Chapter 8

Jay and Nya's "Project"

A teenage girl walked through the halls of her high school. The halls were pretty empty since school had ended. Everyone who was still on campus was either in practice for their sports teams if they were in one or in a club meeting. She liked that nobody was watching her at the moment because of where she was going.

She walked into a room where one of the school's clubs was going on.

"What is the most popular girl in school doing here? Here to make fun of us?" one of the guys in the club said.

"Hi Ethan," the girl said. "I'm not here to make fun of you."

"Why else would you have come to the robotics club?"

"Leave her alone, Ethan," a boy with auburn hair and electric blue eyes said. "Why don't you go help out some of the club members?"

Ethan rolled his eyes and walked away.

"Thank you," the girl said.

"It was no problem," the boy said. "I'm Jay, by the way."

"I'm Nya."

"I know who you are."

"You do?"

"Everyone in school knows who you are."

"Right."

"So...if you didn't come to the robotics club to make fun of us, why did you come?" Jay asked curiously.

"I honestly just wanted to check it out." Nya didn't know why, but she felt like she could trust telling Jay her true reason for being there.

"Well, would you like me to show you some of the projects we've been working on?"

"I'd like that."

Jay showed Nya some stuff that the robotics club worked on recently. "And this..." Jay said as he started showing Nya the final project. "Is a helper-bot we've been building."

"This is so cool!" Nya exclaimed.

"Yeah. It would be, but we haven't been able to get it to work."

"Can I look at it?" Nya asked.

"Knock yourself out." Jay watched as Nya fiddled with some parts of the robot and it turned on. "Woah! How did you do that?"

"Just a few tiny adjustments."

Realization hit Jay. "You know how to do this stuff, don't you?"

"I might invent in my free time. No one knows about it though."

"I think that's pretty cool."

Jay and Nya continued talking for a while. They didn't even notice that the club meeting had ended and everyone left.

"Where did the time go?" Jay said when he realized the room was empty.

"I guess we were just having a nice conversation," Nya said as she grabbed her backpack. "Do you want to, maybe, hang out sometime?"

"You want to hang out with me?" Jay asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. You're super nice and I enjoyed talking to you." Nya wrote down her number on a piece of paper and handed it to Jay. "Here. Call me."

"Earth to Nya!" Nya was shook out of her thoughts by Kai. "Are you ready to spar?"

"Yeah," Nya said as she got up. Both she and Kai got into fighting stances and began sparring.

"What were you thinking about?" Kai asked as they were sparring.

"Nothing," Nya said.

"Really because it was hard to get your attention."

"It was nothing," Nya said as she beat Kai. "But obviously, you need more practice." She offered her hand to help Kai up.

Kai took Nya's hand and stood up. "Whatever."

Jay walked in and saw the two siblings. "Hi," he said.

"Hey Jay," Nya said. "What's up?"

"I could use your expertise on our...special project."

"Sure." She turned to Kai. "I'll be right back." She left with Jay.

The others walked in after they left. "Does anyone else know what Jay and Nya are up to?" Kai asked them.

"Not sure," Skylor said.

"Did they do the 'I need you help on our special project' excuse again?" Cole asked

.

"They used that before?" Kai asked.

"Yeah. When I was playing 'Prime Empire' with Jay."

"Now, I'm gonna go find out what they're up to," Kai said and walked in the direction Jay and Nya went. The others followed him. They found a room hidden in the back of the monastery and Kai opened it and spotted Jay inside and a big robotic thing.

"Woah," Lloyd said.

"What is this?" Seliel asked.

"What are you guys doing here?!" Jay asked when he spotted everyone.

"We came to see what you and Nya were up to, but I don't think any of us expected this," Cole said.

"Did you make this?" Zane asked.

"I helped make it," Jay said. "But I'm not the brains behind this."

"Then, who is?" PIXAL asked.

"I am," Nya said. The others looked up to see her working on a part at the top. She came down to talk to everyone. "Do you guys like it? I call it the Samurai X mech."

"Nya, you did this?" Kai asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. I've been working on it with Jay."

"This is incredible!" Skylor exclaimed. "I didn't know you could invent."

"I kind of kept that part of myself a secret." Nya looked up at the mech, admiring her work. "Why don't I tell you more about it while training?" Jay, Nya, Lloyd, Skylor, Cole, Kai, and Zane all left, but PIXAL and Seliel stayed back for a minute.

"This mech is really quite impressive," PIXAL said.

"It is," Seliel said and looked over at PIXAL. "And I think this is your way to be able to join the team."

"I cannot steal this mech! Nya worked so hard on it!"

"It's not stealing. It's just...borrowing. I'm sure she won't mind. It's obvious that you want to be the one driving it."

"That sounds logical, but..."

Seleil cut PIXAL off. "But you would make an excellent Samurai X."

PIXAL caved. "If you are sure about this."

"I am."

"Alright."

Ninjago High School

The next day

All nine teenagers were in their engineering class. It was the only class that they actually had together. A few of them took it because they liked to invent while the others took the class because they thought that it wouldn't be that hard. They were wrong.

Today, the teacher was assigning new partners. Everyone got up to look at the paper he put up on the wall to tell them who their new partners were.

"Looks like you're my new partner, Jay," Lloyd said.

"Do you know anything about inventing?" Jay asked.

"Not really, but you could teach me while we're partnered together."

Kai walked up to Cole. "We got partnered together," Kai said.

"There goes my grade in this class," Cole said. "I barely have a C-."

"Same."

Zane was trying to get through to look at who his new partner was when Ethan walked up to him. "Hello partner," Ethan said.

"I got partnered with you?" Zane asked.

"Yes, you did."

Skylor excitedly walked up to Nya. "Guess who my partner is." Skylor said.

"Who?" Nya asked.

"You are."

"Really?!" Nya was happy to have Skylor as her partner. She thought she might get stuck with someone like Ethan.

"And I know with your amazing inventing skills, we will ace this class."

Nya's smile faded. "I don't know."

"Come on, Nya," Skylor said. "You know you could do a better job than most people here. Show them what you can do."

Nya thought about it for a moment and ended up asking herself, 'Why do I care what they think?' She then told Skylor, "Let's ace this class."

"I'm so glad you're my partner," Seliel told PIXAL.

"Why?" PIXAL asked curiously.

"Well, for one, we hang out a lot anyway when the others are doing you know what and two, you can help me pass this class."

"Attention, class!" the teacher said. "All of you have met your new partners. Now, I'm going to assign your first project with your new partners. I want you guys to try to make a robotic pet. It can be any animal you want." The bell rang for class to be over. "Ok class. Tonight, I want you guys to start planning what you're going to be making."

Skylor noticed how Nya was thinking. "I have a feeling that you already know what to make," Skylor said.

"I may have an idea," Nya said.

"You don't want to trust her with building anything," Ethan said who had apparently been listening to their conversation. "Unless you want to fail because you trusted the popular girl to help you pass." Ethan walked away.

The rest of the team walked over to where Nya and Skylor were sitting as Nya broke her pencil in half.

"Don't let him get to you," Skylor said.

"He's just trying to get under your skin," Jay said. "It's what Ethan does. He doesn't know what you're capable of."

"I'm so going to show him up," Nya said as she grabbed her backpack and left the classroom.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed!