Chapter One: Aia i ka mole kamalii

Hello, my fellow my readers!
Well... here it is, I gotta say this is the first time I've ever written anything like this before, so please go easy on me and be warned that the characters will be OOC, and sorry for any misinterpretations of the Hawaiian and Samoan culture within this fic! I've tried my best to keep the culture as accurate as possible, by researching through online materials, books, and videos. So, if you spot anything wrong, please let me know so that I may fix it.
Thank you!

On a side note, this story will be dealing with some current world issues, so for those of you who don't want to read what I'm about to write, please turn away now.

Aloha is a value,

one of

unconditional love.

Aloha is the outpouring

and receiving of the spirit.

IIIIIIIIIIII

The mid-afternoon Thursday sun sparkled across the blue ocean located on the city of Honolulu in the island of O'ahu. The waves graced their presence on the sands of Secret Island as they gently spread across the shore.

Then the tranquillity was brought upon a short end by the soft pattering of a tanned skinned eight-year-old girl, with long dark wild curly hair dressed in a red swimsuit ran into the water holding two brown paper bags, followed a five-year-old girl with shoulder length dark wavy hair, dressed in a pink swimsuit with a white skirt.

The two girls continued running till they were neck deep in water before they finally dove into the familiar water and began swimming inside the safety of their beloved reef, amongst the schools of fish, turtles and spinner dolphins.

The older girl opened the first paper bag and passed the sandwich to the younger girl, who immediately began ripping the bread into finger sized pieces and proceeded to feed the schools of fish and dolphins that swam beside them.

The older girl just pulled out the second sandwich and kept her eye out for one specific fish. A few seconds later the older spotted it.

It was a Flame Angelfish with two black small star-shaped on each side of its body.

IIIIIIIIIIII

At the same time that afternoon, the girl's exhausted thirty-year-old father, a large bulky man with long wild curly hair and numerous tattoos, most of them depicting the well known legends of the demigod Maui from the far plains of Samoa all the way to New Zealand, climbed up the stairs that led up to his front porch, having just finished his pre-morning hotel security shift.

THUMP… THUMP… THUMP.

He climbed up the last three steps to his house and saw a folded note taped on the front door, with his name 'Maui' written on it.

Maui ripped the note off from the door and unfolded it before he read its contents. The letter was filled with a small brief 'report' on the girls' activities earlier that morning before it ended with the reassurance that both his daughters were dropped off at the Halau hula for their lessons.

He then wiped his eyes using the bottom corner of his hand, before he continued reading the letter.

P.S,

Tala insisted that 'she' make you breakfast, so there's coffee and eggs in the fridge for you to warm up.

—Hiapo.

A few seconds later he heard the sound of a paper falling to his feet, and looked down to see the fifteen dollars he'd left for the boy. Maui reached over and caught saw the small note under the money that read: P.P.S, You and the girls are part of my ohana, so no payment needed.

Seeing those words put a smile on his face, but at the same time the pride nearly got into his head—who did this thirteen-year-old kid think he was calling him poor—but then his logic and maturity kicked, and he reminded himself that he needed the money more that Hiapo for the time being.

He fumbled for the keys in his pocket, pulled it out and unlocked the front door. The door then slowly swung open and he stepped inside. Maui took off his jacket and hung it on the clothes rack before he started rubbing the sleep from his eyes with his thumb and index finger while lazily putting his keys in the key basket that sat on a small table in the main entrance.

His feet led him toward to the tempting, cozy-looking, old-fashioned sofa he'd purchased at some garage sale some months ago; and promptly plopped himself on the couch, laying flat on his stomach and burying his face against the sofa's right semi-hard cushioned arm.

Loud, semi-muffled snores emitted from his sleeping figure seconds later as his body and mind caved into the sleep work had deprived him of this past week.

What felt like a minute passed when the sounds of his second hand Nokia 3310 started bellowing out, its buzzy, ear-piercing, ring from his left pocket.

An annoyed Maui slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He pressed the button to answer the call and held the device up to his ear. Maui then greeted his caller with frazzled irritation, "What?"

