Chapter 3
Discommodity

.:Nya:.

A small way east of Ignacia, Nya sat by the river bed that wove through the forest. The water was cool and refreshing, for it had slipped twinkling down from the mountains that surrounded her small town. The water was lined with trees: pine, birch, redwood; fresh and green with every spring.

The girl softly inhaled the air, thick with late spring's presence. The sky had almost vanished completely, only a few fragments of blue remain. The air is rich with the fragrance of leaves and moisture. Even after the passing rain, the soil remained wet, slowly releasing a milky white condensation from the evening chill. Despite this, the breeze had a pleasant coolness. The sound of running water in the river had a relaxing, hypnotic quality.

"You okay?"

Nya turned her head over her shoulder to see her brother a few steps back, dressed warmly in thick clothes.

"… You expect me to be?" Nya asked in a small voice before turning her head forward, letting her eyes follow a leaf that was captured in the river's current.

However, her ears heard the soft crunches of the leaves as they were crushed by Kai's boots which were walking towards her. Soon, he sat next to her before wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to him. His warm body warmth instantly radiated off him waves, making Nya heave a small sigh.

"I'm sorry… I don't mean to be distant."

"It's okay, I've been distant as well." She heard Kai quietly admit.

"It's just that... It's just hard to accept that they're dead."

Her words weren't met with a response from Kai, knowing the death of their parents were weighing heavily on both of their shoulders.

Death wasn't kind. In fact, Nya hated it with a passion. It snatched where it could, taking people who hadn't lived their lives to its fullest or just far too good to meet death. It took her parents – two people who had done nothing to deserve it. It took away the two people who always strived Nya to go for her dreams, who supported her throughout anything, who loved her no matter how many stupid mistakes she had made. Now, they were gone.

"I know…" Kai finally said after a minute of silence, his voice thick with sadness. "I'm still having a hard time believing it but… Mum and Dad wouldn't want us to be grieving over them forever. They would want us to try and move on and be happy."

"You're right… It's just too hard," Nya whispered, feeling her eyes pricking with tears as she leaned on her brother even more. His arm then tightened around her shoulders.

"I never said it'll be easy or quick," Kai sighed. "… What are you thinking about now?"

"… Their dead bodies in the casket," Nya confessed.

Although her eyes were firmly watching leaves flow down the river, in her mind, she could only see her parents' dead bodies in the caskets before the funeral. She could vividly remember their ash and pale looking skin. The injuries that they had obtained from the car accident. Their colourless lips that didn't smile.

"You shouldn't be thinking about that."

"It's hard not to."

"You're only going to make yourself more upset."

"I'm already in grief, Kai. Just let me wallow in my own sadness," Nya muttered, trying to pull herself away from her brother's side but his arm remained firm around her shoulder.

"Nya, you can't keep remembering them by how we saw them last. You should remember them when they were at their happiest. It's not easy, even I'm struggling with it, but we can't let one image define them forever. They had good lives. They had good memories with us like we have with them. They would never want you to forget those cherished memories."

"… When did you become so wise?" Nya tearily asked as he looked to Kai who only stared back down with her with a tender softness in his eyes.

"Someone has to between the two of us," he answered with a slight tease, making the smallest of smiles appear on her lips.

Despite Kai being a hot-headed jerk, impatient or impulsively stubborn, Nya knew that deep down, her brother was a marshmallow. He could be sappy when he wanted to. He could even be sweet and kind. Of course, he only showed this around her, making Nya love her brother even more.

"Thanks… For always being here for me."

"Of course, otherwise who knows where you would end up-?"

"Kai, come on. Get up."

Nya gasped as she woke up from her dream, her whole body jolting to feel a hand on her.

"Whoa, calm down. It's only me."

The girl quickly wiped the sleep from her eyes which soon focused on her roommate's blurry figure. Huh?

"Why are you waking me up so early?" Nya couldn't help but grumble lowly before trying to fight back a yawn but miserably failing.

"I looked at your schedule. You're in my sunrise exercise group."

"In your what?"

"Sunrise exercise. Training. You know, martial arts?" Jay reminded before groaning. "Just get out of bed. Master Garmadon isn't merciful on those who are late."

"Fine," Nya huffed as she threw the blankets off her body.

She looked over to Jay who was already dressed in the standard training uniform that is given to the students. So, she went to her duffle bag (ignoring her sore shoulders) and grabbed out a grey kimono-styled training uniform, her hair gel and went straight for the bathroom.

When Nya caught a glimpse of herself in mirror, she noticed that the bags under her eyes were more pronounced. Then again, her stupid roommate woke her up before the crack of dawn. Either way, she sighed as she stripped out of her pyjamas.

