Katara peered past her locker, her eyes locked firmly on the boy down the hall. Zuko was walking towards her—in her direction with a vague notion that she was in his way, but she wasn’t ready to admit that—and there was a girl on his arm.

There was a girl on his arm.

She looked fairly plain, Katara thought scathingly for some unknown reason. Her plain brown hair was pulled back in a plain ponytail, her plain outfit it an ugly plain green.

(Self-consciously she touched her own hair and wondered when was the last time she brushed it?)

The girl didn’t even look familiar. She wondered how Zuko knew her.

He stopped right in front of her locker, shrugging his arm from the girl’s grip, face a bit red. Katara smiled smugly as the girl hopped away, waving a small goodbye to the young boy.

Katara tried not to huff. “Who’s she?”

He shrugged. “Jen or Jin or… She’s in my math class.”

Another smug smile at the fact he couldn’t even remember her name.

“Cool,” she muttered. “Class?”

He nodded.

---

Katara stopped, her lunch tray wobbling in her hands. Zuko was talking to some girl (another awfully plain one, who probably had no personality to speak of.) He was leaning awfully close to her, and she laughed at something.

(Katara might’ve simmered. There was no proof of that.)

She turned away, sitting at their usual table. A few minutes later Zuko joined her, a muffin gained.

“Wow,” she muttered with a small attempt to laugh, “You’re quite the ladies’ man.”

He blushed and offered her the muffin.

---

Katara hated fending off Azula, but she hated fending off her friends even more.

(Well, Azula was nearly evil incarnate. There was evidence.)

She also hated how, whenever Zuko and Mai talked, it was just them standing there, looking red.

She grabbed his arm and dragged him along.

---

“It’s been a tough week, Gran-Gran.”

The old woman looked at her granddaughter with concern. “What happened?”

“Between all this homework, I can’t keep up with all the girls Zuko attracts!”

She smiled, patting her head. “Why would you need to that?”

Katara looked startled, like she’d never thought of it. “…Because… Because he wouldn’t know what to do anyway! He’s such a—boy.”

Gran-Gran just patted her head again. She’d learn eventually.