Chapter Text
Katara’s life used to be simple. Growing up, she didn’t have many friends, of course she still played with kids in her neighborhood and stuff, but she didn’t consider any of them friends. She always had one best friend though, and that was her older brother, Sokka. Determined and funny Sokka, who was always by her side, and they stayed that way for a long time. Just the two of them. Then, in sixth grade, Katara, starting to realize that she should have a friend that isn’t her brother, met Aang. He was a shorter kid, with a buzzcut who was incredibly fast and funny.
She couldn’t necessarily explain what it was about him that drew her to him, but before she knew it, they were best friends, and after school, Katara introduced her new friend to Sokka. The two didn’t immediately hit it off, in fact, Sokka kinda hated Aang at first, after all, he was stealing his little sister away. Less than a week into their friendship, he realized that he wasn’t being replaced, they were simply adding another person to their duo. Then it was just the three of them.
Middle school was interesting, to say the least, but it was still simple. People kept coming and leaving their friend group, but in the end, it was always the three of them. Aang invited Meng to join, but she hated Katara for stealing all of Aang’s attention, so that didn’t last long. Sokka invited his kinda-but-not-really girlfriend Yue to join, but she ended up moving less than a month in. The summer of seventh grade Katara invited a friend from volleyball camp, Suki, but once school started, it was impossible for her to hang out since she went to a different school. Around eighth grade, Katara tried to get the group to accept the new boy at school, Jet, and an argument broke out.
“I don’t trust him.” Sokka puts simply when Katara brings it up on their weekly Saturday hangout. Every Saturday, the group goes to Aang’s huge house, because his adoptive dad is always away on some business trip and the pantry is always stocked to the brim with goodies. It also helps that Aang has a big fluffy dog named Appa and a cute, big-eared cat named Momo.
“And? You don’t trust any guys I wanna hang out with!” She fires back, throwing a popcorn kernel at him.
“Besides, you already bought one failed person into the group, so no more for you!”
“Oh please! You loved Suki and you know it, it’s not my fault she can’t hang out because of her dumb boarding school!”
Sokka turned beet red as he slammed his hands on the table, “I did not love her-”
“And it’s not like I’m the only one who’s brought in people that didn’t work out-”
“Guys!” Aang yelled, entering the game room with a stack of movies in one hand and a six-pack of coke in the other. “I think I have a solution,” The two siblings only grumble in agreement as they let the youngest (“I’m only six months younger than you!”, “Whatever you say kiddo”) speak. “What if everyone gets one person that they can invite, no questions from anyone in the group, then everyone else, we just vote on. But you only get one person, at least until we’re in college. Deal?”
The group all size each other up, waiting for someone to step out and object. No such thing happens. And thus the Executive Decision is born.
“So Aang,” Katara starts partway through their movie, turning on the couch so that she’s facing him. “What do you think of Jet?”
“No.” His eyes never leave the car chase that’s playing out on the screen.
Anger boils inside of her, and before she knows it, the words tumble out of her mouth, “I’m using my Executive Decision, Jet is joining!” It’s enough to make them pause the movie.
“Katara, are you sure? If you use this now, you’ll have to wait another five years to use it again,” Aang tries to reason with her, but her mind has been made, and all three know that there’s no going back.
“I’m sure, I have a good feeling about him.”
There’s a beat of silence before the play button is pushed, “We’ll invite him next Saturday.”
She regrets that decision for a very long time. She tries to tell herself that the Executive Decision is dumb and that someone shouldn’t be in the party if they can’t agree on it. She finds out she’s wrong soon enough, and in the end, she’s really happy about the rule.
The trio ends up going to a private school called Ba Sing Se High, but everyone just calls it the Earth Kingdom. The group quickly find their footing at the school, especially because Sokka had already been there a year while Aang and Katara were still in middle school. Freshman year is eventful, but still normal, and they get two new additions. Suki ends up transferring out of Unagi Academy for Girls to Ba Sing Se her Sophomore year, and she’s welcomed in with open arms. It takes her and Sokka a month to start dating.
The group, despite their young age, all end up joining a varsity sport that year. Sokka joins the school’s fencing, soccer, and the chess team, after all, he’d been training to be a fencer since he was a kid. Ever since he claimed that he wanted to be a samurai warrior, their parents found him the closest possible thing. Both Suki and Katara joined the volleyball team, the two becoming unstoppable duo because of their years at camp together. Katara also joins tennis, and the swim team, quickly becoming the team’s fastest swimmer, and continues to dominate in surfing during their summer breaks. Meanwhile, Suki takes a liking to gymnastics, even though it’s not her favorite, it helps her with martial arts, which she masters outside of school. And then there’s Aang. You see Aang is a star player on the soccer team, the track team, basketball, and the football team. Many call him a child protege, and they would be right, he’s incredibly fast and agile, which makes him one of the school’s most valued players.
The group’s quick rise up the ranks leads them to discover two things, one, they are not the only underclassmen who were proteges, and two, there is a bitter rivalry between the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. Firstly, they learn about Toph, a blind Freshman who is known as the best wrestler in the state. Aang and her quickly bond over their status and similar experiences, despite the fact that their complete opposites, and he uses his Executive Decision to invite her into the group. She’s welcomed with less open arms and more crossed arms and clenched fists. Toph and Katara clash almost immediately, but in the end, Toph becomes a part of the group that no one would ever let go of, not even Katara.
Then there’s the rivalry between the two schools. You see Ba Sing Se High’s closest school is another private school, Sozin High, or as everyone called it, the Fire Nation, and they have quite a few proteges themselves, specifically the royal siblings. Sophomore Zuko and Freshman Azula’s dad is the Dean of the school, so the two were quickly dubbed the prince and princess of fire. Zuko absolutely dominated soccer, basketball, and fencing, all while being the president of the cooking club. Azula, on the other hand, was a master at volleyball, the chess team captain, got the lead in every play, and did martial arts outside of school. Needless to say, the group took the rivalry a little too seriously.
Sokka didn’t care about any specific person, he was just constantly talking about ‘destroying the Fire Nation’ and Toph didn’t care who she was fighting, as long as she got to kick someone’s ass. Katara and Suki took it deadly seriously. Katara and Suki made it their personal vendetta to take Azula down a peg and wipe that snide smirk off her face. Aang wouldn’t have cared about the rivalry, until he played the Fire Nation in his first soccer match, and found out that player 01, the famous prince Zuko, had it out for him. Ever since, if the two play a game together, the friendly competition turns bloody. If the two saw each other in public, it takes the entire group to make sure a fistfight won’t break out in the middle of whatever public place they happened to cross in.
They exist like this for a while, the five of them together, hanging out every Saturday. It’s nice, it’s simple and most importantly, it makes Katara happy. So, needless to say, it doesn’t last. Because partway through her Sophomore year, her life gets very complicated.