Zuko sat on his bed and stared at the phone. He could lift it, dial the numbers that had been familiar to him since he first knew what numbers were. "Zuzu, if you ever can't call Mommy, call the Hakodas, okay?" Well, he couldn't call his mother now, no matter how desperately he wanted her, but every time he tried to call the Hakodas, his hand seemed to freeze.

Of course, he could call Haru, or even Jet, and just talk. Bring the conversation around to everyone in the neighborhood, find out whether they all hated him. Find out if Katara hated him. They were friends, they always had been, but Ozai was his father and now hated him. If Katara hated him, too, he wouldn't have anyone left from his old life, before everything had turned awful and even Twinkies didn't make everything right. He couldn't...

"Zuko!" His uncle's voice broke through Zuko's despairing thoughts. "Have you seen the phone?"

He scrambled off his bed and threw his door open, shoving the phone into his uncle's hands, a part of him glad to put off the decision once more. Iroh frowned a bit and said, "It is not an emergency, if you want to use the phone I can wait. Maybe you can call your friends?"

"No," Zuko said bleakly, and closed the door against his uncle. No, he couldn't call, because it was better not to find out for certain. Better to keep some hope that the only people who hated him were his father and himself.