Heeeeeelllooooo, everyone!

So, I know it's been a while! I've been busier than I expected this summer, and I sincerely apologize to all the people whose PMs I have not responded to yet! I *promise* I'm not ignoring you guys! (KyraPlays, I haven't forgotten about you! Your PMs are forthcoming! ;D)

But, I've been sort of working on this story on and off for a little while along with another, and I thought I might as well post it! I've always wanted to try my hand at a high school AU! XD This story is mostly just for fun, and I thought I'd sort of post this chapter as a test to gauge the response :D

I hope you enjoy! :D

Lloyd started awake at the screeching sound of his alarm. Groaning, he pounded it with his fist, hoping to catch a few more moments of sleep before it went off again-

"Lloyd, turn that infernal thing off and get up!" Garmadon demanded through the door. Lloyd groaned again, louder this time, hoping to broadcast his displeasure through the door to his father. "You're going to be late for school!"

Sighing, Lloyd rolled lazily onto his back, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. Reaching blindly for the pair of jeans slung over the endboard of his bed, he started pulling them on with one hand while stumbling over to the dresser. Peering into the mirror, he grabbed the comb and yanked it viciously through his golden locks. Jay constantly complained about the unfairness of Lloyd getting all the "pretty boy" genes, but he was sure Jay wouldn't complain if he could see Lloyd's bed head.

Over his reflection's shoulder, he caught sight of the bed sitting against the opposite wall of his own bed with a simple dark blue comforter ("teenage boys like blue, right?" "Yeah, sure, Mom.") With a sneer, he remembered all of the stuff he'd had to shove into the closet to make room for the bed, and then all the stuff he had to shove under his bed to make room in the closet.

Pulling on the nearest t-shirt and slinging his backpack over one shoulder, Lloyd trudged into the kitchen.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," his mom greeted him cheerily as he sleepily slumped into the nearest chair. "Waffles?"

"I'm not hungry," Lloyd replied immediately, crossing his arms on top of the table.

"Lloyd," his father said sternly from across the table where he was sipping his mug of steaming coffee. "This is happening whether you want it to or not, so you might as well stop sulking about it."

"I'm not sulking," Lloyd lied, resting his head on his folded arms, mostly to avoid having to meet his dad's steely gaze. "I'm just not hungry, alright?"

"I think you'll start to regret the decision to skip breakfast right around third period."

"Believe me, there are worse fates than going hungry for two periods," Lloyd snarked, standing up and dragging his backpack behind him. "I'll be in the car."

For once, Lloyd actually wished he could walk to school, but Garmadon had decreed that, since he was taking the day off from the dojo, he would drive Lloyd to school today.

Garmadon seemed to nurse that cup of coffee forever- probably just to teach Lloyd a lesson about being disrespectful- but finally he loped into the garage and slid into the driver's seat of his black four door.

As Garmadon pulled out onto the street, Lloyd could feel him glancing at him out of the corner of his eye, but the teenager firmly kept his gaze on the window.

"I know this is going to be a big adjustment, Lloyd-"

"You can say that again."

"Alright, I'm trying to be understanding, but that attitude will still get your bike locked up if that's what you really want."

Lloyd ducked his head, cheeks burning with shame for snarking at his dad. "Sorry."

"As I was saying, it will be a big adjustment, Lloyd, but what we're doing is important. We're giving a safe, caring home to somebody who doesn't have one."

Lloyd sank down further in his seat. When his dad put it like that, I don't want to share my room with a stranger didn't seem like that strong of an argument. And, his dad probably knew that.

"They're supposed to be at the house at four thirty," Garmadon informed his son, flipping on his blinker as he pulled into the high school's parking lot. "That means you need to come home straight from school. No dillydallying with your friends like you usually do."

"I know, I know, Dad," Lloyd reassured, hand already straying to the door's handle as he spotted two very familiar backpacks in the crowd. "I'll be there."

"Who knows?" Garmadon asked as he brought the car to a stop. "You might even like him."

Doubt it, Lloyd snapped, but silently this time. Lloyd had already been pushing his luck this morning, and he honestly would not put it past his dad to give his sixteen year old son a spanking for being disrespectful.

"Yeah, Dad," Lloyd said instead as he hopped out of the car. "Bye, thanks for the ride."

Before he could hear if his dad replied, Lloyd was already rushing over to Kai and Nya's side. "Hey, guys."

"Who died?" Kai asked by way of reciprocal greeting.

Nya elbowed her brother in the ribs. "You know, Kai! The foster kid's coming today."

Kai's eyes widened slightly. "Oh, yeah! Are you nervous, bro?"

"Um, yeah," Lloyd answered. "Knowing my luck, he's going to be super weird, or smell bad, or snore-"

"Are you guys talking about Cole again?" Jay asked as he and the teen in question joined the group.

