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1. Nya
He hadn't noticed the girl approaching until she slammed her hands down onto his desk and shouted, "Does your dad know the Lady Iron Dragon?!" loud enough for the whole classroom to hear.
Lloyd blinked. He could acutely feel the eyes of every other kid in the room, all focused on him. "Uh… who?"
"Oh my gosh, you don't know the Lady Iron Dragon? She's my hero!" The girl pulled a chair over and sat on it backwards, crossing her arms over the backrest. "Okay, so a long time ago, there was this super-bad warlord, and he was like, super bad, and he had a daughter and one day his own daughter turned against him and stopped his reign of terror for good! That was Lady Iron Dragon! She's like, the greatest ninja ever!"
"Oh," Lloyd said. "That's cool."
"Yeah! So does your dad know her?"
Lloyd shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Uh, I don't know. I don't really talk to my dad ever."
"Really? That sucks. My dad's dead."
"Oh," said Lloyd. "That, uh, that sucks too."
"It's okay. I'm Nya, by the way."
"I'm Lloyd."
"Yeah," Nya said. "Everyone knows who you are. Do you wanna sit with me at lunch?"
Lloyd wasn't sure, but he was desperate for someone to talk to. "Okay," he said.
2. Kai
One day, after eating with Nya for a few days, there was someone else at their table. "'Sup, sis," the boy said, sitting with his feet propped up. "This your new friend?"
Nya groaned. "Go away, Kai," she said. To Lloyd, she said, "This is my brother. He sucks."
Kai laughed. "C'mon, this is like, our last year in the same school! Next year I go up to high school and leave you all alone!"
"I wish," Nya said. "I still have to see you after school."
She sat down to eat. Lloyd nervously took a seat beside her. He hoped Kai wouldn't talk to him, but of course, Lloyd was a walking conversation starter.
"So you're the Garmadon kid, huh?" Kai said.
"I guess," said Lloyd, and he took a bite of his food.
"That's cool. Thanks for hanging out with my sister."
Lloyd wasn't sure how to respond. Luckily, with his mouth full of food, he didn't have to.
Kai was there at lunch again and again, embarrassing Nya and unnerving Lloyd. As time went on, though, Lloyd became more comfortable around him, and the three of them chatted together and laughed, catching the attention of the other kids.
Lloyd didn't care what the other kids thought of him, not really. He told himself this over and over, when his locker had angry notes graffitied onto it, when he was cut in front of at lunch, when he was pushed into the dirt, when he skipped a grade just because the teacher didn't want to deal with him… He had Nya's friendship, anyway, and that was what mattered.
He got shoved in the hall and Kai jumped in out of nowhere to punch Lloyd's assailant in the gut. They were both sent to detention.
3. Cole
There was only one other kid in detention. "Hey," Kai said. "Cole, right?"
The boy didn't answer. Lloyd could hear the music coming from his headphones even from a distance.
"Cool," said Kai, and he sat down.
The teacher didn't show up for a long time. At some point, Cole noticed who he was in detention with, and he took out his phone and lowered his volume. "Hey," he said. "Why are you here?"
Kai shrugged. "I punched a guy."
"Huh," Cole said. "What did you do?"
"I got shoved by the guy he punched," Lloyd said.
"Oh. That sucks." Cole turned the volume back up and looked away.
It really did, Lloyd thought, and unexpectedly, his eyes welled up with tears. "Everything sucks," he muttered. "I hate this. I hate my dad. I wish someone else was my dad."
He didn't expect Cole to hear him, so it came as a surprise when Cole said, "You can have one of mine."
Lloyd blinked. "What?"
Cole took his headphones off. "I have four dads," he said. "I get bullied for it all the time. You can have one, and then I just need to get rid of one more before I have a normal number of dads"
"I don't think it works that way," said Kai.
"Sure wish it did," said Cole.
Lloyd smiled, just a little. "Thanks."
"Seriously, the offer's open from now until, like, forever. I don't need this many dads, and even if they suck, they're definitely way better than the dad you got stuck with."
The teacher came in. Cole put his headphones back on and ignored the teacher's orders to take them off.
4. Zane
They noticed the "weird kid" from across the cafeteria.
"He's new, right?" Kai asked.
"Yeah," said Nya. "I think he was homeschooled? He asked a lot of stupid questions in class."
"That's mean," Lloyd said. "Not all of us can be smart enough to skip a grade."
