"Okay everyone, I've gathered you all here today to discuss our current situation: the Traitor," Jay said as he stuffed a kolache in his mouth. Hunter, Cass, Sammie, Cole, and I all sat a table with a Jay at a cafe in the City. A plate of doughnuts and kolaches sat in the middle of the table, the fresh and delicious smell making my mouth water. I refused to eat them though, so Cole wouldn't feel alone.
"Um, where's everyone else?" Cole asked, looking at the plate of pastries longingly. Jay swallowed his food, glancing at the ghostly young man.
"I don't trust them...and Lilly said she wanted to stay home," he answered him. Hunter gave a look of surprise.
"Wow, you don't trust Nya!? I thought you loved her," he said. Jay shook his head immediately.
"No no no! She just didn't want to come! I'd never not trust her!" he claimed. Hunter raised an eyebrow.
"But you just said you didn't trust her, along with my brother and the rest of the team," he reminded the redhead. Jay heaved a sigh.
"Just let me get through with this, Hunter," he said. Hunter remained silent and ate a doughnut, waiting for Jay to continue with his explanation. I saw Cole look at the doughnut, most likely yearning for a bite.
"Anyways, back to today's subject," Jay said as he pulled a notepad from his jacket. He flipped it open to (no offense to Jay) badly drawn profiles of our friends. I tried to not laugh at the pictures of Kai and Nathan's faces, whose hair was just pointed squiggles. It looked like something out of a bad "how to draw manga" book.
"Our prime suspects here are the team members who were not invited to this meeting: Kai, Zane, Nathan, Sensei Wu, Lloyd, and Misako. Lilly and Nya are excused from this list because they have not displayed suspicious behavior, though I do not exactly trust Lilly," the blue ninja informed us. Hunter immediately raised a hand.
"Question! Why is Nathan a suspect?" he asked.
"That's a good question, why is Nathan a suspect?" Jay said, rubbing his chin, "Well! Maybe if your brother didn't spy on people and act weird when addressed, he wouldn't be one!"
"You do realize that Nathan could be shy, and that if he really was the traitor, Hunter would know," Cass said. Hunter nodded.
"But Nathan could be keeping it secret!" Jay argued.
"If he was the traitor it would be REALLY obvious, Jay. Trust me," Hunter said. Jay was about to argue again, but clamped his mouth shut.
"Okay, fine...next suspect," he said. He pointed a finger at the small drawing of what looked to be Zane. "The nindroid!"
"Why would Zane be a suspect?" Cole questioned.
"Haven't you ever noticed that when he's actually relaxing, he laughs at random times!? Pretty weird if you ask me," Jay answered him, shoving another kolache in his mouth. Cole raised a single bushy eyebrow.
"Um, Jay, last I recall, Zane laughs at random times because Pixal told him robot humor or something. You told me that when you were repairing his arm after the trip to the beach. In fact you thought it was adorable," the black ninja reminded his teammate. Jay made a pouty face.
"They have such a better relationship than Nya and I. I'm jealous," he whispered in a sad tone. You know, if he wanted to repair his relationship with Nya, he should try doing more things with her. Though, Nya needs to pitch in on this too. It can't just be Jay doing everything.
"Okay, onto Kai now," Jay said, pointing to the badly drawn porcupine. He paused to take a drink of water, then cleared his throat.
"Two days ago, Cole and I went with Kai into the City to go run some errands for Sensei. While we were walking down the sidewalk, we passed that shop that sells Christmas stuff year round (ridiculous, am I right!?). The weirdest thing I noticed? Kai looked at the stuff the whole time we walked past it! Quite unusual for him," he exclaimed, "Now, Karma knows why this would be odd, but you new guys don't, so I'll inform you. Kai is afraid of Christmas. He never wants to look at Christmas stuff. In fact, he doesn't even like the word 'Christmas'."
Hunter started to laugh and the other two tried to contain their laughter after Jay revealed Kai's fear. I didn't know how to react. I could recall Zane telling me that it was no laughing matter, but at the same time I felt like the reason behind his fear was going to be ridiculous. There was no way someone could be afraid of Christmas any other way.
