NINJAGO HIGHSCHOOL: CHAPTER TEN: Stressed Out

Author's note: sorry for late post, graduating highschool soon, so it's been a bit busy. Also I've been a lazy bastard :p

Lloyd slept like a baby, which is a complete lie. He slept like a baby with insomnia, that didn't whine and cry. The Karlof situation was really messing him up, and was making his sleep schedule far worse than it already was. Everything before he got to the bus-stop was a blur that just happened. Kai and the others saw his disheveled appearance and grimaced. "Hey Lloyd, forget to comb to hair?" Lloyd looked up at Kai, and felt his hair. "Huh, I guess I did huh?" Cole dug through his backpack and tossed Lloyd his comb. Everyone stared at him. "What? How do you expect me to maintain this hair so well?" "Alright then..." Kai watched Lloyd hastily get his hair normal. "What happened to you?" Lloyd sighed. "Karlof. The whole thing with him kept me up for a while. Shit's stressful." Everyone nodded along. "Oh I bet. I'd be afraid to go to school!" Jay said nervously. "Oh I always am..." said Lloyd. "Well don't worry Lloyd, maybe I can help with your fight. I've been in quite a few myself." Cole said confidently. "There won't BE a fight, Cole." Kai interjected. "Right Lloyd?" Lloyd didn't answer, he just handed Cole his comb back. "I...don't even know..." Cole crossed his arms. "Look, the only way Karlof is leaving you alone is if you pummel his shit in." "Did that ever stop him from bothering you?" Kai snarked. "I'm a professional, Lloyd's a beginner bully-" "I'm not a fucking bully!" Lloyd snapped. "I CALLED MORRO A GHOST BOY AND THAT'S IT!" Everyone was quiet after that, until Jay piped up. "Huh...that's the first time I heard you yell." "I...I'm sorry, I just hate this so much..." Kai patted Lloyd's shoulder, and Cole wasn't being a dick this time.

When the bus arrived everyone got on. Lloyd sat with Cole this time. "So...I saw you got into the gamer club." "Yeup, KAI doesn't seem to appreciate all my skill." Cole glared at Kai from the other side of the bus, who flipped him off in response, and turned his attention back to Lloyd. "Managed to beat all the nonleaders in Siege, and got close to beating the leaders in Siege. MAN I'm good." Cole said with the confidence of two Coles. "I still need to beat one of the members to join, and my skills are...lacking still." said Lloyd. "Just don't join" Cole groaned. "You're just wasting your time, and set to get hurt." "No, I've talked to Harumi too much to just say 'I'm not joining the club'." "I get it man, MAYBE you and Harumi can hang out without being in the club?" Lloyd thought about it, and dismissed it. "I don't think so, I have to join the club. I'm too close to it." Cole shrugged. "Alright then...whatever works." They cut the conversation off when they arrived at school. As Lloyd was walking to the entrance, he saw Karlof staring at him from the distance. Lloyd grimaced and quickened his pace inside. He was going to stay as far away as possible from Karlof. Luckily he didn't have any classes with him, but lunch may be some trouble. Off to Mr. Cryptor's class he went, ready for the trials of math...ha, just kidding, Lloyd was dreading it like last time, and the time before that. Worse yet, Morro was probably going to do something rude. Everything was going as well as math class could go. Lloyd was dozing off a little, when Morro's voice got him up. "Mr. Cryptor Mr. Cryptor! LLOYD'S falling asleeeeeep!" Lloyd groaned to himself while people stared at him. Before Mr. Cryptor could tell Lloyd off, Kai rose his hand. "Mr. Cryptor, Morro's being a bastard." All of the attention on Lloyd dispersed onto Kai, and some laughs were made. "Language..." Mr. Cryptor said, not looking up from his textbook. Morro's plan to mess with Lloyd backfired hard, and now he was fuming. "The next person to interrupt me is getting written up, understood?" Everyone agreed with Mr. Cryptor with murmurs, and class resumed back to normal. Nothing was unusual, aside from Lloyd seeing Morro staring at him while Mr. Cryptor wasn't paying attention. When the bell rang, Lloyd walked out with Kai. "Nice save man, that was risky though." Kai smiled. "Anything for you bro...like in a friend way." Both of them laughed, but the mood was ruined when Karlof showed up. "Well well well. Are you prepared to have your ass kicked at park, Lloyd?" Karlof said in a cold demeanor. "Get lost Karlof, no one's fighting anyone." Kai put himself infront of Karlof. "You should do something more important, like take grammar lessons." "You are lucky I am after Lloyd, Kai." Karlof said in a threatening tone, which didn't phase Kai one bit. "If you got a problem with him, it's a problem with ME." Kai went into Karlof's face and pushed him back. "Kai. We gotta head to class." Lloyd pulled Kai away and walked off with him quickly. Karlof crossed his arms and smirked. "Keep on running Lloyd, I WILL get you!" Lloyd put his head down while walking, and Kai grumbled. "Fucking Karlof...I can understand him doing this to Cole, but YOU?" "It's all Morro's fault..." Lloyd sighed. "But I've complained about him enough, let's just get to class already." Kai agreed, and they went off to English class.

