The Next Avatar (On Hold)

Chapter 14

"Hey." My head snapped up at the sound of another persons voice. I quickly wiped my tears away with the back of my hand and turned around. It was a boy. He had short black hair and chestnut brown eyes. I noticed his clothes immediately. They were brand new and there was a large symbol on the left side of his robes. Suddenly he spoke. "Which one do you want?" He held out a peach and an apple. "What?" Seeming to sense my uneasiness, his eyes softened slightly. "I said which one do you want?"

"Who are yo-" He interrupted me. "Can you just choose one?" I hesitated before I slowly reached out and grabbed the peach. He sat down on a low tree branch and began eating the apple. When I didn't move, he looked up, somewhat annoyed. "Are you going to just stand there all day?"

"N-No I-" He interrupted me for the second time. "Then sit down." As I sat next to him, we ate in silence. I didn't know who the boy was. I had never seen him with the swamp bender kids and the way he dressed led me to believe he was someone of noble birth. I was eating when I noticed he was staring at me. I grew uncomfortable and stopped. "What is it?"

"You have really long eyelashes." He leaned in a bit, a curious look on his face. I blushed and looked away quickly. Noticing my embarrassment, he shifted away from me a little. "I'm Calliope, but you can call me Cal." Calliope? But isn't this person a boy? "What's wrong? You look confused." I shook my head. It would be rude to ask such a thing. We sat in silence for a minute or two before he spoke again. "You thought I was a boy didn't you? It's okay, a lot of people assume I'm a boy because of the way I dress."

I realized that he was actually a she and in embarrassment I began to stutter out an apology. "Don't worry about it." She said as she finished her apple. "What's your name?"

"Olive." I said quietly. "Like the fruit?" She asked. "An olive is a fruit?" She nodded. "Technically yeah. Speaking of fruit, are you gonna finish that?" She pointed to the peach I was holding. "Give me some." She reached for it but I quickly backed away. "Actually I-"
She stood up as well. "Come on share." She said coming towards me. "But you gave it to me."

"Well I've changed my mind." With a determined look on her face we began the battle for the peach. "I'm a non bender so-" She picked up two thick sticks and threw one at me. "We'll use these." She smirked. I tried my best to fight her off but she was obviously skilled in swordplay. We were laughing and playing around before she opens her mouth to speak and a voice comes out. But it's not hers. "Share!"

"Share!" I heard someone whine. "No." I groaned back. Someone was pulling my blanket away from me, but they didn't get far before I pulled back. We continued to pull the blanket away from each other before the person beside me began to yell at me. "Stop hogging it! There's only one blanket." I now recognized the voice as Cleo's. Her yell was enough to stir me from my semi awake state of mind. I slowly sat up and looked around the room. My head throbbed painfully and I felt sick to my stomach. "Where are we?"

"A hotel." She muttered. I brought my hand to my head. "What was that liquid we drank last night? My head hurts." She rolled over to face me. An amused expression on her face. "You've never had alcohol before?" Alcohol? "That old lady never gave you any?" At the mention of Toph I averted my gaze. "What? Did I hit a sour spot? Why did you leave anyway?" She sighed. "To leave an old lady alone-"

"Who paid for the hotel?" I changed the subject quickly. "My new boyfriend." She smirked. "Was it expensive? I should pay him back..." She stood up and reached for her bag. "Nah. It was around 330 yuan or something. Besides Blane likes you. You don't need to pay him back." My eyes widened. "Blane?" She pulled out some clean clothes and started to change. "H-Hey."

"What? We're both girls." She paused for a second before covering herself. "Do you like girls or something?" I felt my face grow hot. "No! It's just embarrassing...that's all." She uncovered herself and laughed. "How is it embarrassing? I'm the one half naked." She finished changing and applied some makeup. "I've got a date with Blane today. He's taking me to a fancy restaurant." She grabbed her bag and walked towards the door. "See you later."

"Wait." I looked around the room again. "Have you seen Mio?" She sighed. "That ugly rat you carry around?" I stood up quickly and reached for my bag. "He's not a rat. He's a ferret." She rolled her eyes. "Same thing." I quickly put on my shoes. "Did we bring him here last night?" Everything was a little fuzzy from the time the boys came and sat with us. She paused to think. "Mmm.. I didn't see him in the restaurant when we left."

"What?!" I said starting to panic. "Calm down. I'm sure he's fine." What if someone took him? "Can you help me find him? I don't know where to look and you know the city better." She groaned. "But I have a date! Can't we do this later?" What? I felt my anger flare. "How can you say that? It might be too late later." Her eyes narrowed. "It's not my problem. You're the one who chose to drink. You should've been more responsible."

"I know it's my fault. But I really need your help. Please." She crossed her arms. "It's not like we're friends. I brought you here last night and my boyfriend paid for the bill. Not to mention it was thanks to me that we got all that free food. Why should I go with you instead of my boyfriend?" "It's not like we're friends."

Was I just a burden? "I'm sorry for troubling you. You're right. We're not friends." I walked past her and down the stairs. When I arrived outside it was cold and the sun was peeking over the horizon. Why did I think we were friends? We don't even know each other. The city was quiet as I walked and my mind drifted back to my dream. Cal... Why was I dreaming of her? Cal and I had first met when we were 8 years old. I was crying again. A swamp bender girl a year older than me had pushed me into the water. I couldn't swim. In the end, her older brother ended up saving me.

Cal walked up to me when I was crying and took my mind off of it by offering me something to eat. From then on she visited every summer until I was 13. That summer, before she left, she gave me a hand made necklace. "To protect you." Toph died 4 months later. Cal never came back.