Skylor plopped down in a corner of the cafeteria and stared at the bowl of noodles she'd just bought for lunch. She considered herself a connoisseur when it came to food, and these noodles looked absolutely disgusting. But it was school food and she didn't want to buy the more expensive options, so what could she do?

The third-floor lunchroom buzzed with conversation, with high schoolers milling about and tiny middle schoolers sneaking up from their second-floor cafeteria to get the "better" food. Skylor sighed, deciding that she should finish her lunch quickly so that she wouldn't keep feeling sour about being such a loner.

Somehow none of her friends were in her current class, except for Lloyd Garmadon. But there was no way she was sitting with him, since back in middle school nobody had a life and was always obsessed with other people's crushes, so if there was even the slightest indication that you liked someone, you were bound to be shipped with them automatically. Lloyd avoided her for the same reason. They didn't see each other as anything more than friends, and initially it was only because their dads were friends that she hung out with him back when he was new.

Skylor shuddered, remembering how they always got stuck with each other as partners in physique building (just a fancy word for dance) class last year.

"Sky!"

She looked up to see a girl with dark brown hair up in a ponytail-braid walk over with a lunch tray.

"Oh, hey Ivy!" Skylor said with a grin, feeling relieved to see her best friend from last year.

Ivy sat down, and soon two other girls, all from their middle school class, joined them.

"Wait, Sky, you're in STEM Class 8, right?" Cecilia asked, prodding at her lunch with a pair of chopsticks.

Skylor blinked, confused. "Yeah?" The other girls looked at one another excitedly.

"Wait, so you're in the class with all the cute boys," Rachel clarified.

Frowning, Skylor wondered what this had to do with anything. It was only the first full month of school, and she hadn't even been looking at the guys in her class. Okay, maybe a month was a long time and Skylor was just being socially awkward. Either way, Lloyd was the only guy she'd really talked to so far, and that was only sparingly. Of course, there were a few others, but their exchanges didn't count as conversations.

"Don't worry Sky, we're not after Lloyd," Ivy said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Skylor felt her face heat up against her will.

"Okay, so do you know Kai Smith?" Rachel asked, "He's new this year and he's in your class."

Skylor vaguely remembered hearing the name. "Not really?"

"Anyway, he's tall, has messy brown hair, and he's so freaking cute! So I was wondering if you could help me pass a note to him. Pretty please?" Ivy pleaded.

"Uh... sure?" Skylor mumbled, immediately regretting agreeing. She didn't even know him, how awkward would it be to suddenly go up and pass him a love letter? He might even think she was the one who liked him.

"Yay, thanks Sky!" Ivy squealed, squeezing her into a hug. "You're the best!"

"Hehe... thanks?"

So was that the only reason they decided to come sit with her? As much as Skylor hated the idea, it probably was. Otherwise she wouldn't have spent all those past meals alone.

...

When Skylor entered the room, the dorm was still empty as the other girls hadn't returned from lunch yet. Even now Ninjago City Academy still set a time for napping, despite the fact that they were high schoolers.

She glanced down at her watch, which now read 12:48, and lay down. Naptime didn't officially begin until 12:55, but her roommates should be coming in soon. Skylor pulled out the note, a small piece of pink paper sealed with a red heart sticker, from her pocket. A part of her wanted to tear it open, read it, and toss it into the trash, but doing so would make Skylor a terrible person, so she ultimately decided to just suck it up and hand it over.

Still, she didn't even know what Kai really looked like at this point, other than the occasional glimpse. Maybe she could just ask Lloyd which desk was Kai's and slip it in when nobody was looking. Or even have him pass it so she would be spared of the embarrassment.

Skylor rolled over on her back, feeling stupid that the idea of passing one note for a friend was causing her so much inner turmoil. It wasn't like she cared about what Kai thought of her, and besides, the two of them would probably both forget that this ever happened by the next day. But what if Kai found her such a laughing stock that he started to make fun of her all the time? Her bright red hair was literally impossible to miss, so he would surely be able to remember her by that alone. Skylor slapped her palm against her forehead. If he really was all that, then there was no way he'd go out of his way to humiliate a nobody like her.

"Dude, my brother is such an idiot. No, Pixal, you have no idea," someone said from outside the door.

Two girls walked in, one with short black hair in a bob cut, and one with long silver hair in a ponytail. Skylor closed her eyes again, pretending to be asleep so that she wouldn't have to say hi.

"Oh, Nya, we should aim to be a little quieter," Pixal whispered, "It seems that Skylor is already asleep."

