Transgender Jay : A Ninjago Story

5 - Lying

Walking on board, Jay remembered his Bi bracelet and quickly hid it.

"Lloyd, you... might wanna hide your headband."

"Oh, crap! Yeah!"

Lloyd untied his rainbow accessory and shoved it into one of his pockets, out of sight.

Then they walked into the dining room, and were politely greeted, before sitting down to eat.

"Jay, we called your parents to check of you had arrived safely, but they said you never did. How come?" Nya asked. Jay felt his throat seize up, but quickly thought out a lie.

"Oh? Oh yeah. Buses were delayed today and some routes shut off. I tried to send them a message but I must've had bad connection. I went to the comic store instead and met up with Lloyd."

He was scared that they'd see right through him, but they all accepted his story without question. Lloyd gave him a little wink before getting stuck in.

Jay's appetite was back and he followed Lloyd suit. Zane's cooking was delicious as well.

"Comic store? Doomsday Comix?"

"Yeah. It's the only good one in the city." Lloyd answered.

"That explains your massive bag of merch."

"Yeah, there was a Fitz Donegan sale."

Silence filled the room, and it began to get awkward.

"So what did you guys get up to today?" Lloyd asked, making polite small talk.

"Nothing much. Mainly just training and studying scrolls." Cole sighed.

"And to think, you two got to spent your day in a comic store. Hey Sensei? Can we have a day off sometime?"

Sensei didn't answer and sipped his tea.

The rest of the evening was filled with casual conversation and a game of truth or dare between the ninja, as Nya and Sensei understandably didn't want to join in.

"... Zane! Truth or Dare?" Cole asked, gleeful.

"Truth."

"Oh c'mon Zane, try Dare for once!"

"Absolutely not. You'll ask me to turn my funny switch on, and I am not in a rush to do that again."

"Fine. Uh... have... you ever had a crush on anybody?"

"Pixal. I thought that would be obvious."

"Crap, I meant crushes other than her!"

"Oh no no Cole, my turn now."

Zane turned to Jay, and quickly flicked on his humour switch and turned up the node that made him more cruel, for the sake of making the game more interesting.

"Kai... Truth or Dare?"

Kai wondered, then decided.

"Dare."

Zane smiled, and walked over to the kitchen, coming back with a large bottle of soy sauce.

"I dare you to drink all of this in 10 minutes."

Kai startled at it. It was only a few drops away from full.

"... Zane. I will literally puke."

"Oh well. It's that or forfeit."

A vein in Kai's forehead started to throb as he grabbed it and took the first swig.

"Uuuuuughhhhh that's groooossss!!!"

He took more sips and almost gagged.

"I'm gonna bloody hate soy sauce after this."

Minutes passed and Cole started chanting 'Chug! Chug! Chug!'

Kai managed to finish the vile brown liquid with 34 seconds to spare, and rested on Cole's shoulder for a while.

"Zane turn off your nastiness setting. You turn into a complete ass when it's on." Jay said, still giggling at Kai.

Zane shrugged then turned it off, immediately apologising for being inconsiderate and rude.

"It's my turn now... uh... Jay! Since you gave Zane his damn asshole node, Truth or Dare?" Kai asked.

"... Truth."

Kai thought for a second.

"Uhm... What's your deepest, darkest secret?"

Jay froze up. His... deepest secret...

He knew exactly what it was, but he couldn't say. He couldn't tell him, tell anyone.

He pretended to think, but he was really thinking about some cover story he could use. Something else. But... there was nothing. What was he going to do? Say he had no secrets? They wouldn't believe that. Come out as Bisexual? Kai might not like that too much.

He couldn't tell them his secret. He couldn't tell them he was trans.

"... uhm... that's hard. I don't keep too much from you guys. You probably know mine already to be honest." He lied, trying to look sincere.

He could feel himself getting flustered. They'd get suspicious if he carried on like this.

"... I-I..."

But then a Miracle happened. Kai suddenly stood up and rushed to the bathroom to puke. Masses of soy sauce wasn't too easy on the stomach.

Cole followed him to see if he was ok and Zane went to make him a hot drink to soothe the nausea.

Truth or Dare was forgotten.

Jay and Lloyd were left in the room alone.

"You think he's ok?"

"He's Kai. He's been though much worse than being sick and survived."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"... your secret... is it that you're Bi?"

Jay nodded, lying once again. Anything to get him out of the situation.

"Right. You couldn't exactly tell Kai, could you...?"

"No... not really."

Lloyd got into his feet and helped Jay to his.

"I don't know how to ask him why he feels like that."

Jay knew what he was talking about and ruffled his hair.

"There'll probably be something in the paper soon."

With that, they briefly checked on Kai then went to bed.

Jay stared at the ceiling for a while.

He kept lying to cover up what he didn't want others to know. How long would it be before he lost track of the lies, and they caught up to him, exposing him?

He didn't know. He wish he didn't have to.

He slipped off his binder before the others got back into the room, and pretended to be asleep when they did.

He just prayed they'd forget about Truth or Dare by morning, and not ask him to input the truth he didn't tell...