My heart pounded fast; twice as fast as a hummingbird's. Somehow, I had winded up in a whole new world. It was vaguely familiar… That's it! …I had somehow appeared in the Ninjago world. I remember hanging out with Lia, Sam, and Britt when… When what?
I whipped my head around, and caught sight of… Lia?
"Lia!" I gasped. "You – you…" I stammered. Her face was a bright yellow, and her face – actually, her whole body had changed! She looked like some Lego character now, with her ponytail glossy and reflecting what looked like the sun. Suddenly, understanding struck me – we became part of the Ninjago world! Even though this was just bizarre, I tried not to show that I was excited. Excited about what, you ask? Later. I'll tell you later.
"Sky… You… Nevermind, first we have to find Sam and Britt!" She reached out and touched my long wavy hair that seemed like it was made of plastic. Pulling my arm, she called out, "Samantha, Brittany! SAMANTHA! BRITTANY!" Turning to me, she asked, "Skylar, did u see them?"
I shook my head, but then saw the two girls dashing over towards us.
"Sky! Lia!" We spun around to see them rush towards us. "Where are we?"
I quickly explained everything to them, and all I knew about Ninjago (My brother used to love the show).
"From what you said, we have to go to the dojo where the ninjas train," Sam said slowly. "But, where is it?"
"Um, is that it?" I followed the direction of Brittany's finger and saw a huge dojo outlined against the morning sky.
"I think so!" I nodded excitedly and bounced up the stairs to knock. The others followed more slowly, looking uncertainly around.
Suddenly, the door swung open to reveal a teenage boy with brownish hair standing in front of me, clearly annoyed. I took a step back, not sure what to say.
"What are you guys doing? I thought I told my fan club to stop pestering me!" I recognized Jay as the ninja of lightning, and I giggled inwardly. It was funny how he was stupid at times. But anyways…
"We um… We need a place to er… Stay?" Britt shrugged.
"Sorry, this place is only for ninjas," Another head popped out behind Jay, and I saw Cole, the earth ninja.
"But – but we have no place to stay!" I protested, dismayed at their answers.
"Let them stay." A kind gentle voice appeared, and I saw Sensei Wu pushing forward.
"Who are these people?" Lia hissed. I could tell she was already suspicious of these ninjas, let alone stay a night in their dojo. Sam remained quiet, and I glanced back curiously, only to find her staring at empty space.
"Thank you!" Britt cried in gratitude, and we followed Sensei Wu into their dojo. As we walked, I heard Zane the ice ninja ask Sensei Wu, "Sensei, who are they?"
"They'll explain everything later," Sensei replied. Suddenly a fire ninja jumped right in front of us, making me shriek. I covered my mouth in embarrassment as I remembered Kai. He was the reason that I was kind of glad to be here. I had this major crush on him when I saw him on TV.
"Sensei! Are they intruders?" I rolled my eyes without being seen. I had learnt that Kai was hotheaded and impatient, but did he seriously think that us four girls were a threat to Ninjago?
"No Kai. Calm down first." Sensei led us to a room inside the dojo, and I saw something that looked like my wii sitting on a table with a huge TV.
As we plopped down onto the floor, with the four ninjas sitting curiously before us, I saw Kai glare suspiciously at us. I glanced at Sam, but she just scanned each of the ninjas carefully without saying anything. I nodded to Lia, and she began explaining everything from the start, when they had come to hang out at my house.
They listened carefully, and I reached out for my bag – I stared at my bag. It was different. More… Plastic-y? Anyways, I pulled out my phone, (which looked fake, too) and showed them a picture of us as humans. I blushed as Lia told them how I had watched Ninjago, and I knew more about them than any of the four of us. I was surprised when Sam cut in with, "I watch it, too." I wondered how she watched it if she had no brothers. Stupid, I scolded myself. She can watch anything she wants!
"That was some story," As the story ended, I saw a girl sitting across from me and recognized her as Kai's sister, Nya. I had been so caught up in observing my surroundings that I probably hadn't seen her join in.
"Tell us your names," Sensei Wu told us as he poured himself a cup of tea.
"Well, my name is Lia," She looked around, clearly expecting comments.
"Nice name," Jay told her, and thankfully she was contented with what he said.
"I'm Skylar," I blushed. Sometimes at school I was shy, and I was no different now. I shot a glance at Kai, and when I saw him looking at me, I quickly turned to Britt.
"My name is Brittany," As she introduced herself, I couldn't help grimacing slightly as she twirled her hair around her finger.
I nudged Sam, and she seemed to realize that it was her turn.
