All Haruko dreamt was blue. All of it, ever since she was a child. Nothing but an endless ocean, the sensation of drowning. And the ever-present feeling of blue.

She remembered, as a child, waking in the middle of the night crying. Her mother would rush over to her, scoop her into a warm embrace, and ask what was wrong. Haruko never had an answer, she couldn’t put into words what was so off-putting about her dreams, why she always woke with tears in her eyes.

They had become more clear lately. Sometime during spring of this year, Haruko began to hear an ever-present humming drone, steadily become more clear as time went on. For the first time, she was able to decipher what was being said.

It was her name. Over and over again, like a mantra. It was so repetitive it would’ve been sickening. But it wasn’t, somehow. The voice- the voices, it was at least two separate, distinctly female voices- were comforting, like she knew them somehow.

It was just out of her grasp, like a song you just can’t remember- when Haruko woke up. The chanting drone of the voices faded from her head almost instantly, replaced by the monotonous beeping of her alarm clock.

Haruko sighed and turned off the alarm clock. It read 6:01, just like it was supposed to. Haruko scratched the ear of Pasha, the small meerfox she had adopted off the street a few years ago, against Aunt Liling’s wishes. She walked through her room, navigating through piles of books and boxes and dirty clothes, to where she had left out her uniform from yesterday. She hadn’t bothered to wash it in between uses, but it’s not like it was gross, and washing a uniform daily was a waste of material and money, not a luxury Haruko could afford.

After donning her off-white shirt and dark gray dress pants, Haruko went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face- both menial tasks not warranting much thought. She took a moment to catch her reflection, she looked a mess. Her uncombed hair and dark circles under her eyes gave her the appearance of a student who had stayed up all night studying, which she had, come to think of it. Nevertheless, Haruko resorted to washing the area around her eyes particularly well and combing her hair with her fingers as she left the bathroom to join her family at the breakfast table.

As usual, Aunt Liling hadn’t put anything special on the table for breakfast, just a couple boxes of dry cereal and a bowl of day-old fruit. Haruko sat down opposite her brother Aazir, on the right of her Uncle Quan, who seemed preoccupied with the day’s newspaper.

“Anything interesting happen, Uncle?” Haruko greeted as she poured herself a bowl of nutri-ohs.

“Rail line malfunction up in Yi.” Quan grumbled, not looking up from his paper. “Says we desert folk won’t be getting any fresh produce for a month at best.”

“Oh, that’s terrible!”Aunt Liling cried as she came over to the table with a bowl of oatmeal, freshly heated. “Why can’t they get some of the metalbenders down in Zaofu to fix it? I’m sure they have the manpower to help out.”

Quan shrugged. “Or that Avatar girl, she should make herself useful for once and come fix a damn problem.”

Haruko nodded with her aunt and uncle’s back and forth about the avatar. “Was the rail line issue an accident or was it criminal interference or something?”

Quan opened his mouth to respond to Haruko but was interrupted by his wife, who had just noticed Haruko for the first time this morning.

“Haruko! I told you I don’t want you showing off your tattoos in here!”

Haruko looked down at her tattooed forearms, which were exposed due to her rolled-up uniform sleeved. The thick, black bands were painfully visible. Haruko rolled down her sleeves to cover them, giving Liling a look that said ‘better?’.

Liling huffed. “Honestly, I don’t know how you even got them. Quan, isn’t it illegal for teenagers to get tattoos?”

Quan shrugged and returned to his paper. Evidently, he was more invested in the badgerfrog’s pro-bending win streak than the argument currently happening at the table.

“I do know one thing,” Liling added. “Is that they aren’t allowed per the school dress code. It’s a wonder you haven’t been expelled!”

“C’mon, Aunt Liling!” Haruko said. “You let Aazir wear his stupid hat to school, that’s against dress code too. Plus it’s removable!”

“Hey!” Aazir looked up from his bowl of frost rocks. “I look cool!”

“You know what I mean, young lady.” Liling retorted. “Honestly, you’re so much like your father sometimes.”

Haruko pretended not to hear the last remark. She stood up. “It’s time for school.” She announced, already making her way to the door.

Aazir followed. “Bye, Uncle Quan, Aunt Liling!”

“Have a good day at school!” Liling waved back at them.

The desert sun beat down on Haruko’s neck as she walked to school. Despite winter being close by, it didn’t ever get much cooler in the Si Wong Desert.

“I can’t wait for the nights to get longer,” Haruko remarked as they walked. “Hopefully it gets cooler out.”

“Yeah, that’ll be cool.” Aazir snorted at his accidental pun. “Dang, I just remembered I have a math test today.”

“Sucks to be you, I guess.” Haruko laughed. As she and Aazir continued down the sidewalk, they were soon joined by another familiar face- Li Mei, Haruko’s best friend since Junior High. Li mei was a delicate girl, with cleaner skin and a less muscular build than Haruko. She always wore her hair in a perfect low ponytail, the very pinnacle of student professionalism. Haruko was surprised she was allowed to hang out with her.

“Good morning, Haruko!” Li Mei greeted.

“Morning.” Haruko said. “Aazir was just telling us about how prepared he is for his math test.”

“Hey!” Aazir said.

Li Mei laughed. “If it’s not a problem, I’d rather talk about something a bit more interesting.”

“Sure…” Haruko said. She looked to the sky as she thought. Only one thing came to mind. “I had another weird dream.”

“Really?” Li Mei replied.

Haruko nodded. “Yeah, pretty much the same though. Not much changes with me.”

