After throwing some clothes at him and telling him to change, Beifong placed the rest of the stuff Fei needed onto his Futon.

"Hurry up, kid, we don't have all day." She said flatly.

For the first time, Lin Beifong got a good look at Fei. 

'He could honestly be a model or something with a face like that, those amber eyes are also nice. Can't say I'm not jealous." 

"Alright, I'm ready to go. Also, how much do I need to pay you for rent and the stuff you bought me?"

Beifong chose to ignore him and began leaving the house. Fei Long decided to drop the question and quickly followed after her. This time, they got a taxi to their destination: Golden Pillar Academy.

Pulling up to the front gate, the taxi driver waved them goodbye as he sped off to his favorite spot to pick up passengers in need. 

"Wait a second, he didn't even ask for money?" Fei thought out loud.

"You got me, half the drivers in Republic City owe me big time, so I get a bunch of rides for free." A small smirk could be seen on her face.

"That's mighty… convenient." 

"Sure is! Now hurry up, there's still time!" She said, surprisingly chipper.

"Time for what?"

"Class ya doofus, what else are you gonna do at a school?" She said as they started walking towards the main office of the school. 

The school itself was quite grand. There were many pillars with intricate patterns, with a general earth kingdom aesthetic, yet more extravagant. Marble with gold veins running through it extravagant. Along the edges of the building were neatly trimmed bushes. One could tell this place was pretty wealthy.

Barging into the main office and ignoring the panicking receptionist, they marched right into the Headmaster's office, interrupting his calm and peaceful breakfast muffin. 

"Oi Luo, register this kid for me, will ya. He's turning 16 this Fall."

"Lin… the term has already started, and-" The slightly chubby man called Luo started before he was cut off. 

"It seems like you didn't hear me the first time. Register this kid for me, will ya?" This time, Lin added some extra force to her voice, furthering the fear that was accumulating in the man's heart.

"A-ah yes, right away!" 

After leaving Luo to sort things out, Beifong took Fei out to the hall again. She placed her hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes.

"You can do this, kid." She said with a serious tone. "For some reason, I believe in you."

Seeing as this is the first time in a long time Fei Long had received somewhat genuine kindness, he didn't know how to react and as the body's natural reaction to things unfamiliar, tears began to well up in his eyes. 

"I won't let you down!" Fei affirmed.

To this, Lin Beifong only smiled and patted his head. 

"Also, try not to injure anyone too bad… the paperwork's a pain, got it?"

"Okay" 

Shortly after that exchange, Luo showed up with a uniform, which just so happened to fit perfectly. Lin took the headmaster to the side to explain Fei's situation to Luo. After a brief look of fear, Beifong's reassurance calmed him down. After taking Fei's spare clothes, Lin gave a small wave and left to go back to work.

Luo took this time to brief Fei on what to do and what not to do in school, making sure he didn't cause that much of a disturbance during the day.

After asking if he was hungry, Luo gave him a muffin to eat and told him to wait for school to start. 

And so he waited. Eventually the time rolled around, and the clock rung out, signaling the start of the day.

During the home room time, Fei Long was introduced to the class by the teacher and instantly garnered a bunch of different looks from his classmates. Some were curious, some were friendly, and some were just wicked.

Taking his seat at the back of the class, he promptly fell asleep. The teachers were told not to disturb him, but apparently the memo did not reach the students. Some genius even thought up the bright idea of setting his pants on fire.

Fei immediately woke up and extinguished the flame. Taking one look around the room, he decided to pay attention. The teacher was going on about some historical events, practically fangirling for team avatar.

Hearing about their adventures, he had a small urge to have one of his own.  The teacher was getting more and more animated as she went on, at the end looking close to a crazed finatic.

Around midday, a bell rung and the students got up for lunch. 

A group of rough looking students approached Fei's seat.

"Hey new guy, why don't you come sit with us?" A kid with an obnoxious voice suggested. "I'm Liu Gai, the strongest in the class. I'll be… taking care of you from now on." Malice seeped out from his words.

