Legends of Ninjago: Book 3: The Four Fangs

Chapter 10: Winner, Winner, Catastrophe Dinner

"Dinner is served!"
Cole opened his eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling of his room. He could hear and feel his friends' footsteps as they thumped through the hall, eager to reach the dining table, but he remained where he was laying. For a long time he debated whether or not he dare attend the humiliation-fest that would be dinner at all, until someone knocked on the door.
"Cole?" His father asked, peering into the room. "Dinner is ready. It's rude to keep others waiting." 
Cole held himself together just long enough for his father to leave, and then he made a face and tried to strangle the air. He had not missed his dad's constant nagging, not a single bit. Don't-be-so-dramatic-this and it's-rude-to-keep-others-waiting-that. Was it so wrong to just want to be left alone now and then?
He knew that pressing the matter would only cause a scene, so he dragged his feet downstairs and entered the dining room. It looked as though it had had some work done recently, mainly the upholstery on the chairs and the new red wallpaper.
The second thing he noticed upon arrival was that the others had left a chair open for him, next to his father. He proceeded to take the seat on the complete opposite side of the table. Liu's gaze seemed to grow just the tiniest bit cold, but Cole didn't care. A few of his friends seemed to be looking back and forth between the two Becket men, as if waiting to see what would happen next.
"Alright then," said their host at the head of the table. "Dig in."
Jay hesitantly reached for the rice and after he was done, the others took their turns, still keeping their eyes and ears open.
Then Liu cleared his throat. "So, how have things been at school lately?" He filled his bowl with noodles and looked up at his son.
"It's been fine," said Cole, starting his meal with a small serving of vegetables.
"Your teachers haven't been working you too hard, I hope." He took a bite of noodles.
"Comparatively, no," Cole muttered, reaching his chopsticks up to his mouth.
"Comparative to what?" Liu asked, setting his chopsticks down.
"Nothing."
Cole kept his head down and worked on his food while Liu begrudgingly switched targets. The one good thing about having guests around was that they forced his father to act more amiably than he otherwise would. "And what about the rest of you? How have you all been enjoying your school?"
"You mean the..." Nya started.
"The Martha Oppenheimer." Everyone turned toward Jay who still had a noodle hanging out of his mouth.
"The Martha Oppenheimer?" Liu repeated, furrowing his brow.
"He means the Marty Oppenheimer," Zane clarified, stressing the word "Marty" and narrowing his eyes at Jay. "And Jay here is a bit of a..."
"Bafoon?" Ann offered.
"I was going to say, jokester, but that works too," said Zane. Jay was not amused. "And school has been largely uneventful."
Liu sniffed his approval. "I wish I could say the same for the rest of Ninjago. Did you all hear about those villages that were attacked by those monsters?"
Cole's eyes widened ever so slightly.
"Terrifying stuff. Someone on the news was saying how they must be some sort of evolutionary mutation or other, though I find the fact that they look almost exactly like Serpentine to be very strange."
Kai suddenly coughed and spluttered out a bit of soy sauce.
"You alright, Spike? Do you need a napkin?"
The fire ninja shook his head politely.
"Yeah, those attacks did look pretty scary," Nya said, diverting everyone's attention. "You'd have to be a maniac to want to run into a situation like that." The way she spoke made it sound like she was referring to someone in particular, or perhaps it was just Cole's imagination.
"Yes, I'm sure the brave men and women who arrived on the scene and risked their lives to save the civilians would concur," said Ann, taking a sip of water. She, too, sounded very pointed.
"These noodles are really good!" Keaton piped up, taking a huge mouthful. "What did you say they were called again?"
"Zhajiangmian," Liu smiled.
"Jaw-chang... Jaw-chang-shaw?" Keaton tried to repeat through another mouthful of noodles.
"It's a traditional dish from the South, where my family is from," Liu went on, ignoring the staring contest that had started between Ann and Nya.
"That's where we're from," Kai blurted, swallowing some rice. "Me and my sister."
"Really? Which prefecture?"
"Zhang-He prefecture."
"Ahh, very good, very good. Been through there one or two times—lovely countryside there. What about you, Ann?" He asked, bringing her back into the conversation. "Where are you from?"
"Uh, Ninjago City," she said quietly.
"Tha's wher Jay's fwom too," said Keaton, downing a bowl of rice.
"Born and raised," Jay said with a big grin.
"Ahh, I see." He turned back to Ann, a cheeky grin in his face. "Is he your boyfriend then?"
