Chaos | A Ninjago High School AU

Chapter 6

Nya's POV

I've been cleaning the house all morning. Kai is quite the slob, so I have to pick up after him. Whenever I bring it up, he just tells me that "mom never cared" or to "call mom" so she can tell me to stop pestering him. Thankfully, Cole picked him up earlier, probably to prep for a party somewhere.

When I see it's only 4:30, I decide to make a little plate of cheese and crackers. I design it so it's in the shape of a bullseye. The rings alternate between different types of crackers and cheeses that we had in our cupboard.

Then, I raid our fridge for different type of drinks. There's plenty of alcohol, no shock knowing my brother, but there's also some water bottles behind those, so I grab them and set them on the counter.

When I finally finish, I realize that I've spent all day cleaning up the house and preparing. I never did this when I use to have people over, but since it's been two years, I guess I want to try to make it perfect. I forgot the happy feeling you get when you're having a friend come over.

Jay and I have been texting like crazy since after school yesterday. He's a lot more confident behind a screen, but the awkwardness still shined through. He's really fun to talk with.

When I heard a knock at the door, I quickly rush over to get it. When I open the door, Jay is standing there with his backpack on his back and a pitcher of lemonade in his hand.

"I know you said I didn't need to bring anything, but my ma got super excited I was going somewhere and decided to make lemonade for me to bring," he scratches the back of his neck with his other hand.

"It's fine. Come in," I move out of the way. He walks in and closes the door behind him before scanning the room. "I'm sorry if it's a bit small. I know that a lot my brother's friends live in mansions and stuff, so our little one story is a bit underwhelming."

"No, no, no, it's really nice," he reassures me. We walk over to the couch. Jay sets down the lemonade, and the two of us sit down.

"So I was thinking..." I grab a paper off the table that I already took out,"that we could give a tutorial on how to build a motor since we both already know how to do that."

His face lights up at the suggestion,"That's great. I doubt anyone else will think of that."

---

"So then I decided to try it. It was a bad idea, a really bad idea. I rammed right into a billboard. It gave me a concussion, but it was so worth it," he laughs while telling me a story about these makeshift wings he made a couple years back.

We finished the project after an hour and a half, but I told Jay he could still stay and hang out. Throughout our entire conversation about our failed inventions, he's still super nice to me. It pushes the question that I've been wanting to ask him ever since I met him to the front of the mind.

"Why do you pretend like you don't know?" I ask him. His eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"What?"

"That you don't know about what happened to me, who my ex is, who my brother is, all of that stuff," I clarify.

"Because I don't," he answers seemingly honestly. He takes a long sip of the lemonade.

"But how? Everyone does. Harumi made sure everyone would when it was happening," I scan his face for any traces of a lie, but there are none. There's only concern.

"I moved my junior year. I'm pretty sure all of that was done by then," he explains, and the pieces fall into place.

When I'm about to say something else, I hear a rumble outside. Quickly, I rush over to the window to peer out. My brothers truck sits in the driveway, now off. He gets out of the truck, a large pack of beers in his hands.