Ch 20

The events of yesterday were still planted in Alex's mind as she focused her energy onto a small light bulb in her hands. After she and Cole had entered, the others had been glad to see their friend happy, and apologized for keeping her left out. There had been no questions about what had occurred, and none of the others knew about their new relationship, so after their friends had retired to bed, the new couple had chosen to relax outside and bond.

"So have you ever been in a relationship before me?" Alex inquired as she laid her head on Cole's lap. Her boyfriend had stroked her hair and looked down, "Nope. You're my first girl. And hopefully my last." She had smiled at Cole and leaned up to kiss him. "Aren't you a smooth talker?"

Cole had smiled back, "Only to you."

Alex couldn't help but smile again at last night, but quickly had to come back to the present as the light had begun to flicker.

"Focus Alex," Jay instructed, "Control the power inside you. When you feel a surge swelling up, harness it."

"Got it," the green ninja looked back to the light bulb, "I must be in control."

As she deepened her concentration, the light grew brighter and brighter, to the point where a stable connection had finally built up in the bulb.

"All right!" Alex cheered, "Only took a few light bulbs, too."

"Uh, how about a few dozen?" Kai inquired, laughing at Alex's excitement.

The green ninja rolled her eyes, "Shut up and let me enjoy this Kai. I'll clean up in a bit."

Cole smiled and walked over with a broom, "How about now?"

As Alex looked to her boyfriend, the light bulb suddenly exploded in her hands. "What the? Oh never mind, just give me the broom." Cole laughed at his girlfriend's current loss of euphoria, and smiled reassuringly at her as she began to sweep up the glass.

At that moment, Nya entered the room, wearing an interesting new red dress. "Hey guys!" She called out, and then looked to a certain blue ninja, "Hey Jay!"

Looking dumbstruck as ever, Jay walked over to talk to his girl, while Alex finished her sweeping. Once she threw everything away, she walked back to find Sensei Wu looking at a letter. "What is that, Sensei?" Alex asked.

"It's from Lloyd's old school," Sensei replied as the others walked over to see what was going on.

"The school for bad boys?" Cole inquired.

"Formerly bad boys, but since the last time we were there they've changed to the Darkly's School for Great Children. It says here that there is going to be a ceremony."

"I love ceremonies!" Cole exclaimed, "That means there's gonna be cake!"

Alex rolled her eyes at the black ninja's obsession with the treat and laughed.

Sensei continued, "They say Lloyd inspired them and they want to give him an honorary degree of excellence."

Lloyd had currently been ignoring the others at the time, and was busy beating up a punching bag and breaking a broom.

"Are you sure we're talking about the same Lloyd?" Kai interjected as the group watched the young boy dive into the punching bad head first, trying to act like a true fighter.

As the others dispersed to get ready, Alex walked over to explain the situation to the kid.

"Me? An award? But all I did was turn good!" Lloyd seemed confused. "Exactly," Alex said, "Your change to good inspired others at the school to do the same, you should be proud that you can be such a great influence."

Lloyd pushed his chest out proudly, "Well I am descended from the first Spinjitzu master."

Alex laughed and walked over to the punching bags to fit in some last second training. As she jabbed her fists repeatedly into the bag, she felt someone tap her shoulder. Instinctively, she grabbed her dagger and whipped around, holding the blade to find a very scared looking Dareth.

The brown ninja squeaked, "I just wanted to apologize for yesterday."

Alex sighed as she lowered the blade and let the man down, but not before landing a stinging punch to Dareth's jaw, knocking him to the floor. "There," she replied as she walked away, "Now your apology is accepted."

Before they knew it, the ninja and Lloyd had taken to the skies, with Alex once again behind the reigns of her dragon. She whooped along with the others as the dragon smoothly navigated along the mountains, relieved to feel the fresh air from above.

"Now that we can ride the dragon, we should get to Darkly's in no time," Jay commented as the ride began to even out.

"That's if Alex here can get us there in one piece," Kai interjected.

Cole stepped in to defend his girlfriend, "She'll be fine, as long as she doesn't make any sudden movements..." The black ninja was interrupted as Alex turned to him, yanking the reigns with her, "Any sudden what?"

The dragon immediately plummeted down, carrying the group of screaming ninja with him. Alex immediately saw what the issue was and let go of the reigns, steadying the Ultra Dragon's flight until it landed down below at their destination.

"Well that was fun," Alex commented as she and the others stepped off the dragon, "At least I knew what to do."

"Yea, but all the same, I think I should take the reigns on the way back. Just to be safe," Cole replied.

"Why?" Lloyd inquired, "That was awesome!"

As they walked up to the school, the group was greeted by a young boy by the name of Brad, who seemed happy to see Lloyd, despite the latter's story of the former putting fire ants in his bed.

"You must be the ninja! So nice to meet you! Go good!" Brad excitedly shook everyone's hand, although the boy did slightly hesitate to shake Alex's hand.

The cootie stage of life, Alex thought as she and the others walked into the school.

Soon they arrived at the principal's office, where Brad quickly left them to talk to the principal.

"Ok. Has anyone seen a teacher since we got here?" Jay asked the others as they looked around the waiting room.

"Indeed," Zane stated, "Their absence is most unusual."

"I will see you now. Come in," the principal stated as the door to the office opened and the others stepped inside, an ominous feeling of unrest filling their thoughts.

However, the ninja soon found themselves in quite a predicament as a nasally sounding boy called Gene and his group of boys knocked out the group with sand bags.

Surrounded by blackness, Alex soon woke up to find Cole standing over her, looking a bit worried. "You ok?"

The green ninja nodded as her boyfriend helped her up. As she looked around, she found the rest of the group, sans Lloyd, as well as the teachers of Darkly's.

The teachers were currently explaining the situation to the other three as Cole and Alex walked over, talking about how the boys had overthrown them for teaching them the ways of good.

"This was a trick the boys planned to lure Lloyd here and convince him to be their leader," one man explained to the ninja.

Alex was a bit shocked, yet unsurprised, since something about the school had seemed off since they had arrived.

However, Cole was freaking out about another situation entirely. "Wait! So that means... there's not gonna be CAKE!?"

Lloyd is in trouble, the ninja doppelgangers are on the way, and of course Cole is freaking out about cake of all things.

To the guest Darkrainbow: Thank you for reading my story. I'd love to include your OC, but you may have to wait, since I now need to place her at the right moment in the story line. Also, I understand you are not a fan of ColexAlex, but if you have read earlier chapters, you would know I left it up to the community to decide who Alex should be paired with, and Cole was the favorite out of the few who voted

To everyone else: Thank you all so much for reading! I will be posting the next chapter possibly tomorrow, but I will also be planning to write other stories based on other categories, so look out for that if you're interested

Until next time!