Chapter 9
Accede

.:Nya:.

Three weeks had passed since the day that Nya began her fake relationship with Skylor… and since she had finally relented to accept Jay and Lloyd as her friends but would that mean she would ever tell them her actual identity? Of course not.

"Remind me… Why are we doing this?" Nya grunted as she struggled to remain upright.

Currently, she and Brad were forced to stand one-legged on a thin post about three-feet from the ground. While Brad was standing perfectly fine on the one leg, Nya was wobbly dangerously. She kept flailing her arms to try and regain her balance. She already slipped off twice and hit her left shin on the post. Yeah, that was excruciatingly painful.

"To improve your balance… which is utterly horrifying," Jay groaned from several metres in front of her, running a hand down his face while Lloyd stood to his side, arms folded over his chest.

"But didn't you say that some rounds need the whole team and others is just to nominate one person? Wouldn't b-balance be one of those solo things?" Nya asked with a strained voice, trying desperately not to fall this time.

"Who knows? We can't entirely predict what rounds our sensei's will choose for us or whether or not if they would be group rounds or solo rounds," Lloyd said with a simple shrug of his shoulders.

"Stop flailing around. That's why you're struggling. Just stand straight and centre your weight in the middle. Because you have your limbs everywhere, you're throwing your weight from where your centre gravity should be – which is the foot you're standing on," Jay instructed.

Nya tried. Like really tried. She ceased the flailing movement of her limbs and tried to 'centre' her weight to the middle but… long story short, she fell and bellyflopped onto the ground, igniting 'oofs' from her teammates.

"This is so stupid!" Nya growled in frustration as she got onto her knees.

"Kai, your balance seriously needs more improvement…" Jay sighed.

"And here I thought you would be great at it. I mean I can barely knock you over or make you lose your balance in our spars," Lloyd next sighed.

"Because I dispute my balance with both feet! Not one!" Nya shouted, throwing her arms in the air.

"Maybe we should just move on," Brad suggested. "They did quite a few balance rounds last year; I doubt that they're include a team balance round this year. What we should probably focus on is endurance – they only did one of those last year and Kai could also use improvement on that."

"Nah, Kai's endurance is good. He just overheats too quickly… which is weird considering his family owns a blacksmith store and he knows how to forge weapons, meaning constant exposure to furnaces," Lloyd commented.

Nya just mentally groaned and laid back on the damp grass.

"Nope, I couldn't really handle the heat in there either," Nya lied.

However, her endurance had definitely improved since her first training session with the team. She nearly died on that thirty-minute jog which was supposed to be warm-up. Now, it was easy – heck, they now run it and it was still easy. But it was still the fact that she was overheating herself with the muscle suit and the training uniform. Luckily, right now they were in autumn which meant it was getting cooler.

"Then just take off the shirt," Brad said but Nya shook her head. "Am I the only one that finds it odd that Kai doesn't even take off his shirt?"

Oh crap!

"Yeah, it's pretty weird," Jay commented.

Think Nya! Think!

"I-I can still hear you," Nya announced as she sat up, trying to kept the panic from creeping into her voice. If she made it that she was super defensive on the topic, they were definitely going to know something was up.

"We already established that we're not Dareth who would drool once he catches glimpse of a chest," Brad snickered with Jay quickly joining in, resulting Nya to glare at them.

"It's not that."

"Dude, why are you so scared to take off your shirt? This is actually a little ridiculous," Lloyd asked with a slight tilt of his head. "Jay, have you ever-"

"Nope."

Come on, Nya! Think! Use that big brain of yours and think! We can't use fatness as an excuse, we've been training intensively these last couple of months! Ahhhhh- wait.

"I just got some bad scars I don't want people staring at," Nya untruthfully explained.

She tried to keep her voice as level as possible and tried to sound calmed as she delivered that line… Although, the pace of her speech was slightly faster than normal but the boys didn't seem to pick up on it. Instead, Jay looked at her with concern, Lloyd with surprise and Brad with interest.

"Scars? From what?" Brad questioned – innocently asking, of course.

