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Azula found art class tedious, but it certainly had its fair share of positive points. For instance, the scissors they were allowed to work with to create a lantern for the upcoming festival were sharp enough to shave off bits from the wax crayons she was supposed to be using to decorate it with, and she had discovered over a week ago that, left on rocks in the sun between first break and second break, they would melt into interesting designs that she and Ty Lee could trade with the other girls at the Academy for the good behavior tokens they were always short on. So far, no faculty member had caught on to her little black market scheme. A whole week without either of them being punished for something in school was a record.
Unfortunately, demand for the rock trinkets was high, and art class was only twice a week. And she did have to actually produce a lantern by the end of it, one that reasonably mirrored the model at the front of the classroom. Meaning neither she nor Ty Lee could use up all their wax crayons (Mai had refused to participate - but then again, she was never in trouble, was she?).
Azula was contemplating the merits of taking part of the lantern itself and incorporating it into the trinkets to stretch the wax further - she knew from experience that if you just crumpled and uncrumpled paper a bunch of times it essentially became a soft fabric - when their teacher called out sternly across the classroom and her heart skipped half a beat. But she was yelling at Ty Lee, not Azula.
“Ty Lee! Do you think we have an infinite supply of glue?”
Most of the other girls giggled as they looked up to see Ty Lee's face go as pink as she often claimed her aura to be. She'd been caught red, or more accurately, glue-handed, wasting glue by brushing it onto her off hand as she absently stared into space, and peeling off the thin layer once it had dried.
Azula narrowed her eyes. All of Ty Lee's sisters were in class with them, and they all had this exact habit, but of course only Ty Lee was singled out. But they were laughing the hardest. Well, they'd see if they'd get any of the stones!
Ty Lee was moved to the special desk next to their teacher’s, the one she kept empty in case she needed to keep an eye on a troublemaker.
The space was essentially reserved for either Ty Lee or Azula at any given point in time.
Azula sighed. It would be nearly impossible to get enough wax bits now, especially since Ty Lee had been slacking. Someone was bound to rat them out if they couldn't keep up with the demand. She really didn't want to trade any of her hairpins or toys. Then things would just escalate further.
Unfortunately, she hadn't been silent enough.
“Is this activity not to your liking, Princess?” asked the teacher, in that grown-up way that Azula knew she couldn't answer honestly.
“Oh, no, Madame Chiyo, I'm grateful for the opportunity to participate in this important cultural activity!”
More giggling, mostly stifled this time.
“Then see to it that you behave properly!” admonished Madame Chiyo.
Azula could feel her ears turning red, but she pointedly began to work directly on the lantern, and soon enough, the project was declared finished and they were turned out for first break.
“Princess Azula, Ty Lee, you must stand along the wall for the first five minutes of break for your impetuous behavior this morning,” Madame Chiyo reminded them as they were dismissed.
Ty Lee smacked her palm against her forehead as Azula winced. So much for their streak.
Mai hung around them, not actually standing against the wall herself, and not close enough to alert the teacher on yard duty that she was interacting with them. But still, close enough that her low voice carried.
“I don't think all that was worth it just for some scheme. Wouldn't it be easier for you two to just behave?”
They couldn't answer, of course, while they were standing along the wall. Soon enough, the five minutes were up, and Azula decided to ignore the question and turn to Ty Lee as they strode from the wall.
“Did you get good rocks?”
“Yeah! I got the prettiest, smoothest rocks I could find, like you said! Let's go make the stones!”
“Ugh, you two are crazy! Nobody listens to me. Enjoy being in trouble forever,” Mai said, and stalked off.
Azula rolled her eyes. “Whatever. She's so perfect and demure all the time and never gets in trouble. Give me a break. Bo-ring.”
Ty Lee giggled. “Yeah. Bo-ring!” she echoed. “I'd rather be in trouble with you than not in trouble with Mai… or… did that make sense?”
Azula smiled. “Yeah. Come on, we gotta hurry up. Break will be over soon!”
They ran off to a corner of the yard that got a lot of sun all afternoon, and quickly set up their far more interesting art project. They finished just as the yard teacher rang the bell that signaled the end of first break, and quickly scrambled back in line before they were missed. They just made it at the back of the line.
Now it was lunchtime. There were, unfortunately, a lot of ways for a young lady of high society to get in trouble here - possibly more than during a class period. But about three months ago, the dining room teacher had discovered that she had a lot less to worry about during meals if she sat Azula and Ty Lee away from each other, and since then this time of day had become incredibly dull (although the food was delicious).
