Playing With Fire
"Since I'll be ten-years-old next year, will you let me light the candles on our cake?" Mikey asked on his ninth birthday. Master Splinter wouldn't let him or any of his brother light their candles on their birthday cake this year.
Master Splinter sighed. How many times was he going to be asking him this? "No. You are too young to be playing with fire."
"But I won't be playing with the fire," Mikey protested. "I'll just be lighting the candles. That's it. Then I'll give you back the matches and we get on with our lives."
"No." Master Splinter stood his ground. He couldn't understand why Mikey was asking him this now. He didn't get why Mikey was asking about his birthday for next year.
"How about when I turn eleven?" Mikey continued on.
Master Splinter rolled his eyes. "We'll see." He replied, just to get his youngest son off of his back about it and then walked away.
Mikey smiled. "If he said we'll see to eleven years old, he'll probably say yes to twelve!"
"What are you doing?" Leo leaned against the kitchen doorway.
Mikey was standing on top of the counter looking in all the kitchen cabinets. "I'm hungry."
"We still have a little bit of birthday cake. If you want to have some of that." Leo informed.
"I know," Mikey closed the first cabinet. "I don't feel like having cake right now, though. I just had some earlier."
Leo rolled his eyes. He knew he little brother and Mikey was probably going to end up eating the rest of the cake himself. "Okay, well I'll be upstairs." Leo left.
Mikey waved his hand in the air to show his brother that he had heard him. He closed the next cabinet door and opened the one after that. "What to eat…" He whispered to himself. "What's this?" Mikey reached his hand into the back of the cabinet after noticing a little box. "Matches…" He read on the box and slowly closed the cabinet door. "Hey!" He smiled, once he finally realized what they were.
"What are you doing?"
Mikey quickly hid the box of matches behind his back and looked up at the kitchen entrance. "Oh. Hi, Raph."
"I said, what are you doing?" Raph repeated.
Mikey shrugged his shoulders. "I'm hungry. I'm just trying to find something to eat."
"So, you decide to sit on the counter staring or fiddling or doing whatever with your hands?" Raph never noticed that Mikey had the box of matches in his hands.
Mikey shrugged his shoulders again. "Yep."
Raph shook his head. "I will never understand you, Mikey." He turned around and left the room.
Mikey continued to stare at the spot where Raph was standing. "Why does everyone keep coming in here to ask me what I'm doing?" He rolled his eyes and grabbed the box of matches again, jumping off of the counter. "I better go to my room before anyone else comes down here and sees me." He hid the matches by his side and ran upstairs to his room.
Mikey shut his door and sat on his bed. He smiled at the matches. He knew that after he kept bothering Master Splinter if he could light the candles on their birthday cake and so on for their tenth and eleventh birthday and so on. He knew Master Splinter got annoyed with him and therefore, thinking Mikey would do something stupid, he hid the matches on his son. Mikey let out a little laugh.
"Yep. Master Splinter his the matches on me thinking I was going to do something stupid," He sighed. "Well, I am going to so something stupid. But I promise myself and Master Splinter that I'll be careful."
A knock came at the door.
"Uh," Mikey stared at the matches in horror. "One minute!" He ran around the room with the little box trying to figure out what to do with it. Where should I hide it?
Another knock came at the door again.
Mikey threw the match inside his pillowcase and sat on it. "Come in." He said.
Master Splinter opened the door and poked his head in. "I was just walking by your room and I had heard my name. Were you calling me?"
Mikey made a confused look and then realized that he was talking to himself. "Oh," He shook his head. "No. I didn't call you. You must have been hearing things." He smiled.
Master Splinter raised an eyebrow. "Well, alright, then. If you say so." He closed the door and then left, confused.
Mikey let out a sigh of relief. Hr didn't want Master Splinter to know that he had found the matches and then took them up to his room to play with them. "He probably thinks that I'm up to something." Mikey whispered to himself, still talking to himself. Master Splinter seemed to always know when they were up to something.
He took out the matches and smiled at them. "Now," He looked all over the box for directions. "How do I use these?"
He opened the box and a bunch of sticks fell out all over the place on his floor. "Shell!" He yelled as he crawled on the floor trying to pick them all up. If I start a fire in the lair, Master Splinter is going to kill me! He scrambled to pick them all up and put them all back into the box and closed it. Should I be doing this? He asked himself. If Master Splinter ever found out that he was doing this, he could get in big trouble. So, I'll just have to be extra careful. Just so I won't get caught. Mikey turned over the box and noticed that one of the sides was brown. I wonder what this does…
Mikey opened up the box again, only slower this time. He took out one of the little sticks and robbed it against the brown side. This feels weird.