"Har har," Cole replied, flicking Jay in the back of the head.

"I believe they were discussing the foster child that will be arriving at Lloyd's household today," Zane explained from where he had suddenly appeared on Nya's other side, making the girl jump and grab her chest with fright. "And, Lloyd was listing off the worst traits the foster child could have, most likely inspired by the horror stories he's read online published by other children welcoming a new foster child into their lives."

"Lloyd, we told you to stop doing that," Cole said, now flicking the shorter teen in the back of his head. Lloyd grabbed the back of his head and glared at Zane for snitching on him. "You're worrying over nothing. He's probably going to be a perfectly normal kid that you end up being best friends with."

"Yeah, yeah, I've already gotten that whole spiel from my parents," Lloyd said, nodding. "I know he'll probably be nice, and I know it's a good deed, and, you know, I'm proud of my parents for doing it, but…"

"It's an adjustment," Nya supplied sympathetically, nodding. "It's okay to be disappointed, Lloyd, but try to look on the bright side. It's only a probationary period, right? If there's something really that off about him, you can ask your parents to have him transferred."

"Yeah…," Lloyd replied. Then, with more conviction, he repeated, "Yeah! You're right, Nya. It's just a trial. It's not permanent. Pfft, I can do this."

By third period, despite the rumbling in his stomach, Lloyd was feeling much better about the whole thing, and he was… well, not excited about the foster kid, but not despairing over him either.

At lunch, he was more than ready to just talk about normal stuff… so it didn't help that the foster kid was all anybody else could talk about.

"We're going to have to make room at our table!" Jay exclaimed, already scooting closer to Pixal on the bench across the table from Lloyd. "What if he's claustrophobic? Or a germaphobe? Or socially awkward?!"

"I don't think anyone could be more awkward than you, Jay," Cole countered, laughing as he scarfed down the cafeteria meatloaf. He was the only one at the table that could actually stomach the school lunch; the others either brought lunch or subsisted entirely on store-bought snacks.

"He most likely will be shy," Zane chimed in. He took a green grape before pushing the bag toward his girlfriend. "It is hard to switch to a new school, especially in junior year of high school. It can have detrimental effects on one's emotional wellbeing, not to mention create gaps in his or her learning."

"Do you know anything about this foster child on which we could base a hypothesis, Lloyd?" Pixal asked before popping one of Zane's green grapes in her mouth.

"No," Lloyd replied sullenly, re-depressed by Jay's reminders of all the ways in which this foster kid could be weird and shake up his life. "I don't even know his name."

"Don't worry about it, bro!" Kai exclaimed, clapping Lloyd on the back. "He's going to be some average Joe you forget even exists. Mark my words." Kai punctuated this declaration by pouring the remainder of the chips in his bag into his mouth.

"Yeah, I-"

Lloyd was interrupted by the sound of Cole yelping in indignation as his tray was swept off the table.

"What the heck, Vi?!"

Vi- or, as most of the school knew her, Ultra Violet- was standing there with her hands on her hips. She was glaring at Cole from beneath her dramatic eye-makeup that gave her her nickname. She tossed her ponytail, the only source of hair anywhere on her head, over her shoulder before pushing her phone in Cole's face.

"Why didn't you call me back last night?" She demanded.

Cole rolled his eyes. "You broke up with me, remember? Sorry if I don't want to get called a two-timing pig again."

As Ultra Violet embarked on her tirade while Cole listened with a series of long-suffering sighs and eye rolls, Pixal cocked her head.

"I do not understand. Why do Cole and Violet maintain this rather destructive relationship when it does not seem to make either of them happy?"

"Eh, Cole's got a thing for girls that can beat him up," Jay explained nonchalantly, as if that were the same as saying Cole preferred blondes. "He's been into her ever since she broke his arm in sixth grade."

"And, we think he secretly likes how she's obsessed with him," Nya added with an eye roll.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Lloyd grumbled teasingly, as his "eternally single" status was very, very well known. "I wish I-"

"Ultra Violet, don't be so rude!"

Lloyd nearly swallowed his tongue.

Because that voice… that voice that was so musical and warm and inviting and friendly and beautiful could only be…

Lloyd turned to see the girl that had joined them by their table straightening with Cole's violated tray in her hands, setting it apologetically back on the table top. Her silky white hair was immaculately done up with her trademark chopsticks. Her ruby red lips were quirked in a somewhat sheepish smile. Even her name was perfect.

Harumi.

"I'm so sorry about that, Cole," she apologized on behalf of Ultra Violet, who had a strictly unrepentant expression on her face. "Can I buy you lunch, maybe?"

