The long-awaited first chapter of Security Footage is here! *party popper*
This has been one of my favourite stories that I'm writing for about a year now, and I recently reopened my email and went onto Word and found the original draft, and I remembered to start posting this story. So now I am.
High school AU. The ninja DO have their powers, I just might not make them use them in this story much. Kai's POV. This would be around the time of season four in my eyes, but you can put it anywhere you want. But Kai meets Skylor in this story, so I've always pegged it as season four...
OH WELL! I've rambled on way too much now, so...
SECURITY FOOTAGE
Property of Ninjago City High School.
She's always the first thing I see on the CCTV camera screens. She's a mystery to me, and one I want to solve. Like, she's the missing piece to the puzzle.
Her bright red hair always stands out on the screens. Not to mention her amber hoodie. My descriptive skills have never been that great, and this one is really vague, and doesn't convey just how much she stands out to me, but she does. And it isn't for her hair or clothes. It's her natural beauty. Her eyes are a light brown, several shades lighter than my own, and her cheekbones are high. Her eyebrows are thin and slanted, the same colour as her hair. Her full lips are always a light, orangy colour. She's gorgeous.
I know her name from the assemblies held before the school days' lessons start. Skylor. It's as beautiful as she is. Everything about her is perfect. Except that one teeny, tiny issue.
She doesn't know I exist.
I work in a school. I'm not a teacher, or a lunch supervisor, or a janitor. No. I watch the security footage of the school in real-time. It's just me and my four best friends. We sit in a secret room known only by us and the rest of the staff. And maybe my little sister. We keep an eye on all of the students in the school, watching out for fights or people trying to leave the school grounds when under the allowed age and whatnot. We make sure that everyone behaves properly, without even getting seen. We are ninja.
Jay sits to my left, Lloyd on my right. Next to Lloyd, there's Zane, and finally Cole. I'm Kai. The five of us work together but alone at the same time. We each have a radio and headphones exclusively for the cameras. We all just wait there for a few hours every day in silence until one or two of us have to alert the staff about a kid trying to sneak over the fence at the end of the field, or a scuffle between a couple of the boys. Yeah, we get bored. Especially Jay. How he manages to sit still all day, I don't know, because he can never do it any other time.
I keep my ears and eyes open and fixed on the footage. Girls and boys, tall and short, new and returning, students and teachers. Those from detention have just been released, and small groups stream from the base of the languages tower, the science department and maths block. Then I finally see her again. Skylor is sitting calmly and alone in the field outside the sports department. One of the larger friend groups sits near her, and she occasionally shoots looks over at the other girls. Jealousy? Is that what I see in her eyes?
Sighing, she stands and walks away. I lose sight of her as she enters the building, emerging through the doors on another screen, overlooked by another of the guys.
The third time I see her that day is just before fourth period begins. Fourth is always just after lunch, with third separating lunch and recess. There are two lessons before recess and two after lunch. This is the penultimate one of the day, and Skylor stands silently in the maths department, leaning against the wall outside the first classroom on the left. She lets her bag slip down her shoulder and land on the floor before she unzips it and pulls a book out. I don't get the chance to identify it before she flips it open. Her class surrounds her, laughing and joking with friends. No one says anything to her, even as she is jostled and pushed by people and bags alike. Once her teacher arrives, the class enters the room and I, once again, lose sight of her. This time, she is on one of Jay's screens, and I have to fight the urge to look over to my left to watch over her, like some guardian angel in red. I watch her take her seat at the back of the class, with a blank stare as the teacher asks question after question. After mentally scolding myself, I yank my eyes off her and look back at my own screens. There are a couple of stragglers, tearing through the campus like scissors through paper to get to their next class, while one kid stays in the middle of the field, refusing point-blank to make his way to class. I radio in to the main staff, and within minutes there are a few lunchtime assistants surrounding him, trying to coax him to class. They are finally successful, and we are now liberated to have our own lunch break. I keep my eyes on Jay's screen, staring intently at Skylor, when I feel a strong hand grab my right shoulder and spin my chair around. My instincts kick in, and a small flame sprouts to life in my raised right hand. Lloyd stands over me, a blond boy in an emerald green jacket and jeans. His hand recoils to prevent a burn, and I sigh and extinguish the flame as Cole and Jay suppress giggles at my reaction. Rolling my eyes, I take my headphones off and let them sit around my neck.
"What? What's going on?" I ask, bewildered. Jay laughs harder while Cole shakes silently. Zane looks at them out of the corner of his eye, confusion crossing his face. The scene is even funnier to Jay, who bends over and gasps for breath. Even Lloyd is chuckling gently now.
"I was asking if you wanted anything from that sandwich place down the road?" He asks, and a realisation hits me like a brick. The punch settles in my stomach. "But you didn't answer. We kept trying to get your attention, practically yelling at you in case you had your headphones too loud, and you just kept staring at this one screen." I can feel my cheeks boiling with every word Lloyd speaks. "So, I'll try one more time. Kai, would you like anything from Sooubway?" I cringe inwardly at the mention of Jay's nickname for the sandwich place round the corner, but I try to not let it show. I nod. "What one?" Lloyd asks as he pulls up the Notes app on his phone. Everyone else's orders are already there, neatly organised.
