Chapter Text
Yeah, the students knew their school was broke when the administration began charging them $1.0 nigo for a temporary-one-day-use ID card every time they forgot it at home, and when there were pep rallies and entry fee was $10.0n. So when they announced that their prom would be a $125.3n entry fee, none of them were surprised. But regardless of their prediction of the price, they were still bewildered.
"There is no way," Nya said, staring at the pre-registry screen, "I am paying that much money to go and stand around in a poorly decorated gym, surrounded by sweaty teens and strobe lights." Kai, who was sat next to her, nodded and took a sip out of his carton of school chocolate milk. She continued, "You're asking high schoolers to get you that much money? Hello???" Nya gestured to herself. "Do I look like an ATM????"
"You look like a completely real and normal high school girl," Zane assured her from across the table, rocking back and forth in his seat and smiling. Nya smiled back and shot him a wink and a finger gun before stealing a fry from her brothers' plate and chomping into it. Kai either didn't see her, or didn't care, because he didn't react. Lloyd sat on Nya's immediate right with his cheek resting on his hand, and had been quiet up until now. "Well, I guess this raises the question; is anyone even going to prom?" He scanned the other five sitting at the table. Cole took another bite of his lunch, which was chicken strips, mashed potatoes, and fries or tots today.
Kai raised his drink and gestured with his pointer finger, "I might go, just to see if anything funny or cool happens. Besides, it's our senior year, and I don't wanna have not gone to prom just because it's lame. This is a once in lifetime thing, yaknow." Jay, who was sat beside Lloyd, took his computer back from Nya. "Well, I kind of have to go, since I'm in yearbook and I gotta take pictures."
"Ooh, Jay," Kai said leaning across both Nya and Lloyd- who leaned waa-ay back to give him space- to get a look at the price again, "You're in yearbook, there's gotta be some strings you can pull to get the ticket prices down?" Jay sighed and rubbed his neck beneath his scarf. He turned the computer to face Kai. "Do you see this screen?" he huffed out, showing the same pre-registry screen that was there when Nya had looked. The ninja leaning back also looked at the screen. "Uhhh, yeah, it's the exact same as before."
"This is me pulling strings." Jay said, exasperated. "I tried everything I could to get it to $100 at the least, but they said N-O, NO." He turned the computer towards himself and opened a new tab, pulling the website up through a different link. Kai sat back down and slurped at the last of his chocolate milk before chucking the empty carton into a nearby trash, allowing Nya and Lloyd a break on exercising their upper body strength. Then, Jay turned the computer back, but more out, so everyone could see. "This, is the price every other student has to pay." The ninja leaned in to see, and collectively, four jaws dropped. They all froze, a bite of tater falling out of Cole's open mouth and back onto his plate in the process. "Shock!" Zane exclaimed instead, eyes wide.
$200 Nigo.
"They adjusted the price for all the kids in yearbook and gave us a custom link to tickets so we'd be able to buy them for cheaper, but they're still super pricey." Jay said, running a hand through his hair. "Uh, yeah, I think we can see that." Cole finally commented, scooping the half chewed piece of potato and popping it back in his mouth, his usual nonchalance wavering under thick belts of shock.
They all sat back down. "Well, now that we know this information," Lloyd said, "The question still stands; is anyone going to prom?"
Zane gently took one of Cole's hands into his and raised them up so the table could see. "Well, Cole has asked me out to the dance, to which I replied with 'yes', so he and I will be going." The earth master grinned and nodded, chomping into a chicken strip. Their tablemates quietly clapped for them like this was homecoming court, and the two bowed playfully.
As the applause died out, Nya brought a finger to her chin to physically express her thoughts. "I might go, if someone were to ask me out." she commented. Upon hearing Nya exchange this information, four pairs of eyes shared glances before all landing on Jay in a hard stare, as if to say 'What's taking so long, bub?!'. Jay in return, stiffened up and shrunk deep into his orange scarf, as if to reply, 'I'm getting to it!'.
There was a beat, and the table was at threat of suffering from an awkward silence. "I'll be Kai's date then," Lloyd said, breaking the quiet and looking at the mentioned ninja. "I don't wanna go by myself, and it'll be nice to have a good friend with me." Kai's lips turned up in a toothy grin, and he smacked Lloyd's head, tussling his hair, and then transitioning into a friendly noogie. Lloyd let out groans of protest, immediately regretting having called Kai a 'good friend', and regretting even more having offered to be his plus 1.
"Awww, bro-o, of course i'll go to prom with you." Lloyd finally freed himself from the stronghold which was Kai's arms, and smacked him a few times on the shoulder. "I'll go with someone else, since you're being weird about it!" Kai only laughed, knowing Lloyd would never do that, and ruffled his already ruined bed head, completely decimating any rhyme or rhythm that remained to it.
