Kai's POV

I lied. I told the doctors I was his brother, so they'd let me in and sit with him. They only let direct family in, and it's not like his dad was going to show up anytime soon. I am the closest thing that Cole has to a family.

They put him on a ventilator when he first got here, but he's off it now. They also gave him some anti-inflammatory drug that helped lessen the inflammation in his lungs. They took a scan of his chest, but the results haven't came back yet.

Once we brought him here, I let Nya leave. She was a wreck. She wanted to not care, but it was obvious she did. I let Jay drive her home in my truck, which really shows how much I care. 

"Can you tell me what you saw? Are there any symptoms you noticed he had in the past couple days?" the doctor asks me. He has kind, dark eyes, and a warm smile. His grey hair is slicked back, giving him a professional appeal.

"I didn't see him fall down, but he's been coughing a lot lately, and he's been really pale. Sometimes it looked like it took him a lot of effort just to breathe," I look at my unconscious best friend. He looks like a ghost of himself, a pale shell of who Cole is. His chest slowly rises and falls though, which settles my nerves a bit.

"Is he into smoking or vaping?" the doctor asks, and I feel reluctant to answer. I don't want him to get in trouble and be mad at me when he wakes up. "Don't worry, he won't be in trouble."

"He smokes and vapes. I've tried to get him to stop, but he does it when he gets sad," I sigh, looking over at my best friend.

"From the information I've collected, I think he has EVALI, but we won't know until the results come back," the doctor looks over at Cole.

"What's that?"

"E-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury. We've seen several other teenagers with symptoms just like his," the doctor sighs.

"Is there a cure?" I ask with hope.

"At this point in time, the best thing for you to do is get him off of his vape," the doctor says vape as if it's the worst thing that's happened to this world.

"Will he be up soon?" I ask.

"Hopefully. We need his legal guardian to come," the doctor tells me, making my eyes widen.

"No, that can't happen. Cole's dad...I mean our dad, is not tolerant of this type of stuff. If he found out Cole was vaping..." I trail off, thinking of the horror that would be.

"You don't have to fake being his brother. I don't care if you're not. You obviously care about him a decent amount," the doctor stands up, flattening out his coat. "Alert someone if he wakes up."

"Of course," I give him a weak smile as he leaves the room.

I lose track of time as I sit in this closed off room. It's so small, with only two chairs and the small hospital bed. There's also a chair for the doctor along with a desk. Everything is either light blue, white, or light grey, and it's sickening at this point.

"Come on Cole. Wake up please," I beg, even though he can't hear me. I sit there for hours, just waiting for him to wake up. My gaze is interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," I sigh, keeping my eyes on Cole as if he'll disappear if I shift my eyes away from him for even a second.

"I got you some food. I didn't know what you wanted, but you seem like a spicy chicken sandwich guy," at the sound of her voice, I'm able to take my eyes off of Cole and look at her. Skylor is standing there, a bag from some generic fast food place in one hand and a stack of clothes in the other. "I also stopped by your house. Nya was nice enough to give me some clothes for you to change into."

"Thank you," I look down at my uniform that has grass stains all over it.

"I'll leave, so you can change. Do you want me to come back in after, or would you prefer for me to leave you alone?" she hands me the clothes and food.

"Come back, please," I answer, and she nods. Once she closes the door, I quickly switch out of all of my gear and put on the red t-shirt and grey sweatpants I was brought. I knock on the door, and she comes back in. "I am a spicy chicken sandwich guy."

She takes the seat next to me, looking at Cole,"They just allowed visitors other than direct family in. Everyone else already went home by now."

"What time is it?" I ask, not wanting to pull my phone out.

"3:45 in the morning," she answers.

"I feel like I should've been able to do something to prevent this," I say what's been on my mind ever since I got here. "I could've taken it all away from him. I could've taken away that stupid vape and thrown it away."

"He would've found another one," Skylor reasons, rubbing my arm comfortingly. "You need some rest."

"I'm not resting until I know he's okay," I say, knowing I'm not going to crack. She clearly knows how stubborn I am from the expression on her face.

"Then I won't either," she gives me a kind smile, and I know she means it.

---

"Kai?" I hear a weak voice that awakens me from the sleep I've been drifting out of. I look up, and Cole is looking at me, terrified. "What happened?"

"You passed out on the field," I tell him. I glance to my right, and Skylor is asleep, her eyes shut. It looks like neither of us could stay up.

"Did we win?" he asks. Of course that's what he asks.

"I don't know. I drove you to the hospital. I couldn't play while..."

"Look who is up," the doctor walks in. "The scans came in."

"What scans?" Cole's eyebrows furrow. I can still tell he feels horrible, but he's fighting through.

"You passed out because you were having difficulty breathing. We took a scan, and opacities were present. They indicate lung tissue damage. You have EVALI."

"What's that?" he seems terrified. I'm terrified for him.

