In one universe, a teacher by the name of Ms. Bloodsmith, felt rather sick in the morning and by the time recess rolled around, she decided to take a sick day. This resulted in the class (which she was supposed to teach until lunch) having their lessons cancelled completely.
In another universe, Ms. Bloodsmith was not so wise as to take a sick day. She instead decided to soldier on and call it a day after lunch. Her colleagues in the teacher's room were rather unimpressed by her decision.
"Are you sure? I reckon we can get some skulkins to sub…" Mr Malforts continued trying to persuade her to call in sick. When he received confused looks, he snapped "What? Since the Ninja got their leader killed, their economy has been in shambles. They're cheap labour now."
At that, there were some mutterings across the teachers' room of general agreement. A few curses were thrown at "those darn Ninja" as an afterthought.
"I do not need a sub," Ms. Bloodsmith angrily growled. "I will get through lunch. Then I don't have any more classes, and then I'll call in sick."
Mr. Malforts breathed in deeply through his nose and looked about ready to continue arguing. But instead, after ten minutes of debate, Mr. Malforts finally backed down.
"Fine. Whatever floats your boat, toots," Mr. Malforts muttered under his breath. She nodded sharply, feeling she had won the argument, and due to sickness, completely missed Mr. Malforts' patronizing tone. She massaged her stomach as it continued churning away.
"That does it!" Principle Ignoble bellowed suddenly, storming into the teacher's room, door slamming open. Most teachers looked up with only mild interest. Something was always getting under Principle Ignoble's skin.
"What's wrong now?" someone asked.
"You!" Principle Ignoble shouted, pointing at Mr. Wretch. "You listen here; I want that goody-two shoes expelled yesterday."
"Uh… What?"
"I just read his report! Did you even look at it, man?! Have you seen it with your eyes? He's making us look like a joke!"
"But… It's… It's just one kid, sir," Mr. Wretch defended himself.
"And, come now, Charlie. We can't expel him," Mrs. Snarl added, walking over to the two noise-makers. She muttered lowly, "You know who his father is."
"He's destroying the school's reputation!" Principle Ignoble snapped. "If we let this continue, we might as well become a regular school for regular children! This," he said, holding up the school report, "is not what we are about!"
Mrs. Snarl shoved it aside dismissively and started yelling back.
Ms. Bloodsmith tried to pay attention to the ensuing argument, but she simply couldn't. Her mind kept drifting in and out. She only caught half the conversation at best. She supposed this was fine – idle teacher's room gossip, pretty par for the course. Then she managed to get just enough grip on reality, to hear the most important part of the argument: the conclusion.
"If that boy does anything but ace his sport's exam tomorrow, he is expelled. THROWN OUT! I don't care who his father is, I want him GONE! Out of MY SCHOOL!"
"Yes, Principle Ignoble, sir," the rest of the teachers hurriedly acknowledged, giving him a loose salute. Mrs. Snarl was however, rather aptly, snarling. She was really opposed to the idea of expulsion, but without even Mr. Wretch's support, she wasn't going to plead her case any more.
What does she know anyway? Former henchwoman knows nothing… Ms. Bloodsmith thought to herself. Then the bell rang, and lessons continued.
Feeling rather queasy and regretting many choices in her life, Ms. Bloodsmith stood at the front of her class, the projector displaying various objects associated with inter-realm travel. She was perhaps an hour into the lesson, when the symptoms became significantly worse. She started feeling weak at the knees. The room was spinning. The nausea had got worse. She pushed onwards still.
"This is the… Realm crystal…" she choked out. "Said to be buried with the First Spinjitzu Master, its location is unknown. This… is an artist's impression… Unlike Traveller's Tea, it," she coughed, "permits the user to go any place they want. After dragons, it is said to be the next best way to travel across realms…" She audibly groaned. Not one student dared make fun of her weakness though. She ran her class with such a cold, iron grip that even if she were half-dead, no child of hers would take advantage of it.
Ms. Bloodsmith summoned her strength to look for questions across the classroom. Much to her irritation, the runt had raised his hand again. Usually, he just sat in the corner silently, as she had taught him to do many years ago. But today, something must have caught his interest, because after every tiny little comment, up his hand shot with a question on his lips.
