I became an orphan 5 years ago, through 2 events that killed my parents and my older brother. I don't want your sympathy; I'm only telling you this so you'll understand why I was adopted. Not too long ago, I cried about my dad's death a lot, but I never, ever accepted sympathy. One more thing, I never, ever cry in public. Only my sister, Joy, and my 7-year-old brother Zack have seen me cry.

Now that I've got that out of the way, time to start:

I was thinking when she called us.

"Asher! Tara! Zack! Joy! Angel! Come down here please!"

I shut my eyes to prevent my tears from escaping. I kept trying to remind Mrs. Walker, the lady who adopted my siblings and I, that I don't want to be called that. Back then I tried to get people to call me Lina. My full name's Angellina. Like 2 names in one: Angel-Lina. Mrs. Walker said my parents named me Angel for a reason. At least she doesn't call me Angellina. The reason I didn't like being called Angel was because my father used to call me his little angel.

Anyway, I walked down the stairs as I fiddled with my necklace. Daddy gave it to me for my 7th birthday and it has a simple, little angel painted my favorite color, orange. I remember when Dad gave it to me I promised him I'd never take it off.

This is pretty random, but Mrs. Walker's first name is Nya. (Though I've never met him, Mr. Walker's Jay. Don't worry! He's alive.) She was the only one willing to take on all 3 of us. (Of course, Joy and I's age probably had something to do with it too.) I was pretty surprised when I found out she already had 6-year-old twins, Asher and Tara.

Sorry. O.K, this time I'll warn you: subject change. Nya's brother (also the twins' uncle), Kai, visits sometimes. He has spikey brown hair and the black eyes that everyone around here has. Well, not everyone. I have met a few people with grey eyes. Kai could only visit every once in a while because he lived all the way in Ninjago City. (We live in Lego City.)

When I reached the bottom of the steps, I saw Kai. Kai would always tell us stories about 5 ninja with awesome elemental powers. The black ninja of earth (my favorite), blue ninja of lightning, white ninja of ice, red ninja of fire, and the green ninja with all 4 elements. Kai never told us their names, he only called them 'Black,' 'Blue,' 'White,' 'Red,' and 'Green.' The red ninja also had a sister, but he only called her 'the sister' or 'Red's sis.' My siblings also preferred the earth ninja, but the twins liked the blue ninja, who had a crush on 'Red's sis.' I'm not sure why I'm telling you this.

Anyway, he told us the one where Lord Garmadon (I'm not sure why he told us the villains' names and not the heroes'.) turned the 4 ninja with 1 element into kids without even knowing. It took a little while and it ended with 'Green' becoming older. Afterwards, Nya told us to go to bed.

"But we're not tired!" Zack complained, but then Asher yawned.

"Go to bed, all of you!" said Kai, pointing to the stairs.

Joy and I went upstairs, following behind the 3 younger kids. The others mumbled their protests, but my sister and I mounted the stairs silently.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up. I'm not sure why, but I descended the steps. I heard voices as I neared the bottom.

"-can't protect them forever, Nya," Kai was saying.

I slipped over next to the kitchen's doorway (where they were talking) and listened.

Nya sighed, "I know."

"You should come back and bring them too. We all miss you, especially Jay."

"They're only kids."

"They should at least know they're ninja!"

Ninja? I thought.

"They've got enough problems without being ninja dumped on them!" Nya argued.

"Look, whether you like it or not, next week I'm coming back and I'm bringing the team."

What team? I thought.