Jay's POV

I look down at my hands, nervously. Next to me, in my passenger seat, is a bouquet of bellflowers, the first flower Nya ever drew for me. That day, she held several colored pencils next to my eyes in order to get the one that matched my eye color the best. Her enthusiasm towards drawing was and still is so pure.

As she told me that day, bellflowers represent constancy, humility, delicacy, affection, and a love that never ends. They're the perfect flowers to give to her when I ask her to homecoming. If anything, they're going to help motivate me to ask her since I can't back out with the bouquet in my hands.

I was going to ask her at her house, but she sent me a brief message saying she was going to ride to school with Kai today. Hopefully that means they've patched some things up, because I can see how unhappy their bickering makes her.

"You can do this Jay," I close my eyes, motivating myself, before getting out of my car. I text Nya, asking her where she is, but she doesn't respond. I start to walk around the school, searching for her. Even when I check all of our typical spots, she's not there.

When I finally spot her, she is standing by her first period class. She seems sad, her face in a gloomy state. She looks drained. She's typically happy or mad, rarely ever sad, which makes me wonder what happened.

"Nya," at the sound of Cole's voice, I freeze. I'm out of their sight, but I can still see them. He walks up to her, and I can tell she doesnt want to tolerate him today.

"Look Cole, my day has already been crappy enough. I don't need..." she sighs. He hands her a bouquet of red roses.

"After I passed out on that field, I started to reevaluate the importance of everything in my life. Even though it's been hard, I'm nearly 3 weeks drug free, and I have no intention of going back to that. Drugs seem irrelevant now. That experience just highlighted how much I need you in my life," he starts a speech.

"What happened on..."

"I know you were there. Kai told me that you were the first one to reach me, the first one to try to get help. Thank you for that, Nya," he answers her unfinished statement.

"I...was afraid you were going to die," she admits, looking down at the flowers in her hands.

"So was I right before I collapsed. It was the scariest experience of my life, but it really showed me what matters. I know you're going to say you've changed since we dated, but I know you're not the same girl you were freshman year. You've matured. You're self sufficient and confident. You don't take shit from anyone," the last part puts a small smile on her face, briefly. "And I know, a lot of that was forced on you by my mistake, which I still can never apologize enough for. I want a chance to get to know this new Nya, and you can get to know the new Cole. It can be a fresh start for both of us."

"Look Cole..."

"I'm not asking you to be my girlfriend. I just want one date to try again. If it doesn't work out, I'll understand, and I promise I'll stop pestering you, but I just want a chance to prove I've changed," he adds in.

She looks down at her phone, turning on the power. She's met with all of the texts from me and her lock screen, a picture of the two of us from one of our movie nights. She pauses for a couple of seconds, looking down at it, before looking back up at him.

"I have nothing to lose at this point. When do you want to set it up?" her words are like a punch to the gut. I look down at the flowers in my hand intended for her.

I feel like a fool. I thought we had something, that she'd say yes, but now here she is, saying yes to her ex who she's made it clear to that she wants nothing to do with him.

"How about tomorrow? I'll pick you up around seven," the words alone nauseate me. I start to walk away to my first period class so I don't have to watch them anymore.

I was so naive to think she'd ever like me. Cole is exactly what a teenage girl wants. He's muscular, popular, and charismatic. What am I? I'm a nervous wreck with terrible anxiety who can't get out any form of a flirt without stuttering and has half the muscle mass as him. Of course she'd end up choosing him in the end.

As I walk into my first period class, I drop the bouquet of bellflowers in the trash.

---

Lloyd's POV

It's an odd feeling, walking into the Sons of Garmadon meeting knowing I'm no longer their leader. My dad has his spot set up in the center, since he wanted to take a look at the place before other people showed up. Others are here too. I take my spot at the outside of the circle, and Harumi takes a seat next to me.

"That's your dad?" she asks, looking at him. I nod.

"I can tell he's not impressed by the way things are," I admit. His face has nothing on it besides discontent. The wrinkles that have formed on his face seem deeper, and his hair seems grayer.

