I hate Spanish Class. Why I’m taking it…well, to tell you the truth, I have no idea – it has absolutely nothing to do with Medicine. Everyone knows that you really don’t need Spanish to pursue a career in Medicine. But I guess that’s not the point.

    When I was younger, Spanish class was the one thing I dreaded throughout the school day. There I would sit, in the first row, right in front of the most horrible Spanish teacher ever. Senor Zhao. I swear, he never stopped looking like a monkey. I guess that’s what made the class funny. He and I would sit next to each other and joke around – because of him, I never really learned any Spanish. He is what made the class more enjoyable. I wanted to keep it a tradition – a tradition that I’d take Spanish for as long as I could, even if he wasn’t going to be there.

    I mean, sure, he annoyed the crap out of me but deep down, I truly cared for him. Besides, we had only known each other since we were born. I almost believe that it was fate that made us so close. Though being an optimist, my belief in this slowly started to die away – that is, until just a few days ago when my first year of college began. We would meet again.

---

    When my alarm clock went off that one morning, I pleaded to the gods to prevent me from going to Spanish class. Grumbling into my pillow, I shook my head and hopped out of bed, rushing to get dressed and head out of my dorm. The last thing I wanted was to be late. If the teacher were to be as bad as Senor Zhao, I didn’t want to risk of leaving a bad impression; definitely not good for a freshman.

    In a record five minutes, I managed to scarf down two cups of coffee to keep me energized, get dress, gather all my horribly heavy books, and get to class on time – sort of. There was one minute left before class would start and all the seats were taken; except for the last two in the front row. Go figure. I sat myself next to a girl who introduced herself as Suki and explained to me that she heard the Spanish teacher was supposed to be really nice. Other than that, I was really listening to her – she just kept talking while I rested my head down on the desk, staring at the empty seat to my left.

    Class hadn’t even started yet and I was already dozing off into my own world. That’s when they sat down next to me. I noticed a pair of legs, wearing some dark wash jeans, slide under the desk next to me, their right foot slightly tapping against the hard floor. I lifted my head up, resting it on my arm as I looked up at the person who had taken the last seat. His golden stare felt familiar to me. Though he was facing the front of the room, totally oblivious to those around him, he still felt familiar.

    “Just in case this teacher is like Senor Zhao, it’s probably a good idea that you at least look like you’re paying attention,” said the familiar voice.

    “Zuko?” I said stupidly.

    “Long time no see Katara…” he whispered back.

    I was about to speak when the teacher came into the room. All the side chatter of my classmates had come to a halt while sitting up straight in their desks. I averted my gaze to the front of the room, as the professor wrote his name down on the board. “Senor Jeong-Jeong”, it read. Great, another name I could barely pronounce.

    “Meet me by the campus pond at eight,” he whispered again, making me realize that he refused to face me fully.

    “Why eight?”

    “I have a night class.”

    “Oh,” I responded, stupidly smacking myself on the inside for asking another dim-witted question.

---

    Before I knew, the day had flown by. Suki had quite a few classes with me throughout the day – basically, we’re friends now, considering all the class we have together. By the time my classes were over, I was mentally and physically exhausted. The last thing I had expected was to see Zuko sitting next to me in Spanish class, in the first row. What are the chances?

    I had keeled over on my desk, my book beneath my face as I awoke to the sound of my wristwatch beeping. I’d never really liked the thing, but Sokka gave it to me for my birthday so I wouldn’t be late to anything since I had a tendency of being tardy…for everything.

    The night had grown colder as the nighttime breeze came through my window. Shivering to its touch, I grabbed my navy blue hoody and headed out the door once again hoping I wasn’t late. But I knew, as I was running down the hall, that I was late. This was not a good impression for a teacher or for a friend that you hadn’t seen in a long time.

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    Racing down the hill to the campus pond, I spotted a shadowed figure standing near the edge of the water. I stopped quickly, staring at the person before me. It had been so long since I’d seen him, yet he was still the same. His stance slouched slightly, and his hands were placed within in the pockets of his jeans, his shirt slightly coming over his thumbs.
   
    Catching my breath, I walked down the hill, trying not to trip on the way down.

    “Zuko,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
    He turned to his right side, his eyes gazing over his shoulder. I felt myself becoming more serious, and still wondering as to why he wasn’t showing the other side of his face. The expression on my face had gone from pure happiness to something much more emotional…I’m not sure what exactly, all I knew was that something had happened.

    “Remember the fire from the summer before High School?” he asked out of the blue.

    “Vaguely…it all happened so quickly. I was coming home from swim practice with my brother and I remember hearing roaring fire engines racing down the street. I was running, while Sokka tried so hard to stop me. For some reason, I knew where the fire was; I knew it was at your house and I feared for your safety.”

    Silence.

