A new turtle story in how long? Eh, too long so don't ask. As usual i do not own the turtles or whatever is copyrighted with them, it all belongs to someone else. The only thing that is mine is Sara and Beth... and any other future characters that i add in this. That goes ditto for the rest of the chapters.
Quick note: since my first posting, i have had by friend Mabby, Beta this for me and suggested some much needed improvement, plus help me find where i was mixing present with past tense. Thanks to the reviewers who mentioned those as well, your critic is important to me in helping become a better writer.
As Donatello worked in his lab, the radio was tuned to a classical music station, allowing a soft melody to flow throughout the room. Lately in the lair things have settled down to a dull roar, so to speak. Raphael and Leonardo have not fought as much,. The reason behind it Don still wasn't certain but he was grateful nevertheless. The shouting match that often graced the lair on who was right and vice versa was never easy on the ears.
A bleep on Donatello's computer caught his attention, demanding his attention as a new instant message appeared on the monitor. He had a few friends online, some he really enjoyed chatting with,. Others acted as though they just needed to feel that some one was listening to them.
Blushdw: Hey there GrnComMan, how's life treating you?
Sitting at the computer Don began to type a reply.
GrnComMan: Good thanks, you?
Blushdw: Good thanks, tomorrow there's going to be a concert in central park for Christmas. My friend is in a barbershop chorus with her mom, so I'm going to go watch. You should come
GrnComMan: I'll think about it, I'm not much for cold weather.
Blushdw: Well if you do, I'm wearing a bright blue scarf, with long fringes on it.
GrnComMan: I'll keep that in mind
Blushdw: I gotta go, the concert is at two, close to the grill plaza, best land mark I could think of.
GrnComMan: Okay, if I can I'll go
Blushdw: Great! Hope to see ya!
Logging off before she could ask more questions, Donatello sat back and wondered. What harm could it do to go to a simple Christmas concert in the park? He wouldn't stay too long, being turtles the cold wasn't good for them. Being close to Christmas, maybe his brothers might want to go to. Asking couldn't hurt.
"Deck the halls, with lots of tinsel!" Michelangelo bellowed, throwing tinsel around the lair. Leonardo was in his room hiding from the "tinsel monster" while Raphael was flipping through the TV channels and attempting to dodge tinsel.
"Hey guys," Donatello declared whilst emerging from his lab, only to get a face full of tinsel.
"Hello Donnie," Michelangelo continued in the same sing song tone.
"Hi-," he replied, spitting out some tinsel, "-to you-," he tried to scrape the rest off his tongue, "-too. You're certainly in the Christmas spirit."
"Why not?" Michelangelo stopped and threw some more tinsel at Raphael. "It's the best time of the year!"
"Yeah when it's cold, and there's snow," Raphael grumbled. "And did I mention cold?"
"Yes along with snow," Leonardo said, walking in.
Donatello figured now would be as good of time as any
"Well, aside from the snow and cold factor, an online friend told me of a Christmas concert in Central Park tomorrow. Do you want to go?"
"Totally!" Michelangelo hooted.
"Sure I'll go," Leonardo said.
"No way," Raphael said.
"Aww Raph please?" Michelangelo pleaded and hopped onto the couch and gave Raph his best puppy dog eyes.
"It shouldn't be too long," Donatello added. "We can't stay in the cold for too long anyway." Raphael looked between the TV and Michelangelo's face several times before he pushed his youngest brother away.
"Fine I'll go," Raphael huffed. "But don't expect me to stay long."
"No prob, dude," Michelangelo grinned.
"Well I'm going to get some layering for us to wear for tomorrow." Donatello left to rummage through his winter storage to see what they had.
The following day, Donatello had many layers of clothes out for his brothers to put on in protection from the cold weather.
"I hope no one attacks us," Raphael grumped. "How are we supposed to ninja kick anyone is these suits?"
"Very carefully," Michelangelo said, his voice muffled from inside one of the sweaters he had on over his head.
"Funny," Raph muttered pulling on the oversized trench coat to complete the outfit and his hat. The turtles made their way up through the sewers, onto the main streets then arrived at the park. A small crowd was watching a group of performers singing Christmas carols. Songs that were sung were Jingle Bells/ Sleigh Ride Melody, Have a Merry Christmas, and Do you Hear What I Hear. The wind blew bringing more of a chill to the air as the chorus started an introduction for their next song.
"Not too bad," Leonardo mentioned, rubbing his mitted hands together.
"Not too bad," Raphael mimicked. From the chorus one girl stepped out and starting to sing, "Let There Be Peace on Earth."
"That's my friend," a girl next to Leonardo said proudly. "Isn't she great?"
"Nice," Leonardo nodded and looked at the girl. She stood about 5'3" with long curling brown hair. A blue hat and matching scarf made up her winter outfit along with a thick winter jacket.
"I like your scarf," Leonardo commented before he realized he spoken out loud.
The girl smiled as she played with the fringed edge. "Thanks. It's my favorite."
The rest of the chorus had joined in the song now too, and a feeling of peace suddenly settled over the crowd. All too soon, or not soon enough in Raphael's opinion, the chorus concert was nearing an end as the spokeswoman stepped forward once again.
"Thank you everyone for coming to share this special time with us," she said to the crowd. "We will finish this up with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". If anyone has any questions please come see me or any of the chorus members, we'd love to have you sing with us." Stepping back into her spot, The chorus leaned forward as the director gave his cue, then started to sing.
