"Lloyd? Lloyd! Get up!" Kai's voice rang in Lloyd's ears, followed by a huge smack from a pillow on Lloyd's back.

"What?" The Green Ninja replied groggily and turned to the other side.

"Uh, get up?" Kai said once more. "You're sleeping in again." Lloyd's eyes shot up and he immediately rolled off his bed.

Today was the day. Friday. Vacation day. Despite Lyn's request, Lloyd asked Sensei Wu two days after his meetup with her. He was worried that if he asked his master immediately and without making up for his mistake, his request would be revoked. He would not have opened his mouth had not Lyn followed him up on Wednesday. However, he was still anxious about it, it didn't take long for his brothers to notice. After telling them, they were more than happy to help. After much sweet talk, pleading with doe eyes and puppy pouts, their master finally budged. Sensei Wu was lenient enough to allow his students two days off, under the condition that his students will train double time next week. The ninja then arranged to meet with Dareth to talk about their contract, and they were happy to hear the news that they're only required to work on the last few episodes of the season, and were asked by the production company if they were up for a second season. They told them that they were definitely not returning. After the meeting, they told Dareth they were taking a weekend off, but they did not tell him where they were going to avoid the press' prying eyes and cameras.

"Let's get our beach bods on!" Jay yelled and grabbed his bag.

"We get it, Jay," Cole scowled.

"Well some one woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," Jay replied with a snarky smile.

"Why did Lyn's rest house have to be a beach house, anyway?" Cole wailed. "Not everyone of us immune to water y'know."

"She probably doesn't know, Cole," Lloyd responded awkwardly. "I'm sure there are other things you can do there."

Cole crossed his arms. "There'd better be."

Since they were headed to the beach, the ninja decided that ninja gis weren't fitting for the occasion. Jay was the first to change his clothes. He removed his pajamas and slipped on a blue tank and pair of grey and blue shorts. Kai put on a loose sleeveless red shirt and black shorts. Lloyd grabbed a green collared shirt with grey shorts. Zane got a white buttoned polo with some light blue prints on and khaki shorts. Cole, eager to show off some muscle, only wore black and grey shorts, leaving his upper body bare. Nya, on the hand, wore a navy blue tank top and maroon shorts.

The ninja took off on their dragons by 8am and flew to the shoreline closest to Ninjago City. It was barely inhabited, with the seascape absolutely untouched. White sand ran across the bay, the sea breeze blew against their face. As they looked for a place to land, they spotted a lone cottage along the bay with a fence encompassing a huge perimeter around it. They landed in front of the front gate with Lloyd obliged to knock. After a while, the heavy wooden gate was opened and a face popped from behind.

"Hey, you made it!" Lyn said as she opened the gate wide to let everyone in. She was wearing a white shirt tucked in her denim shorts. Her hair was put in a side braid with aviator shades resting on her head. "Welcome to our family's rest house." The ninja entered eyeing the surroundings. It was quite a big property, but not too big. Upon entering, they had to walk a small flight of stairs that led downward to the cottage, which had two storeys and was made completely of heavy but sturdy wood, complete with a high ceiling to allow proper air mitigation. There was also a nice manicured lawn surrounding the house with the backyard making the transition from the house to the sand, and finally to the sea. The backyard also had enough trees to provide shade and some beach chairs and a hammock were placed on the sand, perfect for an afternoon siesta. A gate enclosed the yard and when opened, there was a beautiful view of the ocean and the horizon.

"This place is…" Nya said.

"Wow," was all everyone could say. It was indeed a splendid place.

"Hey, where's Sensei Wu?" Lyn asked.

"He insisted on staying on the Bounty," Lloyd told her.

"Oh," Lyn replied, somewhat disappointed. "He's not mad at me, is he?"

"Nah, he's just busy with other stuff. Probably misses his spirit smoke," Jay stated.

