Nya was glad no one was around to see her put her hand on her left cheek. Lately, whenever she ate sweet foods on that side, her teeth hurt. She suspected she had a cavity, but she didn't want to go to the dentist. She had managed to hide the pain from the others for almost three months now, which wasn't easy with seven other people living in the monastery. As long as she ate sweets with the other side of her mouth, she was fine.
"Nya?"
Nya whipped around and saw Zane.
"Oh. Hi, Zane. What's up?"
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"I've noticed you've been touching your cheek a lot lately."
"Oh. Yeah, I bit the inside of my cheek and it's a little sore," Nya lied.
Zane said nothing and left. Nya knew she would have to be more careful.
Nya guessed Zane said something to the guys, or at least to Kai and Jay, since she saw those two watch her every move. They tried to hide it, and Kai denied it when Nya cornered him, but she knew they were watching her. Soon enough, Lloyd and Cole were also watching her. Someone apparently told Wu she was acting strange, because he gave her a lecture about the importance of relying on others, not keeping secrets, and how the team is only as strong as its weakest link.
The truth came out two weeks later. The six ninja plus Nikki, Skylor, and P.I.X.A.L. were having a movie night and Nikki brought two hundred "Happy Retirement Rhonda" extra-large sugar cookies with her.
"Please, help yourself. If you want, I can bring you more. We've got plenty," Nikki explained.
"I think this will last us a while," Zane said.
"What happened? Rhonda not retire?" Kai asked as he grabbed a cookie.
"Lady ordered a thousand of these. Even though Mom asked her at least five times, and she insisted that yes, she really did want that many, no she wanted twenty-five. And then she had the audacity to complain that she didn't like the handwriting. Do you know how hard it is to write 'retirement' on a cookie?"
"Customers are the worst. Please tell me you banned her," Skylor asked.
"Oh yeah, right after Mom threatened to take her to court if she didn't pay."
"I love a happy ending."
As everyone settled in and started watching the movie, Nye grabbed a couple of cookies and very slowly ate them as she snuggled with Jay. About halfway through, she wasn't paying attention and bit down with her bad tooth. She tensed up while she waited for the pain to subside.
"Nya?" Jay asked.
"I'm fine. I bit my cheek," Nya said.
"That was weeks ago. If it's still hurting, you should go to a doctor and make sure it's not infected," Zane said.
"Or more likely she has a cavity. She's always been afraid of the dentist," Kai pointed out.
"Says the guy who's afraid of swimming," Nya retorted.
"Hey, water can kill you. I've never heard of anyone dying by going to the dentist. When was the last time you even went to the dentist?"
"I don't know."
"Nya, you have to go to the dentist," Jay said.
"No, I don't." Nya crossed her arms.
"Yes, you do. Even if we have to tie you up and drag you there."
"I'd like to see you try."
"You're outnumbered, Nya. Plus, we have Cole, who has super strength, and can turn solid ground into quicksand," Lloyd said.
Nya carefully reviewed her options. She could probably escape one or even two of the guys, but five on one were not good odds.
"... Fine. I'll go to the stupid dentist."
Nya knew she couldn't avoid the guys forever. No doubt Jay was telling the others all about the visit. Six cavities and she needed a root canal. Eighteen years old and she needed a root canal. She wondered what the guys would do if she canceled it. Maybe someone would capture them and she would have to miss it
Researching what exactly happens in root canals didn't help matters. She actually tried running away at one point. Unfortunately for her, Kai knew all of her moves and everyone was waiting for her in the Samurai X cave.
"You can't run from this, Nya," Kai said.
"Sure I can. I'm a legal adult. I don't have to go," Nya argued.
"Yes, you do."
"You're outnumbered five to one," Lloyd pointed out.
"What are you so afraid of?" Jay asked.
"Everything. I hate it all and I'm not going."
"It's really not that bad."
"I hate it. They invade my personal space."
"They can give you something to relax you. Some dentists even can put you under and you just sleep through everything," Cole pointed out.
