"WHAT'S ONE PLUS three?"

"Four, I'm not stupid," Lloyd heard Astra hiss under her breath.

Hey, chill.

I'm fifteen, not eight.

Yeah, well we're surrounded by eight year olds so deal with it.

Shove off. I'm going home.

You can't do that. Ma's going to be p-i-s-s-e-d when she finds out.

Yeah, if, she finds out. Don't snitch.

You're so dead.

Later, Junior.

Lloyd deflated visibly in his chair as Astra grabbed her bag and ran from the classroom. Newman, the teacher, carried on doggedly with subtraction without noticing Astra had escaped. She wasn't wrong, the fifteen year old twins had done this before, but the majority of the kids here were pretty young. It turned out most of Ninjago's approved residents had kids. The families from the academies had a large age gap between siblings too, and that didn't really help.

However, Nya had told them that Padawan's ages no longer mattered - there were too many gaps and not enough teachers for all the ages. And apparently the Academy was progressive in Jedi views; not quite with the main Order. Almost like their own version of the Jedi. The Garmadi, maybe?

"Mr Garmadon, where is your sister?" Mr Newman had finally noticed her absence after a steady half hour of rambling on simple subtraction.

"She's needed at home," Lloyd lied easily. Newman didn't know that the only communication device they had was shared and at home. Lloyd was hoping for their birthday - which was in three weeks - that they would be getting their own data pads. It was really annoying having to message everyone as GTWINS and not be teased for it.

"Oh. Give her the homework, would you?" said homework consisted of filling out subtraction problem tables, such as 8-4, 5-2, and so on.

"Yes, of course." Lloyd returned to filling in his homework early with much diligence. Fifteen minutes later, about fifteen little kids were pushing through the door like a herd of cattle wanting juice boxes.

Wading over the short kids with long legs, Lloyd managed to break free of the crowd and towards the centre of Little Ninjago. He only knew where to get home from there since Misako had dropped them off that morning at school before heading to the Academy. Orientation started earlier than normal school for the Padawans apparently, and Lloyd felt sorry for them since early appeared to be six thirty in the morning.

The walk home was scenic both at night and day, with low hanging trees blooming large purple flowers, and blue skies clouded with clouds, surprise. He wondered whether his mother had found out that Astra had escaped subtraction. If she had, they wouldn't be eating well that night. Misako would probably make his father cook just to see Astra in near tears. The cooking abilities in the family ran with Astra at the helm, followed by Misako, then Lloyd (eggs and toast), and finally Montgomery.

The front door was wide open when Lloyd arrived home, the faint sounds of arguing coming from inside. Apparently Misako was home early - it was now three in the afternoon, so orientation was officially over.

"You don't get to leave just because you want to!"

"I am not doing subtraction for the next however moons-long we're staying here! It's complete bantha crap, and you know it."

"Your father and your uncle are simply catering to the majority of the learning group at the village, Lillianna. They do not have the time now to go searching for a teacher just for you two."

Hey hey hey, don't drag me into this.

DID YOU SNITCH, his sister yelled mentally. Lloyd winced, not knowing he'd projected the thought towards his twin. When they 'twin-talked' her voice sounded eerily like her normal one but with more ghostly echo.

Did not, swear on Third Moon. Ma mad?

Moons yes, Ma's mad.

Ah, bantha crap.

What I said.

"Heyyyy Ma," Lloyd entered with a casual drawl, hoping his presence would diffuse the tension. It did not, unfortunately, so he was forced to deal with rather uncomfortable fuming.

"Rooms. Now." Misako bristled, apparently unconvinced.

Lloyd sighed, taking the stairs and a raspberry muffin up to his room. His homework for the day was done; English's ten favourite words and Maths' subtraction sheet. Day two - or was it three, had already gone to shit.

I'm grounded.

HA, Lloyd laughed, glad he wasn't getting an earful himself. Good luck with that. Starting from when?

Now. Am currently being sentenced to copious broom sweeping.

Ah—

Don't say it—

Volsak, Lloyd laughed at his twin. Volsak was the Vareenan translation for the Common word loser.

You're the biggest volsak I know, she reiterated spitefully.

I'm going to go up to the Academy.

Eat bantha crap, volsak.

Chew bantha hair, bigger volsak.

Creative, Astra laughed dryly in his mind, and then she went dark.

o o o

Lloyd ran at a stable jog up the mountain on which the Academy sat, cool wind blowing through his blond hair as he saw tiny dots of students on the school grounds. Maybe he'd gotten the orientation timing mixed up, but upon further investigation, what was happening was far from an orientation.

