Welcome to Ninjago Academy

Chapter 24

His body was back at school, but his mind still drifted towards home with his mom. He got the previous week off, due to Mrs. Garmadon's overwhelming kindness when she heard about the situation. Of course, his father, Lou tried to pass the break from school saying Cole needed his education and all that crap, yet Koko persisted and even made it so that she personally would deliver all his school work to his house. When she said personally she meant Lloyd who stopped by every afternoon with a folder filled with assignments and a bag of textbooks and literature for Cole to work on.

The first two days his parents left him at home while they went to doctors all over the city to try and get a proper diagnosis or treatment. Lily indeed did have lung cancer, and Lloyd was right, the cancer was hereditary, so Cole would most likely get it in the future. The cancer was found to be respiratory like Zane had claimed, she said lung cancer. Sadly, it was the more aggressive one that caused her fainting and shortness of breath. There were countless moving tumors running around in her lungs playing catch and duplicating themselves. Lily and Lou's fast-paced dancing and touring lifestyle only added to the problem since Lily skipped most of her doctor appointments that could have detected this.

The Brookstone family was heartbroken of course, given the fact that Lily had a small chance of survival now that the cancer was found. But they were still grateful that Lily didn't die without them knowing she was suffering from such an unforgivable disease.

During the week his extended family came over, well the ones on his mom's side. His paternal family completely cut ties with his father after he decided that dance was his path. The long line of lumberjacks were disgusted by what they called his "feminine desires" to pursue such a career. Even after all his success, their pride blocked out any chance of reconciliation.

At that time, Cole kept himself locked up in his room not coming out until meals and being told the unoriginal, "look who's finally decided to show up" every he showed his face, which caused him to eat in the room too. Lou didn't pester him about it and usually told Lily's family to knock it off anytime they would pull some crap like that. Cole was grateful knowing his father understood what he felt, but the comments were annoying and insensitive since they knew how much his mom meant to him.

Lily spent the week on the bed watching her old performances on the TV in her bedroom, usually making Cole sit down and watch with her. He didn't exactly enjoy watching dance, but he enjoyed his mom's presence and seeing her happy so he obliged without complaint anytime she would call him.

Just like every week, it came to an end with Cole having to reset his mind into 'going to school mode.' His father had taken a break from work, and the constant flow of money from previous shows would keep them for about one year before he had to continue. Cole decided to come to school at a time where he didn't have to socialize with people unless he had to, and since he came wen the first bell rung he didn't have to face his friends and talk about whats been happening.

When he entered math class his teacher gave him a sad smile before pulling him aside in front of the entire class and whispered an "it'll be okay," in his ear. He mumbled a small 'thank you' before striding down to his normal seat in the back corner of the room. All eyes were on him of course, and there were whispers all around the room when he laid his forehead down on the table with a mild sigh. The only thing he wanted to do right now was sitting next to his mom hanging out with her.

In fact, the only that kept him awake was Mrs. Kathy's loud voice and the air conditioning next to his seat. With out them, his mind would've completely went back to the previous week and recount all the details as a five hundred word narrative with no dialogue. By the way, Mrs. Kathy wasn't talking, and the air conditioning hadn't been working for weeks.

—----