"That's it! We are officially pigs," Nya announced, as she gathered all the empty disposable lunchboxes and gave them to Zane.

After a good amount of karaoke, the Ninja felt becoming targets to extreme hunger. Talking, driving, singing, they hardly noticed that they were out of snacks – and it had only been an hour since they had reached the highway. Which meant they had to go a long while without food till they found a motel.

"Kai is the one who had suggested we eat," Lloyd argued. "If he hadn't said that, we wouldn't have noticed that we were hungry." He played with the strap of a duffel bag that lay next to him. "We already had a proper breakfast this morning."

The Master of Fire let out a noise laced with disbelief. "How can you blame me for the food shortage?!" He yelled, glaring at the blonde. "I threw up my breakfast, remember? I was starving!" But Lloyd wasn't listening to the hothead. In fact, he had entirely tuned out the argument as he spotted something on the floor among Kai's duffel and toiletry case.

Zane zipped up the bag after stuffing all the boxes inside before straightening up and dusting his hands. "The amount of blame you are putting on Kai is irrelevant. He never forced us to eat our food."

"Thank you, Zane!"

The nindroid smiled politely. "Actually, the level of happiness with which you are thanking me is also irrelevant." He waited for this statement to settle in before continuing. "I said the amount of the blame was irrelevant; not the blame itself. Technically, if you hadn't interrupted the karaoke but let it continue for a while longer, we would still be well equipped with food."

The entire team burst out laughing as Kai muttered through gritted teeth, "I hate you, Zane."

Cole cleared his throat as a thought occured to him. He adjusted the rearview mirror so that he could look at everyone. "Actually, we are still well equipped with food."

His friends looked at him with confusion, waiting for him to unravel the mystery. "Are you expecting mana from heaven?" Nya asked sarcastically. Cole rolled his eyes before saying, "No. My cookies."

Everyone started protesting on this immediately to Cole's annoyance. "If you think I'm gonna pollute my mouth with your cookies then you're crazy!" Jay hollered. Nya snatched up the bag containing the cookie tin and pulled it out. She rolled down her window and readied herself to dispose it off. "I'm gonna yeet these monstrosities out the window!"

Kai panicked, reached back and pulled the tin out of his sister's grasp. When Nya glared at him indignantly, he replied, "We're not yeeting these out the window! Are you crazy?!"

Cole smiled thankfully at Kai before gluing his eyes back on the road. "Guess I've finally found a fan who likes my baking." Kai stared at him disbelievingly before bonking Cole's head with the tin. "I'm not a fan, you dolt! I'm saving this as a last resort!"

"They should be saved as a never resort, if you know what I'm saying."

"Shut it, Jay!"

Everyone was so busy insulting Cole's kitchen skills that they didn't see their leader jump in surprise and pull up his feet from off the ground. The blonde could swear he saw a feathery head pop up from somewhere in the luggage. He bent down to get a closer look and . . .

"Uh, guys?" He called out but to no avail. Cole was rather loudly defending his cookies while the others offended them louder still. "Guys?" He tried again, raising his voice.

"Yes?" Came someone's impatient reply as silence took over the car. Lloyd rose up from his bent position and unsurely glanced at everyone as they turned around in their respective seats to look at him.

"This probably isn't a good time to tell you this," he said, grimacing, "but there's a . . . chicken in our car."  

There was a few seconds of shock before the rest of the Ninja blurted in unison, "What?!"

Lloyd nodded in confirmation before reaching down and carefully scooping up a brown hen in his arms and showing it to his team. The said team was struck dumb at the sight and Cole had to put on the brakes. Nya cleared her throat before saying drily, "Well, what do you know? There is a chicken in our car."

"And a fat one at that. Guess our food problem is solved."

"Jay."

"Yeah, Zane?"

"Please be quiet."

The chicken clucked softly as it made itself comfortable in Lloyd's arms. It looked at all the occupants of the car with the swift movements of its head.

Cole scratched his head as the bird scrutinized him from the backseat. "How in Ninjago did it even get inside?"

No one said anything for a moment as if remaining quiet would result in the disappearance of the chicken. Nothing of the sort happened, though. Lloyd finally shrugged in response to Cole's question. "Don't know. However, it came out of Kai's bag."

As soon as these words left the blonde's mouth, Kai gave a cry of surprise. He started demanding that he be given his bag immediately.

After gaining access to the duffel, the Master of Fire quickly pulled out its contents. "If it so much as pooped on my favourite shirt . . ." He threatened, unfolding and observing all the clothing articles.

