~ Part 1~ |  Opportunities

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** Top of My School (Katherine Lynn Rose) **
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"I'll go all out, ace every test
No doubt, outdo all the rest
Don't pout or settle for second best
So I won't stop, and won't lose my cool
Don't flop 'cause Harvard's no fool
And who'll love me
If I'm not the top of my school"

~ Katherine Lynn Rose

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This chapter is dedicated to @Judithgaso
Even new readers make a difference. I appreciate the support 💜

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All the cafeterias in the movies would be full of conversation and laughter. Some kids would be studying, others would be dribbling a ball in the middle of the room, and occasionally they would all break into song. They would sometimes paint the little cliques they'd migrate into as a bad thing but Skylor never understood it. Who wouldn't want a group of friends with similar interests to you? Who wouldn't want people who'd stick by you and be a part of all the same activities you were in? Perhaps that was just wishful thinking clouding her mind. Because Master Chen's High School was nothing like that.

Skylor held back a sigh as she stood awkwardly in the lunch line, waiting for the man behind the counter to pour some miso soup into her bowl. Her shoulders relaxed just a little bit when the delicious aroma of food hit her nose.

Well, Skylor thought half-heartedly to herself. At least the food is good.

The girl turned and moved to her usual spot, her footsteps loud in the nearly silent room as she took her place at her usual table, exchanging hard stares with the other students eating around her. Everyone ate individually. If people shared tables they had a clear amount of room between their shoulders and they wouldn't say a word unless it had to do with passing a condiment across the table.

Skylor huffed, her red hair fluttering in front of her face as she surveyed her schoolmates. Track star, Griffin Turner, was shovelling food into his mouth like he was being timed. Before she even blinked the boy was on his feet and bursting out the door towards the field outside to practice. Tox, a pale young woman with acidic green makeup, wrinkled her nose when the door almost hit her. A few nasty words were muttered under her breath as she leaned closer to the purple-haired student seated beside her. Skylor narrowed her eyes, her ears straining to try and catch the conversation. Before she could there was a loud thump on the table and she looked up.

"Oh," Skylor said flatly. "Paleman, I didn't see you there."

The young man scowled at her and his very light cheeks reddening slightly with annoyance. "You're leading our school during the tournament again, aren't you?" He said, barreling straight to the point (as most people did at the school).

"Obviously." Skylor rolled her eyes.

"Then it's safe to assume you'd be interested in some news I overheard in the headmaster's office." He raised an eyebrow challengingly. "Wouldn't want the news going to anybody before you, would we?"

The redhead glared at him. Irritation bubbled inside her and every instinct told her to yell at him. Fortunately, her brain had always been stronger than her body. Forcing her form to relax she pasted on a friendly smile. "You would be right."

His lips tilted up at the sides. "Good. Then I shouldn't have a problem getting an invitation to Chamille's party, right?"

Skylor couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "That's what you want?" She said incredulously. "An invite to a silly high school party?"

"Do you want this information or not?"

"Fine, fine!" She raised her hands in defence. "You'll get a text soon. What did you hear?"

Paleman grinned, a little too smugly, before he cast his gaze over the people around them. A few students were watching with interest but most of them were too focused on themselves to be paying any attention. The boy leaned forward a little so he was right by Skylor's head before he began talking, his voice was so quiet she almost didn't hear any of his words.

"A new school has been invited for the tournament," Paleman whispered.

Skylor's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Which school?"

"The new one. Just outside of Ninjago City."

She racked her memory for the name. "The therapy place?"

Paleman nodded. "With that graffiti artist in it."

"Why?" Her mind was whirling. "That just adds to our competition."

He shrugged. "Probably publicity. It's been on the news quite a bit lately." The boy gave a little laugh. "Don't worry about it too much. They barely have any kids our age. They're probably all dropouts and rejects."

His laughter was cut short when Skylor sent him a sharp look. "Don't you dare underestimate them. Doesn't matter if they're criminals or liars. They can spin that around on us just as quickly as Turner can win a race."

Paleman gulped a little, shrinking in his seat at the heat of her glare.

