***A/N: Welcome back! I'm trying to pump out a few chapters before I get swept away in summer lol

I realized it's been a long time since we heard from Kai. Looking back, I found that I didn't accomplish as much characterization with him as I wanted. If I'd given him some POVs over the past two weeks of book-time, maybe it would've helped things seem more realistic. But let me know what you guys think in the comments! Maybe I'll go back and edit in some in-between chapters with more of his characterization.***

***(Skylor's POV)***

I zoom in on the flowered sandals on my computer screen. One of my favorite brands just released these babies, and they have the cutest little red posies printed on the straps. They'd look so fun with a little white sundress I have in my closet.

My dad gives me an allowance for clothes shopping each month, and to be honest, I've found shopping kind of boring lately. Nothing's catching my eye. But these could be the end of my fashion block.

I zoom out to check the price one more time. If I buy these, I'll have just enough for the blush pink bag from the same line, and that would pair super well with –

"What are you doing?"

My eyebrows furrow in annoyance. I'd forgotten I was stuck in detention with Kai Smith when he just had to remind me.

"Shopping," I quip, not bothering to elaborate. I turn haughty eyes on him. "And why are you all up in my business?"

He looms over my shoulder, that arrogant face mere inches from mine. "I'm trying to accomplish stuff on the Graceton bombing here. Heaven knows we don't need Wu finding a reason to stick us together for another week."

I sigh and swivel in my seat, taking care not to knock him over with my sudden action. Not that I don't think about it.

"What else is there to find on the bombing?" I ask, crossing one leg over the other. It makes my knee-length pattern skirt inch just above my knee. Gotta keep things school-appropriate so I don't land myself in even more trouble with Misako.

"Look," Kai groans, falling into the chair beside me, "I don't really find searching for the Graceton bombing interesting either. But we both agree that we don't want Wu to keep sticking us together." He rubs a hand over his forehead. "Just one more week, Skylor. Work with me for one week, and we're free."

On one hand, I'm glad it's Friday. That means I don't have to see Nya's brother anymore over the weekend. On the other, I leave for Yvonne or Yvette's or whoever's with my dad right after school, and I do not want to meet that woman. She's uprooting my life. She's the plague of my high school existence.

"Please, Skylor?" Kai eyes me honestly, and I see in those depths a broken man who's exhausted from spending time with his sworn enemy.

It kind of makes me feel triumphant.

In all seriousness, though, he's stretched me to my limits as well. Without the weekend off, I'd probably be screaming and pulling out his hair come Monday. Not that the screaming part hasn't already happened.

I release a long breath. "Okay." I can be mature about this. "Let's review what Jay and Nya found in their interviews on Wednesday. I think she sent us a writeup today, right?"

"Maybe. Though my sister would never email me, so it's probably in your inbox." He rises and grabs his laptop from his spot across the room.

I stifle an eyeroll. "Yeah, it's your fault she won't talk to you." Bad words. I want to call him bad words, but I'm not getting us stuck in detention together any longer.

"Don't think I don't know that," he counters, flopping down next to me again.

I eye him. "Did I say you could sit –,"

"No, but we'll get more done working next to each other." He longingly looks at his original spot across the room.

I almost laugh at that pained look in his eyes. My latest obsession of getting revenge on Kai has been sardonically entertaining.

"What have you accomplished so far?" I ask, locating Nya's email in my inbox and clicking on it.

"Let's see." He reclines back in his chair. "I've reviewed Lloyd's phone interview notes from Monday, steered you away from getting us stuck together in detention for the rest of the month –,"

My eyes shoot daggers at him, and he has the nerve to smirk.

I go back to examining the email Nya sent over. It's all about the interviews she did with Jay on Wednesday. I talked with her after they were over, and she said that the afternoon went pretty well. She did mention that Jay makes quite a few bathroom jokes, though.

I've met the guy, and potty humor suits him. He gives off vibes like his sense of humor's still stuck in the fifth grade.

"What does Nya's email say?" Kai leans over my shoulder to try to read the message, and I narrow my eyes and shove my computer screen away. "Get out of my space, nitwit."

He rolls his eyes, moving back. "Only if you share the contents of that message. Quit playing keep-away."