"I don't know what that is but ok." Lyn then proceeds to show everyone inside the cottage by pulling open its glass doors. There was a huge living room with two armchairs and a six-seater L-shaped couch facing a plasma TV screen mounted on the wall, complete with surround sound speakers. The kitchen was compact but had enough space for cooking. There were two dining tables, a small four-seater coffee table near the kitchen, and an eight-seater dining table in the main dining area. The dining area also extended to a huge covered porch outside with a long wooden table accompanied with wooden benches. Full size glass windows were situated at the side where the sea view was, each window an operable louver from top to bottom so that the glass can be opened to let the breeze in, and closed to keep incoming rains out. The ninja once again gaped at the high-end yet slightly rustic design.

"So, dining and kitchen over there, and living room here," Lyn explained, while gesturing to each room. "The master bedroom, which was suppose to be Sensei's, is first room after the living room." She then led them upstairs . Stopping at the first door, she twisted the knob. The door opened to show two bunk beds and two single beds.

"I think it's safe to say this is the guys' room," Lyn said.

"Whooo awesome!" Jay yelled again and zipped inside with the rest following. The boys immediately raided the room, calling dibs on who will take which bed. In the end, Kai and Jay got the top bunks, Zane and Cole got the bottom bunks, while Lloyd volunteered to sleep on one of the single beds. There was also another door at the end of the room, and Lyn told them it was their personal bathroom.

"There's another bathroom in the next door, but Dad decided to place one in this room so that no one would fight over who gets to shower first." She then went two more doors down, the last door. When she opened it, it had two twin beds with one dresser.

"And this is me and Nya's room," the brunette finished. She stepped aside to let Nya in.

"Nice. I get a bigger bed than the boys," Nya laughed and placed her bag on the bed near the window.

"I'll go check on the guys and see if they haven't torn the room down." Lyn shuffled back to the boys' room and found them looking out the window, out into the beach.

"Why do you have so many bedrooms, Lyn?" Cole asked.

"When I was younger, my family would go here on vacation with our relatives, and me and my cousins would stay in this room. But that was a long time ago. This room hasn't been used in years."

"But it looks so clean!" Kai said while sitting on one of the Ninja and feeling its soft fabric.

"What? You didn't think I'd let my first friends in a long time come over without doing my own cleaning frenzy did you?" Lyn replied.

"But this place is kinda huge," Lloyd pointed out. "How'd you manage to do all this?"

"I didn't. I asked help from the people who take care of the beach house when there are no guests. I've been here since yesterday to prepare everything. Speaking of which, you guys hungry?"

Cole's eyes lit up. "Did someone say hungry? Because I definitely am hungry."

Lyn chuckled and went downstairs with the rest following. She entered the dining room where there were several covered platters. She opened each of them and the ninja's mouths watered in delight. Hot steamed buns, fruits, some eggs and slices of ham, and a bowl of fruit in the center.

"Help yourselves," their host told them. Cole immediately grabbed a plate and stuffed it with every delicacy.

"You prepared all this?" Lloyd finally asked her. The girl beamed proudly.

"By myself, yes. The caretakers only take care of the place when no one's around. But now that we're all here, the whole place is ours. Which also means we'll need to prepare our own meals. But not to worry. This is a fully stocked kitchen."

"Thank you for your utmost generosity, Lyn," Zane answered. The others followed and gave their host thanks.

After finishing their meal, the ninja began clearing the table. Lyn offered to wash the dishes, but the others objected.

"No way," Jay lifted his finger. "We can't let our gracious host wash our dishes. Lloyd will do it."

"What? Why do I have to do it?" Lloyd complained.

"Seriously? You're complaining?" Cole rebuked him.

Lloyd held up his hands in defense. "No that's not what I-"

"Then it's no problem," Kai cut him off and gently placed his hand on Lyn's shoulder. He then made split-second eye contact with his other brothers. "The rest of us will head off to the beach. Join us when you're done."

