So, with my friend Lucky literally spamming her readers with insanely adorable and cute next gen one-shots, I've decided to slowly build up on my next gen too!

Behold, a diary entry by Lloyd's eldest daughter Madison.

▪️❇️▪️❇️▪️❇️▪️❇️▪️

I flop down on my bed and smile at my new diary that Dad gave me this morning on my fourteenth birthday. It's cover is a sparkly magenta with numerous little puffy butterfly stickers all over it.

Pulling it open, I take in the white page that is screaming at me to write my stories all over it. Twirling my lucky pen in my fingers, I ponder on how to start.

Deciding on jotting down my origin tale, I press the nib of my pen on the page and feel it dancing on the white surface, lines fashioning into words and words whispering out my story.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dear Diary,

I'm not one of those girls who live perfect little lives with a perfect little family.

Nope. No way.

When you're the firstborn daughter of a heroic ninja, life is definitely not normal. I mean, you get to witness many abnormal things like:

~ Katanas and shurikens just laying around the house.

~ Death threats from crazy villains.

~Power outages from Dad's engery surges when he's angry.

~ a fLyInG sHiP!!!!

~ A super duper old great-uncle.

~ Elementally charged family friends.

~ News reporters in the front yard.

~ A great-grandfather who's the freakin' creator of Ninjago!

Oh, and an unlimited supply of candy– until Mom gets wind of it.

And then there's the problem of your father's safety.

There have been many nights when Mom, my sisters and I have to tend to my dad's horrible wounds. I get shivers just thinking about what catastrophic events he gets up to on these missions of his.

When your dad throws on a ninja mask and dashes out of the window to save the world, you never know if he's even gonna come back alive or not.

Mom says I need to keep a positive attitude about Dad's "job" that he performs with the rest of his karate chop friends. I should always be proud of his feats and be hopeful for his safe return every night.

But that's the thing. I can't keep a positive attitude. And because of this, Mom and I have completely different views on everything.

Well, my step-mom and I.

Yeah, I bet you're wondering what happened.

Fun-fact about Madison Garmadon:

I live with a dad, a step-mom and two younger step-sisters.

Wanna know the whole story?

Well, just keep scrollin' . . . .

— Not that I know that you're reading my diary on an app that starts with "W" and ends with "D". . . . .  

Once upon a time in Ninjago, blah, blah, blah, there lived two girls who were the best of friends. Nothing could butt its way into their friendship. No possible power on, in or outside of Ninjago could tear them apart.

They were Miyuki and Marilyn.

These two girls always had each other's backs and one could never be seen without the other. 

I'm serious! These girls were crazy close.

Their families had always been friends so Miyuki and Marilyn had known each other since birth. They grew up together and helped each other achieve their dreams and all those other cheesy friendship goals that I don't have the time to talk about.

On Marylin's twenty-first birthday, Miyuki was roaming from store to store, looking for the perfect gift to buy her bestie.

That's when Ninjago's speciality decided to display itself: it got attacked.

Miyuki would've been the victim of the street bombers' idiocy if it weren't for a certain hero. And that certain hero was none other than the Green Ninja.

Yes, it was that cliché moment where the girl is completely and utterly helpless and the hero swoops down and saves the damsel in distress and then they look into each other's eyes and get "lost" but suddenly they realize that they are staring at each other like creeps so they back up and begin blushing and then the hero asks the girl of she's okay and the girl is clearly shaken but she lies and says she's fine and then they all live happily ever after.

Sorry, I'm not much of a romance fan.

Anyway . . . .

Saved and accounted for, Miyuki thanked the warrior (snort, not much of a warrior when he can't fix the DVD player for Beth) for his help and was then escorted home.

This little meeting was dictated to Marylin word by word and she was ecstatic at the fact that her best friend had been saved by a hero Marvel/DC style.

It wasn't until Miyuki began being rescued by the Green Ninja very often did Marylin realize that it was becoming less of a "grateful citizen thanking a brave hero"  and more of a "two  people coming close together as friends".

And one day, the Green Ninja arrived at Miyuki's doorstep as a young man of twenty-three called Lloyd Garmadon.

Realizing that this was her green saviour, Miyuki immediately pulled him in and introduced him to her family.

And just like that, friendship gradually turned into love.

Now, Marylin should've been jealous of her friend's growing attraction to the Green Ninja but nothing of the sort happened.

Unfortunately for everyone, Marylin began developing feelings for Lloyd too.

I know. What a bust.

Spending time as a group of three now, Lloyd had to be careful to not to give too much attention to only one girl. But he couldn't just simply ignore his love for Miyuki.

This love triangle resulted in a crack that appeared on the spotless friendship of the two girls.

Their connections completely came to an end when one fine morning, Lloyd Garmadon went down on one knee and asked Miyuki to be his wife.

. . . . . Mom and Dad, wish I could see you two together again . . . .

Excuse me, I'm getting emotional.

So, instead of screaming in rage, Marylin, who was always a patient little woman, congratulated the two on their engagement and stood back in the shadows.

