Chapter Text
School was absolutely the bane of lo’ak’s existence, even before having to move schools and change everything entirely. This just adds an extra layer to the exasperation he was feeling this morning, and it showed, showed in lo’ak waking up late, showed in him quite aggressively pling eggs and toast onto his plate, and showed in the fact he barely spoke at the breakfast table (which only consisted of him and is father at the moment. Neytiri was most likely trying to deal with the hassle, that is a sleepy Tuk in the morning.)
“It's not that bad ya know” Jake interrupted in between bites of toast. “You are over exaggerating”
teenage melodrama, a normal part of growing up, didn't make it any easier for Jake to deal with though. He understood that the move was difficult, both him and neytiri considered this while making the decision. But in the long run, it was the best option for everyone involved, he always tried to reiterate that, but they didn't want to listen. Of course This seemed to be rougher on Lo’ak more than anyone else in the family, and Kiri protested of course, but she didn't have very many friends at their last school, so there wasn't much she had to miss besides the town itself, Neteyam was being…alarmingly quiet about everything, but jake just chalked that up to him being mature about it.
But Lo’ak? This should be a brand new opportunity for him, and he should really be taking it.
“That's easy for you to say..”
The man sighed. “If you go into it thinking you're gonna hate it, you will. But try to see some sort of good in it. A fresh start and clean slate.”
Loak huffed for a moment, rolling his eyes as he scraped his breakfast scraps into the garbage disposal. He really didn't get it did he?Lo'ak didn't want a new start, he liked the one he had, he liked the friends he had. Now he is going to be stuck in a sea full of random faces he can't and won't ever be able to identify.
“Just give it a chance lo’ak…” his mother said as she walked by, pressing a kiss to the top of his head, Tuk stomping along behind her. The twinkle toe sketchers lighting up with every aggressive step.
“I see you're not the only one upset about school today huh?” Jake wheeled over and picked Tuk up to sit in his lap, where she then clung onto his neck, mumbling something about wanting to go back to bed, and how waking her up was mean. This only made him chuckle as he rubbed her back in an attempt to soothe her bad mood.
“...i will try to have a good day” Lo’ak put emphasis on the try part.
“Thank you, now you better get going soon, i'm pretty sure Neteyem and Kiri were already out the door before you woke up”
Lo’ak looked over at the clock, which was of course already pointing at 8:00 a.m
“Shit you're right!”
As Lo’ak rushed out the door neytiri tried to shout to him “and please try not to get in any trouble!...and watch your language!”
…
Kiri tried to find the best in things, she always did. She didn't really want to move to a new school, or leave everything behind. She honestly wanted to scream and cry and beg to stay, but she knew that wasn't an option, that this was all for the best. Neytiri had gotten a new job opportunity that would pay much better than the last, and although they were not too terribly tight on money, Jake was extremely limited on what he could do at work on account of being wheelchair bound, which caused income to be a bit difficult sometimes. That's not even mentioning the underlying issue they were having at their last school.
But the worst part in kiri’s mind was that gym class was fucking mandatory, and it was her first class of the day!? Who the hell wants to run laps and play dodgeball at 8:30 a.m, psychos, that's who.
But Very early into the class she realized that her attempt to sit in the bleachers and read the whole class period would fail when a boy with curly black hair and bright blue eyes decided that it was his job to bother her the whole time.
“So…whatcha reading?” He looked up at her from the fence, dividing the track and the bleachers, and what she wished was dividing the two of them.
“...”
“Looks cool whatever it is..i like the creepy guy on the cover”
Kiri quirked her eyebrow up at this, looking down at the cover with the words “Frankenstein's monster” in cursive, curling around its face on the cover.
“...Frankenstein”
“What?”
“The book? Its frankenstein's monster”
“Oh! That makes sense..im Rotxo by the way” he held out his hand, a smile gleaming on his face as he did, and against her better judgment she decided to take the offer, grasping his hand into hers for a shake.
“Kiri”
“Kiri huh? I’ve never seen you around. You new?”
“Yeah…me and my family just moved here”
“Makes sense, i would have remembered such a pretty face if i had seen it before”
Kiri rolled her eyes at the boy, huffing out a small chuckle. He sure had guts, she will give him that. “Wow”
“What? It's just the truth”
“Mhm”
But Before Rotxo could even speak another word(or pick up line for that matter)
The coach interrupted.
“Hey Rotxo! You're supposed to be running laps, not your mouth!”
“You heard the man, get back to work Rotxo” a mischievous smile pressed to her lips.
“That goes for you too sully! This ain't reading time, get on the track!” said smile died immediately. Huffing loudly and dramatically, she tossed her book near her bag so she could go walk the lap, running be damned, she is not doing that shit.
…
Class wasn't really as eventful for Lo’ak, I mean unless you count him coming in late and getting scolded by the teacher in front of everyone on his first day, well then it was quite eventful. He took the walk of shame down the aisle, trying to find where he was going to sit, hoping he wouldn't be stuck to the front of the class with that woman's icy stare bearing down on him constantly. He could already tell he was going to hate this class, the other students included.