"Name's Samantha, but call me Sam."
"From what you told us-" Sensei nodded at Lia. "-Skylar and Sam know the most about us."
We nodded in unison, and told them everything we know. I scanned their faces for any reaction, and was thrilled to find them impressed with our knowledge.
"I think it's best if we show our guest to their rooms first. Kai, Nya, bring them to an empty room and make sure they are settled in first."
I could tell Nya was excited to lead us, but Kai followed more grudgingly.
"I can't believe we have more girls staying with us now!" She exclaimed.
"I can't believe it either," Kai grumbled. Nya swat her brother and told him, "Don't be such a grouch Kai. They're out guests."
As we got to our rooms, I stared at our beds. They looked hard. But everything did. I walked over carefully to the bed closest to the window, and sat down. The bed's soft! I was relieved that I didn't have to sleep on a hard bed.
Suddenly, Brittany tripped over her bag that she was dragging over the floor, but Kai caught her just in time.
"T-thanks!" Brittany smiled. Kai merely nodded, and helped her bring her bag up to a bed. I turned to Nya.
"Are you sure you're alright with us staying at your dojo?" I asked her.
"No prob!" She nodded. "Just make sure you don't brun down the dojo," She joked.
As we arranged our stuff along our beds and on a small table, I snuck a glance at Kai, who was watching me curiously. We looked away awkwardly, and I smiled. Maybe Kai liked me!
"Want an ice breaker?" I asked. I took out a pack of "sours" from my bag and popped one into my mouth. Kai and Nya just looked questioningly at me, and Britt and I burst out laughing. "How can you not know what an ice breajer is?" Britt gasped out between giggles. As I threw one to her, Sam and Lia, Kai and Nya walked over to me, and I gave them two each.
"No fair! How come they can have two?" We burst into giggles as Britt complained. "That's like, SO unfair." We waited for their reaction as Nya popped her two candies into her mouth while Kai stood there staring at his ice breakers uncertainly.
"Just eat it!" I sighed in exasperation. "Sheesh, it's just candy."
"You could have said that earlier!" I rolled my eyes as Kai finally ate the two of them. I glanced at my three friends, and made a cuckoo sign at Kai. I was surprised to find Sam blush when Kai glanced at her, and saw Britt and Lia bent over with their heads close together, whispering something inaudible.
Suddenly, four other ninjas burst into the room, with Sensei Wu following close behind.
"I hope all of you are satisfied with your room," Sensei Wu told us. "Since all of you are new to this, um, world," - I saw all the ninjas exchange a doubtful glance – " – each of you will have a partner to guide you around Ninjago city." I guessed that since they hadn't completely believed our story, the purpose of this partner thing was to ensure that we weren't in some kind of partnership with evil of any kind.
"You can discuss among yourselves who your partner will be." With a nod, Sensei Wu left the room.
"I want the cute guy," Lia whispered excitedly. I burst out laughing, then quickly shut my mouth as the ninjas stared at me crazily.
"Seriously Lia, you're starting to become more like Britt. And, exactly which "cute guy" are you talking about?" I giggled.
"The black one, of course," Lia rolled her eyes. "I think his name is Cole or Code or something like that." Looking around at each of us in turn to make sure that none of us wanted him, she said, "That's my partner settled then."
"I kinda wanted Cole, but oh well." Britt shrugged. "Zane's fine, too."
"Can… can I have Kai?" We glanced at Sam. For some reason, she was acting really strange. I bit back a twinge of jealousy. I wanted Kai too, but Sam was still one of my best friends.
"Sure," I swallowed a lump of disappointment. "I'll take Nya." Kai's sister was pretty nice, and I was hopeful that she would become one of my best friends soon.
"Lia chose Cole, Britt chose Zane, Skylar chose Nya, and I chose Kai," Sam told the others.
"I have a partner?" Nya squealed as she jumped up and gave me a hug. "This is going to be so fun and exciting!" She led me out of the room, and I was started to feel that I had chosen the right partner after all.
For the rest of the afternoon, we went shopping in the mall, while the others went elsewhere with their partners. Sometimes I couldn't help but wonder what Kai and Sam were doing now. Anyways, I had a blast with Nya, and we went to buy things for the ninjas afterwards, including a huge cake for Cole. We got them new games for their wii thingy too.
The sun cast a gorgeous red light on the city of Ninjago – and almost too soon. Nya and I were having so much fun, laughing and shopping the whole entire afternoon. We burst through the dojo door, each of us carrying a million of bags. As we set the stuff down, Cole ran up to the bag with the cake, and immediately grabbed it up. I looked around, and was surprised to see everyone already in the game room.