An hour after his conversation with his sister, he was now viewing what looked to be a fight between two people he couldn't quite make out.

"Orktha shit, Fextum. Stay. The. Hell. Away."

Now Lloyd could tell who was arguing. Green hair girl from the airport, who seemed to be Fextum, and the human version of a porcupine were at each other's throats with words. Nya stood behind her brother, yawning with exaggerated weariness.

"He's catfighting," she informed Lloyd as he strolled over to her. "Tox hurt his ego first day."

"His hair?"

"His hair," Nya confirmed with a smirk. She glanced to her brother and sighed, slinging her brown leather satchel over her shoulder. "Walk home with me?"

"You're just gonna leave him behind?

"He'll make it home himself," she said very convin. "Where's Astra?"

"Grounded."

"For what?"

"Sneaking out of school."

"Ah. Volask."

Lloyd snorted, "That's what I said. Then she told me to eat bantha crap."

"LAH—LLOYYD!" yelled Kai. The older of the Smiths sprinted down to them, nearly tripping and bowling over as he skidded to a halt. "Did you see that?"

"See what? Tox nearly bite your head off?" Lloyd laughed, screeching as Kai pulled him in a headlock. "I'm telling the truth. How was orientation?"

Kai let go of Lloyd, allowing him to dust off the front of his hoodie.

"It was cool. There's this big garden-y thing in the entrance hall, tons of classrooms and so much stuff, oh, and this huge library full of old books." Nya rambled excitedly as they traipsed down towards the village walls. "The tech up there is insane, Headmaster Wu has got some of the best tools and materials, moons, he has a 3-8-Nevlsteen comptractor!"

Kai and Lloyd looked at each other, totally confused.

"Yeah, I have no idea what that is." Kai shrugged.

Nya sighed as they scanned into the gates. "Wouldn't expect you to. The only other person who seemed to have a remote idea of what was going on in the tech class intro was Walker."

"Who?"

"Jay Walker. Blue jacket, curly auburn hair, freckles, dimples, makes bad puns—"

"Okay, okay, I didn't ask for a character profile," Kai stared at his sister weirdly, "We get it, you're nerds."

"Eat bantha crap. Wanna come over and play Fist to Face 2 with us Lah-Lloyd?" Nya asked cheekily, knowing full well he hated that nickname.

"Yeah, lemme see if I can get Astra to join our game from our house." he agreed, switching to mental conversation.

Have you been banned from video games as well? Nya and Kai wanna play Fist to Face 2 so I'm at their house now.

She didn't say, though it was heavily implied. If she doesn't find out, it didn't happen, right?

Same concept as what got you grounded in the first place.

Silence.

Five minutes and I'll be on.

"She's good to go." Lloyd announced.

"With your mother's permission?"

"Not exactly."

Kai whooped loudly. "I'm going to pummel all of you."

Lloyd scoffed, puffing out his chest. "We'll see about that."

o o o

Nya and Astra teamed up on them and absolutely destroyed Kai and Lloyd.

"Since when were you good, Nya?" Lloyd gasped as she threw his character across the screen.

"When you and Astra disappeared without telling us you were moving too, I had a lot of spare time." Nya answered, gritting her teeth.

Astra's voice came crackling over his headset. "Mhm, about that, we just were...busy."

"Leaving us behind." Nya stated brashly, her thumbs smashing the controller.

"We were busy. Packing. Tape."

"Pod racing?" Kai jumped in, his usual joker attitude gone.

Astra's character stopped moving on screen. "What?"

"I'm joking," Kai switches back to normal with a hearty laugh. "Everyone knows pod racers are stupid. Especially if you were, Astra! I'd bet ten you'd crash in the first five minutes."

"Oh, yeah?" she said dryly over the mic, and Lloyd resisted the urge to run to their house and strangle her to keep her from talking.

"There's the boss, c'mon!" Lloyd yelled as a diversion, frantically jamming the buttons. Nya and Kai's attention jumped back to the screen, but Astra was forlornly silent.

It's fine.

Yeah, let's just beat this guy.

She didn't talk to anyone for the rest of the day. Lloyd went on a walk around the neighbourhood and saw Morro hanging out with some kids from the Academy.

A/N: i am sick writing this and i hate it ughgghghghghg iva knows how much i complained about it lmao but IT SUCKS ASS. in other news i have finished watching she ra its amazing so much angst anyways we got it imma go blow my nose.

- dommie out