Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past
Bold - sign language
After Jake and Neytiri talked to Tonowari and Ronal, the two Metkayina parents permitted both of their children to ride the ikrans and learn some customs of the Omatikaya people. The Sully children also wanted Rotxo to go with them, so the Tsahik and Olo'eyktan volunteered to talk to Rotxo's grandmother for the Sully family because she can get confused sometimes.
Thankfully, Rotxo's grandmother allowed him to join the group, and now the Sully children and Ja'lia were waiting for everyone to show up. Tsireya and Rotxo seemed extremely excited to try new things, while Ao'nung seemed pissed off that his parents were forcing him to join the group.
Ja'lia didn't understand why Ao'nung was acting the way he was because she thought they were becoming friends, but when he showed up at the place they were supposed to meet at with a scowl on his face and his arms crossed, her hope deflated.
"Come on, Ao'nung. It'll be fun," Ja'lia tried to persuade.
The boy merely rolled his eyes, and the rest of the group's annoyance with him continued to grow. "If you want to leave, go ahead. No one is stopping you," Lo'ak grumbled.
"No, because if I leave, Tsireya will snitch on me," He snapped, and Tsireya looked down at the ground.
"There's no need to be rude," Ja'lia said, trying to diffuse the growing tension.
Lo'ak and Ao'nung seemed to have a stare-down, while Neteyam, Kiri, and Ja'lia called their ikrans while keeping an eye on the two boys.
"I didn't want to do this in the first place," Ao'nung said.
"Then don't. Don't ruin everyone else's time because you want to be a prick," Lo'ak gritted out before calling his ikran.
The Metkayina boy went to take a step forward, but Rotxo and Ja'lia stopped him while Ja'lia pulled him off to the side to talk with him, "What's your problem?" She whisper-shouted.
"I don't want to be here," Ao'nung shrugged.
Ja'lia rolled her eyes, "I thought we were past your bullshit, Ao'nung,"
"I have better things to do than learn your ways," He informed.
"Obviously, you don't if your parents gave you permission to be here," She fired back, and the boy went to say something but closed his mouth when he couldn't come up with a response.
Once Ao'nung decided to stop pouting like a child, everyone went to who they were riding their ikrans with. Tsireya was with Neteyam. Rotxo was with Kiri, and Ao'nung was with Ja'lia, much to Lo'ak's dismay. Ao'nung was originally supposed to be with Lo'ak, however, after much debate, everyone decided it was a bad idea.
Those two boys did not get along with each other, and it wasn't exactly a secret. Although Lo'ak did claim he could push his distaste to the side if Ao'nung didn't have to ride with Ja'lia, his idea was immediately shot down.
This was going to be the first time the Metkayina teens were riding on an ikran, and no one wanted them to have a bad experience.
"Is everyone ready?" Neteyam asked.
"Ready!" The other three Omatikaya teens shouted.
"Let's go!" Neteyam yelled, and once he was off the ground, Tsireya's squeezed her eyes shut.
Both Kiri and Ja'lia came off the ground at the same time, and the two boys that were behind them let out high-pitched screams. Ja'lia tried to hold back her snort, but she eventually failed as Ao'nung clung tighter and tighter onto her as they continued to fly above the ground.
She turned around to see that his eyes were tightly closed, and Ja'lia was going to say something, but Lo'ak beat her to it, "Hey, fish boy! Stop being a baby, and open your eyes!" He teased, and Ao'nung wanted to refuse; but he didn't want to seem weak.
So, he slowly opened his eyes and gasped when he saw how high above the ground they were.
"This is awesome!" Rotxo said in excitement. Tsireya immediately agreed, and Ao'nung kept quiet as he was too afraid to speak. "What do you think, Ao'nung?" Ja'lia asked as she kept her eyes on the sky in front of her.
"It's uh, it's definitely a sight to see," He gulped as he realized that he had a serious fear of heights.
"I'm glad that you think so because we have something to show you guys," Lo'ak smirked, and Ja'lia furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at him. Lo'ak shot down almost at a ninety-degree angle on his ikran, and Kiri and Neteyam dove after him as Tsireya and Rotxo cheered.
"Woohoo!" The Metkayina teens yelled in laughter.
Ja'lia wanted to do it; but she didn't want to scare Ao'nung.
"Don't even think about it, Lia," He mumbled, and the girl was left with two options.
Either continue to fly at the same level she was or dive after the rest of her friends.
"Live a little, Ao'nung," She said, smiling at the boy behind her.
"What does that- AHHHHH!" Ao'nung screamed as Ja'lia directed Tarya to fly down towards the water.