Jay stood up suddenly, eyes blown wide and face burning a bright red as he hurried to pack his stuff. His computer flew into his bag which slammed onto the ground with a loud 'THUD', gaining the attention of a few other kids at different tables. "Where you going, sparky?" Cole asked with his mouth full, leaning onto Zane who looked just as lost as everyone else. Jay's face only increased in color, and he began stammering and blubbering and waving his arms about. It seemed as if he had way too many things to say, and his mouth couldn't say it, for he wasn't the elemental master of speed. All he ended up doing was confusing the others, running out of breath, and making himself dizzy.
"Slow down!" Kai waved at him. "You're not Griffin Turner, man." Jay opened his mouth and took a breath like he was going to go on another long spiel, but all that came out this time was , "Yearbook Meeting!" and he took off running out of the cafeteria, shoving what remained on his lunch tray at Cole- who accepted it with zero hesitation- and ultimately dwindling their table size down to five. The others watched him go, their eyes and heads turning simultaneously. "If I am to understand correctly," Zane started, turning his head back to survey the table, "Jay has packed his things and left lunch early, because he claims to have a 'Yearbook Meeting'?" The others turned back and nodded. "That's what he said," Nya confirmed.
Zane made a face, one that the others all knew far too well because of how often he made it; the face that said 'Well now I'm even more confused, because according to my calculations, what you just said differs from what is written in my extremely real and physical organized planner that has everything in it'. "That cannot be possible, as Yearbook does not have any remaining meetings for the week; I checked with the manager to see if Jay would have the free time to assist me in the issue of the leakage in my mech."
The others were quiet, as they thought. Cole was the first one hit with clarity, and he paused with his hand in the air mid-bite into one of Jay's half eaten strips as he rushed to make an excuse. "Well-! Maybe it's only after school meetings you confirmed about, no one really cares about lunch meets anyway!" He spoke through gritted teeth, shooting pointed glances at the others and putting down the food. Kai and Lloyd caught on, sharing a look before glancing at Nya and back at Cole, who nodded. "Yeah Zane, actually, doesn't band meet at lunch too?" Lloyd put in. Zane shook his head, "That's only for pep rallies, which there are none scheduled for the remainder of the six weeks." "Well that's sweet to hear," Nya put in, so she wouldn't feel left out. She wasn't getting any of these boy glances or looks, and she was starting to feel ostracized. "No one liked those pep rallies anyway."
"In any case," Zane went on, "I feel like Jay is not being completely truthful in his words. We were freely discussing yearbook for a good 15 minutes, before he finally remembered, and- Ow, that hurt." Zane had stopped speaking, having experienced an unexpected jolt of pain in his foot. As it turns out, Kai, Lloyd and Cole had all stepped on his foot, some harder than others (Cole shot a pointed look at Kai, who shrunk back sheepishly). Zane finally seemed to get the memo and sat up straighter somehow, his smile seeming stiffer than usual.
"Ah, I have just realized, Jay might just be embarrassed." He glanced over to the other boys, who were trying to be as subtle as possible with their rapid head shaking. "..That.. he has to umm." Coming up with a lie was hard! Why was he expected to do this?? "He had to use the restroom! Yes, that is it." Nya rose an eyebrow, but said nothing in response. She wasn't in the mood for this, and the cafeteria was emptying anyway, signifying that lunch was coming to a close for the day. "I guess we can talk about prom a little more tomorrow, huh?" Lloyd asked, hooking his bag over his shoulders.
"I''m definitely going, now that i've got a daa-ate," Kai sang, slinging his own bag over one of his shoulders and leaning all into Lloyd's personal space. The Green Ninja sighed and pushed Kai off of him with a monotone expression on his face, though he showed no signs of discomfort. Cole shoved the remainder of his double lunch into his mouth and somehow managed to swallow, then stood up, grabbing he and Zane's bags and slinging them over each of his shoulders. Zane picked up all the empty lunch trays and stacked them in a pile to throw away. Then he paused. "Ah, It seems that an important matter has slipped my mind until now," he said with wide eyes and sudden change in tone. His usual smile was now fixed in a deeply concentrated frown.
"One of my friends from Business and Technology, Pixal, would also like to attend prom. I did offer to go with her, but that was before I knew Cole was offering to take me. So now Pixal does not have a date" Zane looked over to Kai and Lloyd. "Will you two be willing to add another member to your prom group?"
Kai looked thoughtful, but Lloyd immediately smiled and nodded, placing a hand on Zane's shoulder. "Of course we are. The more the merrier, right Kai?" he elbowed Kai in the side and he gagged in response. "Yeah, yeah whatever whatever, just don't ever do that what is wrong with you?!" he elbowed Lloyd in return, and the Green Ninja quickly understood why Kai had reacted the way he did. "I am so sorry, that felt so gross.