Ms. Aspheera was writing the new assignment on the whiteboard. "Okay class, your assignment over the week is to write about your family and what things they've done. It can be anyone in your family tree, as long as it's two pages minimum. Now for some of you, this may be really hard. Others, not so..." She eyed Lloyd at the back of the class. Lloyd looked at his notebook as a distraction, being uncomfortable with the gaze. He had Wu, his dad, and his grandpa, which all did very VERY important things, so he had enough to write about, if he was good at writing. "I would also like any of you who have Mr. Krux for your next class, to tell him I said to stop telling me to 'go back home'." "Yikes..." whispered Jay. "Everyone write a rough draft, until the bell dismisses you." Lloyd wrote down some things about his grandpa. This would be an easy A, since there's a ton to write about him. When the bell rang, stood up from her seat. "Lloyd, stay here for a bit, I need to talk to you." Lloyd groaned. Was he in trouble or something? He put his bag down and waited. Ms. Aspheera slithered over sighed. "Look Lloyd. Your dad, uncle, and grandpa have done a lot. I can't expect this to be a challenge for you, since EVERYONE knows what they've done." "Okay...and?" Ms. Aspheera continued. "I don't think it'd be fair for you to have it so easy, so I was hoping to give you a different topic." Lloyd hesitated to respond. "Okay...what topic were you gonna give me?" "Well, I was thinking you could write about a moment in your life that made you really happy." Lloyd's heart sank instantly. He can't recall anything really making him HAPPY. Any hope of getting a instant A was gone right away. Lloyd lied and said "Alright, that sounds fine." Better than having to go to the counselor. "Great. I'll write you a pass to your next class." Well, with club drama, Karlof, and THIS, how could it get worse?

When he wasn't in class or doing something that requires actual concentration, Lloyd was trying to think of something that made him "really happy". It's hard to define what that meant. Did Ms. Aspheera mean something that changed his life a ton? Or just something small that made him happy? He could write about the times Kai stood up for him...but that wouldn't cover two pages. Anything Lloyd could think of was something small, that wouldn't cover even half the paper, and it was stressing him out already. He had a week at least...Lloyd's phone vibrated twice. Two messages, one from Harumi, and one from Brad. Harumi's was about how Cole was integrating well, and how she wishes he could join already. Another thing Lloyd could worry about...Brad's though, was just him asking if he wanted to hang out at the park for a bit. It's been a bit since Lloyd and Brad talked in person, so he accepted the request, asked what park, and hurried to his bus. When he got home he asked Misako if he could go to the park and hang out with a friend. She said yes, because...why would she say no? Lloyd's current issues melted away for just a bit as he prepared to go to the park. It was a bit of a walk, but he managed to get there, and he saw Brad, who saw him as well. There was some waves and greetings while Lloyd walked to the bench.