"Chill brah, it's just me." Hiapo replied from the other line, "Howzit, Maui?" Maui, knowing that he couldn't fall asleep again, had gotten up from the couch, walked over to his kitchen and replied with a very sarcastic, "Manuia, fa'afetai, just dealing with a bunch of shark baits who had a little too much to drink—"

Hiapo then cut Maui off before he could begin his tirade "I'm calling to let you know that the social worker called this morning—"

Maui grabbed a cold soda and slammed the fridge door shut with his foot. "Yeah? What'd the social worker say?"

Hiapo then replied just as Maui had a mouthful sip of soda, "She'll be there at three—"

Hearing this Maui spat out the soda from his mouth and wiped his lip with his sleeve, "What?" He exclaimed before he turned and looked at the digital clock. It read, 1:40 PM. "Oh no!" Maui cried before he abruptly ended the call, tossed his phone and rushed out into the hall, heading to the supply closet.

His feet skidded against the wooden floorboards as he observed his cluttered living room before he turned to the clock and saw it was still blinking: 1:40 PM. He turned back to the room with one dreadful thought in his mind… he had one hour and twenty minutes to clean up the living room. Maui then slowly glanced back at the hallway and seeing the state it was in, the horrible realization hit him like a ton of bricks… he had one hour and twenty minutes to clean up the whole house.

IIIIIIIIIIII

The two girls had finally realized the time, and hurried out of the water, grabbed their bags and ran across the sand. The two made their way out of the beach. Suddenly one tourist came by, prompting the younger girl to stop and pull her camera from her duffle bag. She stood completely still, holding the camera in front of her before she stepped back and clicked. The camera flashed, imprinting the image in its film before the older girl grabbed her wrist and very comically pulled her away.

IIIIIIIIIIII

Meanwhile,

Hiapo stood backstage wearing his hula clothes, switching anxious glances between the front stage and the door as he waited anxiously for the two sisters to arrive… soon, he hoped.

Behind him stood a group of seven to eight-year-olds, eagerly watching—but none was more eager than the blonde haired, brown-eyed ringleader of the group. Her name was Allison Williams, a non-island native whose affluent family had moved from Chicago.

Her framed fascinated eyes pinned themselves at him, while her mind wondered what was he waiting for? Part of her knew it couldn't be the two weirdo sisters. It couldn't be.

Five minutes passed, and when no signs of them came, Hiapo finally took a long deep breath and turned around when their Kumu notice them all lingering backstage and urged to come forward.

Hiapo reluctantly walked forward onto the stage and immediately got into position. Slowly the other junior dancers all came and danced behind, all of them perched the space between him and the senior dancers. He kept an ear out for the sound of the door and was the only one who noticed it softly, creeeekkkk… A relieved smile sneaked up his lips when Kumu wasn't looking and he took a secret glance over his shoulder when he saw his two dripping wet first-cousins-once-removed hiding behind the senior dancers, waiting for their chance to jump in.

Hiapo then got down on his right knee and began his sharp and strong movements and sensing the girls behind him as he was about to do a huli, quickly nudged his head forward pointedly. The older one grabbed her younger sister's and the two girls immediately took their spots and began dancing, along Hiapo and the other girls.

By the time they finished, all the female dancers stood in their finished poses, all of them facing one side and while Hiapo was down one knee, with his arms and back positioned the same way as the girls.

"Ha'ina ho'i!" They all chanted as the dance ended, followed by Allison's scream as she slipped on the edge of the puddle that formed behind her and grabbed her friend's hand as she fell.

The older dancers immediately jumped back in shock and Hiapo quickly stood up in alarm.

"Stop, stop." Their Kumu ordered as he approached them all and turned to the older girl, sighing as he asked, "Hina, Tala, why are you both all wet?"

The older girl, Hina, stepped forward and let out a long defeated sigh, "It's Mommy Thursday."

Kumu looked down at her with pity and confusion. He got down on one knee and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder as he patiently asked, "What's Mommy Thursday?"

Hina let out another sigh of defeat and explained, "Every Thursday, Mommy comes half way up toward shore as an Angelfish, so Tala and me go to the beach and feed her favorite food—"

Tala then cut in, bouncing with excitement as she asked their teacher, "Would you want to know what Mama's favorite food is?"

Allison let out a loud and purposeful yawn while she deliberately patted her hand to her lips and stood there with her arms crossed over her chest as her posse came and joined in, standing behind her like lackeys with their hands on their hips.

