The weekend had passed and it was already time to go back to school. I woke up to that same annoying alarm, but today, I wasn't dreading school as much as I was on Friday. I was actually eager to get to school. I wanted to see if Lloyd was back at school and if he was doing okay.

I did my normal, lazy morning routine. I brushed my fingers through my hair, put on my hoodie, grabbed my bag, and left.

The bus ride to school wasn't very eventful. And neither was the trip to my locker, just the same old stuff. I didn't bother to check the chance of attack today, because Garmadon never hits twice in a row.

I head to my first class and there I see Lloyd sitting in his normal seat. As soon as I walk in, Lloyd's eyes light up and he gets up and runs toward me. He pulls me into a hug.

"Thank you," he whispers.

"For what?" I ask with a confused look on my face. He pulls away from the hug and smiles at me.

"For saving my life. The doctors said that if you weren't there to help me, I could have died," he says, staring at me.

I didn't know how to respond.

"Well, you saved me first, so I guess we'll call it even."

He smiles at me and we stare into each other's eyes for a little bit. I've never noticed it before, but he has such nice eyes. I've never seen anyone with eyes this bright and effervescent.

Our happiness was interrupted when Chen entered the room.

"What's up, Garmadon? Is this your boyfriend?" He laughed and pushed his way in between us.

Lloyd's face turns red from embarrassment. "W-what? No, I-I was just- we were just-"

Chen pushed Lloyd and got all up in his face. "Listen, freak, when will you learn that no one wants to talk to you? Even the kids with no friends don't want to hang out with you," he motions to me when he said 'kids with no friends.'

"I'm sorry..." Lloyd mumbles.

"Good. Stay in your lane, freak," Chen delivered one last push that sent Lloyd to the floor as he turned around and left the room.

As soon as Chen leaves, I hurry up and help Lloyd up off the floor. "Are you okay?" I ask once we're both on our feet again. Lloyd's face is blank as he stares off. He snaps back and gives me a puzzled look. "Why are you so nice to me? I'm disgusting."

"No, you're not. You saved my life," I put my hand on his shoulder as I try to reassure him.

"But even before that, you were nice to me... Why?" He stares deep into my eyes and he looks as if he's about to cry at any moment. I really didn't know what to say to that. Why was I nice to him?

"I... I don't know... Everyone deserves a friend I guess," I state. His expression changes a bit. "A friend? ...We're friends?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not?" I smile at him, but I'm faking a little bit of my happiness. It's not that I don't want to be his friend, it's just that I've always preferred to just be a loner. He pulls me into one last hug, anyway.

"Okay, that's enough with the hugs, man," I laugh. "Haha, sorry," he pulls away. He stares as me a little longer. It's hard to tell what he's thinking, but he looks to be happy... I'm glad I can make him happy.

Our staring is soon ended by the sea of kids filling the room at the same time they always do; about two minutes before the bell rings. Lloyd and I quickly take our seats and we get to the usual note taking. It's the same boring stuff as always, but I'm fine with it.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

When my morning classes are over, I go to lunch. I normally just sit by myself in one of the back corners of the cafeteria, but this time, I spot Lloyd, who is also sitting by himself. I go over and sit by him. Neither of us bothered to get any food.

"Hey, (Y/N)," he chimes as I sit down.

"How's it going?" I greet.

"...Fine."

I can tell he's been having a tough day. As he probably always does. I can only assume how sucky school must be for him, and I try to change the subject.

"So, how's your arm doing?" I ask.

He lifts up his arm and rolls up his sleeve. There's a nasty scar covered in stitches. I cringe just by looking at it.

"It's bad, I know," he says as he rolls his sleeve back down. "It's going to leave a huge scar." He's not looking too thrilled about it.

"Hey, scars are cool. Girls love scars," I joke with him and he laughs a little bit. His small laugh was cut short as he begins to speak again. "Yeah, but I've never seen anyone else with a scar that looks... This gross..."

"Wait, look at this," I lift my leg up onto the seat of the lunch table and I roll up my pant leg, exposing a huge scar on my calf.

"Woah, how did you get that?" He seems almost impressed.

