~ Part 12 ~ | Pressure

~*~*~*~

** I Didn't Mean To (Sarah Barrios) **

~*~*~*~

"It's not that I didn't want to talk
I'm just scared of the confrontation (yeah)
It's not that I wouldn't risk it all
I just didn't know how to say it (yeah)"

~ Sarah Barrios

****

This chapter is dedicated to @KotlcNinjago. Thank you for the comments!

(comment or PM if you'd like a shoutout!)

*****

A group of students stayed huddled in the corridor. They watched as Lloyd walked past. He didn't look particularly scary. His hair was rumpled and he was still yawning but Rodrigo was always better at seeing things below the surface than the rest. He pointed out the dark circles and the foggy look in the young man's eyes. Rodrigo also speculated why Lloyd is so tired. He usually is very bright-eyed and sunny in the mornings.

"It's the ghost feeding off of his life force." Rodrigo said factually. "It's draining his energy until Lloyd is nothing but an empty husk. Then it will choose its next victim."

A little boy in the back of the group squeaked. His eyes wide as saucers. The child anxiously peeked at Lloyd's retreating figure before shoving his purple hood over his head.

"Are you scared, Nelson?" Meghan teased.

"Aren't you?" Nelson said incredulously.

"Of course not." Meghan said breezily. "I have a spray bottle. If the ghost dares come near me I have a weapon!"

Rodrigo ignored them. "We'll need to scout the ghost's hideout while it's gone."

"You should go again Rodrigo!" One of the other boys said. "The ghost didn't come for you! You must be immune or something."

"No, we'll need someone less experienced. I want to draw the ghost back to its lair." Rodrigo tapped his finger to his chin methodically.

Meghan scowled. "I thought you wanted to investigate while it's gone!"

"I do! But I also want to draw it back. So we know that it will come if we need it to. That way we can set a trap later." Rodrigo explained.

"Then who should go?" The boy asked.

"I can go." Meghan lifted her chin. She was done being one-upped by Rodrigo of all people.

Rodrigo waved a hand. "It can't be you. You're not scared of it." Meghan's nostrils flared, her jaw setting as she glared daggers at the boy. "We'll need someone smaller... a little naive." His voice was hushed so only his main group could hear him. Rodrigo's eyes slid over the younger kids huddled around. They landed on Nelson who was absently playing with a fidget toy.

Nelson felt the eyes on him. A sick feeling rolling in his stomach as he slowly looked up. "W-why's everyone looking at me?" He stuttered.

Rodrigo's lips curved into a dangerous smile. "I think we found our guinea pig."

Nelson gulped. "I'm suddenly feeling a large pit of dread travelling through my stomach."

****

"You're gonna sweep a hole in our floor if you keep that up." Kai said to Lloyd briefly as he leaned against the wall. He was supposed to be helping Lloyd clean the room before Pixal came over but they both knew he wasn't going to.

Lloyd grunted in answer but slowed his aggressive sweeping, his ears tinged a little red in embarrassment.

"I know you're pouty because of everything that's going on and you don't have your 'bestie' to hang out with," Kai said the word "bestie" with such disgust that Lloyd had to laugh. "But it's guys' night tonight! It's been so long since I've been able to be away from my sister and I need the taste of freedom!"

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Maybe it's Nya who is needing freedom with a brother like you."

"What? Do you hear her in the morning? Kai, no elbows on the table! Kai, come clean up instead of just sitting there! Kai, stop trying to stuff Jay in the broom closet!" The brown-haired boy made a face as Lloyd laughed at his squeaky impression of his sister.

"She can be naggy." Lloyd agreed. Nya got pretty insistent when she realized he'd been reading all night instead of sleeping and even tried to give him sleeping tea without him noticing. "But to be fair, you shouldn't have locked Jay in the closet."

"He had it coming. He asked my sister on a date." Kai snatched the broom from his friend. "Come on! You've been cleaning forever! Everything is perfect for Nya's little hangout! Now we can prepare for our epic night of fun!"

Lloyd did a half-hearted attempt to resist being dragged out of the room as Kai marched down the hall. "Aren't we supposed to be watching the kids for a bit?"