"Really? How much does that cost?"
"I'm not sure exactly. My insurance usually covers everything."
Nya wasn't sure her insurance would cover that. Cole managed to stay on his dad's plan for the time being, but the rest of them weren't as lucky and had to get cheap insurance through a government plan. Even if it did cover it, she wasn't convinced sleeping through the procedure was the right thing to do. Just the thought of being put under kept her up all night. And since she couldn't sleep, she thought about everything that could go wrong.
When Wu rang the gong for sunrise stretches, she jumped at the sound and threw her pillow at the door, knocking over her bedside lamp in the process.
"Nya, are you okay?" Kai asked through the wall.
"Just peachy," Nya snapped.
The guys avoided her during the stretches. Even Jay kept his distance. After sunrise stretches, she hid in her room until lunch. She only ventured out because she was hungry. The came around the corner and found the guys making sandwiches. Kai and Lloyd were debating if honey ham was better than black forest.
"Hi, Nya," Jay said when he spotted her.
"Hi. Cole, can I ask you a question?" Nya asked.
"Sure." Cole put his sandwich on his plate.
"How did you find out you were allergic to morphine?"
"... Uh… why?"
"I want to know if I should get tested before I have the root canal."
"Nya, true morphine allergies, like what I have, are extremely, extremely rare. You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning while being eaten by a shark."
"... Zane, what are those odds?"
"One in forty quadrillion," Zane replied.
"And what are the odds of having a morphine allergy?"
"That's impossible to calculate. Up to ninety percent of reported allergic reactions to opioids may actually be pseudoallergies or simply the known side-effects, but it is impossible to know for sure without testing if someone has a true allergy."
"See? You'll be fine," Cole said.
"You know you never answered my question, right?" Nya asked.
"I'll tell you after your root canal, alright?"
"I'd much rather know now."
"I'm with Nya. I want to know," Kai added. The others murmured in agreement.
"Fine. Just keep in mind that everything was told to me after the fact. When I was eleven, I had my appendix taken out. The surgery went fine, they stitched me up, gave me something for the pain, and put me somewhere to recover and wake up. At some point, I stopped breathing and no one knew why. They gave me an epi-pen and some allergy medicine, and I was fine, but I spent the next several days in extreme pain because they didn't know what caused it, and they couldn't start testing until everything was out of my system. If you want any more details, you'll have to ask my dad."
"Ugh, that sounds awful," Lloyd said.
"It really wasn't that bad, but then again, I wasn't awake for the initial attack, and they kept me sedated most of the time, so I don't actually remember anything. I know it happened, I just don't remember it. Happy now?"
"No," Nya replied.
"You'll be fine." Jay held her hand.
"You don't know that."
"Uh, we do know that. We also know you'll be in a lot less pain and therefore less… grouchy," Kai said.
"Grouchy?" Nya crossed her arms.
"Uh, snippety?"
"You're not your usual chipper self," Lloyd said before Kai could dig himself into an even deeper hole.
"I see," Nya said dryly.
"We all must do things we do not want to do," Zane said.
"... I know."
The day of the root canal, Nya locked herself in her room. They all tried to get her to come out. Thankfully Kai managed to talk her out before they had to get Cole to break her door down. While Kai took her to the dentist, Jay was upset that Nya didn't want him with her.
"Don't take it personally, Jay. Kai is her brother. He's had years of practice getting her to do stuff she doesn't want to do," Lloyd said.
"Yeah. If she feels more comfortable with him there, you have to respect that," Cole added.
"But we're engaged! What's going to happen once we're actually married?" Jay asked.
"I don't know. Right now, Nya needs Kai, and you'll be here once they get back," Lloyd said.
"I guess," Jay sighed.
"Think of it this way: Kai is stuck in a dentist's waiting room for hours while we aren't. We can do a lot more to pass the time," Cole pointed out.
Jay, Cole, Zane, and Lloyd ended up playing video games the rest of the morning. Just before lunch, they all got a text from Kai warning them not to say anything. A few minutes later, Kai led a groggy Nya through the monastery to her room.
