(A/N this takes place before and partially at the same time as last chapter. I didn't think of writing this until the last one was posted so oh well)

Cole's POV

"I'm here!" Harumi yells when she walks into the center of the park. She brought her best friend, Ultraviolet, and her bodyguard, Mr. E, with her as always. I have no idea why she is always let in here, or why she always comes here, but she does. She's made herself a part of our friend group, but has practically made herself the ruler. She's even put down some rules. All of us simply tolerate her because she's the princess.

"Rumi!" Lloyd cheers, putting a smile on her face. Lloyd is her favorite one of us, by far. At this point, we can't tell if he genuinely enjoys her company or is just pretending like the rest of us.

"Lloyd!" She cheers back, hugging him as soon as she reaches him. "I brought presents guys." Ultraviolet places several bags in front of all of us. "I heard you guys talking with each other about things you want but can't have, so I got them for you guys," she keeps her head held high, a proud smile on her face. "Oh Zane, yours isn't done yet. I'm sorry I couldn't bring it."

"It is fine," he brushes it off. I reach down to the bag placed in front of me. When I see the frosted delicacy in my bag, I smile.

"Cake! Thank you Harumi!" I rush over to give her a hug. She laughs and hugs me back.

"It's nothing Cole. It was made by our top royal chef." Behind me, Kai pulls an orange bracelet out of his bag. "I have no idea why you wanted a bracelet made of amber, but I was able to get one."

"Thank you," the smile on his face is huge. I know exactly why he wanted that bracelet, to give it to a certain red haired girl. Even though he claims they broke up once Harumi came and all the rules got stricter, it's obvious he still has the hots for her. Jay opens his present next. It's some tool that I don't know the name of.

"You said that you needed that tool to finish your invention, so there it is!" Harumi claps her hands. As usual, her friend and body guard stay silent. "Yours is last Lloyd." Lloyd reaches into his bag, and his eyes widen.

"A katana!" I should have expected it to be something huge considering how much bigger his bag was then ours. He pulls it out of the bag completely to scan over it. "Thank you so much Rumi!" he sets its down to run over and hug her.

"It was nothing Lloyd. I picked it up this morning on the way here," she dismisses it like it was nothing, but we all know she traveled all over Ninjago City to get the right one for him.

"What are we planning on doing today?" Zane asks. Ultraviolet grabs something out of another bag.

"We brought movies to watch," she lifts the movies up in her hand. As soon as I see Fritz Donnegan on the cover, I know Jay and Lloyd are going to love it.

"Who's room are we watching them in?" Zane asks another question. Harumi shrugs.

"We can watch it in my room. My uncle isn't around most of the time anyways," Lloyd offers his room up. Lloyd's uncle is by far the oldest elemental master here. He's usually off doing other random tasks instead of just relaxing like everyone else.

"Why don't we just go to the movie theater? It's for watching movies, and we can just have them play that one," Kai suggests. Harumi shakes her head.

"But then other people could come in, and it wouldn't just be our group. We're exclusive, Kai," Ultraviolet tells him, putting her hand on his shoulder. Quickly, he shrugs her hand off. It isn't a secret that she has a thing for Kai, but unfortunately for her, Kai has a thing for someone else. It's not allowed anyways, so it doesn't matter.

"Let's get going," Harumi grabs onto Lloyd's hand, starting to walk. The rest of us follow them. Lloyd and Harumi are in the very front with Ultraviolet and Mr. E behind them. The rest of us linger behind them.

"I hate this so much," Kai huffs, crossing his arms.

"It's not that bad. We could be locked up in cells," Jay, trying to be optimistic, says.

"But we could also be out there in the world with our families and the people we want to be with," Kai rebuts.

"This isn't that bad. We don't have to work, and we don't have to pay for anything. It's easier than out there," I go over some of the same points I usually go over when we have this conversation.

"We don't have to work, but we have to listen to stupid rules that shouldn't even exist!" Kai starts to raise his voice. Mr. E turns around, shooting Kai a glare, before turning back around.

"They're there for a reason, Kai. Maybe if you looked at the rules a little closer..." Zane starts, but Kai cuts him off.

"The rules are there to make us scared of standing up against them and for ourselves," Kai rants, rolling his eyes dramatically.

"That's not true. The rules are to keep us sane in here and to make it so we don't end up hating people," I try to tell him, but he doesn't listen.

"Jay and I were talking about the real reasons for all the rules the other day, right Jay?" Kai brings Jay into the conversation after he was being strangely quiet.

"Yeah," he subtly shrugs.

