Beauty in the Beast (Zutara)

Chapter Eight

Instantly with a bloodcurdling scream, she shot up from her desk, her eyes wide in fear. Her classmates around her watched her in worried silence, listening to her labored breaths seeing how heavy her chest rose and fell. Her pupils had shrunk and the bags under her eyes were prominent. How many times has this happened now? She thought to herself rubbing her eyes trying to choke back her blush. Jet was now affecting her life more than she wanted to. Again. She mentally reminded herself. He always manages to take over my life when I don't expect it.

"Katara," her professor hesitated to touch her shoulder before placing a strong comforting hand on her, "do you need to go to the nurse o-or to counseling?" Zuko looked over at her, noting she was getting more and more haggard by the day.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Basco." She yawned lightly. "I'm fine. Really. Just...family things." Basco raised an eyebrow at her for a moment before letting it be as he went back to his desk.

"Please just try and stay awake, Katara. And for the love of god, get better rest." She nodded softly, a small blush climbing back to her cheeks. Zuko raised an eyebrow as well; curious as to why she so quickly deteriorated over the past few days. It seemed to start ever since I had that little boyfriend of hers give her the note. He thought to himself. After a few more moments of lecture, the students were freed once more to work on their collaborative stories.

"And remember, first rough draft is due next Wednesday." The soft collective sounds of groans filled the air as the golden eyed boy and tired girls eye's widened. Quickly, Zuko gathered his things and made a beeline his way to her desk.

"Look, I know we don't like each other but we have to work together if we're going to pass this class. Both you and I know we don't have jackshit on this right now and he's expecting a rough draft in a matter of days."

"I know." She looked down mustering all the strength not to have her voice falter.

"We got to come up with something-anything."

"We hardly have the time. Especially with the club meetings after school and all." Katara responded.

"Yeah, and the last time we went to go meet somewhere to work on the damn thing, I got ice tea all over me." Looking away, Katara remained silent. "We can't fight anymore." She scoffed.

"That's a little easier said than done don't you think?" With a sigh, Zuko ran his hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I know you're impossible to work with."

"Hey, I'm a very easy person to work with!" She snarled. It was his turn to scoff.

"Please, my sister is more agreeable than you."

"Fuck off."

"Wish I could," he sneered, "but I have this unreasonable person to work with." Katara growled at that making the boy sigh, realizing what fire he was kindling.

"Look, we can't keep doing that. I know you hate me. But if we both want a good grade in this class, we have to swallow our pride and get through this so we never have to deal with each other like this again." It was Katara's turn to sigh.

"I'm kind of upset that that made sense."

"We have the same goal. Let's stop getting in each other's hair and buckle down and do this." Hit with a small spark of determination, she gave a small curt nod.

"Yeah, let's do this." The two of them gave a small forced smile to each other, same goal and reasoning driving them not to jump at each other's throat. Katara whipped out a piece of paper.

"We should make an outline for the story, so we can follow a plot and add in details."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." A small smile came across the dark skinned girls face as they put their heads together and began to come up with their plot. Time seemingly ran through them as they continued to offer ideas and add onto their ideas.