Keeper of the Lost Cities Story; The Lost Secret

Chapter 9

The kitchen was, to say the least, chaotic when Kai, Amaria, and Asher got back from their childhood playroom. 

Zayne and Gracelyn are practically covered in what looks like batter. Gracelyn has it all in her hair, and Zayne has it all over the front of his shirt. 

"What happened in here?" Kai says laughing when she sees the scene. 

Kasi groans, "Zayne happened!" 

Bricen and Angin laugh. They are sitting on the island and both unscathed from the mess. Meanwhile, Kasi looked like she unwillingly had batter flung at her back. 

"Oh gods, that is never going to come out of your hair," Amaria laughs and tries to get some of the goop out of Gracelyn's hair. 

Asher gasps suddenly and makes Kai turn quickly to face him.

"Zayne!" 

Zayne snickers and Kai sees the batter drip down Asher's face from where Zayne dropped it in his hair. Everyone bursts out laughing and Kai quickly dips her finger into the batter bowl and swipes it across Amaria's face. 

"Oh, it is so on," she screams and grabs a handful, and smears it down Kai's face. It is surprisingly really cold, which felt nice to Kai. 

Soon everyone was flinging batter at everyone and only Bricen and Angin were clean by the end. They had wisely stayed away. Asher grabbed a whole handful and splat it at Kai's back, making her squeal. He quickly moved away from her before she could get him back. 

"Ahh," Gracelyn shrieked while she and Zayne both slipped. They all laughed as the two tried to get up, which was difficult on the slippery floor. 

"Woah woah woah, truce guys?" Asher says and reaches to help Zayne up.  

"Thankfully I already used the batter I needed for the ripplepuffs because you guys flung the rest of it!" Kasi says the corner of her eyes was crinkled even though she wasn't smiling. Kai could tell she found them hilarious, but wouldn't admit it. 

"Yes! A batter war and treats!" Zayne shouts. He, by far, had the most batter covering him. 

"First, we need to clean this up," Kai says over the laughing. 

Of course, that's when a gnome walks in. Her large green eyes were wide with surprise at the scene that was in front of her. Everyone freezes in place and stares at her for a second. 

"Don't worry Ida, we're going to clean it up," Kai rushes to explain. The gnome only laughs, it is an earthy and joyful sound. 

"It's alright Kai, I'm not worried. Just surprised to see your friends is all," Ida says. Her eyes flick to Asher and Zayne who are still messy from the batter.

"Oh, Asher Zayne! It's been much too long," She rushes to hug them despite the mess. 

They both grin and gladly hug the old gnome.  "I barely recognized you," 

"Hello Ida, I've missed you. Especially your delicious ButterBlasts!" Zayne says excitedly. "Sorry for the mess,"

Ida waves it off. "No worry dear, I am just so glad to see you!"

"Yeah me too," Asher says, which makes Ida hug him again. Kai remembers that she had taken a liking to little Asher, back when he would come over to her house every day. 

"Well I'll leave you kids to your cleaning," Ida says winking. She walks past them to head into the rest of the house. For a second everyone is silent until Bricen speaks the question Kai is sure some of them were thinking.

"Wait how long have you guys been friends? I didn't know Zayne had even been to your house before," 

"Long time dude," Zayne says. There wasn't really any humor in his voice though. He seemed more nostalgic than anything else. 

"I guess I've been friends with Zayne for about five and a half years," Kai says slowly. "And with Asher and Amaria for longer," 

Kai knew what they were thinking. Most of her friends never met her dad and it wasn't like Kai ever talked about him anyway. It made sense that they never knew that even Zayne had met him, they never talked about it. 

"Hey... um guys I think the ripplepuffs are almost done." Kasi says, and thankfully it effectively shuts down the tension building in the room. 

"Oh yes!" Zayne says. He and Gracelyn get super close to Kasi as she pulls the tray out of the oven. 

"Bro get away, you guys are so close to me," Kasi says when her elbow bumps Zayne. "I'm going to burn myself," 

"Sorry!" Gracelyn says, but she doesn't sound very sorry. 

The ripplepuffs looked perfect and smelled even better. Everyone surrounds Kasi as she puts it down on the counter, and she jumps when she turns around.

"God you guys scared me. They have to cool off, so chill and be patient," Kasi says. 

Kai laughs at her unintentional pun and goes to grab towels and stuff to clean the floor from the goopy batter that was now drying like cement on the floor. She comes out and tosses one to each person who participated. 

"Ugh, cleaning sucks," Zayne says, which makes Gracelyn laugh. 

"I agree, but to be fair we started it," She giggles. 

Kai thought that they looked really cute together. She wished that she and Asher could be like them. 

"Come on lovebirds and help us clean," Amaria says, making the two blush and move away from each other.