This chapter was not my best work;) but the actual plot will kick in in the next update.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender or its Characters!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Since Sokka had made the soccer team, he was going to practice before school started on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. This left Aang and Katara with a lot of time to themselves. Katara learned a lot about Aang. He loved animals and volunteered at a local animal shelter whenever he had time to spare. Airbenders were almost always home schooled, so Aang told her about his experiences there and how they were different than Four Elements High School. Aang learned a lot about Katara. She was really interested in art, and she loved ramen. her dad had a job that caused him to be gone on business trips, and her mom had died in a car accident when Katara was very young, so she and Sokka lived with their grandmother. Oddly enough, one thing Katara didn't talk about was waterbending, and every day in second period, she would do the warm up exercises, and then she would leave the room. But today, Aang thought, today, I'm going to find out what she's up to.

After history class, Aang and Katara walked to the bending specific building and headed inside. They walked down a hallway with many closed doors. Aang assumed they were offices, although some of them were probably practice rooms for earth and firebending, and he knew for sure that Katara would be in one of them.

"Good morning, class," said master Pakku as the waterbending students filed into the room and sat by the pool, "We will begin the lesson by streaming the water, so we can get a feel for it and improve it in the next lesson." Aang watched Katara as she fluidly moved the water. Just as she always had, she left about 15 minutes later.

"Uh, master Pakku?" The older waterbender sighed.

"Yes, Aang."

"Can I um, get my water bottle from the locker room?" Pakku disappointedly shook his head.

"Fine, but be back in five minutes!" Aang nodded eagerly and ran down the hallway, using airbending to stay light on his feet so Katara wouldn't notice him. She stopped at a classroom about halfway through the hallway, and walked inside, leaving the door open a crack. Aang crouched down beside the door and looked inside. It was a spacious room, with lots of plants growing inside, and there was a large basin of water in the center. Floating in the basin was a life sized mannequin with water running through where the veins and arteries would be (Aang pat himself on the back for remembering this from biology class).

"Good morning Hama," she said, waving to an old woman and sitting down in a circle with several other girls, "Good morning everyone. "

"Good to see you could make it Katara," said Hama, "Now, as we move through today's lesson, I want you to focus on concentrating energy to the wounded area, so that we can heal it at a faster rate, and if you ever have trouble, just look at Katara. She has a natural ability with healing."

"Wow," the students oohed and ahhed, "She's going to be an amazing doctor," said one of them. Aang couldn't see much of the room, but he could see Katara frown. On the first day he'd met her, she'd said she had a natural ability with healing, and that it got her a scholarship to Four Elements. She must go to this specialized healing class everyday, Aang thought, but does she really want to? He pulled out his phone and checked the time. He should've been back five minutes ago. Aang took one more look at the healing lesson before heading back to class.

Katara sat on the stone steps of the bending specific building and pulled out her phone. She wrote down her healing homework in her notes app. Regular waterbending class didn't require homework, Katara thought, but it couldn't really be helped.

"Hey Katara!" she turned around and saw Aang running down the steps, "I know about your healing class!" Katara winced, just as Aang tripped over the steps landed hard on his knees beside her.

"Well, I guess the secret's out now," she said bending some of the water from her thermos and using it to heal his scraped knee.

"What I don't get is why you didn't tell me," Aang said, "although I never really thought you'd be interested in the medical field."

"I'm not, but the whole reason I'm here is because of my healing ability, so I'm stuck with it," she wouldn't admit it to Aang, but Katara was actually glad he found out.

"Have you tried to come up with a compromise?" Aang asked. Katara sighed.

"I've tried to talk to Hama, but she says that I'm too good at healing to drop the class, or even do it for half the time."

Have you tried talking to Pakku?" Katara mentally kicked herself.

"I can't believe I haven't thought of that," she said dryly, before heading back to the bending specific building.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"Where do think I'm going?"

"You're going to talk to Pakku now?!" Aang said nervously, "I thought you'd write him an incredibly passive email so he doesn't have to respond if he doesn't want too!"

"See you at lunch," said Katara, and the glass doors shut behind her. She headed down the hall for the third time that day, pausing briefly at the healing classroom before walking through the door to the indoor pool. Pakku was there, slowly freezing and unfreezing a globule of water.

"Master Pakku, do you think I could speak to you for a moment." Katara said.

"As long as you make it quick," he unfroze the water one last time and let it fall into the pool.

"I wanted to talk to you about healing class. I was wondering if I could," she gulped, "drop it." Pakku's eyes widened.

"You realize that the only reason you are at this school is because of your natural healing ability, don't you?" he said calmly.

"Yes, but I only applied because of the opportunities for benders here." Katara looked down and realized she had unconsciously bent water around her feet, and froze it. There's no backing out now, she thought.

"So it is my understanding," said Pakku, "That you came to Four Elements High School to learn more advanced styles of bending, but you are unable to do so because of your healing abilities." Katara nodded.

"This is understandably frustrating," he sighed, "I'll talk to Hama and see what I can do."

"So, did you get to drop healing?" Aang asked when he saw Katara on the way to school the next day.

"Not exactly." Aang noticed that Katara looked... happier. she had neatly braided her hair and there was a spring in her step, "I'm still doing healing two days a week, but the rest of the time I'm doing regular waterbending!" she smiled brightly, "do you think I should try out for the swim team?!"

"Sure," Aang said, and he was smiling too. The two friends walked over the hill and out of sight.

---------------------------------------------------

Let me know feedback/ suggestions in the comments. Also there were some continuity issues with making Azula a senior, so let it be known that Azula is now 16 and a junior!

Thanks for reading!