Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past
Bold - sign language
Marali lay peacefully in the water, floating just above the surface next to Kiri. The Sully family and Marali had now been living at the Metkayina clan for two weeks, and at that time, Marali had grown closer with Tsireya and Rotxo. At first, she wasn't sure about getting to know Rotxo, but she pushed her suspicion aside and decided that he was sweet and funny once she got to know him.
The Omatikaya teen had kept her promise to her father and talked to him every day since leaving home behind. It was still hard on her, but it seemed like the longer she was away from home, the less her heart ached when she thought about it.
She was starting to like her new home more than she had anticipated.
As Marali lay in the water, she felt the pull of the ocean, and how the water softly kissed her skin. It was a beautiful day outside. There was a slight breeze, and the sun shined brightly on the girl's blue skin. She was glad that Tsireya had given them the day off to enjoy themselves and explore the village on their own.
Lo'ak had decided to practice riding his ilu, Kiri was right beside her, Tuk was getting her hair braided, much to the girl's dismay, and she had no idea where Neteyam was. He had been avoiding her like the plague after the fight the two had.
The girl continued to let her thoughts drift until she heard the sound of muffled voices. She opened her eyes and tapped Kiri on the shoulder.
It was Ao'nung and his little posse of assholes.
"Huh? What'd you say?" Kiri asked, using Marali's hand as leverage to help herself up.
"Are you some kind of," He paused, looking back at his friends with a smirk, "freak?" Marali sends a death glare to the boy, not liking where this conversation is going.
"He asked if you are a freak," the Rotxo look-alike asked. Kiri shook her head, annoyed at the conversation, as it was one that she'd had before back home. Marali followed Kiri, placing her arm around her shoulder as she roughly nudged one of the boys.
"Are you sure? I mean, you're not even real Na'vi." He asked, now following the girls with his friends right behind him. "Look at these hands. I mean, look at them." Ao'nung then turned his attention to Marali, who was standing beside Kiri, "And you... What are you, her lap dog? You always follow her around like a lost puppy. Did you follow them here because your parents didn't want you?" Ao'nung continued, grabbing a hold of the girl's wrist.
Marali roughly pulled her arm out of his grip and narrowed her eyes at him.
"You better choose your next words very carefully, fish boy," Marali seethed, doing her best to keep her composure. This isn't the girl's first time dealing with bullies. She dealt with them a lot back home. Not only was she bullied, but Lo'ak and Kiri were often picked on as well for not being 'true' Na'vi. It always made her blood boil.
Lo'ak was walking to the beach, looking for his sister and Marali. He wanted to know if they wanted to hang out since they had the day off. They hadn't done anything together in a while. He heard Ao'nung and his group of friends make comments to the girls. Lo'ak looked at Marali and saw how tense she was, then he turned his attention to his sister and saw her nervous behavior.
He had to do something.
"Hey!" Lo'ak yelled, announcing his presence to Ao'nung and his goons. "Back off, fish lips," Lo'ak said, walking in long strides and stopping in front of the boy who was picking on his sisters'.
"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.
"Bye-bye. Look at them. They're all freaks. The whole family. Marali included." The boys mumbled. Their words didn't go unheard, though, as Lo'ak and Marali had stopped in their tracks.
Both teens turned around to face the boys, and Neteyam noticed that his brother's and Marali's movements had stopped. He knew Marali wouldn't hurt anyone, at least he had hoped she wouldn't. His brother on the other hand, always had a short fuse.
"Lo'ak." Neteyam all but scolded. Marali and Kiri gave each other knowing looks, as all of them were aware of Lo'ak's slight anger issues.
"I got this, bro," Lo'ak assured, walking over to the group of boys.
"Lo'ak," Marali warned. She only received a small smirk in return.
Marali let her head fall back as she groaned in frustration. While Neteyam was the warrior, Lo'ak was the protector, always getting into fights to protect those he loved. It was one of the things Marali admired so much about the boy, however, she also thought that he needed to learn to pick and choose his battles.
"I know this hand is funny. Look, I'm a freak. Alien. But it can do something cool. Watch. First, I ball it up real tight like this," Lo'ak said, his hand turning into a fist, and Marali glanced at Kiri in amusement, knowing where this was going. "Okay, and then..." Lo'ak paused before punching Ao'nung three times before the boy fell back onto the sand.
"It's called a punch, bitch. Don't ever touch my sisters again!" Lo'ak yelled, glaring at all of the boys.
Ao'nung quickly recollects himself before tackling Lo'ak to the ground. Lo'ak pushed him off with ease, and as he went for another punch, one of the other boys pulled Lo'ak by the tail. The boy dragged him away as another slapped him in the face with their tail.