Fei had encountered many people like this in his life. Looking around, most were looking on with pity, as they too were once in his position. Knowing this, none of them stepped up in protest.

"Thanks."

Upset at such a response, although it was a perfectly normal response, Liu grabbed Fei's collar and pulled him up. In response to this, Fei decided to go as limp as a sack of potatoes, throwing the other kid off balance. In a flash, Fei Long smacked the kid's hand away from his collar and swept his feet, leading him to crash down on the desk while Fei Long simply plopped back into his seat.

Absolutely fuming, Liu Gai stammered, "Just you wait until bending class, I'll pay you back for what you did to me!"

To this, him and his gang left the room. The students remaining in the classroom looked shocked, but they knew that this new kid was probably going to get crushed later. 

Looking at the paper schedule the headmaster had given him, Fei realized that bending class had the most time allotted to it. Following the signs, he made it downstairs, to the bending room. Inside was an arena, similar to the ones he'd seen on TV, during the pro bending season.

Seeing as no one was around, Fei decided to start working on his form. One would think he was doing some weird water bending, except for the fact that water typically didn't look orange and fiery. Reaching the end of his set, Fei realized that he was still missing something for the last move, as he had been for the last few years. 

Deciding to take a break, he sat to the side and thought to himself. More and more people arrived, but they were in actual practice gear.

"What's wrong, new kid? Mommy too poor to buy you a practice set? If you get her to beg me, I'd be more than happy to help out!" 

For the first time in a while, Fei felt anger. Seeing as he never knew his mom, the only one to show any kind of affection to him was Beifong, and for that kid to unknowingly insult her, that sparked yet another flame inside.

"If you want to be able to move tomorrow, leave now." Fei spat.

Liu Gai only laughed with his goons, confident he would crush this kid.

When the teacher arrived, he was sipping a cup of steaming tea.

"Sorry class, some one forgot to put my kettle on when I asked them. Since you already know what I teach, let us skip right to sparring." Said the old looking man with a potbelly. "Who wants to go first?"

"Me and my good friend over here wish to fight!" Liu said while grinning.

"Alright then, take your places." 

As they got to opposite sides of the court, Fei Long knew he couldn't go all out. That didn't mean he couldn't crush this kid in front of him .

"Ready? Begin!"

Fei started off slow, waiting for Liu to attack, which didn't take long. Liu Gai sent stone plate after stone plate at Fei, the latter expertly dodging them. Finally, one plate looked like it slipped through Fei's defenses, breaking apart on his chest due to the force, but Fei barely reacted to it, not even getting pushed back and inch.

Angered, Liu Gai started using larger rock chunks, to which Fei started using his bending to kick and redirect the rocks. Seeing as all of his attacks were unsuccessful, Liu Gai used the metal plates inside his gear to immobilize his foe.

Unfortunately for him, Fei had enough at this point. He sent wave after wave of flowing fire, coupled with more traditional direct blasts, gradually speeding up until there was nowhere for his opponent to stand. If his opponent wasn't panicking, he probably would have bent a wall up to protect from the waves at least.

"Uh… okay, let's move on to team fights, hurry along and divide yourselves into teams of three." The teacher said with anticipation in his eyes.

"Fei, please be on my team!"

"Hey new guy, help us out!" 

"You have to team up with us!"

Almost everyone wanted to team up with the new kid after his display of power. Almost everyone. Liu's gang, of course, was staring daggers at him. Besides them, a few others didn't seem to care, or were too afraid to ask.

Fei decided to join a random team, not even caring about their names. As their matches went on, he was instantly targetted by the entire opposing team, yet walls of fire kept them at bay. The other two were free to keep hurling things at the enemies, slowly whittling down their numbers.

"That was great! We should go to a real arena and register as a team!"

"Yeah we should! Let's go right after school."

Despite slightly wanting to fight more, Fei flatly refused. "Sorry, I have things to do."