"The Meatball Melt on Italian bread, please." I place my full order, and Lloyd nods as he types it in.
"I'll be back in half an hour tops. I'll text you guys if I'm held back by anything." The rest of us nod as we turn back to our screens; Jay is still vibrating from laughter, his chair making small clicking noises as it shakes under him.
Ten minutes after Lloyd leaves, Cole speaks up into the silence.
"Anyone seen anything else to report?"
Obviously, none of us have, or we would all know, but Cole is the type of guy to just want to talk. Zane and Jay reply, while I keep staring at one of Lloyd's screens. When one of us is not present in the room, those next to him split his screens, so we still have full coverage of the school and its grounds. I don't hear any of the other three repeat my name. I don't notice them standing behind me. I don't feel Zane's hand on my shoulder until it's there. He grips me hard as my head whips around and my chair spins. Jay and Cole, once again, break down into hysterics. I roll my eyes as a deep blush rises up my cheeks.
"Are you okay, Kai?" Zane asks, concern lacing his normally-monotone voice. I nod quickly. Maybe a little too quickly. The nindroid raises an eyebrow as Cole takes a deep breath to steady himself.
"So, who is she?" He asks, gripping his side. I feign confusion, knitting my eyebrows together. Cole rolls his eyes. "We know the signs! After all, Jay shows them all every time he sees Nya." Jay stops laughing to shoot his best friend a piercing look, pretend betrayal gleaming in his eyes, which spill tears from his eruption.
"Oh." I reply, quietly. I've never been this smitten with a girl before, and I'm nervous to admit it. But I have to. They're basically my family. If I can't tell them, how will I be able to approach a girl in the future? "Her name's Skylor." Jay snickers again, and all three of us send confused looks his way as he brushes at his eyes quickly.
"It's just her name, Jay." Zane scolds softly. "It is no reason to laugh." Jay nods slightly as he starts breathing rapidly to stem his laughter. Cole and I roll our eyes together. Not another one of his personal puns... Cole raises his eyebrow as he looks at me, and I shrug. After a minute or two, Cole and Zane return to their seats and start watching their screens again. I also turn around and start scanning the footage in front of me for any issues, but I find nothing. Jay, however, stays standing and remains behind my chair. He slowly leans towards me and whispers in my right ear.
"Sk-why-lor would you want to date her?" He giggles softly as he speaks, and I hear Cole groan quietly.
"I could ask you the same thing about my sister." I shoot back without even turning to face him. The room is silent from tension until both Zane and Cole burst out laughing. Finally, maybe the guy has actually used his humour switch again. Jay stands properly again before sitting in his own chair again, blushing like a strawberry. I smirk to myself as I shift my gaze around on the monitors in my face.
Eventually, after twenty-two minutes, (I told you, we get bored) Lloyd returns, and he throws me my sandwich. Jay calls out a meme as my sandwich hurls through the air towards me, and he gains a smack each to the back of the head from Cole and Lloyd, simultaneously. He shuts up again pretty quickly, rubbing the back of his head. Lloyd sits down and takes back his screens, mumbling something to me about paying him back. I nod, not really listening, and rip through the paper around my sandwich. I tear through the bread without even a glance down or a second thought.
So that was the first chapter of Security Footage. I hope you guys all enjoyed this, and it seems to be of quite a decent length, so I may not update this for a while. Also, I'm attending a Pride celebration tomorrow with family, so I won't really be able to get another chapter out tomorrow. I will try to get stuff out this week though.
I will see you all soon.
This story has been in the making for about a year now, and I kinda dropped it. I was first writing FanFiction before I even had this app, so I just kept it in books or in Word, which is where this one came from. And I recently reopened my Word, finding the original draft for this story. And now it's being rewritten and released! Hooray!
It's somehow, again, before midnight, so I think maybe I am actually just writing quicker. Or maybe I am possessed. Is time possessed maybe? Or is Virgil from A Lesson In Practicality behind this?
There may be a few song references in this story as well. So ya know... be prepared. This high school is based off of my own secondary school, and anyone who went/goes there will know exactly how this school is laid out. Buuuut, only, like, one person on here went to my school. And she went with me... oh well.
HI DYPHEN! I AM BACK!
I'm glad you said you were looking forward to Security Footage (SF) being released. So thank you for all of the support you have had for me and all of my stories so far. You're an amazing friend! Can't wait to see you again on Monday!
For the rest of you, however, I bid thee farewell. For however long it may take me to write another chapter and release it.
Take care everyone!
LunaPikazard
P.S: from now on, instead of constantly writing the entire story name every time I mention it, they will be shortened. Gone will remain Gone, though. I can't really shorten that. So this one will become SF, "Help her!" will just be HH!, My Band will be MB, We Aren't Heroes will be WAH, etc. So yeah, that's what that's about.
P.P.S: sorry Dyphen, I'm writing about Skylor again. Yep, I think she's my favourite character.
P.P.P.S: (is that a thing?) I will try to get WAH out again this weekend too, but like I said, I'm a bit busy, so it may be a stretch. Bye sleep!