"Oh, sorry," Nya said, lowering her voice. "But I'm just saying, last night we were doing laundry and the nitwit PUT BLEACH IN INSTEAD OF DETERGENT," she whisper-yelled, and Skylor barely held in a laugh. "Luckily it was just his clothes, or I would've killed him."

"Is that why his uniform is all blotchy?" Pixal asked.

"Yeah. He's lucky it's mostly white," Nya sighed, "This morning he was all 'oh I meant to do that' 'cause he hates blue anyway."

"I do wish that our school uniforms were not always blue and white though," Pixal remarked, "The school crest is gold and green, so why won't they go with something more original?"

"Eh, doesn't really matter. It's hilarious watching Kai complain about 'fashion' when he has no sense of it."

"Wait, your brother is Kai?" Skylor asked before she could stop herself. She knew that they shared a last name, but the surname Smith was so common she didn't think much of it. Both girls turned to her and Skylor groaned, then sat up, knowing that her cover was now blown. "I thought he was in our class." Shoot, Nya would probably think that Skylor had a crush on this nitwit.

"He is," the black-haired girl said, raising an eyebrow. Skylor figured that she was supposed to know. "We're twins. And yeah, I know what you're thinking: how could I be Kai's twin if I'm so much more mature than he is? I don't even know myself, to be honest. And he still calls me his 'baby'―" she rolled her eyes and made air quotes, "Sister even though I'm only two minutes younger. Sorry, you probably didn't need a lengthy explanation but I wanted to give one."

Skylor forced a smile, then burst out, "Wait, Nya, could you―"

"Ugh naptime," a heavily accented female voice interrupted her, and they turned to the door to see a girl with thick, dark curls walk in, her nose scrunched up as if she smelled something bad.

"Hello, Akita," Pixal said politely as the girl marched across the room towards the bathroom. The latter didn't reply, as Skylor had expected, since Akita seemed to hate everyone except for this one guy two grades above them, who they'd learned was her brother.

"Were you going to say something?" Pixal asked, turning to Skylor.

She quickly shook her head, glad that Akita had walked in on them. What kind of person would ask someone they barely knew to help them pass on a love letter?

Nya glanced down at her watch. "Oh shoot it's 12:53, we should go wash up."

Pixal nodded and the two girls headed into the bathroom. Skylor rolled over again, yawned, and miraculously managed to fall asleep.

...

"I hate Thursdays," Lloyd said, gingerly pulling out his flats from his locker, a look of disgust on his face. "Why does this class exist?"

Skylor shrugged and took out her own ballet flats and dance uniform, which was nothing but an oversized green t-shirt and low-quality black leggings. "Okay, let's just hurry up before the other kids start coming." She'd been one of the first people to go racing back to their classroom after naptime ended, and it seemed that Lloyd had been, too. The next class they were having was dance, and Skylor's experiences back in elementary and middle school still haunted her to this day.

"Ha, remember how back in seventh grade they said that was the last year they were gonna do it?" Lloyd asked, looking at his uniform with disgust. "Then when we became eighth graders it was suddenly mandatory for everyone."

He stood up and turned the key in the lock, and Skylor did the same.

"Ooh, Lloyd and Skylor~" a singsong voice came from their right, and the two turned to see Harumi Jade walking their way. Skylor internally groaned. Harumi was a nice person for the most part, but she was so obsessed with gossip it was unhealthy at this point.

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "I'm going down. Bye."

Skylor suppressed a sigh. She had wanted to ask Lloyd about Kai, but that had to wait for now.

"You two are cute," Harumi said, flicking some of her white hair out of her face. Skylor gritted her teeth. Harumi hadn't even been in her class back in middle school, but of course she knew about the stupid ship. Everyone knew about that stupid ship, and by now Skylor just ignored it because otherwise people would say she was denying it.

The sound of hurried footsteps approaching gave Skylor a distraction from Harumi, and when she looked up, she saw Pixal and a couple of boys trailing behind two people jokingly trying to strangle each other, one of which was Nya, and the other, a much taller boy with the messiest brown hair she'd ever see. That meant―

She stood up quickly, trying to remember where she had put the note. It was... she might have put it in her desk but she wasn't sure... Her mind suddenly blank, Skylor felt the ziploc bag she'd put her flats in begin to slip from her grasp. But wait, there was no need to be nervous, it wasn't like she was going to give Kai the note personally...

"Uh, can you move? You're blocking my locker. Thanks."

