(A/N: Sorry for the long wait.)
Lloyd's POV
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, Uncle Sensei would not have approved. But late Saturday morning, I called Natalia, and asked her if she wanted to go to Buddy's Pizza. She said yes, so I left the house (ahem, the ship) - without telling Mom.
I know, I know! Wow that was really irresponsible of me, what if something had happened, oh Lloyd what were you thinking, etc, etc, etc. But I wasn't thinking at all, except that it was lunchtime and I wanted pizza, and I was seeing the girl of my dreams in the process. Win-win.
Anyway, usually you need parental permission to ride the bus to Ninjago City, but technically I wasn't a kid anymore, even if I was technically also still nine years old, and...well, it's complicated. Plus, I didn't think anyone really wanted to call my parents to say where I was, and get "Hello, Lord Garmadon speaking." So, it was no problem getting into the city. Natalia already lived there, and we met at the pizza place. "Uhhhh...hey, Natalia."
"Hey, Lloyd."
"What'll you have?", said the waiter.
"Pepperoni," we both said at the same time.
"And two lemonades," I finished.
"No problem."
"So, Lloyd.", Natalia said, "Why'd you ask me to meet you?"
"Well, um - uh - I just wanted to see you. Maybe tell you some stories about the ninja."
"Sure! Tell me!"
So I told her about accidentally unleashing the Serpentine, about the time Jay's parents almost got turned into snakes, about the ninja getting turned into kids and what came after, about Dareth gaining control of the Stone Army during the Final Battle, even about Cole and the cake from the last time we visited Darkly, back when it was Darkly's for Bad Boys. "And Cole would probably Spinjitzu my butt if he knew I told anyone that story," I finished, just as we ate the last of the pizza. We both laughed.
Then, after a moment of silence, she said, "Lloyd?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you ever wish you weren't the Golden Ninja?"
"Well no. Yes. No! Okay, yeah I do. Sometimes. Sometimes I wish...I wish I could have had a full, normal childhood. Sometimes I wish I could have grown up with a normal dad with a normal job, and a normal mom, and a normal school instead of Dareth's Dojo, and normal friends instead of ninja, and- and I wish I could have grown up all the way, and gone through puberty normally, instead of growing up all at once drinking Tomorrow's Tea. And even now I sometimes wish my life was normal, and I could worry about chores and homework and girlfriends instead of saving the world and developing my special powers..." I stopped. "Sorry."
"Nah. It's okay. Being normal isn't all it's cracked up to be." She grinned. "But I guess it's better than nothing."
"Hey, look over there!", a girl's voice called from the crowd.
Uh-oh. "You know another thing about being the Chosen One..."
(Next chapter: Probably Misako, but we could stick with Lloyd for another chapter.)