That One Girl

Chapter 11

***Another Miranda Lambert song ;) I think she and Seliel might have the same kinds of ideas.

One chapter and an epilogue left after this, guys. Whoo-hoo!***

***(Cole's POV)***

I drive back to the monastery lost in my thoughts. Seliel is really taking the whole leg injury thing hard. I get that she's self-sufficient and all, but it's not like we can just let her leg stay healed wrong. That would lead to a host of other problems later in life.

I just don't like her being upset and all alone. She beats herself up pretty bad.

I hear my phone ring next to me, and with one hand on the wheel, I grab it out of my bag. It looks like Jay is on the line.

I pick up, pressing the device to my ear. "Hey, buddy. What's up?"

"The sky."

"Har-har." I roll my eyes. But then, it's good to hear Jay joking again. I think meeting up with his birth father was a positive experience.

Jay sighs. "Okay, but seriously, we didn't find anything on Nya. It's like she circled Cliff's name on the newspaper just to throw us off." He pauses. "Now that I think about it, that kind of makes sense."

"Of course, it does." I run a hand through my hair. "Nya obviously didn't want to be found yesterday, and so she threw us off her trail. That means we're back to ground zero."

"Yeah." Jay's tone is worried. "She said she'd be back by tomorrow in her note. I just hope she's able to come back."

"And if she's not, then we're scouring the city until we find her."

"Yeah." He exhales. "We know that she can't be going after any of those job opportunities if she'll be back by tomorrow, so chances are, she's just hiding out in Ninjago City. The question is, where? Do you really think she'd just hide out in a dumpster or something? That's not Nya's style. She's more intentional than that. And she can't be at a homeless shelter or something – she'd be afraid of the police recognizing her. So she's either in an abandoned building somewhere around here, or she's hiding with someone who can cover her tracks. But who does she know besides the team? There's Skylor, but if she showed up at Skylor's house, she would probably get her butt kicked for running away. And you know Skylor would rat her out – she's basically Nya's motherly older sister. But what about – "

"Jay, that's way too much information for me to process." I shake my head. "Can we talk about this when we get back to the monastery? I have a lot on my mind right now, and I don't know that I'm going to be very useful in helping find Nya at the moment."

"Everything okay?"

I smile just slightly. Jay's doing a little better – he's asking me how I'm feeling for once. "I'm okay, but Seliel kind of had a breakdown after our trip to the doctor's office. She's similar to Nya in that she thinks her worth is found in what she does, not who she is. And she's been taking care of herself for the past six years of her life, so she isn't used to depending on others for help. That includes us."

"Huh. Yeah, it'd probably really help her to talk to Nya, if she were around. I mean, those two could really connect on..." He trails off.

"Why'd you stop?" I frown. "You had a good thought there."

"Um, well, I might've had a better one." His voice gains in speed. "Cole, you know where the last place we'd look for Nya would be?!"

"The monastery?"

"Well, yeah, but away from there. I mean, this is kind of a crazy idea, but...how often does Seliel mention Nya? They only met once."

I shrug. "Not much. She mostly just says that Nya doesn't like her."