TMNT © Nick

OCs © MPN

Define

If there was something to wait for on a school day, it would be dismissal. She—They—would always wait for that time of school. That time of the day that signaled the end of class. Even though some of them wouldn't admit it, they always knew that it was what every student waited for at some point in life.

She remembered back then when each period only lasted forty minutes or less, when the food wasn't gross and cheap, when the bathroom stalls had doors, when the teachers were the ones who moved classes, when she didn't need to get up from her chair if she didn't want to. But now, here she was, in New York. Where periods lasted for an hour, where food was from the trash, where they didn't believe in privacy, where they had to get up and had less than three minutes to get to the next class, when she was always sent to the vice principal's office for accidentally getting the wrong pass. Guess you really don't realize how important something is until it's gone.

The finally bell rang. Finally. The time has come to deal with pollution worse than home. The time where people are so ignorant. Compared to home, this place was hell.

"You okay, Tash?"

She turned her head and her eyes locked onto a girl with red orange hair wearing mostly yellow.

"Yeah," she responded, closing her locker, "Why do you ask?"

"Cause you look a bit down today," April replied.

"Oh, it's nothing, just a little homesick, that's all," she replied, breaking eye contact as she said the last part softly.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" April asked again, putting a hand on her shoulder. Oh great, she's concerned. She silently rolled her eyes, but the red head didn't notice.

"Yeah," she replied once more, her voice more cheerful. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just going to uh, visit the guys. Yeah, the guys. See you there, bye." Her feet were involuntarily dragging her away from April, and by the time she had finished her sentence, her feet were running to the turtle's lair.

She didn't know why. She thought that she just generated an excuse, but no, she didn't. She literally ran to the lair. By the time she got there, she was exhausted and crashed with her stomach on a turnstile.

"Tasha, you okay?"

She looked up, panting, at a blurry figure. With her glasses on her nose, she couldn't see. She pushed them up, but the fog didn't help, so she pulled them down again. She blinked several times, adjusting to the sudden loss of clarity. She may not see many things but she saw three colors: green, brown, and blue. Leo.

"Yeah, just tired," she panted, letting her head droop.

"Any reason why you ran here five minutes after your class ended?"

She knew that gruff voice well enough. So well that's she didn't need to look, unless Donnie created some kind of voice mimicking gizmo.

"I have...no idea," she panted, still exhausted.

She wanted to get up and go someplace more comfortable than the turnstile, but her legs wouldn't budge, and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to carry her far enough. Fortunately, Leo helped her up and placed her on the bench. "Would you like some water?" He asked and she nodded. She didn't know why she said yes. She was trained not to accept water form anyone but her female friends, but she did. She accepted an offer of water from a male. A mutant turtle no less. She should be worried. Worried that it had drugs in it and that she might be violated by four mutant turtles, but she didn't care.

Leo walked to the kitchen to get some water. She didn't know how, but she fell asleep before the turtle in blue returned.

She didn't know for how long she was out, but it felt like a few seconds. When she regained consciousness, she was wrapped in a blanket and her bag was her pillow. She wasn't too concerned about it, but she was confused how it happened. She decided to open her eyes. She was facing the wall side the bench. She turned to her other side and saw a silent TV. She didn't want to get up, but this wasn't her place, and who knew how long she was out.

She got up lazily with a loud yawn, smacking her lips. She couldn't see, why had she only noticed this now? She turned and saw her glasses on the elevated floor beside her with a note attached to its nose bridge. She put on her glasses and took the note.

The handwriting was legible and recognizable. It was written by her dear friend Vikie. Why? Probably because she had the most legible handwriting.

We're out and about, probably beating up Stripey and Scaley. Be back by midnight or so.

Victoria

She waited. And they came. Her friends. They were all fine, but exhausted. They all crashed on the couch. It was Friday. Even if Aqua was invited to a bunch of parties, she wouldn't go. Why? Because she was too exhausted to even open her eyes.

She decided that it would be best to go back to sleep as well...as soon as she's finished with her homework.

The next day, the T-sisters didn't have the strength to go up the ladders, much less go home. As a result, they decided to stay at the lair. Good thing they picked up their laundry the day before, otherwise they would be been forced to go home.

"So if x is equal to 3y, then what is x?" Jel asked herself.

"The real question there is actually what is y. Because if you find the value of y, then multiply it by three, then you'd get x. Pretty simple really," Donnie explained smartly. Jel stared at him bluntly, not very happy with his explanation. Donnie responded by going back to reading his book, occasionally cautiously glancing at Jel, who was doing her homework.

"Man, school is so awesome," Mikey said out of the blue, swinging on the tire swing. "There's water fountains..." Aqua just wanted to puke, but gagged instead, covering her mouth. "... pizza Friday..." Tasha gapped at him while Vi stared weirdly. "...homework..." Jel glared and threw a crumpled piece of solution paper at Mikey, who remained dazed. "... anti porn posters everywhere..." Ro, who was drinking juice, choked. "...ooh! Don't think I've forgotten the games. So awesome!" Mikey squealed, pumping his fists.

"Sure," Vikie said, "if your team was actually good," she murmured.

Aqua rolled her eyes. "I'm sure that's how you see it. But do you know what homework means?"

"Uh...no?" Mikey said. "But it's still awesome."

"Actually it's Half Of My Energy Wasted On Random Knowledge," Tasha said, smiling.

"What?" Mikey asked, lifting his head, confused.

"That's not true!" Donnie retorted angrily.

"Do you know what school is?" Tasha said sassily.

"Oh! I know this!" Jel said, raising her hand. "It's Seven Crappy Hours Of...of...of of... of..." Jel but her lip and let out a muffled scream at the sky. "Ah, shiz, I don't know!" She exclaimed, throwing her head back.

Donnie's eyes went wide. He scoffed, "What? That's not even—"

"Oh! I know!" Ro exclaimed, raising her hand, "It's Seven Crappy Hours Of Our Lives...right?" She cocked her head at Tasha, who nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! I got it right!" she exclaimed, kicking her legs and raising her fists. Unfortunately, the cup was put sideways, causing the juice to spill on Leo, who was reading comics behind her.

Leo yelped as the cold liquid spilled all over him, luckily not his comic.

"Oh, Leo, I'm so sorry," Ro squeaked, turning to him.

"No, no, it's okay," Leo stammered, trying to move with the sticky liquid.

"I'll be taking this, if you don't mind," Tasha said, taking Leo's comic and walking three feet away.

Leo shook his head in confusion. He turned his head to Tasha, who was smirking. "What? He—"

He was interrupted by a strong surge of water, which washed the juice of him, but at the same time, knocked him to the wall.

"You okay, Leo?" Aqua yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth.

"I think so!" Leo replied.

Tasha smiled.

So what if New York is like hell compared to home, so long as she's happy, she'll never feel homesick. She's almost forgotten the bad stuff, including the fact that she was in the sewer with her friends and four mutant turtles. But, what's the hell. This is what she thought was normal.

I finally wrote a one shot with value and some thoughts into it. Yay! Sorry if it seems a little depressing, I remembered PopcornWolf10 while I was writing this. I'm sure that if you knew her and only talked to her on FFN, then you'd miss her too. Unless you secretly hate her. But anyway, enough with the sad stuff an stay happy.