Chapter Text
Ao’nung was sitting with his friends at the back of the school. Ronan was taking deep puffs of a vape, which was making Ao’nung’s allergies go crazy.
“Wanna hit?” He asked, holding out the colourful stick.
Ao’nung shook his head, feeling his phone buzz in his pocket.
11:38 - Reya :) : Come sit with us
12:14 ~Reya :) has added you to a groupchat with 6 others
12:15 - Reya :) : I added you to a groupchat with the Sully’s, you should add their numbers
Ao’nung sighed and put his phone on silent, he didn’t understand his sister’s obsession with this new family. Ao’nung was perfectly happy with their little group of four, and didn’t see why she needed to invite anyone else into it.
“Hey man, you good?” That was Max speaking now.
“Yeah, I’m fine man.”
“Sure you don’t want a puff, just to relax?” Ronan was pushing the vape in his face again.
Ao’nung huffed, shoving the boy’s hand away, causing his other friend Reece to laugh.
“What’s gotten into you man?” He grinned.
He shrugged in response, “Nothing.”
“You barely spoke to us over summer. And when you hung out with those weirdos this morning we thought you’d ditch us for good.” Max laughed, blowing out smoke.
“Nah man, Reya just invited those guys. And I was just… busy over the summer.”
This was a complete lie. Ao’nung could count on his right hand how many things he did over the break. He spent most of his time either at home hauled up in his room, or at the swimming pools swimming lap after lap.
Something, or rather someone, had happened at those pools, and it wasn’t something Ao’nung wanted to think about, let alone tell someone. Especially Ronan, Max and Reece.
So for now he would just brush it off and avoid thinking about it.
The bell rang, pulling him from his thoughts.
He had sport next, so he wasted no time heading to his locker to grab a change of clothes.
He had arrived pretty early to the stadium, and walked into the boys locker room. Scanning the room, he hoped he would find someone in his class. He had already checked Rotxo, Reece, Max and Ronan’s schedules and none of them were taking this class.
Then out of the corner of his eye, he spotted shoulder length braids and dark skin. It was the new boy, Neteyam.
The boy reached back and pulled his shirt off, catching Ao’nung looking at him.
Ao’nung quickly glanced away when Neteyam raised his eyebrows.
“Alright everyone out! You have thirty seconds!” A voice called from outside the locker rooms.
Ao’nung huffed and quickly pulled on his sports gear before leaving the room.
Coach Trudy was their teacher, a shorter woman with dark hair that was always up in a bun. Ao’nung liked her, she was a strict but good teacher, and didn’t try to micromanage the basketball team he coached.
“Alright!” She blew her whistle, catching the attention of all the students in the class. “I’m Miss Chacon but you can call me Coach Trudy. I want us to start with 3 laps of the court. Go! Go! Go!”
The class took off, a few idiots running as fast as they could to stay at the front. Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, Ao’nung kept a medium pace for the warm-up.
Neteyam ran past, moving quickly but barely breaking a sweat. It’s somewhat impressive, I’ll give him that.
Ao’nung picked up his pace to catch up with the boy.
“Hey! Neteyam!”
The boy turned his head, slowing down just a bit.
“You did track, right?”
“Yeah?” Neteyam huffed out, giving him a weird look.
“What?”
“Nothing, just weird that you’re talking to me.”
Ao’nung frowned, about to object, before remembering their shared biology class earlier that day. He bit his lip, stomach churning with guilt.
“Oh, Right.”
A whistle blew, “You two! Less chatting, more running!”
The two boys flushed with embarrassment when the class let out a few sniggers.
“Right, Sorry coach.” Ao’nung said, moving away from the boy.
Sport finished up quickly, the rest of the class spent running drills and small activities.
Neteyam and Ao’nung had found themselves side by side in the locker room, changing back into their normal clothes.
“I know you said you don’t do team sports, but what do you think about basketball? There’s a spot open on the team and we could do with a fast runner like you.” Ao’nung asked.
Neteyam shrugged, “I’m good thanks. Ask Lo’ak though, he used to play at home.”
Ao’nung nodded, trying not to look displeased. He didn’t fancy needing to get buddy-buddy with any more of the new kids than he already had. Sharing two classes with Neteyam was enough.
~~~
Ao’nung, Rotxo and Tsireya climbed quickly into their fathers car after the last class of the day.
“How was school kids?” Tonowari asked, turning his head slightly to see Tsireya and Rotxo, who were sitting in the backseat.
Ao’nung was told he looked like his father a lot. They both shared bright icy blue eyes and a tall, strong stature. His father was Maori, and had a large tribal tattoo that spread across the tan skin of his shoulder and arm. Ao’nung hoped to have something similar one day.