"One of the kids from my old school loosened the bolts on my bike and it fell apart while I was riding it," I tell him.

He covers his mouth in shock. "No way, that's awful."

"Yeah, but it left a pretty cool scar, huh?" I hope that showing Lloyd that I'm okay with my scar will help him learn to accept his, even though I really hate my scar. I just want Lloyd to be comfortable with his because it's in a more visible place.

"Haha, I guess," he smiles.

I roll my pants back down and put my leg down on the floor. We go silent for a little bit.

Lloyd decides to break the silence. "...Soooo... Do you maybe wanna hang out after school? I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to, it's just I suggestion. I just thought-"

"Sure, sounds good," I interrupt him.

"Uh, cool! You wanna come to my place?" He asks me.

"Yeah. After school today?"

"Yeah. Don't you want to see if it's okay with your parents first? Most people don't want their kids hanging out with... me..."

I can see the hurt in his eyes when he says that. I know my mom wouldn't like me to hang out with Lloyd, but she wouldn't care if I just didn't tell her. She never asks where I'm going when I leave. Sometimes, I don't come back home until hours after school is over and she does nothing, so I figured I could just head straight to Lloyd's house when school's over.

"Nah, my mom won't care."

"Really? But I'm... the son of Garmadon..."

"My mom never cares." That came out a lot more bluntly than I intended.

"Oh... sorry."

"No, no. It's fine. Don't be worried or anything, it's not that big of a deal. She's always been like that," I keep digging myself a deeper hole. Like I'm not even thinking about what I'm saying. I'm making my mom seem like she's never there... Well, she's not, but I don't need to tell people these things. "Wait, I didn't mean it like that, I-"

"No, I get it. It's fine. You don't have to tell me anymore. We can drop it," he tells me.

"Okay... thanks." I'm glad he said that. I really didn't want to be on the subject of my mom anymore.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Later that day when it was time to go home, I met Lloyd at his lokcer.

"Hey, Lloyd," I greet him.

"Hey," he said as he opened his locker, and a bunch of letters fell out. I picked a couple up off the floor.

"What are these?" I ask before reading any of them.

"Hate letters. I get them all the time. I need to throw them away," he said, very casually. He was used to this kind of stuff.

I open up one of the letters in my hand and read it out of curiosity. Lloyd stares at me as I read the letter with a horrified look on my face. I skim through the letter and I open the next one... then the next one... then the next. The things people were writing in these letters were awful. How could anybody say things like this to another person?

Most of them read things like 'The world would be better without you,' and 'go kill yourself,' but someone them were in extreme detail. It was awful. I had never dealt with this kind of stuff, even when I was bullied at my old school.

"You know what, let's just go," I say as I crumble up the letters and pick some up off of the floor. I throw them in a nearby trashcan and Lloyd follows behind me as we leave the building.

"Do you just want to walk to my house, or do you wanna take the bus?" He asked me.

I really didn't want to deal with the other kids on the busses right now. After all of those letters I read, I really didn't want to see how these people treated Lloyd in person. "We can walk."

"Sounds good to me."

We begin to walk in the direction of Lloyd's house. I didn't know where he lived, so I just followed him wherever he went, going around every twist and turn right behind him. We didn't talk much on the way to his house, but it was a pretty short walk.

We arrive at the apartment building that Lloyd lives in and we take some stairs up to the third floor. He goes to open the door to his home, but stops himself. "Before we go in, just know that my mom is a bit... different," he says.

"I'm sure she's fine. Everyone is a bit weird," I say.

"Okay, whatever you say," he laughs and continues to open the door to his home.

"Mom, I'm home!" He yells, and I see a short, red haired woman come from another room.

"Hey, Lloyd, how was your day?" She cheers as she hugs him.

"It was fine... I brought a friend over. I hope that's okay," he points to me.

She must have just now noticed I was standing there because her face lit up. "Oh, sweetie, you made a friend? That's great!" She seemed so excited.

"Mom!" Lloyd groaned. I just smile and wave at her. She seemed sweet.

"I'm sorry," she apologises and switches her attention to me. "What's your name? What grade are you in? Are you staying over for dinner?" She bombarded me with questions.

"Mom, you're way too overwhelming," Lloyd says.

