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The students are plotting something, Sokka can tell. As someone who has long held pride in his own plotting abilities he immediately notices when they start acting suspicious. There are a variety of noises typically found in Sokka’s classroom. Whether it be him explaining new concepts, the students laughing and talking, or the music that plays out loud on the computer during work time. Noise is to be expected. The whispering is new though.
He might not be so suspicious about the whispering, the students are high schoolers after all, if it wasn’t for the fact that the whispering is often accompanied by them casting him strange looks when they think he can’t see them. Which all adds up to a plot.
After his final class of the day is over on Friday a couple of the students stay back to ask him a few questions, purportedly for a new section going into the yearbook featuring interviews with some of the teachers at the school. They’re mostly mundane, what’s your favorite color, if you weren’t the Physics teacher what subject would you want to teach, that sort of thing. He doesn’t get tripped up until the last question.
“And finally,” says Nelly, with an air of far too much nonchalance to be believable, “Is there a special Ms., or Mr., Sokka in your life?”
Sokka’s eyes narrow and he shoots a disapproving look at the two teenagers. “No,” he says slowly, crossing his arms. “And that seems like an odd sort of question to be asking teachers.” Nelly and Shu just look at him blankly, half smiles on their faces. He sighs heavily, “Do I even want to know what you kids are plotting?”
“Plot?” Shu asks, feigning confusion, “There’s no plot Mr. Sokka!”
“Exactly! No plot!” Nelly interjects, too quickly. “Well, that’s it for the questions for the school newspaper so we’ll let you get out of here!”
“Mmmmhm,” Sokka grumbles, raising an eyebrow at the two. “You said it was for the yearbook, not the paper.”
“That’s what I meant!” Nelly says, her and Shu already halfway out the door of the classroom. “Just tired, been a long day. See you on Monday Mr. Sokka!” And with that the two are gone.
Well, that is certainly going to be a problem Sokka has to deal with eventually. Possibly on Monday. Hopefully it’ll at least be an amusing problem, he thinks drily as he packs up his things and exits the classroom, turning off the lights as he goes.
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The following Monday and Tuesday are quiet at Ba Sing Se High School. No sign yet of whatever scheme the students have hatched being put into motion. Then again, that little interview stunt very well could have been it being put into motion and now they’re just waiting on some other part to progress forward. Sokka doesn’t like this new feeling of vague distrust for the kids, he has always loved teaching and getting to serve as a mentor to the kids. Then again, he also doesn’t like being asked somewhat inappropriate questions about his personal life while at work. So maybe there isn’t a way for him to truly win in this situation.
It isn’t until Wednesday that anything out of the ordinary happens. Even then, what does happen is so innocent that Sokka doesn’t even notice it until later.
Second period is Sokka’s designated class-free time, intended to give him a chance to get other work done during the day such as grading papers and lesson planning. Sokka also always has his morning tea during this time. The staff room is located rather far away from his classroom, so a while back Sokka smuggled in a portable electric kettle that he keeps stashed away in a cupboard. This way he can make tea without having to take the long trek to the staff room. The benefits of being a science teacher meant that his room was already equipped with sinks, so he didn’t even have to worry about that being an issue. Plus, if anybody in the school administration questioned him about the kettle he would make up something about needing it for Physics demonstration purposes. They’d probably buy that.
This particular Wednesday starts as any other, but when Sokka goes to retrieve his mug for his tea it isn’t in the cupboard. Which was strange. He then remembers going to wash it in the staff room. Again, something he normally does in his classroom, but he was out of dish soap and so had gone to the staff room instead. However, he really could have sworn he brought it back to his classroom. Apparently not, he sighs inwardly. To the staff room it is.
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The staff room is empty when he arrives there, which is a relief since Sokka wasn’t in much of a social mood that day. He crosses the room to open the cupboards in the kitchen area, and sure enough his mug is sitting up there. Which gives him even more pause since while he could have feasibly left his mug in the staff room, he definitely would not have put it in the cupboard. How did that happen then?
Sokka is distracted out of his thoughts concerning the mug by the sound of the door opening behind him. He turns his head to find himself getting an eyeful of hot Drama teacher. Zuko had begun teaching at the high school a couple years after Sokka started, and he had been nursing a small crush on him ever since.
Really, it was unfair how attractive the man was, with the hair and the eyes and the mysterious scar. Sokka thinks it ought to be illegal how good he looked in button-down shirts, especially the pale lavender one he had on today. Zuko looks up, making eye contact with Sokka for a moment before Sokka whips his head back around to face the cupboards. God, he really hopes Zuko didn’t realize he had been staring.
Okay, so Sokka hadn’t ever really talked much with the Drama teacher before. Something about the man made Sokka and words stop working properly. But no time like the present to change that right?