Cole snorted as Lloyd glared daggers at the back of Kai's head. "I don't think this poor thing's had anything to eat at all," he stated, stroking the chicken's feathery neck and eyeing it with pity.

Jay perked up as an idea hit him like a bullet train. He snapped his fingers excitedly before suggesting, "Maybe we should feed it Cole's cookies." He wasn't met with an immediate agreement but that didn't mean the others weren't thinking it over.

Lloyd, however, shook his head, his golden locks swaying due to the movement. "I'm not feeding it those cookies, Jay. This chicken never did anything bad to me."

Zane couldn't help but smile at the sudden childish demeanor of the blonde. He wouldn't have been smiling if he'd noticed Cole's hands tighten around the steering wheel.

Jay made an impatient noise. "It's to fatten it up so that we can eat it later. We are super hungry, right?"

Kai shuddered at the thought of chicken wings served with a sauce on a platter. "I am so not going to eat a chicken whose body has been polluted with Cole's cookies."

Nya giggled but soon cried out indignantly as the car jerked and came to a sudden stop. She lurched forward onto the back of Kai's seat as the others got upset as well. Her brother howled in pain as his nose collided with the dashboard. The chicken panicked a little and flapped its wings, clucking madly until Lloyd patted its head to calm it.

"What the heck, Cole?!" Jay exclaimed, rubbing his head where it had hit the window of the minivan. The Master of Earth didn't respond, however. He aggressively unstrapped his seatbelt and threw open the door of the driver's seat.

Without a word – and not even bothering to close the door – Cole stormed off into the field alongside which they had been driving. Zane called out after him but whatever had ignited the black ninja's anger, pushed him to walk onwards and away from the car.

"What has caused such sudden and drastic change of moods in Cole?" Zane questioned his fellow team-mates, not taking his eyes off Cole's storming figure. Nya ran a hand through her hair to straighten them before leaning back in her seat. "Obviously, it's all the insults you're constantly throwing at his baking skills."

Kai turned around to glare at his sister as if she'd said a bad word he had forbidden her to speak. "Excuse me? You were the one who wanted to throw his cookies out the window!"

"Meh. Felt like the moment needed it."

"That's no excuse!"

Jay tried to scramble out of his seat, squeezing between his girlfriend and the nindroid and falling over to the front where Kai sat. "See, now you made him mad!" He observed, using the already open door as means to exit the car.

Kai rolled his eyes as the blue ninja climbed out of the minivan. "Jay, you were the worst of us." The auburn haired boy turned around and stuck his tongue out at Kai before running over to Cole.

The chicken clucked again as if it was trying to fill the silence. Kai ran his hands through his hair as he realized that the bird was still there. "And there's still a chicken in the car. Why are we okay with that?!"

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Jay reached the Master of Earth, clearing his throat to indicate his presence. Cole scowled and looked away, his arms folded.

Jay smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Hey, bro–"

"Go!" Cole snapped, cutting him off. "Go find a professional baker to put on your team. Throw my hardwork out the window or feed it to chickens for all I care!" 

"Okay, I'm sorry!" Jay exclaimed, holding up his hands. "I know, we're horrible friends for judging your cookies without tasting them."

Cole scoffed at this but kept listening. It's time he got an apology. It was his mother's recipe with which he had baked those cookies.

"But we never mean it as an insult," Jay continued. "So what if you can't cook or bake? We don't really need that as the Ninja, do we?" He paused to see what effect he had on Cole. It wasn't working as well as he'd planned, though. He kept going.

"Kai can't invent or lead right and we always tease him about how bad his plans are." Jay swore he saw Cole smile a little at that sentence. "Zane can't act like a normal human being but he doesn't have a problem with it."

Cole slumped his shoulders and loosened his "I'm so mad right now" posture. "You're right," he sighed. "Maybe I'm overreacting a bit."

Jay nodded in agreement, thankful that Cole understood without taking too much time and before Lloyd screamed about getting late again. That wasn't a problem considering how distracted he was by the chicken.

Cole smiled slightly before frowning again. "But that doesn't mean you guys weren't jerks to me the whole time," he argued, taking a step towards Jay who stumbled back, laughing nervously.

"I know," he managed to say. "And to make up for that, we will try your cookies. Deal?"

Cole looked at Jay with distrust. Finally, he huffed and agreed. "Deal."

They made their way back towards the car and got in. Before anyone could say anything, Cole presented to everyone the cookie tin and explained what Jay had decided. Kai glared at the blue ninja who gestured for him to be quiet.