"I'm willing to bet they're the toughest, most ruthless, most cut-throat school we're going up against." Skylor couldn't help the slow smirk that crept up onto her face. "If they're rejects how could they be anything else?"

****

"HELP! HELP! It's in my hair!"

"HOLD STILL!"

"GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT!"

"You're just making it worse!"

There was absolutely no way that Wu had planned for his nature walk this way. There was probably more of a daydream about quiet students soaking in all the nature and calming their spirit or something super sappy and weird like that. Instead, there was a lot more getting whacked in the face by branches (Jay), complaining about being hungry and then devouring all their granola bars (Cole), treating the hike like they were marching into battle (Nya), and getting an unfortunate dragonfly in this hair (Kai). Said dragonfly was flapping its wings, looking as terrified as a dragonfly can be, while the rest of them tried to detangle it from Kai's overly gelled locks.

"Oh thank god," Kai sighed with relief when they'd finally picked the insect free and it was flying speedily away, looking disgruntled. 

"Never thought I'd see a dragonfly dart away with such a burning need for therapy," Cole said dryly as Kai hyperventilated dramatically from his truly traumatizing experience.

"Honestly Kai," Nya rolled her eyes. "It was just a dragonfly! Could you be any more of a baby?"

Her brother scowled and sent her a nasty look. "Your boyfriend literally hid in the closet the other day because of a children's movie!"

"Excuse you! It was a scary children's movie!" Jay argued.

Nya just laughed and linked arms with him. "I thought it was cute."

Kai didn't even try to mask his annoyance as he rolled his eyes with as much exaggeration as he could and brushed by them. As glad as he was that Nya found someone she enjoyed spending time with Kai hadn't signed up for diabetes-inducing sweetness. Lloyd had been up ahead, waiting for the group while Zane and Wu marched on like it wasn't eight o'clock in the freaking morning.

"Hey, green bean." Kai greeted his classmate with a teasing grin.

Lloyd sent him a flat look. "You're not as funny as you think you are."

"I think what you're trying to say is 'Kai you're hilarious.'"

"I'm really, really not."

Kai's retort was cut off by a walking stick being banged against his head. He let out a yelp as stars flew before his eyes and a budding spread of pain flared at the back of his skull.

"Pay attention, students!" Headmaster Wu scolded.

"To what? We're just shuffling around in the woods!" Kai grumbled.

"As one of our senior students I would think you'd remember," Wu sniffed. "Can anyone please explain to Kai the purpose of our early morning strolls?"

Nelson, the little try-hard, immediately perked up. His arm flew into the air and he waved it around excitedly. "I know! I know!"

Toni slapped the younger student's hand away and sent him an unimpressed look. "Are you trying to be bullied?"

Both Wu and Nelson ignored her. "Yes, Nelson?" Wu said with a smile.

"We're learning to find healthy coping mechanisms in nature," Nelson stood tall, his chest puffed out proudly as if he was a Boy Scout reciting a rite of passage. "By connecting with the natural energy around us we will be able to find inner peace within ourselves."

"Very good, Nelson." Wu raised an eyebrow pointedly toward Kai. "I'm happy you're paying close attention to what I have to say."

Kai glared back at him. Sometimes he forgot how annoying his teacher could be. "Zane, you better have a really good breakfast planned after this." Kai pointed a finger toward the taller boy.

"Actually, I was going over to Ninjago City to do some further education," Zane informed him.

Cole came up beside Zane and leaned his elbow against him with an amused smile. "He means he's having a study date with Pixal." Zane promptly stepped to the side until Cole slipped and fell. "Hey!"

"A date? What about school?" Kai couldn't believe his ears.

"I have completed all of the lessons for today early," Zane said like it was obvious. "Don't worry, it is not that hard."

"Only you would say advanced university-level math is easy, Zane."  Cole chuckled, brushing the dirt off of his pants.

Lloyd looked curiously at Zane. "Are you and Pixal officially together then?"

"No," Zane replied hotly. "Cole is just trying to amuse himself."

"I'd hate to cut into all of your gossipings but we're still on a nature walk!" Wu snapped. The old man had moved farther up ahead while they were talking. The rest of the group looked back at them impatiently.

