Amber's P.O.V.:
I was on a camping trip with my dad, Mr. Cole, and Allison while my mom was at home with my little brothers. My dad and Mr. Cole knew what great friends Allison and I were, so they were always taking us places together like this.
Although if I was honest with myself, I saw Allison as a little more than a friend. I didn't know what it was but I felt a connection with her. But a girl can't fall in love with another girl, can they? Wait, was I in love with her? Is that why I felt so weird around her?
We were hiking up mount Ninjago when we reached a small flat opening in the forest.
"Alright guys lets set up here for the night." Mr. Cole said as he put down his huge backpack.
"Good idea." My dad agreed. "Come on girls, let's set up the tent."
"Ok. Come on Amber." Allison said.
"Oh, uh alright." I said snapping out of my deep thoughts.
All four of us set up the tents, one of them for the boys and another one for me and Allison. Once it got dark my dad lit up a campfire. We set around it and we all told stories, made s'mores, sung songs, you know the normal camping stuff. Then we all got in our tent and went to sleep.
"Amber?" I felt someone shaking me awake. "Amber wake up."
"Mom, we talked about this, if the sun isn't up then I'm not either." I said in my sleep.
"I'm serious Amber come on." She said.
I looked up and it was Allison. "Allison, what's going on?" I said still half asleep.
"Shh!" She shushed me. "Do you hear that?"
I stopped moving as the place fell silent. I heard the sound Allison was talking about. It sounded like hissing and slithering, I knew that sound.
"Serpentine." I looked at her and she nodded. "Should we wake up our parents?"
"We could, or we could have a little fun." She got that look on her face.
"I like what you're thinking." I smirked. "Let's go kick some snake butt!"
"Do snakes even have butts?" She asked.
"That question will never be answered my friend." I shook my head. "Now let's be ninja!"
"Amberson against the world!" We shouted together. That was a bff name we had come up with that was a combination of both names in one.
We did our signature bff high five and I started feeling butterflies in my stomach. Maybe she was more than a friend to me, but I didn't know if she felt the same way. If I told her how I felt and she didn't like me like that, would it ruin our friendship? I definitely didn't want to risk that.
I ignored my feelings and Allison was about to open the tent when the sound got louder. I opened the flap so there was a just big enough opening for us to look through. It was just as we suspected. The serpentine were storming all over our campsite and I saw one of them over by our parents' tent. He opened the flap and threw some kind of smoke bomb into their tent. We heard coughing and gagging and eventually fell silent and I saw them pull their bodies out of the tent.
"Ssshould we get the kidsss too?" One of the snakes asked a larger snake that must've been their boss.
"No, the massster said that ssshe only needed thessse two." The snake answered. "Thossse kidsss are usssselessssss."
"Yesss sssir." The other snake said.
I looked at Allison and she looked at me. We weren't sure what to do. We couldn't just let them take our parents like that. We needed a plan and fast.
"We need to follow them." Allison whispered to me.
"I agree but we need to travel by shadow so they don't see us." I said.
"Ok." Allison took a deep breath. "I just hope our parents are going to be alright."
"Alli relax, my mom always says staying calm is important during an emergency."
"You're right." She held out her hand. "Now let's go save our parents."
"Amberson against the world!" We whisper shouted together as I put my hand in hers.
'Oh my gosh, we're holding hands!' I thought to myself. 'Does this mean... nah Amber your kidding yourself. Come on stay focused, you're trying to save your father, not gain a girlfriend!'
"Um Amber are you ok?" Allison asked me.
"Oh yeah I'm just still half asleep." I fake yawned. "Alright let's go."
We made our way out of the tent. We were following the serpentine making sure we weren't seen, like our parents did before they were all old and stuff.
Kai's P.O.V.:
I woke up and I was in some kind of underground dungeon. I looked to my left I was chained to wall, by a vengestone chain nonetheless. Then I looked to my right and I saw Cole sitting on the floor unconscious.
"Cole!" I shouted. "Cole wake up!"
I kept shouting his name until he finally woke up. As soon as he realized what was going on he looked panicked.
"Cole, are you ok?" I asked him.
"Yeah I'm fine, but where are the girls?" He asked panicked.
"I wish I knew." I frowned.
"Oh my gosh. I really hope they're ok." Cole said.
"Me too, but they seem to have no problem looking out for each other. I just hope they don't, as Skylor says, 'pull a Kai' and try to come save us on their own." I said.
"Of course they will, have you met their parents?" Cole joked and I let out a little giggle.
"Hey! Keep it down or I'll throw you both in ssseparate cellsss!" A serpentine yelled from the other side of the bars.
"Serpentine, I should've known." I rolled my eyes.
Cole grit his teeth. "If you so much as lay one finger on my little girl I swear I'll..."
"We don't want the kidssss, jussst you two." The snake hissed, cutting him off. Then he left.
"Hey get back here!" I demanded.
The snake ignored me and left. Then I tried to pull the chains off the wall by lunging myself forward as far as I could, but they wouldn't break and the chains flung me back into the cinder block wall and I slid onto the floor.
"Kai that's not gonna work." Cole sighed. "I get it, you're worried about them, I am too, but this is getting us nowhere."
"Well I don't see you coming up with any ideas." I said as I got up a little dizzy.
I recovered and tried the same process again. This time I hit my head as I slammed into the wall again. I fell flat on my face as I hit the floor.
"Kai stop it. You're gonna hurt yourself." Cole demanded.