So Sokka whirls around again to give the notion of actually talking to Zuko another try. He finds that he has since taken a seat at one of the tables with a newspaper laid out in front of him. “Hey,” Sokka says cheerily, flashing what he hopes is a winning smile.
“Hi,” Zuko responds, looking up curiously. “You’re not normally in here at this time.” Zuko then flushes a bit pink. “Not that I’m keeping track or anything. It’s just- Normally I’m the only one in here during this class period.”
“Ah-” Sokka chuckles, scratching the back of his neck and moving closer to the table. “Normally I’m not, no. My mug somehow got left in here rather than where I usually keep it in my classroom.” He waves his mug around for emphasis on this point. “Hope I’m not bothering you.”
“No!” Zuko says rather loudly. “Uh, I mean no, you’re not bothering me at all.”
“Great,” Sokka grins and gestures to the table. “Can I sit?”
“Of course,” Zuko smiles. Sokka sits and the two quickly fall into a discussion of classes, students, and other teachers and administrators. While there was no school policy against teachers being involved with other teachers Sokka still didn’t like to make a habit of hitting on his coworkers. Especially not during school hours. Right now though he was considering making an exception.
Zuko was currently talking about the upcoming spring play, and the way he was speaking about it so passionately was making Sokka feel things he didn’t necessarily want to be feeling while on school property.
Sokka props his head on one of his hands, and gets lost in the sound of Zuko’s voice and the light in his eyes. He probably looks more like a lovesick teenager who goes to the school than a respected teacher here right at that moment but he finds he doesn’t care. But now Zuko was staring at him, he must have just said something that requires a response from Sokka but Sokka has no idea what that might have been. Shit.
And shit . His kettle was still plugged in and running in his classroom. It would probably be fine, it was designed to be safe. But it still wasn’t the kind of thing that should be left unsupervised in a school full of teenagers. Plus Principal Feng would actually kill him if he was responsible for another accidental fire incident. No matter that he got the first fire quickly contained and put out. The principal still glared at him whenever they passed in the hallways.
“I, uh- I actually have to go,” Sokka says apologetically as he stands up from the table. “Have to get back to my classroom. Important science business,” he attempts to joke but winces. That didn’t sound right.
Zuko’s face falls for a moment before he schools his face back into an impassive mask. “Of course, have a good rest of your day.” He then goes back to reading his paper calmly.
Sokka hesitates, wanting to say something else, anything else to have an excuse to keep talking to him, but knows he really has to get back to the kettle. “You too,” he says dully, pushing through the staff room door and beginning the long walk back to his classroom.
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It is not until the Thursday of the following week that the next part of whatever plan the students have is put into motion. A few students stay after class again to talk to Sokka. After the last instance Sokka is immediately on guard, wondering what new interview questions they might throw at him this time. But it’s nothing like that, instead it’s…
“A Physics Club?” Sokka asks incredulously, looking around at their faces, searching for some kind of lie there. “You guys want to start a Physics Club?”
“Yeah!” Shu exclaims eagerly. “We all really enjoy the class, your class Mr. Sokka, and we wanted to get some more time to do fun experimental stuff. So we thought this would be perfect. Plus, extracurriculars look good on college applications and all.”
He’s got him there, Sokka has to admit. But he still feels like there’s something else to this, that it’s related to the plan brewing. The how and why of it is what he can’t figure out.
“And you would need me to be the faculty advisor and provide use of my classroom?” he asks.
“Yes, but other than that there’s relatively little you would need to do,” another student, Emma, is quick to cut in. “We would take care of getting everything set up through the administration and would find the demonstrations we want to try ourselves. You’d just be there to guide, support, and supervise.” Well that sounded awfully rehearsed to Sokka’s ears. “Unless you want to do more of course, then you can. We just don’t want to put you out too much.”
Sokka considers this for a moment. There was definitely more to this than they were sharing. But at the same time it was a good idea, and Principal Feng had been getting on his case recently about getting more involved with extracurricular measures within the school. “Okay,” he says, “I’ll do it.”
The students let out a cheer among themselves. “Thank you Mr. Sokka,” Shu crows, “you’re the man!”
“We’re planning on meeting Tuesday afternoons if that works for you,” Emma says.
“That should work fine,” Sokka responds. The students all thank him again, and file out, talking excitedly about their new club.
It’s not until after the first meeting of Physics Club that Sokka realizes that Drama Club also meets on Tuesday afternoons. It then takes him a few weeks before he notices that somehow Physics Club and Drama Club always seem to finish at the same time, leading him to run into Zuko in the halls as they leave the building. And he’s also seen some of the members of the two clubs whispering together in the hallways during break times, when they never used to interact before. Interesting. He’s starting to suspect he’s catching on to their plan.