"We wish you a merry Christmas
we wish you a merry Christmas
we wish you a merry Christmas
and a happy new year…"
Applause roared as the chorus finished up the final song, when people noticed a light snow was now falling. The girl who was standing next to Leonardo twirled in the snow, making it dance around her and stuck out her tongue to catch one. A small smile graced Leonardo's face which did not go by unnoticed by his brothers.
"Hey, hey," Raphael elbowed his brother. "Looks like our leader is getting soft."
"I am not," Leonardo scowled, stepping away from Raphael.
"Guys we better get going," Donatello said then noticed the girl. "I wonder if that's the girl who invited me up here, she had a blue scarf."
"Well, unless you want to go up and ask her, it's getting cold," Michelangelo said. Donatello nodded and started to head off with his brothers. Leonardo gave one glance back seeing the girl in the blue scarf go up to her friend.
People started to scatter as the snowfall started intensify, it seemed as though a miniature blizzard had suddenly invaded the city. Flashes of color streamed by as people in brightly colored jackets ran for cover.
"Guys," Raphael voiced. "Can we m-move a little faster here, m-my shell is starting to ch-chatter."
"I th-thought it was suppose to be your t-t-teeth?" Michelangelo joked weakly shaking from the cold himself. The snow started to stick to the ground as people started to walk more carefully.
"Sara, hurry up, the van is over here!" A voice came through as a girl in blue and one in bright yellow went by.
"Enjoy the concert?" Yellow yelled as she passed the turtles.
"Y-y-yea," Raphael said as he slumped in the snow.
"Raph!" All of his brothers shouted kneeling next to his brother.
"Oh, my gosh is he okay?" Yellow skidded to a stop in the snow and grabbed her friend's scarf.
"Sara!" Her friend choked as both slipped falling into the snow.
"Sorry Beth," Sara said. She helped Beth up and started to brush some snow off.
"What's wrong with your friend?" Beth asked, waving Sara off.
"It's too cold, we need to get him somewhere warm," Donatello said checking Raph as best he could without revealing who they really were.
"Bring him this way, I borrowed my parent's van," Beth pointed to a van that was masked by the swirling flakes.
"Is this wise?" Michelangelo voiced quietly.
"We have no other choice," Donatello replied.
"We'll accept your help," Leonardo told Beth.
"Follow us," Beth went ahead to unlock the van and started it up to get the heater running.
"Come on," Sara motioned and started to head towards the van while Leonardo and Donatello grabbed under Raphael's arms.
"Hey babe, I'm Mikey," Michelangelo introduced himself.
"Pleasure," Sara gave him a small grin then ducked her head to try and not get snow in her eyes. The roar of an engine told them Beth started the van, which meant the heater was going.
"Here we go," Sara called yanking the back door open. A small crack which sounded like crackling ice was heard. "Dang it froze quick."
The turtles hustled Raphael inside as Sara climbed into the front. The slide of the rear door told the girls that everyone was inside, and Beth had the heater on full blast.
"Whoa!" Sara breathed as she took off her hat and ruffled her hair.
"Is he okay?" Beth turned around looking back.
"I hope so," Donatello said. "He didn't put on all the layers like I told him to."
"Well Donnie you'll have to tell your "online friend" that we won't be accepting any more concert invites until it gets warmer," Michelangelo shrugged.
"GrnComMan?" Beth questioned, looking back.
"Yeah that's me," Donatello replied shyly.
"Oh wow!" Beth exclaimed. "I'm Blushdw!"
"Beth!" Sara playfully scolded. "Inviting strange men on the internet."
"Well he seemed friendly enough," Beth shrugged and smiled at the guys. "I'm sorry about your friend but I'm glad you came."
"The concert was nice," Leonardo said. "Thank you for the invitation."
"You're oh so proper," Sara joshed.
"Oh, hey!" Beth exclaimed, shifting the van into drive. "The snow is starting to clear, is there someplace you need to go?"
"Uh yeah," Donatello racked his brain before telling Beth April's address.
"I can do that," Beth said. "Tell me if it gets too hot."
"No, the heat is good for him," Donatello said.
"Okay," Beth said and started to drive slowly. With all the snow it took longer than usual to get to their destination, but the turtles were grateful anyway. As they climbed out Beth asked if they would need any help.
"No," Leonardo said. "We should be fine from here. Will you get home all right?"
"Yeah," Beth answered. "I'll just have to drive extra careful."
"In that case we'll never get there," Sara piped up in mock horror.
"Well here's the number for the place we're at if you need it," Leonardo wrote the number down on a scrap piece of paper Sara pulled out.
"See ya around?" Sara asked leaning out the window looking at Leonardo and the others.
"Who knows?" Leonardo said and turned to help get Raphael inside.
"Know something?" Sara asked as they started to drive off.
"What?" Beth asked. "Besides that we probably helped save one of their friends from death?"
"Well, we never got any names, except the hurt one is Raph, I remember that," Sara said.
"I noticed something," Beth added. "It looked to me that the guy who gave us the number had only three fingers."
"Get out! Are you serious?" Sara looked at her friend who nodded in confirmation.
"And tomorrow, or when the storm clears up, I'm going to check up on them," Beth smiled to her friend. "See what else I can find out."