They all timidly took up a cookie and stared at it as if it were a bomb. After receiving nervous attempts at smiling, Cole pointed towards his mouth, telling the others to start eating their cookies. 

One could practically hear everyone's rapid heartbeat as they opened their respective mouths and bit into the baked "goods" . . .

Lloyd slowly chewed, his face contorted in concentration as he tried to figure out the quality of the food. His eyes widened with every passing second. "Wow," he began, his mouth full. "This . . . is really good!"

Everyone agreed as they took another bite, then another and another. Moans of delight and expression of satisfaction filled the previously tension-laced air. Cole raised an eyebrow as everyone reached for another cookie.

"We're sorry," they all mumbled in unison. The Master of Earth tried to look angry but he failed as his lips tilted upwards in a grin. "Jerks," he muttered, beaming in spite of himself.

"Buck, buck, buck-ah!"

"Give the chicken some too, will you?"

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The sun was low on the horizon as the last rays stretched out from the vanishing ball of fire, splashing the sky in orange. On the lonely highway sped the minivan, the driver now the hot-headed Master of Fire.

Cole yawned as he lazily slumped on the seat beside Kai, grateful for the freedom. The others were equally drained out, waiting patiently for the first sight of a small town where they would book rooms and spend the night.

Lloyd had taken a cookie from the tin and had crushed it into crumbs. He fed them to the chicken who, to Kai's annoyance, was not tired at all. It would cluck loudly at times for no apparent reason or want to sit on the dashboard and peck anyone who tried to turn the dial of the air conditioner.

The blonde smiled at the tickling sensation every time the bird would peck his hand for a crumb. Jay had squeezed himself on the other side of the backseat with a wall of luggage between him and the chicken, wanting to know how Lloyd was comfortable with feathers all over his jumper.

Zane had been observing the Green Ninja for quite some time now and couldn't make up a reason as to why he had gone from "control freak leader" to "chicken loving kiddo" in a matter of moments ever since the bird emerged from out of nowhere. "It seems Lloyd has developed very friendly relations with our new passenger," he announced in amusement.

"You mean our uninvited passenger," Kai muttered, putting on the blinker as he turned the vehicle right. Nya scoffed at her brother's irritating attitude. "Relax, Kai. All your bags are up at the front so you don't have to worry about the chicken getting inside."

Lloyd leaned back as the chicken gently flapped its wings, clucked once as if to say "night night" and nestled down onto the boy's lap, eyes closed. Jay gave a nervous laughter. "Oh, look at that. Its, uh . . . sleeping. You- you can put it down, Lloyd."

"No way," the blonde stated. "Chickens need a nice, cosy place to roost." He stroked the copper-brown feathers of the bird as it clucked softly in response to the gentle touch.

"Dude," Kai began, looking at Lloyd in the rearview mirror. "If you keep it that warm and cosy, it's gonna lay an egg on you."

"That settles breakfast arrangements," Nya muttered, yawning afterwards.

Lloyd ignored the red ninja's statement. "We should call it something like, uh . . ." He trailed off, running over different names in his head. "How about . . . Kyle!" He finally decided.

"Kyle?!" Cole blurted out. "That's a boy's name, Greenbean. This here is a hen."

"So?" Lloyd asked, shrugging. "Who cares?"

"The chicken does, obviously."

"Nah," Lloyd dismissed the black ninja. "She won't know what we call her nor will she care."

Zane shook his titanium head, gazing back at Lloyd. "That is a misunderstanding. Chickens are said to be very intelligent birds."

Kai groaned, wondering why they were even having the conversation anyway. "She's a random poultry bird. We shouldn't be calling her anything."

Lloyd slowly sat up straight so as not to upset the chicken and glared at Kai. "I'm gonna call her Kyle and that's final. It was the name of my puppy that I used to have. My dad gave him to me on my fourth birthday."

"Used to?" Jay voiced out, detecting the use of the past tense.

"Yeah," Lloyd replied casually. "Mom gave him away to a pet shelter when she dropped me off at the boarding school."

"Wowza!" Kai exclaimed dryly. "Now we have a female chicken in the car who's named Kyle after Lloyd's ex-puppy. What next? A kitty cat named after your ex-girlfriend?"

"Sensitive subject, back up!" Lloyd hollered as Kai snickered teasingly. The blonde shook his head at the chuckling teen and gazed out of the window. He felt the chicken shift slightly as his own eyelids drooped from exhaustion. He was about to drift off into dreamland when . . .

"Guys, I think I grabbed my old pair of shoes in a hurry because the sole of one completely peeled off."

"Get out of my life, Jay."

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