"I don't play 'keep-away'." I make little quotey-fingers when I say the words, and I have to catch my laptop before it slides right off my lap. "We're not little kids, Kai."

"Then stop acting like it."

I scoff. "You're the one who dropped your sister off at a gas station alone so you didn't have to drive to school with her!"

Kai stands abruptly and clenches his jaw. "And you're the one who got her in detention last Monday! Wasn't she supposed to have her interview with the journalism club or something that afternoon? You ruined that for her."

"Like you care," I retort.

"I do!" he snaps, and his eyes widen when he realizes what he just said.

I'm stunned into silence, and it takes me a moment to gather myself.

I blink. "You – you experience things like care?" What, I'm supposed to believe he's humane?

He just glares at me.

I regain my composure enough to roll my eyes. "Yeah, right. Then why do you make Nya's life miserable? Why try to hide your sister from the world?"

"Like you'd understand," he sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Just drop it, would you?"

"Tell me how you can simultaneously care about Nya and be such a jerk to her, and maybe I will." This is too good to let go. He seriously wants to argue that his sister means anything to him?

He rubs his fingers over the bridge of his nose. "Look, I have my issues, and I know I've been awful to Nya, and I regret it. Not that I can change anything about our relationship at this point." He turns and marches toward his side of the room.

I let out a strained laugh. "You don't want anything to change, Kai, or you would try."

"You don't understand what it's like to want to have a relationship with a sister you can't even talk to." He angles his chair away from me and reopens his computer. "And I don't even know why I'm telling you this – probably because you've pushed all my buttons and brought me to the end of my rope when it comes to her, and I know you won't believe me anyway – so drop it."

"There's no good reason to pretend –,"

"Stop acting like you know me!" Kai exclaims, swiveling toward me with his jaw in a hard line. "I screwed up majorly, but I'm the one who has to live with that on my conscience for the rest of my life, not you. So just leave it alone."

I blink, stunned at these weirdly remorseful words coming from Kai Smith of all people.

We spend a full three minutes in silence. I forward Nya's email to him so he can read it himself, I copy and paste her notes on her interview with Craig Everton into a shareable document, I take one last longing look at those shoes.

Then I spin my seat toward Kai. "You know, it'd be a lot easier not to judge you if you could give me one reason why you made Nya's life miserable other than being a narcissist."

Kai goes stick straight. Then he closes his laptop again, gets up, and walks toward the door. He hesitates when he reaches it, and I think for a moment that he might be about to respond to me. But then, back still facing me, he swipes a hand over his eyes and leaves.

I stare after him for a moment.

I don't think highly enough of him to believe I struck a nerve, but I sure wish I did. He deserves to feel pain after what he did to Nya. He basically disowned her and then made it worse by locking her outside her house and who knows what else.

But still, I feel a little twinge of guilt for pushing him to leave just now. Was he about to cry? Was that why he wiped his eyes before he left?

I turn back to my computer and busy myself with taking notes on Nya's interview with Nelson Melview. Apparently, he had some friends over the night of the Graceton bombing, and they all heard the explosion while they were watching a movie. His friends all confirmed his alibi. Maybe Nya planned on talking with them to get their ideas on what happened that evening.

I'm just making a mental note to ask her when the door bursts open.

I sigh, fully expecting Kai to be back in a rage, when Lloyd's withering tone fills the room.

"What did you say to him?" he demands.

I frown and turn toward Lloyd. "Is this about Kai?"

The first thing I note is the anger highlighting his green eyes. "You'd better believe it is. What'd you do?"

I blink. "I just – I don't know, we got into an argument over Nya again, and he said he regretted what he'd done, and I asked him to give me one good reason why he did what he did to her. It wasn't anything out of the usual." My forehead furrows. There's no way I actually hurt this guy. He can't possibly feel remorseful, and if he somehow does, then it's a good thing.

"Yeah, well, whatever you said, he's now locked in the teacher's lounge bathroom and won't come out." He glowers at me.

"He's probably just passing whatever he had for dinner last night, Lloyd." I'm hoping he had a good dose of shame.

"He's crying, Skylor. And the only time I've ever seen my brother cry is after Nya refused to be adopted into the Garmadon family the first time."

Okay, that twinge of guilt in my heart now feels like tiny knives attacking my chest.

