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Chapter 1

New Beginnings

Aang stood nervously outside of his new school surrounded by a group of first years. He felt slightly out of place among them considering he was both older and considerably taller than anyone else. They were all talking excitedly with their friends from their previous school or from around the neighborhood, and that left Aang feeling even more alone. Not one hour ago he had been with his friends at Katara's house to wish her safe travels and good luck. School was supposed to start in three days and she needed to be on her way. Zuko was unhappy about it, but then again Zuko was practically always unhappy.

"He'll be fine," Toph had told him. "Just needs to get his mind off of it and blow some steam."

Katara was on the verge of tears the entire time, and when she and Zuko hugged and said their "see you laters" because they refused to say "goodbye," Aang was certain she was going to breakdown. She only choked them back as she kissed Zuko delicately on the cheek.

"I'm going to visit every chance I get," she smiled. "I'll try to be here every weekend and everything."

"Don't worry about me," Zuko smiled in return. "You just worry about getting finished."

Katara hugged him again before throwing her last bag into the backseat of her father's car. Toph had told Aang that Katara's dad had given the car to her as a congratulations-I'm-so-proud-of-you gift. That and he had also said something about wanting her to come home as often as possible, and she was not going to be able to do that without a car.

"Okay, first years and newcomers! Let's get this tour started!" Aang was glad to see a familiar friendly face and he pushed his way to the front to get closer to her. "My name is Ty Lee, and this is my friend Mai." Ty Lee hugged the tall girl beside her tightly. "She may look super gloomy, doom-y, scary, but she's really just a big teddy bear!"

"Stop touching me," Mai replied with a ghost of a smile as she pushed Ty Lee's face away from hers. "Fair warning to all of you: I'm not here by choice and I do not want to talk to you."

Friendly, Aang thought with a grin.

"Oh!" Ty Lee gasped when she noticed Aang. "Look who's here! How's my Tophy doing?"

Before Aang had the chance to answer, Ty Lee was closing her vice grip of a hug around his neck. Whatever feelings of being alone Aang might have had were gone along with any ability to breath.

"She's doing alright," Aang choked out. "Katara just left for med school, and she's trying to beat Zuko up to make him feel better."

"Sounds about right," Ty Lee smiled. "Okay, everybody pair up! We don't want anyone getting lost now!"

"At least not by themselves," Mai drolled.

Aang looked back at the crowd to find everyone was quickly finding someone to buddy up with but him. He looked and looked, but everyone else seemed to already have a partner. Just when he was about to ask Ty Lee if he could just tag along with her and Mai, someone appeared at his side. She had long dark brown hair that drifted down to her waist. She wore a pair of yellow framed, yellow tinted glasses that masked her true eyes with an odd color. In her hands she held a red notebook that she held to her side. When he looked down at her, she only grinned up at him as she chewed her gum.

"Hiya," she beamed. "Name's Maria."

"I'm Aang," he said as he bowed his head slightly. "Nice to meet you, Maria."

"Eww, yuck!" she replied. "Don't call me that!"

"But you just said your name was Maria," Aang said with a confused smile.

"Yeah, but that's not what people call me," she grinned. "Call me Ria!"

Aang only smiled as the two of them turned their attention back to Ty Lee and Mai. He was not entirely sure, but he thought he might have just made his first new friend at the school. Ria was full of energy and could barely stop moving for any amount of time longer than three seconds. Aang immediately liked her. As Ty Lee explained each of the buildings as they passed, Ria and Aang held their own conversation.

"Don't look now, but I think someone left the grass out all summer."

"What?" Aang laughed. "Who could be so forgetful?"

"So where you from?" Ria asked.

"Oh, here and there," Aang supplied.

"I'm kinda nervous," Ria told him. "But really excited too! I can't wait to start high school! How about you?"

"It's nothing to be nervous about," he told her. "After the first week or so you get used to it. Course it helps if you have friends."

"Are you not a first year?"

"Nope," Aang grinned. "Second. Just transferring in."

"Ahh," Ria nodded sagely. "So you're gonna be one of my upperclassmen."

"I guess so."

"Where'd you transfer from?"

"Uh," Aang paused. "The Hui-Ying Fai Institute."

"Whoa," Ria blinked from behind her shades. "Snob central. Hope we're up to your sophisticated palate."

"Scholarship," Aang laughed. "Lost it though. Long, stupid story."

"Ain't that always how it works?"

"At least in my case," he grinned.

"You know, you kind of remind me of my dog."

"Thanks?" Aang said, unsure of how to take the comment.

" I mean you have the same personality," she explained. "He's really friendly and likes to meet new people. He also has the same look in his eyes as you. Kind of far away like he's a little spacey, but also really happy."

"Did you just call me spacey?" Aang laughed.

"Yeah," Ria smiled. "It's cute. Kinda makes me wanna find out if your leg twitches if I scratch behind your ear."

"I always wanted a dog. Since my dad and I moved around so much when I was younger I couldn't have one."

