((Two months later on Cole's tenth birthday)). I decided to call my dad to tell him that I wanted to be a free-climber. But I never got to tell him, this is how the call went. "Hello Lou Brookstone speaking." "Hello dad," "Cole? How's school?" "Good I guess." "Has it been tough since I retired?"  "Yea a bit. But I've been getting A's in all my report cards." "Have you now? Good job son. How about we meet somewhere for your tenth birthday? It's not everyday my son turns ten you know." "Yeah, that sounds fun. How about the Four corners diner?" "Good choice Cole, I'll see you there four o clock?" "Works for me. Cya later dad." "Bye Cole." And then I hung up. I made that call at eight o clock. Two hours ago, in five minutes I had my free-climbing physical test. So I took some ibuprofen, and went inside the free-climbers lounge and waited for my turn. I was the youngest person in the lounge. The oldest guy was probably sixty-four or something, his name was Eddie Carl. There was seventeen people in this room, most of them in there early adult years. Being only ten, I stood out as minuscule. I recognized the guy that was at the counter when I walked in, he stood up and walked over to me and said "hey kid, my names Josh Tavern. But you will call me Tavern. What's your name?" "Cole Everdeen." Remembering the signature I wrote down. I held out my hand to shake his, and he grasped my hand and shook it once and sat down next to me. " I'm going to give you the lay down Cole. Today is physicals to check if you have what it takes to free-climb. Not many eight year olds have what it takes." "I'm ten sir." I said defiantly. "Ok then sorry, for the misunderstanding Cole." He said apologetically. "But you have what it takes to be a free-climber?" "Yes, yes I do." I said. "But on one condition. I don't want people to take pictures of me as a free-climber." "You got yourself a deal kid." Said Mr. Tavern. A voice rang through the room. "May I have Cole Everdeen see me in the doctors office?" I stood up and walked to the doctors office where I saw Mr. Tavern. "Let me guess," I said, "you're the instructor and the doctor?" "Yup." He said. "Now stand up and let me do an x-Ray on you." I stood up and stayed perfectly still as he scanned my body for history of broken bones. "You seem to have a large bruise on your stomach. Where'd you get it?" "In a fight." I said hardly wincing when he touched it. "Any fight that you can walk away from is a good fight." He said. "Any other kid with this kind of bruise would've broken half their ribs. You're very lucky you have good bones and a strong core. You have pasted the physical test. You can now free-climb with the big boys." I said thanks and I walked out of the doctors office and I checked my watch, it was 11:01 am. So I had five hours to free-climb. So I watched through the gate and went outside and I saw the mountain. I recognized it as the tallest mountain in Ninjago 'Wisdoms peak'. There's a legend that states that whom ever gets to Wisdom's peak will be a fighter of great power and will be the disciplined leader of a unstoppable team. Man, would that be cool to be in a team. Even though I had no friends to be in a team with. I had always pushed myself to my limits, sometimes a little bit too far. When I was eight, I was hanging on the balcony railing for fourteen hours until dad tried to pull me back inside and his hand slipped and I fell on top of a moving van that was driving to a junk yard to deliver parts that people didn't want. The lady that owned the junk yard gave me directions to get back to town and I walked back home where I got a super long lecture about ledges and junk yards being dangerous by my dad. I had fallen asleep when he started talking about what I've heard many times. You know the one, the 'you've dishonored the Brookstone family name' lecture. There was other times I had been given this lecture, twice, maybe three times a month. I decided I was going to climb this mountain, even if the legend was a fake. I needed to know. I didn't know what I wanted to know but I did. It seemed like destiny, but I checked my watch and the time was 2:15. If I was going to try to climb this mountain I had to start now. So I climbed over the wall and stared up the mountain face. It was daunting, I placed my fingers into a crack in its face and pushed myself up to get a foot hold. I looked up and moved my arm to another crevice and move my right leg up and pushed up again and found another place for my hands to hold onto. Before I knew it, I was really high up. I could tell that I was almost half-way up, checking my watch and to my surprise it was 3:45. I had fifteen minutes to get down, change out of my sweaty cloths, and meet dad at the Four corners diner. I climbed down fairly quick, and ran back home, where my dad was busy writing a song about teaching the new generation. So I snuck into my bedroom and found a plain pair of jean shorts, and a black and grey flannel shirt and hastily took off my sweaty clothes and threw them into the hamper. I had pulled up my shorts and had buttoned my shirt half-way  when my dad walked in and saw the bruise on my chest. I finished buttoning my shirt and met his gaze, "what happened Cole?" He said. I could tell he was worried, the look in his eyes, That was fear. So I told him the truth, well half of it. "Two months ago I got into a fight with Barkley and his gang and he hit my chest hard." "What didn't you tell me son?" He asked. "I could've got you treatment for that bruise."  "I'm sorry for keeping this from you dad." I muttered. "Now now, we'll have none of that." Dad had said. "Today is your birthday and you're gonna have fun. Let go get something to eat." And he straightened the collar on my shirt and led me to the car and we drove to Four corners diner. We arrived and I saw a girl my age with purple highlights in her black hair, helping her little brother walk around their table while their parents ordered dinner. Dad tapped my shoulder and whispered, "it's rude to stare son." I nodded and we got in line to order. "That girl is Mr. Yacovich's daughter." My dad told me. "Mr. Yacovich?" I repeated, surprised. Mr. Yacovich was my father's dance rival. "Yes, and she is very talented in dance."  Dad said in a undertone. Then the waiter showed us to a booth and asked us what we'd like to drink. "Water with lemon." Said dad. "Just water." I told the waiter and he left. There was a few minutes of very awkward silence. Where my dad hummed a tune to some song. When the waiter brought us our drinks and asked for what we wanted for our dinner. "We will split the family lasagna." Said dad and the waiter left our table to check on the Yacovichs. How did my dad know that I liked lasagna? Never mind that now. I thought in my head. How am I supposed to pursue free-climbing? Maybe I can ask to transfer to a nonexistent dance academy? That would work. "Um, dad?" I asked. "What son?" Dad replied. "Could I transfer to a different dance academy?" I asked quickly. "Sure," dad said after drinking some lemon-water. "Which dance academy were you thinking of?" "The other branch of the Marty Oppenheimer's school of performing arts?" I said. "That sounds great son," he said proudly. "It just brings tears to my eyes to hear that my son, Cole Brookstone is planning for his dance career!" He exclaimed. Now he was shouting in delight. "I know your excited dad," I interrupted, "but could you dial it down? People are staring." "Oh sure son." He said reluctantly, wiping happy tears from his face.  "I wouldn't want to embarrass my son. Not when his brother is coming from Ninjago City to see him!" Spat out my drink of water on the table. "What?! My  big brother Daniel is coming here?!" "Yeah he is," my father said with enthusiasm. "Daniel wouldn't miss your birthday for the world. He's meeting us at the house after dinner." "Wow dad, this is the best birthday ever." And I meant it, I hadn't seen Daniel in two years now. He was a video game engineer, his job is to draw sketches of action figures in a video game. He is really good at drawing and he taught me some good techniques. Then the waiter brought us lasagna and we dug in and were silent was we ate. After we finished our dinner dad payed and we left the diner and drove back home. I got out of the car the second we got into the driveway as I ran up the driveway past a dark blue pick-up truck. I guessed it was Daniel's and I ran to the door and knocked, and the door swung open and I looked up and saw my brother looking down at me with a look of excitement on his face. "Happy birthday kiddo! It's been awhile!" "Daniel!" I hollered, hugging him around the middle. He was so tall, he must have been almost twenty now. "Now now," said dad. "Let's not just stay in the doorway." "Yea," Daniel said. "I got you guys something." As dad shut the door and Daniel led us to the living room. And left us there and walked to the kitchen and came back with a box. "I made you guys a choclate cake!" Daniel said opening up the box to reveal a dark brown cake. "Holy cannoli! Thank you Daniel!" Man, did he get me. Daniel and I knew almost everything about eachother, he knew every kind of food I liked. From chocolate cake to lasagna. And I knew what he liked to wear, what he does in his free time. He likes to dress to impress, blazer and tie. He likes to draw stuff and on the weekends he teaches a tango class. Daniels set the record for the most youngest successful  dance teacher. "My my son," dad said grinning. "You never cease to amaze me." Daniel pulled a knife out of the box and cut out three generous pieces of cake and places them on plates and handed one to dad and one to me and handed one to himself. I had already dug into my piece of cake when dad said, "my my we forgot the forks. Daniel could fetch three from the kitchen?" "Sure dad." Daniel said placing his plate on the coffee table and walked to the kitchen. "Son," dad said staring at me. "You have chocolate on your face." "Oooops, sry." I said as I pulled a Kleenex out of the box on the table and wiped the chocolate off my face. Soon enough Daniel came back with three forks and we ate cake till there was no cake left. We all sat back in our chairs, content with cake in our bellies then Daniel broke the silence. "I got some news." I liked news and so did dad. "What is it Daniel?" I said. "I just got a job to work for a guy called Mr. Borg! I know it's a small business right now but maybe eight years from now it will be a huge thing! Think of it, hovercraft cars and voice activated phones! And--" "are you still going teach the tango son?" Dad interrupted. "Uh yea," Daniel anwsered. "I will still teach tango on the weekends."  "I'm glad you're taking you future seriously son." Dad said proudly. Then the clock struck ten-thirty. That was my bedtime and I said goodnight to Daniel and dad and went upstairs to bed. Without getting on my pajamas I flopped into bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

Gosh that didn't take long!  2166 words! But I hope you are enjoying this behind the scenes of Ninjago! I'll see you all later in "daughter of Yacovich"