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Chen felt a chill run up his arms as he half-heartedly copied down some notes, his skin feeling barren without his varsity jacket. Last night was a blur, a painful and embarrassing one at that. He longed for the warmth of his jacket, but was instead stuck in Government with a striped tank top, something he’d only wear on a hot summer day and not the beginning of Fall.
He couldn't keep his mind focused on the subject, the teacher’s painfully monotone voice fading out as he gazed out the window. He wavered mentally upon seeing the football field, failing to get the memory out of his mind. He scratched at the brace binding his ankle, wincing at the pressure as he let his mind wander.
He felt his lips draw up into a sneer at the thought of last night. To think Lloyd Garmadon would stand up and walk out into a football field to offer a hand to him when no one else did. Did he think this was some kind of joke?
He tapped his non-injured foot impatiently, eyes now on the clock that seemed to move at -65 miles per hour every time he sat in that class.
Was the blonde brat actually trying to make himself look good in front of the whole school? Lloyd just wanted the attention, didn't he? As if he didn't get enough of that.
“Bradley Chen?”
Chen snapped out of his thoughts the moment he heard his name called. Looking around for the source and forgetting about Lloyd immediately, his eyes fell on his teacher who was holding up a small grey note for him to see. He cleared his throat and gathered up his things, limping up to retrieve the note.
Counseling Center
8:30, Period: 1
There were a few signatures here and there on the bottom, recognizing his counselor's cursive. Chen glared down at the note as he shuffled out of the classroom and closed the door, wondering what he could possibly want to see him for. He only saw him last night when he was helping tend to his twisted ankle, if he wanted to tell him something he could have just told him while he was there.
Whatever. As long as it got Chen out of his dreaded GOV class, he didn't care at all.
Lloyd fumbled around with the jacket in his hands, trying to find a tag with an address or a locker number or something. He sighed heavily. Why did he have to pick up the stupid jacket? He didn't realize that he was now responsible for a expensive-looking Cheer Squad varsity jacket that just so happened to belong to someone who hated him, someone who would go out of his way to make sure Lloyd had a bad day.
He flipped the jacket around to the back and almost instantly, a billion bright, golden beams bore through his eyes. He has to close them tightly for a second as to not get blinded before taking a second look. He cracked open one eye, then the other.
The design sported two dragon wings constructed heavily of gold and yellow jewels of different sizes and shapes, one magenta jewel holding them together with the word “DRAGON” in very shiny golden letters, gleaming brightly beneath the wings. Both of Lloyd’s eyes were now wide open, gazing along the very detailed design.
“Woah.” He breathed, but as soon as he had muttered it, another voice rang close to his ear.
“Hello, Lloyd, what do you have there?”
Lloyd jumped at least eight inches off the ground at Zane’s very startling question, causing Lloyd to spin around, holding the jacket close behind his back.
“AGH! Zane! Don't do that, you want to give me a heart attack?” Lloyd exclaimed an a harsh whisper, trying to keep the jacket behind his back and out of sight.
“I apologize if I have scared you, but I assure you that my approach did not put you in the danger of possibly experiencing a heart atta–”
“Okay sure, sure, yeah, whatever just… Do you remember where the lost and found is?” Lloyd asked urgently. He wanted to get the jacket taken care of quick before first period so he couldn't have the chance of running into Chen in the process. All he wanted was this jacket out of his hands.
“Of course. The lost and found is located in the office I believe.”
Lloyd gave a relieved nod. “Okay. Thank you, Zane. Er.. see you in class.” He turned away from him before beginning to sprint, but stopped short when the five-minute bell rung in his ears. He staggered, letting out a groan.
He had no choice now. He had to head to first period.
Chen knocked on the door of Mr. Mason’s office before turning the handle and peeking inside, spotting his counselor sitting in his desk with his eyes on his computer screen.
“You needed to see me?” Chen mentioned, cracking open the door a little more. Mason nodded, his eyes still on the screen in front of him.
“Yeah, have a seat.” Chen closed the door behind him, throwing his backpack next to the chair and took a seat, scooting the chair closer to the desk and crossing his legs. He waited a bit for Mr. Mason to finish up whatever important thing he was doing on his computer before watching him grab something at his side, glancing at it and tossing it on the desk in front of Chen.
“You seen this yet?” What Mason had put in front of him was the school papers, something Chen never really looked into. He uncrossed his legs and squinted down at it before swiping it up, his eyes starting to widen at the image before him.
IS LLOYD GARMADON TRYING TO APPEAR REDEEMABLE?
Was what the headline read in big black letters. Below was of course an image from last night. A very sneakily well-taken photograph of Lloyd helping Chen hobble over to the sidelines, his own arm flung over Lloyd’s shoulder, both of them looking annoyed beyond belief. Chen stared at it longer as he heard Mr. Mason spoke.
