The Return of the Avatar

The Commencement

My heart races in anticipation. I have one hour until I leave on a bus. An hour! Hannah and I are all ready to go. We have all our bags in the storage area. We just have to wait for the announcement, then we leave. I chose Hannah to come with me specially. I'm so pumped for this trip but nervous at the same time! Hannah makes this trip 100 percent better. Without her, I'd be scared not excited.

I look at Hannah nervously, "Hey, have you seen Perry?" I know I should've talked to him sooner, but I haven't seen him at all lately. I asked a couple of his friends but they wouldn't give up his location. I need him, more than he needs me. I just want him to know how selfish I've been and hope I can make up for that. I'd hate to only have one good friend in this whole entire school.

"I can't believe you haven't talked to him yet," She laughs.

I sigh, "I know I've done a lot of wrong...Look, I just need to talk to him for five minutes. He has to hear me out."

Hannah plops herself on her bed and looks up at the ceiling, "Last I saw him he was in the training room, which was this morning. But dude, you have less than an hour." She sits up.

I race towards the door ignoring her. Please be there. I can't imagine the thought of traveling to the Elemental Game, where ever that is, without him. He has to go. I can't have him mad at me. I start tearing up but quickly force the tears away.

I reach the training gym and bust in quickly. I see about 10 guys in here. Some sit on the benches but most are lifting weights or are boxing with each other. I scan the room and hear the loud sound of a punching bag being attacked. I angle my body better and in relief see Perry with red boxing gloves, red tank top, and black basketball shorts. Perry!

I stand behind him as he focus's on his hard punches.

"Perry," I state nervously. He stops punching and turns around abruptly. He glares for a second then returns to punching. I can't say that didn't hurt. "Perry please listen to me for a second." No reply. He punches harder. "Perry! I'm sorry!" Tears fall down my face. Dammit! I wipe them away with the edge of my red sweater. I hate this.

I cry a little harder feeling frustrated. Damn him for making me cry.

My voice shakes, "Y-you said you weren't mad!" My mind goes back to the day when I told him that I told Mr. West that I'm the Avatar. He said that Mr. West would be able to teach me better and that he was okay with it.

He continues to ignore me. I look around for people staring. Okay there's no one looking. I quickly air bend the punching bag off of the hook making it knock into the nearby wall. It makes a loud smacking sound and the once noisy room turns silent. Uh, maybe I shouldn't have done that.

Perry's face tenses as he burns holes through my head. 

He speaks with distaste making me feel contempt, "Let me guess, HE taught you that?" His fists tighten. He's such a jerk.

The room continues to stay silent as prying eyes and ears stay intent on our altercation.

I gasp, "No. No, he didn't." My tears stop as I become more angry. I can't believe him. Why won't he act mature and handle this situation like an adult? 

He clenches his jaw, "Just leave Sky."

I am overwhelmed with hurt, "Just give me five minutes." I look down at the floor in sadness. I can't loose Perry. I need Perry like I need air. I guess I just expected that he was always going to be here for me, and I was always going to be there for him. I am wrong. Maybe I should have treated him better by giving him more attention, but honestly I don't know what I did wrong. Yes, I've been hanging around Mr.West a lot more but that's about it.