Each upper body muscle was aching. Sleeping in the muscle suit wasn't comfortable. Sure it was only foam padding but Nya had gotten used to sleeping with her bare shoulders. Even her chest was aching from being bound up for so long. Nevertheless, she forced herself to dress into the training uniform and do up her hair in Kai's signature style.

"Kai, hurry up!"

"Just go without me. I didn't ask you to stay back," Nya couldn't help but snapped. It wasn't like she could help it. Jay woke her up from one of the more pleasant dreams of her brother.

"I don't want you to get lost."

"I won't."

"… Alright then," Jay called out, followed by the sound of the front door closing.

Nya sighed as her hands gripped the porcelain of the sink and she leaned over the sink, gritting her teeth.

Come on, Nya. Get a grip of yourself. Think happy thoughts, like Kai had said. Think good memories, not the bad. Let's start the first day of school on a good note.

… Pfft, easier said than done.

.::.

After the sunrise exercise, everyone went to breakfast. Nya? She went straight for her room.

The girl winched as she peeled the sweaty uniform from her skin. She then then pulled off the worn out suit. Although it does act as a protective padding, Nya's eyes looked into the mirror to see purple bruises marring her skin. Against the slight paleness of her skin, they looked grotesque.

Kenjutsu (Samurai swordsmanship) and martial arts were definitely not the same thing. When her father taught her how to fight with a sword, she was always told to be heavy on her feet. Samurais apply their strength through their swords; since she was a girl, she won't have the same strength – she would be the weaker opponent but the one way to stand her ground was to make sure she had strong foot work and base.

Nope. Martial arts were completely different. In fact, Nya was pretty sure she was learning ninjutsu! It was so fast paced and she had to be completely light on her feet – something that is the complete opposite to what she had learned!

Master Garmadon had spent the entire two and a half hours of the morning training session training her. He watched her like a hawk and he never left her side. She was so paranoid the whole time – she never had someone watch her every move like that. The thought of Master Garmadon possibly finding out her true identity crossed her mind many times but, he never said anything.

He mainly went with her was self-defence – in other words, being able to effectively block; hence, all the bruises she had obtained. For someone as old as him, he moved fast and he hit hard. Nya had tried to move her arms into a block but sometimes she would be too late and he punched her in the chest – not the breast! Lucky for that.

Nya undid the bindings from across her chest and immediately turned on the water to the shower to be nice and hot. As the water heated up, she hung up the muscle suit so it could air out. Then, she stepped into the shower, welcoming the pebbles of warm water caressing her skin. Water always made her feel peaceful. It helped her mind to fade into dullness and turn everything into a foggy illusion. The sensation of the water falling onto her skin in steamy rivulets soothed her.

It took a few minutes before Nya finally went to wash her, washing away the sweat accumulated from training whilst massaging her aching muscles. She even washed out her hair. Once she was all done, she dreaded putting on the bindings and the muscle suit. But, she wanted to do this- no, she had to do this.

"Let's get this over and done with…"

.::.

Nya went through the rest of the day in a slight daze. Despite her internal pep talk, Nya just couldn't help but think about how her life had changed so much within the last year. Apart from that, the subjects she had weren't that hard. History was with Headmaster Wu, literature with a teacher called Yang, and science with Professor Borg. Cyrus Borg was actually a part-time teacher at the academy whilst still running his company. However, not many students who came to the academy came for the science and engineering aspect. No, they came just for the martial arts. Although Nya loved robotics, maths and science, she mainly came here just to lay low.

From the end of her classes and to the beginning of dinner, Nya had been in her dorm, doing her homework and also catching up on work she had missed out since she didn't start school at the beginning of the semester. She had expected Jay to come in and either talk her ear off or try and convince her to join his team – in she was going to keep declining.

Now that it was dinner, Nya sat by herself at one of the empty tables. She hoped that this time, Cole and Jay won't show up and she desperately hoped Dareth didn't as well. It's not that she had a thing against gay people but for one to hit on her… yeah, that's a little uncomfortable. But…. Luck is never on her side.

"Are you against making friends or something?" She heard Jay asked as she casually sat opposite her, his blonde friend sitting next to him.

"I didn't know it was a crime," Nya simply said as she looked down her food, hoping that they would see that she's boring and just leave.

"It could be," the blonde shrugged.

What was his name again? Oh, that's right, Lloyd.

"So… How are you fitting into the academy, Kai?" Lloyd asked, surprising Nya because she honestly thought Jay would be talking. Nope, instead he was eating his pudding.

