Chapter 10- Crushing Confessions

Smoke began to emerge from the teapot quickly. Kai yelped. His body jolted, the rusted antique slipping from his hands.

Kai crawled backward out of the smoke, watching as a four-armed creature materialized before him.

They both stared at one another. Seconds ticked forward. Kai's surprise wore off, replaced by awkward intimidation. He cleared his throat as he stood, trying to regain his composure. "You're. . . real."

"Fantastic observation." The Djinn replied curtly, without any change in expression. Kai felt himself blush. "Well? What would you like to wish for?"

"I wish that. . ." I wish that you could be a little friendlier, Kai snickered to himself, but he didn't voice the thought. No, there were only three wishes to spend, and he wasn't about to waste any. "I wish to know how people feel. . . how, if- to know what's wrong."

"You wish to know what people feel is wrong?"

Kai gave a small nod. "Yes. That."

"Well," The Djinn bowed. That's more like it! Kai thought. "Your wish, is yours to keep."

Kai shut his eyes, expecting to feel. . . something. But when nothing happened at all, he reopened them. He prepared to ask on how soon the effects of the wish would show, but the Djinn interrupted him.

"I'm sure you had someone in mind when you wished this. I assure you, it has come true. You can go on. I will be waiting for your next wish."

"Yeah. . . Yeah, okay." Kai nodded. The best way to know if something worked was to test it, after all. He twisted the ring on the teapot. The Djinn and his smoke disappeared with a dramatic poof!

After hiding the object beneath his mattress, Kai trotted down the stairs. Nya was lounging in the living room, reading a small book. "Yo. Nya."

His sister looked up, annoyance flickering across her vision. "What?"

"I'm going to go see Cole. So. Yeah. That's a thing." Kai waited after stating this. He expected Nya to give him a few words of support, or at the very least, an annoyed eyeroll. But Nya did nothing. She sat still, staring at Kai with a very dumbfounded expression.

Kai moved toward the door, one eyebrow quirked upward in amusement. "Ookay?"

"You never do anything. You always try half as hard as I do. And yet, yet! I'm still always just Kai's sister. Just because you're older. Just because most people knew you before they knew me." Nya shook her head. Her words came out monotone, eyes firmly locked against Kai's. "I don't want to do this project with you. You'll mope around because you don't have the guts to fix your friendship. And I'll do all the work. And I'll have to be okay with that, because boo-hoo poor you."

"Uhh. . ." Kai kept moving to the door. Nya followed him with her eyes. "You don't have to work with me, that's okay."

Nya showed absolutely no sign that she could hear him. Goosebumps traveled along his arm. "There's also Jay. I just want to smack him around a couple of times for good measure. He acts like everything is so hard. But it's not! He's got a crush on Cole. Cole clearly likes him in some way. But no. Jay would rather sit back and wait for someone else to act. It's infuriating!"

"Jay likes Cole?" Kai blinked.

"And I'm just so tired. In general. Everyone expects so much from me and I just wish they'd stop." A deep sigh shook Nya, and she looked down for a moment, her words finally ending.

"So I'm. . . Going to go." Kai said, softly, half hoping she wouldn't hear him, as he was worried about setting her off again. He quickly stepped outside. Once the door was shut, he leaned back against it, letting out a long breath. "Real good wish there, Kai."

If Cole's reaction was going to be the same, Kai wasn't so sure he wanted to talk to him anymore. Who knows what sort of pent up frustrations his friend carried around? Kai imagined the list was long.

Maybe he could put this off until tomorrow. There was no point on walking to Cole's house if they could simply see each other at school.

"Yeah." Kai nodded to himself slowly. "Tomorrow."

And by tomorrow, he'd be ready to hear whatever Cole needed to say. Then, things could finally be okay again.

Or so he hoped.

"I'm going to tell him."

The words weren't planned. Jay said them suddenly, clinging onto the straps of his backpack as he moved. Still, once the words were out, he nodded to himself before looking up. His eyes moved from Lloyd to Nya. "I'm going to tell him."

"Tell him that you did purposely break his nose as an intricate revenge plot?" Lloyd asked.