The young man waved his hand. "It's fine. Cole and Jay can handle it."

****

"WHERE THE HECK IS KAI?" Cole shouted as he tried to rally all the little devils into the living space. They were supposed to be doing homework while Wu did a few of his sessions with with the kids but all the rest of them wanted to do was run wild.

Usually they had Nya to help out as well (even though they barely listened to her) but she was anxiously planning her sleepover like it was a graded meeting with the president. She kept on double checking everything, obsessively preparing snacks, and she even was attempting to calculate the perfect amount of time for each activity she had planned on her fifty cent calculator while all the younger students stampeded around her.

Ronin watched the scene with a smirk, crossing his arms as he occasionally knocked over various items on the table just to add to the chaos. Cole made sure to send him a particularly dirty glare as he tidied up the knocked over pencil crayons.

"Cole! Cole!" Jay whispered beside him. Cole tossed the box onto the table and glanced at his friend.

"What?"

"What if I got her this watch for her birthday?"

Cole didn't even bother looking at the picture Jay held up. "No."

His friend sputtered. "Why not?"

"Dude, even I don't want a cheap watch for my birthday. Think of something else." Cole put up a finger to signal Jay to wait a moment as he grabbed two kids wrestling on the ground by the backs of their shirts and plopped them onto the couch.

"No fighting! We have to clean these floors! We can't afford bloodstains." Cole told them sternly. "If you're going to beat each other up do it outside and use it as combat practice." Both kids looked at each other, shrugged, then ran off, excited at the possibility of pummelling each other into the earth as homework.

"Cole! Why would you even say that?" Jay scolded him before running after them.

Cole snickered before turning to survey the room. They had calmed down some but were still yelling and talking animatedly. Everything looked fine but there was still an uneasy feeling crawling under his skin.

Someone tapped on his shoulder and he looked down to see a little girl staring at him with her arms crossed. "What do you need, kid?" Cole asked with a sigh.

"Six of the students are gone." She said, her words a little slow and a-matter-fact.

"What?" Cole said incredulously. "Gone where?"

"I don't know." Cole was about to implode before she pointed towards a red haired student in the corner. "But one of them is Nelson and usually he's hanging out with Antonia. She might know."

"Oh." Cole rubbed his head tiredly. "Thanks...Er-"

"Tala." She interrupted him and watched him with an unyielding stare. "Where is Lloyd." She demanded after a moment.

Cole huffed. "I wish I knew."

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You and Lloyd are friends. How do you not know where he is?"

"You and the other kids are friends. How do you not know where they are?" Cole shot back childishly.

"They're not my friends." Tala said like it was obvious.

Well crud.

"Oh-" Cole blinked stupidly. "Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"I don't want an apology." Tala broke in again. "Bye." Cole fumbled at the sudden dismissal as she picked up what looked to be a plush turtle and then walked away.

Cole stared after her, feeling incredibly confused, and slowly turned around. He walked over to where Antonia was leaning against the wall, a nasty scowl on the young teens face as she typed into her phone. She was one of the older students but was still younger than Cole. The girl practically screamed the angsty teenager cliché with her dyed hair, dark lipstick, and grunge band t-shirts. Cole was almost a little scared to approach her.

But then he remembered that if she beat him up he could just tell on her like a child. With that in mind, Cole walked somewhat confidently towards the younger student and stopped awkwardly before her. She raised an eyebrow but didn't look up from her device, continuing to jab at what looked like a zombie game from the visuals on the screen.

Cole cleared his throat pointedly and waited another few seconds. Antonia continued to ignore him so eventually gave up and started talking. "Do you know where Nelson is?"

Antonia finally made eye contact, her frown deepening. "No, I haven't seen him all day."

"All day?" Cole asked in surprise. "I thought you were joined at the hip!"

For a split second her cold mask slipped. Her eyes glanced down, a flicker of guilt in her eyes before they became solid stone once more. Cole furrowed his brows. "Did something happen...?"

"Look, I-" Antonia broke off with a grunt of frustration, stuffing her phone into her Jean pocket. "I was already in a crappy mood, okay?"