"Alrighty then, my little newbies!" Ty Lee grinned from the front. "That's all for our tour! If you wanna walk around on your own for a while, try to stay out of the faculty's way. They only have three more days to get ready for you!"

As the students began to disperse, Aang bid farewell to Ria hoping he would be seeing her again once school started. Ty Lee quickly bounced her way over to him, dragging Mai by the arm as she did so.

"A little birdie told me what today is," she grinned.

"Did this little birdie have bare feet and a sarcastic smile on?" Aang inquired.

"Why yes. Yes she did. Happy birthday, Aang!"

"Sort of, but not really," Aang explained. "We don't know when my birthday is, so instead we just celebrate the day Gyatso adopted me."

"Good for you," Mai drolled. "Can we go now, Ty Lee? I thought we had somewhere we were supposed to be."

"Oh yeah! Azula! Come on, Mai. You know Azula doesn't like to wait!"

Aang smiled and waved after them as he made his way off school grounds. It was not that he had no interest in continuing to look around the school, but Toph had told him to come over as soon as the tour was over. Apparently she had something special in store for him today. Only mildly worrying for his health, Aang ran the rest of the way to the Bei Fong estate.

Gyatso and Mrs. Bei Fong were sitting on the porch sipping tea when he arrived. Gyatso gave him a hug, just as he had that morning and smiled a knowing smile. Mrs. Bei Fong seemed to be in on the secret too, whatever it was. There was a twinkle of excitement in her eyes that gave away her eagerness.

"There you are, Twinkle Toes!" he could hear Toph yelling from inside. "Took you long enough. Did Ty Lee show you guys every single blade of grass at school or what?"

"Close," Aang smiled. "Wouldn't have had to if someone had put the grass away."

"What are you talking about?"

"Never mind," Aang laughed. "I'll explain later. Where's my surprise?"

"Excuse me?" Toph asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Who said you get one? And even if you did, do you think I'd give it to you if you asked for it like that?"

"But Toph!" Aang whined.

"Nope. No surprise for you," Toph said as she crossed her arms and turned away from him. "Unless you ask nicely that is."

"Please?"

"You call that nice?"

"Pretty pretty pretty please? With sugar and a cherry on top?"

"Fine, whiner," Toph sighed. "And by the way, we're going to be discussing 'nice' later."

"Not around your father," Mrs. Bei Fong said as she took another sip of her tea.

"Mom!" Toph blushed slightly.

"I'm only saying that it would be a bad idea," Mrs. Bei Fong grinned.

"Jeez," Toph groaned as she pushed open the front doors. "Come on, Twinkle Toes. Your surprise is in here."

Aang could hardly contain himself. In one stride he had stepped over the stairs of the porch and onto the threshold of the house. He followed Toph through the entryway, kicking off his shoes as he did, and continued into the living room. There was nothing there. Aang looked around the room, but saw nothing that stood out and nothing that was different.

"Stay here, Twinkle Toes," Toph ordered. "Close your eyes and don't you dare peek."

Aang was not entirely sure he trusted Toph's surprise enough to keep his eyes closed, but he did so nevertheless. After a few moments he began to get anxious. Waiting around without any idea what was going on started reminding him of how he felt when he went to see the deans about his scholarship. As his mind began to wander, he suddenly felt what seemed to be a small stampede coming from down the hallway. Fighting the urge to open his eyes, Aang tried to imagine what it could possibly be. Before he could venture a guess, he was suddenly bowled over by a mass of hair and a massive amount of slobber. Aang's eyes shot open to see a mound of white fur straddling him with a wet nose and large tongue bearing down on his face.

"Puppy!" he screamed. "You got me a puppy!"

"If you call a giant, furry, lick-y tongue monster a puppy, then yes I got you a puppy," Toph replied.

"He's so cute!" Aang exclaimed as he stood up to look at it. The "puppy" stood waist high to Aang and was so broad that Aang was tempted to sit on its back and ride it. Where the dog was mostly white, it had a speckles of brown trailing down its back. Then realization hit him. "But I'm not allowed to keep a dog at the University."

"I got it all worked out already," Toph declared. "Dad's gonna let him stay here with us, but you gotta come take care of him. You gotta walk him and play with him everyday."

"I promise!" Aang smiled as he began to wrestle with his new friend. "You are such a good boy! Yes you are!"

"So does your 'good boy' have a name?" Toph grinned as she sat down with them.

"I'm gonna call him Appa!"

"Appa?" Toph asked. "Why Appa?"

"Because he looks like an Appa."

"How does he look like an Appa? What does an Appa look like?"

"Appa looks like Appa," Aang explained vaguely.

"If you say so, Twinkle Toes," Toph grinned, shaking her head. "I still think he's a giant, furry, lick-y tongue monster."

A/N: Yay! Appa's in the story! Oh, an Mai's back too.

Hui-Ying Fai translates to "Wise; Intellegent Growth; Beginning" And it only took me one year to pick a name for the private school . . . . .