It was Jay's birthday, and Nya was excited. She had been planning a surprise party for him for weeks now, and everything was coming together nicely. There were only a few things left to do.

Nya double-checked her list. Lloyd was almost done blowing up balloons, Zane's cupcakes were cooling on the kitchen counter, Kai was pestering Zane for a fingerful of frosting, and Cole was distracting Jay in Ninjago City. All that was left to do was set up the table of snacks, wrap Jay's present, and the most important thing of all, which would be saved for when Jay got there.

Nya's phone vibrated. She pulled it out of her pocket to see a text from Cole.

be there in 20 mins

"Guys, 20 minutes!" she shouted in the vague direction of where the rest of the ninja were.

"I'm finished with the balloons," Lloyd said as he walked into the bridge of the Bounty where Nya was.

"Great! Could you put them in the living room, please? I've gotta go wrap Jay's present."

"Sure thing," Lloyd said, doing a little two-finger salute.

On her way to her room, Nya passed by the kitchen.

"C'mon, Zane! Can I at least lick the spatula?" Kai pleaded.

Zane was about to deny Kai the spatula for what was probably the tenth time, but looked up and caught Nya's eye, winked, and threw it at her. Nya smoothly caught it.

"Really? You let Nya have it and not me?" He turned to his sister, and said with the best puppy eyes he could muster, "Could I pleaseeeeee have it?"

Nya looked him dead in the eyes and took a long lick of the frosting-covered spatula.

Kai practically melted right there into the kitchen floor. "Nooooooooooo!"

"Haha, sucker! Oh, and Zane, 20 minutes," Nya said.

"Thank you, Nya," Zane said as he put the frosting on top of the fridge, out of Kai's reach.

Nya reached her destination, and took Jay's present out from the back of her wardrobe. Normally she'd just get him some inventing supplies he'd been wanting recently or something else that he'd mentioned in one of his rants that she'd filed away in her brain for later, but this year was different. This year they had went through the unimaginable together. This year called for something special.

She carefully put the present into the gift bag she got from the random stuff closet, and covered it with tissue paper. She hoped Jay would like it. It had been a touchy subject for a while, but everyone had eventually gotten used to it.

Nya looked at her watch. 10 minutes until Jay and Cole would arrive. She placed the bag on her bed, and walked out to the living room.

Balloons were everywhere.

"Lloyd, why are there so many balloons?" Nya asked.

"I blew up all the packages."

"... Why?"

"Because more balloons are better than less!"

"How did you get all those packages blown up in that short of time?!" Kai exclaimed.

"I don't know," Lloyd said.

"Well, it doesn't matter," Nya said. "Can someone help me put this tablecloth on here?"

"Sure thing!" Lloyd said.

Zane walked into the room. "The cupcakes and snacks are ready!" he said.

"Great!" said Nya. "You can put them on this table. And if anyone has any gifts, they can go here, too."

"They should probably be here by now," Kai said.

As if on cue, Nya got another text from Cole.

just pulling in now

"They're here!"

Nya half-walked half-ran to the edge of the Bounty, catching them just as they walked on.

"Hey Cole!" she greeted. "They're all in the living room."

"Cool," he said, and walked off in that direction.

"Hi, Nya," Jay said.

"Hi, happy birthday!"

"You said that this morning."

Nya smiled. "I know, I just wanted to remind you. So, what did you and Cole do?"

"We went to the arcade! A new Milton Dyer game came out, and we played that the entire time. It was so cool! Dyer's got the best games. Cutting edge!"

"That's cool!" Nya said. "I'm glad you and Cole had fun together. But that's not all we have planned for your birthday."

"Really? I've already had an amazing day."

"Well get ready for it to get amazing-er," Nya said, grinning. "We're throwing you a surprise party."

Jay looked confused. "A surprise party? They why'd you tell me about it?"

"I know you don't like jump-scares, and Kai really wanted to jump out from behind the couch and yell surprise, so I thought I'd let you know beforehand."

Jay laughed. "That sounds just like Kai. Thanks for telling me. You're the best," he said.

"You know it. Just make sure to act surprised or Kai'll be mad at me for spoiling it," she said as she started leading him towards the living room. "You ready for the party? All we have planned is eating food, playing video games, and gifts."

"Sounds perfect!"

"Well, here we go."

"SURPRISE!"

(a few hours later)

"That was a great party, Nya. Thank you," Jay said.

"Well, the day's not over yet. I still have one more thing for you, if you're up for it."

"I'm up for anything as long as it's with you. What is it?"

Nya just smiled, took Jay's hand, and started pulling him towards her room. When they got inside, they both sat down on Nya's bed.

"I made you something," Nya said, pulling out the gift bag.

"Really?"

"Yeah, open it up."

Jay carefully pulled the tissue paper out of the bag, and pulled out what was inside. In his hand, he found an eyepatch made out of the same blue fabric as his gi, with backstitching in big black thread around the patch.

"Woah..." Jay whispered. "Did you make this?"

"Yeah, I asked Sensei where he had our gis made, and I made it from the scraps they had leftover. Do you like it?"

"I love it. Thank you so much," Jay said, on the verge of tears.

Nya pulled him in for a hug, and they sat like that for a few minutes.

"Oh, there's one more thing I forgot," Nya said, pulling away to fish through her nightstand drawer. "I didn't want to put it in the bag in case it got lost. Here. I know you might not be up for something like this yet, but now you have it in case you ever want it."

In her hand was a little golden lightning bolt patch, the perfect size to fit on top of the patch. Jay picked it up and ran his thumb over the glittery gold.

"Thank you," he said. "I'll keep it on display until I feel up to using it."

"Oh, you don't have to do that."

"I want to though."

Nya smiled. It was just like Jay to show off to the world something that she had made, even if he didn't have a use for it.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Why don't you try it on?" she said.

"Okay!" Jay said, and turned away while he took his old eyepatch off, and put the new one on. When he turned back around, Nya grinned.

"Stunning," she said.

"You're just saying that because you made it," Jay said, but the grin on his face betrayed his feelings.

"Do you like it?" Nya asked.

"I love it."