What followed lunch was arithmetic (easy for Azula, and Ty Lee just copied her answers) and then calligraphy (again, easy for Azula, but difficult for Ty Lee - there was no cheating here, and she had awful penmanship, as did many of her sisters). Azula entertained Ty Lee, and the class, by purposefully getting sent to the front seat during calligraphy, and then making faces every time their teacher’s back was turned. Madame Chiyo knew she was doing this, had a tendency to do this most of the time she occupied that desk, and yet she had never caught her, and if Azula had her way, she never would.
That meant another five minutes on the wall for Azula at second break while Mai rolled her eyes and shook her head, before walking off, but Azula didn't care, because the streak had already been broken anyway. Ty Lee made as though she was going to wait with her, but Azula chanced losing the whole break to whisper, “No, go check the stones!” and Ty Lee ran off.
Azula waited on the wall, picturing how beautifully the stones were going to turn out and how she and Ty Lee would trade them to the other girls for their good behavior tokens and how her mother wouldn't hear a word of today's behavior, because her token deficit was about to be restored and she wouldn't have to go home with a note after all. Except Ty Lee was running back, eyes wide, and she knew that wasn't going to happen. Her five minutes weren't up but she knew she was about to be in way bigger trouble.
Ty Lee was dancing frantically back and forth from foot to foot like she had to pee, but Azula knew it was because something terrible had happened with the stones but she wasn't allowed to tell Azula, who was still bound by the wall punishment. Azula looked at the yard teacher. She seemed bored, as though she couldn't care less about the drama unfolding before her.
“No, another minute, Princess,” said the yard teacher, Miss Ine.
Ty Lee looked beside herself. Azula scrunched up her face and tried to guess what had happened. Even if the teachers had found their little "project,” they would have had no way of knowing what they'd found. That meant it had to be something involving a student. But what?
“Time's up, Princess,” said Miss Ine. “Enjoy your break wisely.”
Ty Lee dashed over and yanked Azula off the wall.
“Ty Lee! Young ladies do not scamper to and fro!” Miss Ine called.
“Sorry, Miss Ine,” Ty Lee said, and she reduced her frenzied dragging of Azula across the yard by exactly one percent.
“What happened?” Azula cried.
“Just see!”
They were almost there anyway. They came around a decorative hedge and Azula could clearly see the corner of the yard where they'd made their stones… as well as six identical smug faces staring back at them… and Madame Chiyo.
Ty Lee paled and lurched back. “She-she wasn't here when I was here before!” she squeaked.
“Madame Chiyo?” Azula hissed.
Ty Lee nodded spasmically, her braid darting all over the place.
“We are in so much ostrich-horse doo,” Azula said under her breath.
“Sooooooo much,” Ty Lee answered in the same tone.
“If you ever tell Mai she was right, you're not my friend anymore.”
Ty Lee just gulped.
Azula steeled herself, put on her sweetest voice, and went in. She knew it had approximately zero chance of working, but she had to try, right?
“Hello, everybody! What's so interesting about this corner of the yard?”
“Why don't you tell us, Princess?” said Madame Chiyo.
“Oh, I'm sure I don't know,” Azula replied sweetly.
“Perhaps it has something to do with these?” Madame Chiyo said, holding out a few of the tin disks stamped with the characters for “virtue” that the Academy used to motivate the younger girls to good behavior. “I've heard these have become something of a hot commodity of late among you girls.”
“Oh, those!” Azula pretended to think. “No, I'm not familiar with those. I don't see them often.” She smiled.
Behind Madame Chiyo were six identical faces of shock at this cheek, and one that was holding back laughter.
“Enough. These young ladies have explained your whole scheme to me. Both you and Lady Ty Lee have been… racketeering on school grounds for more than a week! In all my years at the Royal Academy, I've never heard of such a transgression. You two are coming with me to the Headmistress's office at once!”
Oh, this was very bad. Very very bad. And Ty Lee's lousy sisters, turning them in… A trip to the Head’s office was practically unheard of, especially for girls in the lower years, but it wasn't the first time for Azula. For Ty Lee, however… Think fast!
“But Ty Lee didn't have anything to do with it! It was all my idea!” Azula found herself blurting.
That was a bald-faced lie, the entire scheme was about 50/50, but sacrifices had to be made. She winced.
“Is this true, Ty Lee?” Madame Chiyo turned to her to ask. Ty Lee's eyes were the size of saucers, but Azula knew she would say the right thing. They understood each other.
“Y-yes, Madame Chiyo. It's true. It was all Princess Azula's idea. I just went along with it,” she said meekly.
“I see,” said the teacher, and she looked down at Azula disapprovingly. “Well, then I suppose it's just you I'll be escorting to the Headmistress. Come along.”
As Azula trudged off behind her teacher towards the office of the Headmistress for what would no doubt be a very painful “discussion” of her transgressions, she tried not to think of her mother's reaction when she found out about all this. Instead she decided to wonder how there could be seven copies of a person, but only one worth her time.