"Sorry, I'm just so glad you made a friend!" She apologises again.

"My name is (Y/N)," I chuckle a bit.

"Well, (Y/N), you seem like a great friend for Lloyd," she smiles.

I smile back at her. She's so nice. I see where Lloyd gets it from.

"I guess I should leave you boys alone. Have fun!" She waves at me one last time before retreating to her own room and Lloyd and I still stand there in the living room.

"...So... What do you want to do?" Lloyd asks me.

"I don't know. What do people normally do at each other's houses?" I ask.

"I'm not sure..." Neither of us have had any friends before, so we had no idea how to go about 'hanging out.'

"Do you... have any movies?" I ask him.

"Mhm." He nods. He makes his way over to his TV and opens a little cabinet next to it, filled with DVDs. "What do you want to watch?"

"Not sure. You can pick." I tell him.

He pops open a DVD case and pulls out a movie and puts it in the DVD player. I'm not sure what he put in, but I didn't ask. He goes over and sits on the couch and he looks up at me and pats the seat next to him to show me that he wants me to sit next to him. I comply and take a seat.

"So, what movie are we watching?" I ask him.

"Mean Girls."

"...Really? Isn't that, like, a chick flic?"

"Have you seen it?" He asks.

"Well, no, but I-"

"Just watch it," he tells me.

"Alright, dude, whatever you say." I really didn't want to watch it, but I agreed to because Lloyd wanted me to. Hopefully it's not as bad as it seems.

We get about five minutes into the movie and I'm already kind of tired. I didn't get much sleep last night and I can feel my eye lids getting heavy, but I try to stay awake and watch the movie. Not because I want to, of course, but because Lloyd wants me to...

The further we get into the movie, the more invested in the story I become. I'd hate to admit it, but I'm kind of enjoying it. It's a pretty accurate movie to how school is for us. We're just the outcasts with no friends. And I'm fine with it, but I wouldn't go so far as to say the movie is good. It's just okay.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The movie ends and the screen fades to black.

"So, what did you think of it?" Lloyd asks.

"It was good. I liked it."

That was a lie. I fucking loved it.

"Good! I'm glad you liked it," he smiles and laughs. He has such a soft laugh. Almost like a kitten. He just had a very kitten like nature. Is that a weird thing to say? Probably.

I get a little bit lost in thought until Lloyd snaps me out of it. "Did you want to go home now, or did you want to stay a little bit longer?"

I think about it for a second. I didn't want to burdon Lloyd by staying too long, but I also really didn't want to go home. My home really wasn't much of a home, honestly. It was just the place where my bed is. I'm hardly ever at my house. Sometimes I just wander around the streets of Ninjago because I would rather be anywhere than my own house.

"...Do you mind if I stay?" I ask him.

"Not at all, stay as long as you want."

"Could I... stay the night? I keep extra clothes in my backpack, so I don't have to go get any." That was probably a stupid question. We've only been friends for a whole day and I'm already asking to stay the night at his house.

"R-really? You want to stay the night? That sounds great!" He seemed more excited about it than I thought he would.

"Alright, I guess I'm staying," I smile.

"Cool. You don't mind if I study tonight, do you?" He asks me.

"Sure, we can be study buddies," I tell him.

"Cool. You wanna study in my room?"

"Sounds good," I agree.

He gets up, gets his book bag, and goes to his room and I follow behind him. Honestly, I've never studied before. I just try to retain as much information as I can while we learn it in school, and live comfortable with my C's and D's. I don't see the point in attempting to raise my grade if I'm already passing. But whatever, Lloyd wants to study, so I'll study with him. His good grades are probably one of the only good things he has going for himself.

When we get to his room, he sits down at a desk that's placed in the corner of his room. I just take a seat on the floor, up against the wall. Lloyd pulled out one of his books from his bag and sat it on his desk. I didn't see which class the book was for, because I'm just taking in the atmosphere of the room. The walls are a very soft color. I couldn't tell you what the color is because it's probably not within my vocabulary. It's like some sort of mix between green and blue, but it seems a bit too pale to be considered turquoise or mint. And he has a window right above the head of his bed. It seems like it'd be inconvenient if you're trying to sleep and the sun is in your eyes, but then I realize that most people don't sleep in broad daylight like I do.

