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“Zane’s lost in the courtyard again”
Cole and Kai looked up from their game to where Jay was staring out the window. Sure enough, the ice wielding teen was looking, quite bothered, between the doors leading inside the monastery. He was too concentrated to notice he was now being watched, despite his apparent ability to sense such things. Kai’s face scrunched up.
“That guy is so weird”
Cole elbowed him half-heartedly
“Not cool man”
“He is weird though” Jay interjected, “I mean, who gets lost in the building they’ve lived in for months?”
“Him apparently” Kai went back to concentrating on the screen. Cole rolled his eyes.
“It’s not his fault, he’s got memory issues. He must have suffered a wicked head injury to get like that.”
Jay continued to stare out the window as Cole unpaused the game. It was a sad sight really. Zane not infrequently reminded him of his late grandfather, which is not a sentence you could usually say about a teenager. The man had passed almost a decade ago now, but Jay remembered the way he often struggled to remember things like names, and where things were around his house in his last years. It was honestly kinda concerning to watch someone so young struggle with their memory in such a similar way.
Just as Kai shouted in protest at his defeat an idea flashed through Jay’s mind, and he quickly left the room right before Zane decided on the door that was the furthest away from his intended destination.
Jay clutched the notebook tightly. Despite the enthusiasm he had for his genius idea while he was digging through his collection of empty notebooks, he was struggling to approach his strange teammate. In an unusual bout of social awareness, he realised he probably shouldn’t bring it up when the others were around. Zane was an awkward guy, and Jay didn’t want him to be offended or embarrassed. He instead waited until the white ninja was meditating alone.
He knocked gently on the dojo doorframe.
“Hey Zane?”
Zane’s eyes cracked open
“Yes Jay?” He responded softly
“So…” Jay rubbed the back of his neck, “I saw you got a bit turned around outside earlier” Zane’s eyes widened fractionally, cheeks tinging red.
“Oh, I uh-“ He gripped his knees, “I was just… deciding where I wanted to go” He lied, unconvincingly as ever.
“You don’t have to explain yourself dude, I know you forget things all the time. It’s not a big deal.” His hands clenched the hard book cover. Zane sighed rigidly.
“I’m sorry. I am aware my inability to retain information at times can be irritating” His gaze fell to the floor.
“Look, I’m not here to give you a hard time. It’s just…” Jay sighed, feeling the rough fabric under his fingers. He moved closer to the teen. “My grandpa had memory problems, kinda like you, and he found it helpful to keep notes about important things. That way he could always check if he forgot something.” Jay held the book out towards. “I’m not using this one, I’ve got tons.”
Zane stared at the book, not reaching for it. Jay felt increasingly antsy.
“You don’t have to take it. I’m not g-“ He was interrupted by Zane pulling it from his hands.
“Thank you, Jay” He looked happy, a bit too happy in Jay’s opinion, as if this was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for him. Jay didn’t want to think about it.
“No problem, dude” He turned to leave before the moment became awkward, “See ya later.”
Walking back to the tv room, Jay felt very satisfied with his good deed.
“Man, helping people sure feels good” He thought to himself. “Guess that’s why I’m a ninja”