#todayposting

The first day of school! Staff and students alike settle into new routines. Tahu begins his new teaching placement. Gali and Lewa wrangle the newest group of kindergartners. Onua takes his class to the library. Kopaka and Pohatu switch classes for an hour.

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While supervising his class taking a test, Kopaka "hallucinates" a hole in the wall between his and Tahu's classrooms. This disturbs him, but he brushes it off when Pohatu stops by to ask if they can switch their trade period. He ends up agreeing to teach his own gym class, and becomes flustered when Pohatu jokingly refers to meeting up for lunch as a date. At lunch, they discuss Kopaka's students, and afterwards Pohatu can't stop thinking about Kopaka, having realized he's fallen in love with him. Going to the office to get some printing, he discusses it a little with Vakama, who encourages him to be forthright with his feelings before freezing up and demanding he go to the gym immediately. On arrival, he realizes a light fixture is going to crash down on Kopaka and tackles him out of the way just in time. That evening, Kopaka is confused by his feelings about Pohatu and concludes that something is wrong with him.

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It's New Year's Eve! There are two parties happening simultaneously: Pohatu's New Year's party with the Toa and Takua's birthday sleepover. Kopaka tries to wallflower, but Gali via Lewa convinces him to come mingle. Takua's mom wonders if him inviting Hahli as the only girl at the sleepover is awkward for her, and Takua can't understand why. A storm is starting to brew outside. Gali asks if Tahu is planning on driving back to Ta-Koro in it, and pretends to not be disappointed when he says he's sleeping on Pohatu's couch because she wanted to offer hers again. She also asks Kopaka if he's going home in this weather, and he brushes off her concern. During the countdown to midnight, Tahu and Gali almost kiss, but right at midnight everything goes completely dark.

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Kopaka is reading crime fiction in an attempt to get a better understanding of romantic relationships from the romance subplot when he gets a text from Pohatu asking if he wants to hang out tomorrow. He agrees to before remembering that it's Valentine's day tomorrow. He convinces himself that Pohatu is just asking him to spend time together as friends, but gets increasingly flustered at the idea of spending Valentine's with Pohatu. Meanwhile, Pohatu is giddy at finally properly asking Kopaka out and hoping that by the end of the day tomorrow he will have been able to finally confess his feelings.

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After school, Gali runs into Tahu sitting by himself in the staff room, failing to assemble a fidget chair and swearing about it because the only directions he has are in French. She offers to help and finds the English instructions for him. The two of them wind up chatting and bonding a bit, and Gali agrees to let Takua come help out in her class sometimes. Her health soon takes a turn for the worse and Tahu drives her home. The next day, Tahu shows up at her place with a pot of homemade soup.

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Nokama worries over their new Toa and reflects that there didn't seem to be any new movements by Makuta over the weekend. She has a meeting with Helryx, the director of the school board, and superintendents Axonn and Brutaka. Helryx promises more support, but warns Nokama that if situations continue to escalate she'll be forced to step in. Nokama gives Gali a pep talk and Tahu advice about Ahkmou's behaviour. After talking to Takua, she comes to the conclusion that he knows more about what happened in the gym than he's saying (and he's very bad at hiding it). The new school therapist shows up, and after minimal prodding reveals herself to be Krahka, a shape-shifting menace ally of the Turaga who they met when they were Toa.

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Matau offers Lewa a ride home from work, but he declines, preferring to walk since it's a nice day. He thinks about his powers and how he wishes he could use them all the time to just go soaring over the trees. He hears a child screaming for help from in the woods and goes running off to find them, using his wind powers to help. Eventually, he finds a circle of dead trees with a stone mask in the middle. The mask attacks him with living shadows, slamming him to the ground and knocking him unconscious.

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Lewa and Onua chat about how much Lewa likes yard duty because he likes to be outside. After, Lewa climbs up to rescue a student who's gotten stuck at the top of the kindergarten climber. He manages to get her, but in the process falls off the roof. Just before he hits the ground, a burst of air picks him up and drops him again, knocking the wind out of him but leaving both him and the student unharmed. Onewa and Nokama chew him out for his recklessness.

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