    “The next thing I knew, I saw your body being carried out from your house and into an ambulance. I tried visiting you a few days later, but only to learn that you were leaving to live with your uncle. I’ll never forget that morning when my brother told me the news. I rushed out the door hoping to catch you before you left but I was too late. The time I had arrived you were driving down the road in your uncle’s car – I was never able to say goodbye…” I said softly, my voice trembling towards the end.

    I turned to the side of me, my body still placed closely behind him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his body turn around. I was afraid to look at him. I had always been such a tomboy growing up and acting as if nothing bothered me, but at that moment, I felt myself break. I was mad at myself for realizing that I truly missed Zuko.

    “I didn’t want you to see me,” he began saying. “In the eyes of my father I was already viewed as a weakling. The last thing I wanted was for you think the same way.”

    “But I would never…” I started, but soon stopped while I turned around to face him. What I saw was just – bone chilling. “Zuko…” I spoke softly, a sense of sadness coming across my face. I couldn’t help myself. I just couldn’t stop staring at the young man before me.

    The scar that adorned the left side of his face left me in pure shock. I couldn’t speak; I couldn’t think…I didn’t know what to do or how to act. There I was, with a boy who I had known since I was born yet I lacked the ability to console him. 

    “You never called me,” he started saying again.

    “I didn’t know how to contact you,” I started, as I walked past him, sitting down at the edge of the pond. “Azula refused to tell me how to reach you and your father, well, he wouldn’t speak to me. I guess we have a lot of catching up to do, huh?” I asked, as I turned around with a rather huge smile across my face.
    We hadn’t seen each other since forever, and I didn’t want things to remain awkward between us. I have to say though, the look on this face when he saw my smile was priceless. It had gone from expressionless to confusion in the blink of an eye. I’m still not sure what happened, but he was still Zuko deep down, though he seemed different.”

    “Here,” I said, pulling a small package from the inside of my hooded sweatshirt. My hand was sticking right out at him, and must have startled him since he almost fell backwards onto his back. He was still taken aback by my actions, but took the package from hands.

    “A Twinkie and my PSP?” he questioned, holding both of them within his palms.

    “I know Twinkies are your favorite so I brought you one and I figured that you needed your PSP – you know, in case you get bored in class or something.”

    “Why do you have my PSP?”

    “Azula gave it to me. She and Jet were going out until she realized that he had an obsessively huge problem with your PSP. Seriously, he would play that thing non-stop when you left. Personally, it angered me and I refused to interact with him. So Azula came over to my house, shoved the PSP into my face and told me to keep it out of Jet’s sight. It was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. Just last year they broke up, because Azula wanted to be with Haru…”

    “Haru? The quiet kid?”

    “Yeah – I don’t think they’d really work together.”

    “Is Jet still stalking you?”

    “Yeah and he still has his rebel army that live in tree houses. Actually though…we’re sort of going out, but…”

My words just weren’t coming out how I wanted them to. I felt strange for telling Zuko about Jet and me. We were going out and I should’ve been happy, but a part of me just wasn’t. He was sitting beside me now, his scarred face reflecting from the moon’s rays.

“Zuko I…”

“Zuko! We have to go finish our Calculus homework!” yelled an unfamiliar voice.

I turned around to see a girl with long brunette hair tied up with her sweeping bangs down in front of her face. She was wearing a pair of tight, dark wash jeans, a very form fitting jacket with a camisole underneath. Could she have been more of a skank? My jealousy was already taking over me – and I didn’t know why.

“Who’s that?” I asked, staring at the girl who was approaching us.

“She’s well…”

“You must be Katara!” the girl spoke again, only this time she was standing right besides him. “Zuko’s told me all about you!”

    This girl was way too chipper for my liking. Seriously, she was like the annoying energizer bunny.

    “Oh really?” I asked, as I stood up from the ground and crossing my arms in front of me. I furrowed my brow a stared at the girl as she wrapped her arms around Zuko’s neck. I was not amused at all.

    “Katara, this is Jin – my Uncle introduced me to her not too long ago and well…”

    “He’s my boyfriend,” she annoyingly blurted out.

    Damn her. I was irked to the max.

    “Katara we’ll have to catch up later –” He started to say, while being dragged by Jin, or Jen or whatever the heck her name was.

    I watched as they proceeded up the hill back towards the dorms, leaving me behind. I had come down to see him and him only. What scared me is that I acted in a way that I never would. I was never that emotional towards people – not even towards Zuko. But I was willing to be.

    Things were never the same when he left. Things just…changed. My brother became the captain of the Basketball team, I was swim team captain and I had developed a very strong relationship with Aang. Things seemed happy but they just weren’t complete. I as a person didn’t feel whole.

    I’m mad that it’s taken me this long to figure out that I’m not whole without him. We’ll just have to see about that.