"Go on," Kumu told her with encouraging tone in his voice.

Tala answered, "Peanut butter and honey! But… um—we couldn't find any at—at home."

Hina finally continued and said in a whiny voice, "And Dad left for work already—and when we were rushing out the door!" Hina immediately pointed to her thirteen-year-old first-cousin-once-removed, as if she were pinning all the blame on him, "I asked Hiapo if we could get some peanut butter on the way but he said just make a tuna sandwich." With a stomp of her foot, Hina exclaimed, "I can't give Mom, tuna!" She put her hand on top of the other and leaned forward to her teacher as she asked her Kumu in a low seemingly secretive whisper, "Do you know what tuna is?"

Their Kumu drew back with a slight cringe, "Fish?"

Exasperated and relieved that someone finally understood, Hinatea rubbed her hands over her face, pulling it up and down and shouted, "It's fish! If my mom ate fish now then she'll turn into a cannibal!" Now heated, Hina waved her hands left and right as she ranted and raved, "Tala and I were late 'cause, Hiapo wouldn't let us go to the store after he'd dropped us off—so we had to run, get peanut butter—because—because—" Much to the confusion of her classmates, Hiapo's eye-rolling, and Tala's innocent mimicry, Hinatea then started stomping her feet on the polished wooden floors as she finally exploded, "All we had is—is—STINKING TUNA!"

By this time, their Kumu had his hands in front of her as she started heaving from her outburst, "Hinatea, Hinatea, calm down. Now, who told you that your mother's…" He paused. Reincarnated was the word that popped to mind, but given her age, he thought it best to use, "… been turned into a fish?"

"Dad did!" Hina replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "Dad said Mom loved the sea so much, that she told him she was going to come back as a fish and live in it!"

Tala chirped and said, "Yeah! And Daddy calls Mama 'Angel,' So… um… um… we saw an Angelfish and it knew was Mama!"

Their explanations resulted in a reaction of mixed emotions within the hula halau.

Kumu stared at them sympathetically as did the senior dancers and musicians, Hiapo had his head turned and his right hand grasping his upper left arm for strength as well as composure, while Allison and her band of girls stared at the two sisters with narrowed eyes, full of judgment, as if they were the strangest people on earth. Finally, Allison remarked pointedly at Hinatea and her little sister, while shaking her head in total disbelief, "You're all crazy…"

In that split second Hina suddenly pounced, knocking Allison to the floor as she began pounding her closed fists into the girl's face. Chaos ensued and all the junior dancers fled. Hiapo and Kumu sprung into action. Hiapo pulled Hinatea off Allison, and Kumu ushered all the girls, including Tala, behind him. While Hina struggled to break free from Hiapo's hold.

Their exasperated Kumu shouted, "Please! Please! Everybody calm down!" He turned to the girls and whispered some calming words in Hawaiian before he turned to Hina with stern eyes as Hiapo was putting her down, "Hinatea."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I won't do it again!" Hina replied loudly with her arms behind her back as she started swaying.

Close to his wit's end, Kumu finally suggested, "Maybe I should call your father?"

"NO! You can't do that, you can't! I just wanna dance… I practiced." She looked up at her Kumu and repeated with a more pitiful tone her voice as he crouched down in front of her, "I just wanna dance."

Hiapo could've been offended by her finger pointing, and he would be lying if he said that he wasn't irked to be labelled the pillar of excuses for her lack of responsibility, but she was just a little girl and she didn't know any better… and she'd already gone through so much over the past three months; so instead put his hand on her shoulder and turned to their teacher, "Kumu, I think you should give her another—"

Seeing their teacher was about to be swayed, Allison looked at her arm and saw teeth marks on it, "Ew… she bit me." Her friends immediately expressed their own disgust, and the girl closest to her pushed her injured arm away.

Kumu rubbed the bridge of his nose while Hiapo sighed, groaned and wiped his hand over his face while his grip on Hina's shoulder tightened slightly.