"NO!" They both cried, turning bright red.
"Why? Does it look like we're together?" Jay asked, more out of genuine fear than anything else.
"I can fix that," said Ann flatly, and she held up her chopsticks as if they were a dagger.
"You don't look like a couple," Zane interrupted, giving both of them sharp looks.
"Sure you do. A couple of idiots," Kai chuckled. Ann pointed her chopsticks in his direction.
"Knock it off!" She and Jay both growled.
"Hey, takes one to know one," Nya joined in, unable to keep from snickering, and this time Ann looked like she just might actually stab someone.
Zane cleared his throat VERY loudly just then and everyone slowly became aware of Mr. Becket eyeing them all with a worried sort of look.
He gave a muffled cough. "Alright, then," he said awkwardly, and then they all went back to their food for a minute, silently chewing and glowering to themselves. "Oh, I forgot to mention: I would be very grateful if you didn't use the peppermint body lotion in the upstairs bathroom. Or the lavender soap, come to think of it. Both were quite expensive."
Nya and Keaton exchanged a look but kept their heads down, taking two more bites of rice.
"We'll be sure to," said Ann, trying very hard to sound grown-up. "After all, you've let us stay in your beautiful home, it's the least we can do. Ow!" The table stopped and stared for a moment as Ann's glare zeroed in on Nya, who seemed not to notice Ann's sudden cry of pain and picked up her water glass for a sip.
"Ah!" She yelped as the water in her cup seemingly sprang up to meet her mouth and spilled all down her shirt front. "You did that on purpose!"
"Did what?" Ann asked, glancing at a very confused Mr. Becket.
Nya's eyes turned to slits as she started using her napkin to clean herself up. "Nothing," she hissed through gritted teeth.
"You'll have to forgive Nya," Ann said to Liu. "She can be very clumsy."
Nya gave a shrill laugh. "It's nothing compared to the way you snore at night. The first time I heard you I thought you were a bear."
"Speaking of bears, you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?" Ann shot back.
"Okay, I think we're crossing a line here," said Jay, trying to smile and inching a bit closer to Nya.
"Hey, Keaton, pass the noodles, would ya?" Kai asked. The two of them were mostly still just eating.
"Oh, that line was crossed a looong time ago," Ann grumbled.
"Oh really? When was that exactly? The day you had your emotions sucked out?" Nya said, leaning forward in her seat.
"Guys, the food's getting cold," said Kai, taking another huge serving of noodles, and seemingly content with how much leftover there currently was.
"You don't understand anything," Ann huffed, rolling her eyes.
"I understand perfectly fine, thank you very much."
"If you understood, then we wouldn't be having this conversation."
"No, we wouldn't be having this conversation if you weren't such a stuck-up jerk!"
"Says the arrogant little neophyte who... who..."
"Yeah?"
"Grr! Just forget it!"
Ann ejected herself from the table and stormed off to the nearest bathroom, leaving everyone else either staring after her or slowly taking their next bite of noodles as they glanced around the tense room, seemingly waiting for permission for things to go back to normal.
Cole never liked it when Ann lost her cool like that. It was one of her worst traits, by far, but he couldn't help but wonder if there was a reason for it. Why did she, out of all the people present, have such a hard time dealing with stressful situations? It was a question he was afraid he might never hear the answer to.
Keaton was first to resume eating, and she seemed to almost hunch over her bowl, to the point where her face was almost entirely hidden. Kai slid the noodle dish closer to her and she took a second helping.
"We are incredibly sorry about that," Zane said to Liu carefully. "We've been... stuck together for quite some time now. I'm sure you can imagine how stressful things have been for us recently." Well, at least someone at the table was trying to act mature.
Liu gave a strained smile and took a sip from his glass.
Cole knew that expression well. It was the "I don't approve of your friends" look, and it was far, far from the first time he'd seen it. Actually, come to think of it, he couldn't remember a single time when his dad hadn't used it in the company of friends. No one Cole ever met was good enough for his sky-scraping standards, so why should this group be any different?
He unceremoniously chugged the rest of his water, then excused himself.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Liu asked as he got out of his seat. Cole rolled his eyes and turned around to pick up his bowl, chopsticks, and cup. "Thank you," Liu called after him as he went into the kitchen.
It was already dark outside, so the whole house was lit with warm lamplight, especially the kitchen. Cole deposited his dishes in the sink, then trotted back upstairs where, hopefully, he wouldn't be able to hear any more "conversation."