Story #14: School Struggles
Ninjago—movie-verse (pre-movie)
writing prompt: The Lego Ninjago Movie; "You want me to go back to school?!"
Summary: Morro is just playing a video game in Master Wu's apartment when Lloyd comes to him with a black eye, several bad scratches and scrapes, a bloody nose, and multiple bruises, among other injuries. While Morro is trying to clean Lloyd up and figure out what happened, he discovers that a gang of bullies at Lloyd's school attacked him while he was walking home at the end of the day. He invites Lloyd to bunk in the apartment for the night, immediately calling Koko to let her know what happened so she doesn't get worried. Three days later, however, Wu—who happens to be Morro's adopted father and Lloyd's uncle—tells Lloyd he has to go back, and both Lloyd and Morro are dumbstruck. When Wu realizes that Lloyd is very much afraid of going back, he offers to give both Morro and Lloyd self-defense lessons—and thus the Secret Ninja Force begins to come together.
Morro was thoroughly engrossed in beating his ultimate high score on Fist to Face 2 when all of a sudden, he was chagrined to hear an ear-splittingly loud rapping of knuckles on the apartment door. Just barely managing to stifle a growling groan of frustration, Morro begrudgingly put his game on pause and shuffled over to let whoever was banging the living daylights out of the door to his adopted dad's apartment in. Muttering incoherent insults under his breath, he grasped the doorknob and turned it, all but ripping the door off its hinges, ready to growl at whoever had the audacity to interrupt the finest moment in the history of his video game career—
Only for his heart to sink all the way to his toes as his hands flew up to his mouth and he let out an audibly horrified gasp.
"LLOYD?!"
The teen in question groggily raised his head and blinked dumbfoundedly at Morro before whispering in a faint, raspy voice, "Morro, help me." Before Morro could make a move, though, Lloyd's knees buckled under him, his body sagging forward, crumpling deadweight onto his side on the carpeted floor as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fainted dead away.
Morro's stomach lurched, balling into tight knots within him, as he scrambled to his knees and placed a gentle hand on the unconscious Lloyd's shoulder, running his fingers tenderly through the green-bean's sweaty mop of straw-blond hair and grimacing at the sheer number of his myriad injuries and scarring hurts. He sported a black eye, several large bruises on his face and neck and unprotected wrists, and a severely bleeding nose to boot! As if that wasn't enough, his clothes were torn, tattered, and caked with dirt, mud, wood ash, and the remains of smoky incense, and his arms and legs were covered in more welts and cuts and lash marks and scratches and scrapes than Morro was sure he could stomach to look at. Beads of sweat were already forming on Lloyd's forehead, and his breath was coming in sharp gasps and puffy pants as his chest heaved erratically and his heartbeat pounded like a stampede of skittish horses. He shivered and shook uncontrollably, shuddering, quaking, trembling like a massage chair gone out of control.
When Morro placed a kind, soothing hand on Lloyd's forehead, the younger boy winced with a hiss of pain and pulled away from the wind-child's touch. Morro barely bit back a particularly unflattering remark as he saw the sickly-purplish lump swelling on Lloyd's skull and felt the waves of sweltering, smothering heat ebbing from the green-bean's very skin. Whoever had possessed the gall to attack Lloyd in such a ruthless, mindless way was going to be in a world of pain when Morro was through with him. But first things first, Morro had to get Lloyd cleaned up and medicated before his condition could get any worse.
Scrambling to get his limp cousin's body off of the floor, Morro half-carried, half-dragged Lloyd over to the couch, removed his video game junk from the cushy couch cushions before dumping the green gremlin unceremoniously onto it like a sack of potatoes, and rushed to the bathroom to find the first-aid kit. The green-bean winced and moaned and blubbered and wailed weakly and deliriously as Morro cleaned and bandaged what wounds he could, and he couldn't help but let out a wheezing, wincingly ragged cough as the wind-child elevated his upper body slightly to administer some Tylenol to him. Within moments, though, Lloyd managed to summon the strength to pry open his heavily weighted eyelids and stare at Morro with glassy, milky jade-green irises and disturbingly dilated pupils.