By now, they had gotten to the school. Li Mei and Haruko waved Aazir goodbye as he left to the underclassman’s side of the school.

“Hope he doesn’t fail that math test.” Haruko remarked.

“Avatar Aang is also known for what, class?” Mr. Sang paced around the room, gesturing the image of the Avatar projected onto the chalkboard.

“Founding republic city?” Someone muttered.

Mr. Sang sighed and pressed a hand to his temple. “Can anyone tell me something he did that isn’t painfully obvious common knowledge? Miss Saeed, perhaps. Have anything to say?”

Haruko snapped to attention, having previously been looking out the window, pondering her dream. “Um…” She searched her mind for anything the famed air avatar might’ve done that was remotely unknown and interesting. “Avatar Aang restored the air temples and created a blend between Air Nomad and Water Tribe custom with his wife, Katara.” She had no idea where the knowledge had come from, but it seemed to please Mr. Sang.

“Thank you, Miss Saeed. Avatar Aang did accomplish much during his lifetime, and we, even two avatars later, still enjoy the benefits he brought to the world. Now onto his successor, Avatar Korra.”

Mr. Sang changed the image on the projector from that of a kind-looking, middle aged Air Nomad to that of a determined water tribe woman in her mid thirites. Avatar Korra had dark hair that reached her shoulders and intense eyes that seemed to pierce through Haruko’s soul, but a certain kindness in her features, the same Aang had in his. She almost seemed familiar to Haruko. She attributed it to having seen her picture in books before, she was the avatar, after all.

Mr. Sang continued to ramble on about Korra’s various accomplishments, which surprisingly included four separate disasters in the span of a few years.

“Unfortunately, Korra did not live very long.” Mr. Sang confessed. “She ended up living only a fraction of the time her predecessors did, dying at the age of forty-seven. She is survived by her family and the current Avatar, Hanuel Beifong.”

Mr. Sang changed the picture yet again, this time to an earth kingdom girl around the same age as Haruko, with long black hair pulled up in a ponytail and soft, pale eyes. Everyone in the class recognized her, she was on the vidset all the time. A couple of boys whistled as her photo became visible.

Mr. Sang sighed. “As you all know, Avatar Hanuel has brought great peace and prosperity to our nation.” He gestured to the map of the UDES on the wall and continued.

It was easy to drown out Mr. Sang’s words, Haruko had heard it all million times before. The Avatar and her various accomplishments and escapades didn’t interest her because they didn’t affect her, Haruko had priorities that weren’t celebrating a hundred years of peace with the Fire Nation.

Like always, Haruko, Li Mei and Aazir ate lunch on the roof. None of them were all too prominent socially, and eating on the roof was the perfect way to avoid the stress of engaging with others, even if it was technically against the rules.

“How’d your math test go?” Li Mei asked Aazir as she set down her small bowl of rice.

Aazir shrugged. “Could’ve gone better, could’ve gone worse. Pretty sure I got a C, at least.”

“That’s good.” Li Mei replied.

“Ughhh.. I’ve got gym next.” Haruko groaned. “Coach still won’t let me on the earthball team, even though I’m probably the best earthbender in the school.”

“Really?” Li Mei asked. “I thought you’d definitely make the team this year. I mean, who else is he going to pick.”

“Jian.” Haruko said, then shuddered for dramatic emphasis. Her ex-boyfriend, while less of a skilled earthbender than her, was apparently ‘more of the athletic type’.

“I don’t even know why you’re still trying.” Aazir remarked. “You don’t even like sports.”

Haruko sighed. “It’s the principle of it, they don’t want someone like me on their team cause it makes them look bad.”

Aazir shrugged and returned to his lunch.

Li Mei started to say something when she was interrupted by the sound of a door opening. Haruko turned to the stairwell that led back down into the school- they had been joined by Padma and her group of lakeys.

Li Mei started to pick up the lunch they had spread out across the floor as Padma approached them. She was accompanied by none other than Jian himself, as well as Wei, who had come to Jing Zi only a few years ago.

“Hiya girls, Aazir.” Padma greeted as she sat down opposite Haruko. Jian and Wei remained standing behind her, Haruko shot the former a dirty glare, which he returned instantly.

“What do you want, Padma?” Haruko asked.

“Just wanted to hang out with my favorite sand people!” Padma’s voice was sweet as she spoke, despite having just insulted two out of the three people she was talking to.

Aazir shot Haruko a quick glance. Haruko shook her head. Whatever Aazir wanted to do, it probably wasn’t a good idea.

Padma smiled. “Hey Haruko, did ya hear about the railway accident in Yi?”

She was singling out her prey. Haruko remained stoic. “I have.”

“Well,” Padma exaggerated her words. “They say it was done by bandits, you think it was your dad?”

“Our dad’s not a bandit!” Aazir interrupted, his voice harsh. “You don’t know anything about him!”

Padma recoiled. She had apparently provoked the wrong sibling.

Haruko put her hand on Aazir’s arm. “Calm down, it’s not worth it.” Aazir’s rapid breathing slowed as he returned to a calmer state. Haruko turned back to Padma, “If you have a problem with us, say it. I’m not afraid of you.”

Padma smiled again. One way or another, she had gotten her way. “Meet me tomorrow. Sundown. Lao’s pavilion.” With that, she and her group of lackeys left the area.

“Haruko, what’ve you gotten yourself into?” Li Mei chided.

“I don’t know.” Haruko replied, eyes transfixed on the door Padma had left in. “But I don’t think it’s a good thing.”