IIIIIIIIIIII

Hina sat outside, now wearing her light blue Finding Nemo print t-shirt and dark blue shorts and red sandals. Tala stayed with her, twirling around in her pink dress and purple sandals—but stopped when she saw her despondent sister staring at the porch's floorboards, then she had an idea on how to cheer her big sister up, and Tala rushed over, taking her hand. "Dance with me!" She cried. Hina pulled her hand away from her little sister's and turned away from her, sniffing when the front door burst opened and all the girls came rushing out, followed by their Kumu who took slow steps toward the two sisters and knelt down beside them.

"I called your father." He told them both, "And he wants you to wait out here on the porch." He saw that Hina was withdrawing further into herself and said as an attempt to raise her spirits, "We'll try again next week." Before he got up and walked back into the halau, passing Hiapo as he was heading out to check on the two.

Hiapo moved to one side, so Kumu could get through and walked out to sit by the two. "Hey, how about I give your dad a call and let him know we're getting some pizza?" He suggested, Hinatea simply took one quick silent sideways glance but then turned her head back away from him. He frowned and let out a long defeated sigh before he stood up and said, "I'll see you both tonight."

Tala jumped to her feet and shouted, "Bye!" As she waved her arm—watching as he left the halau and headed down the road. She plopped down next to her sister and sat there, rocking herself as she started to hum the tunes to aloha 'oe.

Hina heard Allison and the other girls talking a few feet ahead of them, and quickly slung her back over her shoulder and climbed down the steps with Tala trailing behind her.

IIIIIIIIIIII

"Does this look infected to you?" Allison asked as she inspected her wound with her group walking beside her, all of them holding a doll in their grasp.

"Yeah," The third girl next to her replied.

"Hi," Hinatea called out suddenly from behind, the girls let out a gasp and immediately spread out all around Allison.

"You better not have rabies." Allison said with an accusing tone in her voice as one of her friends, a seven-year-old girl, with lightly tanned skin, brown hair and light brown eyes, clearly of Hawaiian and European descend stepped forward and continued on, "If you have rabies then the doctor's going to have to—"

Tala caught sight of their dolls and remarked, "Pretty!"

Hina took notice and asked with an excited tone in her voice, "Are you gonna play dolls?"

Caught redhanded all the girls sheepishly hid their Barbie dolls behind their backs, and Allison said glaring at the two sisters in disgust, "You two don't have a doll."

Hinatea put her bag down, unzipped it and ushered Tala to come over. The two girls reached into their bag.

Allison and her entourage all gasped in horror as Hinatea held up two stuffed dolls their mother had made for them. One was a hand stitched, a little girl with blonde yarn hair, blue buttons for eyes and a light lilac dress. The other one was a depiction of a baby praying mantis with mismatched color buttons for eyes. "That's Lilly and this is Bug-bug." Tala said as she pointed at them both as she and Hinatea said, "Our mom made them before she came back as a fish,"

Tala took over and carried on explaining, "But Bug-bug's head is too big, so we just say there's lots of bugs in his ear—"

Allison grabbed Bug-bug from Hinatea and threw it on the ground before pressed it with her foot and rubbed all over the curb. "You and your freaky dolls are too freakish and too ugly to play with our gorgeous, beautiful, perfect toys." Allison pressed harder against Bug-bug against the pavement and everyone heard the dolls seams ripping. Tala rushed over screaming toward Allison, "Stop, you'll break Bug-bug!" Allison stopped, took her foot off Bug-bug and picked up the doll and promptly ripped its head off and deliberately dropped the two pieces by Tala's feet, as the five-year-old girl knelt down and lifted the broken doll with such gentleness, anyone would've thought it was made out of glass. Tala then hugged the doll tightly to her chest.

"There, problem solved." Allison said dusting the non-exist dirt off her hands before she put her hands on her hips and jeered, "Now, why don't you two nutcases do us all a favor join your stinky fish mom in the sea and just drown." Before she crossed her arms and continued on, "After all, nobody's gonna miss you two when you're gone anyway." Allison looked at the two sisters with a smug look on her face as she called out expectantly, "Right girls?"

Her groupies of three looked at each other hesitantly and Allison called to them again with an annoyed tone, "Right, girls?"