Ja'lia smiled as she felt the wind hit her skin, and the sun beat down on her face. She was having more fun than she thought she would when she decided to move with the Sully family. As she neared the water, Ja'lia pulled on Tarya's reigns to let her know to pull up so that they didn't go into the water.
Eventually, Tarya leveled out, and Ja'lia told Ao'nung to open his eyes once more.
"You can open your eyes," She said with a laugh.
"I'm going to kill you," Ao'nung grumbled.
"Don't be such a wuss. It was fun," Ja'lia nudged his shoulder.
"If you call almost dying fun, then yes, it was fun," He said sarcastically, causing Ja'lia to roll her eyes. Soon, Ja'lia landed on the beach with the rest of the Sully children, and she didn't even come to a complete stop before Ao'nung hopped off and stormed away.
Everyone watched as he walked away, and Tsireya came up beside Ja'lia, "I guess he didn't enjoy it then, huh?" She asked, and Ja'lia shook her head with a small smile on her face.
"Well, at least we tried," Neteyam said.
"Yeah, maybe if he wants to do it again, we'll try not to dive like maniacs," Kiri said, shooting Lo'ak a look.
"What? I was just trying to give him the full Omatikaya experience," Lo'ak shrugged, and Ja'lia snorted as she walked over to him a slung an arm around his shoulders. "You're a little evil. I hope you know that" Ja'lia informed, and Lo'ak proudly nodded his head.
"We should probably head back. It's almost dinner time," Tsireya said, and Ja'lia and Kiri's eyes widened.
"Shit," They both whispered before bursting into a sprint, leaving the rest of the group confused.
The two teen girls had promised Tuk that they would start working on a new outfit for her today, but they got distracted by giving the Metkayina teens a ride on their ikrans. Tuk had been wanting the both of them to make her a new outfit for weeks, but with all of the training they had to do, they didn't have any time. Which is why when they were granted this break, they told Tuk her outfit would be done by tomorrow night, and they hadn't even started working on it yet.
"So, I guess we won't be eating dinner tonight?" Kiri said, and Ja'lia frowned when she realized it was probably the truth.
They raced to the Mauri pod and immediately got to work as Kiri worked on Tuk's top, and Ja'lia worked on her bottoms.
Tuk had been quite demanding in her request for a new outfit. She wanted it to be a mixture of Omatikaya styles and Metkayina styles, so Kiri and Ja'lia asked Tsireya for some of her old outfits to see the designs so that they could mimic them.
"This is going to be a long night," Ja'lia groaned.
~~~~
Ja'lia and Lo'ak had decided to take a walk since it was a nice day at the Metkayina clan. It was warm, but there was a soft breeze that took away from the heat of the Sun. This was the last day of their break before they resumed training tomorrow, and the two teens were going to make the most of it. Even though, Ja'lia was up half of the night working on Tuk's new outfit.
She was almost finished with it, but she realized that halfway through the design of the skirt, she forgot to incorporate some sea shells, so she had to undo half of her progress.
"Are you okay?" Lo'ak asked, concerned.
"Yeah, but I was up half the night working on your sister's clothes," She yawned.
"You could have told Tuk no," Lo'ak said, and Ja'lia rolled her eyes.
"It's fine, Lo'ak. Besides, once she sees the outfit, her reaction will have made my sleepless night worth it," Ja'lia said.
The teen boy was about to say something, but a certain voice pulled him away from his sentence; he whipped his head around to see what was going on.
"Look at these hands. I mean, look at them," Ao'nung said, and Ja'lia saw him try to grab Kiri's hand.
"Hey!" Lo'ak yelled, and Ja'lia tried to stop him from going over there without her. "Lo'ak, don't do anything stupid," She warned. The Omatikaya boy didn't even look at her as he stormed toward Kiri and Ao'nung, "Back off, fish lips," He yelled, and Ja'lia quickly followed after him, standing in front of Kiri protectively.
"Oh, look, another four-fingered freak," Ao'nung mocked, causing Ja'lia to let a hiss escape her lips. "And you? Why do you hang out with them? They aren't even Na'vi," Ao'nung said, and Ja'lia continued to glare up at him as he towered over her.
"They are Na'vi. You're just too much of an asshole to see past your pathetic behavior," She snapped, and the Metkayina boys started to circle the group of Omatikaya teens. "Look at his baby tail," One said, pulling at Lo'ak's tail.
Lo'ak turned around and pushed the boy away from him as the Metkayina boys continued to close in on them. "Leave us alone!" Kiri begged, however, no one listened to hear.
"Ao'nung, you and your posse of jackasses better back off, or it's going to get ugly," Ja'lia threatened, and all the boys smirked at her.
