High School. Either the greatest or worst time of your life.
And Aang had no idea which would happen to him.
Aang's friend Sokka told him that freshman year was nowhere near as bad as its made out to be, but Sokka was a junior and had probably forgotten how scaring the beginning of high school could be. As Aang weaved through a crowded hall someone grabbed his arm.
"Hey kid, can you point me towards D206? Kinda blind, here," the girl asked, gripping Aang's arm way too hard. He shook her off and rubbed at the spot she had been holding.
"Uhh, I'm a freshman so I don't really know much more than you," Aang paused, a confused expression crossing his face, "If you're blind, shouldn't you have a cane or-" She cut him off with a boisterous laugh.
"Canes are for old geezers. I'm Toph, by the way," she stated, fumbling around for Aang's hand, eventually finding it and giving it a firm shake.
"Aang," he responded, "I'm gonna meet up with my friends and get directions to my first period if you want to come with me." Toph agreed to follow along and soon they found Sokka and Katara.
Sokka and Katara had lived next door to Aang for close to five years and they had always been very close with him. Sokka had kind of been an old brother to Aang and was overjoyed finally have him at high school. Aang's relationship with Katara was a bit more complex than that. The moment he had seen the girl he had fallen head over heels for her. But the older teen was oblivious.
"Hey Aang. Who's the chick?" Sokka asked, pointing finger into Toph's face. Toph felt the invasion of her personal space and shoved it away.
"I'm Toph. And don't call girls chicks, it's skeezy," the ebony haired girl spat. Shock crossed Sokka's face and as he tried to start at a come back, Katara shoved him back with an eye roll and a smirk.
"I'm Katara and this skeeze is my brother, Sokka. Are you a freshman like Aang?" said Katara in the nurturing tone she always used on those younger than her.
Toph nodded and demanded, "Yeah. Can you tell us where D206 is now?" Katara almost chuckled at the freshman's abrupt attitude but restrained herself.
"Um yeah, just take a left turn at end of this hall," she looked at Toph's eyes again, observing them to look almost glazed over, "Aang's class is right next to yours. Why don't you let him take you there?" Toph huffed at Katara volunteering Aang as her seeing eye dog and began to drag him down to hall. As she did, Aang was able to sneak one last look back at his crush, and Katara gave him her beautiful, calming, loving smile and a wave.
Aang was sure that even freshman year could be conquered with Katara at his side.

Aang smiled as Toph joked with the rest of his friends. He was happy the girl had decided to sit with his group at lunch and genuinely taking quite a liking to the girl. As the laughter died down, Katara chimed in to the conversation.
"So where's Suki?" she asked Sokka. The most delighted smile crossed his face.
"She's got a little cold. I'm gonna bring her some of Sokka's Extreme Chicken Noodle after school," he explained with pride, an arrogant expression appearing on his face.
"Who's Suki?" asked Toph. Sokka leaned towards the blind girl with a smirk.
"My girl," he eased out. Aang swore he saw an angry and disappointed grimace pass across Toph's face but it was gone as soon as it came. Toph and Sokka launched it some conversation about some sport and Katara turned her attentions to Aang.
"Tell me more about you first day!" she enthused, placing her hand over Aang's. She had touched his hand a million times over the years, but it never ceased to make the younger teen's heart skip a beat and his cheeks flush.
"It's alright. My history teacher's a bit of jerk. Mr. Jeong or something. He already gave me like 50 pages of homework and lectured at me for half the class just cause I was doodling," Aang sighed out, trying to focus on Katara's hand on his and not the annoyances of the day. The tan girl bit her lip as she thought of another topic.
"What about philosophy? I know you were really excited about that," Katara suggested. "Oh that was fun. Mr. Iroh is really laid back, but he speaks in metaphors so I only get about half of what he says," Aang answered, making Katara laugh as he impersonated the teacher, saying 'the horse is not far from water as long as it forgets the sun' and other things like that. The conversation was halted when a dark haired, sleek boy from Sokka's year stopped at the table.
"Hey blue-eyes," he teased. Katara smiled, despite her best efforts to fight it. Aang now fully understood the look of anger that Toph had after learning about Sokka.
"H-hi Jet," she stammered, averting her eyes, "This is my friend Aang. He's a freshman." Jet shot a quick glance and a half smirk at Aang, nodded to the boy, and brought his stare right back to the lovely sophomore on the other side of the table.
"You gonna come to rally with on Friday?" he inquired, pushing his hair back to showcase his hazel eyes that could make any one swoon with one look.
"Maybe," she over extended the word, keeping her eyes looked on him, "I'll let you know."
"You better let me know soon. I think Azula is wants to go with me too," Jet stated, looking over to the bitchy girl in question, sitting with her volley ball team and Ty Lee, the cheer captain. He winked and blew her a kiss. She snarled and turned back to Ty Lee. Katara burst into giggles. Jet waved goodbye to her and swaggered. Aang sighed in relief once he was gone and out of sight.
"Is his name really Jet?" he grumbled. Katara barely picked up on the annoyance in his tone.
"I think his real name is like Jeremy or Jacob, but how cool is that everyone calls him Jet?" Katara continued on with talk of the older boy and Aang tried his best to not check out or vomit.
Maybe freshman year would truly suck.