Little Miss Perfect | Neteyam¹

Chapter 32: Dead or Alive?

Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past

Bold - sign language 

Neteyam froze in his tracks as he heard a voice from behind call out to him. He knew that voice. He had been craving to hear it for days, and yet, when he hears it, he can't will himself to turn around.

"Mara?" Norm said, and finally, the teenage boy turned around to see Marali frantically looking around the room. Once her eyes set on Neteyam and noticed that he was okay, she immediately relaxed and tried to sit up, only to groan in pain when she pushed on her left arm.

"Mara, you hurt your arm. Max and I should look you over to make sure you're okay," Norm said as he got up to run to the scientist's Mauri pod.

Everyone in the pod looked at each other as if they were in a daze because it was only a minute ago that they had heard the flatlining of the machine, telling them that Marali had left them. Yet, here she was, alive and breathing.

It seemed so surreal to them all.

Almost as if their minds were playing some sort of sick trick on them.

"Marali?" Tuk said as she cautiously took a step toward the injured girl.

Marali looked at Tuk with a smile as she brought her right arm out to pull the youngest child into a hug. Tuk stood there frigid for a moment before she gently wrapped her arms around Marali. The little girl buried her head into her friend's neck as she began to cry tears of joy.

"I'm so happy you're okay. I thought I would never see or talk to you again." Tuk whispered.

Slowly but surely everyone else also took steps towards the girl to tell her that they were glad she had pulled through. Tuk had refused to leave her side as clung onto the girl's right arm, and the other Sully children sat as close as they could to the girl without hitting her left shoulder.

When Marali was shot, the bullet ricocheted and broke Marali's collarbone before some of the shrapnel barely missed her lung. Of course, Marali had been lucky that the shrapnel didn't puncture a lung, but she still had a hard time breathing, which is why she was put on a ventilator in the first place.

"Hey, Mara," Ao'nung said as he looked at the girl with bloodshot eyes.

"Hey, Nungie," Marali said with a smile, and the other two Metkayina teens snorted as the oldest of them playfully glared at her. "We can come back and talk to you later. Is that okay with you?" Rotxo asked, and Marali looked at them with a smile as she nodded her head.

The two boys walked out while Tsireya gave her a look of longing before she slowly followed Ao'nung and Rotxo. "Reya, you can give me a hug if you want to," Marali said, and Tsireya let out a sigh of relief as she quickly walked over to Marali and pulled her into a gentle hug.

"I'm really glad that you pulled through," Tsireya whispered as she pulled away from the hug.

"Me too," Marali whispered back.

Tsireya gave the girl one last smile before she leaped up and left the family's Mauri pod. It was silent as Marali looked over to see Neteyam by the exit, looking down at his feet. Ever since she first looked at him, he was afraid to look at her.

"We'll uh, give you guys some privacy," Jake said as he gave Kiri and Lo'ak a look that meant that they needed to leave. Both teens groaned as they stood up, while Spider simply walked out of the Mauri pod. Jake and Neytiri went to leave before they noticed that Tuk was still latched onto Marali's arm.