If this unusual behaviour had happened on any other day, Ms. Bloodsmith would have ignored him or bullied him into shutting up. But being one step away from throwing up last week's breakfast, she was functioning on her teacher's instincts alone. And her instincts felt it was more important to answer questions than to deliberately exclude the class runt.
"Yes, Lloyd?" she asked, impatiently.
"Uh… Has anyone narrowed down where it could be? Like… If the crystal's buried where the First Spinjitzu Master is, shouldn't one of his sons know where it is?" Lloyd asked. The class audibly groaned. No one knew why Lloyd was so obsessed with knowing the location of objects that permitted inter-realm travel. They just knew that it had grown old an hour ago.
"FSM, Lloyd…" Ms. Bloodsmith muttered under her breath. "Why. Why do you need to know?" she then demanded. Lloyd did that annoying thing where he shrank into himself. If she kept yelling, he would also get big, glassy eyes and a wobble in his bottom lip. Ms. Bloodsmith hated signs of weakness, but she did not mind bringing them out in Lloyd. There was something about the runt that she fundamentally did not like, so pushing him past his emotional thresholds was a bit of a pleasure trip for her.
However, today, she would not push him beyond what he was capable of handling. Today, she was, as said, very, very sick. So she actually gave him a fairly reasonable answer instead.
"Look," she said, "it's good that you're actually showing interest for a change. But we've got a lot of material to work through and now is just not the time for that kind of discussion."
"Well, when is the time?" Lloyd asked, this time without putting his hand up. The class fell audibly silent. No one was allowed to ask out of turn. To do so was practically a death sentence. The class did not dare look at Lloyd though, lest they catch Ms. Bloodsmith's attention. Instead, they waited for Ms. Bloodsmith to respond on her own.
Fortunately for Lloyd, Ms. Bloodsmith's stomach decided to flip over a few times just as Lloyd asked his little question. Distracted by severe discomfort, Ms. Bloodsmith automatically responded instead of getting angered by Lloyd's talking out of turn.
"In a few years. We go into detail in…" she hissed deeply, "Archaeology for Masterminds. Assuming you pass your classes in Death Traps, Escapology and History of Evil. In Archaeology for Masterminds we discuss… Suspected locations… So. That's when. Will you stop asking questions now?"
Lloyd nodded. Ms. Bloodsmith let out a sigh of relief. Then her stomach took a turn for the worst, and she lunged to the classroom sink, letting it all out, much to her students' collective horror.
It was Friday. Despite its ordinary nature, it had great significance in two universes.
In one universe, this was the day that Lloyd Garmadon had been expelled from Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys, because he had failed to be "evil" enough. Despite Lloyd's best efforts, he had failed his exam and to add insult to injury, he had been expelled. He never realized though, that if he had just passed that one exam, he would have been allowed to stay.
In the other universe, Ms. Bloodsmith had not been signed off work. Which meant that Ms. Bloodsmith had talked about inter-realm travel, before being sick in front of her entire class. Lloyd, knowing his father had been sent to the Underworld for being a very bad man, was very interested in inter-realm travel. And, once Lloyd found out that he would only be able to learn more in a few years' time, Lloyd suddenly had a very strong interest in pursuing his education.
In one universe, when fighting against Gene in his "sport's" exam, Lloyd hadn't sabotaged Gene or fought dirty. Despite winning the duel, he had still failed the exam for not demonstrating any villainous skills. This would make Lloyd determined to prove his school wrong, because in his eyes, he thought the only way to see his father again was if he could get himself banished too (he then got distracted by short-term goals, like candy… and treehouses…)
In the other universe, Gene left the exam with a nosebleed and a broken arm. In this universe, Lloyd no longer hoped to be bad enough to get banished. He now hoped to stay at school long enough to learn how he can get his father back by himself. And in order to stay, he needed to start playing the game and stop substituting "true evil" with what he believed was bad behaviour.
In one universe, this Friday was significant for Lloyd Garmadon getting expelled and finding his way to becoming the Green Ninja.
In this universe, this Friday was significant for Lloyd Garmadon finally embracing what it would take to make it at Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys. And staying there.