"Thanks Nya!" He opened the box without hesitation, and we all burst out laughing at his eagerness.
"Actually," Nya smiled. "Sky bought it for you." I blushed slightly. I wasn't used to being given credit, but it still felt like I was important.
"Hey, thanks!" Cole blushed, and smiled at me. I felt Lia's gaze on me, but I ignored it. He and Jay cut the cake up, and Cole made sure he got the biggest piece. As we munched on our cake, Sensei Wu came in and told us to share a little about our day.
"Cole and I just took a tour around Ninjago and its famous landmarks," Lia told us. "Then Cole fell into a fountain." She giggled. I stared at the black ninja's suit, and saw that it was indeed wet. Since it was black, you couldn't really tell the difference between wet and dry.
"Well, Zane and I went to this deserted place that no one really knew about, and he just showed me some fighting moves." Britt smiled. "It was like, REALLY fun."
"Nya and went shopping the whole day," I said, a serious expression plastered across my face with my chin held high. Suddenly, Nya and I burst out laughing.
"Um, so… Other than shopping what else did you guys do?" Sam asked.
"Well, we went to the arcade for a while…" I glanced at Nya, and saw that the other ninjas looked envious. I gestured to the bags laid out on the table. "Then we went shopping." Everyone had this crazy expression on their face, and Nya and I couldn't help laughing again. We went over to the table gasping for air, while we pulled out the video games we bought for the boys, and the little accessories that we had chosen for the girls.
"Cool!" Jay cried. "Let's play!" He grabbed a game and slotted the disk into the device. Soon, action music blasted into the room, and the boys started the game. I kinda wanted to play, but didn't know how to put my request into words.
"Hold on a sec," Nya paused the game and they groaned. "Sam and Kai haven't shared yet."
Everyone looked expectantly at the two of them, and I saw Sam smile admiringly at Kai. "We went on a short tour, then mostly stayed in the dojo and shared stories."
"Now can we play?" Jay pleaded. He grabbed a controller and resumed the game. While the other girls started to eat their cake and talked while Nya read, I kept casting envious glances at the TV. Kai must have caught me watching them play, because he said, "Sky, wanna join in?" I was kind of pleased that he called me Sky, but then again, all of my friends did. He taught me the basics first, and I caught on it pretty quickly.
"Wait. I remember they gave a free controller since I bought 12 games. I'll go get it." I dashed off to grab the controller and ran back, plugging it into the TV. I started to play like mad, kicking skeleton butts. We had played for only and hour, when Nya announced, "I'm going to check things out at the Mega Monster park." I instantly put down my controller and stood up.
"I want to go with you," I told Nya, grabbing my bag. Nya hugged me for a moment, murmuring, "Thanks, Sky."
"Great!" I heard Kai exclaim. "Now there's no one to beat us!"
"Don't you count on it Kai," I called back. "I'm gonna crush you when I get back."
Nya and I made our way down the street, and I told her about my life in the human world, and even took out my phone to show her a few pictures.
"Just saying," Nya looked at me for a moment. "I think you about the same now as you had in your human world." My only reply was a slight smile, and we talked the rest of the way to the amusement park.
Suddenly, we heard a commotion up ahead, and we saw serpentines invading the park.
Why am I not surprised? Nya and I quickly headed back home, only to encounter a huge, white dragon standing majestically before us.
"What was that?" Nya cried. I knew that dragons must've been rare around Ninjago just wandering about.
We dodged the beams that it shot out, heading for the dojo. For some reason, when I made eye contact with the dragon, I felt a strange connection.
"Serpentine attack at the Mega Monster park! And there's a huge dragon right outside!" Nya and I shouted at the ninjas.
"Right," Cole said, and they spun into their ninja suits. "Lia and the others stay at the dojo. Nya, you make sure that they're safe here." But I wasn't going to miss out on the fun. Anyways, I had to find out more about the dragon. I ducked to the right as Nya gathered the others up and ushered them into the room.
"Where's Sky?" Nya asked. Too late, I was already put the door, and looking for the dragon. I heard a distant roar, and decided to follow it cautiously. It led me not too far from the dojo, but it was a hidden place and no one was likely to find me here. It looked like some sort of a clearing surrounded by trees. Suddenly, I froze. A huge dragon was lying by a tree, whimpering. This certainly didn't sound like the dragon I had heard earlier, but it was clear it was the same one I had encountered before. I approached it cautiously, but a sudden thought struck me – I wasn't armed. In my haste to escape, I had totally forgotten to ring any weapons! I swallowed nervously, and the dragon sat up slowly to reveal a huge wound on its left wing.
