Packed Parking Lot

"Okay guys we're almost there!" Nya announced as she slowed at the stoplight of a street near the mall.

"It's about time! I think that my arm is going to fall asleep." Kai said, his arm starting to feel numb from having held onto the handrail on the side of the van for what seemed like such a long time.

"Come on, Kai, it's only been less than half hour. Be grateful that traffic on the highway wasn't as bad as yesterday," she replied, rolling her eyes. She remembered well that she ended up being stuck in this particular section of the highway yesterday afternoon on her way back from having purchased last minute supplies for her classroom.

This of course was the same reason why the gas tank was almost empty, since she hadn't expected the traffic jam and waiting on the highway for an entire hour for traffic to clear up drained a good portion of the gas.

"I just can't wait to finally get into a cool, air-conditioned place," Lloyd stated, wiping a good amount of moisture from his forehead with the sleeve of his hoodie.

"Why didn't you at least take off that thing on our way here?" Cole asked, a concerned expression forming on his face. "You're going to get heatstroke if you keep it on any longer."

Lloyd hesitantly tugged off the hood of his sweater as he replied, "Someone can see me through the windows of the van. They aren't exactly polarized."

"I don't think anyone could have recognized you at the speed that my sis was driving at," Kai muttered before getting abruptly pushed forward as Nya pushed her foot hard on the accelerator when the light turned green.

"I'm sorry Kai, I didn't hear you that last thing you were saying. Can you repeat it again?"

Kai sighed as he regained balance. "Forget it."

"Hey, Sensei," Zane said as he turned to look at Sensei Wu, who had his eyes closed in deep meditation. "Exactly what type of attire would you suggest that we purchase?"

Sensei Wu opened his eye and took a moment to think about Zane's question before answering, "Considering the fact that you are all the face of the new school, I would strongly recommend 'Business Formal'. Possibly even 'Business Casual' or 'Dressy Casual' as long as it looks professional."

This statement earns blank stares from almost every person in the vehicle, excluding Nya, since she is too occupied keeping her eyes on the road.

"Come again?" Jay says, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Whoa," Lloyd gasps, staring at his uncle with disbelief."I didn't even know that there were different categories of casual!"

"I think I only understood the first one, 'Business Formal'. It's a dark business suit with a dress shirt, tie, and optional matching vest," Cole pointed out, remembering this stuff straight from the memories of when his dad, Lou, would get dressed up in such manner to attend special events to perform with his quartet group.

"Correct, Cole. I'm glad to see at least one of you was not completely caught off guard by the terms I used," he says, slightly nodding with approval, then looks over to the others. "However, I was expecting more out of you all. To think that, in the adult world that you are all about to enter, you still don't know what I was talking about. I guess that you are all still going to need some 'hand holding'."

"Let me explain," he starts as Nya enters the parking lot of the shopping center. "'Business Casual' would refer to an extra option that ladies, like Nya, would have. It consists of a dress or an open collar shirt with either khakis or pants. 'Dressy Casual' for men would be a seasonal sports coat or blazer with a button-down shirt and slacks with the optional tie. For women, it's could be a blouse with nice slacks or a dress. Do you all understand?"

When Sensei glances back to see the reactions of his students, he sees that they all still look absolutely lost.

"Nevermind what I said," he says, shaking his head with disapproval. "I guess that I'll have to show you some examples when we are inside the mall."

"Err, Sensei, it might be a while before we can even get inside," Nya interrupts.

"What makes you say that," Kai asks.

"Just look outside."

Everyone turned their glances to the nearest windows and saw what she meant. Every single parking spot seemed to be taken. The lanes were packed full of cars looking for a single free space.

"Oh come on!" Jay exclaimed, feeling that his date with Nya was never going to become a reality.

"This doesn't even make sense. Today's a weekday!" Cole added, trying to look farther into the parking lot for a spot, but every single one was occupied by a vehicle.

"Maybe it's because of the back-to-school specials that started a couple of days ago. Everyone is coming early to take advantage of them," Nya replied, staring at the daunting line of cars with frustrated drivers.

