Chapter Text
Lloyd groaned and woke up by his alarm.
He swung his legs over his bed and got up, stretching out and yawning.
"Morning mom". Lloyd yawns and sits down at the island.
"Morning sweetie, oh happy birthday". Koko smiles and showers his face with kisses while she hugs him.
"Mom.. thanks". Lloyd groans out of embarrassment.
"I've got your favourite breakfast and lunch, oh! And a piece of your favourite cake for lunch". Koko smiled.
"Oh- thanks mom- Hey I was thinking, what if I didn't go to school today?" Lloyd asks.
"Oh no honey you don't want to miss school, those are the most important years of your life". Koko answered.
"Your right mom". Lloyd answered and got his bag.
"Have fun at school honey". Koko said and gave one last kiss on his cheek.
Lloyd smiles softly and went up to the door, stepping into the pile of letters at the front door.
He frowns and searches through them.
When he got to the end of the pile, he sighed.
He had hoped to get a birthday card from his dad, or at least got a call from him, he got neither of those things, like every year.
Lloyd sighs and puts the other letters aside onto a neat pile before exiting the apartment, walking towards the place where he would be picked up by the school bus.
He gripped his bag straps a little tighter as the bus arrived.
The dreaded doors opened and Lloyd took a deep breath before entering.
He didn't need to cast his eyes upward to know that everyone is staring at him.
As soon as Lloyd entered the bus, every single student that sat at one side, scooted up and went to the other side of the bus, practically stacking on top of each other.
Lloyd sighed and sat down in the middle of the empty row, the bus swaying to one side as it drove off.
Everyone was probably giving him judgemental looks, maybe even terrified faces but Lloyd didn't care today, he didn't spare them any glance and put in his earbuds, and pressed play on his playlist.
Lloyd leans his head against the glass and stares at the passing buildings.
When he arrived at school, he was the first to leave the bus, the others following far behind, everyone who was gathered at the front of the school stopped doing whatever they were doing as it fell silent.
It was like the red carpet was rolled out for only him, but instead of fans, he got judgemental schoolmates.
Lloyd briefly glanced at the row of people but continued to walk along, as he heard some of them whisper among themselves.
Lloyd entered the school and went straight to class like he usually did every day since it was the room where he was the safest, most of the time.
He sat in the back of the class, and everyone stared at him like he had grown a second head.
Then when the door opened, everyone’s attention was drawn to the front, where the principal entered.
“Okay class, I’d like to introduce you to your new teacher for this period”. The principal said, and with that, a new face came in walking through the door.
Lloyd frowned, a new teacher? That can’t be right, what happened to Miss Verity?
He wanted to raise his hand and asked what happened to their previous teacher but decided against it, he didn’t want everyone’s attention on him again.
The truth is, Miss Verity was one of the few persons at the school who didn’t have a grudge against him, quite the contrary, she treated him like a normal person, he felt like she really understood him, that she understands how hard it is for him with his situation, and Lloyd knows that she probably didn’t know about him being the green ninja, but it felt like she could see right through him.
She even wrote recommendation letters for him to some universities, where others only saw the bad things in him, she saw potential, a potential to change the world, educational wise she meant of course, but still.
Lloyd found comfort with her, she reminded him a lot of his uncle, wise, patient and kind, and now she was being replaced, probably fired, and it was probably his fault.
They probably found out about the letters and didn’t like how she treated him differently, he probably got her fired, and he had to find out on his birthday, just perfect, could this day get any worse?
Lloyd was walking down the hallway deep in thought, staring at the ground with a saddened look on his face.
Until he bumped into someone.
His mind raced to immediately apologise but stopped when he saw who that someone was.
It was the leader of the sports team, aka Lloyd’s biggest bully.
“Hey, garmadork, why the sad face?” He mocked.
Lloyd knew better than to respond, so he stayed quiet, trying to find the nearest exit from this situation.
“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” He asked when he didn’t respond.
Lloyd frowned and felt like something was ripped off.
He turned around and saw that one of the other members of the sports team has taken his bag, and then it was passed over to the leader.
“Oh it's heavy, I wonder what goodies will be inside for us today, I so appreciate the chips from last time that you so graciously gave to me in such a selfless act, it made me believe for just a moment that you are better than your father”. He said and opened up the bag.
Lloyd flinched at the mention of his father but tried to get his bag back by reaching for it.
The leader took out various items, handing them to his teammates as he went on.
“Oh, some delicious sandwiches- oh! What's this?” He smirked and got the plastic container out, which held inside the piece of the cake.
“Oh that’s right, it’s your birthday, I almost forgot, what so caring of you to hand out treats to your classmates”. He smirked and opened it up, sniffing at it.
Lloyd clenched his hands into fists, his face beginning to scrunch up in anger and frustration.
He knew better than to react, he couldn’t react, it would only prove them right.
He knew he could take on all of them, the fight wouldn’t even last past the blink of an eye.
But he couldn’t show anything that would indicate that.
He had to take the hits, he couldn’t reveal anything that might raise suspicion, anything even slightly ninja-related, anything to hide that he is special, their most beloved hero.
“Didn’t daddy give you a present? How sad, just shows how much he cares about his own son, which is none”. The leader said and laughed as Lloyd tried to snatch his bag back a little more aggressively now.
“Who can blame him, who would ever care about you?” he continued and snatched Lloyd’s wrist.
Lloyd’s eyes widened, like instinct, something inside of him snapped, it was too much, he couldn’t contain it anymore.
His face scrunched up in anger and his knuckles had turned white at this point, he powers up his elemental and cried out, arms spread outwards as a burst of energy occurred.
A strong, powerful wave of force emitted from him and hit the members of the sports team around him.
The leader who had caught him by his wrist was pushed away by this wave, forcing him to fly backwards, hitting the big glass windows behind him with an ear-deafening smack, cracking the glass around him.
One of the others of the sports team flew backwards the other way, against the lockers, creating a massive dent in the metal, which bent over almost three lockers in a row.
One of the others also flew backwards through the hallway, hitting the floor meters away harshly from where he once stood.
It all happened in just the blink of an eye, and Lloyd had to take a few breaths, to realize what he had done.
He looked down at his hands who were still emitting and seeping green energy.
Lloyd gasped and it immediately faded away.
The others in the hallway, looked at him like he was a monster, terrified and too stunned to even move.
Others came rushing into the hallway from everywhere, classrooms, the cafeteria, with the accompanying teachers.
Lloyd started to panic, tears starting to form in the corner of his eyes and quickly ran passed the crowd of people, who were too stunned and terrified to even touch him.
With the accompanying people, the other ninja came rushing in, squeezing past the people to get a front-row view.
“Lloyd!”. Nya called as she saw him run past, but he didn’t stop.
Then she went to the others, who were all standing in a row, looking at the mess.
People were coming to the aid of the sports team and the people around started to talk.
“It was so strange, they all stood there and the next thing I know, a green-coloured burst occurred, and Lloyd Garmadon had these green glowing orbs around his hands as the green ninja does”. One of them said.
The others started to murmur amongst each other until someone piped up.
“Lloyd Garmadon is the green ninja”. Someone shouted.
The rest of the crowd admitted into gasps and pure shock, as well as the ninjas.
The identities of the ninja were secret, even from each other, until now.
The ninja exchanged looks with each other.
Them all being in disbelief, and having tons of mixed emotions swirling through each of them.
Until Nya frowned in determination and started to rush away.
“Nya! Where are you going?” Kai called after her.
“To find our friend, Lloyd”. Nya shouted back as she ran.
Kai exchanged looks with the others before nodding, all of their looks turning into that same determination, before rushing after Nya.