"I think I'll stay and help Lloyd," Lyn answered. She then awkwardly moved away from Kai and turned on the tap. She then placed all the dishes in the sink and began to carefully rinse each on. Lloyd watched her for a moment and felt that he himself was being watched. He looked behind him and caught his brothers looking at him with a mixture of sly and playful faces. He glared at them. They simply waved their hands at him before leaving.

"Okay, then. We'll see you outside," Nya called out.

As Lyn and Lloyd began to wash the dishes, they felt the space getting more and more cramped. Lyn rinsed and applied the dishwasher while Lloyd rinsed off the side and put them in the cupboard. Lloyd would often steal quick glances at her. Lyn, however, had her eyes locked on her work. She seemed focused, but in reality, her heart was pounding like a drum. Why did she agree to do the dishes with him?

Her thoughts were interrupted when her fingers came in contact with something warm. She looked down at the glass she was handing to her dishwashing partner. She saw that his fingers ever so gently touched hers.

"Sorry," Lloyd muttered and took the glass from her. Lyn found it quite adorable that he even apologized at the contact. The thought of it made her feel fuzzy inside. Unfortunately after that brief contact, Lloyd was careful not to repeat it, cautiously looking at where to hold before holding the glass himself. This made the brunette a little sad. She then realized: why would she be sad over a brief physical contact? It obviously meant nothing, right?

Lloyd on the other hand was also feeling nervous. That brief moment of their fingers touching sent an electric shock to his body, as if Jay himself zapped him. It sure felt good, and he wanted to feel it again. What was he thinking? He didn't want to take advantage of the situation, so he eyed his movements closer than earlier, avoiding another touch with the girl's hand. Her presence for now was enough.

"And all done," Lloyd triumphantly said, putting the last piece of tableware in its proper place.

"We make a pretty good team of dishwashers, Lloyd Garmadon," Lyn replied.

"That we do," the Green Ninja replied, smiling at her. Lyn basked in his smile. Just why was his smile so radiant? She then realized she's been staring too long and looked away.

"Uh, yeah, so, let's go see what the others are up to."

When they got there, they saw Cole lying comfortably on one of the beach chairs with his eyes closed.

I thought you guys went to the beach," Lyn told the ghost.

Cole opened one eye and replied, "They did. Since ghosts don't do water, I'd rather stay on dry land than risk getting evaporated."

Lyn covered her mouth is shock. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Cole. I didn't know."

"Nah, don't worry about it," Cole casually replied. There are always other things to do. Say, do you have any more snacks?"

Lyn breathed out in relief. "There's more in the pantry." Cole immediately got up on his feet and went inside the cottage. Lyn then turned her attention to Lloyd.

"Why didn't you tell me ghosts don't do water? I wouldn't have brought you here in the first place."

"Sorry I didn't think it through," Lloyd apologized. "And there wasn't much time to change the venue was there?"

"Yeah," Lyn huffed. "Because someone told me two days before today."

"I told you why I had to wait a few days."

"I know I know. I just feel bad for Cole."

"He'll be fine, really." Lyn nodded and went towards the gate and breathed in the sea breeze. The tide was still pretty high and the waves would touch the steps of the gate as they moved to an almost rhythmic beat. Lloyd looked ahead and saw that the others were having fun in the water. Jay was sliding on Zane's ice slide while Kai floated along the water atop a floating bed. Zane himself surfed alongside his brother with his powers. Nya too used her powers as she zipped across the water's surface, using the water to propel herself forward.

"Hey guys!" Jay called to the pair on the shore. "Come on in! The water's great!"

"Alright, let's go," Lloyd said walking down the stairs. He looked back to see Lyn sitting on the top step, not moving a muscle.

"I think I'll stay here," she said. The Green Ninja raised a brow.

"Why? The water's cool, sun's not too hot, and you're no ghost. So let's go."

When Lyn saw that this guy wasn't going anywhere, she slowly stood up and walked down the steps. Lloyd began to walk faster and before he knew it, water was already reaching his chest. He looked back to see Lyn farther from him, stopping where the water was at her knees.

"Come on, Lyn! We're missing out." The girl didn't move.

