Chapter 12: The rich ninja

Cole's eyes opened slowly as he found it was morning, he had fell asleep next to Zane the previous night as they all tried to pry Kai away from beating Jay down. He yawned and stretched his arms; Kai had fallen asleep trying to punch Jay, so the red ninja lay on his back punching enemies in his dream. Zane rested against the wall, holding both his hands together in deep sleep. Cole stood slowly and the smell of bacon hid him. "Oh hell yeah, I smell bacon!" he shook his other teammates awake. "Guys, someone made-" he stopped when he realized all of his teammates were with him. Who else would be cooking? He ran for the kitchen.

Lloyd handed Scarlet a plate of about twenty pancakes which she placed on the dining table for the others. Cole ran in and she waved politely. "Hey, Cole,"

Lloyd's expression darkened as he heard the black ninja's name. He had forgiven his girlfriend, but Cole… "Uh, hey Scarlet," Cole looked over to The Green Ninja. "Lloyd…"

"Cole…" he put a plate of bacon down on the table and quickly threw his arm around Scarlet's waist to send a mean signal. Back off. Scarlet noticed this. "Lloyd…" she warned. "Be nice." She pulled Cole over by his arm. "You two need to make up, okay?"

Cole sighed. "Okay, I am really sorry about…You know…Can you forgive me?"

Lloyd smiled. "One more thing before I forgive you." The black ninja nodded and Lloyd pulled back his fist. He sent it forward into Cole's nose and it began to bleed again. He groaned in pain. "Now we're friends again." Lloyd put his arm around Cole's shoulder, mostly to stop him from falling over.

"Thanks, man."

Scarlet examined both boys, confused. "What…but you just punched him…What the-"

"It's a guy thing." They both laughed, leaving her dumbfounded but happy that they made up.

Later after Cole gets an ice pack…

Everyone sat at the table, eating pancakes and bacon happily, though Cole found a few special ingredients in his pancake. Such as, tacks, needles and a bug which were courtesy of Lloyd before they had made up. Scarlet nudged her boyfriend harshly in the arm and he took the hint. "Okay, okay, sorry Cole, I was still angry when I made your pancake."

"Uh…It's okay, I'm not that hungry anyway…" Cole said as he found a fifth dead roach in his pancake. He eventually pushed the plate away.

"So…What happened here?" Jay asked, looking at Lloyd and Scarlet's newly black dyed hair.

"Oh…" Scarlet and Lloyd said in union as they reached up to touch their heads. "You were better off as a blonde." She said to him, smiling.

He laughed a bit. "Yeah…we should try to get this hair thing taken care of."

Nya cut in. "I can help you guys later on today."

"Thanks, Nya." Again they said together.

They both looked at one another, smiling and Lloyd reached over to grab her hand under the table. Scarlet squeezed his hand gratefully. Sensei Wu walked into the room. "Hey, Sensei," Kai waved.

They noticed the old man had a smirk on his face directed at Scarlet. "Uh…What is it, Sensei?" she asked.

"Your leg has healed, correct?" she nodded. "Then it is time for your final test."

Scarlet jumped up. "Oh, what is it? Do you want me to beat down some Serpentine? Oh, I know! Do I get to learn how to control the wind? Well, don't keep me in suspense! Tell me what the heck my final test is!"

Sensei shook his head after Scarlet's every guess of what her final test was. "Your final test is to resolve any matters of the heart, unlocking your true potential."

Her eye twitched in frustration as Wu left the room. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!" she screamed. "Damn it…Can someone help me out with this riddle?" she asked the others.

Zane shrugged. "Unlocking your true potential can occur in many foreign ways. For example, I unlocked mine when I found out I was an android and I remembered my father, Dr. Julien."

"Yeah, and I unlocked mine when I revealed that I was a ninja to my dad."

Scarlet nodded as she took in the little details. "Okay…okay…This is coming together…"

"Do you have any guilt about something in your family?" Jay asked, earning a slap on the back of the head from Kai.

Scarlet thought for a moment and her eyes widened. "Uh…I do…"

"Well, what is it?" Lloyd grabbed her hand gently.

She sighed. "Okay, a few weeks before…all of this happened, this idiot, Storm proposed to my sister, Haden. I always thought something was off about him, but I kept quiet, one day, I saw him kissing Haden's best friend, Alex, I'm pretty sure they went further. I never told Haden, I was about to, but I never got the chance because I went to the comic book shop and then…" She folded her arms and leaned against Lloyd's shoulder. "My sister's wedding is in a few days, I guess I have to deal with this stuff now if I want to pass my final test."

Lloyd looked at Scarlet then kissed her cheek. "We'll help you."

"Wait…Really?" she looked up at everyone who nodded. She smiled again. "Thanks, guys, we should head to my house tomorrow."

"Of course, Nya change course and head to, uh…Where do you live?" Kai asked.

"There's another thing I should probably mention…My family lives in Ninjago City, but, uh…We live in Harmony."

"Isn't Harmony that neighborhood with all the-"

Scarlet cut Cole off. "Yes, Harmony is the neighborhood with all the spoiled rotten rich snobs, I know."

"Wait…You never-"

Lloyd was cut off by Scarlet as well. "Never mentioned that I'm rich? I know I didn't, it just never came up. My dad owns this really big company that invested in Steve Jobs' Apple series and my mom designs clothes that go to stores like Justice, Forever 21, Guess and crap like that. There I told you I'm rich, happy?"

Everyone's looks just made Scarlet more uncomfortable. "Look, I'm gonna' go in my room until we arrive, okay?" she said, walking off. Lloyd wasn't exactly sure what to say. Wasn't it a good thing to be rich?