REMEDY [ninjago jaya]

13. A Good Match

• Nya Smith •

Two weeks had gone by since she had tried to force Lloyd into cooperation, and now that their app was somewhat ready to be tested on real people, Nya had to keep her grin hidden as she instructed Lloyd to download the app onto his cellphone.

"And what exactly do I have to do?" he asked, glancing down at the pastel blue app icon.

"You just have to choose a method," Nya said, tapping on the icon and letting the screen get filled with the app's contents, "and use it to train your learning curve. It's called learn learn learn for a reason."

"O-kay..."

Nya shook her head with a sigh. "You'll understand it while using it. It's pretty self-explanatory. Now, if you don't mind, I have to go. You have our numbers, call us if anything goes wrong." She was sure Lloyd would get the message from the get-go, but just for better measure, she had given him their phone numbers.

After Lloyd reluctantly agreed and went on with his school day, Nya grabbed her things from her locker and walked out of the building. It was her free period, and since Jay also had a free period at this time, they had decided to go to the local library to study together.

Nya tried her best not to make a big deal out of it. The two were going to study together. Study. Not work on their project. Just study. For no reason other than being in the company of one another.

It was a bigger deal than Nya wanted to accept it to be. She had never studied with anyone other than Skylor before—no less with a boy.

But when Jay had suggested it, Nya couldn't resist the temptation of being near him.

Two weeks had passed, and Nya was sure a crush was slowly forming for him. She wasn't one to be attracted to a boy easily, and although lots of boys in her grade were objectively attractive, Nya had never been interested in any of them.

Jay, on the other hand, was attractive on another level. It was because of his personality, Nya was sure. And beside his inner self, he was also physically attractive. Sure, he didn't look like he went to the gym five times a week, but that had never mattered to Nya.

She loved his auburn hair and the way it was curly and looked so fluffy. She would be lying if she said she didn't want to run her fingers through it. His eyes were such a deep shade of blue, so intriguing and beautiful. His freckles were a personal favorite for Nya, and the best part was that he had dimples.

Nya was a sucker for dimples.

After a calming ten-minute walk, Nya stepped inside the library and looked around the main seating area, where she could see some university students studying with their headphones on. Jay was not there, so she walked around and searched other areas.

Finally, she found him sitting at a secluded desk all the way in the back, his back facing her. He was hunched over his notes and unaware of her presence, so she took her time watching him. He scribbled something in his notebook before letting out a sigh and shaking his head. "This won't work," he whispered to himself. Then he crossed out what he had written. "Maybe if I say..."

Nya frowned. He looked and sounded stressed out, and she didn't like seeing him stressing over things he likely had no control over. She had seen him freak out once, about a week prior, when he had found out his favorite band The Fold was going to come to town.

It had taken her a crazy amount of hours to finally get hold of two concert tickets (and maybe a little bit of the "my mother is Maya Smith" card during a phone call), but she was pleased to be the one to gift Jay his dream. He had told her that those tickets were not only very difficult to get but also insanely expensive, and now that Nya had finally gotten her hands on two tickets, she couldn't agree more.