"Amber and Allison could be in danger. We have to get to them before they get hurt." I said forcing myself off the ground and holding my head in pain.
"Our girls are tough. They're not six anymore, they're 11 and 12. They'll be ok as long as they stick together." Cole said. Then he noticed that I was holding my head. "See I told you you were going to get hurt."
"I'm fine." I lied and pulled myself up. "I think I got it this time."
"Kai stop, that isn't working. We need to try something else."
"I just hope the girls are fairing better than us." I sighed.
Amber's P.O.V.:
Allison and I followed the serpentine to a small opening in a cave. We ducked behind a bush and waited until the coast was clear, then we snuck inside. Then we heard a serpentine coming and we jumped behind a giant rock and watched.
"Ssssir, what do you plan to do with the ninja we captured?" We heard one snake ask another.
"We've been over thissss one hundred timesss." The other snake grew frustrated. "We want the Earth and fire powerssss."
"Oh right. Sorry bossssss."
Allison got an idea. She put her hand over her mouth and snuck behind the snake.
"And where are they being held again sssir?" She mocked, her voice sounding almost exactly like the snake. She quickly ducked back behind the rock before the other snake turned around.
"The wessst sssection. Now for the love of Ninjago pleassse ssstop asssking quessstionsss!" The snake said.
"Uhh but I didn't..."
"Shut up!"
We waited until both the snakes slithered away. Then I turned to Allison.
"Good thinking cookie." I whispered. Cookie was just a nickname I called her sometimes because her dad was always calling her cupcake.
"Thanks ginger snap." She winked. She called me that because of my red hair. "Come on let's go."
Once the coast was clear we headed for the west section of the cave. We hid behind a vase and saw them both of our dads chained to the back wall. My dad must've done something stupid because he looked dizzy and I could tell he had quite a headache. They were two serpentine guarding the door to their cell.
"We need a way to distract the guards." Allison whispered to me.
"Way ahead of you cookie." I smirked.
I took a quarter out of my pocket and rolled it to the other side of the room it hit a metal pole, making a loud noise. That caused them to turn their heads the other way. Allison snuck up behind them and bumped their heads together knocking them both out. Our dads looked mad but relieved at the same time.
"Allison? What are you doing here?" Her father scolded.
"Sorry Dad, you can totally ground me later, but right now we need to get you both out of here." Allison said.
"Is Amber with you?" My dad asked.
"I'm right here Dad." I came out from behind the vase.
"Thank goodness you're ok." He sighed with relief.
Allison broke the lock on the door to their cell and I grabbed the keys from the unconscious guard to released Mr. Cole and then my dad. from the chains. As I freed my father he fell to the ground. Allison and Mr. Cole came to help him up.
"Are you ok Dad?" I asked him.
"I'm fine sweetheart." My dad said, although he looked a little out of it.
"Woah Kai take it easy." Mr. Cole told him. "Alright girls, let's get you both out of here."
"What, we don't get a thank you?" Allison crossed her arms.
"We'll talk about this later." Mr. Cole said.
Then we all got up and started to make our way out of the cave. My dad was leaning on Mr. Cole's shoulder trying to keep his balance. We were almost to the exit when two serpentine came and jumped out in front of us.
We all assumed a fighting stance and a battle ensued. Mr. Cole, Allison and I were taking down Serpentine nonstop, but my dad's headache was still pretty bad so he set this one out.
As we were fighting, I looked over at Allison and she was knocked down by one of the snakes. The snake was almost on top of her and was about to chop her head off with the sword.
'I can't let anything happen to the girl I love. Wait, I love her? I do love her!' I thought to myself.
I screamed and I threw myself in front of her. Suddenly I could feel all of the natural elements around me. I felt like I was absorbing them and channeling them all at once. Then I used them to make a shield to block his sword and it sent a big explosion throughout the cave knocking all the serpentine down and they ran away. Luckily my dad and Mr. Cole avoided the blast.
"You... you saved my life." Allison said catching her breath.
"That's what friends do." I smiled. Then I was so tired that I passed out.
I woke up back at the campsite and my dad was next to me, so were Mr. Cole and Allison.
"What happened?" I asked sitting up.
"You ok princess?" My dad asked helping me up.
"Yeah Dad, I'm fine." I said. "You ok Allison?"
"Thanks to you I am." She smiled.
"Are you hungry Amber?" Mr. Cole asked.
"Sure." I said.
My dad and Mr. Cole ran over to the picnic table to get us some food and me and Allison were sitting by the campfire.
"So um, how are you feeling?" Allison asked me.
"I feel awesome! I just unlocked my true potential!" I exclaimed.
"Yep I've felt that before." She said. "So do you remember when I asked you why you saved me and you said that's what friends do?"
"Yeah. I remember." I said.
"Well um, do you see me as just a friend?" She blushed.
"Honestly, no." I took a deep breath. "You're more than a friend to me, and I really like you but if you don't like me back I totally understand, but these feelings have been bottling up inside and if I don't tell you how I feel I might explode and I've been holding it off because I didn't want my feelings to ruin our friendship and I..."
"Amber calm down, you're talking faster than your uncle Jay." Allison laughed.
"Oh sorry." I said trying to not to blush. "So um are we good?"
"We're great." She smiled.
Then she gave a little kiss on the cheek and I blushed and smiled. I looked over at our parents and they were smiling and giving us the thumbs up. I guess that meant they approved of us being a couple and that made me happy.