"And? What's an example?" I wait for their answer that's not going to add up.

"Well, rules 2, 10, and 12 all prevent romantic relationships in some way, shape, or form. You guys say that it's only there to make it so people don't end up hating each other, but it's just so the bloodlines get cut off. Think about it. If there's no romantic relationships or forms of physical affection, how will anyone have kids? By not having kids, it would make our elemental powers die off with us since the only way our powers could be passed down is having kids. They don't want any more elemental masters," Jay explains their logic.

"You're looking too far into it. Why would they try to harm us?" I shrug what they said off. Kai looks like he's about to explode as we walk into the lobby.

"If we break a rule, they physically hurt us. They don't care about our well being," Kai spits, practically fuming.

"That's why you don't break any rules. It's just discipline. Look at my back. No marks, no scars. I didn't break any rules," I lift up the back of my shirt, showing my clear back. Kai's hands curl into fists.

"Discipline my butt! Because I'm in love with someone shouldn't mean that we both have to be whipped in the back," Kai snaps, his voice laced with venom. Jay walks up behind him, whispers something in his ear, and pulls Kai off to the side to cool down while we walk to the elevator.

---

"Lloyd," Harumi tries to get his attention during the movie, but his focus is solely on the screen. Both him and Jay are completely entranced by the movie. Kai is sitting next to Jay, still fuming. I'm sitting on the other side of the room by Zane. Lloyd and Harumi are on the couch in the center with Mr. E and Ultraviolet standing by the door.

"Lloyd," she pokes his side, to which he just flinches away. "Lloyd!" she pushes his shoulder.

"Yeah," he gives her a little bit of his attention, but it's primarily on the movie.

"I'm cold," she shivers.

"That's cool," his attention is back on the movie.

"Oh Kai," Harumi calls across the room. He looks at her.

"Yeah," he gives the same response that Lloyd did, probably cause he's still fired up.

"Can you come over here? I'm cold," knowing he can't say no, Kai stands up and walks over, sitting down on the far edge of the couch. Harumi slides over, so she's close to him and not Lloyd. She wraps her arms around him and rests her head on his chest. I can see Jay trying to hold back a laugh at the look on Kai's face.

As we're sitting here, watching the movie, Jay's phone starts ringing. He glances down at it and walks out of the room. It seems like no one noticed but me that he even left. When he comes back, he's holding his stomach.

"I don't feel so good guys. I'm going to go back to my room," he announces, walking towards the door.

"I hope you feel better Jay," I tell him, even though I don't know if he's actually sick. It's a little suspicious to take a phone call and automatically be sick after, but I won't question him.

---

"Zane and Cole, can you guys go get some more popcorn? We seem to be out," Harumi asks, still snuggles up to Kai who isn't thrilled.

"Sure, we go down to the lobby right?" Zane stands up before I can answer. I stand up with him.

"Yeah. Mr. E already ordered it. You guys just need to pick it up," Harumi instructs us. The two of us, willingly, leave the room. We get in the elevator and go down to the lobby.

"Do you think Kai is still with Skylor?" I ask Zane as we stand in the elevator.

"It's highly probable. He admitted to still being in love with her, and they broke up three years ago. Feelings like that do not stick around that long. He also got that bracelet for her," Zane spits out evidence calmly. The elevator door opens, and the two of us head to the front desk.

"Masters of ice and earth," the guard greets us. "Here is the popcorn the princess ordered," he gives us two huge tubs of popcorn.

"Thank you," Zane says, polite as ever.

"Did you hear there's a new elemental master?" the guard asks, leaning against the counter.

"Really? What's his element?" I ask, making the guard laugh.

"It's a girl, around your age I believe. She's the master of water," he corrects me.

"Well, we must be going. Thank you once again," Zane pulls me away from the conversation, so we can head back up to the room.

"I used to, but I'm more into blue now," I hear an unfamiliar female voice say as soon as the elevator opens.

"It's the new elemental master! We should go say hi," I suggest. We take a turn around the corner, but there's no one there.

"I'm confused," Zane says, and he's never confused.

"Me too buddy. Me too," I look around, but there's no signs anyone was here. "You heard it too right?"

"Yes."

"Oh well. We should probably just go to the others," with that, the two of us step in the elevator.

A/N: so that kind of connects some stuff

That whole chapter was before the last chapter except for that last little bit

How are you liking this story? I feel like this chapter was confusing whoops.

Oh, and all 12 rules will be in the next chapter, so you get to see what rules they have to abide to

Have a nice day guys