This really long one-shot is for the celebration of the first year the Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon has been on air. The day this story was published, September 29, 2013 is exactly one year after September 29, 2012, the day the series premiere aired. Happy Mutation Day, Leo, Mikey, Raph, and Donnie!
Donatello groaned angrily, his eyes flipped open and landed on the alarm clock on his bedside table: 11:30 P.M. Despite the late time, he could still hear Michelangelo on the bunk above him giggling happily. "Mikey, go to sleep."
"I can't!" Michelangelo gasped between giggles. He leaned over the side of his bunk bed as far as he could and waved at Donatello. "Tomorrow we'll be sixteen!"
Donatello's eyes widened. He had completely forgotten tommorow was his and his brother's mutation day. He suddenly felt excited. "Hi three!" he whispered and he and Michelangelo clapped their hands together.
Michelangelo climbed off his bunk bed and joined Donatello on his. It was dark, but Donatello could still see the outline of his brother from the bright light of the alarm clock. "I wonder what presents we'll get!" the orange-masked turtle squealed.
"What makes you think we'll get presents?" Donatello asked. "April can't go up to the surface, and none of us or Splinter can exactly walk into a store and buy something." He was quickly beginning to feel annoyed with Michelangelo again, his eyelids starting to feel heavy again, too. "Maybe we'll at least get a better cake than last year." He shuddered at the thought of what he used to eat and beside him Michelangelo giggled, but just a bit too loudly.
Raphael groaned in his bunk bed above Leonardo's across the room. He pulled himself out of his covers and glared sharply at Michelangelo, his bright green eyes looking menacing. "Now if you two quit your giggle fest, maybe I'll actually let you live to see sixteen!"
"Just think, a year ago we were just turning fifteen!" Michelangelo beamed, completely ignoring Raphael. He was quite used to death threats.
Donatello tiredly rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, Mikey, that's kind of how it works."
On the other side of the room, there was a long yawn. Donatello was barely able to make out Leonardo arms stretching in the darkness. "Can you guys be quiet? I want to sleep! If Splinter catches us up-"
"Hey, Leo, do you know what presents we're getting?" Michelangelo blurted. "Maybe Splinter told you, after all you are his favorite!"
Leonardo was silent for a moment. "...What makes you say that, Mikey?"
"Well, he made you leader. I bet if I was his favorite, he would have made me leader." Michelangelo said casually. "Or maybe you're leader because you are really talented-unlike Raphael."
Raphael's bright green eyes narrowed angrily, but he didn't say anything. Perhaps he felt the tension in the room as well.
There was a long, awkward quiet before Leonardo finally spoke. "...Splinter made me leader just because I asked," Leonardo said quietly. "There's nothing special about me and I'm not his favorite. I'm not super-smart...Raphael can beat me..." He faltered off for a moment. "I'm just the geek that likes Space Heroes."
There was a stunned silence.
"Gee, I always thought Splinter made you leader because you never give up," Raphael whispered thoughtfully. Leonardo didn't speak, maybe because he was too stunned that Raphael said something nice to him.
"I thought it was because he thought you knew how to be brave and finish a fight," Michelangelo said.
In his bed, Leonardo sat up straighter. "But I-"
"I thought Splinter made you leader because you were smart," Donatello said, his eyes fixed on his feet.
"Don't be ridiculous, Donnie. You're way smarter. You've built cars, and wings, and submarines, and phones, and a robot, and even a little camera on a cockroach," Leonardo protested.
"Don't remind me of that cockroach!" Raphael shouted, closing his eyes tightly. Michelangelo immediately shhhed him.
Donatello spoke slowly and carefully. "Being smart is sometimes more than knowing the difference between the red and blue wire, or being able to read a whole page in ten seconds, or knowing the meaning of E=mc squared-"
"Huh, I thought that was exactly what being smart was," Michelangelo interrupted. Raphael immediately shhhed him.
Donatello continued,"It's not even knowing how to build a rocket-"
"A rocket? You've built a rocket? Where?" Michelangelo blurted, his eyes as big as dinner plates now.
"Will you shut up and let Donnie be philosophical already?" Raphael spat.
Donnatello made it onto the last stretch of his speech. "Being smart is sometimes just knowing on instinct what to do in a situation, or being clever and brave enough to act. Sometimes it's even ignoring the fact that all the odds are against you as you rush into a fight...I could never do any of that. So, Splinter may have told you that he made a leader just because you asked, but I bet he had his reasons. Because everyone else here asked too."
"Oh," said Leonardo.
Michelangelo seemed to figure it was safe to talk again. "So do you know what presents we're getting, Leo?"
"...I think I've already gotten mine."
"Wow, that mush was a present? You are so wishy-washy, Leo," said Raphael. "Oh, and that thing I said about you being brave? That never leaves that room, okay?" he added.
Donatello stretched his hands out and yawned. "Well I guess we're not getting anymore sleep tonight. It's already 11: 58. So what should we do?"
"Let's go search the Lair and see if we got any presents!" Michelangelo giggled.
Leonardo hopped out of his bed. "That speech was really nice, Donnie, but I just remembered that I've been wanting season 6 of Space Heroes on DVD for months. Maybe Splinter or April did find a way to get us some things. Let's go search, Mikey!"
"Wait, I just remembered! I've been wanting a really cool video game called 'Assassin's Warcraft' for a long time!" said Raphael, leaping to the floor from his top bunk.
"...And I've been asking for a new welding mask and a new wrench for a while now..." Donatello said shyly.