"Sons of Garmadon," he greets after several minutes, suddenly getting a huge smile on his face. "I have missed you all. You're like a second family to me." People start clapping just at the sound of his voice. "I've noticed things have really softened up here since I left. We've lost our gang feel. Now, we're just an overhyped club. You have all been tamed. I am going to restore the Sons of Garmadon to our former glory that we had before we got put behind bars."

Before my dad got out in jail, the Sons of Garmadon were one of the most notorious gangs around. They would fight not only each other but also random people on the street. They would break into whatever store they felt like and rob people at gun point. Most of the members were heavily on drugs. Everyone was just plain nasty to each other.

I tried to give the Sons of Garmadon a better image. I didn't want us to be looked at as ruthless, but rather a group of people, a family, in which every felt like they belonged. We helped many of our members out of addiction, the fight levels dramatically went down, and we stopped hurting innocent people.

"I understand it was a major mistake on my part leaving a gang to a righteous child. I had no plan for if I got captured, so I did the first thing that came to mind, leaving it to my blood heir. However, with much thought, the new heir to the Sons of Garmadon throne is going to be Killow," everyone starts clapping, but I just sit with my jaw clenched, looking at the ground. I should've known this was bound to happen, that he'd try to undo everything I've done to help the gang. I should've known that he would denounce me in front of everyone.

I feel a comforting squeeze on my hand, so I look down to see Harumi's dainty hand holding onto mine to try to comfort me. I give her a small smile of gratitude. It definitely does make me feel better, but not nearly enough.

He keeps talking, but I don't pay attention. I just drift off into my own little world in order to avoid any more indirect insults. I only realize the meeting is over once everyone around me starts to stand up.

"Since you no longer have to lock up, does that mean we can leave at a regular time?" Harumi jokes, standing up, but keeping her hand in mine. I don't let go. It feels right. I stand up too.

"Usually, yeah, but my dad wants to meet you," I tell her, making her eyes widen dramatically. She disconnects our hands.

"Why does he want to meet me? I don't want to meet him," she says quietly but quickly.

"I told him about you while he was in jail," I admit. She gets a small smile, but it quickly vanishes.

"He just talked bad about you for a whole 30 minutes. There's no way I'm going to be able to resist snapping at him," she informs me.

"Lloyd," we're broken out of our talk by my dad's voice. The two of us quickly spin around to face him. "Is this the girl?"

"Yes it is. Dad, this is Harumi. Harumi, this is my dad," I introduce them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he switches into the manners that Wu taught him, offering his hand out for a handshake. With a smile that I can tell is clearly fake, she shakes his hand.

"The pleasure is all mine," she fakes.

"What made you want to join the Sons of Garmadon?" he asks her as if I didn't answer this question for him already.

"Well when Lloyd was in charge, it seemed like it was a big family, a place where everyone belonged. I'm not sure how it'll turn out now," she emphasizes my name, which makes my eyes widen a bit. It makes my dad smile.

"You have spunk. It's admirable," he compliments her. They start talking more, so I look down at my watch. We were supposed to leave 20 minutes ago to get Harumi to the game in time to warm up.

"We need to go now. The game is in 35 minutes, and it takes thirty minutes to get there," I interrupt their conversation. Harumi's eyes grow huge.

"I'll let you two go. Will I see you at home tonight Lloyd?"

"Of course. I'll be home by eleven," I inform him.

"Eleven? That quite late. How about ten," my dad states even though it is phrased like a question.

"The games don't end until 10:15, and then the parking lot is full and then..."

"Lloyd, we need to go," Harumi tells me.

"Fine, eleven it is."

A/N I got a quick update for you all cause you guys are amazing (even if this one is a bit shorter than usual)

The next two chapters are my favorite chapters in the book, so you guys know what that means...DRAMA

How did you guys like this chapter? I know some people probably aren't thrilled with parts of it, but it had to happen 

I heard that books are being deleted randomly from wattpad, so if I take any of my books down that'll be why. Even if this book was to be hypothetically deleted, I have all of the chapters I've written so far backed up in my notes, but if Hidden goes down I'm not rewriting it because that book had a kind of messy plot and I really don't want to deal with that again, especially with my new book just around the corner (I'm going to post the preview after chapter 29 of this book is released, but who knows if I'm going to have already decided on another plot by then)

Thank you guys so much for reading, and I can't wait to see your reactions to the next two chapters