"It sounds stupid, but it's not something to laugh about," Jay's tone suddenly became serious, startling me a little. I've never heard Jay in this serious of a tone. I guess it's not really a laughing matter.
"I'm guessing no one has told any of you why he's afraid of it...except for Cole," Jay sighed. I nodded. He took another drink of water before looking at us again, a more serious look in his eyes instead of paranoia. "I might as well tell you, so Kai or Nya don't have to retell the story."
"Many years ago, when Kai was but 7 and Nya was only 5, possibly one of the worst things in their life happened, all on the happiest and cheeriest day of the year, too. It was the evening of Christmas Day, and they were spending time with their parents. Seems pretty pleasant, right? Well, it didn't stay that way for long.
"Kai's father thought he heard some banging in the shop, so he went to go check it out. Before he even walked through the door, Kai says he remembers seeing a sword blade impaling his father and some masked figure pushing through. Kai and Nya's mother tried to protect her children, but ended up dying the same way her husband did. Kai and Nya were obviously spared by this masked man, but Kai says what terrified him the most was that the masked man was wearing a Santa mask, and left him scarred for life. Hence, why he fears Christmas. It reminds him of the day his parents died."
Silence filled the table as we all took in the story Jay told us. I felt really bad for thinking he was scared of it for ridiculous reasons. Really bad.
"Okay, I feel really bad for laughing now," Hunter admitted, a guilty look on his face. Cass nodded in agreement.
"I remember hearing about that once. It was the first time I had heard anything major like that happening in Ignacia. They never found the killer," she told us. Jay nodded.
"Does Nya have the same fear?" Sammie asked.
"She doesn't because she doesn't remember much of it for some reason. She doesn't like anything with Santa Claus on it though," the blue ninja informed us.
"So...if Kai looks at anything Christmas-related..it's weird?" I asked. Jay nodded again.
"He never looks at anything Christmas related. He doesn't really take part in any Christmas activities. He even refuses to eat gingerbread," he answered. I could get where this was going now. So it was extremely odd for Kai to look at anything festive. That's two people to my suspect list.
"Now, onward to my last suspects, the Garmadon family," Jay said, catching everyone's attention. I was a little confused on this one. What could make them suspicious?
"It is known that evil runs through the Garmadon family, starting with Sensei Garmadon being bitten by the Devourer. What if that evil spread to Sensei Wu or Misako? Or did he transfer it to Lloyd through genetics?" the blue ninja spoke, his tone paranoid instead of serious now. I wanted to laugh at Jay's accusation. There's no way Lloyd could evil.
"Um, Jay, there's no way any of them could be evil. Lloyd's too good of a kid, too," I said. Jay slid across the table immediately, the plate of pastries sticking to his stomach and his half full glass of water falling over, nearly spilling on poor Cole.
"That's what you think, but you have been blinded by seduction!" Jay accused. I could feel my cheeks turning pink. What does he mean exactly!?
"What!?" I asked.
"Lloyd has seduced you with his young teenage looks to blind you! I have enough evidence from the day the new members showed up!" Jay claimed. My cheeks burned.
"Please don't bring that day up," I groaned.
"Denial!" Jay accused like an angry lawyer. I heard Cass sigh.
"You know Jay, what if you are the traitor?" she questioned. The redhead froze.
"I am not. What makes you think that?" he asked.
"Oh, I dunno, maybe the fact that you're paranoid as hell and accusing anyone who twitches their nose," Cass brought up. She had a point.
"I can assure you that I'm not the traitor. I'm sure of it," the blue ninja claimed. Before anyone could say anything, the waitress walked up, a scowl plastered on her face.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you and your party to leave. You have been disturbing the peace in this establishment," she asked him politely, despite the frown on her face. Jay groaned.
"Okay, let's go guys."
I now have three suspects on my list: Nathan, Jay, and Kai. Jay and Kai have displayed more peculiar behavior, while Nathan's is still mild. I'll have to keep an eye on all three of them though. There's no telling who could be the actual traitor.
8-5 9-19 14-15-20 23-8-15 25-15-21 20-8-9-14-11 8-5 9-19
(Hint: Count the letters in the alphabet. What number falls on what letter?)