"Well enough," she answered vaguely, still keeping her voice low.

"I saw my father go a little harsh on you this morning."

"It's not bad- wait, your father?" Nya gasped, her voice slightly higher as she stared at the blonde in shock.

"Yeah, he's Master Wu's nephew as well," Jay shrugged, a slight smirk on his lips.

"T-They're your father and uncle?"

"Yeah. Doesn't mean they go easy on me," Lloyd ended up chuckling. "However, they probably are expecting me to do well in the tournament-"

"If this is your other tactic on getting me to join, forget it. I don't want to join," Nya huffed in irritation.

"B-But-!"

"Listen," Lloyd quickly said, effectively cutting off Jay before the boy could blubber anything. "We're not desperate to recruit you. We can easily get two other people to join our team. For you, it isn't about competing or not, or even getting the chance to win. I also heard you're on a scholarship – meaning you need to be good in both academics and martial arts. Jay and I usually help whoever enters our team to get better – not just for our own benefit to win but to make sure they're better competitors in case if they want to compete again in future years."

"I appreciate the offer but I'm not interested," Nya firmly restated.

"Alright, fair enough," Lloyd stated as he leaned back in his chair. "But, depending on how well you do in the tournament with your team, your marks will boost up and it looks good on a resume. Our team always goes far in the competition – always in the semi-finals."

"I. Don't. Care," Nya stressed, gripping her cutlery tighter.

"Okay then," Lloyd shrugged as he got up, Jay looking at his friend in disbelief. "We'll see you tomorrow at sunrise exercise. By the way, Dareth is also dying to talk to you."

"What?!"

"Yeah. He wants to talk to you alone. As soon as we leave, he'll come over. Have fun, Kai" the blonde smirked before getting up with his tray of food and grabbing Jay by the arm.

Great…

.::.

A whole week had passed now and things weren't lightening up whatsoever. Nya found herself getting more exhausted and bruised with every training practice. Her skin kept getting rashes from the body suit. Luckily, Jay and Lloyd no longer pestered her to join but Cole and Zane continued to do so. Then, there was Dareth. Could a guy make it any else obvious that he was into her?

Nya was fortunate that the guy wasn't in the dinner hall today. Why? She had no idea and she didn't care. She didn't want to make any friends. She just needed to lay low. That's all.

The girl pushed her food around her plate with her fork while she looked down to her laps, her left hand holding the picture of her and Kai together. Since she had been really pretending to be like Kai, she found herself missing her older brother so much recently. She missed his grins, his smirks, the playful glares, his boastful comments or laughter. She missed his over-protective nature, his little temper spurts, his kind words.

She missed everything about him-

"Hey, what got you so low?"

Nya had gotten so used for people suddenly talking to her out of the blue; so this time she didn't flinch as Lloyd asked this as he and Jay invited themselves to sit at her table.

"Who said I looked low?" Nya asked as she looked up from her laps and to the two boys.

Over the last week, they would talk to her in a friendly manner. Jay was actually being really nice… But it made Nya wonder if he was doing it just to change her mind. He made a few jokes here and there in their dorm and believe it or not, she found out a little more about him.

He also enjoyed inventing stuff. He comes up with some creative ideas but do they actually work? No… That was probably why he didn't exactly get a scholarship into the school. Nya also found out that he was a bit of an active sleeper. He would murmur some things throughout the night or even sleepwalk. Once, Nya actually saw him kissing his pillow. Yeah, that was really disturbing. Nya was relieved that she didn't sleep talk – she didn't need to accidentally speak with her normal 'girly' voice in front of her roommate.

"Well, you were looking low," Jay quipped as he opened up his pudding. That was another thing Nya had discovered about her roommate, he really liked pudding.

"Whatever," Nya said with a simple shrug of her shoulders. "Come to try and convince me to join your team again?"

"Eh, not really. We're just noticing how you've been winching and rubbing your arms in class," Lloyd replied before taking a sip out of his drink.

"Let me guess, the harsh reality of training is settling in?" Jay asked.

"I'm doing fine. As if you guys didn't bruise in your first couple of weeks," Nya shot back.

"Touché," Jay chuckled. "Our offer still stands. Trust me, we won't beat you up."

"Yeah, the answer is still no."

"See, Kai doesn't want to join your team," Cole's voice suddenly said as he sat next to her.

Great… Not this again… Nya thought with a sigh while Zane sat on her other side… Not as close to her like Cole was.

"And why would he even want to join your team?" Jay asked, eyes narrowing at the dark-haired boy.

