Little Mr Perfect

grounded

He gets up late In the morning so he has an excuse to skip breakfast, Jake drives them to school” Ok you three have a good day and no fights”. Lo´ak rolls his eyes” Got it?”. “Yes Dad”.
They get to class, once everyone is seated Neteyam and Ao’nung teacher hands them back their tests which they’ve written before Ao´nung smiles as he sees he got a D on it while Neteyams mood drops “Are you really sulking over an B+?”. “Shut it… I’m not”. Her shoves the paper in his bag and they continue with their math class. Ao’nung teases him about his reaction to the test results.

“What’s wrong?”, Kiri asks as she sits down next to him “little Mr. Perfect over here got a B on his math test”. Kiri and Lo´ak share a look “Tey it’s ok it happens”. Kiri says softly. Neteyam shrugs and pokes around in his food “You not gonna eat?”, Lo´ak Looks at him “Are you getting sick! I mean you gotta be, you’re not really eating and threw up yesterday”. “I’m fine Bro”. He leaves to get to archery training early to have some alone time before the others join in. Once practice starts he gets praised by their coach for his talent. “Ok Guys listen up, we got a competition next week, so get ready for that”. They continue with practice, some others make snarky comments about him.

After school they get home “Do you have the results of that math test get?!; Jake asks and he just hands it over “You can do better than this”.” It won’t happen again …”.” It better not”. Neteyam nods and looks onto the ground, Lo´ak sighs “Dad can I go over to the Paora’s later, Reya and I want to go down to the beach”” No will do, Norm is coming over also you sure you’ll be just at the beach and not at a party again?”. Lo´ak und Neteyam flinch. Shit. ”You two really thought I hadn’t noticed. You are grounded for at least a week”.” Dad Ao’nung asked me to help him with math”.” No buts you are grounded, I don’t care if you are tutoring someone, he’ll have to wait till next week”. Neteyam just sits down on the couch and helps Turk with her homework while also working on his own.

The doorbell rings about an hour later, it’s about five in the afternoon. Tuk opens the door ”Uncle Norm!”. “Hey Tuk Tuk”. She grins and leads him inside, Norm greets everyone.” Have you lost weight?”, he takes a closer look at Neteyam “Maybe a little”, he shrugs.
Later on they sit together at the table eating dinner together “So your dad told me you two got grounded, you wanna tell me why?” “Snuck out to a party”. Norm shakes his head chuckling. Jake and Norm talk about work and stuff while eating. Neteyam excuses himself und goes to his room, he and Lo´ak had to hand over their phone.
Neytiri brushes her hand over Tuks head and the little girl smiles at her “And how was your day Tuk Tuk?”. “It was great uncle Norm I played with my friend Li´ia at recess, she’s really nice”. “That’s great”.“How long are you staying?”. “Eh, I’ll head back tomorrow afternoon”.” Mom can uncle Norm bring me to school tomorrow?”.” If he wants” “Can you?”, she looks at him “Sure I can do that, you just gotta show me the way”. Tuk Grins. They clean up and then Norm plays with Tuk a little before tucking her in for the night.

” Hey I brought some snacks, you look like you would need someone to talk to”, he says entering Neteyams room” I’m ok but thank you…” What are you working on bud?”. “Physics project…”. Norm helps him a little” So how do you like it here?”. “It’s pretty nice we’ve made some friends, I’m part of the archery club at school. The Paora family is really nice, Lo´ak is dating Tsireya but please don’t tell dad that” ”I won’t. What about you? Have you found someone you fancy yet?”. Neteyam blushes a little “ Well not really…” “Ok Bud we both know that’s not true so spill it”. He sighs” You can’t tell dad… don’t tell him… I don’t wanna disappoint him again…”” I won’t tell him and you know that”. He nods”I- I... think… no I know… um… how do I say this… Uncle Norm, I’m gay”. “Woah buddy thank you for trusting me with this”. “You don´t hate me?”” Why should I? There’s nothing wrong with it, so who’s the guy?” “Ao’nung … he’s Tsireyas older brother. He was a real asshole when we first met him but eventually he changed his attitude around us and is pretty nice… he’s the captain of the swim team”.“Impressive”. His smile changes to a more serious look” Are you sure you are ok?”” Yes uncle Norm”. “Really? You’ve gotten pretty thin”.” Eh. School is a little stressful, so I prefer to skip dinner a few times to finish assignments”, that’s only partially a lie “Oh but you know it’s not good to miss out on food”.” I know, I’ll try and get back to normal when I’m done with this project”. “Ok bud I trust you. Now go to sleep it’s getting later and I offered to drive you to school tomorrow”.” That’s cool”.” Yeah now wrap it up und get some sleep, good night”.” Night uncle Norm”. He stays awake a bit longer to think about God knows what before falling asleep at around 3 am.

Norm drops everyone off at school, he makes Neteyam wait a bit till his siblings are out of the car” You sure you ok? You look really tired”. “I’m ok, just didn’t sleep well”. “Take it easy one”.”l will”.They head inside und meet up with Ao’nung and Tsireya as always, they have a worried look on their faces” Are you guys oh? We’ve texted you but you didn´t respond”, Tsireya says worried” We had to hand over our phones to dad”, Lo´ak rubs the back of his neck” He did find out about the party”.” I kinda forgot to respond, I saw that you texted” Kiri admits “It’s ok”. They go to class and of course Neteyam always knows the right answer, he hands Ao’nung a copy of the homework for their Math class so he doesn’t get in trouble again for not having it.” Thanks bro”.” Your welcome just don’t expect me to do this all the time”.“Mhm, hey Rotxo send me this picture”. He chuckles and shows it to Neteyam. “He gets out in about three days”. In the picture you can see Rotxo with Ronal and a text underneath saying: Look who’s back at work”.” He must be happy that she’s working”,” Yeah she sneaks him snacks”. They both chuckle. Lo´ak and Tsireya join them with Kiri” Hey you two”. Tsireya sighs at her brother as she spots the copied notes “Really? You need to learn to do them on your own, don´t let poor Neteyam do the work for you”.” Yeah I know and I’ll do them on my own the next time”.” You better. Is mom back at work?”” Yeah and already spoiling Rotxo”, he answers with a chuckle, his sister chuckles as well.