Back at the Bounty, Kai's absence did not go unnoticed by Sensei, who began to wonder where the ninja had gone off to after the ninja still hadn't appeared on the deck fifteen minutes when training had started again.

Kai is not usually this late, Sensei thought, but did not mention anything to the other ninja. He was suspicious that they knew where Kai had went, but he was not going to interrogate them. He had more tactful ways of getting them to talk.

"Ugh, these are so heavy, Sensei!" Jay whined as his teacher placed another book on his back.

Today, the sensei was teaching them the art of balance, to help with their coordination and fighting abilities.

"Balance is an important skill, my pupil," Sensei said.

He placed another book on each of the ninjas' backs, causing them to wince at the additional weight.

"I don't think I can take...anymore," Cole grunted, his muscles shaking under the weight of the books while struggling to balance them and keep them from falling.

"Just five minutes longer," Sensei said. "However, you might just be relieved of the burden earlier if you can tell me where Kai is."

The ninjas glanced at each other anxiously. In retrospect, they should've known Sensei was going to ask about him, but they had been so focused on keeping their own mouths shut, especially Cole, that they weren't prepared for when Sensei inquired about Kai's whereabouts.

"Uh, I don't know," Cole said, trying to sound innocent as possible. Nonetheless, Sensei saw right through it.

"You are lying. I can tell," Sensei said, looking his pupil in the eye.

Cole was silent, but held his teacher's gaze.

Sensei decided that he wasn't going to get much of a reaction out of the earth ninja, so he then turned to Jay.

"Perhaps Jay will be more cooperative."

A bead of sweat trickled down the ninja of lightning's forehead, and not because he was tired from balancing the heavy books on his back.

"Look, I don't know where Kai went," the blue ninja lied through his teeth. "He could be anywhere. Maybe he was sucked into a black hole, or he's at the grocery store, or he's stuck in a parellel universe, maybe trapped in a different dimension. But I'm just guessing here," Jay rambled on.

Sensei narrowed his eyes at the ninja, causing him to laugh nervously. "You never know."

However, the martial arts teacher's stern glare was enough to make Jay feel like wetting himself. The blue ninja bit his lip nervously. Guilt swelled inside of him. He couldn't lie to Sensei.

"Jay..." Cole warned, seeing his brother was about to crack. Lloyd and Zane could only watch as their teacher wore down their teammate.

"I..." The blue ninja prayed Sensei would stop staring at him, but his gaze remained steadily fixed upon him.

Finally, Jay's conscience couldn't handle the burden of hiding the truth from Sensei, combined with the weight on his back.

"Kai'satthegrocerystorewithSam!" he blurted out.

Lloyd and Cole face palmed themselves, causing them to lose their balance and topple to the ground, while Zane eyes were wide in astonishment at how easily his teacher had broken Jay.

The blue ninja stood upright, letting the books drop onto the deck of the Bounty.

"Sorry, Sensei," Jay said as he walked up to him. "I couldn't lie to you."

The martial arts teacher put a hand on his shoulder.

"That's alright, Jay. I am thankful for your honesty."

He then turned to the rest of the ninja, who were all sprawled out on the ground in exhaustion.

"As for the rest of you, I shall reward you with fifty push-ups."

The other three ninjas groaned.

"I sure wish I was Kai right now," Cole said, not caring if Sensei heard him or not.

Kai walked back the Bounty (he hadn't wanted to take the dragon earlier, since he didn't want to draw unwanted attention), purposely taking his time. He was rehearsing what he was going to say to Sensei, since he did, after all, sneak out, and no doubt he would be unhappy with him. Although he wouldn't admit it to his brothers, he was kind of nervous. Hopefully his teacher was occupied with the other ninjas so he could pretend he had been at the Bounty the entire time and pretend he had only skipped training.

However, when Kai returned to the Bounty, no one else was on the deck. Where did everyone go? he wondered. He had only been gone an hour or so.

"Ah, I see my pupil has decided to show," a voice said. The red ninja cringed, knowing who the voice belonged to. He turned around to find Sensei Wu standing behind him. "And where were you?"

Forgetting everything he had rehearsed on his trip back to the Bounty, Kai began to panic.