Miyuki and Lloyd got married and in time they had a baby girl who they named Madison, a.k.a me.

Life was good. We were the perfect little family.

And then disaster struck.

My grandma, or Miyuki's mother had never really liked my dad. So, the old woman did everything she could to plant seeds of discord between my parents.

The fighting got so worse that it led my parents to opt for a divorce.

I was only three.

For the next one year, my life was nothing but a tight schedule which consisted of my one month stay at my mom's place and then a one month stay at my dad's place in a repeating, never-ending cycle.

It was a nightmare. But I tried to be positive for both my parents. I realized that this was the second time in a row that my dad had lost in love (thank you for the first one, evil princess).

But I used to be happy for my mother for an even greater cause: soon after her divorce, she had been diagnosed with cancer and I had to make her life worth while.

But it wasn't enough and when I turned four, Miyuki died. I permanently moved to my dad's house and for a few months it was just us.

Then, Marylin came back into the picture. Yay.

She met Lloyd again at Miyuki's funeral and they became friends once more. Well, I'd say more than friends.

That's how I got a step-mom.

As if that wasn't enough strangeness for me, I got blessed with a step-sister, Bethany, when I was almost five and another step-sister, Arianna when I was nine.

I used to keep my distance from Marylin and Bethany at first but when my dad told me the whole story about her and my mom, I knew that it was always in Marylin's destiny to care for her best friend's daughter.

By the time Arianna was born, there were no more misunderstandings between us and the word "step" vanished from our family entirely.

Even though my mother will always have a special place in my heart, Marylin is an awesome mom. I love her and Beth and Ari with all my life and I would do anything to keep them safe just like my dad does for all of us.

Dad has forgiven my mom for all the hard times she gave him and I'm sure my mom's in heaven right now, forgiving my father as well.

I shouldn't say this but my grandma is a real jerk. Marylin's mom is a whole lot better. 

Oh, wait I think someone's coming–

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The door creaks open and I flip onto my back to see who was sneaking into my room. At first I see no one, but then something jumps on me from the side and I let out a shriek.

"Maddie!" the munchkin-sized monster yells.

I immediately jump out of bed and go into self-protection mode, extending out my hands to block fatal blows like Dad taught me to.

Through my disarrayed curtain of brown hair that have decided to partially blind me, I see the intruder who appears to be a tiny girl barely reaching above my waist.

I blow my hair out of my face and relax as I realize that it's just Arianna, my youngest sister. Even though she's only five, she has the potential to do stealth missions better than any of the Ninja.

I drop my fighting stance and move to straighten my hair. "What is it, Ari?"

"Mommy and Daddy want you to come down to the backyard!" she cries happily, making me wince.

Her high-pitched happiness is going to leave me deaf one day, I can assure you.

"Why?" I ask, letting her know by my tone that I didn't want to be disturbed.

"So that we can let off the fireworks for your birthday, pea-brain," my other sister, Bethany, smiles as she walks in from the door.

Fireworks?! In the neighborhood?! Are they trying to get arrested? I know I'm very special to them and they want to make everything over the top for my B-day but maybe we should leave the pyromaniac endeavors to the side.

I mean, fourteenth birthdays are not that big of a deal. Why is there a need for fireworks anyway?

When I refuse to move, Arianna tugs at my hands while Bethany pushes me from behind. They force me all the way down to the backyard where I see Dad bent over a small lopsided looking rocket.

"Lloyd, if that thing blows up in your face–" Mom mutters worriedly from the side but Dad cuts her off.

"Stop being a party-pooper, Minnie," he shakes his head. "I've gone to outer space on a real spaceship. I think I can handle fireworks."

"Daddy, can we make the sky colourful now?" Arianna pouts as Dad gets up from the ground and steps back to grab the box of matches.

"Of course!"

Beth and Ari peak out from behind Dad as he tries to light the fuse of the rocket.

Suddenly, I feel a tap on my shoulder and I turn around to see Mom smiling at me excitedly. "I have something for you."

"For me?"

She nods as she picks up a pink box from the garden table and pulls it open. "When we both turned fourteen, Miyuki and I gave each other these friendship necklaces."

As she says this, she extracts two golden chains with half heart pendants hanging from them. Hearing my mother's name, I bite my lip. My fingers itch to hold them but I wait for Mom to finish speaking.

"There are many memories, laughs, hugs and lots of love stored in the depths of these necklaces and I want you to feel all of it." Mom smiles lovingly at the chains before looking up at me.

Presently, I duck my head and let her put both of the necklaces around my neck. I finger the heart pendants, pushing them together to make them whole.

Mom leans forward to kiss my forehead before whispering, "Happy Birthday, Maddie."

"Thanks, Mom," I whisper back. With one hand holding the pendants, I wrap my other hand around my mother's.

We lean against each other and look to the sky where blasts of colours and light paint the galaxy followed by the jubilant yells of my dad and sisters.

I stand corrected. Maybe we are a perfect little family.

▪️❇️▪️❇️▪️❇️▪️❇️▪️

Why am I feeling sad now?