Finally, the three girls replied unanimously, "YEAH…"

Much to her chagrin, Hinatea charged at Allison and pushed her down on the street and stared her down with narrowed eyes and held back tears. Allison scrambled to her feet, exclaiming before she got to her feet, "Ew! It bit me and touched me!" She looked Hinatea in the eyes and told her flat out, "This is why you don't gots any friends." Allison then added as she stood up, "That's probably why your mom decided to drown herself in the first place, 'cause if I had you for a girl I'd want to get away from you too." The bully dusted herself and turned to her friends and said, "Come on, girls let's get out of here before we catch their weirdgitis." The four of them all turned and walked off, leaving the two sisters and their broken doll behind.

Her little sister looked up at her with confused eyes and asked, "Mama didn't drown 'cause she was trying to get away from us, right?" Hinatea didn't answer her as she gazed fixedly at Lilly for a few seconds before she angrily threw the doll to the ground and stomped off down the trail, while her little sister stood up still clutching Bug-bug.

A few seconds later, Hinatea came rushing back, grabbed Lilly and hugged her tight before she put the doll down, picked up Bug-bug's head, grabbed Lilly again and carried her in her right arm while she took her sister's hand with her left hand and pulled her away.

IIIIIIIIIIII

One hour later down on the highway, came the rush hour and for most people, this would prove inconvenient as many of the wanted to go home or were on their way to start their first shifts at work.

But for one woman sitting in the driver's seat of a black Toyota Corolla, this was a blessing. In fact, for twenty-nine-year-old Moana Waialiki, the case was taking as both immoral and against work policy.

Yet, here she was—stuck both figuratively and literally—between a rock and a hard place, all due to the ultimatum her new supervisor had given; this case or the pink slip. Her supervisor's insistence struck as odd, and Moana was sure her new boss had some sneaking prejudice against her… despite the fact she'd never given her new supervisor any reason to do so, after all, she'd worked in their department for nearly six years and as far as Moana knew her old boss was always rather proud of her work ethic and punctuality; but this was not about punctuality… this was a matter of her supervisor forcing her to break the very foundation of their department's work ethic. Never take on cases when your personal feelings are involved.

She tapped her fingers against the steering wheel of her car as she continued on watched the still traffic, bracing herself emotionally for to see the family, hearing the loud honking of cars and the shouting of impatient drivers behind her, and for a split second she'd thought his voice echoed among the river of irked drivers behind her.

Before she knew it, a river of emotions and memories been and gone seemed to pull her down further within herself—she hadn't noticed the man behind her, blaring honks she heard him impatiently screaming at her, "Hey, the light's green, get a move on!"

Moana changed her gearshift, pressed her foot on the gas and drove down the highway, when out of nowhere Maui came rushing in, riding his Honda motorcycle cruiser, dressed in a white singlet, shorts, and black flipflops.

"Hey!" He cried out before he turned and shouted, "Watch where you're going—" Then he kicked her bumper, "Stupidhead!" Before he revved his engine and rode off, leaving Moana to roll her eyes in her car, and one thought crossed her mind.

'Some people never change.'

IIIIIIIIIIII

Out of all the days for Hina to get into trouble—Maui growled in annoyance as he rushed to his daughters' halau, praying that they'd actually listen to him this time.

With the halau in sight, Maui slowed down, stopped, parked his bike, turned off his engine and ran up the steps to find an empty porch. He looked around and called out, "Girls?" Before he walked over to the front door and jiggled the knob, only to find it locked from the inside. "Hina?" He put his hand over his eyes and peered inside, "Tala?" But there was no one inside. His heart sank, "Oh no…" He groaned as he turned around and raced to his bike, muttering as he climbed on his vehicle and revved his engine. "You two better be home."

IIIIIIIIIIII

He zigzagged through the hour-long traffic, taking any opening he could find through the rows and rows and rows of cars in front of him and put his foot down before he made that sharp left turn in the direction of his wooden stilt house. Once there, the sound of music resonated from inside the house, Maui parked his bike, rushed up the unpainted stairs, made it to the top deck and hurried to the front door, only to find it locked.

He let out an exasperated sigh before he pleaded, "Girls. Open the door."

Tala then called out from inside, "You didn't say the magic word, Papa!"

Maui rolled his eyes and replied aloud while holding the urge to break down the door. "Please!"

