(Brielle)

I woke up dreamily, having slept marvelously that night. Nya was in the shower, I could hear it running softly from the bathroom off of our room. I sat up and yawned, smiling, recalling last night. I stretched my arms wide and stepped out of bed, unsure what to do. Something on the table next to my bed caught my eye.

I walked over to it. A rose lay there on the wood, with a card attached. I beamed, realizing at once who it was from. I picked up the rose delicately and detached the card. I opened it slowly and read the inside.

Brielle-

I love you more than the stars, all along, you were the missing piece of my heart.

-Cole <3

I felt my heart do a somersault inside my chest. So he felt the same way as I did. He loved me back.

I heard the shower turn off, and Nya came out a moment later in a bathrobe. I lightly skipped into the bathroom, feeling light and elated.

~

I walked quietly into the training room in a tee shirt and running shorts and gazed at the practice area before me. I decided I needed more training. I tied my wet hair in a bun and pressed the red button on the pedestal next to the door. The machines of the training course whirred and buzzed to life, softly vibrating the ship.

I flicked out my fans and went over to a dummy, my socks padding the wood floor.

"Here we go," I breathed.

I visioned the dummy looking like Arachne and almost growled with anger and disgust. I punched the spinning dummy hard in the chest, and kicked it in the same area. Flinging a fan at the dummy's cloth head, spinning, jumping, and doing a flip in the air. The fan hit the dummy square in the face, and I retrieved the fan mid-flip, landing on my feet. I then spun and kicked another dummy, jumping up to the the planks, that resembled trees, that bounced up and down.

I hopped swiftly over the first two, but didn't notice the third and went flying backwards, landing on my back on the hard wood floor with an oof!

I heard movement by the door, and sprung up and turned in the direction. Standing there was my dad, who watched me, a small smile on his face.

"Hey dad," I said, walking over to him, "What are you doing here?"

"Just seeing what you were up to..." he replied simply.

I could hear rain pounding outside on the roof of the cabin and deck of the ship.

"Oh... sorry about that... didn't see the plank there... heh.." I mumbled.

"That's fine. I can see though, that you are a really good fighter."

"Really?" I asked, beaming. I couldn't remember the last time I was praised by dad.

He nodded.

"Want to see me do the whole thing?"

"Why not?" He shrugged.

I smiled at his quiet nature and leaped back toward the beginning of the course. I stared at the whirring machines. Smirking to myself, wanting to make my father proud, I sprang onto the first obstacle- the planks again.

This time, I nimbly hopped over each one, and landed on the panel to the next obstacle- swords and axes. Running, I jumped over a sword here, dodged an axe there, ducked and spun, jumped and slid under an axe smoothly, flipping onto another obstacle.

Passing through five obstacles within seconds, I ended with the dummies. I kicked and punched one, threw a fan at another, and finally swiped the head off of the last dummy, finishing the course on the final panel.

My father clapped. I beamed. We hugged for a moment, just there, in the middle of the training room. I was breathing hard, but I didn't care. This hug was special.

He later left, with me following. We went down to the kitchen for breakfast together, catching up on all the months I had spent without him. We entered the kitchen to find everyone else already seated at the table, eating waffles. I smiled and sat down next to Cole, my dad in between Jay and Sensei Wu.

I took some waffles and ate some, they were delicious.

"These are great!" I exclaimed.

"Thanks," Kai said from nowhere.

"Where were you?" Nya asked.

"I was training a bit," I stated simply, shrugging.

Nya nodded.

~

The rain poured and poured, so we decided to basically stay inside. We started the dreary day off with training. We ran into the training room, getting ready to do some random stuff. To start, we did obstacle course that Jay set up on the mat. You had to first run and jump up onto a bar, and do a flip. After the flip, you had to land on your feet and 'kill' a moving dummy, and after that you had to ninja crawl into a tunnel thing. Next, you were to do a somersault, and finish off with jumping up and throwing your weapon at a target and go into Spinjitzu.

Sounded pretty simple.... basic gymnastics stuff.

Jay, being the inventor, went first. He started out well, doing a near perfect flip and landing on his feet. He ran and whacked the dummy in the head with his nunchucks and crawled through the tunnel quickly, then leaping into the air and whipping the nunchucks, which missed the target's bulls-eye by inches. He then went into his bright blue tornado for about ten seconds and landed on the end panel of the course.

Then Lloyd attempted to go, but, on the flip, he landed in a split and complained that he couldn't finish the course because his... nevermind.

Now, it was my turn. Gymnastics were my thing. It was my time to shine... for me. Not just ninja stuff, but my real skill.

I started off at a run and jumped up to the bar. By hands gripped it tightly, and tucked into a perfect flip, landing lightly on my feet. I leaped towards the dummy and flung a fan at it, and it stuck firmly in the dummy's cloth chest. I spun around and pounced onto the mat, doing a ninja crawl at top speed. I then sprung into the air and threw my other fan at the target, and it hit it right in the center. I then spun into my silver, powerful cyclone for 15 seconds and landed on the panel neatly.

"Yeah Brielle!" Cole called from the other side of the room.

My cheeks burned a bit.

I got up and walked over to the bench and sat down, watching the others take their turns.

~

Later, after we finished training, we decided to pop some popcorn and watch a movie. We watched an adventure, in which a man and his friend went on quests to get precious artifacts from different tombs and caves to give to museums and stuff. It was pretty cool, there were booby traps and stuff that he had to escape from. There was also a villain, of course, and a map that led to different places in which there were clues to finding the main treasures. It was pretty neat, actually.

I had snuggled up under a blanket against Cole, and we shared a bowl of popcorn together. The movie was almost over, and the guy was just about to solve the mystery leading to the item, when Sensei barged into the room and turned on the lights, making all of us squint and groan. He looked worried.

"What is it, Sensei?" Zane asked.

"There is an Arachneion attack in the city!" Sensei gasped.

Jay paused the movie. "At this hour?"

I glanced at the clock. It was eleven o'clock at night, and the rain was still pouring, followed by the occasional clap of thunder and flash of lighting. No wonder Jay seemed slightly energetic today... well more than usual.

"But its storming outside!" Kai moaned.

"It doesn't matter. This time and weather gives them advantages. We must fend them off now, before their vandalism gets out of hand. We will be over Ninjago City within ten minutes." Sensei explained.

"Wait.. my apartment was in Ninjago City. I had a roommate.. do you think they are looking for her?" I asked, agahst.

"Possibly, which is even more the reason why you must get down there as soon as possible. Again, be ready to fight in ten minutes." Sensei said gravely. He then walked out of the room.

Not Nariah!