“Press will make a big deal out of anything now. Since they’re not allowed to report anything from the Garmadon attacks, they take things like this, change them up a bit, and you’ve got school news.”
Chen finally glanced up from the paper, afraid to read further. If he had known this wasn’t the only copy, he’d toss it in hopes of no one seeing it, shielding it from the world forever like nothing happened. He flipped it upside down and slammed it flat on the desk so he couldn’t see it anymore. He pinched the bridge of his nose and feeling a chill shiver up his arms and heat rush to his face.
“I am going to kick the entire school press in the shins.” He groaned, putting his face deep in his palms.
“You know, this doesn’t look very good for the Cheer Squad.” Mason pointed out. Chen stared at him, taken aback.
“Well of course it looks bad for the Cheer Squad, one of the girls landed on me and I fell on my butt and twisted my ankle, how could this possibly not look bad for the Cheer Squad?” He snapped. The counselor adjusted his glasses, now looking Chen in the eye.
“What I’m saying is, yeah, falling on your butt and twisting your ankle looks bad. But the school could forget about that eventually. But for it to be in the papers thanks to your allowing of Lloyd’s help, now that’s a little hard to forget.” Chen crossed his arms tightly and leaned against the chair.
“I didn’t allow him to help me, I had no choice, none of those other cheerleaders would help me.”
“And whose fault was that?” Chen squinted at Mason’s point. It was true, his terrible attitude to the situation had to intimidate his teammates to the point where no one wanted to touch him. Lloyd seemed to be the only one who was brave enough to step up, even if he was in a pissy mood and shouting.
“My point is, Chen, is that if you want the Cheer Squad up there as the most valued team in Ninjago, I’d recommend trying to stay uninvolved with Lloyd. You don’t have a problem with that, right?”
“Of course not.” Chen stated, though a bit hesitantly. “They made it look like this was a big deal but what he did was forgettable, believe me.”
“You’re not terribly believable, Chen, but I’ll take your word for it. Uh, you can go back to class now.”
Chen gladly scooped up his backpack and left the chair, trying to get the image of the newspaper out of his mind as he left, listening as Mr. Mason told him one last thing.
“This school has big expectations of you Chen. I’ll see you at your next game, okay?”
Lloyd tapped his foot impatiently as he sat there in Social Studies. The class was always a bore but at least he had his friends, all in which were either half asleep, blasting music through their ears or doodling. Zane and Nya seemed to be the only ones taking notes. Lloyd was too stressed to pay attention. He imagined that the longer he had the jacket the bigger the chance of running into Chen in the hall and just how angrier he’d be at him. He had to get rid of it. He had to go to the office, quick. His thoughts suddenly stopped dead.
Which office was the lost and found in? There had to be three of them, the attendance office, the administration office, the counseling center… he had not the slightest clue of which one they held the lost and found. He turned to Zane.
“Hey Zane, which office was–“
“No talking.” The teacher snapped, causing Lloyd to retreat back to his seat and shrink into his hoodie.
This was hopeless. He just wanted to get rid of it. It burned the memory into his mind of what happened last night and his stupid decision to get up and help out Chen. He shouldn’t have gotten involved, and now he was really in for it. He waited for class to drag on a little bit more before raising his hand up in the air.
“Could I get a bathroom pass?”
Clutching the jacket tight in his hands Lloyd made his way through the maze of halls, extra careful not to be noticed as he headed for the commons of the school. The closer he got, the faster he sprinted, trying to hurry as quick as he can as to avoid taking too long away from class. He veered a corner, spotting the entrance doors of the school with the counseling center and the administration and attendance office on either side. He stared down each of them, picking one at random and going for it.
It was only a good two seconds when his decision took a turn for the very worst.
He collided into something at full force. His forehead rammed into it head-on, ricocheting off of it and making him stumble backwards onto the ground, his head bursting into a steady throb as he reached for his temple, wincing at what the impact did to his head. His groans and winces were accompanied with “ows” and drawn breaths, some in which Lloyd knew too well. He began to stagger back, seeing Chen, out of place and rubbing his chin.
Lloyd could feel his heart beat in harmony with his head, his breath quickening to a panic as the cheerleader in front of him began to recover, but as soon as he did, a hand was held out in front of Lloyd, who stared at it for a good few seconds.
“Take it or I’ll leave you here.” Chen muttered, less threatening than it sounded. Lloyd did what he was told and allowed Chen to pull him to his feet, staggering a bit and putting a palm to his temple again.
“Hey, is that my jacket?”
Lloyd whirled his head around to see that the said jacket had fallen to the floor, bending down to pick it up. He handed it to him absentmindedly, now unfocused and dazed from the impact.
“Here you are, I picked it up at the game.”
“Thanks.”
“I like the design on the back.”
“Whatever.”
With that, Chen turned around. Faster than Lloyd could process, the cheerleader limped off down the hall before he could say anything further.