"It's no biggie, Harumi," Cole shrugged off easily. Lloyd's green eyes were huge as he marvelled at how Cole could so easily talk to the most amazing girl in the entire school. "Thanks, though."

Harumi smiled- Lloyd's brain almost overheated- and glanced at her phone screen. "It looks like class is about to start anyway. We better get going, Ultra Violet. Bye, guys."

Wait, guys? She had said, "bye, guys." Meaning all of them. Meaning that, really, she had said bye to him. Harumi had made a point to say goodbye to Lloyd.

Harumi and Ultra Violet had been joined by their other two friends, Killow and Mr. E, and exited the cafeteria by the time it even occurred to Lloyd to say "bye" back.

"Lloyd, are you feeling feverish?" Zane asked, reaching across the table to touch Lloyd's forehead. "Your face is flushed."

"No, it isn't," Lloyd mumbled as he ducked away from Zane's hand, but he still tucked his chin into the neckhole of his hoodie.

"Lloyd," Kai began in his "big brother" voice, clapping his hand on the younger boy's shoulders. "If you want to ask her out, you're going to have to actually talk to her."

"I don't want to talk about this," Lloyd replied, burying his face in his hands.

"Ugh, why do you even like her, Lloyd?" Nya demanded, stabbing the lid of her pudding cup multiple times with her spoon. "She's so pretty and perfect and… bleh."

"I think you just answered your own question, sis."

"It doesn't matter anyway," Lloyd insisted, crossing his arms on the table in front of him and resting his chin on them. "She has a boyfriend."

"She claims to have a boyfriend who goes to a different school," Jay pointed out. "That's just a trick girls use to get guys to leave them alone, though."

Everyone turned a questioning look to Jay.

"What? I hear things."

The bell rang at that point, thankfully sparing Lloyd from further embarrassment.

Kai slapped him on the back again as they were leaving the cafeteria. "Don't worry, bro." He smirked, pointing at himself with his thumb. "You couldn't ask for a better wingman."

Lloyd all but sprinted down the sidewalk, glancing at his phone again and again and wishing that the numbers would miraculously start going down.

4:34

"Crap, crap, crap," he muttered, narrowly sidestepping a dog-walker and her Pomeranian. "Dad's going to kill me…"

He would have made it home with plenty of time to spare if he hadn't run into Coach Dareth in the hallway on the way out of the school. Most kids liked Dareth- especially since most of his history class he ended up telling long-winded, (false) stories about when he was in high school, and then ended up giving extremely easy assignments in the last five minutes of class- and some of the girls pretended to like Coach Dareth to get close to Assistant Coach Ronin. Lloyd was no exception, but he had fallen victim to one of Dareth's stories at the worst possible moment, and now his parents were going to ground him for life for getting home late on today of all days.

As Lloyd turned onto his street, he was praying that the foster kid was late… and then cursed when he saw the unfamiliar white car sitting in front of his house.

He ran up the front walk, paused on the porch to collect himself and try to catch his breath, and then opened the unlocked front door.

"Ah, here's Lloyd now. Better late than never, I suppose," Garmadon chuckled, even though Lloyd could easily hear his impending doom in the laughter. His mother was sitting beside her husband on the couch, a similar disapproving look on her face hidden by a polite smile for the social worker's sake. Uncle Wu was on her other side, having agreed to be present so the social worker would see the whole family together in greeting.

But, Lloyd barely registered any of that.

His green eyes were fixated on the foster kid standing in the middle of the room.

Pale skin. Black hair- scratch that. Black hair that he had dyed a green streak in. One earring. Combat boots. Ripped black jeans. Faded green t-shirt and a black flannel jacket.

"Lloyd, don't be rude," Misako entreated, which Lloyd translated as "stop staring at the freaky emo goth kid that's going to be living in your room." "Introduce yourself."

"Um…," Lloyd stuck his hand out in front of him. "Hi. I'm Lloyd."

The foster kid waited a minute before accepting Lloyd's hand, looking the other teen up and down slowly with those disconcerting black eyes of his as he sized Lloyd up.

Finally, a smirk slowly grew on his face that Lloyd did not like one bit, as if he had seen exactly what he had wanted to find in the other boy.

"Morro," the foster kid said by way of reciprocal greeting. His handshake was firm. To the point Lloyd wondered if Morro was trying to break his fingers.

For some reason, Morro's next words sent a shiver up his spine.

"I think we're going to be great friends."

So, obviously this was more of an introductory chapter, but things can only get better now that Lloyd and Morro are sharing a room XD

So, should I continue? I'd love to hear your thoughts! And, as always, feel free to send in suggestions for Nya's Five Times (which I also haven't forgotten about XD)

I love you all! Thank you for reading :D