Just friends? (Ninjago bruiseshipping) *hiatus*

Chapter 3

Jay slammed his locker door and rushed as quickly as he could to the school entrances. He shoved the doors open and ran to the outdoors of the school. He spotted everyone already sitting in a circle in the grass, far enough from others to not be overheard. He made it to the group and sat in between Kai and Cole. "Sorry, class ran late." Jay explained, letting out a breath that washed away his anxiety. He savoured breaks like this, where he didn't have to be in that stress inducing school of people and work.

"Well- now that we're all here, Nya you wanted to show us something?" Lloyd asked, turning his gaze to the leather jacket adorned girl.

She smiled and dug through her backpack, she pulled out a small black bag and opened it, pulling out six slim different coloured bracelets.

"Friendship bracelets?" Jay teased her, already knowing what they were. He helped her build them after all,

"They're communicators, and are nearly impossible to track." She said excitedly as she explained them to the others. Jay smiled softly as he watched her light up when talking about technology. He always admired watching people talk about what they were passionate about.

"Jay and I spent weeks on them, and they'll definitely be an upgrade from just using our phones." Nya finished. Cole nodded. He couldn't recall how many times he had broken his phone from being in battle and this was such a relief rather then having to explain why he needed a new phone for the fourth time in a month.

The others were also happy, having also broken their phones. Jay had to wait months to get a new phone due to not having the money.

The group put on the communicators. Jay and Nya had smartly disguised them as normal looking brackets, also designing each one differently as to make it so no one could connect them to being the same. Some could say it's overkill but you can never be too careful.

Jay realized how hungry he was when he felt his stomach start to growl. He sighed as he knew that he didn't have a lunch. Cole noticed this and passed a plate of pizza from the cafeteria towards him. "I bought you lunch."

"Thanks dude!" Jay smiled gratefully. He took the pizza, taking a bite of it, savouring its delicious taste.

They all slipped on their bracelets and started to eat their lunches.

School went by fairly calmly and mundane. Once the bell signalling the end of the day rang Jay hopped out of his seat. He dropped off his books at his locker and grabbed Coles hoodie. As he closed his locker he felt his bracelet buzz. He ducked into an empty hall a clicked a button on the side of the bracelet.  "Hello?" He said holding his wrist up to his mouth.

"We're meeting for training after school, are you busy Jay?" Lloyd voice spoke from the communicator.

"Blue Jays never busy." Cole spoke up from his own bracelet.

"My schedules pretty packed, but I think I can squeeze in a little time." Jay stated, a smile forming on his lips.

Cole scoffed and Kai laughed. "Ok meet us at 4:00." Nya said before ending the call.

Jay got onto his bus. It stoped at his home and he got off, looking at the sign that stood at the front of his house lot. 'Ed and Edna's junkyard' he walked down the path leading to the trailer house he resided in. opening the front door and was immediately greeted by his mother who was busy in the kitchen washing dishes. "Hello sweetie, how was school?" She smiled softly, turning her head towards him.

"It was good mom." Jay spoke, walking over to her to give her a hug. She kissed his cheek.

Jay pulled away. "Can I go out mom?" He asked.

"Of course." She smiled. "Just be home for dinner."

"Thanks." He grinned. He walked to his room, closing his door and walking to his closet. He pulled out his blue gi. He stripped and put on his gi, slipping the mask over his face he grabbed his phone and opened his window, climbing out of it and jumping to the ground.

---

Cole walked down his driveway, humming a tune that he couldn't get out of his head. He opened his front door and strolled into the kitchen. He opened the fridge, looking over the contents that were in it. He frowned as he realized he forgot to buy groceries again, and that the fridge was nearly empty. "Maybe sensei bought some food at the training centre.." he muttered to himself hopefully. He closed the fridge and walked to the living room to get to the stair case. He jumped as he saw a figure sitting on the couch.

"Dad." He slightly gasped, not expecting anyone else would be in the house.

"Afternoon son." Lou greets, not looking up from the notebook he was writing in.

"... how was work?.." Cole asked, a hint of awkwardness covering his normally smooth voice. He rarely even talked to his father, so simple conversations with him posed a challenge to the teen boy.

"Good, I'll have to go back soon. How has dance class been?" Lou asked, looking up at his son.

"It's been fine." Cole answered smoothly. It was a lie though. He seemed to be better at lying to his father then telling the truth, and perhaps that showed signs of a problem, but the black ninja shrugged it off. Cole despised dance class, and often skipped it. They would get frequent phone messages saying Cole was absent and failing, and since Cole was always the first one home, the messages had the tendency to.. strangely always be deleted.

"Will you be here for dinner?" Cole asked, making his voice sound as formal as he could muster. His father always lectured him on speaking correctly, which he often throws out the window when with others. But sometimes a fancy word would accidentally slip out of his mouth that he wouldn't be able to help.

"Likely not." Lou stated mundanely.

Cole nodded. Relief sprung within him, knowing that now he could stay training as late as he wanted.

He shot out a goodbye and dashed towards his room. He got changed into his gi and jumped out his window, landing as quietly as he could on the ground below.