Where's My Love? - Lo'ak

Chapter 12: Seaweed

In the few days she has been there, Esmyrie has learned a few things.

One: making friends is a lot more challenging than she thought.

Two: Lo'ak has abandoned her on many occasions to be with Tsireya and try and conquer riding an Ilu

Three: Neteyam won't speak to her when he is in the water, too busy concentrating on learning a certain technique to make his parents proud.

And lastly: She will never be a Sully.

Esmyrie understands why Lo'ak is hanging out with the girl more, he is just following his dad's orders of 'learn, listen, and be on your best behavior'. It still saddened Esmyrie though, because she would often try to talk to him and he would shrug her off, at least until he was done learning for the day.

Esmyrie understands Neteyams lack of talking to her too. He does have a lot of pressure on him, and his parents want him to succeed.

And, as much as it pains her, she knows she will never be a part of the family. Never seen as one of them.

Jake has been trying his best to connect with the girl, but it's as if anything they had before has been thrown away and destroyed, to leave nothing but hatred behind.

He's tried having small talks with her, but she just gives him the cold shoulder. He has tried bringing up Nilar, which he learned very quickly, is a very stupid idea. He tried to apologize for the banishment, but he would just be given a glare.

It was as if he was no longer apart of the girls life at all. Like he was just there, and it has made him feel like he failed his brother. Like he failed keeping the promise he made to Nilar.

Neytiri has been there for him though, always reassuring him that she is just going through a rough time in her life, that the girl will eventually bounce back and see him like an uncle again.

What pains Esmyrie the most though, is that she can't seem to make friends with any of the teens.

She has gone up to Ao'nung and Rotxo multiple times, asking questions about the sea, trying her best to show she wants to learn, but all she gets is a side eyed glance before they walk away.

It seems that they don't even want to take their roles of teaching her seriously, as they have abandoned her on many occasions to go and teach Neteyam, Kiri and Tuk instead.

She has tried to form a bond with Tsireya, and it seems that there is a little friendship forming, but Tsireya is most times with Lo'ak now, and it pains Esmyrie to see Lo'ak so comfortable with the girl.

Neteyam has seemed to see the shift in the girl. Only days ago she had the biggest smile on her face because of the ocean, now, she has a frown anytime it's mentioned that he, or Lo'ak are going in for more lessons.

"You're staring." Ao'nung says, causing Neteyams attention to go off the girl, who sits at the beach, her feet kicking at the water lightly.

Ao'nung is out in the sea, Ao'nung trying to each the eldest brother how to ride an Ilu.
Neteyam has tried multiple times, but each time been unsuccessful at it.

"Huh?" Neteyam asks, not hearing the exact words that were spoken to him.

"I said, you're staring." Ao'nung speaks, irritation in his voice as he moves his gaze to Esmyrie.

"Right. Sorry." Neteyam sheepishly says, turning his attention back to the Ilu that is by Ao'nungs side.

"So what is it with her anyways?" The Metkayina teen asks, petting the Ilu and instructing it to get closer to Neteyam.