"Blacksmithing… I get reckless sometimes and accidentally burn myself."

"But wouldn't that be your hands you would burn?" Lloyd curiously asked.

"I… I walked backwards into my uncle who had just pulled a sword out of the furnace," Nya fibbed quietly as memories flashes before her eyes.

A searing shot of excruciating pain ran up her body. A scream escaped her lips, the devastating sound bouncing off the room of the forge. Pain seared through her shoulder as the smell of burning skin reached her nose.

"Is that why you grab your right shoulder?" Jay softly asked, making Nya widen her eyes.

Have… Have I been unconsciously grabbing my right shoulder? Ugh, good one Idiot!

"Yeah… It's not the only one though," Nya continued to lie. "And I got a few cuts from kenjutsu as well."

"We won't judge you for the scars, you know," Lloyd said with a small -and what could be called comforting- smile.

"I just don't want pity. I don't want it. I don't need it."

.::.

"Do you think I'll live, Doc?" Kai asked, his lips softly stretching into a smile but it didn't reach his amber eyes. They were lit with sadness; all the anger that Nya had seen was long gone. But she knew he was smiling for her, to try and reassure everything would be okay.

"It's hard to tell," Nya said, trying to smile as well but she felt like whatever curve was on her lips was quite pathetic. "You might make it."

"Might? Geez, my sister can't even save my life," Kai jokingly chuckled – the gesture represented happiness and probably to anyone's ears but Nya knew her brother. It was a sad chuckle. Despite it all, he still tried to lighten her up.

"I had to perform heart surgery," Nya exaggerated, trying to keep up with the charade. "Consider yourself lucky."

"That I will, Doc," Kai murmured before sighing and looking down to his arm where Nya had finished stitching the numerous of deep cuts that littered over his right forearm.

"… You need to stop this, Kai," the raven-haired girl whispered as she grabbed her brother's other arm. "Just stop arguing with him."

"If it makes him leave you alone, then I'll keep doing it."

"Don't," Nya insisted as she tugged on his arm, making her brother look to her. "Please, just don't. I can't lose you."

"He's not going to kill me, Nya," Kai assured her, bringing his injured arm up to stroke the back of her head. "He needs me to keep running the shop. Plus… if I'm dead, word will spread amongst the village and they'll send him to prison. Then you won't have to deal with him… But he's smart enough not to draw attention to himself."

"But I don't want to lose you," Nya exasperated. "Promise me, Kai. Promise me you'll stop."

"You know I can't promise you that," Kai muttered sadly, momentarily closing his eyes. "You know I'll do anything to keep you safe."

"But I don't want to lose you."

"You're my little sister, Nya. It doesn't matter if you want me to or not, as your older brother I'm going to protect you… Mum and Dad would want you safe."

"And they would want you safe too," she brokenly whispered, tears gathering in her eyes but Kai was quick to pull her into a tight hug.

"I can handle it. Don't worry. It's only for a couple more months, just until we can run. Okay?"

"… Okay."

"Errr… Nya, you're still in there?"

Nya was immediately snapped out of her memory and perked up when she heard her name called. For a split moment, she forgot where it was and it nearly caused her to panic until she saw Skylor's concerned face in front of her. Behind the redhead was the familiar garden that belonged to Misako's Academy for Young Independent Women.

"Sorry, I zoned out," Nya murmured quietly as she sat up.

"You were really zoned out then. I called your name a few times and you didn't react at all," Skylor said with a small frown upon her pale lips.

"Sorry," the girl sighed, apologising again but Skylor softly shook her head.

"Stop apologising. It's not your fault… It was about your brother, wasn't it?"

"Yeah…" Nya whispered as she looked away from Skylor.

Because she confessed to actually being burnt by a sword to Jay, Lloyd and Brad yesterday, she revisited that cruel memory last night – luckily, she didn't wake up Jay. But after waking to this morning, other memories wouldn't stop swarming Nya's mind. It wasn't just Skylor she had zoned out on. She even zoned out on Jay and Lloyd at breakfast and didn't even pay attention to their conversation on the way over to their sister school.

