Moving to Ninjago was no doubt the scariest yet most daring thing I had ever done. It was different from my old town; the people in Ninjago are nicer yet tightly knit.

Moving here by myself, however, was exciting—if not slightly terrifying.

My city was damaged, and it only continued to hurt those residing within it. I decided to escape the cycle and start a new path across the ocean, here in Ninjago.

Despite my excitement, I was still anxious to meet the people here. But little did I know that it wouldn't be the people who caused the trouble.

-

The next morning, I leave my apartment in search of a job that I heard was available. I knew it was near the outskirts of the city, but I was still unsure where the exact location was. Nonetheless, I continued driving anyways.

After the tall skyscrapers began to be replaced by small buildings and houses, I decided to park alongside the curb of a gas station. After locking my car door with a twist of my keys, I start walking towards a small store.

As I get closer, I can read the print on the sign: "Mistake's Tea." The bell rings as I push open the front door.

The store was filled with all kinds of tea in shelves behind the counter, alongside intricate teapots and cups. Finally, an old woman pushes through a curtain, separating the front of the store from the back, and leans on the counter.

"What can I do for you, dear?"

"My name is Elaine, I saw in the newspaper that you were hiring. I was wondering if I could be interviewed."

She hums to herself then motions me to meet her in the back, so I follow her behind the counter. She leads me to a room with pillows on the floor. A small table sat in between the pillows, a green teapot atop the surface.

She slowly sits down, wobbling slightly, then pours two cups of tea, handing me one of them.

"Where are you from, Elaine?"

"I'm from Windy Hollow."

She nods. "You must have had to sail to Ninjago then, those trips are costly."

I nod, cheeks turning pink from shame. "I made do."

"How often will you work?"

"I'm not sure how many others are here, but-"

Mistaké laughs, cutting me off. "You'll be the first!"

I blink in surprise. "Oh. Well, full time is fine."

She waves her hand in dismissal. "I won't work you to death. I have short hours anyways."

I nod. "Thank you, ma'am."

She scoffs. "Don't call me that."

I blush again. "Sorry."

We finish discussing my schedule and then I stand up to leave. She walks me to the front door and says, "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Elaine."

"My friends call me El, actually," I say, smiling kindly.

She nods and closes the door behind me. I let out a breath. That went well, I think? It was pretty awkward, I have to admit. Hopefully I won't be bored out of my mind on my shifts.

I return to my car and go to unlock my car, except it won't budge.

"Shit," I mumble to myself. I bang on the window in frustration.

"Everything alright?" Someone says from behind me.

I look up at the voice. He has a black hair that sweeps across his bushy eyebrows. I can tell he's some sort of athlete, he's built with broad shoulders. Which scared me a bit, since cannot get into my car.

I sigh. "Yeah, it's fine. My car just refuses to unlock sometimes. I just have to twist it a lot."

"I know someone who can fix it for you. I can give you their contact information, if you'd like," he says.

"Oh, it's alright. Thank you though."

He raises his eyebrow, then pulls out a pen and gum wrapper from his pocket. He scribbles something down then sheepishly hands it to me.

I laugh at the wrapper. "Minty," I comment.

He chuckles. "I figure that's better than nothing. I'm sorry that doesn't fix your problem right now."

I shrug. "It's alright, it'll work eventually." But it didn't. Even though I tried, relentlessly. I even allowed the stranger to try it, and he still couldn't get my locks to budge.

"I can drive you, if you'd like."

I don't even know this guy, I'm probably gonna put myself in a shit situation if I say yes, but my gut said to trust him.

"That would be great, thanks. I'm El, by the way."

He grins, "I'm Cole, nice to meet you."

I tell him to drop me off at a park near my apartment building, because I'm not that stupid. Actually, I am, because how the fuck am I supposed to get back to my car?

He sees the look at my face and laughs. "We did not think this through."

I giggle. "No we didn't."

He sighs. "Let me make a call."

Fifteen minutes later, we get out of the car and walk a block to a restaurant.

"El, these are my friends," Cole says.

Four guys and one girl all sat at one booth. Two of the boys were bickering, one looked to be in his own world, and the other was talking politely with the girl, who kept glaring at the two wild guys.

"Kai, Jay! Will you guys chill?" Cole scolds.

"Cole! I didn't know you had a girlfriend," one of them says.

The girl kicks him under the table. "Sorry, my brother's a jerk-"

"Am not!"