There I go, over thinking again...

"So... What are we studying?" I ask.

"Algebra. There's a test on Wednesday," he tells me, without even taking his eyes off of his book.

"Oh, well I didn't bring my algebra book with me," I say. Algebra is stupid, why would I want to bring it into my home?

"That's okay, you can look off of mine." He tells me as he gets up out of the chair and joins me on the floor. He gets so close to me that our shoulders are touching as he lays the book across both of our laps. I'm left handed and he's right handed, so he sits to my right so our elbows don't bump into each other's. He has a piece of paper out that he had written a bunch of formulas on. He was also doing a bunch of problems out of the book, just for practice.

"Do you need a piece of paper?" He asks me.

"Uh... yeah," I really didn't want to study, but I'll do it if Lloyd does.

He hands me a piece of paper and I just begin to write down whatever he does. It's hard for me to keep up with his fast, messy hand writing, but I just scribble down whatever I think he's writing in his incohesive chicken scratch.

I start to feel tired again. I look up at the clock that he has on his wall and it's only six thirty. I try my best to stay awake.

Whenever I take notes in class, I always have to fidget with something in my other hand to stay focused. Whether that be a pen, a pencil, or an eraser, I have to keep myself occupied in order to learn properly. I think I might have some form of ADHD or something, but my mom never got me tested for it. I look around and try to see if Lloyd has another pencil or an eraser or something I can hold in my other hand, but the only things near us are our own pencils, the book, and the paper we're writing on.

It's almost as if the lack of something in my other hand is straining my ability to think straight, so out of impulse, I just grab Lloyd's hand. I don't know what I was thinking. Lloyd haults his writing and looks at my hand on top of his. I was going to remove my hand from his until he looked at it. Now if I pull away, it'll make things more awkward than they already are, so I just pretend like I don't even know I'm doing it and continue to write. God, this is so awkward.

After Lloyd stares at our hands for a little while, he looks back at his own paper and continues writing. He actually starts to return the grip on my hand and now our hands are perfectly intertwined. I don't know how to feel about it. Do normal friends hold each other's hands? Maybe girls do, but we're not girls.

I can feel Lloyd's pulse through his hand, and it's faster than I thought was humanly possible. His hand starts to become sweaty. I take my thumb and gently rub it up and down the back of his hand in an attempt to soothe him. It seems to have worked, because then, he stops writing and leans his head against my shoulder.

Oh fuck, what do I do now? I've never been in a situation like this. I really don't think normal guy friends do this. I think because the both of us have never had any friends before, we really don't know where the boundaries are when it comes to showing 'friendly' affection. We've both accidentally taken this into gay bros territory.

Both of us get lost in thought until we hear a knock at the door.

"Lloyd, dinner is ready," his mother's soft voice comes from the other side of the door.

Lloyd removes his head from my shoulder. "Okay, I'll be out in a sec!" He yells back to her.

We awkwardly let go of each other's hands and try to pretend like what we just did, didn't happen. We both stand up and exit the room. When we enter the dining room, Lloyd's mother looks at the both of us. "Oh, I didn't know you were still here, (Y/N)!"

I laugh nervously. "Haha, sorry."

"It's okay, I made plenty. I hope you like dumplings!" She cheers.

I've never actually had dumplings before. There's a lot of food I haven't tried. My diet is restricted to whatever they serve at school, whatever kind of snacks I have at home, and cups of noodles that I can put in the microwave.

Lloyd sits down at the table and I sit down at the seat next to him. It didn't take long for that awkward feeling that was present just a few minutes ago to go away.

Lloyd's mom sets down three plates of dumplings at the table.

"Thanks, Ms. Umm..." I was about to call her Mrs. Garmadon, but I figured she probably didn't want to be called that.

"You can just call me Koko," she smiles and sits down in her chair at the table.

"Thank you, Koko," I correct myself.

The plate had chopsticks on it. I'm actually quite experienced with chopsticks. I like to use them with my cup noodles because it makes me feel fancy and like I'm not living off of an 18 cent meal.