Jay rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean. I'm going to tell him I. . . about the crush. Maybe not say it's been there since fourth grade but. . . Yeah."

"Wow." Nya nudged her friend's shoulder. "Someone's getting brave. Why the sudden impulse?"

"I feel. . . I really like him as a friend. If anything, I want to at least keep that. So, I don't know, I guess I want to be honest." Jay shrugged as he talked. "What do you guys think?"

"Do it." Lloyd nodded enthusiastically.

"Please do. I'm tired of watching you both act so clueless." Nya said.

"Clueless?" Jay frowned. "What do you mean, clueless?"

Nya snickered, pointing at Jay's face. "That's what I mean, clueless."

He opened his mouth to demand further explanation, but with a bouncy wave, Nya flittered off into her classroom. He then turned to Lloyd, who merely shrugged as an explanation. "When are you going to tell him?"

"After school, probably. So I can run away to the bus as soon as it's done."

"Fair enough, "Lloyd said. "See ya then."

"See ya."

Jay continued to move down the hall on his own. His eyes were lowered, as he planned the words he would tell Cole. His stomach flipped endlessly, but his determination didn't waver.

Focused as he was in his own world, Jay didn't see Kai until he'd crashed head first into him. They both stumbled back, both looking at the other with frazzled expressions.

"Sorry." Jay mumbled, before frowning. "Are you okay?"

"I'm- yeah. Sure. Yeah." Kai shook his head as he spoke, hinting at the very opposite.

Jay wanted to press the question. He truly did. He'd never been terribly close with Nya's brother, but he was close enough to care. But the words didn't form. Instead, he felt a bizarrely heavy feeling pressing against his mind.

Suddenly, he wanted to tell Kai everything. His worries about how Cole felt, his feelings of being absolutely inadequate, and his lack of a goal for when he stepped into the alien world of adulthood.

And so he did.

Kai recognized the shift in Jay's expression. He'd seen it about a dozen times in the past hour.

Everyone who was close to him for a second too long, would suddenly spill any and all troubles they'd ever faced. The bus driver, his classmates, his teachers, and random strangers. Kai felt exhausted. He hadn't know how many things could be wrong with a person at once, and he dearly wished he still didn't know.

"I really don't want to lose Cole. He's amazing. He. . . he's one of the best things that's ever happened to me. And I'm so terrified of messing it up. I think telling him I like him is the right thing, but I'm not sure. It feels like the right thing, but then again every other decision I make ends up being the wrong one."

Kai felt a little guilty, but he truly didn't want to listen. He wanted out of this dumb wish. With a sheepish smile Kai knew Jay wouldn't remember, he stepped back into the crowd, moving along quickly so as to not spark any more conversation.

He opened the door to the bathroom roughly, making it slam against the wall. The sound echoed throughout. Kai stepped into one of the stalls, glad to see there was no one else in there with him.

The bell rang, but he ignored it. It wasn't like his teachers would even be aware of his presence if he decided to head to class.

Kai zipped open his backpack, reaching for the teapot. He twisted the image into place, readying himself for the poof of smoke.

When the Djinn had formed fully, he smiled down at Kai with a knowingly condescending smile. Kai tried to keep the frustration from his face, but the twitchy look in his eyes revealed enough.

"Here for another wish?"

"Yes." Kai hissed. "What I said before, that wasn't what I wanted at all! I don't want random people telling me every bad thing about their lives. I just want to be able to. . . I just wish I knew what they were thinking. That's it.

"No deep conversation about things that happened years ago, or long stories about their misadventures. I just want then to tell me things straight. So I don't have to guess at meanings."

"Ah. Well. Easy mistake. Words mean a lot these days." The Djinn continued to smile. "But well, your wish is yours to keep."

"Thank you." Kai said with thick sarcasm.

"I'll be waiting."

"Right, yeah." Kai twisted the teapot. "Whatever."

It wasn't until the Djinn had gone that Kai became acutely aware of a buzzing sound around him. He couldn't really distinguish anything from it. The sound followed him as he exited the bathroom, growing louder and louder as he moved through the hall.

For lack of anywhere better to go, Kai headed to his classroom.