"… Talk to me about him," the redhead suggested gently.

"I can't," Nya brokenly whispered.

"You never talk about him. I'm sure if you talk to someone about him, you'll feel better."

"That's not true… I'd talked to him about our parents' death and I didn't feel particularly great afterwards."

"That's because you're probably dwelling on the painful memories of them, Nya. You should focus on the happy ones. Same applies with Kai."

"… You think he's dead," Nya whispered, the last word causing her chest to tighten in pain.

"Well… Is he?" Skylor softly asked as she reached a slender hand on Nya's broad shoulder.

"… You know, Kai said the same thing when our parents died," the shorter girl diverted, looking away from Skylor's face.

"Nya-"

"He told me I should remember them when they were at their happiest… it wouldn't be easy but I shouldn't let one imagine define them forever…"

Nya sighed as she looked down to her hands that rested upon her laps. She didn't hear a single sound from Skylor. It was just silent… apart from the chirping birds and the rustling leaves of the oak tree that loomed over them from the soft breeze.

"… He sounds wise," Skylor eventually whispered.

"When he wants to be," Nya murmured.

"Do you… do you have a picture of him?"

Nya only numbly nodded in response. She reached her hand into the pocket of her blazer and pulled out the photo of her and Kai from last year. She didn't look at it as she passed the photo to Skylor. The redhead said nothing, just gently taking the photo from her and remaining quiet.

"This was taken last year… Before our parents died," Nya whispered, eyes drifting over to where their completed project paper was resting on the grass.

"… I have to admit, he's really cute," Skylor softly said. "And you're really pretty."

"Jay, Lloyd and Cole called me hot…" Nya murmured, remembering how the boys had saw the picture.

"They had seen this?"

"Yeah. That's how Jay and Lloyd bribed me to join their team. I join their team in exchange that they both will stop talking about me."

"And they didn't realise the difference between Kai and… well, you right now?"

"I think they were too busy looking at 'me'," Nya sighed as she laid back onto the grass, looking up at the leaves of the great oak tree.

"You just… Well, you look like a scrawny version of your brother right now."

"Geez… Thanks."

"Shorter but you're right, the dye I used is a little too light," Skylor mused. Nya knew what she was trying to do. She was trying to lighten up their previous depressing conversation. "You would be fun for me to do a complete girl makeover."

"I know we're pretending to be a couple but that doesn't mean we're doing that 'girlfriend-applies- makeup-to-boyfriend' thing."

"But think how fun that would be. You get to be a girl again, even if it's for a moment."

"And once people see, they'll notice how 'Kai' looks more like a girl than a guy once he's wearing makeup."

"No one will see- wait!" Skylor suddenly exclaimed, her face lighting up while her eyes twinkled with mischief. Nya immediately did not like that look. "What did you tell the boys about you?"

"Me as in-?"

"As in Nya."

"They just know that this girl here," Nya said as she pointed to herself in the picture, "is Kai's sister and that by Kai, she's absolutely off limits."

"They don't even your name?"

"No."

"And as far as they know, your parents and your 'sister' is alive?"

"Yeah…? Skylor, what are you planning? You're scaring me," Nya worriedly whispered as she sat up.

"Remember that ball that's happening next week?"

And suddenly, it clicked in Nya's mind.

"No. No no no! I can't be two people at once!" Nya exclaimed in a whisper while Skylor broke out into a determined grin.

"You won't. You'll just go as Nya."

"But what about Kai? He's your date!"

"Just say he got a stomach bug and can't make it. Once every boy leaves, you rush over and sneak into my dorm where I can give you a complete makeover."

"No! This is a terrible idea!"

"Actually, starting to think of it, this is the safest idea."

"Safe? How is this safe?"

"This is a ball, Nya. Everyone is going to be taking pictures and where do students like to post pictures?"

"On social media," Nya gasped, eyes widening. "An even better reason why I shouldn't go as me."

"Nya, if your uncle sees you impersonating your brother and that this is a ball for Master Wu's Academy for Boys, where is he going to go?"

