Scandals (ZUTARA)

Chapter 4 : Zuko 🔥| Intrusive Thoughts

"Hey Zuzu," Azula whispers as I walk out of the changing room.

"Azula? What are you doing here?" I ask, annoyed.

She cackles, guiding me to the gym. 

"I heard that you're picking on juniors now and I just wanted to say how pathetic I think you are," Azula says, fixing her hair.

"I wasn't picking on him," I scoff, trying to remember exactly what happened. "Katara," I say suddenly.

"What?" Azula asks, arching a brow.

"Nothing," I tell her, thinking about the water-tribe girl who stopped the fight. She's probably the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, but I can't admit that to my girlfriend Mai. After the fight, I asked a bunch of juniors if they knew her name; it took a while, but one of them knew who she was. Katara. What an oddly attractive but sweet name.

"Well I just wanted you to know that everyone thinks you're a loser now," Azula informed me before scurrying away.

🔥

The gym is crowded with boys, non-benders and benders but the first person I pay attention to is Sokka, sitting on a bench with Ruan Jian. He sees me and covers his face with his hands. I promised myself I would stop picking on him, especially now that I know he's Katara's brother.

Coach Jha blows his whistle and the room goes quiet. "This year we will only be doing bending sports-" The boys beside me start groans. I raise my hand. 

"Does that mean no pro-bending?" I ask.

"The people who have an interest in pro-bending can see my after class. We will be having pro-bending tryouts soon so we can have a team ready for Nationals," Coach Jha replies, fixing the green bandana his forehead. "Sokka?"

"What are we doing today?" Sokka asks from the bench.

 "Good question Sokka! Today we will be playing basket-ball," Coach Jha says. "And remember no cheating, or you will be disqualified and unable to try out for the school pro-bending team!"

There were no words or queries after that ; me and Sokka were the two team captains and the guys split themselves between us. My team obviously won.

After class, everyone return stop the changing room but Sokka, who just lies on the gym floor, still angry that I pushed him on my way to the hoop. I ignore him just as Coach approaches me.

"Have you though about pro-bending as a future career Zuko?" he asks me energetically.

"Yes, but I can't," I tell him. "I can join the school team, but my duty is to be the next Fire Lord, not a pro-bender."

"The try-outs for the school team are taking place in October and I'm actually training a few students who I think have  the potential to become something great. If you want, I can train you."

"I'll think about it," I say, closing the door behind me.

🔥

"Zuko?"

I spin around to find Chan standing behind me with horrified expression on his face. " Who died?" I laugh.

"No one," he replies plainly.

 "Then what's your problem?" I ask angrily, slamming my locker. I really need to learn to control my temper.

"We cheated Zuko! I saw you push Sokka! We could have been disqualified!" he exclaims just as Sokka comes into the changing room.

"So what?" I ask him, crossing my arms. "It's not like you're going to try out for pro-bending next month- you're a non-bender. Just relax dude, we won!"