I clear my throat, shoving any sense of wrongdoing down. "If he's crying, it's a good sign. Maybe it means he still has a heart somewhere in there."

Lloyd closes the gap between us. "Let Kai work through his past with Nya with his family and friends, Skylor. It's not your business since you so clearly don't give a whit about him."

Righteous anger builds in me. "I care about Nya, Lloyd. That counts for something."

"Oh yeah?" he challenges. "Because from all I've seen from you, you've made more trouble for Nya and her brother than good. You're constantly putting the drama between those two in the forefront of everyone's minds at Ridgewood, Skylor."

"I just want justice for Nya," I scoff. Can't anyone see that?

"And you're creating problems instead, so butt out." He stares at me meaningfully. "You only have a month or two left in Ninjago City, right? So make it a good one for you and your friends. But the moment I see you stirring things up between Nya and her brother again..." He runs a hand through his hair, a nervous movement to his hard bravado. Instead of finishing whatever threat he was formulating, he pivots and marches out.

I open and close my mouth. I am not 'stirring things up' between Nya and her brother. Right?

I desperately turn back to my laptop and feverishly type several sentences, all the while reminding myself why I'm a great friend to Nya. I take her to get her hair done each season. I listen to her boy drama and promote every article she publishes through Graceton. I stick up for her with her brother when literally no one else does.

But have I – have I possibly done more harm than good in her relationship with Kai?

The sick feeling of wrongdoing swirling in my gut coils into a hard ball and just sits there. Before I know it, I'm slamming my laptop closed, shoving it in my bag, and heading out to the parking lot.

Suddenly, going with my dad to my future not-mom's for the weekend doesn't sound so bad. I can throw in earbuds, blare some classic boy bands, and snoop around to find any ulterior motive she might have for wanting to marry my dad. And that can keep my mind off whether or not I've ruined Nya's home life over the past few weeks.

***(Kai's POV)***

I stay locked in the teacher's lounge bathroom for a full hour and a half before Lloyd finally gives up on trying to get me to come out. Knowing I'm alone at the school makes me feel somewhat better, somewhat freer. I have a feeling Lloyd will always be there if I need someone to talk to, but I really just want to be by myself right now.

I've replayed Jay's voicemail from Wednesday at least ten times now, and six of those have been in the last hour. He apologized to me for being distant and told me he wanted our friendship to mend.

I haven't said a word to him since receiving the message. I haven't had the guts to.

All my friends say they've hated the separation between us. It's mostly one I've put in place, too – a protective measure to keep myself from being hated for pretending I didn't have a sister and doing terrible things to hide that truth.

I've also stayed away because I know they'll want to know why I pretended. And they'll want me to make things better with Nya, and I can't bear the idea of her hating me if I'm trying to be a better brother. Better to be hated for being hateful than to be hated with your heart on the line.

That's why I tried to be so hateful to Nya in the past, I guess.

Dang it, Skylor's really done a number on me by reminding me of everything I've done to my sister.

Emotion grips me again, and I grit my teeth against it. I deserve to feel guilty. I'm the one who cut Nya off and then left her at a gas station. I'm the one who held her at a distance every time she tried to make amends with me. I'm the one who desperately wanted to earn Mom and Dad's affection so they wouldn't hate me when they figured out what I was doing to Nya.

It's only a matter of time before my Garmadon parents find out I haven't told my Smith parents about what happened, and then they'll confess everything and my bio-parents will despise me, too.

But what can I do to make things better? I have a feeling Nya will hate me regardless, and I'd rather not find out for sure.

I think back to our younger days. When she was in elementary school, she would visit with me and the Garmadons and beg me to wait for Mom and Dad to get released from prison. But I was more realistic than that. My parents may have been wrongly accused, but they had a forty-year sentence with no prospects of getting out soon. I wanted a better life for me and my sister than foster care, and the Garmadons were the best family we could have asked for. She never saw that, though, no matter how much I tried to convince her.

But when Nya was probably ten or eleven years old, our fights weren't just her imploring me to leave the Garmadons anymore. Sometimes she'd accuse me of wanting different parents. She always apologized after, and I knew it was just the hurt talking when she said stuff like that, but gosh, it plagued me. I didn't want to replace our parents; I just wasn't willing to live in foster care.

