Greenflame--The Journey Beyond

Chapter 2

Flame

  Flame had her phone out and called her friend Makayla. She is so going to freak out, she thought. It took a few moments before the other end picked up.

  "Hello?" a voice spoke.

  "Makayla, it's me, Flame!" Flame said.

  "Oh, hi, Flame! What's up?" Makayla said in a cheery tone.

  "Okay, you will not believe what I sent you just now. Please look! You'll be out of this world in less than thirty seconds, I guarantee you!" Flame urged her eagerly. She couldn't see her friend's face; however, she could sense excitement and anticipation on the line.

  It didn't take long before she heard screaming. "Flame! Oh, my goodness, is this what I think it is? No way!" Flame chuckled. "Yes, it is! It's crazy! I still can't believe it myself!" At this point, Makayla was squealing with disbelief. "Flame, if you put them up to this..." she began.

  "No, I promise I didn't," Flame said. "And besides, how can I do something like that? They would go against it. And I respect them."

  Suddenly, she heard a knock at her door. "Flame?" Cole said from the other side. "Everyone's gonna train right now, you coming?" Flame frantically put her phone aside and told Cole that she would participate, and that she'd be there soon. Footsteps echoed faintly from behind the door, and Flame whispered into her phone, "Makayla, I've gotta go train now. I trust you not to do anything with the video. Don't post it online. I recorded them without them knowing, so please, don't get any ideas." Flame was relieved when she heard her friend say, "Don't worry, Flame, your video's safe with me. I respect the ninjas, and I won't do anything."

  "Thank you, Makayla! You're awesome!" she said with a smile. "No worries," Makayla reassured her. And with that, Flame ended the call, placed her phone on her shelf, and grabbed her training clothes. It was a loose gray shirt with slightly baggy sweatpants, which were the color of dark blue. She quickly changed and tossed her previous clothes into her laundry basket.

  "I think it's my turn to do laundry tonight," she murmured to herself. Out of nowhere, she remembered a story she had been told when Lloyd mixed Zane's white ninja gi with Kai's red one, and how it changed its color to pink. Flame snickered at the thought of Zane's expression during that very moment. She shook her head and focused on the task at hand. "Okay, Flame, remember what you were taught last week," she told herself.

  She opened her door and walked down the hall towards the training deck. Once she made it there, everyone was already in motion. She noticed that Jay wasn't there, though.

  "Where's Jay?" she asked. Lloyd looked at her, his face a bit pink. He looked as if he had been laughing for a while.

  "Oh, hey, Flame. Jay went to the storage room to pick up a few boxes with weapons inside," he said. As those words had been uttered, she felt her heart surge with excitement. "Yeah. We thought that we'd test you on some combat skills," Kai told her. She couldn't help but leap in the air and pump the air with her fist. After seeing her brother and his friends fight evil and save Ninjago constantly, their Spinjitzu, them solving different problems by working together and encouraging one another, treating each other like family, never giving up, all of it gave her hope and courage, and it sometimes made her feel like a ninja like the rest of them, even though she wasn't one literally. She was exhilarated at the thought of learning how to use weapons now.

  "That's amazing! When will we start? Do I have to work on my balance and meditate first? Will I have to do some sort of test before I have permission to fight with an actual sword? Or any other weapon?" Cole stopped striking and dodging a practice dummy and laughed at her excitement. "Woah, slow down there, quicksilver, just wait until Jay comes. He's gathering weapons for this evening's training." Flame walked around the deck and stood in front of a practice dummy. She raised her fists and held them slightly over her face. Before she struck the dummy, she noticed Lloyd give Kai a nudge and mumble, "She's got your fire," and winked at him. Flame tried to focus on her dummy.