I gasped and rushed over to it, forgetting my fears. Still, I stopped short when I was about a meter away from it.
"Are – are you okay?" I stammered. I didn't know if dragons could speak or understand human language, but I decided that it would be worth a shot. The only reply that I received was a snort, and the dragon just lay back down.
"Sky!" I heard my name being called. I needed to get help
"Stay right here," I told the dragon. Like it could understand me. I told myself. But to my surprise, it made a soft rumbling sound with its throat as I dashed off.
"Where were you Sky?" Nya exclaimed as she saw me thundering out of the secret place.
"In… there," I panted. "Dragon… wounded." I looked around, and saw that my friends weren't with Nya. I felt a pang of alarm.
"Oh they're back at the dojo," Nya reassured me, guessing my thoughts. Suddenly, the ninjas were back, and they came over to us.
"What's going on?" Zane asked. I quickly explained everything to them, and to Nya who hadn't heard the whole entire story. They listened with wide eyes, and as soon as I told them that I was going to try to help the dragon, Kai immediately said, "I'm coming with you." We all stared at Kai and he blushed.
"What? She needs back up!" Kai insisted.
"Fine, but just Kai's going. I doubt that the dragon will be much of a threat since its wounded," Nya said. "Good luck Sky," She whispered to me before they left.
"Now where's this dragon?" Kai asked.
"Follow me." I followed the trail back to the dragon, with Kai following close behind.
Suddenly, I heard hisses and saw several serpentines crowded around the dragon, attacking it.
"No!" I cried, flinging myself towards them. But Kai grabbed onto my arm as they turned around, holding their weapons out in front of them. That was when I realized that I had made a stupid mistake.
"Sorry!" I whispered to Kai as he groaned.
"Ssssssome of you sssssstay here," A snake hissed. "The otherssssssss will capture them." Soon, snakes from all directions were attacking us, and I didn't know what to do. I mean, we weren't trained to fight at school! A snake crept up behind Kai with an evil looking sword, but before he could attack him, I put all my strength into that kick that sent him hugging a tree.
"Tree hugger," I yelled.
"Thanks," Kai looked at me with a new kind of admiration, but I rushed over to the dragon before I could take in the praise. This time I approached it without hesitation, reaching out my hand gently to its back. It didn't growl, instead it made that rumbling noise again. I felt that same connection like last time, and I looked back to see a snake yelling, "Retreat! We have losssssssssst!" As the snakes vanished into the bushes, Kai yelled, "Don't come back!"
"Yeah, ssssssuckerssss!" I imitated them, and both of us laughed so hard as we stumbled back to the dojo.
"What's so funny?" Sam asked, frowning when we got home. Turning to Kai she said, "I bought hamburgers for you."
Suddenly I stopped. "Kai… We forgot about the dragon!" I yelped. Turning back towards the door, I started to run out into the clearing, only to be stopped by Cole.
"Hey, you can go back tomorrow, 'kay?" He told me gently.
"But – but – it's wounded!" I cried. I yanked free of his grip. "I'm going, and I don't care if the rest of you are coming or not." I held my head high and stomped stubbornly into the open.
"You're going the wrong way," I turned back to see Kai, Cole and Sam waiting for me at the entrance to the clearing.
"Oh, er, right," I muttered, embarrassed. We walked to the clearing in silence, with Sam clinging onto Kai's arm, and me taking the lead. Soon, we were greeted by a soft whimpering sound, and I said, "That's the dragon."
"Okay, Kai go get some water, and Sam and Sky," He turned to us. "Find some leaves to wrap the dragon's wing, but don't wander too far off." Sam and I walked off together, step for step.
"So uh," I cleared my throat. "You like Kai?" I asked. For some reason, I felt a lump of jealousy rising in my throat, but I pushed it back. Sam looked at me for a moment, and then said, "Yes."
"So do I," I looked down at my shoes, feeling super awkward.
"But Cole likes you," Sam's voice almost sounded pleading. "Maybe he's your type." I considered what she said for a second, then hastily told her, "No he doesn't!"
After we gathered up a whole armful of leaves, we hurried back to where Kai and Cole were cleaning the dragon's wounds with water. I patted its head gently when I set my burden, and it nuzzled my hand gently.
Suddenly, a beam shot out of nowhere, and I felt a sharp pain hit my leg, and another that knocked me unconscious.