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Sokka has now noticed a new tendency emerging within the past few weeks among the juniors to talk loudly about Mr. Zuko when they are in his vicinity. He’d chalk it up just to coincidence except for the fact that these are sixteen year olds. They are not as subtle as they think they are.
So that’s definitely what this is about then. The little miscreants are trying to set him up with Zuko. Huh. While Sokka can’t say he objects to the idea of going out with Zuko, his eagerness to run into him following Physics Club and Drama Club on Tuesdays and his newfound habit of visiting the staff room during second period speak for themselves, what he does object to is a group of teenagers attempting to insert themselves into his personal life. He’s their teacher, and he takes that responsibility very seriously even with his laid-back reputation within the school. There are lines he doesn’t particularly want crossed, and this interference is one of them. So now he starts thinking long and hard about how best to handle this new Zuko situation.
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Sokka was well known throughout the school for his chill music policy. Whenever his classes had work time, time without him lecturing or them actively doing experiments, the students were allowed to play whatever music they wanted from a shared computer in the room. As long as it didn’t have intense swear words or sexual or violent content. Sokka still didn’t want the administration coming down on him after all. But he found that allowing the students that perk made them work harder. He respected their judgment, and they respected him and his rules in turn. Sure, occasionally a student would attempt to get an explicit song through, but the other students always seemingly had a way of handling such students themselves, with minimum discipline needed from Sokka.
All that is to say that Sokka had always been pleased with his music policy. He was starting to regret it though. Because Sokka begins to notice a theme happening with the music selections of the students. Across all his classes, not just with the juniors who had started the whole Zuko situation in the first place. All his classes have begun choosing love songs for their music during work times. Even students who never had any interest in playing love songs before are now choosing them when it’s their turn to pick. Sokka almost admires the coordinated effort despite his annoyance with the situation.
It might finally be time to talk to Zuko about this. Touch base and see what the efforts happening in his classroom look like right now and figure out a way to handle the situation delicately. It definitely doesn’t hurt that this will give Sokka another reason to talk to Zuko. But he’s also definitely not doing it to talk to Zuko. Not at all. With a small smile Sokka decides to speak with him when they inevitably run into each other after the next Physics Club and Drama Club meetings. And there’s no way Sokka is smiling because of that prospect. Not at all.
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Sokka’s grand plan to talk to Zuko after school on Tuesday goes great, or at least it would have if Zuko had shown up like he normally did. After about ten minutes of awkwardly waiting around the back entrance to the school Sokka realizes he has to make a decision. Either leave, or go see if Zuko is still here in his classroom. He decides to go see if Zuko is still here. And it’s still not because he was looking forward to seeing him all day. Not at all.
He finds Zuko still in his classroom, to his relief. Even more to his relief is the fact that Drama Club has indeed finished for the day. He figured it had, but he was still rather nervous about the prospect of entering Zuko’s classroom to find twenty-odd students there. Then they really wouldn’t have been able to get the situation under control.
“Ahem,” Sokka clears his throat to announce his presence to Zuko, who is sitting at a table in a corner with a bunch of books spread out over it. Zuko looks up at him and smiles, and Sokka falters a bit as he walks over to the table. Damn it, he’s supposed to be here to figure out a way to get the students to stop pushing them together, not making his growing crush even worse.
He pulls out a chair across the table from Zuko a bit more forcefully than necessary, eliciting a concerned look from the other man. “Hey,” he says, reaching over to casually pick up one of the books on the table, “Whatcha up to here?”
Zuko sighs, “I’m trying to decide what the fall play should be for the next school year. I want to make a decision in advance so that I can figure out if there’s any permissions needed or weird staging issues I’ll have to take care of.”
“Huh,” Sokka says stupidly, “Nifty.” Zuko gives him an odd look and Sokka’s brain is immediately screaming at him. Nifty? What the hell is wrong with you? Could you sound like more of an ass?
“Yeah,” Zuko responds, turning his attention back to the books surrounding him. “ Nifty .”
Sokka groans. “Sorry, sorry that was- I don’t even know what that was honestly. I actually came to talk to you about something. Ask you something.”
At this Zuko seems to perk up. “What?”
“Have any of your students been acting a bit strangely? Whispering? More than usual I mean.”
“Uh, yeah,” Zuko says, fidgeting awkwardly and seeming a little disappointed about something. “I mean, normally when they have thoughts they shout them for all to hear, but lately they’ve been clumping up in corners. And they’re a bit jumpy when I go try to talk to them about it.”
“I don’t suppose there’s any chance the students pulled you aside for a strange yearbook interview too?” Sokka asks Zuko, bemused.