"Come on, hurry up! I need to see if I'm getting the Ultimate Prank Kit!" Michelangelo squealed impatiently, jumping up and down. He ran to the door and flung it open.
"GAAAH!" Michelangelo screamed and fell backwards. Leonardo caught him and set him back on his feet.
"April...hi!" Donatello said egearly.
Splinter and April walked into the room, looking a little puzzled. "Hi everyone," said April, holding an tall pile of presents wrapped in birthday wrapping paper. "We were just about to surprise you. In fact, I was even turning the doorknob when Mikey flung the door open instead."
"My sons, what are you doind up so early?" Splinter asked curiously.
The turtles' eyes widened. "Uh...one thing: we weren't going out to look for presents," Michelangelo said quickly.
"MIKEY!" Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael shouted. Splinter and April merely chuckled.
"I understand," April said. "When I was little, I could hardly sleep the day before my birthday, so I'd sneak around the house and see if I could find my presents. I'd try to guess what was under the wrapping on each one and the next day I'd see how much I got right when I opened them. Is that what you guys were doing?"
"Yeah," Leonardo admitted sheepishly.
"We got busted, though,"Michelangelo concluded needlessly.
"Do not worry, my sons. Now is a time for celebration," Splinter said. "And I assume April and I did a good job surprising you from the reaction we got from Michelangelo."
April passed out the four presents to each turtle, apologizing for the "Happy Birthday" wrapping paper. "Sorry, the store didn't carry "Happy Mutation Day" paper."
It was now 10:00 A.M. There had been a huge celebration involving a sparring contest, a rowdy Mario Kart contest in which Michelangelo won four times in a row and Leonardo accidentally drove into fourteen trees, six signs, and completely off the track twenty times before coming in dead last in three out of four races. Michelangelo also did an imperfect rendition of he and his brothers' mutations solo (Raphael, Leonardo, and Donatello had refused to be involved with the performance).
For the last hour, Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, April, Mr. O'Neil, and Splinter had been watching a movie while Michelangelo worked on the cake he had begged Splinter to be allowed to make without help. The movie was called "Terror Time" and had obviously been Raphael's pick. He sat up close to the television screen, stuffing popcorn into his mouth, while his three brothers sat a farther distance away trying to ignore the movie, Splinter sat in the back pointing out every flaw in the film and warning Raphael not to sit so close to the screen. Mr. O'Neil was very quiet as he sat with April, probably concerned for Raphael's sanity.
Finally, Michelangelo shouted from the kitchen that he had finished his cake. The turtles (excluding Raphael), Mr. O'Neil, Splinter, and April practically bolted into the kitchen. Raphael slowly came in, relunctant to leave the movie.
Everyone was shocked at what they saw. What they had expected to be a haphazard disaster of a cake (and not much better than last year's) was a masterpiece.
"Mikey..." said Leonardo in awe. "...How?"
The cake was a shocking four layers high. It was square-shaped and looked like a New York building with little fondant windows. The layers were blue, orange, red, and purple. On top, Michelangelo had created four turtle-shaped illustrations out of green frosting, with "HAPPY MUTATION DAY" spelled out underneath. A billboard made out of popsicle sticks on the top held up a picture the turtles recognized as one Michelangelo had taken a week or so ago with his T-phone. In it Raphael, Donatello, and Leonardo were standing side-by-side with Michelangelo leaning in from the left since he was holding the phone taking the picture.
"I know it's a bit much," said Michelangelo shyly,"But I wanted to make up for last year's."
"It certainly does..." Donatello said lightly. "How you made this in just an hour is beyond me."
Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo walked up to the table, staring at the cake that was nearly a foot high. Finally, Michelangelo said,"Splinter, would you do the honors?" He held up a knife and spatula.
Splinter smiled proudly. "Yes, my son."
As Splinter went up to cut the cake, Michelangelo ran over to his brothers. "Hi three!"
The four turtles clapped their hands together, but April, seeming unsatisfied, exclaimed,"Come on, you guys, you can do better than that! Group hug!" She ran up and pulled the four brothers together in a large embrace-much to Raphael's annoyance, as he made clear by trying to break free from the group hug. "I am so glad I met you guys," April said.
As they broke apart, Leonardo shouted "Happy Mutation Day!"
"HAPPY MUTATION DAY!" the other turtles echoed.
"I'm not even going to ask what a mutation day is," Mr. O'Neil whispered.
After Splinter had passed out slices of cake to everyone, Raphael began cramming it into his mouth at super-speed like he hadn't eaten in a week. The other turtles were doing similar, except for Donatello. Instead, he was sitting with April, sharing a slice of cake with her.
Splinter, slowing eating his slice, said,"Now, who would like to hear me tell the mutation day story?"
"I DO! I DO!" Michelangelo said, his hand shooting into the air, his mouth chocked full of cake he was still chewing.
Donatello however, looked reluctant. "Uh, I don't think April would want..."
And the room broke into noise once again, each brother except Donatello (who looked very embarrassed to have this story be told in front of April), interrupting Splinter to tell their favorite parts of the story. Mr. O'Neil raising his hand every once in a while to ask a polite question, as he was extremely confused by the Turtles' rushed and excited retellings (of which Michelangelo's consisted of him as a baby turtle fighting off all the Kraang).
In all the excitement, the Turtles' presents lay forgotten in the Lair-season six of Space Heroes, a violent videogame called "Assassin's Warcraft, an ultimate prank kit, and a new welding mask. Because there are things much better than presents when Mutation Day comes around.
THE END
Sorry this story is so long. I originally set off to write a short one-shot but it ended as this huge epic. At least I did season 1 justice!