Yay! The second book in The Secret Life of Jay Walker trilogy has begun!

Chapter 1: Clean-Up Day (And Memory Transplants)

This part of the adventure starts off much like the first did: with a phone call.

It was early December, and Ninjago City was engulfed in an equally early winter. Playful gusts of cold wind battered against the windows of the offices and buildings of the bustling metropolis. A light powdering of snow already dusted the trees and parking meters, adding to the slowly-ascending air of holiday cheer.

The tallest of these buildings was the Borg Industries headquarters, with its bright holographic emblem barely flickering as snow danced through it. This afternoon, the younger employees were released early from the day at the office, and they were coming out of the building, laughing and talking as they hurried down the steps to get to their cars.

One of the new employees was a young man of twenty-one years of age. He was tall and rather good-looking, with messy auburn hair, playful sea-blue eyes framed by black-rimmed glasses, and a lean figure dressed in an open navy blazer, a white collared shirt, a blue-and-white-striped tie, and navy dress pants and black dress shoes.

His name was Jay Walker, an intern in the Prototype Testing Department at Borg Industries, a close friend of Dr. Borg, and a recently enrolled student at Ninjago City College. More people would recognize him if he was dressed in a ninja gi, but those days were long ago. His past hadn't been forgotten, but for now, he would live the life of an average civilian, and he was content to keep it that way.

Jay reached into his pocket for his phone and quickly hit a speed-dial number. Stopping at the foot of the stairs, he set his briefcase down and checked his watch while waiting for the caller to pick up. "Hey, Jay!" one of his colleagues called. "You waiting for someone?"

"Sort of," Jay replied, but his workmate wasn't really listening. Which was fine by Jay, since the person he was waiting for had picked up. "Hey, Nya," he said.

"Jay!" His fiancee was a little surprised to hear his voice. "I thought you weren't getting out of work until tonight!"

"Change of plans upstairs," Jay explained. "I'll be home in probably about an hour. I promised Mom I'd help sort through the stuff she's moved from Dad's house in Wintergate to her new apartment. Just curious, are any of the other guys back yet?"

"No," Nya replied. "Kai and Lloyd aren't supposed to get back from police training until five, Zane's putting in late hours at med school, and Cole's paying his dad a quick visit. It's just me, Sensei, and Misako here at the dojo. See you in an hour."

"See you then, sweetheart." Jay hung up. It looked like his deciding to get a job interning at Borg Industries and get a college degree had set off a chain reaction with his teammates. Kai and Lloyd, restless from not fighting bad guys, had applied in a school for training new police officers; Zane, eager to keep helping Ninjago's citizens, had been accepted into Ninjago's best medical school, and was pursuing a career as a doctor; and Cole . . . well, he had to get with the program and find a job, otherwise, he'd fall waaay behind his teammates on the progress scale.

Climbing into his new blue Chevy Malibu, Jay plugged his phone into the charger and was about input his mom's address into the GPS, when he remembered how funky GPS systems could get. "I'm just going to rely on my memory for this one," he said aloud.

As he pulled away from the sidewalk and into the steady stream of cars, Jay thought over the events of the past three weeks. After the funeral for his father, Ed Walker, co-owner of Ed and Edna's Scrap 'n' Junk, head pastor of Ninjago City Baptist, and beloved father figure for the Ninja, Jay had been voted in as the church's new permanent worship leader, and his teammates, who all somehow possessed hidden musical talents, were the new permanent band. Zane had proved to be extremely adept at not only singing and the piano, but also the flute and the guitar, Kai was another excellent guitarist and backup singer, Lloyd knocked it out of the ballpark with his drum skills, Cole rocked the bass guitar, and Nya was a beautiful female lead singer.

Nya . . . Jay still couldn't believe he and Nya were engaged. It seemed like he'd proposed to her only yesterday, even though it was two weeks ago. It was a little overwhelming to think about, with the new responsibilities as Nya's husband nearly scaring him out of his shoes, but it was also exciting to think about. Jay was confident he and Nya could take whatever marriage and parenthood would throw at them. But sometimes a little voice tugged on his jacket and reminded him to slow down; that the wedding wasn't until May, and becoming instant parents probably wasn't a smart idea.