"Aren't you always?" Cole winced when the girl glared at him. "Sorry."

"Look," Antonia sighed, running a hand tiredly through her hair. "Judge me all I want but I swear I didn't mean to. Going here has affected some of my relationships and I guess I got frustrated. Nelson had been hanging around for awhile and it didn't bother me that much but I didn't have as much patience as I usually did... so when Nelson came around and started being... Nelson something in me snapped." Antonia pressed her lips together, crossing her arms defensively over her chest. "I wasn't trying to be mean but I... I'm too stubborn to realize when I'm wrong right away. Nelson got upset and ran off. He's been avoiding me since yesterday."

"Ah..." Cole was surprised he got so much out of her. He thought he would have to bribe her with money or something. Instead he was caught off guard with how sincere the girl was, how sad and ashamed she appeared under the prickly walls she put up. Now that Cole really looked at her, he couldn't help but be reminded of certain someone.

"You're... a lot like someone I know," Cole smiled ruefully. "When things get to pent up they lash out first and ask questions later. Too stubborn to admit they're wrong until the damage has been done. But even though they've yelled and pouted and sulked I still care about them. Nelson does too. It's hard being a teenager. It's hard being human. You've got a lot of stress in your life and you've never had a healthy place to put it. It's understandable that you found your breaking point. That doesn't mean you're excused for your actions but it does allow others to understand you more. Don't be afraid to let all the bad stuff out in a more slow and natural way. Communicate. Don't let it simmer."

Antonia stared at Cole like he had grown two heads.

"What? I can give advice!" Cole sniffed.

"Er- thanks... whatever your name is." Cole watched in amazement as she rubbed her neck awkwardly, almost sheepishly. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to give you much."

"It's okay," Cole shrugged. "And it's Cole by the way. You may still be able to help me. Do you know of any hiding spots Nelson likes to hang around in? Any other friends he spends time with?"

Antonia frowned. "Actually, now that I think about it he's always been a little curious about Rodrigo and his friends. Thought they were cool or something. They were a little mean to him though so he started hanging around me instead."

"Rodrigo...." Cole racked his brain, trying to match a name to a face. "Oh no! That obnoxious kid!?"

Antonio snorted. "Yeah, him. He's been spouting all this stuff about ghosts and things. Daring all these kids to go into the attic to see the ghost of Morro or whatever. I wasn't paying much attention."

The attic! Cole slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. Of course!

"Thanks Antonia! You've been really helpful!" Cole started to back away, trying to remember which room the kids weren't supposed to go in.

"Y-you're welcome," It looked physically hard for her to say the words. "And thanks to you... for the talk." She looked away. "You can call me Toni. You and your weird friends."

Cole felt a grin split up his face. "Really?"

"No, I was just saying that to get your hopes up." Toni replied sarcastically. "Now go away."

Cole felt a laugh bubble in his chest. Yup, she was all too familiar.

Cole went towards the stairs, tripping a little over his feet as he went. He passed Zane on his way there, yelling over his shoulder.

"Can you watch the kids for me? I need to find the annoying one and the small grape-coloured one!" He called.

Zane looked confused but he nodded slowly. The pounding of Cole running up the stairs, echoing off of the sounds of the students talking. There was a steady rhythmic knock soon after, barley heard over the noise.

"Can you also get that?" Cole asked apologetically, already at the top of the stairs.

"I do not mind." Zane smiled with amusement.

Misako gave him a pat on the shoulder as she wandered away. "I can keep an eye on the students." She told them.

Zane thanked her before turning to reach for the handle, only to be shoved aside by Nya.

"PIXAL'S HERE!!!" Nya screamed with excitement.

NOTE*****
The person Cole was thinking Antonia was like was Kai. 🤣

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I had been working on it for awhile but kept on deleting the drafts because I wasn't sure how to move into Pixal's arrival. I'm glad I finally figured it out!

I deleted grammarly so there probably are some typos. 😄

If you're interested about my books and my updates then I suggest following me! I usually keep my followers updated on my progress with my books on my message board!

Sorry that I haven't updated since November lol. I won't make any more excuses or empty promises. 🤣

Have a nice day!

LuckyBugBooks