hey this is gonna exist for a while
Lydia woke up to an annoyingly familiar city that she was not supposed to be in.
"Wow, my bed's a lot brighter than normal." She grumbled aloud, sitting up. "And harder. What is this?" She glanced around. Park bench. Ninjago city. "If this is Morro's idea of a joke, I'm going to kick him." As her eyes adjusted to the light, however, it became increasingly clear that something was off. New Ninjago City didn't look the same. It looked… more traditional?
A glance to the right revealed fishing boats out on the water. Glance to the left revealed a huge TV mounted on a building, showing today's Garmadon attack forecast.
Oh.
Oh.
"Aw, heck it, Mega." Lydia yelled into the sky, throwing her hands up in the air. "Movie Ninjago? This is real too?!" Unless, unlikely, this was a dream, but since her life had a history of not-being-a-dream, she was going to assume it was real for now. "What am I supposed to do now?" She grumbled. "The movie turns out fine. There's really nothing to change. And I shouldn't! I could mess something up and I don't have the world knowledge to fix it!" She paused.
"Heck. What day is it? Pre or post movie?" She stood up. "I should walk. I'm hungry." She started to walk, down a path and out of the park. "I got no money, no decent world knowledge, no place to stay, I can assume Morro and Karen aren't here." She mused. "And that Mega is to blame." Cause who else? "I'll be dead in a week if I don't find food and shelter." She sat down on a bench that was on the side of the road, dully noting the people walking all around. Lots of people in Ninjago City. Were there other cities? How big was Ninjago? What she wouldn't give for a map- "Okay sunshine, survive the week first and then you can study." She scolded herself out loud.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something yellow, and she looked up to see a school bus lumbering down the street in her direction. One side appeared to be lower than the other. Lloyd's bus. Isn't that a coincidence, Mega.
Maybe she should follow it. A high school was a good place to try and blend in, and maybe get some food. Before she could pursue this plan further, however, the bus slowed, then stopped, right in front of her. The doors opened, and Lydia glanced back and forth. No one else. Had it stopped for her? After a moment, she stood, resigned to her fate, and entered the bus.
About thirty pairs of eyes focused on her the moments she stepped into the bus.
Sure enough, every student but one was packed onto the right side of the bus, some rows packed with three or four teens when they were meant for two. The sole occupant of the left side was a cute teenage boy with platinum-blond hair, who gave her a friendly smile none of the other students had offered. Lloyd
Her first instinct was to get to the back of the bus as fast as she could and sit in the unoccupied seat in the very back, avoiding eye contact with everyone the entire drive. Probably the smart thing to do, to avoid changing things.
But these nasty teens were practically asking for this. Lydia walked over and slid into the seat next to Lloyd.
"Hi." She greeted him, fully aware of thirty teenagers staring at her from behind. Heck.
"Hi." His friendly smile widened into a grin. He resembled the Lloyd she knew a fair amount, his face was very similar, but the coloring of his skin, hair, and eyes were a bit different. "I don't think I've seen you around here before. I'm Lloyd." He offered her a hand, and she shook it a bit awkwardly. She was never good at shaking hands.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Lydia." The bus started moving, and she glanced out the window to see a bus stop. Right where she had been sitting. In the bus stop. Oh.
"Nice to meet you too. Did you just move into the area?" He asked, no trace of nervousness or awkwardness on his face. How was he so calm? Didn't everyone hate him enough that he rarely, if ever, had conversations with strangers? Maybe he was a really good actor.
"Um, I'm an exchange student." Lydia you moron. He provided you with an excuse and you blew it in favor of exchange student. You barely know what that is.
"Oh, really? Where are you from?" Lloyd interrupted her mental self-bashing, and she racked her brains for an answer.
"Um… Ohio." She thumbed over her shoulder. "Way across the ocean."
"Oh, really?" Lloyd's eyes lit up with interest. "What's it like that far away?"
"Oh, you know, pretty quiet." She was still being stared at. It was all she could do to not swivel around and give them all the middle finger.
"Ah." His smile wavered. "How are you liking Ninjago City?"
"It's so much bigger than my home town." True. "I'm kinda overwhelmed."
"That's understandable. But you'll get used to it." The bus lurched to a stop, and Lloyd looked up. "Ah, we're here." As the bus doors opened, the rest of the teens flooded out, pushing and shoving as if racing to be away from Lloyd first.
She wanted to trip them.
Once the path down the center of the bus was clear, she slid out of her seat and followed Lloyd out of the bus. The walkway up to the school fell quiet as the blond emerged, and Lydia began mentally calculating how many teens she could take on at once. Plastering a cheerful look on his face, Lloyd started walking, and Lydia moved to follow, but a hand grabbed her arm. Immediately prepping for a fight, she spun around to see a freckle-faced teenage girl standing behind her.
"You're new around here, aren't you?" She asked, then went on before Lydia could answer. "You don't wanna be friends with Lloyd. He's bad news." Lydia stared at her for a few moments, trying to think of an appropriate retort, then finally figured the girl was sweet enough to try and warn her and probably didn't deserve her wrath.
"I'm going to put this as delicately as possible. No. Go away." She kept walking. The girl stood there, stunned, for a few moments, before yelling something incoherent after her and stomping off. So much for sweet. She caught up to Lloyd, who hadn't appeared to notice the interaction.
This was going to be a long day.
For those of you who don't follow my tumblr or read Candaru's fics, here's a little bit of context for who the heck Mega is: .xcxoxmx/xpxoxsxtx/x1x7x7x7x0x3x3x7x0x7x6x3x/xixmx-xjxuxsxtx-xgxoxnxnxax-xpxoxsxtx-xtxhxixsx-xtxhxixsx-xixsx-xtxhxex-xsxoxrxtx-xoxfx-xtxhxixnxgx OR if you don't feel like removing about 200 xs you can just search "art of fff tumblr" and look at the topmost post (at least until I post something else)
~FFF