Skylor blinked and looked up at the boy towering above her. Nodding quickly, she stepped aside, tightening her grip on her dance uniform and flats. Before she knew it, Skylor found herself slowly taking in his perfectly tousled hair, chiseled face, toned muscles, and deep brown eyes that were piercing right into the depths of her soul...

"Are you staring at me?" His voice cut through the air, jerking her out of her thoughts.

"What, no! Eww," Skylor squeaked, and realizing that she had no business staying, she hurried off towards the stairs, wanting to slap herself for being so stupid.

Behind her, she heard Harumi say, "Don't be silly, Kai, she likes Lloyd." Skylor couldn't help but smile to herself. Normally she'd be really annoyed at Harumi for saying something like that, but for once she didn't mind.

And no, she hadn't been staring at Kai, she'd been observing him, trying to see what it was about him that made Ivy want to pass him a love note in the first month. He wasn't that cute.

...

Skylor fingered the note, running her thumb across the paper several times. At this rate she was never going to―

"You! Yes, you, in the third column, sixth row! What was the purpose of the increase in taxes on animal products Hujiucheng experienced in May of 1245?"

She shot up to her feet and dropped the note, feeling a sharp pain shoot up through her calves from the back of her knees, which she had banged against her chair. "Uh, it was, uh, to compensate for the, uh, decrease of agricultural products because of the famine?"

"Incorrect. You may not sit down. Does anyone want to answer for her?" Nobody raised their hand.

She felt the temperature in her face rise and stared at the book on the desk. History had always been Skylor's least favorite subject, and this teacher was honestly scary. In middle school, the teacher was very laid back and spent most of the time chatting about current events. She ended up failing history but it didn't really matter if she was choosing STEM. So why did this teacher have to be so scary?

"You, fifth column, third row!"

Skylor looked to see who was this unlucky, and Kai stood up.

"I wasn't paying attention." he said nonchalantly, and the class broke out in a fit of giggles.

The teacher rubbed his temples and let out a loud sigh. Skylor glanced over at Kai, who was still staring straight ahead, showing no sign of acknowledging her existence.

"Who's in charge of points?"

Skylor stiffened. Even though she realized long ago that points had no materialistic meaning, it still sucked to get points deducted. Points were added if you did something good or did well on a test, and subtracted otherwise. In middle school she kept the deduction to a minimum and tried her best to get more, so it was more like a personal achievement thing instead of something actually worthwhile.

"I am," Zane Julien said, "However Mrs. Spencer said that there will be no deducting until next week, thus for now we are simply working with verbal warnings."

"Hasn't it been a month already?"

"Yes, but you see, we are adjusting to high school," Zane explained.

"Ah I see," the history teacher said, his sharp eyes scanning over Skylor and Kai. He stepped off the raised platform at the front of the classroom and began walking over. Skylor's heart wanted to jump out of her throat as he came closer.

"What's this?"

Gulping, she followed the teacher's gaze to the little pink note in her book. He picked it up and turned it over. Skylor dipped her head, begging for him to not open it.

The teacher ripped it open and began reading:

"Dear Kai,
You've probably never noticed me before, but I just wanted to tell you that you're like a fire, warming the depths of my soul even in the coldest of winters. The thought of you makes me want to melt into your arms, and it seems like you could shield me from anything. I've watched you from afar since orientation day and I wish I could say these things to you in person but I never got an opportunity to. If you'd like, do you want to meet up at the bleachers during dinner today? It's okay if you can't, since a lot of girls probably have sent you notes already.
So is this what you're doing in class? Writing love letters?"

Skylor shook her head quickly, not wanting to argue back. Everyone was staring at her, looks of surprise on their faces. Kai caught her eye and smirked.

The teacher slammed his book against her desk, making Skylor jump a little. "Who in the class committee is in charge of discipline?"

Lloyd, who was shaking with silent laughter, raised his hand. Skylor knew that he knew she could never write such a thing, but the fact that he found the situation funny made her want to pound his head against his desk.

"Record this," the teacher said.

Lloyd nodded and quickly jotted something down. Skylor made a mental note to talk to him later, knowing all too well what the teachers at NCA thought about anything related to dating. On the other hand, Harumi seemed way too invested in this new development.

"Okay, back to class," the teacher barked, resuming his teaching as if nothing had happened. Still, Skylor felt eyes on her for the rest of the period.

...

Skylor marched up to Kai right after class with a false air of confidence. "I didn't write it," she said, putting it on his table and standing as tall as she could, "I was just passing it along for someone else."