"It's a disease caused from vitamin E acetate reaching the lungs through vaping," the doctor explains. Cole looks extremely disappointed in himself. "I'm going to prescribe some antibiotics just in case it happens to be an infection instead, which I'm fairly sure it isn't. I'm also going to prescribe corticosteroids to help keep inflammation down."

"Can I leave now?" Cole asks, making the doctor laugh.

"You've been unconscious for a long time. We're going to keep you here for at least another 24 hours. Once you're in a stable condition, you can leave with Mister Smith here. Make sure you don't do any activities that will put strain on your lungs," he then leaves the room, leaving me with Cole and a now awake Skylor.

"Cole, you're up," she smiles, her eyes tired.

"I can't play football anymore," he realizes, sadly. When Nya broke up with him, he focused all of his energy into two things, partying and football. Football means the world to Cole, and I know that he was looking forward to our senior night.

It's also horrible for the team. Cole is our playmaker. Yeah, I can make runs and catch the ball, but I'm nothing if I can't get the ball. I could always play quarterback instead of Cole, but then we have nothing up top. Griffin is fast, but he can't catch the ball to save his life, which is why he's better at track.

"Even if you can't play, you're still a part of the team. That isn't going to change," I let him know. "You never leave a teammate behind."

"I hate that I did this to myself," he runs his fingers through his hair, tears prickling in his eyes. "I promise I'll never do drugs again."

----

*the next Monday*

Harumi's POV

I had a smile on my face all day. Yes, Cole is a mess right now, but a bit of positivity could help him. I'm not happy because of Cole though. Ever since last Friday, there's been an excitement rushing through me.

Lloyd came to watch me. Before our half time show, I looked over to the bleachers because I heard Nya was there, and I saw him. He was standing next to the bleachers, looking out on the field. He switched out of his clothes from earlier, switching his leather jacket and t shirt for a plain green sweatshirt. He cared enough to come watch me.

The thought alone makes my heart flutter. I've never had people go out of their way to watch me. My parents never show up to anything, even though they compensate that with money. Kai never watches my performances anyways because the boys have to talk about their game plan during halftime. On Friday, there was finally someone there to watch me and me only.

Now, I wait for Lloyd before my practice. Every day after school, we talk for a bit before I go to practice. It helps show that I want to be a part of the gang, even if he's the only part of the gang thats there. Plus, it's fun to talk to him.

"Sorry, I was on the phone with the pawn shop. Apparently, they can only get me the money in at least two weeks," he rolls his eyes, setting his backpack down.

"So two weeks until your dad is back?" I clarify.

He nods. "It's been long enough. The Sons of Garmadon aren't complete without the main Garmadon."

"Well, you're an awesome leader in my eyes."

"I know you feel like that, but I feel like my dad will be disappointed in the direction I've steered the group towards. He was always so hard on me before he got put in prison because he didn't think I was dark enough. He claimed I got it from my mom and uncle Wu," he sighs, running a hand through his hair.

"You stepped up when you needed to. He needs to at least be proud of the leader you are," I try to cheer him up,

"I can hope. I miss him, don't get me wrong, but I'm just a little scared," he admits.

"That's totally normal," I place one of my dainty hands on his shoulder. "On a lighter, note, thank you."

"For what?" he seems genuinely confused.

"For last Friday. I saw you," I smile.

"Pfft, I have no idea what you're talking about," he pretends, a little smile on his face.

"For coming and watching me. It meant a lot," I make sure he knows.

"It was nothing. I asked my mom if it was alright, and she said that it was fine. Speaking of last Friday, how's Cole?"

"Recovering. He can't play football anymore though, which is crushing him. He also made it clear to everyone that he wasn't going to any parties any soon because the environment makes it too tempting to do drugs, and that he can't do them anymore," I elaborate. Even though we kicked Nya out for not wanting to party, we're not going to do the same to Cole. I actually learned a lesson from last time, thanks to the blonde boy next to me.

"That's rough for him, since it's his senior year."

"Kai's still including him in everything even though he can't play. There's only a month or two left of the season anyways." The two of us stand in silence for a bit after that. We both watch two people in the distance talk.

"I found an abandoned cabin about an hour out from here. Do you want to check it out with me this weekend?" he breaks the silence.

"Don't you already have all the money you need to get your dad out?" I ask curiously.

"Yeah, but I thought it'd be fun for us to hang out, unless you don't want to," he quickly adds the end.

"Of course I do. Does Sunday night work?" I answer his initial question.

"Yeah. I'll pick you up."

A/N I'm almost out of the slow updating stage since AP tests are this week. I'm so ready to be able to grind the rest of this book out 

For my next book, (which I'm still debating over, but I have a general structure I want to use) do you guys want me to include Seliel, or would you guys prefer I don't? 

Who is your guys' favorite ninja? I bet no one could eeever guess mine?

My favorite section of the book is coming up (we also only have 13 chapters left)

Thoughts on this chapter?

Thank you guys for the comments and votes. They mean a lot to me (I know I say it a lot but it's true)