~ Part 9 ~ | The Boy Out of Time

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**  True Colours (Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick)**
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"You with the sad eyes
Don't be discouraged, oh I realize
It's hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
The darkness inside you
Can make you feel so small"

~ Trolls

(Hey I know that another woman also sang this song very beautifully but this one came up first and I'm too tired to go look for the other one so enjoy some trolls XD)

This chapter is dedicated to @SkolaUwU thank you for the votes! It really makes me so happy to see that my readers enjoy my writing. :)

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

(yes the chapter title is inspired by Captain America. "The Man Out of Time")

******

The inspector wasn't anyone scary. Just a young women who came in with a clipboard, skirted around, asked a few questions, scribbled in a table and then left.

Even though it was uneventful it was the biggest thing that had really happened around the place so they all decided to celebrate by making some hot chocolate. Well, minus Wu. The usually calm headmaster looked stressed so he left to his office.

Nya directed Cole away from the stove as Zane mixed together some cocoa powder and milk with a spoon.

"So..." Cole began awkwardly. Cole wasn't very close with Nya, not like the others were. Kai was her sister, Jay was her crush, and Zane was her only mature friend, so that left Cole as the random other dude she knew. But Cole didn't want to be the random other dude. He wanted to be the amazing, supportive, annoyingly good at match-making friend.

"What are your thoughts on Jay?" Cole tried to make it sound like an off-hand comment as he grabbed some mugs.

"He's nice. Funny." Nya shrugged. "We worked a bit on fixing the truck yesterday. He likes making puns."

Okay, interesting. Cole decided to turn it up a notch. "What are your thoughts on Jay romantically." Zane's eyebrows flew up as Nya paused and gave him a funny look.

"Why? Are you interested?"

Crap. That went in the wrong direction. Zane smothered a laugh with a cough. "NO!" Cole yelled, the answer coming out a little too high. "Uh- no. We're just friends."

Nya snickered as Cole gave up his efforts and pouted, slouching in his seat with a sulky expression. He accepted the hot chocolate offered to him. Zane stopped the mixer and dipped a spoon into the fluffy sweet treat, popping a small spoonful of whipped cream into the hot chocolate. Cole went to drink some but Zane stopped him.

"Just wait." Zane chuckled when Cole gave him a crushed look. The pale boy took some dark chocolate and put some shavings on top of the whipped cream.

"This is the fanciest hot cocoa I've ever had." Nya commented when Zane finished with hers. "Thank you, Zane."

Zane flushed with pride as Cole sloppily slurped at his own cup. He was about to respond when Kai came crashing through like a ball of thunder. Cole jumped, spilling his drink everywhere as Nya blinked in surprise.

"Where's Wu?" Kai's gaze was murderous.

"Um... in his office?" Cole said nervously. Kai's demeanour has changed a lot since he first came to the school but Cole still knew not to get on an angry Kai's bad side.

"Woah! Kai!" Nya stepped in front of her brother before he could leave. "What's going on? Where's Jay?"

Right on cue the ginger haired boy came huffing and puffing in. "Oh my gosh, Kai." Jay almost keeled over. "I forgot you could run that fast."

"Can someone please explain to me what is happening? I am at a loss." Zane said, raising his hands in a halting motion.

"Master Wu asked us to go pick up his criminal nephew from the Darkley's School for Bad Boys. And guess what? He's one of the jerks from the fight!" Kai growled.

"Brad? That poop-head you got in a fight with?" Nya looked perplexed.

"I'm not a criminal, I don't have a criminal record." called a voice. They all whipped around to see Lloyd perched at a bar stool. "Can I have this?" He motioned at the cup of hot cocoa Zane left behind.

"...of course." Zane told him carefully. Lloyd picked up the mug, tested it with his tongue before drinking.

"How did he get there?" Jay hissed. "That's freaky!"

"You guys were too busy talking to see me walk in." Lloyd murmured quietly, taking another sip. Some whipped cream got on his lip, giving him a moustache.

Nya took a deep breath, motioning the group to step out of the room for a more private conversation. Lloyd was not-so-subtly sneaking a peak at the chocolate bar Zane left on the counter. He nibble on it and made a face at the bitter dark flavour before retreating to his drink. Yeah, he wasn't much of a threat at the moment.

"I'm sure there's an reasonable explanation." She told Kai calmly, reminding him to try and look like the mature one next to the blonde kid that was two years younger than him.

****

"Lloyd is my nephew." Wu said simply.

Kai side-eyed his sister, who shrugged. Seemed like a reasonable explanation to her.

"The Darkley's School for Bad Boy's has a tendency to...expel their students and just leave them on the streets." Master Wu said carefully. "I was not about to allow my own kin to be homeless."

Well, now Kai felt a bit like a jerk because he had to bite his tongue in order to keep from saying: so what? Of course, that was just his anger talking.

"I'm very sorry I didn't warn any of you before hand." Master Wu said apologetically. "I had no idea Lloyd had been involved in... the incident."

Cole looked puzzled as he tried to understand. "Doesn't Lloyd have his own family to go to? Like Garmadon?"

Master Wu winced. "Unfortunately, I am his only option at the moment. Lloyd has a very kind heart but his mother made the decision to place him at Darkley's which I fear has hardened him." Wu said sadly.

"His situation reminded me a lot of yours, Kai and Nya. Which was why I had hoped you would reach out to him." His dark eyes met with the siblings. Kai looked away, pursing his lips.