Suddenly, a flame sparked at the end of the stick. Mikey smiled at it and watched it glow. "Wow!" Mikey breathed slowly, watching the flame go towards him when he breathed in and watch it go away from him when he breathed out. He giggled at the fire. It looked so cool and he was having so much fun with it, but he didn't realize that the flame was going down on the stick. He didn't notice that the flame was getting closer to his hand.
Another knock came at the door.
Mikey quickly blew out the flame and tossed everything in his pillowcase again. "Who is it?"
"Donny. Can I come in?" A voice through the door replied.
"Uh, sure." Mikey didn't know what his brother wanted. He just wanted to get back to the matches and he didn't want anyone to know what he was doing in his room. He didn't even want anyone know that he had found the matches in the first place.
"Do you want to play a game with me and Leo?" Donny asked.
Mikey shook his head. "Uh, maybe later. I'm kind of tired right now."
"We're going to play Monopoly, though," Donny smiled at his little brother. "We know that it's your favorite."
That is my favorite…I love that game. I should play with them. Mikey glanced back at his pillow. I can't, though. If I keep the matches for too long, Master Splinter might realize that they're missing and he'll assume that it's me because I was the one who kept bugging him about lighting the candles on our birthday cake for next year. He sighed. "No thanks."
Donny gave him a pitied look. He could tell that there was something bothering Mikey, because he seemed as though he wanted to play with him and Leo, but for some reason he was holding himself back. "Okay. Maybe later." He closed the door to his brother's bedroom and left, thinking that it would be good to let his brother have some alone time.
Mikey quickly turned his attention back to the matches as soon as he heard his bedroom door click shut. He tried to use the same stick as he did before because he didn't want to use all of them up. Then Master Splinter would know that he took them for sure, if he found them in the trash all used up. Mikey rubbed the same stick onto the brown part on the side of the box, but it wasn't working. He sighed, knowing that he was going to have to use a new stick in order to see a flame again.
He tossed the old stick into his trash in his room and then took out a new one and began rubbing it on the brown part on the side of the box. I have to keep this flame going no matter what. Otherwise, if something else interrupts me, then I'm going to end up using all of these matches and if I use up all of these matches, then Master Splinter is going to get really, really upset with me. He was in a panic mode in his head, so he began to rub harder on the side of the box. The thing was, however, he wasn't sure how he was going to be able to keep the flame alive if someone else came into his room.
Mikey continued to rub and rub and rub and still there was no spark of a flame. Shell! Why is this so hard? Mikey flipped the stick over so the red tip of the stick was rubbing against the brown part on the side of the box and there was a flame in no time. Yes!
Just like the flame before this one, Mikey watched it dance back and forth and breathed slowly in and out and watched the fire move. He brought his finger close to the flame, to feel how hot it was, but with one little flame, it wasn't all that hot. Mikey continued to keep his finger near the flame, but then he felt a burn on his other hand that felt as though it was going to leave a mark. The flame had moved down the stick and onto his hand that was holding it up.
"OUCH!" Mikey screamed, throwing the stick out of his hand.
He had screamed loud enough for all of New York City to hear him. Leo, Raph, Donny, and Master Splinter heard Mikey's scream coming from upstairs in Mikey's bedroom. They all raced upstairs to see what was wrong with their little brother. Thinking that he was seriously injured, they all barged into his room. They all ran in with Mikey's foot in his trash, stomping down on something.
"Get out! Get out! Get out!" Mikey screamed. The match had landed in his trash, casing everything in there to catch on fire.
"What are you doing?"
"What's in the trash?"
"What's that smell?"
All three of Mikey's brothers sniffed the air. They smelled smoke.
"MASTER SPLINTER!" They all screamed, seeing flames coming out of Mikey's trash bin.
"No!" Mikey yelled at them in a whisper, taking his foot out of the trash. "Master Splinter will be so mad at me! You can't call him up here!"
"What is it? What is wrong? What is going on?" Master Splinter rushed into Mikey's bedroom and saw the flames. "Everyone get out!" He ordered. While the turtles ran out of Mikey's room, Master Splinter made a quick trip into the kitchen, grabbed the fire extinguisher, and put out the fire in Mikey's room.
After things have calmed down, Leo, Raph, Donny, and Master Splinter stared at Mikey for an explanation. Mikey scratched the back of his head and smiled at all of them.
"Uh, thanks for putting out the fire, Sensei." Mikey chuckled, trying to lighten the mood, which he knew wasn't working.
"My bedroom," Master Splinter pointed in the direction of his room. "Now."
