Chapter Text
“Katara, we’re going to be late,” her older brother called as he climbed out of the driver’s side of their old blue pick-up truck. “I’m coming, Sokka!” She said quickly.
It was her first day of school at Fire Nation Royal University, the most prestigious school in the nation. She was extremely lucky to be accepted, as she had barely immigrated to the Fire Nation four years ago, but despite many objections from old white men, she had won a scholarship to attend university here. And she couldn’t have been more nervous.
“Come on, Kat. I can’t be late for work,” Sokka said, waiting impatiently outside of the truck. “Do you want me to walk you in or not?”
“Sorry,” she mumbled as she got out of the passenger seat and hurried to pull her singular suitcase out of the truck bed. Her brother, Sokka, had barely graduated high school before jumping headfirst into the workforce to help their father make ends meet. She tried to help him study and get into a local college, but he had just laughed and stated he’d rather be working than go through four more years of school.
As they walked up the stairs to the entrance together, more than a few stares were thrown their way. Katara frowned, already anxious about other people’s opinions. “Ignore them. Just keep your head up, like Dad always says,” Sokka encouraged. They had reached the doorway by then, and her brother surprised her by wrapping her in a massive polar bear hug. “Good luck, okay? I’ll call you this evening.”
“I’ll pick up. Thank you, Sokka. I love you.”
“I love you too, Kat,” he mumbled before heading back to the truck. Keep your head up, she said to herself before marching inside without looking back.
She followed the signs on the walls to her assigned dorm room. The rules stated that all freshmen had to share a dorm with another freshman, and the rooms were assigned at random. When she arrived at room 2-14, the number written on her schedule, she opened the door slowly. Hopefully her roommate wasn’t a complete asshole.
“-And I still don’t know why I can’t have a room to myself! Father is on the school board, for crying out loud!” Some girl seemed to be having a hissy fit about the dorm rule.
“Azula, you know it’s the rules. He can’t bend them just for you,” a male voice murmured, sounding quite exasperated.
“He should. With my luck, I’ll end up with a disgusting roommate who eats her own toenails.” It was at that moment when Katara rounded the corner by the door and entered the main area of the room.
A boy and a girl stared back at her. They must’ve been siblings, for they had the same thick black hair and piercing amber eyes. “Oh. Do you work here?” The girl asked. “I’m a student here,” Katara muttered, frowning at the slightly racist comment. “This is my room. 2-14.”
“Wonderful. Just wonderful,” the girl snapped before storming into the connected bathroom and slamming the door behind her. “Sorry about that,” the boy mumbled. “I’m Zuko. That’s my younger sister, Azula. She’s… not a people person.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” She moved to set her suitcase down on one of the beds, but Zuko held his arm out to stop her. “Wait. She’ll want the bed by the window.” She looked at him, indignant. “Excuse me?”
“Azula is, uh, very used to getting what she wants. She’s already upset about the whole roommate thing. It might not be the best idea to further complicate things.”
Nope. Nope, nope, nope. She had spent all of high school being stepped on by bitches who thought they knew better than her because they were born here. “Well, Azula will have to get over herself,” she said as she threw her suitcase on the bed by the window and began unpacking. “Thanks for the warning, though.”
“Yeah. Good luck.” Azula emerged from the bathroom and frowned. “Great, she’s still here. You know that’s my bed, right?”
“You weren’t sleeping in it when I got here.”
“Do you have any manners at all?”
“I only give respect to those who earn it.” Azula crossed her arms across her chest. “I suppose you wouldn’t know better, since you’re not from her, but that’s not how we talk to other students. Especially not the daughter of the director of the school board.”
“I don’t give a damn who your father is.” Azula’s eyes widened slightly. Apparently, this card worked on everyone else. But it wouldn’t work on her. No way. “Looks like it’s time for me to head to class,” Zuko said rather loudly, trying to break the tension in the room. “Text me if you need anything, Azula.”
“I won’t.” He hurried out of the room, nodding at Katara as if to wish her luck one more time. “So, to whom do I owe this pleasure?”
“I’m Katara.”
“I’m Azula.”
“I know.”
“As you should,” Azula said with an air of importance as she started to unzip one of her many elaborate suitcases. She glanced at Katara’s singular bag and gasped in mock surprise. “My goodness! Did you lose the rest of your luggage?”
“This is all I need,” Katara said sharply as she re-folded clothes and placed them in the wooden dresser provided by the school. “Probably more like all you have,” Azula muttered under her breath as she draped an elaborate red cloth over her dresser and began setting up a make-up mirror next to various boxes of lipstick and mascara and eye shadow. She grinned when she noticed Katara staring. “Don’t worry, this is only temporary. My vanity is supposed to be arriving this evening.”
She sighed and resumed unpacking her things, pointedly avoiding Azula’s gaze. Why was her college experience already a nightmare?