He sat down in one of the only open desks resting his head onto his arms as he teacher went back to explaining the syllabus. He wondered if every class was going to be like this, listening to some ratty old hag go on and on about the importance of bringing a pencil to their class every day, and if they are? Well Lo’ak might just shoot himself right where he stands.
“This class is so boring right?” his thoughts of sudden suicide and boredome were interrupted by a sweet voice coming from right next to him. The sweet voice coming from a very very pretty girl.
“Yeah…totally blows”
There was a pause
“Tsireya”
“What?”
She smiled “my name? It's Tsireya”
“Oh cool…that's umm, a great name” Lo’ak nodded his head, putting a lot of effort into not letting his voice crack with nerves.
“Thank you?” Tsireya tilted her head to the side, looking at him expectantly. “Well…”
“Huh?”
She was laughing again, did he do something funny? “Aren't you going to tell me your name?”
“Oh yeah! Yeah. My names Lo’ak, sorry” god he was fumbling so bad, she probably thought he was weird, what kind of idiot forgets to tell someone their name? (Lo’ak is that kind of idiot if it wasn't obvious)
“Great name”
“Yeah, thanks” god he was being so awkward, this was probably going to be the last time she ever even talks to him. Thankfully the conversation ended there, mostly because the teacher began explaining the assignment they would be doing this week and Tsireya actually cared about the grades she got.
Lo’ak wondered if Neteyam and Kiri were having as much of a bad day as he was, Kiri maybe, she wasn't too keen on the idea. Neteyam is probably doing fine, he always does, just perfectly fine as always. Lo’ak did not consider himself a jealous person but… he was absolutely a jealous person. It's not that he didn't love his brother, because he did, but sometimes he just hated how cool with things he could be, how easily he adapted, and how good he was at everything. He was just so perfect in everyone's eyes, and Lo’ak could not wrap his head around how he did it. He tried not to let his slight resentment show, but sometimes he just couldn't help it.
When the bell finally rang and the class was finally over, Lo’ak felt like he was going to cry tears of joy, get on his knees and praise Eywa right here right now. He shuffled around his desk trying to but his things back in his bag, sending the occasional lingering glance to tsireya, he just wanted to talk to her, get to know her, but everytime he tried it just felt like his tongue was swelling up in his mouth twisting and jumbling his words around right behind his teeth.
“Well, i’ll see ya around Lo’ak”
he gulped, nodding his head at her, the familiar feeling of numb tongue and word jumble swishing around in his mouth.
And of course she just giggled at him, grabbing her bag and leaving the classroom
…yup, he totally freaked her out didn't he.
…
“It was the worst” Lo’aks words were muffled by the hunk of bread he had shoved in his mouth. The dinner debriefing was going exactly as expected, Kiri and Lo’ak complained on how much they hated school and despised their teachers
“They made me do laps! At eight thirty in the morning! Who does that” she pointed her spoon at their mother in an accusatory manner, as if she willed the coach to force her book out of her hand and her ass on that track.(arguably she did by forcing them to go to this school, but Kiri would rather not start that argument again, especially not at the dinner table.
“Neteyam, how about you? Was school as horrific as Kiri and Lo’ak described it?” Their mothers question dangled in the air, both Kiri and Lo’ak staring at Neteyam awaiting his answer.
“It wasn't horrible”
He threw up his hands as Kiri groaned dramatically, pulling a giggle out of Tuk. “Dude, you're just saying that because the track team abducted you and made you one of their own” Lo’ak huffed (he seemed to be doing that a lot today)
“You make it sound like it’s some sort of cult”
“I mean it practically is”
“You have never even done a sport, how would you know?”
“I did little league!”
“Doesn't count”
“It so does!”
“Okay the both of you need to cut it out, and Lo’ak? You should really consider finding a sport you like, I think it would be good for you” Jake had finally cut in, ending whatever back and forth that Lo’ak and Neteyam were falling into.
“How come you don't push Kiri to do sports?”
“Trust me, i tried Lo’ak” the first time Jake had tried to get Kiri into sports, it was soft ball. All she did was sit and pick flowers, when she got hit in the head with the ball, they decided it was time to pull her out. They tried soccer, basketball, track, and every time she stubbornly refused. She was a lost cause, and both Jake and Neytiri had learned to accept it.
“This school offers a lot of extracurriculars, i think you should give any of them a chance, same for you Kiri. It would be good for you both” Neytiri finally finished off her plate, going to put her dish in the sink “love you all, i'm going to finish up some work i need done before tomorrow”
A chorus of i love you’s came from the dining table as Netiri left the room. Naturally everyone flowed out, finishing their food and going to their respective rooms.
As Kiri jumped up onto her bed, deciding to aimlessly scroll through her phone, she noticed an instagram notification
@R0txo_xoxo has followed you
She couldn't help but laugh pressing the follow button, making them friends.