He shrugged as he stuffed his history book into his extremely unorganized and overflowing desk, meeting her eyes for a second and making her stomach do a backflip, then looked away. "I don't really care."

"And... what does that mean?" Skylor asked, not knowing what to do with her hands. She settled on hastily brushing her side bangs out of her eyes.

"What do you think?" Kai replied indifferently, throwing his jacket over his chair and running off to join his friends, leaving her standing awkwardly at his desk. Skylor's face began to burn, and after a few moments she realized that if she stood for any longer she'd be late to the afternoon schoolwide exercises.

She hurried out and ran down the stairs two at a time, as their classroom was located on the fourth floor. Why was she acting so weird? And why did every word she said in front of Kai make her want to punch herself?

By the time Skylor caught up with the rest of her class, most of them were already in their spots. The boys stood at the back of their class line while the girls stood in front according to height (shortest to tallest. Skylor hated lining up like this but it had always been that way), and as soon as she passed Kai, she felt yet another blush spread across her cheeks.

And while doing the exercises, she couldn't stop thinking about him.

Skylor wanted to kneel down and tear at her hair and beg the First Spinjitzu Master to forgive her for whatever she had done in her past life to deserve this, but people would think she was insane and she was not a fan of the feeling of turf bits sinking into her kneecaps.

Before she knew it, the exercises were over and everyone began returning to class.

"Sky!" a familiar voice shouted, and dreading what was going to happen next, she turned to see Ivy. "Did you...?"

Skylor nodded, suddenly feeling as though she was an outsider watching this happen from above.

"Did you see his reaction?" Ivy asked excitedly, her eyes widening.

"No, sorry. He might've opened it up during class, so I wouldn't know."

"Oh, okay," the other girl said, "Well, I guess I can't sit with you during dinner!"

Like you ever sat with me during dinner.

Skylor nodded. "Anyway, I have to go, so see ya!" She ran off towards the building before Ivy could say another word.

Deep down, Skylor knew that she was being used, but whenever Ivy wanted something, she begged so hard that it was impossible to refuse, so Skylor always ended up giving in. Sighing, she ran up the stairs two at a time, weaving in between the other students to try and race ahead of them.

The classroom was pretty much empty when she arrived, save for Cole Brookestone and Griffin Turner refilling their water bottles on the balcony. Panting, Skylor collapsed into her seat and put on her jacket, silently cursing the fact that it didn't have a hood.

"Ooh, would ya look at that," Griffin said, walking past Skylor to his chair, "It's Juliet! Didn't think you'd ditch Paris so quickly for Romeo, though."

She rested her face on her arms and turned away from him.

"Give her a break," Cole said, "Mr. Borr was pretty harsh back there. You okay?"

Ah, so that was the history teacher's name. Skylor silently thanked Cole but didn't reply. At least some nice people existed to restore her faith in humanity.

The thundering in the direction of the stairs grew louder, and soon several more people came in. Skylor resisted the urge to peek.

"Coleeee, you were supposed to wait for me," Jay Walker whined.

"Playing catch-up is fun, though," Cole said, probably with a grin.

"Eww, we have physics next," Kai cut in, his voice making the hairs on the back on Skylor's neck stand on end. Why, why did she always have to have weird reactions to him?

Then she realized Kai was staring at her.

Skylor felt the blood rushing to her face and quickly looked away, curling up so that she would take up as little space as possible. This had to stop.

...

In less than ten minutes after the dinner bell rang, Skylor found herself wandering aimlessly around the campus. She no longer had an appetite after the mess that was that afternoon, and besides, school food was terrible anyway.

The trees rustled in the courtyard as the wind blew past, and shivering, Skylor drew her thin jacket tighter around herself. Goosebumps rose up all over her arms and legs when another gust of wind came and went. For a second she wished she was wearing pants instead of a skirt, then remembered how thin the fabric was for that, too.

Skylor craned her neck upwards and looked at the classroom window, which was dark as expected. There was a part of her that wanted to go back for warmth, but after everything that had happened, she'd rather stay away from it from the time being.

Out of the corner of her eye, Skylor watched as a disappointed Ivy walked across the field towards the cafeteria. Kai must not have shown up. Good for him.

She shivered once more, feeling like a terrible person for being even the tiniest bit happy. Still, Skylor couldn't deny that she didn't like the idea of Kai and Ivy together. After all, she'd been the one who'd suffered the most because of the stupid note thing. Yeah, that was definitely it. She was mad about being humiliated, and there were no other feelings attached. Anyone in her position would feel like this.