"You go on ahead. I'll catch up." Lloyd then eyed her carefully. Her face was pale. Her eyes looked at the water with fear . He understood. He made his way toward her.

"Are you, afraid of the water?"

The brunette looked briefly into Lloyd's green eyes before looking away embarrassed. "No… I'm afraid of what's swimming in the deep end."

"But we're pretty far from the deep end."

"I know, but still."

"You've got nothing to worry about. Come on, take my hand." He held out his two hands for Lyn to hold. She grasped them very tightly to the point her knuckles turned white. Lloyd slowly led her along, his eyes not breaking contact with hers. When the water finally reached their waist, Lyn was starting to panic.

"Lloyd, I think this is far enough," she told him.

"You can do this," he told her. "There's nothing to be af-"

"OHMYGOSH LLOYD SOMETHING BRUSHED UNDER MY FEET!"

Lyn couldn't help herself. She began to climb on Lloyd's back and coiled her arms around her neck as a hard as she could, choking Lloyd in the process. Her legs hug Lloyd's stomach, cutting off his air supply even more.

"Lyn! You're- choking-me!"

"It's still down there! It's still down there!"

Lloyd started to struggle with Lyn's hold of him whilst keeping his balance. The others started to notice the odd situation.

"What are they doing?" Jay asked as he stopped mid-slide. Zane zoomed his vision to the pair.

"Lyn appears to be choking Lloyd," said the titanium ninja.

"I got this," Kai said to the others as he got off his raft and paddled it towards Lyn and Lloyd. By the time he was near, Lyn had gone ballistic. Tears were threatening to show as well.

"Please just get me out. Please just get me out."

"Come on, Lyn." Kai tapped the girl's shoulder. Lyn eyed him and immediately saw his air bed. Looking at the Red Ninja's hand, she immediately held it, Kai helped her into his air bed, leaving Lloyd to gasp for huge amounts of air, and coughing in between breathes. Kai pat his brother's back in support.

"Kai?... Could you?..." Lyn at this point was hugging her knees and pointed toward the cottage. Kai simply nodded and pushed the floating bed toward the shore. When the bed was inching closer to the sand, Lyn jumped off, gave a short "thank you" to Kai and ran into the house.

She's never felt so scared or embarrassed in her entire life. She burst into the kitchen door and ran towards the bathroom. What she forgot was that Cole was in the kitchen and almost ran right through him, had not Cole's reflexes made him dodge out of the way.

"Hey, careful!" Cole told her. Lyn didn't answer. She just darted straight to the bathroom and locked herself in. She rested her one hand on the sink, and wiped her face with the other. She then heard a knock at the door.

"Hey, you okay in there?" Cole asked. "You looked like you've seen a ghost. Well, other than me."

"I'm okay, Cole. Sorry for almost bumping into you."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I-Im okay," Lyn replied with a sniff. "I just need a breather."

"Well at least let me keep you company."

"Oh no, I don't want to disturb you."

"Come on Lyn. You've done so much for us already. The least I can do is be a listening ear. Besides, I got ice cream."

The door knob finally clicked, revealing a puffy-eyed Lyn. Cole led her to the living room and told her to sit. Lyn remembered her lower body was still wet and took a towel, draped it over the sofa, and sat down. Cole went to the kitchen and took out an extra spoon and gave it to Lyn, and both proceeded to devour the tub of vanilla ice cream.

"I hope there's still enough food for tomorrow," Lyn managed to joke.

"Well I've only eaten two bag of chips, five dumplings, and two bananas."

Lyn chuckled. At least she was lightening up. "Do you have a bottomless pit for a stomach? I don't know where all that food's going."

Cole shrugged, a cocky smile on his features. "It's a gift." His face then turned a little more serious. "So, what happened back there?"

Lyn took a deep breathe.

"Well…"

Meanwhile, Lloyd was being scolded by Kai. Both were still in the shallow end with Lloyd rubbing his neck.