And with the idea that I'd abandoned my sister in foster care eating away at me, it was easy and terrible to sometimes imagine what it'd be like if I didn't have a sister. If Nya wouldn't join the Garmadons as family, maybe I could just pretend I hadn't left anyone behind.

I felt awful for pretending that, but my only child identity became a lifeline, a safehouse. I could accept myself better if I just forgot about Nya. Others would surely think better of me if they didn't know I'd left Nya in foster care to fend for herself.

And the lie grew from those fantasies into something I was actually telling others, something I was living. One thing led to another, and suddenly I was cutting Nya out of my life so my secret wouldn't be revealed. And somewhere along the line, I realized my world would crumble when the truth inevitably came out, and it was all I could do to kiss up to my parents and everyone else and soak up the time I had before they found out and never saw me the same.

I treated Nya like crap so I could keep her a secret. It was selfish. I regret it.

But that never stopped me from doing it.

I stand abruptly, disgusted with myself and ready for some fresh air. The next time I decide to have a breakdown, I am not using a bathroom for it.

I unlock the door and head down the peaceful Ridgewood halls, a place I've known since freshman year that still feels like home. Even the Graceton student body can't take that feeling away from this place.

I grab my phone and text Momma Garmadon that I'm coming to their place for dinner tonight. I do not want to face Lloyd after he saw me rushing to the teacher's lounge bathroom like that, but it's better than seeing Nya and not being able to say a word to her. The distance between us is too much.

And I'm getting desperate enough that I'd do anything to mend it at all. I think even the tense relationship we had before was better than the lack of...anything between us now.

I exit one of the building's side doors and am met with the warmth of mid-afternoon September and the smell of freshly cut grass. My sports car sits in its usual spot, the lone one in the parking lot at this point.

I just wish there were some way to figure out how to get along with Nya again. Some way that guaranteed she wouldn't hate me forever and that I could somehow mend all the stupid mistakes I've made over the years.

My ringtone comes to life in my pocket, and I pull it out and try not to cringe. It's Lloyd.

Guess Mom told him I was coming for dinner.

"Hey, Lloyd," I greet, unlocking my vehicle. "What's up?"

"Have you decided to leave the Ridgewood bathroom yet?" he asks, concern all over his tone.

"Yeah," I reply, my tone clipped. "Anything else?"

"What happened back there with Skylor? She said that nothing out of the ordinary for you two happened, just arguing about Nya like usual before you walked out."

Nice to know I have a younger brother who'd confront the likes of Skylor Chen for me. "She was telling the truth. That's pretty much everything."

"Why'd you walk out?"

"Because I didn't want to listen to her anymore. She can't speak at a normal decibel, and the longer I'm stuck in detention with her, the more I lose my hearing."

Lloyd sighs. "So I'm guessing you're not going to talk to me about this."

"That's a good guess." I open my car door and get in, the heat trapped inside emanating around me as I settle in.

He's silent for a moment. "You know I'm always here for you, Kai."

His words get me all choked up, so I manage some kind of guttural agreement. Gosh, Kai Smith-Garmadon does not cry. I have to get over this phase.

"See you at dinner tonight?" he finally asks, realizing I'm not going to give any more of a reply.

"See you tonight," I agree. And I hang up before I get all weepy again.

I start my car and leave the Ridgewood lot, admiring the way the sunlight gleams through the trees on either side of the road and gives the world a kind of peaceful glow. I don't like to think I'm poetic or anything, but being out in nature just reminds me to be present in life. It's where I've gone to deal with stress for as long as I can remember.

I come to the end of the road and decide to turn left, not really having a particular direction to go. In the past, I would've headed to one of my friend's places after school. Or maybe I would've gone home to the Smith or Garmadon households.

None of that seems right anymore. A few weeks ago feels like a different life now.

As I drive down backroads and examine all that's been going on in life lately – avoiding my friends, dwelling in guilt over all I've done to Nya, fighting tooth-and-nail with Skylor – it suddenly hits me hard how much I've needed my friends over the past few weeks. Cole and Lloyd have been trying relentlessly to get me to hang out with the group, Zane's texted me multiple times offering to talk if I needed to, and Jay sent me that voicemail to apologize.

They all seem to not hold my secrets and lies and actions against me, and I absolutely hate it, but I'm also astonished at the grace they're extending to me.