Zuko frowns. “You know what, actually yes. I was wondering about that. Thought they were just making it up but if they interviewed you too…”
“No, no,” Sokka laughs a bit. “They were definitely making that up. I can smell a bullshit cover story from a mile away. I used to be the king of ‘em in my wayward youth.”
Now Zuko looks confused. “But then what was the point?”
Sokka turns to face Zuko head on, leaning his elbows on the table and interlacing his fingers together. “Well my friend, it would seem they are trying to set us up.”
“Set us up?” Zuko repeats.
“Set us up,” Sokka confirms with a nod.
“Like, together. In a dating sense.”
“Yes, that is how I understand the term and what they are attempting to do,” Sokka drawls. Zuko scratches the back of his head, avoiding Sokka’s gaze. “So,” Sokka continues after a beat of uncomfortable silence, “I figured I should come talk to you, in a mature, adult capacity, to determine a way to handle this .” He makes a vague gesture with his hands on the last word.
“Yeah,” Zuko says, “We should figure out a way to handle this .” He makes the same hand waving gesture as Sokka, causing him to chuckle.
“I’ll readily admit I don’t even know where to begin with this,” Sokka sighs. “They didn’t prepare me for this when I was studying to get my teaching license.”
Zuko laughs and Sokka can’t help the fluttering that starts in his stomach at the wonderful sound. “I mean, as far as I know it’s just some of the juniors,” Zuko muses, “They might get bored and move onto something else more interesting within a few weeks if we just ignore it.”
Sokka shakes his head. “It’s spread out into other classes,” he laments. “My sophomores and seniors are in on it now too. For all I know the freshmen are part of it as well, I don’t have any classes open to them though so I can’t confirm.”
Zuko grimaces. “So ignoring it probably won’t solve the problem.”
“Probably not, no.” They spend another couple minutes sitting in silence, thinking. ‘We could always take the direct approach,” Sokka suggests. “Just tell them outright that we know what they’re up to and to cut it out?”
“Normally I would be on board with that, but I feel like it won’t work here. I know my students at least will deny doing anything like that, and likely just continue with it,” Zuko says. “Plus, if there’s even the smallest chance we’re wrong about this and go that route it would be really, really embarrassing. The administration could get involved.”
Sokka nods along with this, and taps out a rhythm on the table with his hands. “Should we go to the administration about this?” he asks hesitantly, a scrunched look on his face.
They look at each other and both instantly shout “No!”
“Ah, yeah, bad idea, sorry,” Sokka mumbles.
“God,” Zuko laughs, “could you even imagine trying to talk to Principal Feng about that?”
Sokka grimaces, “I’d really rather not, thanks.”
Zuko awkwardly fiddles with the books spread out over the table for a few minutes while Sokka racks his brain to come up with another idea. Well, Sokka already has another idea, but he takes the time to try and come up with a different one. Even that isn’t accurate though. What he’s actually doing is trying to work up the courage to put forth his new idea.
Sokka clears his throat and Zuko’s attention instantly shoots up to him. “Uh, there is another idea I have. Might not be something you want to try but I’m just spitballing here-” Now Sokka is rambling and why can’t his brain work properly around Zuko? “Hear me out, right? We could go out. On a date. Then stage a conversation within earshot of some of the students about the date and how it didn’t work out. Then they’d have to leave us alone. In theory.”
“Huh,” Zuko says, nodding his head slightly. “A date?”
“Yes,” Sokka says nervously. This doesn’t even really count as him asking Zuko out, so why is his heart racing so much?
“And then we say it didn’t go well so the students will get off our case?”
“Yep.”
“But,” Zuko looks down at the table and blushes, “what if it did go well?”
Huh. Huh. Something clicks into place in Sokka’s brain and he adopts a sly grin. “Then I guess we’d have to figure out a new plan from there.”
“How about that,” Zuko responds drily, something like a smirk of his own playing on his lips.
“How about that,” Sokka says, making eye contact with Zuko. How about that indeed.
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Some very interesting rumors begin making the rounds at Ba Sing Se High School over the next few months.
Nelly will tell anyone who listens about how she saw Mr. Sokka and Mr. Zuko holding hands while leaving the school building one day.
Shu swears Mr. Sokka and Mr. Zuko were in the same showing as him for a movie last weekend.
Ricardo thinks he might have spotted them having dinner at that fancy Italian restaurant downtown one time while doing some shopping with his mom.
And Marigold insists that they were the ones she saw kissing out on one of those boat rentals available at the lake in the park.
Yes , Sokka thinks from where he sits in the staff room holding hands with Zuko during their shared free second period. He grins into his mug as he hears the conversations passing by in the hallways, those sure are some very interesting rumors.