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Jay Walker was never scared. If anything, he was a thrill seeker. He loved feeling the adrenaline that followed something others thought was scary. It nearly gave his mom a heart attack on multiple occasions.
However, when it came to telling his parents that he might not be “Julie” and might be “Jay”? That scared him.
It wasn’t that he thought they wouldn’t still love him, he was pretty sure that he could tell his parents he thought he was the king of the worms and they’d still love and support him. It’s just change.
Change scares him. Yeah, that’s it.
All of that was running through his head while he walked beside the random old man who came to the junkyard his parents owned and operated talking about “alternate forms of study”. Jay wasn’t convinced. But nothing could be worse than the bullies who made his parents pull him out of school. He missed being around people, though, so maybe this would be good. That’s what his father thought. And Jay agreed. So he went with the old man.
”What’s your name again?” Jay interrupted the old man and his racing thoughts.
”You may call me Sensei Wu,” he said, tone kind yet firm.
Sensei? Jay can feel the confused expression pull at his features. What kinda school did mom and dad get me into?
“So, Julie,” Jay winces, “Do you know anything about the stories behind the beginnings of Ninjago?”
”I mean, yeah,” he shrugs, “The stories about the magic old guy who created the whole world? Everyone’s heard of it,”
”You may soon find there’s truth to every story,” Wu- “Sensei” Wu said with a smile.
The rest of the walk was made in silence.
***
By the time they reached their destination, the sun had reached its peak and was beginning to set. Jay was tired and just wanted to sleep, but “Sensei” Wu insisted he had to meet the two other kids who would be training with him. Though he still hadn’t explained exactly what “training” meant.
So before he knew it, Jay was standing in front of a young boy who couldn’t have been much older than him. He wouldn’t meet his eyes, so Jay stood there studying his face.
He had nice eyes. Deep and warm and soft. He looked kind.
He had a chip in his front tooth. That was the first thing Jay noticed when he awkwardly smiled at him when Wu brought Jay into the room. He likes when other people have weird teeth. That’s one thing the kids used to bully him about, his tooth gap.
He was wearing a hoodie that almost swallowed him, hands stuffed in the pockets, shoulders hunched. Jay knew how that felt.
”Cole,” Wu’s voice shocks jay out of his thoughts, “I would like you to meet J-“
”Jay,” he makes a split second decision. He doesn’t want this guy, Cole, to know him as Julie.
Cole looks in his eyes for the first time since he walked in the room. He has nice eyes.
”…My name is Jay,"
He felt awkward. He realized what he just did, interrupting his new teacher- “Sensei”- in front of one of his fellow students.
Looking up at Wu, trying to gauge how much trouble he was in, Jay was shocked to see a soft smile in Wu’s eyes. He gave Jay a small nod and ushered him away to the next person.
***
Jay was exhausted. He just walked all the way up this stupid mountain, met two new classmates (?), and was shown to his new room before being instructed to watch Cole and Zane, the other student, train. turns out they were here for ninja training? Jay was confused.
Wu had set him loose for an hour before lights out after dinner while Cole and Zane meditated or something, so Jay sat outside on the balcony, legs hanging off the side of the mountain, deep in thought.
He missed his parents. They were loud and they never stopped talking and something almost always started sparking in their presence, but he missed their noise. And his mom’s cooking. And his dad’s smile. And their hugs. He was sad.
He didn’t know how he felt about Zane. He had weirdly wide and blue eyes. He reminded Jay of the owl that would stare at him when he was out in the scrapyard late at night. And he was quiet. Jay never liked the quiet.
Cole, on the other hand, Jay liked. He liked watching him interact with Zane and Wu. He seemed nice. And anytime Jay was next to him, he exuded warmth. And he had a nice smile. Or whatever.
Wu had immediately caught on to Jay being Jay, so that was good. He introduced him to Zane as Jay, instead of the other name. It made him wonder how much the old man caught on to before Jay would even bring it up.
The sun was setting. Jay was still hungry. Wu couldn’t cook, according to Cole, and Zane was still trying to convince him to let him cook. But Wu would always mutter something about a lesson and cook something terrible.
Footsteps scared him out of his thoughts. He turned around to see Cole standing in the doorway back inside. He smiled at Jay.
”Hi!” he says. His eyes were crinkled at the corner. Jay shouldn’t stare, “Can I sit?”