"But if it's me, me as in Nya-"

"Then he thinks you're here," Skylor continued. "But once he sees you're not here, he's probably going to think you're going to do your hardest to run far from here."

"So, theoretically speaking, if I were to go as… me, I'll only stay by your side. Once he sees pictures of us two, he's going to talk to you!"

"And I'll tell him that you were a temporary student whose last day happened to be on the ball and you mentioned heading to Stiix. Problem solve. That way, it drives him away from here," Skylor explained before taking Nya's hand into her own.

"But I'm not an actual student at your school. Wouldn't I be caught out?"

"I doubt it. There's going to be a lot of girls and boys of all grades. I'm sure you're safe."

"But Jay, Lloyd, Cole and Zane know what 'Nya' looks like," Nya continued. "They're going to bother me the whole night!"

"I'm a pro at brushing off boys. Stick with me and you'll be fine," the redhead assured her… but it still didn't ease Nya.

"Maybe I'll just say I have a stomach bug and skip the whole night-"

"Nya, don't do that. You need to relax and have fun. If your uncle sees you as you and we give him the misleading lead, then you don't have to worry about him finding you anytime soon."

"This is a massive risk," Nya frowned.

"It's not massive. Otherwise, I'll look lonely on the night since all my friends got dates," Skylor sighed.

"Don't play the guilt card on me."

"Look, I just think you need to relax and be you for once. Plus, this whole uncle business is considering someone posts a picture of you and if your uncle happens to find the picture. You told me he's a drunk and your village is pretty old, not many have modern technology."

"Regardless, he won't be at Ignacia. He's actually out there looking for me…"

"Live a little, Nya."

"… But I don't have a dress. Heck, I don't even have a tux or anything."

"Leave the dress and wigs to me."

"What the heck is in your dorm? You got hair dye and apparently extra dresses and wigs? Where do you get the money for this?"

"My father's rich. He's the owner of Chen's Noodles."

"No way."

"Yes way. He sent me here so I can learn the history and business academia but I want to do fashion or something to do with styling later on. So you'll be helping me plenty. Please, Nya."

"… What if the boys recognise me? I mean what if Jay, Lloyd, Cole and Zane recognise me as Kai's sister? What then?"

"Just say that you are Kai's sister and you go here but in a lower grade and Kai never said it because he didn't want them to go looking for you while they're here supposedly 'studying'. Problem solve."

"But Kai and I will be the same height… In the picture, he's obviously taller than me."

"… Just say you're wearing heels."

"I won't actually be wearing heels, will I?"

"No. Maybe one inch? But I have this nice red dress that goes to the floor so it'll cover up your feet."

"You're a lot taller than me."

"It's called alterations… Come, let's sneak into my dorm."

"What for?"

"To try on the dress."

"I haven't even agreed to this!"

"But you are mentally relenting, aren't you?" Skylor teased while Nya scowled.

"… Yeah."

"Great! Let's go. We already finish our project and its due next week."

"But the last time -and only time!- I snuck into your dorm, I nearly got caught."

"Nearly. This time, we'll be more careful."

"… And why do I need to try on the dress now?"

"So I can make alterations! Otherwise I won't have that much time. I only got just over a week to have this ready for you."

I'm sooooo sorry for the long wait. University have been a massive pain in the butt and also the fact that I'm climbing ladders at my part-time job so my managers are now calling me in to work whenever they're low on staff. Like this week I've worked 25+ hours. Sure the money is nice and all but I'm sooooo exhausted! And sorry for the incredibly short chapter but I needed it to end here! And I also apologise if towards the end it was just a rushed mess.

But massive thanks to: Jaell, RandomDragon2.0, Natalie Singe, JSNI, unknown, MortalNinja, Guest, RebelutionaryWrites, Joel, Cerenda, Beatitude Girl and all my silent readers! I'm so sorry I can't really reply to any of the reviews today since I'm utterly exhausted (I've been running on 4-6 hours of sleep for the last two weeks) but thank you all for the support!

I may update in two weeks since uni is still chaotic but I promise I'll come back with a bang. Why? Nya goes to the ball undercover as herself! Until then! Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88