Shooting Stars | Lo'ak¹

Chapter 18: Beads

"Why do you have to pull so hard?" Ja'lia whined, causing Neytiri to roll her eyes.

"All of you are babies," Neytiri sighed, gripping a new section of Ja'lia's hair.

"Well, sorry that I don't want my hair ripped out of my skull," The girl grumbled, and everyone around the pod tried to stifle their laughter when Neytiri lightly pulled on Ja'lia's hair in retaliation for her words.

Tuk sat by the girl's side with her face in her hand as she gazed down at Ja'lia's beads. Ja'lia had always worn the same ones, and they all either represented things that she had accomplished back home, or they were gifted to her by people she cared about. The teen girl even had a feather that represented her closeness to Neytiri as all of the Sully children also had a feather gifted to them by their mother.

"Which beads are from Lo'ak?" Tuk voiced her thoughts.

The pod was silent as Ja'lia glanced up to see that Lo'ak was already looking at her. When she saw his eyes on her, she flushed in embarrassment because she had lost the beads that Lo'ak had given her.

It's not like she meant to lose them, in fact, Ja'lia wasn't even the one to misplace them, it had been her mother who lost them. Ja'lia's mother and father tore their home apart in search of their daughter's beads, but they didn't find them, even after hours of searching. When her parents broke the news to her, she had been heartbroken, and she wanted to tell Lo'ak, but she couldn't bring herself to do so.

Although, it's not like it was hard to keep it a secret from Lo'ak. He'd never been the most observant, so when she saw Lo'ak the first day after she lost the beads, and he didn't say anything, she had been thankful.

"I um, I lost them," Ja'lia said quietly.

"You what?" Lo'ak asked in disbelief.

Ja'lia swallowed the lump in her throat as she lifted her head to look Lo'ak in the eye, "One time when my mom was braiding my hair, she misplaced the beads you gave me, and we weren't able to find them," She explained.

"Why didn't you tell me? I could have made you new ones," Lo'ak informed.

"I thought you would have been mad," Ja'lia sighed.

"They're just beads, Lia. I'll go make you some new ones," Lo'ak hopped up to go find the proper materials to make Ja'lia some new beads so that she always carried him with her.

"Can I come with?" Tuk shouted, running after her brother who had already left.

Neytiri shook her head with a smile on her face because she was happy that, for once, her children were getting along with each other. Especially since it was a rare occurrence in the Sully household because, with four kids, there was bound to be fighting.

The fights usually happened between Lo'ak and Kiri, though. Kiri acted like her biological mother, Grace, and Lo'ak definitely acted like Jake. The similarities between Jake and Lo'ak drove Neytiri insane most days, but she wouldn't change it for the world because Lo'ak was her baby.

Neytiri was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard Ja'lia speak to Kiri, "Kiri, what are you doing?" Ja'lia asked curiously.

"I'm making a necklace out of sea shells," Kiri said, furrowing her brows in concentration.

When Ja'lia looked at the necklace Kiri was making, her lips parted in awe because the necklace her friend was making was breathtaking. It had blue, pink, white, and yellow shells of all different shapes and sizes, while also incorporating some pearls that Tsireya had gifted them as a welcoming gift when they first arrived.

"Can you make me one?" She questioned.

Kiri glanced up at the girl who was getting her hair braided, "Do you want me to make it that same way, or do you want something different?" Kiri asked, turning her attention back to her piece of jewelry.