A/N

Man, I know that if I put Ninjago screenshots/characters in the cover then the story will be more recognisable and get more reads blah blah blah

Let me enjoy my minimalistic covers, Wattpad algorithm! 😖

Sorry if this is a shorter one, by the way. Enjoy.

🕹🕹🕹

🎮𝕁𝕒𝕪🎮

"Jay? Cole's here," Lou tells me as a chime plays in the living room, signalling that their front gate has opened.

I grasp my glass of water and rest uncomfortably on the couch, shifting in my seat to look at the busy man.

"Thanks, Mr Hence," I say weakly, but he doesn't seem all that empathetic towards me. He exits the room with his documents in hand, and just as he leaves, I hear the front door opening.

When Cole enters the room, I realise he hasn't come back alone. Behind him stands a taller, slimmer boy, one that I immediately recognise from his short, blond hair and blue eyes.

Both of them are staring at me silently, not wanting to mention the topic we all have in our minds.

Finally, Cole is the one who breaks down first.

"I'm so sorry, dude," he says and dives on the couch to give me a crushing hug, one that makes me feel at least three bones crack in my body.

I reluctantly hug him back and look at my other friend, who looks at me with an awkward smile.

"I just wanna get my mind off of it," I say, trying to change the topic as I invite them on the couch. "Oh, and thank your dad for letting me visit."

I admit that running to my friend's house after this whole incident wasn't my best decision, but it's not like I want to spend my time in my own.

"I'll tell him," Cole smiled at me, letting me go. "Wanna play Prime Empire?"

"Oh, I haven't touched the game since we last streamed," I say, but my phone betrays me as the game's distinct tune plays.

Cole smirks at me while our friend, Zane, holds his chuckle.

"I think your previous statement was a lie," Zane says innocently and my face turns red.

Cole, in the meantime, takes my phone, raising an eyebrow upon seeing the notification. "Who the heck is Nya?"

I take my phone back quickly, shielding it from them. "No one!"

"Sure..."

"I'm serious!"

"Whatever you say..." Cole says, the smirk on his face growing as my own became more and more red.

After a moment of silence, Zane spoke up. "We didn't know you had entered the dating scene."

Cole burst out laughing while I shrank in my seat, contemplating my life decisions.

Nya's my acquaintance, right? I mean, she doesn't even know me. And, to be fair, I don't even know her.

"What if she's a 40-year-old dude?" Cole tells me, then gasps. "What if she's a 12-year-old who wants to date her celebrity crush?"

I ignore their laughter and roll my eyes. "She's eighteen, Cole. And no, she's not my girlfriend." I bite my tongue when I go to contradict his last statement, knowing that even they can't know about my alternate account.

"Do you have a picture?"

I shake my head.

"What's her User ID then?"

"Cole!"

"Aw, don't be a party pooper."

After glaring at him, I look up and notice Zane staring at us curiously.

"What's a... party pooper?"

Much to my dismay, Cole laughs again, throwing his arm around Zane's shoulder.

Great, just two months of hanging out and Cole's already a bad influence on him.

"You've got a lot to learn from us, buddy."

🕹🕹🕹

"This feels weird," I say, awkwardly shifting my weight to my right leg. I mean, we're outside of a high school for FSM's sake. In public. With no disguises whatsoever!

I don't get to complain more as the bell rings, but to my surprise, almost no students come out the gate.

"Isn't school supposed to be over by now?"

"Someone hasn't been to school for a while," Cole nudges my shoulder.

Because I was homeschooled, boulderhead.

"Actually, school ended two hours ago. The Seniors' club sessions are what end now," Zane corrects us so casually that he shuts us both up.

The person who steps out first is also the one we're looking for; Pixal Borg.

I'm honestly kind of surprised at how little we've hanged out with her, considering that she was the one who first introduced us to Zane.

I remember when she started dating her millionaire father's assistant at his tech company, the media went wild for some reason.