Marali stared at the petty fight, trying to hold back her laughter. She really shouldn't have found it funny, but when the boy slapped Lo'ak with his tail, Marali almost lost it. The girl looked over to see Neteyam rubbing the back of his head, annoyed. Neteyam knew something like this was more than likely going to happen, as his brother never knew when to let stuff go.
The boy sighed before smirking, quickly walking off to join his brother in the fight. Neteyam grabbed one of the boys and punched him in the jaw before moving to the next boy, who was quickly approaching him and kneed him in the gut. Marali knew she should help the boys, but she also knew it would be an unfair fight. Not necessarily because she was one of the best warriors back at home, but because she knew that none of those boys would fight back because she's a girl.
"This is so stupid!" Kiri yelled.
Kiri was completely annoyed by the stupidity before her, but her annoyance soon turned to laughter as the fight had taken a different turn.
"Ow! My tail!"
"Ow! My ear!"
The two teenage girls looked at each other, before busting out into laughter. But their laughter soon died down, and Marali knew that she should do something to stop the fight. She was getting ready to step in when she heard a voice that caused the girl to visibly cringe.
"What the hell is going on here?!" A voice yelled. The fighting had ceased and all the boys stood up, stopping their ridiculous fight. Marali slowly turned around and waved at Jake with an anxious smile on her face.
I'm so screwed. Marali thought to herself.
~~~~
Jake nudged the three teens into the tent before he quickly looked outside to make sure that no one else was around, turning his attention back to his sons and Marali.
"What was the one thing I asked? The one thing." Jake says, balling his hands into fists and then releasing as a way to calm himself down.
"Stay out of trouble," Lo'ak mumbled.
"Stay out of trouble. Right."
"It was my fault," Neteyam said, taking a step between his father and brother as a way to shield Lo'ak. Marali softly brushed her tail up and down Lo'ak's back to comfort him. It was something she always did when Lo'ak was getting yelled at if she was present.
"I don't think so. You have to stop taking the heat for this knucklehead." Jake said harshly, glaring at his youngest son.
"Dad, Ao'nung was picking on Kiri and Marali. He called them freaks." Lo'ak says, trying to make his father understand why he did what he did.
Jake looked at Marali.
"Listen. All I'm going to say is those skxawngs are lucky I didn't join in the fight." Marali said, rolling her eyes. Jake clenched and unclenched his jaw, processing everything Lo'ak and Marali just said. He knew how protective those two were of Kiri. If someone had called any of his family a freak in front of him, he probably would have had the same reaction as his son.
"Go apologize to Ao'nung," Jake ordered, causing Marali's jaw to drop.
Jake knew it was unfair to make his son apologize to Ao'nung. After all, he was only defending his family, but that was the Chief's son, and they had to be on their best behavior.
"What?" Lo'ak asked in disbelief.
"How could you-" Marali was cut off by Jake giving her a warning look.
"He's the Chief's son. Do you understand? I don't care how you do it. Just make peace. Go!" Jake said, urging his son to apologize. Marali watched as Lo'ak walked out of the pod, shaking his head, probably muttering something about how it was ridiculous that he had to apologize.
Neteyam and Marali went to follow Lo'ak, but Jake stopped them.
"Hey. How'd the other guys look?" Jake asks. Marali smirked at the question.
"Worse," the boy said, looking at Marali to back him up.
"A lot worse." She added, her smirk still present on her face.
"Good. Go get patched up." Jake said. Neteyam looked at his father and then at Marali before making his way out of the pod. The girl stood with one hand over the other as she rocked back and forth on the heels of her feet.
"So," Marali said awkwardly, looking at the man in front of her.
"I need you to follow Lo'ak. Watch over him while he apologizes to Ao'nung." Jake said, glancing at Marali as if he was unsure of whether or not he should continue. "I don't trust him not to pull some sick prank on my son."
"Okay. I'll go find Lo'ak and follow him from a distance." The girl said.
"Here, take this with you," Jake said, handing the girl a communicative device to put around her neck. "If anything happens, you call me. Got it?" He ordered, giving the girl a pointed look.
"Yes, sir."
"I mean it, Marali. Anything happens, you call me and I'll come find you." Jake said, repeating himself.
"I understand, Jake. But if you want me to follow Lo'ak, I really should be going." Marali nodded, looking out past Jake, briefly seeing Lo'ak silhouette.
"Okay, go on. Dismissed." Jake said, finally giving the girl permission to leave. That's all it took before Marali bolted past him and dove into the water, calling her ilu as she did so.
I hope everything goes well. Jake thought to himself.
Unedited. 05/18/23
Edited. 07/18/23
Word Count: 2,546