Lies Of The Serpent: A Ninjago AU

Chapter 69: Problems Preforming

Cole's POV

"Okay, from the top. Five, six, seven, eight!" Dad said before playing the piano.

"Bop till you drop!" Kai sang.

"Shake it till you break it!" Jay sang.

"Move it till you lose it!" Lloyd sang.

There was a moment of silence as everyone waited on me to go. I simply stood there. Silent. 

"Spin it till you win it!" Hebi sang after a good minute of my silence.

"Hebi, your supposed to wait for Cole," Lloyd said.

"But I wanted to sing!"

"You could sing after he sang."

"He clearly wasn't going to." I sighed, staring at the floor embarrassed. She was right. I'd thought I'd gotten over this. I guess not.

"Maybe he was!"

"Maybe he wasn't!"

"Maybe he was!"

"Maybe he was-"

"Stop! Stop! Even if Cole had decided to actually participate it would've still been terrible! I mean really. If my ears weren't attached to my head they'd be running away!" Dad said before walking towards us in a way which I knew meant he was about to list all of our problems.

I quickly ran out of the room. No way was I going to listen to him criticize me again! That was the entire reason I had this problem in the first place!

"Come back here!" Dad yelled. I grumbled, but walked back. Everyone was giving me confused looks now, and I felt sick to my stomach.

"Cole, at least try to act like you wanna be here," dad said. I grumbled.

"Maybe I would of you didn't make me miserable," I mumbled under my breath. He turned around.

"What was that, son?"

"Nothing!"

"Okay. Now, Kai, love the energy, hate the hair." He smacked Kai's head with his cane. "Jay, you're giving a lot, but I need more. Lloyd, louder, you're trying to shine, not blend in. And Hebi, I think we need to find you a part without dancing. Before you break more than ten flower pots." He motioned to the now broken flower pots.

"He's worse then Molly!" Jay said, earning him a sharp glare from dad.

"Okay, moving forward. Let's take a look at the big show stopping climax. Cole, we can't have history repeating itself." I grumbled.

"Dad. It was the triple tiger sashay. I was seven."

"What's the triple tiger sashay?" Kai asked.

"Only the most difficult dance move ever created."

"It's true. Many professionals have dared tried, but it's never been successfully completed," dad said.

"Hence, my father thought a seven year old could, but I ended up falling on my face, humiliating myself, and letting my quartet down."

"If you're going to win you have to go big! All right, time for a break, take five." He left the room, slamming the door.

"Why didn't you sing?" Hebi asked.

"Because....." I began, but I didn't really want to admit why. Luckily I quickly found something to change the subject. "Lloyd, what are you doing?"

"He said, take five. So I'm taking five," Lloyd said.

"He meant five minutes! Not five objects!" Lloyd grumbled, putting down the random objects he'd been trying to steal.

"Now that that's done. Continue," Hebi said. I sighed.

"I might have acute stage fright." I said super fast in hopes no one would really hear.

"Is that why you fell on your face while doing the triple tiger sashay?"

"No, I didn't have it back then."

"Oh, interesting. When did you-"

"Can we stop talking about this?"

"Sure!" I clapped to get everyone's attention.

"Guys, look, I'll deal with my father, but let's stick with the plan. All we have to do is keep this charade up long enough until we can get our hands on the trophy."

"I don't know. I'm starting to think we can win this thing," Jay said. I gave him an angry look. "Okay, okay. We'll stick to the plan."

"Thank you. I don't want to be here longer than necessary."