2. Childish Games

~Cole

After taking some time to think about my actions, punching out the anger on the sand dummy, I realized that maybe I was a little hard on Kai. I mean, it's not like he tried to let the Serpentine take the Violet Goblet (what a kinky name) on purpose; he was trying to make things move quicker, but that ended up making us all fall into our own trap and practically break our faces on the tile in the museum. The museum owners would also probably be riding our asses about getting that goblet back, and surely we'd see the image of the purple cup all over the news by the time Jay turned it on in the morning. There'd be no escaping the headlines, not until we brought it back.

If Kai stuck to the plan, none of this would've happened, said a voice in the back of my head, but I wiggled my nose. Kai was only trying to make things work quicker. Still though, his impatience crippled us and if he didn't figure it out soon, we'd be in trouble.

I left the dummy alone and went to find him. I needed to apologize. I felt a little bad for yelling at him like that in front of everyone- I should've at least kept myself cool.

I was about to go down the stairs when I ran into Lloyd. We both fell to the deck's hard floor, groaning when my elbow slammed hard against the wood. I looked up to find myself pinned to the Bounty by Lloyd Garmadon (who wasn't so little anymore) holding me down by my legs and restraining me by the hands pressed to my shoulders. I was going to explain to him that guys didn't do this to other guys, until he interrupted me. "COLE!' he shouted.

"Ugh. What?"

"COLE! Sensei has a"- Lloyd lowered his voice-"secret scroll in his room."

I rolled my eyes. "And I have a secret Playboy issue under my bed. So what?"

Lloyd's face turned sour. He let go of my shoulders. "That's nasty," he said.

"It was sarcasm."

"Oh! In that case, I'm not being sarcastic. He seriously does. He told me that it's a legend." Lloyd's eyes brightened the way they used to, as a kid, when he got excited about something. I sat up, trying to push him off of me, but the kid was resilient enough to wrap his legs around my waist. My face turned red. If anybody saw this, I'd never live it down.

"Get off," I grunted.

"WAIT! I'm not done yet," Lloyd said, and shook my shoulders. "He said it was a legend, but he wouldn't tell me what. He got nervous when I asked." Lloyd's smile brightened. "We should steal it while he's sleeping!"

"Lloyd," I growled, shoving him off me. The Green Ninja fell onto his ass, but was unaffected. "I've got better things to worry about than something Sensei doesn't want to tell us. If he wants to keep it a secret, that's his choice."

I started to walk around him, but Lloyd grabbed the tail of my shirt, pulling me back. I could've easily powered on through that, since I was stronger than him, but hurting Lloyd would make me feel even more worse than I did already. Instead, I ripped my clothes out of his hand, turning on his pleading gaze. "C'mon, Cole. Isn't it better than fighting with Kai?"

I filled my cheeks with air. "Just...keep the childish games to yourself, Lloyd," I said. "Sensei's business is Sensei's business. He'll tell us when he's ready to tell us." I walked away from him without another word. Lloyd may have grown up by body, but by mind, he still had a lot of maturing to do. I let the hallway downstairs consume me in darkness.

~Jay

Nya was in my arms, wrapped soothingly in them, with her back pressed against my chest. Now that we shared the same room, it felt more right, other than sleeping in the bunk room with Cole and the others. Plus, it gave Lloyd a better bed to sleep in. He'd had to sleep in this ugly cot that he complained hurt his back, but now he got one of those awesome cardboard beds that outmatched the cot. (Yes, there was sarcasm there.) We laid on our bed, her soft breathing light and sleepy, and mine slowed to match hers. Underneath the covers, we were both warm, and I loved the way that my hand was laced with hers against her stomach while she fell asleep.

I heard a knock at our door. I ignored it, until the knocking became more persistent by the growing seconds. "Get that," mumbled Nya, and she rolled away from me so I could get up. My body ached with the loss, but I shuffled towards the door. Whoever was on the other side was in big trouble.

Lloyd stood on the other side. "Hiya," he said. I curled my lip.

"What do you want?"

"A faaaavooorrr."

I narrowed my eyes. No one said 'favor' with seven vowels and five consonants like that without having some trick up their sleeve. I rubbed my eyes. "What?"

"Okay, well, see, Sensei has this scroll in his room-"

"No."

Lloyd became appalled. He threw up his hands. "You don't even know what I was going to say!" He cried.

"You're going to ask me to steal it," I raised my damaged eyebrow, leaning on the door frame. Lloyd looked hopeful. "You're very predictable, and my answer is no."

"But-"

"Good night, Lloyd." I closed the door in his face. No way I was going to do something so childish and tricky, especially to Sensei. The guy obviously had a reason for keeping whatever scroll it was from us, because Sensei told us everything. I crawled back into bed beside Nya and curled under the covers alongside her.

"What was that?" She mumbled without opening her eyes. I kissed her ear.

"Nothing important," I explained vaguely, and buried my face in her shoulder to sleep.

~Zane

I was not able to predict the exact essence of my peace until I was suffering from it being destroyed. I heard footsteps coming up behind me, but I did not expect someone to be unwise enough to jerk me from the zen state I achieved so rudely. Lloyd's voice shattered my inner amity and pulled me back to the present, where I found a light rain falling from the sky. Inside myself, I never would've noticed that. If I were human, I would've sighed, but politely indulged in Lloyd's presence. "Yes?" I asked. The teen was at my side, staring down at me with an insidious grin. My senses didn't like that.

"Zaaaaannnneee, I need your help."

I stood up, brushing off light raindrops from my skin. "What can I assist you with?" I asked, guiding him into the shelter of the kitchen so I could dry myself.

"Sensei has this scroll in his room," explained the teen. I listened while helping myself to a small rag, dabbing my face with the cloth. "And he won't exactly let me see it-"

"You want to take it from him without his knowledge, don't you?"

"Why does everyone keep figuring it out?" Lloyd stomped his foot.

I chuckled. "When you start a hiring process with those words, i do believe you are implying that you intend to take it from him without letting him know you have stolen it, only to return it after you've peeked. I do think that is unwise, and it is also disrespectful to Sensei; he will tell us in time what he has on that scroll. You just need to be patient."

"Well, I know, but what if he won't show us?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"Then I suppose he will not show us." I placed a hand on his shoulder. Lloyd looked disappointed. "Unless it is a love letter, Sensei Wu will show us in time, and you do not need to stress about it. No worries, as humans say." I smiled. "Now, you ought to go to sleep. Training takes place early in the morning."

Lloyd scowled. I patted him on the head and turned out the door, leaving him behind as I braved the rain just long enough to go to my bedroom and sleep myself out.

~Lloyd

When I actually got into the bedroom, I felt unaccomplished. I hadn't convinced anyone to help me peek at that scroll! What was so bad that Sensei needed to hide it from us? Really, there was no need for that. I climbed into my bed in the darkness, hearing the soft breathing of everyone else around me, and pulled my covers high up over my ears. I needed to find sleep, but it wouldn't find me; I tossed and turned for at least another hour before I could calm down. The idea of the scroll was bugging me. Normally, I wasn't very nosy, but this was just itching at my skin. I had this really deep, ugly sense that something would change when Sensei read that to us, something extremely big and extremely life-changing, that would alter our world dramatically.

When I thought that, I didn't know how true that would be later on in the story...