Chapter Eleven: Well Now You Know
Like I expected, we got back to the monastery around six-thirty, as the sun was just going down. We jumped off before Cole let the dragon vanish like it had before. I looked at the monastery, which looked completely different than it had when it was light out the first time I'd been there. "This place looks cool at night," I admitted, starting for the front door, following Cole. "So, where am I going to end up staying?"
"You've got two choices: You can either room with Nya, or you can have your own room. Which one will it be?" he questioned me. It was a hard decision. I had the two options, room with someone or be by myself. I thought that it would be nice to get to know her, the only other girl around her. On the other end, I could have as much privacy as I wanted to have.
I moved my hands up and down, imagining myself literally weighing my options. "You know what," I put down one of my arms, knowing which one I wanted to choose "I'll room with Nya. It wouldn't hurt, and as long as she agrees, it's fine," I didn't want to room with her unless she agreed to me rooming with her.
"It'll be fine, she's been talking about wanting another girl around anyways, so I doubt she'll refuse it," he took me to her room, which could soon turn into both of our room. He knocked, and we heard some ruckus from the other side of the door. A few seconds later, she opened the door "Hey Nya."
"Oh, hey Cole. I see that you two are back. What's up?" She asked him. I was going to take it that she didn't expect him to come to her door or something. She moved back and gestured us to come in, which we did.
I looked around and saw two beds, one already occupied. It looked like it was meant to be some kind of dorm, or something along the lines of that. There was a desk, some drawers, and then the two beds with some nightstands, just the usual. Not to mention a bathroom, which I could see through a door on the opposite wall. "Uh, Cole said that I could room with you."
She turned to him and raised an eyebrow "He did?" She looked like she wasn't aware of it, which I couldn't blame. It didn't look like they had any time in between the time we all found out about me joining the team and how. She got a slight nod from him, which caused her to sigh. "I guess you can, I don't see why not. I'd be happy to have you as a roommate."
"See, I told you that she'd be fine with it," Cole tried before she started to push him out the door. Before he was fully out of the room, he said "Have fun," she finally managed to push him out of the room completely and slammed the door in his face. We stood there for a moment, realizing that he wasn't going to make an attempt to say something else.
We shared a short moment of an awkward silence until I broke it "Are you sure you're okay with this?" I don't know why, but I felt as if she was being pushed to do it. I would feel bad if that was the case, and she didn't really want me too.
She nodded. "Yeah. Like I said, it's not a problem. I think that it'll be fun, actually. I'm just glad that there's another girl around. Being the only one around for two years isn't exactly fun." she admitted, forming a smile. Not that I realized it, she really was the only one around. I would hate to be in that situation, at least in living arrangements. I grew up with a sister, so that wasn't a problem. I did kind of know where she was getting at, because sadly, back in the later years of elementary school, I went to a small school where I was the only girl in the class. Now that sucked!
"Well, I'm here how," I said as I put my bags on the open bed leaving against a wall, which already has sheets and everything on it. I forgot to bring some, so it was a relief that they had some that weren't being used. I unzipped the one that I stuffed all my clothes in and looked at them "And I'm not going anywhere for a while," I assured her. I started putting away my clothes, putting them in the drawers that weren't being used.
"I didn't think you would. Well, that's if the guys don't drive you crazy," She commented with a laughed. I couldn't help but laugh myself, finding it a little funny myself. Still, I had the feeling that things would be great here. I had the guys who I'd try to become close with, both as a teammate and a friend. I had wu, someone who knew my mom and that I knew that I could trust. Then I had Nya, a girl who I hoped to become great friends with. "They probably with at some point, they drove me a little crazy eventually."
"Really?"
She nodded. "Kind of. Being the only girl around, they've looked down on me, in a sense. I feel as if they don't accept me as a fighter," She told me. I wondered what she meant by don't accept me as a fighter. I mean, I've heard that she's a Samurai or something, and that's technically better than a Ninja. She looked like she could fend for herself, come one, she had a couple of Daggers just lying around near her bed. "Like, why haven't they asked me to officially join the team? That's what drives me crazy: They haven't accepted me onto the them."
"You can't be serious? I know how you're the Samurai, that should be enough to join it," I admitted as I put the last of my clothes in the drawers. I didn't bother folding them, because I never folded clothes. "Don't worry, I won't look down on you. I mean, hey, if you ever want to train with me, I'd be up for it. Hand-to-hand combat or weapons" I said as I picked up one of her daggers. "What do you say?"
She chuckled "Sure, that would be great. But to think, one of the first things we'd be talking about would be training," I handed her the weapon and she put it on her nightstand before sitting on her bed. She leaned back and used her hands to keep herself up. "We should talk about things other than that. I wanna hear your story."