"I-I was here the entire time, Sensei. I had this huge headache so I decided to lay down...in my room...on the Bounty. I mean, where else would I be?" Great, now he was starting to sound like Jay.

Sensei narrowed his eyes at the red ninja. "What did I tell you about setting up dates during training time?"

Kai hung his head in guilt. "I'm sorry, Sensei, I-"

"You promised that you would not let your dates get in the way of your training."

"Yes, Sensei, I-"

That's when the red ninja wondered how Sensei knew he had been on a date.

"Wait, how do you know I was with Sam?"

"A little bird told me," Sensei said, not wanting to call Jay out for telling on him. Who said it was unimportant anyways. "So you were out with the girl from the grocery store?"

Kai rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah..."

"And how is she?" Sensei asked.

"Good..." the red ninja answered. He wasn't sure why Sensei cared, but he didn't want to make him angrier by asking.

"That is good," Sensei said. "Now, you and I will have our own private lesson to make up for your absence." A look of disapproval flickered across the teacher's face. "And I will not go easy on you."

Kai walked into the living room, his forehead dripping with sweat. Sensei hadn't been kidding when he had said he wouldn't go easy on him.

The rest of the ninja were lounging around as usual, since their training session had been done with earlier, once Sensei had found out Kai had skipped.

Hearing Kai enter, the ninjas glanced back to see their teammate red-faced and covered in sweat. It was then that Cole completely took back his comment about wishing he had been in Kai's place.

"You look exhausted," Cole remarked, noting the way Kai kind of stumbled as he walked.

"Yeah, Sensei went harder on me since I missed half the training today," Kai said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"That's unfortunate," Cole replied. "Hey, did you get me my cake?"

"No, I forgot," Kai said. "Besides, it wouldn't have mattered anyways. Someone told Sensei I snuck out."

"Hey, I held up my end of the bargain!" Cole retorted. "It was Motormouth here who blew your cover."

Jay glanced back from the video game and grinned sheepishly at the red ninja.

"Hehe, sorry Kai," he said. "My parents always told me I was never a good liar."

The red ninja rolled his eyes. "Whatever. It's all over now." He slumped into one of the bean bag chairs. "And now I have to convince Sensei to let Sam come over Friday night."

The rest of the ninjas ears perked up almost instantaneously at the mention of Kai's mysterious "girlfriend."

"Wait a minute-Sam's coming over?" Cole asked. The four ninjas looked at Kai expectantly, waiting for him to elaborate-after pausing their game, of course.

"Yeah, I told her she could come over to celebrate her internship."

Cole raised a brow in confusion. "Internship?"

"Yeah, it's like a job, but for students," Kai explained. "And you'll never guess where it is."

"Where?"

"Borg Industries!"

Jay's jaw practically dropped to the floor.

"Borg Industries?!" he exclaimed.

Kai nodded. "Yep, and because of it, she gets to stay in the city the entire summer."

"Aww, lucky!" Jay said, still obsessing over the fact that Kai's girlfriend was going to have the job of his dreams. "I've always wanted to work there! How come she gets to work there and I don't?"

"Because she actually applied for the internship," Kai said.

"And you're a ninja," Cole added. "It's not like you have time for a job. Remember when we all got jobs back when Lloyd was younger?"

"Yeah, that was the worst," Lloyd said, chuckling at the memory."You guys practically handed me over to the Serpentine. You'd make terrible parents. Which, speaking of, are you and Sam going to have kids, Kai?"

Kai's cheeks suddenly flushed a deep crimson color.

"Quit picking on the poor guy, would ya?" Cole said, jabbing Lloyd in the arm. "Or else you may not have kids."

"So what time will the festivities start?" Zane asked.

"We haven't really worked out the details yet," Kai replied. "I was thinking she'd come at 6 and we'd all have pizza."

"Don't forget cake!" the earth ninja said. He was determined to have his favorite dessert one way or another.

"Well, I'm excited to meet her," Jay interjected, his eyes fixed on the TV screen once more.

The red ninja smiled. "I'm excited for you guys to meet her too," he said. "I just hope Sensei'll be okay with it."