*two weeks later*

Kai's POV

"How are you holding up?" I ask Cole. He had to sit through and watch practice yet again. He's been on the bench for every practice, just watching. I know it's torture for him, but there's nothing else for him to do. I make sure to include him in all the team talks, and he still waits for me to put the gear away after practice like he use to.

"Not too good," he admits, grabbing my bag for me. "But I found a silver lining."

"What is it?" I ask, fairly shocked. Not to be a pessimist, but I can find nothing good about Cole's situation. He's too scared to go to parties, which are a ton of fun. He also can't play football anymore.

"Nya," he says with a little smile on his face. We start to walk to our trucks. "Now that I'm not doing drugs anymore, I'm hoping she'll give me a chance. This is the longest I've been off them before, and I have no intention of getting back on them soon."

"I hate to crush your dreams, but even if I don't like it, she's head over heels for Jay," I try to deter him before he gets his hopes up that she'll say yes. Typically, I'd totally try to get him to go for it, but he doesn't need any more heartbreak any time soon.

"Oh I know," he tells me, confusing me even more.

I furrow my eyebrows,"Then how do you..."

"Expect to get her to say yes?" he finishes for me. I nod. "Well, I just need to convince her that Jay doesn't like her that way."

"How are you going to manage to do that? If anyone's more obvious about their emotions than Nya, it's Jay."

"I might need a little help," he admits, looking over at me.

"What do I need to do?" I'll do practically anything to help Cole.

"I need you to tell Nya that you saw Jay flirting with that new girl who transferred here several weeks ago from that little village in the middle of nowhere. They bonded over their humble uprisings in the middle of nowhere, and now he wants to ask her to homecoming," he tells me, and although I totally want to, there's a flaw in his plan.

"She'll never believe me. She knows I don't like Jay," I mess up his plan. He doesn't look at all worried though, which is a bit unnerving.

"Can't you do your 'I'm not lying' sibling handshake you guys used to do all the time?" the suggestion makes me widen my eyes.

"I'm not going to fake a super shake," I tell him sternly.

"It's for her own good. You said it yourself, you don't trust Jay."

"If she were to find out, she'd be pissed," I reason.

"Which is why she won't find out. You'll tell her tomorrow morning. She'll be upset, and I'll ask her out, and she'll say yes. Jay will be a thing of the past," he talks with complete confidence as if there aren't several variables in his plan that could go totally wrong. 

"Look Cole..."

"Please Kai. I'll owe you, big time," he pleads. I sigh

"If she finds out..."

"She won't."

"I'll do it."

---

Lloyd's POV

I sit on the couch, my leg bouncing. My gaze is set on the coffee table. Atop it there's a picture. I'm five at the time. My mom is behind me, and my dad is behind her. Uncle Wu took the picture while we were at the park. Even since my dad got arrested, my uncle has tried to shift my dad on a more moral path. It's worn off on him a little, but I can still tell the man who got arrested is dominant.

My dad is coming home today. I made sure my daily after school talk with Harumi was brief, so I'd be here when he arrived. My mom went alone to get him, insisting that all the paperwork would bore me, but I'm honestly bored waiting here.

The boredom is compounding with my nerves, which are causing me to anxiously move around. I know that I visit him all the time, but I feel like it will be different once he moves back in.

When I hear the keys in the door knob, my attention automatically flickers towards the door. It takes a bit of effort for the door to open, but once it does, both of my parents are standing there, hand in hand. They were having some relationship problems before my dad got put in jail, so I'm happy to see them like this. I guess distance does make the heart grow fonder.

"My son," he smiles, sticking his arms out. Like a small child, I find myself running over into his arms. I rest my head on his shoulder, wrapping my arms around him for the first time in forever. When I visited him, I was never allowed to get close to him. Now, it's all rushing back to me. He smells the same as he did when I was a kid, a hint of smoke mixed with mint, and it's one of the most comforting smells in the world.

"Hi dad," I smile, still giving him a hug.

"Your mom was just telling me on how last year you were trying to get her to adopt a dog," he tells me as we pull apart. We're nearly the same height, which is odd since I still thought I was significantly shorter than him.

"Yeah, I tried to get her to let me get a golden retriever, but she told me no," I elaborate.

"Well, considering we'll have two incomes towards the household now,  I don't see why you can't get a dog," he gives me a small smile as my eyes widen.

"Really?"

"Of course. We can go to the shelter this weekend and pick one up," I look at my mom when he says that. She nods in agreement.

"Thank you guys so much."

"Now, let's sit down. I want to hear more about that girl you've been telling me about when you visit," my dad gets a little smirk on his face.