Jay always sighed and promised to pay attention to that jacket-tugging voice, but as soon as someone brought up plans for his and Nya's future, he would immediately forget his promise and get all excited and jumpy again.

But the elation about the wedding didn't make Jay neglect his newly-widowed mom. He visited her weekly, and had even helped her find the apartment in Ninjago City where she could live until the business with the house was settled. That was where he was going now, to fulfill his promise to help sort through his deceased dad's belongings.

Jay arrived at the apartment in five minutes. He knocked on the door, and almost immediately, Edna opened it. "Hello, Jay!" she exclaimed happily.

"Hi, Mom." Jay smiled and returned his mother's warm hug. "I'm here to help you sort out Dad's stuff."

"Oh, thank you, dear!" Edna smiled with delight. "I was just about to get started on it. Come inside!"

Jay gratefully walked inside after his mom; he hadn't dressed for this sudden colder weather.

The apartment was somewhat sparsely furnished, but Edna seemed content with her current situation. She had insisted on getting her own apartment, despite her son's invitation to stay at the dojo as long as she wanted.

When they entered the living room, Jay couldn't stifle a whistle of surprise. "How much stuff could you bring in that one trailer?" he asked in disbelief. The entire floor and part of the couch was covered in stuff, from failed inventions to old blueprints.

Edna chuckled. "Oh, you have no idea," she said. She picked her way neatly through the piles of clutter and onto the open part of the couch. Jay set his briefcase down and got on his hands and knees, pushing his glasses up on his nose as they began to slide off.

"Where should I start sorting?" he asked, shaking his blazer off and rolling up his shirt sleeves.

"Try that pile over there, by your left knee," Edna suggested, already going through a pile of blueprints sitting on her lap. "All stuff we should keep for memory's sake, put over there. Things we should keep for practical reasons, over there."

"So just move everything from one spot to another?"

"Exactly."

Jay shook his head, grinning. "I like that kind of organization." He immediately set to work, scooping up the papers in a pile and beginning to sort.

(The next thirty minutes is too boring to retell)

After thirty minutes, Jay picked up a leather-bound photo album. "Hey, Mom, mind if I look through this?" he asked, holding it up.

Not looking up from her work, Edna replied, "Of course, dear."

Jay began rifling through the album, smiling as the memories the old photos revived came back to him. The picture of his eight-year-old self hitting a homerun at his first baseball game; the photo of him and Grandma Erin, a few weeks before she passed away; his mom and dad at the fifteenth anniversary party of the junkyard. Ah, those were good times. . .

But as he neared the back of the album, the pictures were becoming less and less familiar to him. Jay's smile curved into a puzzled frown as he stopped at the last page of the album. It showed himself when he was two, sitting in Edna's lap and hugging her tightly. He and his parents were sitting in a room he'd never seen before. Toward the side of the picture, Ed was filling out forms. He looked for any photos as him as a baby, but he couldn't find any. That's odd, he thought, confused.

As he opened up the back, some pieces of paper that had been hastily crammed in the back fell out. Curious, he began looking through them. His frown deepened as he registered the information. "Born June 17th, 1995, James 'Jay' Thomas Immanuel," he murmured, reading some of the information filled out on the forms. "Date of adoption: May 4th, 1997. . ."

He looked up. His mother had heard him reading, and Jay could see tears in her eyes. "Mom?" he said hesitantly. "Is there something wrong?" Then his eyes widened. "Is there something you haven't told me?"

She heaved a shaky sigh. "I'm sorry, Jay," she said quietly. "Ed and I were meaning to tell you, honestly, but just when we were going to, Ed passed away, and it was pushed to the back of my mind."

She placed a hand on Jay's shoulder, looking straight into his eyes. "Jay, sweetheart . . . you're not our birth son."

Jay let out a little squeak. "What?"

"You were . . . adopted."