"How was it?" Jay asked when Kai returned to the living room.
"It was so boring! They only had three magazines to read! Then my phone battery started to die about halfway through, so I had to turn that off for the rest of the time."
"I meant Nya."
"It was bad. They needed laughing gas just to restrain her, and they had to knock her out so they could do their jobs. I don't know what they're going to do when she goes back next week," Kai explained.
"Oof. Where is she now?" Lloyd asked.
"Sleeping off the meds. I would leave her alone until she's ready to see people."
The others agreed and gave Nya space. She came out of her room just after dinner, tired, grumpy, sore, and a little swollen still. She wandered into the kitchen and found Lloyd washing the dishes.
"Hi, Nya. How are you feeling?" Lloyd asked.
"Eh."
"We saved you some chicken soup from dinner."
"No thanks. Where is everyone?"
"Cole is in his room, Zane is making a dumpster run, Jay is doing something to the sparring bot, and Kai is somewhere."
"Thanks."
Nya headed to the dojo to talk to Jay. Sure enough, he had taken the sparring bot apart and was fiddling with the processor.
"Jay?" Nya asked.
"Nya! Hi!" Jay jumped up and hugged her.
"Keeping busy?"
"It needs updating. How are you feeling?"
"Kind of sore. Do you know where Kai is? I think he has my pain medicine."
"I think he went out with Skylor," Jay said as he started texting Kai.
"Oh."
Jay kissed her good cheek.
"What was that for?" Nya asked.
"Do I need a reason to kiss you?" Jay teased as his phone buzzed.
"No. Is that Kai?"
"Yeah. He thinks your prescription is on his desk."
"Ah. I hope you weren't upset I didn't want you there today," Nya said as they walked to Kai's room hand in hand.
"A little, but the guys said not to take it personally."
"And you shouldn't. Kai's my brother. He's always taken care of me for as long as I can remember."
"I know. Now, if you had wanted Lloyd or Zane or Cole with you today…"
"Oh never. I'd only ever ask for Kai or the guy who needs to help me plan a wedding," Nya grinned as they reached Kai's room.
Jay gave a nervous chuckle, but sighed when he realized she was serious.
"Whyyy?"Jay whined.
"Because someone else needs to be tortured today."
"I told you: we should just elope."
"And I told you no. You just don't want to do the mother-son dance."
"Have you seen my mom try to dance?! Of course I don't want to dance with her!"
"Too bad. Besides, it's not like we're paying for it. My parents are doing that. Twice now."
"It's not our fault we had to postpone." Jay handed Nya her medicine.
"No, and they understand why. But they're still paying, so we need to finish planning."
"Okay, Nya, we're all finished here."
Nya opened her eyes. She was at the dentist getting her filling and cap on her tooth. She had no idea what they gave her this time, but even though she wasn't totally knocked out, she felt like she was floating on a cloud the entire time. She tried to talk, but her mouth didn't want to work properly.
"Someone's getting your brother. But everything looks good. Make sure you brush and floss twice a day, use a toothpaste with fluoride in it, as well as mouthwash. I have a goodie bag for you, and the receptionist can schedule your next cleaning for you when you check out."
"Ahh naa…"
"She's all ready for you, and she did a good job today."
Nya turned and saw Kai walk into her room.
"Good. Come on, sis, let's go." Kai had to help Nya stand up without falling over. He took her to the desk to check out.
"When would you like to come back for a cleaning?" The receptionist held up a calendar.
"Nefa…" Nya mumbled.
"She'll be here in six months," Kai said.
"Na I won."
"Yes, you will. You really think we're just going to let you skimp on your oral hygiene after this?"
Nya grumbled all the way back to the monastery. After a nap, she had to admit that she did feel much better, and she was glad she could eat sweets again. She even decided she was glad she had this done before the wedding. She did a much better job at following the dentist's instructions, and she hoped she would never have to have another root canal for the rest of her life.