III: Twirling

Azula had no trouble getting invited to the party.

She had slightly more trouble doing well at the party.

Fortunately, she instantly found her target. Because her target was already the center of attention, twirling around like some kind of exotic dancer in the makeshift spotlight of a fluorescent kitchen light. She looked so pretty, sunkissed and all in pink.

"Girl who fell in the ocean!" Ty Lee called out and she walked through the crowd at Azula.

And so the gazelle pranced directly at the lioness. It was not the smartest animal on the savannah, certainly, but it worked in the lioness's favor.

"Hi, Ty Lee. I brought your bag. You kind of dropped it," Azula purred and Ty Lee smiled so wide that it would break a lesser woman's face.

Azula handed it to her. She had put everything back in its place with impeccable certainty, but judging by the cellphone in her shirt, the displacement of her braid, the complete obliviousness to everything around her and the cheap beer bottle in one hand, she likely would not have noticed.

Ty Lee pulled away and smiled. "So, how about I introduce you to everybody?"

Azula met the assortment of awful people. She then realized that she was going to have to start her sophomore year of high school with most of these people in two short weeks. That was literally the most unpleasant thing Azula could think of at the time.

This was father's fault. This was all his fault.

"So, why'd you move?" Ty Lee asked, as she handed Azula a drink. Azula pretended to take a sip.

"My dad moved away for business and couldn't take me. He said I could go to my mother or my brother. My mother is a terrible person who abandoned me for her new husband and their little daughter. And so I thought my brother was a reasonable option," Azula said, feeling queasy as she spoke. She should not have been that open.

"Oh. My dad left and I have like six sisters," Ty Lee admitted and Azula felt slightly more at ease. "What does your dad do?"

"He's a movie producer. That's why Zuko moved out here. My dad bit the bullet and gave him a job at the company," Azula said, acting cavalier but using complete precision as she discussed father's work.

"A movie producer? What has he made?" Ty Lee asked and Azula casually listed, because she was always more than pleased to discuss it.

Father always said she was lucky and added, my father just was a Wall Street suit and boring as fuck to talk about.

Ty Lee had the widest eyes when it was over. Maybe she was a horrible person for this scheme, but it certainly was working.

"I love that." Ty Lee stared, looking like she was trying to hold back. "Do you want to dance with me?"

"I don't really dance."

"Oh, come on, let's just spin around kinda sexy. It's not hard." Ty Lee offered a hand.

And Azula twirled with her, with the knowledge that phase one of her plan was complete.

Also with the knowledge that she was extremely dizzy and Ty Lee smelled like tacky perfume and booze.