Little Miss Perfect | Neteyam¹

Chapter 14: Tag, You're It

Kiri untangled her arms and legs from Marali and looked at her sister confused.

Why was she waking Marali last? Kiri thought to herself. Then she looked to see the evil grin on her sister's lips, and she chuckled to herself. Tuk innocently walked over to Marali and slowly brought her face to the girl in front of her.

"Mara!" She whispered shouted. The girl didn't receive much of a response other than Marali turning her head to face the opposite direction, so Tuk decided to try again. "Marali!" She whispered-shouted again. Marali softly groaned in response and whispered something, but Tuk didn't understand what she was saying.

"Mara, you better get up, or I'm going to jump on you." Tuk threatened. The teen still didn't budge, so Tuk stood up and backed into one of the corners of the pod, preparing for take off. She burst into a sprint, and then she heard Marali's voice, "Tuk Tuk, don't even think about it." Marali says with her eyes still closed. Tuk skidded to a stop but lost her balance and fell on the teen below her.

Marali opened her eyes to glare at the little girl on top of her, who was beaming at the teen with a toothy grin. "I'm going to get you." She whispered, bringing her face closer to Tuk's. Tuk squealed in excitement and quickly jumped away from the girl, planning her escape.

Everyone watched the scene in amusement as Tuk and Marali weaved in between them. Marali yelled out to Tuk that she would tickle her when she caught her. Tuk quickly ran out of the pod and stopped when she ran into someone who caused her to fall. When she looked up, she saw Tsireya, Ao'nung, and Rotxo looking at her, confused.

"Don't think you can hide from me, Tuk Tuk!" Marali shouted, giggling as she continued to chase her friend. She abruptly stopped when she saw the Metkayina teens cheekily smiling at her, even Ao'nung. She glared at the boy but decided not to say anything, instead remembering why she walked out of the pod in the first place.

Marali looked around to see if Tuk had been hiding behind the teens. She was right as she could see Tuk hiding behind Ao'nung as she giggled to herself. "Tuk, you know I can see you, right?" Marali said as she slowly made her way to the girl. Tuk burst into laughter as she jumped out from behind Ao'nung and sprinted back into the Mauri pod right past Marali.

The teen girl stalked back into the pod with the Metkayina teens right behind her. Tuk had found a new hiding place behind Neteyam, believing that he would protect her from the tickle monster.

Neteyam, however, stepped aside and pushed the girl towards Marali. Little Tuk looked at her brother in utter betrayal as he just sent her to her death. Marali smirked and sent a wink to Neteyam before attacking Tuk with her fingers, tickling her until her fingers started to hurt.

~~~~

All of the teens and Tuk made their way to the beach as Tsireya explained the game to them. It was essentially the game they all used to play back home called tag, except for the fact that they would be playing underwater instead of above. Besides them playing underwater, there was only one other difference.

They played in teams.

"Okay, so what are the teams going to be?" Tsireya asked, stopping at the edge of the beach right before the water hit her feet.

"I want to be with Rotxo." Kiri shrugged, and Rotxo shyly nodded, a slight blush growing on his cheeks. Marali thought it was cute that he developed a little crush on the girl, and Kiri seemed to tolerate him enough.

"I, I uh, want to be with Lo'ak," Tsireya said. Marali snorted at Lo'ak's reaction, receiving a glare from the boy in return.

"I- I um," Ao'nung paused nervously before looking at Tsireya, who gave him a nod of encouragement. "I want to be with Tuk." He said. No one said anything for a few minutes, and Marali could tell that the boy's nerves were eating him alive. Tuk looked at him as she latched herself onto Neteyam's arm. The little girl looked around at everyone's reactions to see all of them stiff, and it made her feel bad for the boy.