When he opened the door, the dim buzzing grew loud and wild. And he recognized it for what it was.

Words. Sentences. Statements. Dozens and dozens of them, flying out of the minds of his classmates and into his ears. It was overwhelmingly loud. Kai willed himself to step into the classroom, trying to keep his face from showing the deep discomfort he was feeling.

As he slid into the first empty sit, he clutched onto the desk, Desperately trying to find time to think his own thoughts.

"Cole! Hey!"

Jay waved at his friend, trying to catch his attention. Cole looked back and returned the gesture. They moved toward each other, meeting by the edge of the parking lot. Jay's eyes flitted over to the buses. They wouldn't wait for him long. This had to be fast.

"Hey. What's up? Do you want a ride?"

"No. No. That's okay." Jay shook his head. "I um. I told Nya we'd hang out. I just- I had to tell you something."

"Okay." Cole waited. Jay waited. Cole spoke. "What is it?"

"It's. . ." Now that Cole was there, real and not a daydream, Jay found himself suddenly unable to speak. His heart flitted wildly. He was seconds away from crossing a line he would never be able to turn back from. "I. . ."

"Are you alright? Did something happen?"

"No! I'm fine! So fine. Completely alright." Jay smiled, or tried to. He leaned back on his heels, letting out a forceful breath. "I'm just, trying to find the right words. But I never can. I just go on babbling forever and hope that it, you know, that it comes across eventually."

"Just keep talking then, I'll try to get the point." Cole chuckled softly, but his hands had tightened against the strap of his bag. Jay did not know what to make of this fact.

"Well . . . You're a great friend. And I hope we can keep being friends. Regardless of anything that might leave my mouth in the next minute."

"Uh-huh. . ."

"I. . . Fourth grade. You were really. . . something. I wasn't going to start on fourth grade. Now this makes it creepy. Does it? I don't know. But fourth grade. I thought you were impossibly amazing. We drifted apart, but I never stopped thinking that. I had, the worst crush on you." Jay looked down. "Had, have. Have. So then, we actually got to talking again, and it's just gotten worse, I just really like you. Like a lot. And that's- I'm going to miss my bus."

Jay looked back up, giving a quick smile at Cole's shocked expression. He then turned, running toward the bus that would drive him off to safety. He heard Cole shout his name at least once, but he didn't have the will, or the time, to look back.

He hopped onto the bus, receiving an annoyed glance from the driver. Jay slipped onto a seat by Nya and Lloyd, feeling the heat in his face grow stronger as they stared expectantly.

"So?" They both said in unison.

"So." Jay shrugged, looking down for a brief second before smiling up at them. "So I did it."

"Nya, I really have to talk to you."

Kai fidgeted with the sleeves of his jacket. They sat at the dinner table, eating a quick self-made snack that would keep them afloat until their parents got home. It was a bit refreshing, hearing only his sister's thoughts, but he could feel the pulsing buzz of the neighbors minds in the back of his head.

I should write a quick draft. Then I'll talk to Mrs. Garmadon. She can review it for me. See if there's anything I need to change. "Yeah?"

"It's about the teapot."

Then there's that dumb math test. I really don't want to study for it. "Yeah?"

Kai knew she wasn't listening. He sighed heavily. "Nya, I'm serious, c'mon."

The flow of her thoughts stopped as she looked up at him. "Okay. What?"

"I found the teapot."

Right, yeah. Of course he did. I really do need to find that thing though. I haven't heard anything new in a bit. But I know Chris Morris went missing too. And Skylor Chen. "Where was it?"

Kai squinted his eyes. "It was on the bus."

Someone's got to be passing it around. "Oh?"

"You know what, never mind. I think I need a nap." Kai pushed the chair back roughly, stomping his way up the steps. By the time he reached the top, Nya was already back to thinking about the things she had to get done.

Kai let himself fall onto his bed, feeling at an absolute loss. He wanted to be mad at Nya, but he knew he couldn't blame her. His habit of embellishing the truth was finally biting him back.

Still, he wished his sister could see he was being honest. The helplessness was overwhelming, and he shut his eyes, hoping that the thoughts of others wouldn't interfere with his dreams too.