Rivals {Ninjago AU}

Chapter 11

***WELL HELLO

A note on the voice reveal: The voice reveal will be a reading of this chapter :) It will be published as a separate chapter once it's fully recorded (probably tomorrow night) and will be up for 72 hours, then taken down ('CUZ I DON'T WANT MY MIDDLE SCHOOLERS FINDING IT SOMEDAY-).

And then I will die of embarrassment.

Have a great chapter! ;) Praying for you guys!***

***(Nya's POV)***

My alarm angrily chirps at me, ending my sleepless night with a reminder of how ironic my life has become.

Today is the first day Graceton is having their classes at Ridgewood.

I think back to the past week. I called my mom to pick me up from Ridgewood after my interview fail on Tuesday, and though I could tell she was curious as to why I was there, she didn't press anything.

Kai didn't get home until late that evening, and he wouldn't say anything to anyone as he trudged in the house. He didn't even look at me. He just nodded toward the dinner table and trudged up the stairs to his room.

He still hasn't spoken to me.

I've also noticed that he's been spending a lot more time at home since that first night. Usually, he spends his afternoons with his friends or hanging out with his adoptive family; now, he always heads straight to his room after school and doesn't come out until I'm at work or my journalism internship.

He's left at night a few times this week, but it's been long after our curfew.

I hated having Kai constantly at my throat before this. Now, though? I'm always jumpy, expecting him at any moment to blow a fuse and take his wrath out on me. I'm just waiting to find half the files on my computer erased or something.

He's stayed distant, though.

Today, however, the distance has to end, because we'll be attending school in the same building.

It's like reverse parasitism: though Ridgewood's the host school for Graceton, they're the ones leeching the life out of us.

Principal Misako said we'd be fine – that we'd be in separate classrooms with separate teachers. But even being in the same general place, with both of our friend groups intermingling, sounds like a horrible idea to me.

Kai will probably murder me, or one of his cronies will stuff me in a locker, or I'll find toilet paper in my bookbag instead of homework. The only person who even cares about me from his friend group is Lloyd. Jay seemed to think I was a disease the last time we spoke, and Zane treated me so cordially when we met, I thought I might die under his polite demeanor. Just because they lied about my presence at Ridgewood doesn't mean they like me. It means they're humane.

And really, I just want to be normal to them – just another girl who passes through the hallway.

I guess I'm better off than Kai is, though. None of my friend group likes him. PIX might treat him politely, like Zane did for me. Harumi will probably only like the drama he creates. Seliel certainly won't build up his ego.

And don't get me started on Skylor.

Scratch that idea about Kai murdering me. He'll never get the chance to, because Skylor will be the reason I die at Ridgewood. The girl doesn't feed on drama like Harumi does; she carries it with her everywhere. I know it's mostly because she cares about me, but I wish she'd see that life is better when she doesn't try to fix everything between Kai and me.