"I wasn't trying to scare her," Lloyd explained. "I was trying to help her get over her fear of the deep water. She felt something touch her feet and she freaked out."

"She already said 'no' the first time," Kai replied. "You didn't have to force it."

"She just wasn't ready. I should go and apologize."

"Give her some space," Kai told him. "Let her calm down first. You did scare the life out of her."

Lloyd looked toward the cottage. He didn't mean to put her through that. He just thought he was being helpful. He gave out a sigh before swimming toward the others.

"So you're afraid of the water?" Cole clarified while putting a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth. They were halfway through with it.

"Not really the water," Lyn replied. "But what's lurking underneath. When I was a kid, I watched this documentary of creatures that swim in the ocean. It talked about how people go missing because of these sea monsters. So every time I swam and my feet brushes against something on the sea bed, I freak out because of what I saw." She then are another scoop.

Cole paused before nodding. "You should tell Lloyd. He'll understand."

Lyn was silent for a while. "I will, maybe this evening."

"Why wait till dinner? We didn't even have lunch yet."

"I don't want to face him yet after that stunt I pulled."

Cole scooped another chunk of ice cream. "Well, I think when you have to settle your debts with someone, you should do it as soon as possible. Confronting someone can be scary, but it's better to face it head on than prolonging the inevitable. The more you avoid it, the more painful it is when it finally arrives."

"You think so?" Lyn asked as she eats her own new scoop.

"Let me tell you a story: Back when I wasn't a ninja, I was stuck doing things I didn't want to do. I was fed up of following my dad's footsteps, training to fit shoes I never wanted to fill. So I ran away. But I couldn't face my dad or tell him why I left. So I sent him letters telling him that I was doing okay in that boarding school he sent me to. But I was long gone by then."

"So in short, you lied to him."

Cole sighed. "Yeah. Something I'm not proud of. But when I met Sensei Wu and the others, I had to face my father again. And it wasn't in the best of situations. But despite everything, he accepted me for being who I am now and said he was proud of me for standing for what is right. So, Lyn, you shouldn't worry too much. Just go and tell him when you can."

Lyn pressed her hands together and leaned her chin on them. Her left foot began tapping in a steady rhythm, indicating she was in deep thought. Finally she turned to the ghost and said, "Okay."

"Great," Cole replied. The ice cream was consumed. He looked at the time and it read: 10:45. "I think we should start prepping lunch.

"Yeah I'll do that. Wanna help?" Lyn said as she stood up.

"Ehhh I want to but I think I'll pass," the ninja of earth replied. "Last time I cooked something the others swore it was cursed. But I can call the others if you want."

"Nah, let them enjoy themselves," Lyn told him as she tied her hair into a messy bun. "Besides, with me as head chef, what could go wrong?"

"Alright, you're the boss, Boss."

"Hey Cole?"

"Ya?"

"Thanks."

Chapter 12 is up!

Thank you Guest EnergyBlast, Guest MMM, ninjachief547, Jaguarcoco, and AdikoKoizumi19 for your reviews! Till then ~ SnowflakeShard :)

Guest EnergyBlast: Go for it! Make an account and share your stories. :)

As for tips, here are my top 3 tips:

1. Have an outline and a summary of your story.

Start with the summary so you already have an overall idea of what your story is about. The outline helps you map out from start to finish. However, it is best to work on your beginnings and endings first before going to the middle. Knowing your endgame helps you figure out how toto get there and avoid inconsistencies.

2. Give time for character development.

If you're introducing say an OC, it is best to give that character some time to shine through their personal experiences and struggles. To make them more relatable, give them an attribute your readers will want to sympathize with, something that makes them want to root for that character.

3. Research

For settings and certain situations, I do research. This helps especially in action scenes or terms of certain landscapes or other geographic locations. I also research on how to improve my writing by watching vlogs in Youtube on how to make good stories and avoid writing pitfalls. Following Picar's 22 rules of storytelling is also a good start.

I hope these tips help. If you want, we can chat in Tumblr or you could send me an ask. :)