Little Miss Perfect | Neteyam¹

Chapter 23: Caught

He scowled at her as he quickly followed behind her to match her pace. "You are such a tease," Neteyam mumbled. The girl looked at him with a smirk. "It's not my fault you are so gullible." She said, and Neteyam's scowl deepened as they continued to walk back to the pod.

"When do you want me to tell you how I feel?" She asked as she looked over at the boy, who was frowning from her previous words. "In a couple of days. I think my ego will have recovered from your teasing by then." He muttered.

She laughed at his dramatics and told him she would tell him how she felt in two days.

After that, the two teens walked in silence the rest of the way back to the pod. It wasn't necessarily an awkward silence, but it was tense as neither of them knew what to say to each other.

Once they made it back to the pod, Marali went to sit beside Kiri and Tuk, who were talking about how much they enjoyed the party. Jake and Neytiri were sitting next to each other, and Lo'ak was nowhere to be found.

"Mara! You're back." Tuk cheered.

Marali smiled at the young girl as she placed herself between the two sisters.

"Where did you run off to?" Kiri said as she gave the girl a questioning look. "I'll tell you later," Marali said, dismissing the question.

Kiri looked like she wanted to say something else, but she decided to let it go as she knew Marali would confide in her when she was ready. There was no sense in Kiri forcing the girl to tell her something when she wasn't ready.

Eventually, Lo'ak came back with the biggest smile on his face, and Marali looked at him with a smirk. "Where were you?" Jake asked his youngest son.

"I was with Tsireya," Lo'ak said.

All three teens looked at each other smugly, before they looked at Lo'ak who was still smiling and looking as if he was in a daze. "Did you finally tell Tsireya that you like her?" Tuk asks, hopeful.

Lo'ak flushes at his younger sister's question, and Kiri and Marali snort at his reaction.

"Tuk." Neytiri scolds.

"What? It's not like we all didn't know." Tuk said, shrugging her shoulders.

Jake looked at his daughter, confused. "I didn't know." He said.

"How did you not know?" Marali asked, shocked.

"Lo'ak didn't make his feelings obvious," Jake muttered as all eyes were on him.

Tuk looked at her dad and rolled her eyes, "Lo'ak's feelings for Tsireya are as obvious as Kiri's feelings for Rotxo." Tuk deadpanned.

Kiri looked down in embarrassment as her little sister, once again, exposed her feelings to her family. Marali tried to stifle her laughter but ultimately failed.

"What do you mean Kiri's feelings for Rotxo? Do Rotxo and I need to have a little talk?" Jake questioned, raising an eyebrow. The girl's head immediately shot up, and she quickly shot down the idea that Jake would talk with him.

After Kiri shut down Jake's offer to talk to Rotxo, Neytiri told the children that they needed to get ready for bed.

All the kids rolled out their mattresses and laid down as they tried to fall asleep. Eventually, Marali could feel the slow movements of Tuk's breathing as the youngest child used her chest as a pillow. The girl's mind was racing with thoughts, and she knew she would need to stay up a little longer to clear her head.

She focused on the noises around the pod to see who else was sleeping.

Once she felt that everyone was soundly asleep, she gently removed Tuk's head from her chest and got up.