"Alright, alright." Kai sighed and he reluctantly forced his feet on. "Gosh, the more the days go by the more he's embodied a crotchety grandpa."

"I HEARD THAT!"

****

You never notice how much you'll miss something until it's gone. A bit of a depressing thing to think about during a history class on the various states of evolution but Kai couldn't help but stare at Zane's empty seat forlornly.

Dang it. He'd gotten used to the nerd's constant questions and scalding glare whenever Kai tried to flick eraser pieces at him. At least Nya was an easy replacement. She was almost as much of a teacher's pet as him- maybe even more by the way she bounced eagerly in her seat whenever she answered a question correctly.

"Kai?" The brunette jerked his head up to see Misako looking at him expectantly. "Are you able to tell me what the homo floresiensis is?"

"Uh." Frick. Crud. Crap. "Are they gay florists?"

A loud smack rang through the room as Nya slammed her palm into her forehead.

Well, I guess that wasn't the right answer. Kai thought as Misako tried to hide her smile.

"A valiant attempt," the woman said kindly. "They're the smallest human species. They've also been called The Hobbit people."

"What the-" Cole sent him a glare. "Heck are hobbits?"

Jay let out a strangled gasp. "You've never read The Lord of the Rings?"

Kai groaned. "Oh no, it's a nerd thing isn't it?"

"Only one of the most ultimate nerd things!"

"Jay! You've heard me try to read before!"

"I have undiagnosed ADHD and I still manage to do it!"

"Well, good for you!"

Misako shook her head as Jay continued to ramble on about the ways Kai has sinned for not reading Lord of The Rings. Thankfully, the whole group was rather used to Jay's ways and continued the lesson as the boy talked. Kai just flat-out ignored him and the lesson and instead opted to scroll through his phone.

Nya had helped Master Wu set up a few social media accounts for the school and the rest of them had added various posts they felt suited the account. Kai always enjoyed seeing all the creative things Lloyd shared, the wise things Zane put up, and the random range of touching animal facts to obscure engineering memes Jay would contribute. A small frown made its way onto Kai's face as he reported various hate comments and tried to ignore other rude things people added to the bottom of the posts. The school was growing but not exactly because the world had a positive view of them. It was more because parents were desperate enough to send their "troubled" children to a school known for turning a graffiti artist into a public speaker.

After closing his eyes for a brief moment he forced himself to get out of the account and see what else he could mindlessly scroll through. Since Kai had been liking so many posts on the school he'd been getting more and more education-based news on his feed. Usually, they were about various school events like plays and bake sales but one, in particular, caught Kai's eye.

The Tournament of Elements

Get ready for the greatest high school competition of this year! The Tournament of Elements is back with all new challenges to get the high schools of Ninjago City back into their powerful competitive attitude! Who's going to prove themselves this year?

Accompanying the post were various pictures of previous tournaments. Each featured students looking like they were at the peak of their potential. Their eyebrows were drawn in tight, their lips were pinched with determination, and no matter the task whether it was academic, athletic, or artistic, they always looked like they were bringing their A-game. Kai couldn't help the grin that spread across his cheeks.

Judging by the explosion of emojis and capital letters that appeared when Kai tapped the comment section people seemed to really enjoy this contest, despite it being for high schools. His surprise only peaked when he saw Gayle Gossip herself with a pinned comment about how excited she was to be covering the tournament.

"This is it," Kai breathed. Jay paused his tangent to send his friend a quizzical look. The brunette whirled around, his eyes brighter than Jay had ever seen them. "This is how we can turn things around!"

NOTE****
Alright, we're plunging right into the next chapter! My plans are coming along though they really need to be cleaned up unless you all want what resembles a six-year-old's scrapbook for this next story. 😂

I'm going to be focusing on Kai and try to let Lloyd have his time as more of a backup character since he's been dominating the last two sections. I'm really excited to be incorporating the various parts of the show into a modern-day world. It's going to be so much fun!

Hope you've all had a nice day!

LuckyBugBooks 🐞