"-I'm Nya."

"Hi," I say, smiling awkwardly.

"This is Lloyd, Zane," Cole sighs, then continues, "Jay and Kai."

"Pull up a chair for you and your girlfriend," Jay says.

"We're not-" we both say.

"He's not-"

"She's not-"

"We just met," we both say finally.

Everyone laughs and Cole and I both turn red with embarrassment, but he pulls up a chair for me anyways.

"El, right?" Lloyd says. I nod.

"What's it short for?" Kai asks.

"It could just be El," Jay mutters.

I chuckle. "Elaine. But I prefer El."

"Anyway," Lloyd says, glaring at Kai and Jay. "You're new here?"

"Yeah, I just moved here recently."

"From where?" Nya asks.

"Windy Hollow."

"What do you think about the ninjas?" Kai asks.

I almost spit out my water all over the table.

"The what?"

"The ninjas! You know, the five guys wearing different colors running around the city," Jay explains.

"There's ninja here?"

"There's serpentine too," Zane adds. "And an evil dark lord somewhere. And-"

"Okay, Zane. You're gonna make her want to move back," Lloyd says.

"I don't care if a giant snake destroys the whole city, I'm not going back," I say.

"Well that's good because that happened last year," Cole mumbles. My eyes widen.

"I was kidding!"

"It's safe, though. The ninja and the samurai protects everyone from harm," Nya says, trying to reassure me.

"Didn't you just say that a giant snake destroyed the city though?"

"Well, I'm sure the ninja tried their hardest!" Kai says, almost defensively. "Sorry," he mumbles.

"I like the green ninja the best," Lloyd says.

"I personally like the ice one!" Zane adds.

Nya groans and rolls her eyes. I laugh. "They must be a handful," I tell her.

"Tell me about it," she murmurs.

"Oh, El, what'd you like to eat?" Cole asks, handing me a menu.

"I'll just get what you're getting."

The waiter came to our table with all our food and sat it down.

Everyone ate and talked and laughed. They were for sure a lively group of people, yet they opened up to me immediately, like I had been their friend their whole lives.

"Tell me more about yourself," Lloyd says, noticing my sudden quietness.

"Okay. I-uh, I like to run. What about you?"

"I don't know? I'm, uh..." I laugh, interrupting him. "Come on, think. One thing about you."

"He used to get in trouble a lot," Jay says. Kai snorts.

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed," I say, smiling.

Lloyd blushes from embarrassment. "I've changed a lot."

"So," Cole starts. "We have a predicament."

Jay rolls his eyes. "Nya told me. I brought my stuff."

"Are you sure?" I ask. "I barely know you guys."

Kai scoffs. "Don't even worry about it. Jay has nothing going on ever anyways."

Jay scrunches his eyebrows towards Kai. "I have a very busy and fulfilling life, than you."

I giggle again. "Okay, well, thank you."

"Don't thank him yet," Nya mumbles. I laugh.

Cole drives me back to my car, leading the way for Jay and Nya. We park and watch as the two of them pry my window down to unlock it from the inside.

"They sure to bicker a lot," I say to Cole. He smiles. "Oh for sure. They're cute together though."

I gasp. "They're together?"

Cole laughs. "Yes."

"I could've even tell! I guess I'm just bad at picking up social queues."

He shakes his head. "They're not lovey dovey in groups of people. But trust me, at home..." he makes a face.

"So, do you guys all live together?"

He nods. "Yeah."

"Wow, that's a lot. Nya is the only girl?"

He nods. "She is Kai's sister, so she's always been around. She's part of the family now."

"The family?"

He blushes from embarrassment. "We're pretty close. We all practically grew up together."

"Oh, cool."

"Okay, it's fixed!" Nya says, twirling a wrench in her fingers.

"Thank you guys so much, really. How should I pay you?"

Jay scoffs. "That took like twenty minutes. It's fine."

I guess I still looked guilty, because Nya smiled at me. "Don't worry, El. Seriously. You can repay us by hanging out with us again!"

I grin. "I'd love that! I get off of work at five on Monday, how about then?"

"Perfect!" She exclaims. I exchange phone numbers with the three of them.

"Thank you guys, see you then!" I say then climb into my car.

I hum on the way back to my apartment, listening to my radio. I was probably just seeing things, but I swear I saw a big snake dart behind a building.

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