"Dad, it's time to get up," Cole announced and walked into his father's room and set the food tray by the foot of the bed for a moment, trying to gain attention. It had been empty of his mother ever since she found a man much younger when Cole was ten and left with a vague note and the boy with an alcoholic of a father. He was sixteen now and couldn't wait for feedback from an old man who wrote him questioning about whether or not he wanted to be a ninja based on somehow acquiring knowledge of his earth-bound powers. It didn't matter, being here was depressing and frustrating. He would kind of feel bad for leaving his father here by himself though…
The man that Cole clearly took after sat up and scratched his stubble, his freshly beer stained undershirt visible now. The boy hoped that there weren't stray bottles to trip over today; it hurt to hit the wooden floors of the room. "Oh good, I'm so hungry," grabbing his clearly aching head with one hand and grabbing the tray and scooting over to drag it to his side. He then suspiciously took a bit of pancake on his fork, "You make this, right?" Staring down the scorched food, then glancing at his son.
Cole nodded slightly, but the man sighed and ate it like he did every time. Partly because he wasn't the worst father… but also because he was just too hungry to request something else to eat. He had a nasty habit of drinking about dinner, then forgetting about eating anything and having a terrible headache and stomachache.
"You don't have to eat that, I'll get something," the dark-haired boy told his father, who immediately ate faster and nodded. The teenage took it as a request for more and walked out and into the living room to get his shoes and then moved out the door, pretending to not the older male's request for a certain yellowy liquid substance that made his stomach do disgusted knots. As he made his way down to the store for cheap snacks containing who knows what, he thought about what was worse; his father sober or under the influence. The man had such a fake happy thought process whenever going on about his son becoming a dancer when nothing fuzzed up his brain; yet the way he would slur and leave the house, only to come back through the window randomly in the early hours of the morning wasn't too appealing either.
He shook his head slightly to himself as he tossed processed muffins into the mini cart he must have picked up earlier without thinking. 'Oh well,' he nearly laughed too, mostly being alone for a little over half a decade really lets you think about life and make good friends with yourself.
He finally got up to the counter and a young man about his age, started to check out his half a dozen muffin packages of the same cheap brand. The brunet looked up in a friendly manner, "You like these?" Then when he wasn't answered he continued on to put them in the same plastic bag, and picked them up by the handle as he was handed to voiced amount, which was exact dollars for the price so the one-sided conversation ended abruptly.
Cole was about to leave the store, until he spun around to check what caught on his shoe, which resulted him in witnessing simple electric sparks shooting from the unknown boy's fingertips and amused the brunet it seemed. Then the other slowly tilted his head, putting up a "lane closed" sign on the conveyer belt and rushed up to him. "Hey, are you Cole?"
The raven-haired blinked, awkwardly looking back and forth, "Uh, yeah?"
The blue-uniformed boy le a grin take over his features, "Cool! I'm Jay, I can use lightning, but not very well yet."
"Good for you," Cole rolled his eyes and tried to move away slowly, but the came the dreaded question of what element he could control, "The element of 'get away from me'. Look it up, it's very useful, especially verbally."
"Don't be like that," pouted the lighter haired boy, "Sensei Wu told me you could use something like rock?"
Cole gave up trying to get through to the other and nodded slowly, "Yeah, earth-based things, you know?"
Jay nodded eagerly, "So far it's only Zane and I, but we could use another guy. Sensei told me to come find you anyways, so your lucky day."
The pale boy shook his head slightly, but of a disbelieving smile, "No way?" He tried to get the other to cough up the lie or continue.
The blue ninja nodded, "Way. Though you may have to tell your dad or something. I'll wait out front after I tell my boss." Agreeing on it, they went separate ways.
Cole sprinted the short way home, grabbing the mail thinking up an easy plan and dropping the bag of muffins on his father's lap impatiently. Shifting through the letters, then opening one that was clearly junk mail and letting the other twirl to the floor dramatically, he pretending to read, "Dear Cole, you have been accepted to our school for exceptional dancers and other great talents. Please attend as soon as you can when the school years starts up."
His father looked pleased, clearly falling for the fact that the school would even consider Cole as a candidate, mostly due to his average build and the fact he ran away from the last dance related schooling, "Good, you should get going, you should pack and-"
"Done and done," the boy went on and waved a dismissive hand, having packed a bag for when Sensei Wu would get back to him. Even though the clothing wasn't too much, he was sure the money would get him new clothing and necessities every so often.
Still not getting up, the man absentmindedly grabbed a muffin and ripped off the wrapper, nodding solemnly suddenly, "Good… good… Have a good time, Cole." It made the porcelain boy feel bad up until, "I won't miss the cooking though."
He stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind him, having the temper of seemingly many people at times.
~~
He had met up with Jay a few hours before and they found Wu, who brought them back to the monastery on the back of some ancient dragon that only would listen to the odd elderly man. He had met Zane also, an attractive blond teenager that was pretty strange as well.
"Then again so am I," muttered the adolescent as he rummaged through his things, already having most his clothing (the majority of what he brought) put away into the side table next to his bed. Then he happened on to something he wasn't ready for. The picture of his father and him, right after the woman seemingly holding them both together in the first place had left. His father smiled, still not succumbing to the liquid comfort he'd find a few weeks later and Cole had his fake smile on, mostly for his hate of pictures. "Why'd I even bring this?" Then he realized; as much as he spited his paternal figure for being emotionally unavailable, he still longed to be "daddy's favorite" despite the fact of being an only child in the first place.
"You ready to come get your uniform?" It brought Cole out of his daydream easily, but he wasn't mad as he grabbed the picture harshly and tossing the wooden framed memory in the bottom of his underwear drawer, hoping nobody would come across it this way. Getting up he ignored the questions about himself and left the room still being trailed eagerly for being so vague around such a nosy brunet.
…Ninjas were meant to be mysterious after all.