Astraphobia

Chapter 2: Restless

Jane had always been afraid of thunderstorms for as long as she could remember, which was ironic to her elemental power of lightning, One of her earliest memories was from when she was three years old, hiding under her parents' bed all night during a storm clinging to her favourite stuffed animal, Mrs Cuddlywomp, and crying silently as the wind and rain battered endlessly against the window. She was told it would go away as she got older but it never did. Luckily, storms were hardly common in Ninjago, so it didn't disturb her life often.

The remaining hours of the night were restless as she lie still in her bed, trying to be still enough to hear the shouting between Wu and Nya that was muffled by the walls. Desperate to know what was going on, she slowly crept out of bed and pressed her ear up against the wall, the voices became clearer. Jane also heard something else, footsteps. Kai burst in to her room, without warning, causing Jane to fall back onto her butt. He either didn't notice or didn't care that Jane was eavesdropping, he walked past her eating a packet of chocolates and sat on her bed.

"Ever heard of knocking?!" Jane asked, irritated as she picked herself up from the floor.

"Would you have let me in?" He was still chewing as he spoke, he offered her a chocolate by holding out the packet, she shook her head and sat down next to him.

"I guess not, but a warning would have been nice."

"You can't sleep, either?"

"No, are you worried about Lloyd?"

"No, it's..." He stopped eating, put the packet down and sighed. "...Cole." His cheeks flushed bright red as he said his name

"Why, what did he do? Though you should know that as his best friend, I am obligated to take his side."

"No, no it's not that I.. I just." He sighed again, this time frustrated. "Never mind, I don't want to talk about him." He stood up and walked towards the door. "Try to get some sleep." He added, before leaving.

Jane was confused. What could he possibly be thinking about? She chose not to dwell on it, fell back against the mattress and traced the patterns in the ceiling with her eyes until she finally fell asleep.

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Nya sluggishly poured herself another cup of coffee which spilled over the sides of the cup, the hot liquid splashed over her hand but she didn't flinch at all, she simply watched as the coffee poured down her wrist and dampened her sleeve.

It was six 'o clock in the morning and the monastery was surprisingly quiet. Warm yellow sunlight seeped between the blinds, burning Nya's eyes as she walked past it. It was a fine summer morning with birds and she hated it .

"Hey sis." Kai came into the kitchen and turned around "Hey, have you seen the- eughhh, you look awful. I mean you usually look awful, but today you look like you've been possessed by a ghost."

She scowled, but she knew he was right, her ponytail was sloppy and the dark circles under her eyes were more prominent than ever, between falling asleep on the couch and being woken up at three in the morning she had barely slept.

"So, did you convince Wu to change his mind?" Kai asked, careful to avoid eye contact.

"No. He's too stubborn and grumpy to listen to me." She responded bitterly.

"Right." He tried not to giggle at the irony of her statement.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing."

"So... have you told Cole you're desperately in love with him and that when you're standing in the same room as him all you can think about is how much you want to kiss him?"

"Okay, I think you've had enough Coffee."

He snatched the cup out of her hand, she had a smug grin on her face.

"It's not that hard, just tell him how you feel or ask him out or something."

"You're one to talk, besides I'm a Smith, we play hard to get. You rejected Jane more times than I cared to count before finally agreeing to go out with her ."

"That's different."

"How is it different?"

"I wasn't playing hard to get, I was younger and didn't understand what I was feeling. You know exactly how you feel about Cole, what is holding you back?"

"I don't know. If he says no, would that ruin our friendship."

"What friendship? You've hardly spoken to him over the past few months, if anything, actually talking about it could save your friendship."

"But- what if he's not even into guys?"

"Then I will owe you $50 and publicly admit that I was wrong and you were right."

"But, but..."

"But what?"

"Why is this so important to you?"

She stood up and put her hand on his shoulder, "Because, I'm your sister, when you make stupid decisions I tell you they're wrong, when you refuse to address your own feelings, I will annoy you until you do, and when Cole inevitably rejects you, I will laugh."

"How do I disown you as my sister?"

She smirked, " I love you too, stupid idiot. Let me know when you realise I am right."

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"Jane?"

"Jane?"

"JANE!"

Jane jumped up "I'm awake, I'm awake." She said, slowly coming to her senses.

"Finally, you sleep like a brick." Cole releasing her arm from his grasp.

"Uh, why am I on the floor?" Jane asked, while massaging her wrist with her thumb.

"You wouldn't wake up so I pulled you out of bed. It's four in the afternoon, I had to pack most of your stuff for you! You're leaving in an hour."

A sudden wave of realisation flooded over her, but she chose to ignore it and pretend it wasn't true, though that tactic would only work for so long.

"Don't forget your to pack underwear, you have clean clothes on the end of your bed and- whatever I'm not your mum, you can make your own dinner."

He left the room. Jane was glad he wasn't making dinner, firstly because Cole was the worst cook in the world and secondly, because she knew she wouldn't be able to stomach it. She put on her gi, it was much fresher and cleaner than the one she had taken off and left balled up on the floor, she noticed a patch of slightly discoloured cloth had been sown over the area of her calf which had a burn from not too long ago. The wound had mostly healed but still hurt when she touched it.

She packed two dozen pairs of underwear, it would seem like overkill but based on what the mission entailed, it may not be enough.

Satisfied, she picked up the final bag and took it to the hallway, PIXAL was there, waiting for her, she had taken the rest of her bags to the Bounty.

It was five o'clock.

Time to leave.