Hayden asked, rejoining the conversation with Ezra and Jinn.
"She memorized the explanation of chakras from a book she read!" I cried.
"Stop that! I am not a nerd for that! It's a useful piece of information!" She replied, "And besides, you're more of a nerd than me. You can quote any Harry Potter character off memory!"
"Well in that cause I'm a Dumbledork. Not a nerd." I shot back.
"What the hell's a Dumbledork?!?!" Ezra asked, confused.
"I don't even wanna know." Tami sighed.
"Yes! Harry Potter's the best!!! But Marvel is so much better!" Willow added.
"What are you guys talking about?!?!" Lee asked, "I've never heard of this Harry Potter or Marvel."
"HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW ABOUT MARVEL?!?!?!?!" Willow cried, crushed by the idea.
"Is it a movie series? Or a book series?" Ezra asked,
"Is it violent?" Jinn added,
"Is it romantic? Is there a good storyline? Are the characters good?" Hayden added in a rush,
"Yes, no, very much yes, a little, yes, and most of them are really good." Willow answered the questions in order. The boys looked at each other and grinned, their eyes wide with bad ideas.
"Oh no, we're not doing this!" Lee cried before the boys erupted into more questions.
"What's it about?"
"Do people die?"
"How good is it?"
"Is it live action?"
"Is there real blood?"
"Can we watch it?"
"Where can we watch it?"
"Can we watch it tonight?"
"Can you give me spoilers?!"
"What kind of genre is it?"
"How many movies are there?"
"Could we watch it in a day?"
"Boys, boys, calm down!" Lee called, standing up, "You don't have to answer all those questions Willow, they just get super excited when it comes to movies." She sighed and sat back down.
"That's ok, I don't mind answering their questions." She smiled and took a big breath in, "Super heroes, yes, very good, yes, no it's fake, of course, Disney+, we can start, I don't wanna ruin it for you, a little bit of everything, 34 and, it would take 4 days to do a Marvel movie marathon if you left time for eating, bathroom breaks and sleeping." She said, all in one big breath.
"Wow." Was all that came from the boys.
We all burst out laughing!
"That was kind of impressive Willow." I said,
"How do you know all this?" Lee asked,
"She's a Marvel super fan, this is her life." Taylor replied,
"Please don't start her on a Marvel rampage, she'll never stop." Tami added,
"It was all we heard about last year cause that's when she really got into it." Kennedy said, "Oh, and don't bring up the S word." She whispered.
"The S word?" Hayden asked,
"What about Spiderman? Oh my god! Tom Holland is the best Spiderman ever!" Willow cried,
"Kennedy! Why would you say that?!" Tami cried, "We're never gonna keep her quiet now!" Just then, the bell rang and we watched as everyone jumped up and filed out to the hallways for the afternoon's classes.
"We'd better get going, we'll see you guys at supper!" Ezra cried, pulling Taylor with him as they left our table.
"Oop- ok, bye!" she called, surprised with the sudden movement, as she waved back to the rest of us.
"We'd better get going to our next class," Tami said, standing up and grabbing her bag from the floor.
"Yeah, ok, see you guys later!" I said, grabbing my bag and following Tami to our first class of the afternoon.