Reason Why I Hate Kai #10 : Blasted guilt tripper.

  Leif's birthday party. Yup. Today's the day. Everything was crazy as we frantically tried to clean the house and get everything ready.

  I helped Leif draw some pictures of the ninja to hang around the room and I managed to find this really nice fabric at the thrift store. Aunt Helen and Pops helped me fashion it to sort of look like a gi and soon we had a little fire ninja jumping all around.

  Aunt Helen shimmied through the door holding a chocolate cake with a little ninja figure on top.

  "Where'd you get that?" I asked.

  She beamed. "A friend of mine is starting her own bakery and after pulling so,e strings she agreed to make me a cake!"

  "What's the catch?"

  "I just have to brag about the bakery to everyone a few hundred times." She shrugged.

  "Lyn!" Pops jogged in. "The kids are coming soon, you may want to hide that." He nodded to the baked good.

  She nodded. Cake plus kids was never good.

  I went to my room to get the card and little ninja playing card I had bribed a puny kid into giving to me. It wasn't much. And it wasn't even a good ninja card.

  I scowled at the words common scrawled at the top. Stupid kid. And I still had to give him my lunch cookie.

  "Iiiissssslllllllaaaa!" A little voice squealed as Leif jumped in, the end of his mask rippling in the air.

  "Hey buddy!" I stuffed the cards in the waist band of my shorts. "You excited birthday boy?"

  He nodded vigorously. "Pops said I could invite four friends. So I invited my best friends Marco and Theodore. And then I invited Mary-Katherine my not-girlfriend. And because Tobias looked super sad and lonely because his parents are always away I invited him!"

"That's very nice Leif." I smiled at him. Tobias wasn't always the nicest kid and quite frankly I wouldn't have invited him but Leif's much nicer than I am.

Then the doorbell rang.

"They're here!" Leif yelled, he grabbed my hand and dragged me to the door.

I laughed and let him struggled to open it. Revealing a little girl with with strawberry blonde hair cut at her shoulders. Lots of freckles dogged her face and nose. She held a small gift bag.

"Hi Leif." She said sweetly.

"Hi Mary-Katherine!" Leif said brightly. He saw her mother standing there. "How! Mary-Katherine's mom!"

She smiled. "Happy birthday Leif. Mary-Katherine was very excited."

The cute little girl nodded vigorously.

"Come on inside." I said. They stepped in as Leif chattered excitedly. Pointing out his ninja decor. Mary-Katherine wore her own gi. She had on a blue bathrobe and wore a scarf on her neck that she had pulled down.

"I'm the water ninja." She said proudly.

Pops and Aunt Helen came in as the doorbell rang again. Marco and Theodore entered both wearing their own gi's. They were both sporting Green ninja gi's and arguing over who was the better one.

Finally Tobias entered. Looking self-conscious as his grandmother brought him.

"Which ninja are you?" Leif asked kindly.

"The Lightning ninja." Tobias said quietly. This was much different from the obnoxious little kid I remembered from the school barbecue.

His grandmother smiled softly and urged him on.

She saw me watching. "His parents promised they would be home this weekend." She explained. "But they were...busy." She said the words with such distaste that it made me wonder how 'busy' they were.

But her face turned back into a bright happy smile when he saw Leif including him in the kids game of 'ninja tag'.

"Okay everyone!" Pops clapped his hand. "Who wants to play pin the tail on the dragon mech?"

I winced at my crudely drawn dragon as the kids gathered around and put tape on their tails.

Aunt Helen handed me a glass of water as we watched Leif excitedly spin around and around.

I laughed as Leif stumbled dizzily and stuck the tail on the dragons face. Next was Theodore who accidentally attached it to Marco's nose. Tobias went after and managed to get the tail on the dragons belly.

At last Mary-Katherine went. After a few wobbly steps she carefully landed the tail on the butt.

I laughed as Theodore hotly told Marco that no he did not want a paper tail on his face thank you very much.

Aunt Helen went to get cake and food as I sat down on the window sill so others could have a seat. I was sipping my water when a tapping startled me and made me spit out my water.

Everyone froze at the tapping.

The kids stared wide eyes at something behind me. I slowly turned. A face met mine.

I yelped and fell backwards as the figure insistently tapped again.

Pops looked pale. "Isla...aren't you going to get the window darling?" Pops asked.

I shot to my feet, a dangerous look in my eyes as I yanked open the window.

"What?" I demanded to the red clad person.

"Um...I'm the fire ninja." He said.

"Very funny, now scat!" I shoved him in the shoulder. He yelled from where he was balanced on the neighbour down bellows window frame.

"Hey!" He yelled. "I'm here for the party!"

I took in his very nice gi. And the two giant katanas on his back.

"Oh my god that sick jerk." I gasped.

He looked at me funny as I stepped back. "Get in here." I ordered. He climbed obediently through. As he went to move farther in I stopped him.

"Uh uh." I wagged a finger. "We're strictly no weapons allowed." I pointed at the swords.

He stared at me. I met it with a glare. "Wait, you're serious?" He laughed in disbelief.

I squinted at him. Something was off.

"I mean, of course ma'am." His voice pitched into an unconvincing deeper tone.

He headed me the swords. After I kept my palm out he reluctantly placed in a couple of knives and this heavy throwing star thingy.

I dumped it all in the coat closet as he greeted the kids.

"Hey guys! I heard you all like ninja!" He said cheerfully.

They stared with their mouths wide open. "Are you the birthday boy?" Fire asked Leif as he took in his attire. Pops pulled me aside.

"What the heck?" He hissed.

"I can't believe that stupid idiot wants to guilt trip me." I muttered as I watched the fire ninja converse happily with the kids.

"What?" Pops looked confused.

I tugged at the roots of my hair. "Kai said if I tutored him he could get the fire ninja at Leif's party."

Pops gaped at the scene. "You mean the loud neighbour you're always whining about?"

  "Maybe."

  "Alright! Who wants cake?" Aunt Helen stepped in. She froze when she saw the fire ninja.

  "Hi." He said.

  The cake tipped from her grasp and I lunged forward to try and get it. The fire ninja had the same idea and we smacked our heads against head other. I fell back in pain as suddenly something chocolate and delicious smashed into my head.