"That's honestly what happened. I was only curious as to how they worked and I just wanted to use them for myself. You said no to next year, not that I wanted to wait until next year, but then you said we'll see for the year after, which probably means no, but you at least said we'll see, so I figured my 12th birthday would be a yes. I didn't want to wait that long." Mikey explained to his father.
"Yes, but by doing that you did a very wrong thing. You had a bad idea in doing what you did and worst of all, you just proved to me that you can not be responsible enough to even light candles for your birthday." Master Splinter crossed his arms across his chest and looked down at his youngest son, who was sitting on his bed, looking at the floor in shame.
"I'm sorry, Master Splinter. I just wanted to have a bit of fun." Mikey stated, sheepishly.
"Setting your trash bin on fire, which would turn into your bedroom, which would then turn into the whole lair, is fun to you?" Master Splinter scolded.
"No…" Mikey continued too look down on the ground, trying to avoid his father's gaze.
Master Splinter sighed. He didn't know what to do with Mikey. He wasn't sure how to punish him, but he knew that he had to. Mikey did something very bad and wrong and Mikey needed consequences for that.
"I'm sorry…" Mikey muttered.
"Tell me that when you get out of your time-out." Master Splinter stated, hoping he'll think of a better punishment by the time Mikey is out of his time-out. He pointed to the door, signaling to Mikey that he was dismissed and that he should go into his bedroom and lay down on his bed for a time-out. Master Splinter had already taken the box of matches back out of Mikey's room and put them in a different hiding spot in the kitchen. Someplace where he knew that none of his sons would be able to find.
Mikey hopped off of Master Splinter's bed and dragged his feet as he walked out of Master Splinter's bedroom.
"Are you in big trouble?" Raph asked. He and his two other brothers were listening through the door.
"What's Master Splinter going to do to you?" Donny asked.
"What happened?" Leo wondered.
Mikey ignored the three of them and locked himself into his bedroom. Master Splinter came out of his own bedroom and stared down at Raph, Leo, and Donny firmly.
"This is none of your business, boys. Go back to playing your game." Master Splinter stated, which made his three sons turn the other way and obey.
"Michelangelo?" Master Splinter opened Mikey's bedroom door a little bit and peeked into the room.
"Yes, Master Splinter?" Mikey muttered. He was still laying down in his bed in his time-out, but he didn't look at the doorway or at Master Splinter.
Master Splinter closed the door behind him and walked into the bedroom and sat down at the foot of Mikey's bed. "I want to talk to you about what you did earlier today."
"I know." Mikey sat up. Although, he wished that he didn't have to talk about it or listen to Master Splinter scold him about it or anything. He knew that it was wrong and he knew that he shouldn't have done. Mikey just wanted to tell Master Splinter that he was sorry and that he wasn't going to do it ever again and that they all lived happily ever after.
"What you did today was not only wrong, but it was very dangerous." Master Splinter said, using a normal tone of voice. He wasn't mad, he wasn't upset. He just wanted Mikey to learn his lesson.
"I know." Mikey replied.
"You could have been hurt. Your brothers could have been hurt." Master Splinter continued.
"I know." Mikey replied again, in the same tone of voice.
"You could have destroyed your room or even the lair." Master Splinter stated.
Mikey nodded. "I know."
"If you know, then why did you do it?" Master Splinter asked.
Mikey shrugged. "I told you earlier. I just wanted to have a bit of fun. And no, burning down the lair is not my idea of fun. I just wanted to see how it looked and how it felt and stuff. I didn't mean for it to get out of control or anything. I was trying to be careful."
"That is good that you were trying to be careful, but that is just it. We do not mean for things to happen and we do not mean for them to get out of control. However, that does not mean that they do not get out of control. You should know that, Michelangelo. Just because you were trying to be careful, does not mean that you are actually going to be safe." Master Splinter explained.
"I know." Mikey sighed.
"I do not want anything like this to happen again, do you understand? Not with fire and the matches or with anything." Master Splinter stated, more firmly now.
"I know, Master Splinter," Mikey replied, actually looking up at his father now. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to and I will never do anything like that again. I promise. I was wrong and being stupid and I didn't want anything like that to happen, but it just did and I'm sorry. I won't do something like that ever again."
Master Splinter smiled at his son. He didn't even have to ask for an apology this time. "I love you." Master Splinter gave him a hug.
"I love you, too." Mikey gave his father a hug back.
"Is Mikey going to get in bigger trouble now?" Raph poked his head in. He was listening to their conversation the whole time.
"Out." Master Splinter ordered.
"Fine…" Raph muttered and closed the door.
The End.
Author's Note: Not sure if the ending was okay or not. I felt like I just ended it just because. Other than that, I think this story came out pretty well. Thanks for reading and please review.