A light drizzle began to fall; raindrops caught onto several of Skylor's flyaway strands of hair. The pitter-patter sounds echoed across the empty courtyard as the lamps flickered on and cast shadows to her left, making it almost hard to imagine that thousands of students were in the cafeteria building not too far away.

"Hey, Redhead," someone said, and Skylor turned around, recognizing the voice.

Kai stood by one of the lampposts, holding a closed umbrella in his left hand and a bag of something else in his right. He looked almost ethereal under the dim yellow lights, and when their eyes locked, he smirked.

"So, you did write the note," Kai teased, tossing the umbrella into the air and catching it.

"No, I―" she began, but he cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"I know, I know," Kai laughed, "I saw her." He tossed his head back in the direction that Ivy had been.

"Ar-aren't you going t-to eat d-dinner?" she stammered, her arms still tightly wrapped around her chest.

"Nah, I secretly got takeout," he said with a triumphant grin, holding up the bag and starting to walk towards her. "Cafeteria food is gross." Kai scrunched up his face, somehow still looking extremely attractive.

Skylor felt her breath hitch in her throat and pressed her knees together. The rain began coming down harder and she shook with every breath. Suddenly he was right beside her and handed over the bag of takeout. Skylor took it in her hands numbly, and Kai opened up the umbrella. Once again she found herself staring at his face, and when he noticed, his grin only widened.

"You cold?" Kai asked, taking off his jacket and draping it over her shoulders before Skylor could answer. Though the material was still flimsy, she suddenly felt a lot warmer. "Let's go back to the classroom, shall we? Then we can hopefully eat before the others come back. And maybe even prepare a little for tonight's chem test."

"You got two portions?" she asked, falling into step beside him and sticking her arms through his sleeves. Kai's jacket was much too big for her, but that just made it even comfier.

"Yeah, would you believe it if I said one was for you?"

As much as Skylor loved the idea, there was no way that was the case. "No, actually," she said, secretly hoping Kai would contradict her.

Instead of replying, he simply stared straight ahead, the smile never leaving his face. Though Skylor kept the distance between them, there was nothing that she wanted to do more than lean in in that moment.

The rain continued to spatter against the top of the bright red umbrella as Kai and Skylor made their way back to the main building. Their eyes met again.

This must be what they meant when they said "sparks fly".

...

"What do you want?" Kai asked when Skylor nervously approached his desk the next morning.

"I just wanted to uh, say thank you," she whispered, looking around herself frantically as if hoping that their classmates were too busy minding their own business to notice. Technically Skylor had thanked him three times already, but he wouldn't mind a fourth.

Kai raised an eyebrow and leaned against the back of his chair. "What do you mean?"

"Like, uh, last night? With the takeout... and umbrella?"

He blinked, feeling eyes on them. Not that he minded, he actually enjoyed the attention.

"Do you... not remember?" She began blushing, her face only a few shades lighter than her hair.

Kai frowned, shaking his head, and her face reddened even more. Skylor Chen was actually quite pretty, with her large amber eyes and light smattering of freckles across her nose. He wondered why he hadn't noticed her before.

"Oh, wait I... I uh, I... you know what, never mind," Skylor mumbled, and hurried off to her seat.

Pulling out a book, Kai buried his face in it and broke out into a grin. How could he have forgotten? But she looked so adorably flustered that he convinced himself that this was all worth it. Sure, she might want to clobber him later for all the mixed signals, but that was a problem for future Kai to deal with.

The grin remained on his face for the rest of the day.

A/N: First of all, thanks to @thelightningninjasis for hosting this contest!

So remember how a while ago I was like maybe I should do this Chinese (or just East Asian, but I'm not totally sure how it works in Japan or Korea so) boarding school AU? Basically this is part of that AU, and their school is called Ninjago City Academy (creative right?)

Some of you may have questions, so I'll just answer the ones that have already come up:

The school is located in the city, but not downtown or anything, so that's how Kai can get takeout. My old school had a bunch of restaurants lined up on the street across from it lol.

The seats are half assigned, like on the first day everyone kinda chooses their seats then the teacher would change some if they see fit, and most subject teachers just call by row and column since they don't know everyone's names yet.

If any of you have other questions about how the school system works, do ask in the comments

Also if you're wondering why I chose "Blazing" as the title, I have no idea :D

Thanks for reading!