NINJAGO HIGHSCHOOL: CHAPTER EIGHT: An Old Friend
"Lloyd? Is that you?" Lloyd saw who it was. It was Brad! Brad Tudabone was a student at Darkley's middle school , which was where Lloyd went to school at, until he discovered his powers, and promptly moved on to Wu's School. Lloyd remembered being good friends with him, and missing him for a while, which he got over by high school. Seeing Brad again was a surprise, but not the bad kind. "Brad? It's great to see you again!" He pointed at the spare chair near his table. "Please, take a seat." Brad nodded, grabbed the chair, and sat down. Brad wasn't too far off from what he looked like back in middle school. The main differences was he was taller, not as skinny, and chiller. Middle schoolers are crazy, you know? "So, how's Elemental school?" he asked. "About as well as you'd expect." Lloyd sighed. "Honestly it's more high school than it is elemental power stuff." "Well, do you have your powers all controlled?" Lloyd snapped his fingers, and a small ball of green energy showed up. "I'd say so." he said in a confident voice. The ball disappeared, and Brad smiled. "Man, I wish I had powers that cool!" Lloyd chuckled. "It's not like I really use them for anything, although charging my phone is pretty easy." Brad pulled out his phone. "Care to help me out? I'm at 30%." Lloyd nodded and grabbed the phone. Some energy shot out of Lloyd's hand, and went through the phone for a few seconds. When he handed it back to Brad, the phone was at 100%. "Wow, cool!" Lloyd wasn't used to being called cool. "Oh shush..." Brad was looking around his phone. "No way dude! This is like, great! It just, got to 100% near instantly!" "If younger me tried that, he would of fried your phone...trust me, I went through 3 doing that." Both of them laughed at that, and were overall having a good time. They spent the next 30 minutes talking about how school was for them, semi crazy stories, the like. "Man, I'm surprised I haven't seen you since Darkley's. It's just crazy." Lloyd agreed with him. "Yeah...I don't go out much, so that's probably a part of it. Home, School, one of my friend's houses. That's basically everywhere I go." "Oh I hear you." Brad said. "My life has been boring too. Maybe some sports once in a while, but I don't do a lot." Both were quiet for a little bit, but Lloyd spoke up. "You know, it's real nice talking to you-"
"Hey Lloyd!" Brad and Lloyd were stopped by Harumi. "Didn't think I'd find you here..." she turned her head to Brad. "Oh I'm sorry, were you two talking?" Brad held his hand up. "Oh, it's fine...do you know this lady Lloyd?" "Uhh yeah, this is Harumi. I'm trying to join her club at school." "Ah" Brad said. "Well Harumi, I'm Brad, a old friend of Lloyd's." Harumi put her hand out for a handshake. "It's nice to meet you." Brad put his hand on hers and shook it. Harumi took her hand away and turned to Lloyd. "Lloyd, I was hoping we could discuss things about the club, since we're both here." Lloyd looked over at Brad. "Well uh...I was talking to brad..." Brad stood up. "No, it's fine. I have to get going anyway." He took a napkin and wrote his number, and his discord on it. "Here, use these to contact me." Lloyd took it and put it in his pocket. "Thanks! See you some other time?" Brad nodded. "Sure man." and off he went. Harumi took the seat Brad was in, called a waiter to her, and ordered some food. Lloyd already missed Brad, but sucked it up. "So...what's the deal with the club?" Harumi put her phone down. "Well, U.V and Killow don't think you should be joining, and I'm hoping you're doing some proper training, right?" Lloyd sighed. "Earlier I tried to play some Fortnite, but I couldn't do anything right." "Lloyd, you can't be a master gamer instantly." Harumi said calmly. "I know that, but if I'm not even average at it, what are the chances of me getting in? U.V hates me already too, so how am I gonna join?" He crossed his arms. "I oughta give up on joining the club..." Harumi looked at Lloyd sympathetically. "Oh, don't be so hard on yourself. I know it's getting bleak, but I'm sure we can figure out something. After all, I run the club." She said smugly. "I don't want to join the club unfairly, that'd undermine Killow and U.V's roles. Also Mr E, I guess." Lloyd forgot about E for a while. "Well, maybe I can get roles for games YOU play." "Uh...Stardew Valley and Minecraft?" Harumi sighed. "Man, you are not making this easier for us." "Oh shush" Lloyd groaned. "Not my fault the club is for competitive games." Lloyd looked at his phone. "Hey, I gotta get home, it's getting a bit late...well not literally late," he looked outside to see the sun still out. "but you get what I mean." Harumi nodded, picked up her bag, and got up. "Well, I'll see you later. Let's hope we can get this club stuff figured out." Lloyd agreed, and was left alone in the café again.
Lloyd walked into his home, to his room. "Lloyd, did you have fun at Zane's?" Misako asked from the kitchen. "Uh, yeah." Lloyd lied, not real convincingly. "Well, let me know if you need me honey." Lloyd said "Alright" and went to his room. He laid on his bed, and grabbed one of his pillows. He only had two, and wanted more, but never had a chance to buy more. Maybe it was the dragon in him that wanted him to hoard pillows. He hugged the pillow for a while, and grabbed his phone. He opened discord, and saw a image in his friend group chat. The image was sent by Cole, of him at the gamer club...he actually got in! The only response was Kai giving a eye-rolling emoji. Lloyd ignored it and went to the search button, then dug the napkin out of his pocket, that held Brad's contact info. He typed in the username, and clicked on "Send friend request". He put his phone down and rolled over. What if Brad didn't accept it? Lloyd thought to himself...then scolded himself for thinking something so stupid. Why WOULDN'T he? He was just being a nervous nancy as usual. He heard his phone vibrate, and checked it. A message from Brad. "Hey, glad you actually added me, lol." Lloyd smiled a little.