Of course, my jerk of a father had to jump in on the drama, organising a collaboration between his brand and Cyrus Borg's company. I got to meet Pixal through it, and soon enough Zane, but we never really connected with the former.

That doesn't mean we don't hang out, though. She's been on a few of my Prime Empire streams and has absolutely crushed Cole in 1v1s. It's kind of funny seeing her analyse the game's frame data with Zane while me and Cole just mess around.

She walks up to us, leaving the rest few seniors behind. To my surprise, most take the West exit, meaning they didn't get to recognise us.

Zane holds her backpack for her as she rewards him with a kiss on the cheek, making me smile.

"Apologies for running late. Me and Lloyd had to take care of something with the principal," she says before giving us a wave, and we wave back.

As they stand there, talking about their gaze, I pull my sunglasses down again before looking around the entrance.

Surprisingly, the only people left are from Pixal's club, I think (still don't get why she likes gaming, she says it's for the programming).

The guy she was talking about was nowhere to be seen, but three girls were walking outside, taking their time with leaving.

One is scrolling through her phone, walking a bit farther away from the rest, while the other two are talking quietly.

However, my eyes dart on the girl in the middle. I don't feel insecure about my height anymore, as she's even shorter, with tan skin and what I can make out to be brown eyes. Her raven hair ends just below her chin, but I can't seem to figure out the rest of her features.

Despite that, she still manages to catch my eye.

"Hey, I know her," Cole suddenly says behind me, and my heart pounds, thinking he's talking about the girl I was looking at.

"Who?"

"Her," he points at the pink-haired girl, and my heart drops as she spots us. She quickly taps the shoulders of the other two, who look at us, one surprised and the other smiling.

And as I finally lock eyes with the pretty girl, I try to keep cool.

It lasts only a second, but her reaction breaks my heart.

Her gaze looked... bitter, I guess. At first, she seemed surprised (at least I think she did), but then her gaze turned quickly to the ground as she turned on her heel, dragging her friend with her as they left.

My friendly wave and smile go unrewarded, but it's not like I expect anything more. I hope I didn't seem like a creep to her, at least.

Well, that was something, I guess.

"Yeah, her dad owns an amazing bakery near my place," Cole continues to tell me as the other girl approaches. Then he tilts his head, managing to pinpoint my gaze, even through my sunglasses.

Once he sees whom I'm staring at, he smirks. He wiggles his eyebrows, but I push him away.

"Nope, nope. I didn't do anything."

He luckily drops the topic as the pink-haired girl approaches us, but I know he won't let it go that easily.

I turn to Zane and Pixal, hoping to avoid Cole's teasing.

"How come you don't need a faculty supervisor?" Zane asks her, wrapping his arm around her waist.

"All of us are eighteen and above," she answers simply. "Except for Lloyd, that is."

"Ya hear that? She's eighteen," Cole whispers in my ear, teasing me, but it only caused his face to redden more.

"Cole!" I say, hitting my friend's arm and putting my hands over my face. "You're making me feel like a creep," I hiss under my breath, but the rest don't seem to mind.

After some more thinking, Pixal turns to me, luckily ignoring my bicker with Cole. "He's a really big fan of Starfarer, you know."

I don't exactly listen to the rest of the conversation. Cole decides to spend his time showing off to Seliel, who surprisingly pays no attention to me.

I know I shouldn't be that bummed from the reaction of a stranger, but the bitterness in the girl's eyes was the straw that broke the dragon's back.

I don't blame her for thinking I'm another creepy celebrity who hangs out outside of schools, but I'm still... disappointed.

As much as I don't want to admit it, Cole is right. I do need to get out more. Maybe he's taking it too far with the whole girlfriend thing, but I wouldn't mind it either.

I will admit, I had my doubts on continuing my friendship with Nya.

But I've come to realise that I really have no one else.

No one who's disconnected from my identity, at least.