Then Hina's despondent voice echoed, "Go away…"

Maui now had enough, and tried pushing his head through the dog door—and by some miracle managed to stick his head in, where he saw his two daughters lying crown to crown with one another. Hina slowly turned to face him, obviously dispirited and said, "Leave us alone to die."

Maui grunted and told her, "Okay, you stop being such a drama queen, we don't have time for this! The social worker's gonna be here any second! Do you hear me?! Any second!" But his urges fell on deaf ears as his eldest daughter reached over for the dial and increased the volume on her cassette player, and his youngest daughter laid there by her sister as they both looked up blankly at the ceiling. His eyes narrowed and an annoyed growl passed through his lips before he pulled his head out of the dog door and pushed his right arm through the flap, and he reached up to the lock. He managed to turn it and heard it click.

Finally, he pulled his arm out and tried to open the door—only to find it still locked.

He couldn't believe this.

Maui then stuck his head back in through the dog door and turned toward the right side of the door, and saw that it held together by at least thirty-one nails. He let out a growlish grunt, looked around and found the hammer just slightly within his reach. Finally pulled his head out of the dog door and then stuck his right arm in. Tala heard thumping by the door and turned her head and saw their papa's arm trying to find the hammer. She got up, walked over toward where the hammer laid, picked it up and said, "Here." Before she handed it to their father.

Maui slid the handle down low enough for him to hold onto it, but feel the head at the same time. He quickly spun the hammer around and held it upside down, so he could pull the nails out of the siding with its claw. Maui just got started when he quickly realized that his youngest daughter was standing far too close to the door and within the nails' potential range. "Alright Tala, I'm gonna need you to back away from the door. Okay?"

"Okay…" His five-year-old daughter sighed, while the sounds of her slow pitter-patter soon followed, growing softer and softer with each passing second.

Finally, he can begin.

Ten minutes passed when he heard the first nail drop—that was one down and another thirty to go. Now, that got him seething, "You are so finished when I get in there!" He shouted as he worked to get the second nail out, his mind too preoccupied with the current situation, he didn't notice the black Toyota Corolla making its way down his driveway, nor did he notice the person stepping out of the car.

Moana looked, listened, and walked up the steps to the deck, while Maui continued on with his tirade, "I'm gonna stuff you in the blender, press pureé! Bake you into a pie and feed you to the stupid social worker and when she asks, 'Oh? What's your secret' I'm just gonna say—" Having heard enough, Moana put on her sunglasses and tied her curly-wavy hair into a topknot, leaned down and tapped him on the shoulder to gain his attention. Maui immediately turned to look, and carried on, smiling sheepishly with a change of tone, as he pulled his right arm out of the dog door and slowly rose to his feet, "I'm gonna say… love and nurturing." Maui looked over at his right hand and immediately dropped the hammer, then he finally saw the oddly familiar female social worker, and a sneaking suspicion rose in him, "Okay, I know you from somewhere…" She raised an eyebrow and lowered her sunglasses.

"Moana?" Maui called out skeptically as he took a good look at her for a moment, then seeing it was indeed her, he let out a long sigh of relief, "Well, I'm just glad it's just you." He cleared his throat and took, "Look, I'm really happy to see you—but this isn't a good time, I'm kinda waiting—"

"Maui," Moana cut him off as she lowered her sunglasses again and looked him straight in the eye as she informed him, "I'm, your social worker."

Maui stared at her for a few seconds, processing what she just said and couldn't help laugh at that point, "You? Okay, okay, that was a good one!" He stopped thinking that she would laugh with him any second, but her expression never changed, in fact, her only response was to raise an eyebrow and continue at him with a no-nonsense look on her face, and that's when he finally realized she was serious.

"Oh…"

List of terminologies:

Kumu: The Hawaiian word for teacher.
Halau: School.
Manuia, fa'afetai: A Samoan phrase which translates to, "Fine, thanks."
Ha'ina ho'i: A chant that is occasionally used to end a hula.
Huli: A Hula movement.
Aia i ka mole kamalii: A Hawaiian proverb which translates to, "Children always begin at the foundation."
Ho'i Hou Ke Aloha: Hawaiian for, "Let us fall in love all over again."

Once again, sorry if any of the characters are OOC, and if the story seems rather... forced at times, but as I said above this is the first time I've ever written anything like this, so I do apologize if the story's well... not great?
:/