"My... Story?" I raised an eyebrow, not exactly sure what she meant. I was open up to talking about other things, maybe get to know each other, but I didn't know what she wanted to talk about. What about my story? Did she want to know about my life now, or about what it was like while I was growing up? Maybe she wanted to know about my life as an elemental? She could tell me what she wanted to know, and I'd tell her.
"Yeah. Like, how did you train alone? It must have been hard, right?"
I sighed and sat on my own bed, crawling across it so that I was leaning against the wall that it rested against. I shifted so that I was facing her. "It wasn't that hard," I started explaining. "I was training since I was, hm, maybe thirteen with my dad. He taught me everything that my mom explained to him. That ended when he died when I was sixteen. I knew that he'd want me to keep training after all we had already done. So I did."
"Ah, that's nice that you did that."
"I guess you could say that. It was hard after he was gone, I was left to train alone, and I had no one to help me. I was a lone wolf, as I see it. I learned things on my own, trained my powers and became stronger. When I turned eighteen, I started traveling around Ninjago and helped people. I still trained in between, but I managed to help a good handful of people. It wasn't until I was twenty-one that I went to live with my sister again and stopped fighting. You're probably thinking that I stopped training, but I still did. I have this little place just outside Jamanakai Village that I trained at. Wasn't as much as I used to, but I still trained a lot."
"Wow, that's some serious dedication," she commented. I guess that she was right. I could have stopped, I could have not trained, but I did. I had the choice to not do anything for the past two year, and yet I still kept on training. It made sense to me that I just didn't want to let it be something of my past. Now thinking back, maybe deep down I didn't really want to stop but I thought that I did. "I have to admit, that's pretty interesting. These guys haven't been training like you, they only really started a few years back. I'm pretty sure it's a little white before you stopped, like a few months," she rubbed her chin, then nodded in confirmation "Yeah, that's about right."
"Damn," I sat forward a little "I can believe that they've gotten this good in such a short amount of time. Well, at least compared to me. I've trained for quite some time and we're just about at the same level," I was a little surprised that they've gotten to the level that they were at now in such little time. A little over two years that's pretty impressive. It seemed a little hard to believe, to be honest, but they somehow managed it, so I wouldn't argue with them. "What about you? What have you done?"
"Oh, pretty much the same as them."
"Ah. Then how come you're not a part of the team? If I was around a while ago, then I would have tried to get you on it. If you're just as good as them, then it would only be fair," I told her. It would be fair. If she's worked just as hard as them, then why couldn't she be on the same team? It just didn't make any sense to me.
She sighed "I've tried to get them to let me, but they say that I need to be an elemental to join. It's an all elemental club to them," I didn't exactly agree with that, you shouldn't have to be an elemental to join the team. There's other elementals and I didn't see any of them here. So why couldn't someone without powers join? Didn't they know that fighting wasn't all about having elemental powers and using them? Other aspects of fighting should have been included. Like can she use weapons? What about fight Hand to Hand?
"Okay, now that's a bunch of crap. I know that you and Kai are siblings, so I get how you didn't pick up on the powers. Like my sister doesn't have them while I do," Just because a parent has the ability doesn't mean that their children would. It was probably only able to be passed down to one person, and in this case, it was me. and in their case, it was Kai. But still, doesn't mean that she should be excluded from the team.
She let herself fall back so that she was laying on her back. "I know. It really sucks, I get jealous of Kai sometimes. I wish that I had powers like he did, then maybe they'd accept me onto the team," I thought about what she said, and I had to agree. After I got in good with the guys, and we've all become good friends, maybe I could talk to them about it. I felt bad for her, because the look on her face just screamed It's unfair. She must have felt left out, obviously. Heck, I would too if I were her.
"Don't worry, I bet you'll be on the team some day."
Right after I said that, she turned her head to me "Hey. did you eat dinner?"
I just realized that I haven't eaten all day, other than the breakfast that my sister had made in the morning. I shook my head. "No. Is there food around here that I can eat?" I questioned, mentally facepalming. What kind of a question is that? Of course they have food here, it's not like they didn't eat or anything. I really didn't care what I ate, as long as I got something to eat.
"Oh, we weren't sure what time you'd be back, so we waited to eat until you got back," she told me. "It's Zanes night to cook. And believe me, he's an amazing cook!"
I rubbed my chin. It would be great if he was like she was telling me, there wasn't anything like having a good cook around to make great food. "Do you know what he's making?" I wondered, only to see Nya shake her head. "Hope it's chicken. Chickens the best, especially in enchiladas. Now those are awesome," ever since I was twelve I've loved them and would never pass up the opportunity to eat a couple ."When's dinner," I sighed in complained just as we heard a knock on the door.
"Hey Nya, time for dinner!" Kai banged against the wooden door, making it shake a little.
"We'll speak of the devil," I said as the two of us jumped off of our beds. I rubbed my hands together "Time to see exactly how good Zanes cooking is.