Miraculously from Ninjago | Stranded in Etheria

58 - Old Memories

Lloyd's POV

"Why here?" I wondered.

"Honestly, I don't know," she replied, turning back to look at the school. "Do you wanna go check it out?"

"Not really, but okay."

She laughed and headed down the hill towards the gate, and I followed right behind her. The first thing I noticed was that the front entrance looked a lot different than when I used to go here; the cobblestone walkway was polished, and there were flowers everywhere.

"What the heck?" I muttered. "I swear, if they're pulling another 'we've turned good' prank again..."

We both turned our heads to the sound of a gasp. Standing in the grassy courtyard, a couple gardening tools in hand, was a young boy in a uniform.

"The green ninja?" he questioned disbelievingly.

"Yeah, that's me."

His eyes went wide, then he rushed into the school. Y/n and I exchanged glances; what was up with him?

A few moments later, a guy walked out of the school's front door.

"Brad?!" I exclaimed.

"Lloyd! It's been a long time."

"What are you still doing here? Shouldn't you have graduated already?"

He laughed. "I'm a teacher now."

"Really? Wow. Good for you!"

"Thanks, but really, I have a lot to be thanking you for," he said, then he noticed y/n standing beside me. "Both of you."

"Uhh... What do you mean?"

"Remember when we invited you and the ninja to come for a fake ceremony? Well, because of what you and y/n said, you convinced us that being good is, well, good. We owe the school's transformation to you guys."

"You and the others here were always good," y/n said. "You just needed a little nudge to do the right thing."

Brad smiled, then motioned for us to follow him. "Come on, I want to show you something."

He led us into the school and down a hall. The walls were decorated with paintings of us ninja in different battles. The carefulness put into the beautiful artworks made it clear that the school truly has converted into an academy with good intentions.

"For the past few years, the students have been adding to the murals all around the school," Brad said. "Considering that there's always a new threat you're facing, they never a have a shortage of things to paint."

"It's amazing," y/n said. "I can't believe how detailed it is."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Who knew bad boys could be so artistic?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you; the school is open for all genders now," Brad said. "After the reform, a lot of parents wanted their kids to attend, so we started accepting everyone—boys, girls, gender nonconforming kids... acceptance is very important here."

"That's incredible," I said. I was completely blown away.

The bell suddenly rang, and a flood of students burst out into the halls. They rushed past us and to their lockers, where they grabbed an assortment of things to do—some took out art supplies, others pulled out sports equipment—and then went outside for their lunch break.

Brad headed over to a classroom and knocked on the doorframe. "Hey, Gene? There's someone here you might wanna see."

"Gene?" I repeated. Y/n looked up at me with a flash of concern; she remembered just as well as I did how that self-proclaimed evil mastermind bound us with ropes and almost got our friends killed the last time we were here.

"No. Way," Gene said as he poked his head out the classroom door. "Brad, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"We just got here," I said. "So... you're a teacher, too?"

"Uh, huh! I'm the professor of science. It's a very important subject—unlike what Brad teaches," he snorted.

"What do you teach?" Y/n asked. "Gardening? I remember you like planting flowers."

He laughed. "No, gardening is an extracurricular. I teach magical history."

"That's an actual subject?" I asked.

Gene snorted again. "That's what I keep saying."

"No, no," I said. "It's cool, I just didn't know kids needed to know that kind of thing."

"It's a lot more significant than you think," Brad said as he slowly started walking further down the hall. We followed him as he continued. "Many of the problems in the history of Ninjago are connected to the misuse of magic. If we teach the kids about it at an early age, it's far less likely that they'll go down a dark path if they ever get exposed to new magic."

"Do you actually teach them how to wield magic?" Y/n asked.

"Occasionally. So far, we haven't had any students with magical abilities, so there isn't much we can teach them. However, we have had magic users come in and give demonstrations."

"Pardon the interruption, but can somebody please explain to me how y/n is standing right here in front of me when she died five years ago?" Gene suddenly asked. I hadn't realized until now that he had been gawking at her this whole time.

"Hmm?" Brad wondered. He turned to look at y/n, then just seemed to realize that she wasn't supposed to be alive.

"It's a long story," y/n sighed.

Gene poked her. "Are you a ghost?"

"Hey!" She yelped. "No, I'm not a ghost. I never actually died. I used my miraculous to go to Earth."

"You have a miraculous?!" Brad questioned.

"Yeah... wait, how do you know what a miraculous is?"

"I'm a magical history teacher," he replied, smirking at Gene. "I told you it's an important subject."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

While the two teachers continued arguing, y/n and I snuck away down another hall. We headed to the dorms, with me leading the way. Since y/n only used to visit me in my old room via the window, she didn't know how to get there from the inside.

"This was mine," I said, pointing to a door. "I guess we can't go in now, since it belongs to someone else."

"Right," y/n nodded. As she looked around the halls, she started to get excited. "Why don't we go exploring? There's plenty of the school that I haven't seen, and I'm willing to bet they've changed a lot since you went here."

"Good idea," I said, feeling a little mischievous. "Let's start with the secret passageways."