"I see... well please consider it." Master Wu stood. He was about to leave the room when he hesitated. "Nya... are you okay with sharing a dorm with my nephew?"

Nya stared at him with an emotionless expression while Kai whipped around with such velocity Nya thought he got whiplash.

"WHAT?"

*****

Even though the dark chocolate was absolutely terrible and didn't settle Lloyd's sweet tooth at all but he still ate it out of nervousness. To be perfectly honest he had been considering the fact that the letter was all a ruse and that Uncle Wu wasn't going to try and reach out to him. After all, it had taken- what?- five years? Perhaps more if you counted before Darkley's.

Lloyd frowned bitterly and stirred his metal spoon around in his mug as he waited for the weird students to talk to his uncle. Though Lloyd was already miserable at this place he didn't want to go on the streets. Especially if they continued making yummy hot chocolate like this.

"Lloyd?" A careful yet achingly familiar voice spoke.

The blonde boy looked up. He was much older than in his memories. But he still has those warm eyes that were like a trap, drawing you in, making you trust them, until it all slammed down on you. Lloyd knew eyes like those well.

"How did you know where I was?" Lloyd asked quietly to his uncle, barely looking at him even though every bone in his body just wanted to run over and hug him. Every muscle straining to just cry and sob at the weight of the world. But if you cried you were a baby. If you couldn't take the pressure, you were weak. If you needed help then you can't do anything. So Lloyd just stayed there.

"Your mother sent me a letter." Wu said, it sounded casual but the careful movements showed his real emotions as he stood across from Lloyd.

The green-eyed boy stiffened. His fingers gripping the cool metal of the spoon as he froze. His mother? "Why," Lloyd said slowly, swallowing hard. "Why would she send a letter to you?"

"She wanted me to find you." Wu smiled a little as he moved so he was eye level with Lloyd. "She does care for you, you know."

There was a clatter as the spoon slipped from Lloyd's grip. The blonde boy shoved the chair backwards. "I think I should leave."

"Lloyd." Wu spoke. Lloyd ignored him and continued to make his way out of the room. "Lloyd." Wu said more sternly.

Lloyd stopped. Heart pounding in his ears as he turned around. A solid glare in his green eyes as he shook a trembling finger. "That isn't funny. You can't just waltz in here suddenly wanting to help me and say it my mother sent you. The same mother that left me at a stupid school for children of twisted men with twisted ideas."

Wu's eyes widened, not because of the harsh tone but because the boy looked so much like Misako. The same look in his eye, the same expression. But he used to look more like his father. With innocent smiles, tiny laughs, and baby fat that made him this cute, little angel-like being.

"I just want to help you." Wu told Lloyd. "I know it's been hard. I know that the world has formed this shell around you but I know that you still have your mother's heart."

"If you wanted to help me, Uncle," Lloyd spat the words like venom. "Then you would've come five years ago!"

There was silence. Painful, suffocating silence. The words sliding into Wu's heart like knives and slicing through his soul. Lloyd was right of course. He should've been there earlier. But Wu's own personal life had gotten in the way. Just like it always seemed to when the people he loved most needed him. Wu had told himself he wasn't in the right headspace to take on the responsibility. And maybe he had been right. But Wu saw the consequences of his actions now.

Lloyd licked his lips and swallowed hard. "Where...will I be sleeping?" He said at last. Slow, agonizing words, as he refused meet his kin's eyes.

*****

Now Nya was perfectly capable of handling herself. And she trusted Wu entirely. But she didn't trust Lloyd. After sneaking a butter knife under her pillow she stayed wide awake, pretending to sleep with heavy sighs and incorrect mumbles while she was secretly glaring at the lump on the opposite bed.

Lloyd didn't say much to her, simply saying: "Oh, I'm rooming with the girl." And then left it at that.

Nya was starting to think the boy was just gonna sleep when she saw movement. Holding her breath she watched as Lloyd sneaked out of the bed and slipped a hand into his bag. Pulling out something flat and square along with a cylinder. Nya squinted in the dark, straining to get a better look.

Lloyd slid under the covers again and yanked the blankets over his head. Her eyes furrowed when suddenly light illuminated under the blankets and she could see his shape reading with a flashlight.

There was the soft sound of him reading the words out loud, slowly, to himself like a first grader as he read the book.

"Boom." Lloyd whispered. "'Fear isn't a word where I come from.' Crash. 'You won't be able to make it.' 'Humanities life is worth the risk'."

Nya laid silently. Listening to the breath-like words as Lloyd spouted out the lines of his comic book with such fluent confidence, as if he's read them a million times before. She closed her eyes, drifting off to the sounds of battle and sacrifice, and the soft voice of a lonely child who felt like he was always out of time.

Authors note***

You may have been able to tell from the chapter that Darkley's strongly pushes toxic masculinity into their students. I'll go over it more in future chapters through dialogue and other stuff but I wanted to explain it more.

Toxic masculinity is the unhealthy stereotypes of men that have made many people suffer. Things like: "men don't cry" or "guys can't be emotions". The belief that men have to stone cold. Or they "can't show weakness". This kind of mentality has placed a very negative affect on society and it's very important that we recognize that guys can be emotional. Men need to show that their vulnerable to us. It's only healthy.

Anyways, I'll run this over again in the story at some point most likely but I thought I should talk a bit about it. If you're interested in learning some more from a more professional view you should check out CinemaTherapy on YouTube and look at their video on Aragorn or Kristoff from Frozen II.

Have a nice day!

LuckyBugBooks 🐞