moral of the story | a ninjago highschool fanfiction

[11] Lloyd (Bean Boy) Garmadon

jay

Jay Walker was about to yeet himself out of his dad's crane into a pile of metal junk, because his brain was still processing what just happened. He was currently in English, crushing a ball of paper in his hand so he wouldn't stand up and scream in front of his classmates.

Cole had kissed Nya.

If you went chronologically, it technically would have been Nya kissed Cole.

However, it was easier if he just hated Cole instead. He liked to think things through, which meant he spent his English period overthinking everything that had happened earlier that morning. Tracing back the thing, it was probable that if Kai hadn't intervened, if Cole hadn't been a piece of crap, Nya would never have ended up kissing Cole, ergo it was Kai and Cole's fault. Simple.

Jay was also beating himself up inside. Maybe if he'd been faster, thought quicker and just put his hand up to say he was dating Nya Smith, he would have kissed his crush. He sunk lower in his seat and considered calling home sick to get his parents to pick him up.

"Miss Harlow, please read out the next quotes on the worksheet."

A girl near the back of the classroom yawned sleepily. "Oh yeah, sure just hold on..."

Jay looked down at his tattered copy of Romeo and Juliet, from the second hand bookstore on the outskirts of the city, then to the worksheet scribbled with halfhearted answers.

"Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake— it's everything except what it is."

Jay felt his stomach turn. He hated love. Stupid lovey dovey things like crushes were just plain stupid and got his heart in twists and his stomach full of butterflies.

"The next one as well Astra." Jay's teacher stood up to pace around the front of the classroom, her beads and bracelets and necklaces jangling along with her. She was always dressed a bit eccentrically, a kooky style with lots of drapes and scarves.

"See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I were a glove upon that hand. That I might touch that cheek!" Astra paused in her reading to make a disgusted face. "Okay, that was creepy."

The class burst into laughter, leaving Miss Kelly to shush them, sending spittle flying at the students. They all sighed mid laughter, held up pieces of paper in front of their faces and waited for the spittle volley to stop. Jay felt the tears well up behind his eyes at the mere thought of pretty much everything.

Jay Walker never got what he wanted.

He had a great group of friends, sure.

But he lived in a junkyard.

His parents were embarrassing as hell.

He was painstakingly poor and he hated it.

Everyone else saw him as a nerd, and took that as an opportunity to bully him.

The girl he liked thought of him as a friend, and had just kissed one of his best friends.

Jay Walker had nothing.

He ducked out of English when the bell rang again, with his head hung low, his stomach roiling and his brain hurting as whispers of Nya kissed Cole! and what should their ship name be? flitted through the hallways. Then there was the rare are they even dating?, which made Jay's heart leap at the possibility that maybe, just maybe this was all a show to get Chad to back off.

Jay turned the corner to his locker, catching sight of Nya and Cole talking in the deserted corridor. He fled back around the corner, leaning against the cool metal of more lockers, hoping the red of his cheeks would fade to just his freckles. Wait. He eventually heard their footsteps recede towards the library, and the coast was clear for him to switch out his books.