"Wha…what happened?" he slurred sluggishly and sleepily. "Where am I?"
"Someone got the nerve in his little pea-sized brain to thrash the stuffing and tar out of you," Morro sniped grimly, "that's what happened. And to answer your other question, you're in my dad's apartment right now."
"Uncle Wu…" Lloyd murmured, his voice fading in and out of focus, his pitch and intonation spiking and plummeting just as irregularly as his temperature was right now. "Is he…is he here? I want to talk to him."
"Sorry, Lloyd." Morro replied apologetically. "He's on another supply run, but he'll be back tomorrow."
"To…Morro." the green gremlin snickered mirthlessly and sleepily, and Morro couldn't help but let out a wispy, whispering groan under his breath. Somehow, Lloyd never failed to tease Morro about the unfortunate pronunciation of his name. Though he had to admit, being called "Tomorrow" did have its perks. It was cute and sweet and funny…yet he had to admit, it was starting to grit a little—but only a little.
"Dizzy…" Lloyd wolfishly whimpered under his breath, "sleepy…so drowsy…and drained…vision blurry…head pounding…can't focus…can't see straight…sitting duck…"
"Calm down, Lloyd." the wind-child soothingly admonished. "Just lie perfectly, perfectly still."
"But the…bullies…they attacked me…on my way home…from school—what if they…come back?"
Morro felt his heart leap into his throat. His almond-tone skin blanched and his hands trembled convulsively as he took this information in. It hadn't just been one person, but a gang of snarling, mindless bullying kids picking on his cousin, just because Lloyd's father just so happened to be Lord Garmadon, who had a positively sickening obsession with attacking Ninjago City on a daily basis. And these snobbish, sniveling jerks had apparently beaten Lloyd up so badly that now he had a concussion on top of all his other injuries. If Morro ever caught wind of whoever exactly had the nerve to do something like this to the green-bean…there were going to be a lot of words exchanged and blows dealt—and those blows weren't going to come from the attackers.
Suddenly, his inner thoughts were interrupted by the poignant sound of Lloyd sniffling and sobbing. Tears were pouring out of the green-clad teen's red, puffy eyes like twin waterfalls of misery, melancholy, and woe as Lloyd's chest heaved arrhythmically and he buried his head in his arms, just crying, crying, crying… Morro scrambled to his knees again and began stroking his cousin's back soothingly and tenderly, making soft, ethereally airy shushing noises under his breath, murmuring and crooning brotherly over and over again, "Shh, shh, shh. Hush, Lloyd, hush. It's okay. I'm here. I'm right here. That's it—breathe. Just breathe. Relax and breathe."
Slowly, Lloyd's wheezy, howling wails dissolved into small hiccupping coughs and babbling whimpers. His chest began to rise and fall evenly again, and soon he was gently drifting between the layers of consciousness. But before the waking world slipped away from him entirely, he asked in dozy, snoozy, slushy slur, "Can I stay here tonight?"
"Of course." Morro complied graciously, and within moments, Lloyd had been embraced by a deep, healing, tenderly warm slumber, beckoned away from the waking world and into a sea of wondrous, fantastical dreams. Morro smiled softly to himself, and then turned to call Koko on his phone to let her know what had happened. Though Koko was distraught and worried about Lloyd's condition, Morro was successfully able to calm her fears and tell her that the green-bean would simply be staying at his uncle's apartment that night. Koko complied just as graciously as Morro had, seeing as it was the weekend and Lloyd was apparently safe. Hanging up, Morro couldn't help but feel a pang of remorse deep inside his spirit as he put his phone away. If only he could have protected Sylph and Tasha so easily…
Three days later
"You want me to go back to school?!"