They want me back as their friend, flaws and all. At least for now.

And I think they're a risk I might be willing to take.

I grab my phone and call up Cole. I haven't messaged him in a few weeks, but he's still one of the first numbers in my recent contacts.

He picks up on the second ring. "Hey, Kai," he greets, his tone welcoming as ever.

"Are you busy tomorrow after football practice?" I let the words spill out in a tangle, sounding almost like something Jay would've said.

"I don't think so," he replies. "Wanna hang out?"

"Um, sure," I awkwardly reply. "Sounds great. And maybe you could ask Jay and Zane too." I feel like I'm just a kid again, trying to make friends in private school for the first time and unsure of how to even go about it.

"That works great," Cole affirms. I can hear the smile in his voice, and though I'm embarrassed, it also relieves me.

"Awesome. Okay. Cool. See you then." I hang up before I can mess this up any further.

And something about deciding to try things anew with my friends makes me long for better terms with Nya, too. Not that I know how to do that or am even comfortable with getting to that point with her, but somewhere inside I'm still desperate for reconciliation.

That's how I somehow find myself in my driveway, tapping my hands on my steering wheel and debating my next move. The older brother in me I've long buried when it comes to her tells me I should go and apologize, but I know it will mean nothing. Plus, I'm not great at apologies anymore. At least not with her.

She wouldn't believe me anyway. She kind of hates my guts.

Needing to escape that thought, I shove open my car door and head inside. Snacks make everything better, right?

I open the front door and kick off my shoes. "I'm home," I call, making a beeline for the kitchen.

Nya appears in the kitchen doorway. "Mom's at work," she informs me curtly. "And Dad ran to the store for more garlic to cook dinner."

"O-oh," I say lamely, trying to think of any kind of a good response to that. Thanks? How was your day at school? What's Dad making? I'm going to the Garmadons' for dinner and just came here to miserably fail at apologizing?

But I can't think of anything to say that even makes sense in our relationship at this point. It all sounds fake and forced.

Nya, not expecting any more of a response, slides past me through the doorway and heads toward her room upstairs.

I bite my lip. I'm a terrible brother. I do not know how to do anything but argue with Nya. Or her friends, apparently, given that I've spent my entire week in detention with one of them.

I can at least talk to Skylor, though, even if I do think she's the worst person to ever step into Ridgewood. Her only redeeming quality is that she's loyal to Nya, which is more than I've been.

Which gets me thinking...

No. It's stupid. She'd never go for it.

But I do need help when it comes to Nya, and at this point, I'm out of options. And I don't know any of Nya's other friends.

How could I even convince her to go for it?

It'd be easier just to leave it alone – live in this tense silence with my sister forever – but I don't know that I can do that anymore.

I spot Nya's phone on the counter and frown. It's a cheap one our parents bought, and I think it has maps and a few other functions.

I wonder if it has a lock.

I look down the hallway where Nya disappeared. It couldn't hurt to look, right?

I gingerly grab her phone and power it on, glancing quickly down the hall again.

There's no lock. It opens right to her home screen.

I quickly press her contacts icon and unlock my own phone. I scroll through the numbers she has until I get to the one I need, then tap it in fast as lightning, close the tab, and set Nya's phone exactly where she had it.

Hearing her steps down the hallway, I stick my head in the refrigerator and pretend not to notice when she pads into the kitchen, grabs her cell, and heads back out.

I breathe a sigh of relief and close the fridge, staring down at the numbers I tapped into my call app. If only there were some way to convince the she-devil to go along with my idea.

Without much of a choice, I press the button that will allow me to call the person in this world I least want to talk to, but never have an issue arguing with.

"This is Skylor Chen," says a somewhat annoyed voice on the other side of the phone. Does she always sound like that? Eesh.

I try to formulate words. "Um...hi. It's Kai, Nya's brother. Don't hang up." The words fly out of my mouth.

"Is something wrong with Nya?" she asks, her voice suddenly serious.

I cringe. "Uh, no."

"Then why are you calling me? How'd you get my number, weirdo?"

I stifle an eyeroll. "I got it off Nya's phone. Just hear me out, okay? I need to – um – ask you something."

"My answer is no."

"I haven't even told you what it is yet."

"You don't have to. Bye, Kai."

