Rivals {Ninjago AU}

Chapter 12

***(Seliel's POV)***

"And that's exactly what happened," Skylor tells Principal Misako. "Nothing more, nothing less."

Misako removes her glasses and massages the bridge of her nose. "Skylor, none of the other witnesses have said that Kai was dancing on his lunch table in a glittery pink tutu, proclaiming his hatred of his sister for the world to hear, while the rest of the Ridgewood student body was turned into brainwashed, Kai-worshiping zombies."

"They weren't actually zombies, just like them," Skylor sighs.

Misako blinks. "Tell me the truth, or I'm calling your dad."

Skylor crosses her arms. "He won't pick up. He's on vacation visiting his fiancé." Her tone is clipped, the words biting with a hurt she's experienced and mulled over in her head.

"Your dad is engaged?" our principal asks, surprise lighting her tone.

Skylor rolls her eyes. "Apparently."

Misako turns to me, but I shake my head. The last thing we need to do is stir up the hurt Skylor is going through. It'll make her stories come out twisted, blown and tossed by the flow of her emotions.

I clear my throat. "With all due respect, I think four testimonies from the guys and another two from Nya and me give you a pretty clear picture of what happened. Ash said something inappropriate about Nya, Skylor got mad and shoved him, Kai ran at her, Cole tackled him, Kai fell backward into Ash, and Principal Wu found us. The end."

Misako raises her eyebrows. "You're sure Kai was running for Skylor, not Ash or his sister?"

"Nya was in the doorway, not in Kai's path," I argue. "And as for running at Ash...I just don't think that's likely, given that he and Kai were sitting together just moments before."

"Kai says he was running at Ash. And so does Nya, actually." She gives us a pointed look.

I raise my eyebrows. "Are you sure her crazy brother didn't just coerce her into saying that so he'd get in less trouble?"

Principal Misako's expression sours, and she crosses one arm in front of the other. "Ladies, you've always known that I'm Kai's adoptive mom, and yet this is the first time I hear about Kai's poor treatment of Nya from you. Does anyone want to explain to me why you haven't told me about this earlier? I do have the ability to ground him, you know."

Skylor practically rolls her eyes. "Kai and Nya have never been on great terms, but he didn't interact with her enough to treat her in any way – good or bad – before he moved in with her family in May. And by then, we were all out of school, so it's not likely we saw you on a daily basis."

Misako raises an eyebrow. "This has been going on all summer?"

I speak up. "Look, what Kai's been doing to Nya isn't right by a long shot, but she also didn't want to tattle on him to you. She made us promise we wouldn't say a word, and we stood by that." Until Skylor got into a fight in the cafeteria, that is.

Misako closes her eyes and releases a prolonged sigh. "So not only does my son refuse to tell his friends that he has a sister, but he also makes her life miserable?"

"That's the jist of it," Skylor deadpans.

Misako reclines back in her seat. She's silent for a moment, then muses, "I think Wu is right about this one."

When she doesn't continue, I ask, "Right about...what?"

She slowly looks over the two of us. "When Nya and Kai were in foster care, we took both of them in. Kai took on the role of being Lloyd's older sibling so easily, and he was much more adapted to living with us than Nya was. Nya acted up in every way imaginable. There were moments where we'd see a sweet side of her come out, of course. I remember baking her favorite cookies to bring with her to school one time, and when she looked through her lunchbox that morning, she was so excited that she ran up and wrapped me in a hug." Misako smiles distantly. "That was the first time she'd ever hugged me."