Morro couldn't help but share in Lloyd's appalled shock and dismay over Wu's verdict. It had been only three days since Lloyd had stumbled his way to Wu's apartment, looking desperately for Morro's help, and already Wu was saying that Lloyd, like it or not, needed to return to high school the next day. A decree that neither Lloyd nor Morro wanted to see come to pass after what those bullies had done to the green-bean.
Lloyd had recovered fairly quickly, but his injuries were just beginning to scar over, he still had a black eye, and the bruises had not yet faded from his face and neck. The lump on his head was just beginning to shrink, and his eyes still had a rather dazed, discombobulated look from his concussion. In short, it petrified Morro to think of what could potentially happen to his cousin if he were to be attacked again while he was still very much on the mend.
But to his great disappointment, Wu didn't seem to take notice of his son's and his nephew's fretful fear and simply continued, "You cannot get out of this, Lloyd. You will return to school tomorrow, and that's final!"
"But…but…" Lloyd stammered sheepishly, "but I can't go back! I just can't! Not after what happened!"
"He's right, Dad!" Morro defended his cousin, hearing his voice grow louder and shriller by the moment as his anger and fear spiked more and more by the second. "He could have been hospitalized the other day! And now you're making him go back there?! What if he suffers more than just a concussion?! What if he's attacked and I can't be there to help him?! And before you ask, I can't just be his bodyguard—that'll just make him more of a target than before! Those creepy punks will just pin him in a corner and beat him up even worse anytime I'm not around to save his hide!"
"Morro." Wu reprimanded firmly. "We do not speak to people like that, remember?"
"Sorry." the wind-child muttered, totally mortified as he crossed his arms behind his back, shuffling his feet, staring at his shoes, and feeling his cheeks flush crimson-warm and white-cold all at once as he did so. "But…" he ventured hesitantly, "Lloyd could still be hurt if I'm not there to protect him."
Lloyd, for his part, had fallen gravely silent, his stinging eyes welling with unshed, steamy tears, his lip quivering as he struggled not to break down and cry. He gave a slight nod in agreement with Morro's statement, staring down at the floor himself, unable to look Wu in the eyes from raw, wild sorrow and fright. The apartment cat, Patches, rubbed Morro's legs, purring soothingly, and Morro bent down to pet him, taking a twinge of comfort in the silky softness of the tabby cat's fur—much like his own shaggy raven-black mop with its unique emerald-green hair streak in feel and softness.
Wu, seeing the sheer, raw fright mirrored in Lloyd's soulful jade-green eyes and written all over Morro's almond-toned face, sighed heavily and explained patiently, "I understand your fear. And that is why I have just decided to give you both self-defense lessons."
Morro sprang to his feet immediately, blinking in surprise, just as Patches wandered off to his nearby cat nook/scratching post and leaped up, curling up for a catnap on the top tier. Lloyd too blinked in shock as he and the wind-child exclaimed as one, "Self-defense lessons?"
"Why, yes." Wu stated matter-of-factly, cool as a cucumber all the way. "I am working on pulling together a Secret Ninja Force to defend the city against Garmadon's attacks, and you two are perfect candidates to start it. But first, you must learn how to defend yourself before you can defend others. Will you do it?" he finished, thrusting out his fist as an invitation to answer.
Lloyd and Morro looked at each other questioningly. But then they grinned. They knew exactly what the answer would be.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Lloyd asked cheekily.
"I think we're thinking the same thing!" Morro exclaimed just as cheekily. Then the two sucked in a breath, thrust out their fists, and exclaimed simultaneously, "We're in!"
"Good." Wu commended, putting his hands behind his back and leaning forward slightly to add, "Your training begins tomorrow."
"Wow." Lloyd breathed in wonder.
"Wow!" Morro echoed, wiggling side to side a little.
"Wow." Wu added, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. But then Morro looked over at Patches curled up, napping in the sun, and he ventured shyly, "Can I bring the cat?"
Wu took one look and said, "No."
"Aw…" was all Morro could say, his lip quivering and expression wilting in sulky disappointment. Patches simply purred.