"Wait!" I exclaim a bit louder than I intended. I dart a look down the hallway, then lower my tone. "I, uh, need your help."

"Nope."

"It's about Nya."

"I'm not helping you murder her. Hanging up in three, two –,"

"I need your help relating to her!" I rush, closing my eyes to brace for the impact of her response.

She's silent.

Unsure of what to do, I jumble more words together. "Look, I've been a jerk to her, and you don't know how much I regret that, but the problem is that we have no relationship at all right now. And for years I've wanted to be a better brother, but not enough, and it took my secret about her getting out to the world to finally push me over the edge."

"You realize how selfish that is, right? You only start wanting to be a good brother when it's convenient for you and you have nothing to lose?"

I'm bolstered by the fact she hasn't hung up yet. "Believe it or not, I do have something to lose by attempting to make things better with her." I could get rejected because I'm not enough to fix my mistakes and never have been.

"Not buying it."

"Would I want to spend any time around you if I could help it?" I point out. I think the only thing worse than my relationship with Skylor is my relationship with Nya right now.

She sighs. "Lots of desperate boys call me all the time, Smith. This is nothing new."

"But not the kind who dislike you as much as I do," I reply bluntly. "Not to be rude or anything."

"True. I'm still not going to help you, so I think we can call this conversation over. You interrupted my music."

"I can help convince the Ridgewood guys to give you your pageant thing back," I promise before she can end the call. "I'm a popular guy, so I'll talk to them, get them on your side. Then Misako and Wu can make the pageant happen. I'll even find people to help donate money, food, whatever for it. Just promise to help me relate to my sister, and I'll do it."

Skylor releases a long, troubled breath. "Listen, that's all fine and dandy and all, but in another month or so I won't even be attending Graceton anymore. I don't think I can help you."

"What?" I frown. "Why?"

"Not your business, buddy. Why would you want my help, anyway?"

"You're the only one of my sister's friends I've even talked to," I admit. "Plus, you know Nya better than anyone, and I know you'll do right by her. You're basically my only chance here of ever talking to Nya again."

"It's actually really simple. You say, 'Hi Nya, I'm really sorry I'm a jerk, and maybe in twenty years you'll finally forgive me for all the bad things I've done to you.'"

"You and I both know it's not that simple." I hold my breath, hoping she'll see my point of view here. I don't want to need her help, but I do need her.

Finally, she asks, "Why try to reconcile with your sister at this point, anyway? In less than a year, she'll be off at college studying journalism, and you'll be off...I don't know, in prison or something."

I bark out a humorless laugh. "Seriously? Prison?"

She doesn't withdraw her statement.

I clear my throat. "To be honest, Skylor, I can't live like this toward Nya anymore. It's been eating me up for years, and now that all my excuses for how I treated Nya are gone –,"

"What kinds of crappy excuses are those?"

" – it's plain for me to see that something has to change. I can't do this anymore." I inhale a long breath. "I haven't been a good brother to Nya in a long time, and to be honest, I don't deserve a second chance with her. But she deserves a second chance with me."

"How poetic," she quips. "Sounds like something you should share with your therapist."

It really does. "But no one knows Nya like you. If anyone can figure out how I can make things right with her, it's you."

"You're right, and that's exactly why I'm not helping you so you can just manipulate her again to get what you want."

"I never manipulated my sister," I scowl. "I messed up pretty much everything else, but I never tried to use our relationship to my advantage. And didn't you hear anything I just said? I'm not trying to manipulate her now. I want to at least be able to talk to her, Skylor."

"I still don't believe you," she deadpans. "So I'm hanging up now. If you really want to make things better, my suggestion is that you try."

"Just take some time to think about it," I plead with her. "Give yourself the weekend or something, and if you won't help me after that, fine. I'll never bring it up again. But I" – swallow your pride, Kai – "really need your help. I don't even know where to start with her, since she won't believe me if I just apologize. Not to mention that we're not on talking terms at all."

She's quiet for a moment before finally saying, "I don't need the weekend to make a decision that's already been made. Maybe you are serious about this, but whatever the case, I'm not helping you. I'm not letting you burn her again."

I exhale. "Okay. If that's what you want, then I respect –,"

Beep. And she ends the call.

And that leaves me back at square one, just with my pride a little more deflated.