"What are you going to do? Run and tell your mommy?" Ao'nung teased, and Ja'lia froze. "Oh, wait. That's right. She's dead, and so is your Daddy," He sneered, and Kiri and Lo'ak had to hold Ja'lia back from pouncing on him.
"Let me go!" Ja'lia said, fighting against Lo'ak and Kiri as she tried to break loose of their grip.
Lo'ak looked back, and saw that Ao'nung was waiting for one of them to make a move, "Just please, leave us alone," Kiri pleaded, hoping they would back off so they could calm Ja'lia down.
Her prayers were answered when Neteyam came over, "You heard what she said. Leave them alone." Neteyam demanded, pushing a finger into 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." Neteyam seethed, and Ao'nung placed both of his arms up in surrender.
"Smart choice. And from now on, I need you to respect my sisters,"
At the mention of the word sisters, Ja'lia no longer saw red, and she noticed that Neteyam had come to protect them like he always did. Ja'lia could protect herself, there was no doubt about it, but she had always become irrational when someone mentioned her parents, especially in a negative light.
"Let's go," Neteyam said, looking over at Ja'lia to make sure that she had finally calmed down.
Kiri stuck her tongue out at the boy, who hissed at her, and Ja'lia shot him a death glare as she held onto the Lo'ak's hand. The boy had been tracing circles on her hand to help calm her down, and she didn't even realize it until now.
Neteyam patted his brother on the head to urge him to move, and Ja'lia also pulled on his hand to get him away from anything else that could be said.
"Bye-bye. Look at them. They're all freaks. The whole family. Ja'lia too." The boys mumbled, and Lo'ak immediately stopped in his tracks as Ja'lia gave him a warning look. "Let it go, Lo'ak. They're trying to get you riled up," Ja'lia whispered.
Neteyam turned around to see that his brother had stopped walking, and he gave a wary look to Ja'lia. "Lo'ak!" He scolded.
The teen boy let go of Ja'lia's hand and tilted his head to look at his older brother, "I got this, bro," Lo'ak said, walking toward the Metkayina boys.
"I know this hand is funny. Look, I'm a freak. Alien. But it can do something really cool. Watch, first, I ball it up real tight like this," Lo'ak said, and Ja'lia slapped her hand to her forehead, knowing exactly where this conversation was going. "Okay, and then..." Lo'ak paused before punching Ao'nung three times before the boy fell back onto the sand.
Ja'lia snorted, and Neteyam shot her an unamused look. "What? It's not like they don't deserve it," She grumbled.
"It's called a punch, bitch. Don't ever touch my sister or Ja'lia again!" Lo'ak said, backing away from the group.
Ao'nung quickly came back to his senses as he hopped up and tackled Lo'ak to the ground. Lo'ak pushed the boy off with ease and went to punch him again before another boy pulled him away by his tail.
Ja'lia watched the ridiculous fight in amusement as Kiri rolled her eyes at the entire ordeal. She wasn't even going to try and stop the fight as it had been coming for weeks. The teen girl figured once they fought each other they could move on with their lives without the suffocating masculinity that constantly radiated off the two boys.
However, as the fight continued, Lo'ak was clearly outnumbered, and Ja'lia looked over at Neteyam because she knew that he was going to bail out his brother sooner or later. Neteyam rubbed the back of his neck, shaking his head as he went to join the other boys.
The oldest Sully boy rushed over as he pulled one of the boys off of Lo'ak, and swiftly punched him in the jaw before grabbing another boy and kneeing him in the gut. When Neteyam joined, the fight become more equal, and it was clear that with time, the Omatikaya boys would win the fight.
"This is so stupid!" Kiri yelled.
The fight was, in fact, stupid, but it took a different turn which caused Kiri to burst into laughter.
"Ow! My tail!"
"Ow! My ear!"
Ja'lia covered her mouth as she tried to remain supportive of Neteyam and Lo'ak in their endeavor of kicking the Metkayina boys' asses. But she too, laughed at the turn of events in the fight as the boys were rolling around on the ground, trying to regain their dominance.
Both girls knew they should stop the fight, but how was the question.
"Lo'ak! Neteyam! Stop!" She tried, but it was no use.
"Well, at least I tried," Ja'lia shrugged her shoulders and turned to walk away as Kiri latched onto her wrist. "What are you doing?" She asked.
"I'm getting out of here before-" Ja'lia was interrupted.
"Does someone want to explain what the hell is going on?!" A voice yelled, and Ja'lia knew the sound of that voice all too well.
"Well, shit," She mumbled.
Unedited. 06/26/23
Word Count: 2,624
Quick note-
Thank y'all so much for over 500 reads! I appreciate it so much, and I love y'all!
Also, sorry for the late post. I'll try to update earlier in the day tomorrow.