"We're probably going to be here for a good half-hour just looking for a space," Kai groaned. "And it's probably going to be pretty far from the mall."

In a sense, Kai was right. Nya spent the next 25 minutes going around lanes while the others were on the lookout for an empty parking spot. Unfortunately they were met with false leads and other competitive drivers who were also desperate to find one.

"Hey, I think I see an empty spot," Cole said, pointing toward a vacant space.

"Cole, if this is just another really small car in that spot, I am going to lose it!" Nya snarled. She was becoming very upset because all the false alarms that the guys kept presenting her with were making her stressed out.

"I swear, I swear. See," he replied as they drove closer to the spot. No one had yet claimed it.

"Yes!" Lloyd cheered. He had kept on the sweltering hoodie on the entire time, knowing that in a crowded mall there would be a higher chance of finding insane fangirls lurking around, and was holding out in hopes of finally being inside the mall, where the cold air would make wearing the hoodie bearable.

Just the memories of being chased by enormous crowds of them made him cautious enough to go through such extremes to maintain his identity a secret. His fear for crazed fanatics was so severe that he had to find private transportation to get here while the car that he was usually seen driving returned back to the luxury hotel without him. If he was correct, as of now, his fans would be headed over to the direction of that car, which meant that they wouldn't be expecting him here.

However, his experiences over the past months taught him that he could never be too prepared. So he carried a sweater in the complementary bag that the hotel provided him with, just to play it safe.

He willed himself to keep the thing just a little while more, remembering that it wouldn't be much longer until he could get out of here.

As Nya got the van ready to enter the space, suddenly, out of nowhere, a speeding yellow Hummer swerved in from behind the van and took the spot, literally snatching it from her grasp.

This made everyone in the van go in shock at what had just happened.

The sleazy driver of the over-sized vehicle quickly parked it, then turned off the ignition and stepped out, slamming the car door behind him and carelessly whistling a tune.

"Wow, so there is someone who is more of a reckless driver than my sister," Kai gasped.

Nya's facial features contorted as she finally registered what the driver had done. She had been driving around the parking lot with the other drivers for the past 25 minutes to get a spot so she could get the guys inside to get clothes appropriate for their job, which, by the way, they should have done earlier. And now this person thinks that he can just take the space that she had been waiting so long to find!

"Hey what's your problem!" Nya yelled out at him, her face reddening with fury. "Did you realize that I was going to park in there?!"

The driver turned around and, with a condescending glare, sneered, "You were getting in too slow." Then he shrugged apathetically as he said, "You snooze, you lose."

She let out a low, angry growl. How dare he! How dare he call her a slow driver on top of having taken her parking spot!

A moment later, another person growled loudly in unison, catching her by surprise and making her immediately stop.

Everyone turned to the source of this new sound and saw Lloyd literally glowing in a green aura as he got up, pushed Sensei Wu's restraining arm off, and slid open the van door.

"Oh no, this won't end well," Jay gulped.

"Hey," Lloyd called out, his glare aimed squarely at the cheaply dressed man. "We already had that spot."

The man turned around and smugly replied, "Well too bad kid. I'm already parked in there. There's nothing you can do about that."

"Oh really? Well how about you go find your own parking instead of stealing it from people who have waited an eternity just to get it?"

The driver let out a challenging laugh. "Make me, you runt!"

Lloyd cocked an eyebrow as he put both of his arms in front of him and started charging a bright green ball of energy. "With pleasure," he coldly stated as the ball grew to it's full size.

"You're- you're- the GREEN NINJA!" The driver exclaimed.

"Nephew, don't do it!" Sensei warned, his eyes widening as Lloyd aimed it at the Hummer.

However, there was no need for any intervention as the driver ran to the car, started it, quickly backed out, and drove away, his tires squealing against the pavement and releasing a white cloud of smoke.

Lloyd stopped charging the energy ball and made it disappear, laughing as the car speed out of the lot.

