Welcome to Ninjago Academy

Prologue

"Dude, are you excited for school next week?" Kai asked Lloyd one day as they got ice cream with their gang.

"Eh, it'll be the same old same old," Lloyd responded with a shrug.

"Maybe this year you'll get a girlfriend, or you can decide who to date from the "Lloyd Fan Club" Tasha started last year," Kai teased. Lloyd swatted him away playfully as they neared the beach.

"Maybe you can settle on one girlfriend rather than hopping between ladies every other week," Lloyd retorted. Kai opened his mouth in the fake offense.

"I can't help my amazing, good looks and my perfect hair," Kai said, openly admiring himself, once again.

"Yeah, hair that takes you an hour to gel every morning," Lloyd snorted. Kai raised an eyebrow. The two sat down on a bench near the sand.

"Who told you that?" Kai asked, licking his chocolate cone.

"I don't know.... It was Nya," Lloyd said, spooning the vanilla sundae into his mouth.

"I'll get her back for that one day," Kai said, mischievously planning revenge.

"If you want revenge, add me in too. I want to get back at Nya after she changed my hair shampoo to green dye." Lloyd remembered. Kai laughed, thinking of the time his friend's face timed with bright green hair.

"That was hilarious. It took you like what? thirty washes to get it out," Lloyd shot Kai a glare.

"Forty-two, and the green dye stained my hands, so I looked like Michael Jackson wearing gloves for two weeks. My parents never found out luckily." The two shared a laugh while staring at the sunset.

"I'm gonna miss the summer," Kai sighed. "No more parties, no homework, no more hot summer chicks, no more parties."

"You said parties twice," Lloyd corrected. Kai raised an eyebrow.

"Did I? Well, I will be missing the parties," Kai bit into his waffle cone. The faint laughter of the rest of the group playing volleyball fluttered in the calm moment.

"Goodbye fun. Hello work," Lloyd said, tossing his cup into the trash can 20 feet away.

"Have you considered an invitation to the basketball team?" Kai asked, after witnessing Lloyd's shot.

"Nope, and I'm not joining. I already do three sports. It's hard enough to balance all three and be the team captain of two of them, I don't need another sport to do," Lloyd laughed. Kai hmphed in annoyance.

"But our best player–other than me–, Pythor, graduated last year..." Kai whined. Lloyd sighed.

"I'll think about it," he said finally.

"Really?" Kai said, full of hope.

"Nope"