“It was good!” Tsireya gushed, and Ao’nung could almost predict the next words to come out of her mouth, “A new family moved to our school from America, one of them is in my year, and the other two are in ‘Nung’s and Rotxo’s.”
“Are they nice?”
“Really nice. Lo’ak is in my maths class, he’s really funny. Kiri is nice too, sort of quiet though. I didn’t really get to speak to Neteyam, Ao’nung did though.”
There was a moment of silence, causing Ao’nung to look up from his phone to see his father and siblings looking at him expectantly.
“What?”
Tsirerya sighed audibly from the backseat, and Rotxo hid a laugh behind his hand.
“Oh yeah, Neteyam. He seems alright I guess, he’s in my marine biology and sport classes.”
“Well, they sound like a nice group. Did they say where they moved to? Apparently Mrs Florence’s block finally sold a couple weeks ago.” His dad said.
Mrs Florence was a strict woman in her fifties, she lived closer to the city, but owned the house a street down from them to ‘holiday’ closer to the beach. Ao’nung had been glad when he saw the ‘For Sale’ sign in her front yard under that old fruit tree; she spent most of his childhood screaming at him and his friends each time they rode past on their bikes. That was before Max, Reece and Ronan got into drugs and wagging, of course.
“Ao’nung? Still there, kiddo?” His dad laughed.
He blinked, realising that they had arrived in the driveway of their home whilst he was stuck in his thoughts. “Oh right.”
His dad let out a worried laugh before stepping out of the car, Tsireya already walking through the front door, key in hand and followed by Rotxo.
Ao’nung unbuckled his seatbelt and slung his backpack over his shoulder.
“Is Mum home?” He asked his dad as he stepped inside.
“No, she’s running some interviews so she’ll be home late. I’m making dinner tonight.”
The kids growned, dreading their father’s severely lacking culinary skills.
Their mother Ronal, was a head surgeon at the hospital on the other side of town, whilst their father worked as an architect part time.
“My cooking is not that bad!” Tonowari defended to his children’s disappointed faces.
“Just face it dad, we’ll have to order takeaway.” Tsireya patted him on the shoulder before walking into the kitchen, whilst Rotxo went to let their dog, Lu, inside.
“So how was your day, son? Tsireya did most of the talking in the car.”
“Yeah, it was fine. Kinda boring.”
“Did you say hi to Laura for me?” His dad raised an eyebrow with a grin on his face.
Ao’nung’s dad loved Laura, and though he thought he was being subtle, obviously hoped that she and Ao’nung would become an item someday.
He cringed at the idea, not only was she like a second annoying little sister, but she was also very very gay. Tonowari was going to be very disappointed the day he finds out.
Laura however, found this information hilarious, and had changed his contact in her phone to ‘Hubby’ the day she found out (Ao’nung obviously changed her’s to ‘Wifey’ too, but this was kept privately between them).
“No dad, I didn’t.” Ao’nung sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose.
“Why not? She’s a nice girl. Why don’t you invite her over for dinner this week?”
Ao’nung groaned, walking into the kitchen to see his sister giggling whilst she chopped up fruit.
“Stop laughing you little sh-”
The sound of the blender going drowned out his words, causing Tsireya to laugh even more as she made her smoothie.
Ao’nung huffed, stealing one of the bananas she was cutting up on the kitchen bench and walking upstairs.
He walked into his room, which his mother had obviously been in that day, considering he definitely didn’t make his bed or open a window that morning. He chucked his bag on the floor by his desk, and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
10 new messages from ~we’ll decide on a name later~
Rolling his eyes, he clicked onto the messages to read through the conversation, and decided to send a message, knowing Tsireya would bug him later otherwise.
Ao’nung: This is Ao’nung
Ao’nung: Tsireya probably already said so tho
Wifey: He lives!!!
Ao’nung: Kys
Roxanne: woahhh things are heating up in the groupchat
Unknown Number: Howdy Ao’nung
Ao’nung: ‘Howdy’? Which american am I speaking to rn
Unknown Number: Lo’ak
Unknown Number: And what’s wrong with howdy
Wifey: Everything
Roxanne: ^
Ao’nung: ^^
Reya :) : ^^^
Cowboy (Lo’ak): I’m being ganged up on.This is literally cyber bullying
Unknown Number: good. you need to be humbled.
Ao’nung: who’s that
Roxanne: dude just scroll up and add everyone
Ao’nung: I cbf
Wifey: It’s Kiri
Unknown Number: i’m kiri
Wifey: Woah Jinx
Wifey: That means we have to kiss now
Kiri: i haven’t heard of that version of jinx before
Wifey: Missing out
Ao’nung sniggered at Laura’s antics, putting his phone away to charge.
He ate his stolen banana and then got changed out of his school clothes.
When he checked his phone again, there were a few more messages. Accepting his fate, Ao’nung sat on his bed and began to type out a reply.