My mom's eyes widen,"Girl?"

"Yeah, she's who I've been going to watch," I explain briefly, trying to brush over the subject. I saw how excited it made Harumi when I went and watched her the first time at the football games, so I've made sure to watch the past two after it.

"Watch? What does she do?" my dad walks over and sits down on the couch. My mom takes the spot next to him; he drapes his arm over her shoulder. I take the chair across from them.

"She's the captain of my school's cheerleading squad," I answer.

My dad furrows his eyebrows,"Why would you let a cheerleader into the Sons of Garmadon?"

"Not now," my mom quickly shuts him down, giving him a brief glare.

"She wanted an outlet to be herself, and we were able to give that to her," I answer the question anyways, wanting to defend myself.

"Is she nice?" my mom chirps in, breaking the slight tension that formed between my dad and I.

"She's really nice to me, but she has a habit of walking all over people, so we're trying to fix that," I give the honest answer.

"Is she going to be at the meeting this Friday?" my dad asks. I nod. "Perfect. I can't wait to meet her."

"Meet her? I'm sure there's a lot of other people you'll want to talk to," the suggestion of the two of them meeting makes me nervous.

"The girl my son likes takes priority over all of that."

My eyes widen. "Oh no....I don't..."

"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with us."

---

*4 days later*

Kai's POV

I've been pushing it off for days. I really want to help Cole, but I also feel really guilty for needing to lie to Nya. Although I feel it's better for Nya to be with Cole, it still doesn't justify breaking our sibling code.

When we were little, we created an unbreakable handshake, the super shake, to show the other one we were loyal and weren't lying. It was a staple throughout our childhood. As soon as one of us went to super shake, the other knew that they were telling the truth. It ended countless fights. Even as we've drifted apart, the value of the super shake hasn't diminished. If anything, it's strengthened.

"Hey sis," I sit across from her at the table, eating breakfast. Every day I wait, it gives Jay an opportunity to ask her, and I can't risk that anymore.

"Yeah?" she doesn't look up from her bowl of Fruit Loops.

"I know you like Jay, but..." I start. She lets out an exasperated groan before meeting my eyes.

"But you hate him, and you think that he's no good for me even though he's a complete sweetheart," she finishes the sentence incorrectly, but it still shakes me.

"But I've seen him flirting with that new girl who showed up several weeks ago. I sit by them in Spanish. She got sat near him, and they bonded over their humble uprisings. The past several days they've seemed really close," I lie, but I don't show it. She looks at me unbelievingly.

"Jay doesn't flirt. Besides, he would've told me if he made a new friend," she defends him, unsurprisingly.

"I never said it was good flirting, but she found his nervousness charming," the statement wipes any smugness off Nya's face. "I heard him murmuring to himself that he was going to ask her to homecoming, but he didn't know how you'd react since you two planned on running the snack booth together." I did hear him nervously murmuring, but it was about Nya, not the new girl.

"Look, I know you want me to get with Cole, but lying about this is just childish. Jay would ne..." as she goes to finish her statement, I stick out my hand. She immediately pauses. Her hand reaches mine, and we complete the super shake, our pinkies intertwining at the end. "I'm such a fool." She immediately slumps back in her seat, tears filling her eyes.

"I didn't want you to hear it from someone else," I say sympathetically.

"Of course I catch feelings for the first guy who is nice to me. Am I really that bad? How could I not tell he wasn't interested?" she rests her head in her hands. The guilt floods through me. "He's been totally nervous the past several weeks. I foolishly thought that it was because he wanted to ask me, but it was just because he didn't know how I would react when I found out he wanted to go with another girl. I made it so obvious I fell for him and created a magical world inside my mind in which he liked me back."

"It's alright, Nya. Your assumptions made sense," I give her a sad smile.

"Thank you for telling me, Kai," she walks over and gives me a hug. I hug her back, but it feels wrong.

"I...can drive you to school today, if you'd rather not face him right now," I offer.

"Yes please."

A/N: Finally, an update. AP tests are over (thank gosh). My boyfriend also takes up a lot of writing time (he decided to have a game pigeon tournament during my writing time) but it's worth it because I really like him.

Everything is falling into place in this book. We're almost in the home stretch (not quite) but things are about to heat up really quick.

Thoughts on this chapter?

I always felt like a Lloyd would be a golden retriever guy, and even though I didn't plan it, I was like "why not?" during writing

Thank you guys for reading and commenting this book gets so much support it's insane. Hidden also almost has 10k views, and a book on my first account on wattpad (I don't use it anymore) has nearly 100k views, so I'm about to hit some nice landmarks soon. I couldn't do it without you guys