"Because we don't have a Motor Mouth on our team."

"Like Griffin is any better," Lloyd scoffed.

Nya hadn't really seen Jay and Cole argue since the first day. Heck, she hadn't even seen them together. They usually kept their distance. Why did it change today? She had no idea and she didn't care. She just didn't want to be in the middle of it again.

"Kai, what do you got here?"

Before Nya could even comprehend what Cole had asked, she felt a much larger hand grab the photo out of her hand.

"Is that you?"

"Hey, let us see!"

Nya's fingers curled into a fist, short nails digging into her palm while Nya started to unconsciously breathe in rapid but shallow breaths. Fear pelted into her gut, torturing it, and churning her stomach in tense cramps. Panic engulfed Nya's mind, knocking all other thoughts aside when she saw Jay and Lloyd leaning drastically forward to look at the photo in Cole's hand while Zane only craned his head up to gain a better advantage point.

"Whoa, is that your girlfriend?" Cole asked her, making Nya aware of the four boys who'd turned to look at her.

"N-N-No," Nya stammered, struggling to keep her voice low. "T-That's… That's my sister."

"Your sister?!"

"Dude, your sister is hot."

"Is she single?"

"Errr… yes she's my sister but none of you are picking her up," Nya grumbled, trying to calm herself from the slight panic attack and immediately put up the Kai persona. Kai used to chase some of the other boys away from her in Ignacia whenever they tried hitting on her – surely if he was here, he would do the same.

"Wait, so she is single?" Cole excitedly asked.

"No, you are not going after my sister," Nya firmly stated as she quickly snatched the photo out of Cole's hand and tucked it into her pocket, immediately feeling relieved that it was back.

"What's her name?" Jay next asked. Seriously?!

"I said no!" Nya snapped. "No one is going after my sister. End of discussion."

"Dude, you're no fun," Cole whined.

"Good, then stop coming to me to join your team!"

"No can do," Lloyd mused. "We're not going to stop until you join."

"Neither am I," Cole confidently said.

"But, you can take your pick," Zane suddenly spoke up, surprising Nya. "You can either finally join one of our teams, or pestered by these three for your sister."

"… Did Zane just blackmail?" Nya heard Jay whisper to Lloyd.

"I… I think so."

"You're making me pick between my sister and this? How do I even know that if I choose a team, you guys will keep your word to back off my sister?" Nya asked, a deep frown on her lips.

"I'll make Cole keep his word," Zane simply said. "Jay and Lloyd, I'm unsure about- but hey, it means that if you choose us, Cole won't keep asking about your sister."

"Zane, that's horrible!" Cole whined from her side.

"Lloyd and I will keep our word too," Jay quickly added.

This utterly sucked. Were they really going to make her choose between either talking about herself or choose a team? Nya thought about which one would make her more uncomfortable… Definitely talking about herself because if they eventually ask to meet 'Nya', ugh, that would be a nightmare to try and be two people at once- wait, as if she would ever do that. But they would keep pestering her to talk about 'herself'.

Joining a team… Is not the end of the world, but she honestly didn't want to.

"Come on, Kai. What will it be?" Cole asked, a little too eagerly.

"… I'll join one of your guys' stupid team-"

"Yes!"

"Hold up, hold up. If you choose Jay and Lloyd, I won't stop talking about your sister," Cole quipped.

"That's not the deal," Nya suddenly growled.

"If you choose us, we won't talk about her," Lloyd continued.

"Yep. You have our word," Jay concluded.

Nya looked between all four boys. It was quite obvious to her that Jay and Lloyd were the better option. Come on, if she picked Cole, it was honestly going to be a warzone in her dorm with Jay. Plus, Zane didn't seem that interested in 'Nya'.

So if I were to go with Jay and Lloyd (if they keep their word), they won't pester me, whereas Cole will. If I were to go with Zane and Cole… Lloyd and Jay may decide that they'll do what Cole had suggested and keep asking me about 'my sister' and won't stop pestering me.

"… Fine, I'm on Jay's and Lloyd's team."

G'day everyone! Sorry if this chapter seemed rushed to you, I was working pretty much all week. But thank you for all your lovely reviews and support! It means so much to me! Thanks to NinjagoGeek4Ever, EchoIsACutie, The-Sad-Umbreon and Endeavor16 for following and favouriting. And thanks to Natalie Singe, Just Someone Not Important, CatGirl.02, Endeavor16, unknown and Guest for reviewing!

Once again, feel free to leave any feedback or criticisms, I'm open to suggestions and harsh words. Even leave a question! Until then, I'll see you all next week with a new chapter! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88.