Freckles: A Jay Oneshot

Freckles

Jay was cursed.

    Okay, he really wasn't cursed. That was being a little dramatic, even for him.

    He was the unfortunate victim of genetics. There, that was more like it.

    Don't get him wrong, genetics were cool and contributed to some of his best features: his reddish-brown hair, his sparkling blue eyes, even his left-handedness. But unfortunately, genetics also contributed to his worst feature. Something that he absolutely hated.

    Ya see, Jay had freckles.

    And it wasn't just a small, barely visible cluster of freckles. No, it was this very visible, rather large cluster of reddish spots that was spread from cheek to cheek and even sprayed across his nose.

    Jay hated them.

    At one point, he didn't mind them. On the contrary, Jay used to like his freckles. He didn't know very many people who had them--aside from his dad--and thought that they made him special. And his dad didn't have nearly as many freckles as Jay did. Though Dad said that most of his freckles faded as he got older.

That was not the case for Jay. If anything, his freckles got even more visible. As Jay got older, he thought that his freckles made him look childish and began to hate looking in the mirror because of them. He hoped that this was just a phase and that soon, his freckles would disappear.

No such luck.

By the time Jay had turned 14, he was done with his freckles. It took a lot of begging and pleading before his mom finally showed him how to cover up the dreaded spots. She had tried to convince him to leave his freckles alone, that his freckles were a special part of him and he shouldn't cover them up. But Jay was insistent that something be done to remove them from sight. So reluctantly, his mom showed him how if he selected some makeup that matched his skin tone and spread it lightly over his cheeks, no one would be able to tell that he even had freckles in the first place. After some trial-and-error, Jay found a special type of makeup that wouldn't run whenever he got sweaty and wouldn't get smudged as easily.

From then on, Jay never went anywhere without covering up his freckles. It didn't matter whether he was going as close as the other side of the junkyard or as far as Ninjago City, he always covered them up. He didn't want anyone to know that he had freckles, and he thought that he looked better without them. Still, a small part of him missed seeing those bright little spots on his face. They were a unique part of him. Without them, his face looked kinda bare.

It's okay, he told himself. Give it some time. You'll get used to it.

Eventually, he did. But it took a long time.

~~~~~~~~

    Two years passed. Jay still covered up his freckles. When an old man with an extremely long, white beard asked him to join a team that he was creating in order to save Ninjago, Jay immediately jumped at the opportunity. He made sure to pack everything that he might need, including as much makeup as he could carry. He wished his parents farewell and left on his incredible journey.

    He made three close friends while he was away, and Jay could honestly call all of them his brothers in all but blood. After a bit of a bumpy beginning, they all got along great, even though Jay got teased a lot for being the youngest and the shortest of the group.

    None of them knew that Jay had freckles. And Jay hoped to keep it that way.

    Unfortunately, "the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry".

    It happened on a Friday. They had taken a day off to celebrate Jay earning his true potential the day before. At first, it was going to be a simple day-off playing video games in the Bounty when Cole suggested that they go for a swim at a nearby lake.