Little Miss Perfect | Neteyam¹

Chapter 10: Cuts and Bruises

"Oh, another four-fingered freak." Ao'nung mocked, clearly trying to rile Lo'ak up.

He's asking for a fight.

"Look at his baby tail." One of the boys said, laughing as they pulled on Lo'ak's tail. Lo'ak turned around and pushed him, trying to get all of the boys to back off. The Omatikaya teens were outnumbered by the Metkayina.

The boys got closer to Lo'ak, Kiri, and Marali. Marali was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic at how close they were getting. She felt trapped.

"Leave us alone!" Kiri pleaded, hating all of the attention on her.

"I'm going to ask all of you one and one time only," Marali announced, drawing all the attention onto her. "Please back off before I do something I probably won't regret."

Ao'nung and his friends looked at the girl with a smirk, not believing that she could do something to harm any of them. Kiri and Lo'ak knew, though, by the way, their lips slowly lifted into a smile. Ao'nung took a step toward the girl, trying to intimidate her, but she gave him a bored look.

"I'd like to see you try and do something, Mari." He said, using the nickname he knew she didn't like coming from his mouth. Marali hissed at the boy, feeling it was fair to give him one last warning before she kicked his ass.

Everyone was at a standstill while they all waited for someone to make the first move. Neteyam was on the beach also, just sitting on the rocks thinking. He had seen the boys approach the girls, but he dismissed it, thinking that Ao'nung and his friends were finally starting to warm up to them. Then he saw Lo'ak approach the group of teens and get in Ao'nung's face. He saw how tense his brother and Marali were.

When he saw Marali hiss at the boy, he finally knew that enough was enough. He quickly got up and made his way over to the group, anger present on his features. No one picked on his siblings or Marali and got away with it.

Neteyam roughly grabbed Ao'nung's shoulders, forcing the boy to take a step back away from Marali. This caught everyone's attention, and all of the harassment stopped.

"You heard what she said. Leave them alone." Neteyam urged authority laced through his voice as he pointed a finger at Ao'nung's chest.

"Ah, big brother coming to-," He was stopped as Ao'nung held up his arm, signaling him to keep quiet.

"Back off. Now." He grits out, pushing the boy slightly with his finger.

Ao'nung looked at the boy as if he were contemplating his words and what decision he should make before stepping back with his arms up in surrender.

"Smart choice. And from now on, I need you to respect my sister. And Mari."

Marali smiled when Neteyam stuck up for her. It made her heart feel full to hear the boy she had a crush on sticking up for her. She saw one of the boys hiss at Neteyam and she fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"Mari? I thought you said your friends called you Mara." Ao'nung said before the realization hit him. "Oh, I get it. You have a crush on Neteyam, and that's why he's only allowed to call you Mari." Ao'nung teased, and when he saw the shock flash across the girl's face, he knew he had been right.

She looked at Neteyam to see he already had been looking at her, an indescribable emotion on his face.

"Let's go," Neteyam said, not bringing up what had just been revealed to the group. He knew it wasn't true that the girl had a crush on him, so why bring it up?

Kiri stuck her tongue out to the boys, resulting in a small giggle escaping from her friend's lips. Neteyam pat Lo'ak on the head, urging his brother to move. He gave Marali a look, and she quickly diverted her eyes to anything else but him.