Kayla sighed as she shifted her textbooks in her arms and made her way through the crowded hallway.

"Kayla!"

The black-haired seventeen year old paused and looked over her shoulder, letting the flow of high schoolers pass her. Marcus hurried up to her, a couple textbooks and notebooks under his right arm.

"Hey, Marcus." Kayla greeted him as they continued. "Where are you headin'?"

"Gym." he answered.

"Same here." Kayla smiled as she looked up at him. They'd hung out quite a bit more the past few months both during school and over summer vacation. They had become pretty close friends in that amount of time.

"So, what's it like officially being a big, bad senior?" Marcus asked with a smirk as he looked down at her.

Kayla sighed for a moment. "Well, so far it's not too bad. I guess the worst part of it is what comes at the end of the year…Graduation." Kayla looked up at him. She was only about 5' 5" while Marcus was a good 5' 9" or so.

Marcus smiled back down at her. "Have you decided what you wanna do after high school?"

Kayla shrugged. "Honestly, I have no clue. There's a few things I'd like to do, I guess, but I haven't decided yet."

They were quiet for a while before Marcus spoke again. "So, what have you been up to?"

Kayla thought for a moment, trying to decided what she could say. She couldn't tell him too much about her life, she knew that. It could lead to too much information about her family and lifestyle. Finally, she thought of one thing she could talk about.

"Um, well, the last week before school started my brothers and I had to help our friend Casey at Coney Island. His friend owns the place and Casey was asked personally if he could fix up some of the rides and stuff, so we gave him a hand."

"Really? Wow, I haven't been to Coney Island since I was, like…eleven, maybe twelve."

"Really?" Kayla was slightly shocked. Most people who lived here went to Coney Island at least every couple years if they could afford it.

"Yeah, my parents used to take my brother and I there all the time, but we haven't been there in forever." it was easy to tell by his voice that he missed it. Kayla thought for a moment before her face lit up.

"Hey, I have a spare key to Coney Island. Are you doing anything Friday night?"

Marcus looked slightly surprised. "Um, well, uh…football." he answered regretfully.

Kayla felt like an idiot. "Oh, yeah, right. Sorry, I forgot. Um, what about…Saturday?" she shrugged.

Marcus smiled. "I'm not doing anything. But this isn't a-um…you know a…"

Kayla suddenly realized how she made that sound. "Oh, no I-uh, I didn't mean-um. Sorry." Kayla chuckled awkwardly and she felt her face heat up. "I mean just, ya know, hanging out as friends."

Marcus chuckled, too. "Okay, yeah, that's what I thought, um, yeah well, sure. I'd love that. So, do you want me to pick you up or something?"

Kayla thought for a moment. "Um, no. How about I meet you there?"

"Okay, how about…seven?"

Kayla nodded. "Sounds good."

Later that afternoon Kayla slid her board to a halt at the familiar brick, sewer wall and pulled the right pipe, making the doorway slide open. Kayla grabbed her board and entered the lair, sliding sideways down the railing to the floor.

"I'm home!" she shouted as she walked to the couch and plopped her school bag on the couch and skateboard on the floor.

Donny came walking out of his room with his laptop. "Hey. So, how was your first day of school?"

Kayla shrugged as they both made their way to the kitchen. "Well, it's school. But I guess it wasn't so bad."

Donny chuckled as he sat down at the table. "Care to be a little more specific?" he urged.

Kayla pulled an apple out of the fridge and tapped her chin as she thought. "Well, I'm really glad I have gym with Alana and Marcus again. I also have pottery with Katie, well I have at least one of them in most of my classes, actually. Oh, and I do not have any classes with Alex, thank goodness." Kayla sighed exaggeratedly in relief before taking a bite of her apple.

"Is he still giving you trouble?" Don asked, a hint of concern in his voice as he typed away at his laptop. A couple days after Alex and his friends ganged up on her Raph finally made her tell the whole family the whole story, all of them had been extremely glad to hear what was really going on.

Kayla grinned as she swallowed and shook her head. "Nope. He hasn't said a single word to me since that day last year when everyone ganged up on him, but it's still awkward being around him, especially since our lockers are right by each other."

Don nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I can imagine it would be. So, that Marcus kid. I've heard you talk about him once in a while. What's the deal with him?" Don asked teasingly. Kayla rolled her eyes.

"He's just a friend, girls and guys can be friends, ya know." she pointed out. Donny raised his hands, signaling surrender.

"I never said anything different, I was just asking a question."

"Yeah, right." Kayla rolled her eyes again.

"What's dis bout girls an' guys?" Raph asked as he sauntered into the kitchen and leaned against the kitchen counter lazily.

"Nothing." Kayla answered, slight teasing in her tone.

Raph grabbed a cookie off a plate on the counter. "Remember our agreement: No boyfriends til you're thirty." he reminded her. Kayla sighed and rolled her eyes.

"We made that agreement when I was, like, twelve Raph. I never even met any guys apart from all of you at that point. And anyway, most of the guys at my school are total airheads. I wouldn't even consider dating most of them."

Raph raised an eye ridge at her response. "Most?" he repeated.

Kayla sat down at the table next to Don. "Well, not all of them are jerks. There are some guys who have never been mean to me once in the entire time I've known them. So, I guess there's a chance if any of them asked me out I'd say yes. Not that it'll happen." she muttered quietly under her breath. She knew most of the nice guys were happily spoken for.

"Yeah, well, if ya ever get a boyfriend I'll-"

"Hey, Kayla." Don interrupted before Raph could continue. "Don't you have to get to work?"

Kayla looked at the clock on the stove behind her. It was going on four o'clock. "Yeah, I better get going. I'll see you guys tonight."

With that Kayla grabbed her skateboard and hurried out of the lair. A good fifteen minutes of skating later she picked up her board and opened the front entrance to the small antique store Second Time Around.

"April? I'm here." she called as she entered. The familiar redhead walked around the corner of a tall shelf.

"Hi, Kayla." she greeted happily.

"Hey, so anything you need done?" Kayla asked as she set her board behind the front desk. She'd started working for April around late June because she knew she needed to get a job, but with everything her family goes through it'd be hard to find a good job with a decently flexible schedule. At least working for April meant that April usually knew what was going on and would be understanding if Kayla couldn't work for some reason.

"Actually, yeah. Could you mop the floor please?" April asked nicely as she moved to put an antique vase on another shelf. April kept the shop open only part time while she also worked as a news reporter later at night along with an investigative reporter. It was easy to see she had her hands full and definitely needed help around the shop once in a while. She also didn't appreciate when the turtles helped, they ended up breaking things more than helping.

Kayla walked into the back room to grab the mop and a bucket of water.

"So how was your first day at school?" April called from the front of the shop.

Kayla sighed with a smile as she began telling April how her day at school went.