"Woohoo!" Nya applauded, parking the van into the spot.

"Great job, Lloyd!" Kai yelled.

"Honestly, I would've preferred if you blew up his car," Jay added as he opened the door and got out. "He would've deserved it for what he did to Nya."

Nya blushed lightly in response to what he said and giggled to herself as she pulled the keys out of the ignition.

"Now, now, let's not be too rash," Sensei Wu replied after letting out a breath of relief. "It is fortunate that Lloyd had some self control and only intimidated the driver. Just imagine the costs I would've ended up paying if he really sent off that energy attack."

"Oh my gosh! Did you see that!" A scandalously dressed raven-haired girl nearby pointed out to her friend. "It's Lloyd! I mean, who else could make an energy ball like that!"

"No friggin' way!" her brunette friend squealed as she pulled out her phone and took a quick snapshot of him. "So he isn't at the Penthouse Hotel as the earlier updates said he would be."

The other nodded as her friend typed rapidly on her phone. "We are going to get serious bonus points from the Lloyd Fans United App once we send this out."

A horrified expression grew on Lloyd face and he sprinted off toward them. "No wait-"

"Done!" The brunette announced, an accomplished look on her face. "He's at the mall's parking lot."

"Oh no! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" he yelled out.

"Hi Lloyd," the other girl greeted, an enormous grin on her face. "We didn't know you were going to be here!"

Her friend put away her phone and did a little curtsy as she said, "It's an honor to finally meet you in person, Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon. We're a couple of your biggest fans!"

He stared at then in shock, then started running as soon as he realized that there would be more like them coming. "I can't take anymore of this!"

"Wait up, Lloyd!" she yelled out, her face falling in disappointment. Her phone vibrated and she pulled it out. After taking a small glance at the phone screen, she let out a squeal of excitement. "Alright! We already have 5 kudos on our 'Lloyd discovery'!"

The dark haired girl next to her shook her head. "Darn, I needed to get his autograph to show off to the others at my fan community. We have to catch up with him!" She sprinted after him, grabbing her tote bag full of notebooks.

The brunette looked up from her phone to the direction of the others, who were staring at her with mixed reactions. "Hey," she exclaimed in an irritated tone. "Do you have anything better than to stare at me?"

"Do you?" Cole replied, referring to the fact that both girls had literally been stalking Lloyd.

She rolled her eyes in disgust as she said, "Gimme a break. I'm on summer vacation!" Then she caught a glimpse of her friend, who was chasing after Lloyd, and ran off, trying to catch up with them.

"Oh, so the rumors about that fan app were true," Zane said.

Cole visibly shuddered as he asked, "Do you think that there's one for us?"

"I don't think so," Jay replied. "Neither of them even gave us a second glance."

"That's true." Cole nodded.

"That's a relief. Imagine putting up with that every time you have to go out in public!" Kai stated, then grimaced as he remembered how he was jealous of the fame that Lloyd was receiving. "Suddenly I'm not too sure that I'd like to be even partially credited for defeating the Overlord," he muttered to himself.

"Do you think that we should go back to help him?" Jay asked as he scanned the parking lot for a sign of Lloyd.

"If he was able to take down the Overlord, I think that he's capable enough to handle a group of fangirls," Cole replied.

"I highly doubt it," Zane muttered as he saw several girls run out from the mall building. "They seem to be coming out from all corners."

"Guys, what are you waiting for!" Nya called back from behind her shoulder as she started heading toward the mall. "The mall's going to close in three hours!"

The others followed her, except for Sensei, who shook his head.

"My predictions are just starting to come true," he murmured before walking toward them.

If anyone was the least bit offended by my portrayal of fangirls, I would like to take this time to say that I am aware that not all of them are like that . It is only the select few that can reach that level of rabid fanatic. I am just doing this for some humor, but am trying to keep it in a way that makes the exaggeration minimally hurt anyone who is a fan of anything/anyone.

If I severely insulted you, then I sincerely apologize for doing so...

Really, I do.