Here come the feels! The next chapter will be a bit longer and also packed with feels, and then we'll finally get to the action part.
Enjoy

For a Garmadon attack, this is getting a bit boring. Lloyd thought as he rolled a pencil up and down his desk. Maybe it was the fact that normally he would already be in the middle of battle by now, but he was really itching for some action. In his peripheral, he could see the girl who stood up earlier, absentmindedly twirling a pocketknife in her fingers, looking about as bored as he was feeling. Long minutes ticked by, accompanied by nervous whispers of the other students.

Finally, after what felt like hours, the speaker mounted above the door crackled, signaling a school-wide announcement.

"Good morning, students," the principal's voice came through, a couple octaves higher than usual, "As you may have noticed, our school is currently under a hostile takeover by Lord Garmadon." Nya noticed, to her confusion, that a lot of the kids turned to glare at the blond boy who came in late, as if the takeover was his fault, "There is no reason to panic of course. The Secret Ninja Force will handle things as always... but as they haven't made an appearance yet, we will ask all personnel to report to the auditorium along with their students. Thank you for your attention."

The last two sentences were hurried, and following that, the voice abruptly cut out. The explosion of whispers that followed was almost as loud as yelling.

"All right, everyone, settle down, please. Quiet. Quiet! I said SHUT IT!" the infamous screech of Ms. Owsinski was the equivalent of someone pushing the mute button. All the students turned to stare at her like flock of owlets, and even some of the generals outside peeked in through the window to see who was capable of producing such an unholy sound.

"Alright, I want everyone to pair up, form a line, and follow me to the auditorium. Quietly."

The students were quick to follow her command and pick a partner. The wrath of the math teacher was not to be underestimated.

Lloyd was left alone, as always, since there was an odd number of students in his class and the teacher always conveniently overlooked him. He didn't really mind though. He was used to it and having a partner would only make sneaking away harder.

As he was waiting for the classroom to empty so that he could get out without all the pushing, he noticed the girl from earlier heading towards him. Thinking she was just looking for a friend, he went back to flicking the pencil and thinking of an escape plan.

"Do you have a pair?"

Lloyd jumped and looked up. The girl was now standing in front of him. He looked over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't just talking over him, only to remember he sat in the last row.

"M-me?"

The girl rolled her eyes, but there was an amused smile tugging at her lips.

"No, I meant the flower pot behind you. Of course you. Do you have a pair?"

"Uh, n-no?"

"Great," she plopped down on the empty chair in front of him, "Smart of you to wait. It'll take a while for all the others to waddle out, so no sense in trying to get in front."

Lloyd stared as she calmly whipped out her phone and checked on some group chat. He was getting a strong sense of déjà vu.

When the girl noticed Lloyd's stunned expression, she snapped her fingers as if she just remembered something.

"Oh, right, the name's Nya. I just transferred so I introduced myself at the start of the class, but since you came even later than me, you didn't hear."

Something in Lloyd's brain clicked and he realised why she seemed so familiar; she was the one who threw Kai off her motorcycle that morning. Kai did mention his sister was new at the school too. The family resemblance was definitely there, especially personality-vise. That also explained why she didn't ignore him like everyone else, she simply didn't know who he was.

"Why is the new girl talking to him?"

"Is he threatening her?"

"Is she threatening him?"

Lloyd flinched when the harsh whispers reached his ears. He glanced at Nya. She must have realised he wasn't exactly the most popular kid in class, right? Kai didn't have time to see how others treated him, but now that Nya knew, she definitely wouldn't want to stick around.

But instead, Nya just looked confused.

"Why are they all staring like that? What's so wrong about talking to you?"

Lloyd gulped. He could try to talk around his name, prolong this moment of naive hope for a friend, but that would only backfire once someone else inevitably told her who he was, and she would only be angrier because he deceived her. It was one of the reasons his team could never find out who he was; he'd probably be lucky to survive if they did.

"That's because my name is Lloyd... Garmadon," he finished slowly.

Nya stopped. Blinked. Slowly looked from Lloyd to the window, and back to Lloyd. And blinked again.

Then she shot up, sending her chair careening back.

"Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me that guy," she jabbed a finger in the direction of the window, "has a son?!"

Lloyd nodded.

"And that's you?!"

He nodded again.

Here it comes.

Nya's jaw dropped and her expression morphed into a mix of confused and disturbed, as if she had trouble even accepting the concept of Garmadon being a parent. Then a bit of suspicion creeped in and she looked Lloyd dead in the eyes.

"So, are you his informant or something? Do you agree with what he's doing?"

