the butterfly effect | l. garmadon

thirteen

  I was lost. "Cricket league..?"

  "Yeah!" Jay burst with a brilliant grin. "The Ninja Secret League! The only other team are the monks." He frowned at me. "NSL stole our acronym."

  "Impossible," Zane spoke up. "The National Soccer League predates any of us."

  "I had my idea before I was born!" Jay shot back. "Therefore, it's mine and not theirs."

  I looked between them, even more lost. What was this conversation?

  It was dropped (Zane quickly gave up, and I figured that letting Jay think his thoughts was the easiest path to chose). Kai turned to me as he slurped noodles from his bowl.

  "So, what do you do?" he asked.

  "Do?"

  "Martial arts," the amber-eyed man elaborated. "Jiu Jitsu? Taekwondo? Maybe a little ka-ra-te?"

  "Oh." Ha-ha. Fuck. "I, uh... know self-defence."

  Kai perked up. The others listened on, engaged and intrigued. I knocked my knee against Lloyd's for help; to change the topic or stop the questioning. His smile grew as he stirred the rice in his bowl. No help was given. Bastard.

  "Yeah?" Kai said, leaning forward slightly in earnest. My eyes jumped back to him. "What kind?"

  I felt myself grow more awkward. "... the classes we get taught in high school."

  Nya laughed before smothering her mouth with wide eyes. My mortification began to eat me whole. I sunk a little in my seat, eyes on the table.

  "Sorry- I'm sorry," she rushed to apologise. "I'm not laughing at you - that's normal, we're the weird ones." Nya shook her head in amusement. "I'm laughing because those lessons are useless - Lloyd will have you fighting better in ten minutes than all of those sessions combined."

  Will? I turned to Lloyd, but he looked just as confused as I was. He leaned over me to shoot Nya a frown.

  "What do you mean?"

  "What do you mean 'what do you mean?'" Cole piped up as he leisurely dipped a spring roll into some hot sauce. "Y/n's gonna have to learn how to fight. She's one of us, now."

  Now I was both confused and deeply flattered. "Wait, what? I mean - I'm not opposed, but why?"

  Jay looked between Lloyd and I. "You do know about the prophecy, right?"

  "Nothing specific," I said.

  Jay shrugged. "Doesn't really matter about specifics. It's gonna be a battle of some kind. It always is."

  My eyes widened. "Always?"

  "One-hundred percent of the time," Zane calculated. My heart dropped in horror.

  "Lloyd's dad, the serpentine, Lloyd's dad again, the Great Devourer, Lloyd's dad again, the Overlord, Skylor's dad-" Jay listed, only to be cut off by Nya's hand on his shoulder.