"I mean, it's fine to ask stupid questions, but the other kids picked on him for it. That's what I'm trying to say, I guess."
"Let's ask him to eat with us," Cole said.
They walked over to where the white-haired kid is sitting alone and staring at his food. "Hello," he said when they approached. "Who are you?"
"Name's Kai." Kai held out a hand for a handshake. The kid winced.
Cole raised an eyebrow. "You good, dude?"
The kid stared at them for a long moment, then grinned. "My name is Zane," he recited. "I am new. I was homeschooled for most of my life, but my father decided I would learn more from public school. You are Kai. Who are you?"
Lloyd assumed the question wasn't directed at him; everyone knew who Lloyd Garmadon was, after all.
"I'm Nya, and that's Cole," Nya said. "We just noticed you were getting picked a bunch, and, y'know, we're kind of in the same boat."
Zane tilted his head. "And who are you?"
Lloyd blinked. "Me?"
"Yes. You were not introduced to me. Who are you?"
"I'm Lloyd." He swallowed. "Lloyd Garmadon."
"Oh," said Zane. "Like Lord Garmadon?"
Everyone winced. "Yeah," said Lloyd. "I'm his son."
Zane was unfazed. "It's nice to meet you all," he said. "Kai, Nya, Cole, and Lloyd."
"Yeah," said Lloyd, and he managed to smile. "It's nice to meet you too."
5. Jay
"You're not going anywhere, junkyard kid!"
Lloyd snapped his head up at the sound of Chen's voice. He and the others stopped in their tracks.
"Over there," Zane said, and he pointed to an alleyway. Lloyd couldn't see around the building.
"The bus is gonna be here soon," Kai said.
"Let's check this out real quick, then," said Nya, and she rolled up her sleeves and marched towards where Zane was pointing. Kai shared a glance with Cole, then they all followed her.
The moment Nya rounded the corner into the alley, Lloyd heard her gasp, which was immediately followed by the ugly sound of her fist hitting flesh.
"Ow!" Chen yelped. "What's your problem!"
"Get away from him!"
Lloyd ran the next few steps. In the alley, his bully was clutching his face, he and his friends surrounding a kid on the ground. Lloyd's eyes widened. The kid was curled up on the ground, hugging his knees to his chest and not moving.
He looked back to see Kai, Cole, and Zane glaring at Chen's group. "Hey!" Kai yelled. "Do what my sister says!"
The other cheerleaders laughed. "Oh no, it's Garmadon's army!" one said. "I'm so scared!"
Lloyd grit his teeth. and balled his hands into fists
"Whatever," Chen said. "We're gonna miss the bus. Let's get outta here."
Once they were gone, Nya knelt down beside the curled-up kid. "Hey," she said. "You alright?"
The kid instantly sat up, a shaky smile on his face. "Yeah!" he said. "I was just playing dead, y'know? That's how you get bears to leave you alone. It, um, doesn't work really good on bullies."
Nya blinked. "Uh. Okay."
"Guys," said Kai, "we should go before –"
The bus drove past them.
"– crud. We missed our bus."
"I guess we're walking home tonight," Cole said casually, fiddling with his phone.
The kid's smile, as unstable as it was, crumbled into a frown. "Oh no, I promised my ma it wouldn't happen again… she doesn't like it when I walk home alone."
"We'll walk you home!" Nya gave the kid a hard pat on the back. "What's your name?"
"Um," the kid said. "I'm Jay. I, um… I know who you guys are."
He looked right at Lloyd, then looked away. Lloyd smiled. "Yeah," he said. "Let's go. Where do you live?"
At school the next day, Nya brought Jay with her to lunch. "He doesn't have any friends," she told them. "So I said he could sit with us. That cool?"
"Sure," said Cole. Kai gave him a thumbs up.
Jay wrung his hands together. "You guys, uh, aren't actually part of Garmadon's army, right?"
After that misconception was cleared up, Jay started sitting with them at lunch every day. It wasn't like the bullying stopped – in a way, it got worse, because not only was Jay the junkyard kid, but he was hanging out with the son of Garmadon – but there was strength in numbers, and Jay slowly started to open up and laugh with them.
Lloyd wished almost every day that his dad could've been a good person, that he could've had someone to play catch with, that his life had been different.
But the time he spent with his friends?
He wouldn't trade that for anything.