”…” Jay was staring. He didn’t know how to interact with people. But he wanted Cole to be his friend, “Yeah.”
Cole sat next to him, looking at the sun as it changed the sky to a pink color. It was pretty. It made Cole’s eyes shine a bright amber color.
Jay shouldn’t stare.
The silence should’ve been awkward. He had just met this guy and he was sitting right next to him, their knees were touching for FSM’s sake! But it wasn’t. At least, it wasn’t for Jay. He didn’t know what Cole thought. He hoped he would agree.
”So…” the silence was broken by Cole, “How’re you liking it here? Have you done training before? Sensei Wu said you’re an inventor, is that true? Are you excited to be a ninja?”
Jay was attacked by a barrage of questions. He couldn’t even process one before Cole went on to the next one. He opened his mouth to try and respond but was interrupted by another question.
”Is it weird being the only girl?”
Oh.
Right.
He didn’t know. Cool.
A jolt of what felt like electricity shot down Jay's spine at the words. That was new, but the uncomfortable feeling that enveloped him, suffocated him, wasn’t.
Cole was talking again.
”I mean, it's just you, me, and Zane and I don’t really know what his deal it-“
”I’m not,”
Silence.
The words had jumped out of Jay's mouth before he even knew what he was saying.
Cole was staring at him. He stares back. Jay shouldn’t stare.
”What?” Cole said, his voice suddenly quieter, softer, than before.
”…” Jay took a deep breath. He was doing this, Jay Walker was never scared, “I’m not a girl,”
He looks over to see Cole listening intently.
Cole nods, as if to encourage Jay to keep going.
so Jay does.
”Or at least I don’t want to be. I don’t know. But I'm definitely not a girl," Jay was hugging his knees close to his chest. It was comforting, feeling smaller.
“Is that why you wear your hair up?” Cole points out Jay's hair. The hair he was trying so hard to avoid thinking about. It was too long. Too tangled. Too wild. So he wore it up. Better for inventing, is what he told his parents.
”…I didn’t tell my parents before I left,” Jay was avoiding looking at Cole. He shouldn’t stare, “I never got them to cut my hair,”
There was a slight sting in his eyes. He feels the sudden need to defend his parents.
“Like I know they wouldn’t care,” Jay shrugs, “But it's scary,” Jay Walker was never scared.
“Do you want me to cut your hair?”
Oh.
Did he just…?
”What?”
”I can cut it!” Cole was excited, leaning on his knees closer to Jay. His eyes were shining, the setting sun now reflecting a purple light into them, “I know where Sensei Wu keeps the scissors and we have some time before lights out,”
Jay grins at him.
The two of them run inside. Cole was dragging Jay into the bathroom, hand in hand. His hand was warm.
Snap out of it, Walker.
before Jay knew it, they were standing in front of the mirror. Jay takes his hair down. He hated the feeling of it on his neck.
”So I really want it to be shorter, especially in the back. I hate length on the back of my head," Jay starts explaining. He sees the determined look on his face in the mirror. And he sees Cole nodding along behind him, “And I like the side part. But everything else I don’t care,”
”Really?”
“Yeah,” Jay shrugs, “I trust you,”
Cole smiles at him.
And he lifts the scissors up to Jay’s head.
snip
Jay glances down. He sees the lock of hair falling to the ground. No turning back now.
While the rest of Jay's hair falls to the ground, he and Cole talk. About everything. Cole tells Jay about how his dad made him go to a performing arts school for dance, but Cole didn’t want to. He explained how he ran away and met Sensei Wu.
Jay tells Cole about his parents. How all the kids at school thought they were weird. He tells him about how the kids made fun of him. For his hair. For his teeth. How they thought he must smell like trash cause he lives in a junkyard.
They talk about how Zane confuses them. But Cole talks about how he’s actually really nice once you get to know him. Apparently Sensei Wu found him alone in the woods with no memories.
Jay made a note to talk to Zane more. Maybe he’d talk to Zane about the owl in the junkyard.
Before he knew it, Jay was looking into the mirror, actually seeing himself for the first time. His hair felt like him, shorter and perfect. His curls didn’t feel hard to deal with.
Cole was behind him, smiling big, proud of his work.
Jay turns around to him, wrapping his arms around him. He feels the prick of tears behind his eyes.
”Thank you,” Jay mutters into Cole’s hoodie.
”Yeah, of course, dude,”