Four.
Lloyd's POV
"Sooooo...Where're you from, Natalia?"
"I'm from Ninjago City. My parents work setting up shows for The Royal Blacksmiths."
"Hey, my friend Cole's dad is the leader of Royal Blacksmiths!"
"Really! So, have you met him?"
"Who, Cole?"
"No, his dad."
"No. The one time they went to see him, I was...elsewhere."
"Where?"
"Uh - it's a long story."
"Oh."
A long, awkward silence ensued. I looked down at my feet, feeling tongue-tied. Natalia kept shyly stealing glances at my face, then quickly looking away when I met her eyes.
"So, what do your parents do, Lloyd?"
My face got hot. I wasn't embarrassed by the fact that my dad was the reformed Lord of All Evil and my mom was a student of ancient history and an expert in prophecies. But how do you explain that to a girl?
When Natalia saw that I wasn't going to answer the question, she just said, "Oh", and went quiet again. Then, she brightened. "Hey, can you play foursquare?"
"Yeah."
"You wanna play? There's a foursquare court outside."
"Uh...sure." So Brad, Gene, Natalia and I went outside to the foursquare court and took position. Natalia was in the King position, Brad in Queen, Gene in Jack, and me in Aces.
"Go, Lloyd!" yelled Brad, throwing the ball to me.
"Overhand! That's cheating!", Gene screamed.
"No, it's not!", Natalia countered.
"Yes it is!"
"King's ruling!"
"I really hate being in Jack."
All this barely processed in my mind before I did a ninja chop and sent the ball flying back to Natalia. She sent it underhand to Gene, who then overhanded it to me. (Hypocrite.) I hit it doublehand to Natalia...
...who doublehanded it right back...
...hitting me in the face...
...sending me flying backwards over the hill and nearly knocking my hair off. (A/N: LEGO, mate! LOL.)
"OHMIGOSH!", she half-screamed. "I am so sorry, Golden Ninja!"
"No...probs.", I muttered, even though my nose and my arm and my backside now ached.
Getting to know a girl was more painful than anticipated.
(Next chapter: Back to Misako, what happens when she's left alone with Wu.)