"No! Of course not, I would never... I've never even talked to him! I doubt he even remembers I exist," Lloyd stammered, the last part coming out choked, more to himself than Nya.

Nya stared at him, bringing her face inched from his, as if she was trying to look all the way to his soul. By now their conversation was the center of everyone's attention, even Ms. Owsinski was listening, the invacuation forgotten.

And then, to Lloyd's absolute astonishment, Nya... smiled. And it didn't end there, she sat back down and threw her legs on his table, still grinning.

"Great, then I see no reason not to pair up with you."

A collective gasp went up around the classroom and the whispers immediately followed.

"He's definitely threatening her."

"Nah, Garmadon probably sent her to be his lackey."

"Maybe she's one of those Sons of Garmadon freaks."

"I can't believe I almost invited her to sit with us."

Lloyd instinctively curled into himself, eyes burrowing into the table. There was no way Nya would stay after hearing all that, right?

And yet she stayed, and did even more than that. She turned around, fixed each one of the slanderers with a glare and proceeded to give them the finger. In the silence that followed, she turned back, looking quite proud of herself, only to see Lloyd looking at her with wide eyes.

She raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Well, uh... usually everyone hates me just... because. Everyone thinks I'll eventually join my father... or something. But you..."

He trailed off and Nya's other eyebrow shot up to join the first.

"And? I don't care what some pampered high schooler thinks, I only believe what I see with my own two eyes. And so far, I just see a kid who's getting bullied for something he can't control."

Lloyd paused. That sentence was familiar to him. But where did he-

"I don't care about statistics, White. I'll only believe he's gone only when I see it with my own two eyes."

That's right, Cyan said that during their second month of joint missions, during one of Garmadon's attacks, when Red had gotten overwhelmed and separated from the rest of the team. His comm soon shut off, and they assumed he was either dead or captured, but Cyan refused to give up. It was onl thanks to her determination that they saved him before either actually happened.

It was one of the reasons Green picked her as his second-in-command when he was appointed leader.

Lloyd shook his head. Just the fact that they said somewhat similar things didn't mean Nya was Cyan. People often said similar things, it was just a coincidence. But even her voice and tone sounded so similar...

He looked the girl up and down. She would be about Cyan's height and build, and her eyes had the same shape and blue-grey color. He and Cyan were also roughly the same age so it would make sense they were in the same class.

But could he really be so lucky? Could one of his teammates actually like him not just as Green but as Lloyd Garmadon too? Even so, that was one thing, but how would she react if she found out the two were actually the same person? And what if this was all just some very elaborate plan by her and Kai to get his trust before dragging him through the mud?

No, he shouldn't be thinking about this at all! They promised each other that they wouldn't go after their real identities. But if they were really in the same class, wouldn't it be better to know, just so they wouldn't accidentally reveal each other's identities?

Before he could tangle himself up in his thoughts even more, Ms. Owsinski's shrill voice once again pierced the air.

"Smith! Garmadon! If you two wouldn't mind, we're in the middle of an invacuation here! And in case you hadn't heard, I said to go quietly!"

Her pestering was enough to get the other students moving in the direction of the door again. Some tried to glare their way, but the moment they were met with Nya's cold stare, they quickly looked away. Ms. Owsinski wasn't as easily intimidated.

"What's up with her?" Nya asked, only bothering to lower her voice a little, despite being locked in a staring contest with the math teacher. She noticed the faucet in the sink shaking a little and forced her hands to uncurl. The last thing she needed while being trapped was to be uncovered as a ninja.

"I, uh, I'm pretty sure my father destroyed her favorite coffee shop in one of last year's attacks. She's never been the same since." Lloyd whispered back, making Nya bark out a laugh. It felt surprisingly good to make someone other than his teammates laugh.

Finally, most of the students were out of the classroom, and Nya stood up, gesturing for him to follow. Lloyd, knowing full well he would just be pushed back anyways, waited until the last few stragglers exited the classroom before joining the line. He took one last look at Garmadon, who seemed to be practicing his victory dance.

Just you wait, you won't be dancing when I'm done with you.

But when he got out, all of his classmates, including Nya, were long gone in the sea of students pouring from every room in the hallway.

Good, that made things easier. He did feel a little bad for disappearing on Nya after she was so nice to him, but he would have to sneak away eventually, so this served to speed up his plan. He'd find a way to explain it to her later... that is if she'll still want to talk to him by then.

Quickly pulling his hood up, he let himself be carried by the students in the direction of (hopefully) the auditorium, all the while looking around for any possible way out. In the chaos, he accidentally bumped into someone, but before he could apologize or even see who it was, he was carried further down the hallway.