Hazel Suzuki and Hannah Kim walked out of the movie theater and sat on a bench as they waited for Hannah's mom to arrive.
"That movie was absolutely hilarious, dude," Hazel said.
"Amen to that, sista," Hannah joked. "Lemme call my mom and tell her we're ready to go. She's probably at the supermarket just down the street."
"Ok," Hazel said as she began to observe their surroundings. Hannah and Hazel both live in New York City, and they had met in middle school, when Hannah moved to New York from South Korea. When the girls first met, they weren't exactly fast friends. But after a while, Hazel and Hannah got to know each other better and found out that they had a lot in common. Now, at age 16, the girls were closer than ever.
"Hey Hazel, my mom's here," Hannah said, hanging up the phone. They piled into the car as Hannah's mom started driving towards their apartment building.
"I wish one of you girls would quit being lazy and start learning to drive already," Hannah's mom pleaded. "It would really help me out, you know."
The girls shared a glance. "Nah," they both said.
Hannah's mom sighed as she turned onto their street. Once the car was parked, the girls said their goodbyes and headed toward their respective apartments. They lived in the same building, but they weren't neighbors.
Hazel dug into her pocket and found her house key to unlock the door. When she walked in, she heard her two sisters, Alex and Izzy, fighting with each other as always.
With a sigh, she headed into her room and decided to let her sisters figure their issues out on their own. She decided to tidy up her room before getting started on some extra credit summer work. Hazel loved to stay on top of her schoolwork and maintain her straight-A status at school. She found it hard to concentrate, however, with the sounds of her sisters shouting down the hall.
Hazel and her sisters had been adopted when they were all 4 years old. Even though they aren't related to each other, they still feel very much like sisters. They attend the same school, yet each sister tends to stick with their own friend groups. Hazel is technically the eldest, if only by a few months, followed by Alex, then Izzy.
Hazel had always been known as the "smart one," since she is the only straight-A student out of the three sisters. She loves science and math, takes cello lessons, and also plays in the school orchestra. Hannah is pretty much Hazel's only friend, since Hazel isn't the social type.
Alex, however, is a B-student, since her interests lie more in visual arts. She loves to draw, paint, and do animation. One of the more surprising things about her is that she is incredibly strong, even without exercising much. She can easily beat any guy in her class at arm wrestling and won't hesitate to beat someone up who is mean to her or her friends.
Izzy is the cute one, with long brown curly hair and equally cute clothes to match. She loves to do gymnastics and has twice the amount of energy as Hazel and Alex combined. She loves attention, but if you make her mad, she'll go crazy and will attack anyone who gets in her way. Hazel and Alex sometimes joke that she's the Incredible Hulk. But only when Izzy's not around, of course.
The girls' mom, Ms. Suzuki, is an accountant. She's a bit of a workaholic, so she's at the office a lot. When she does happen to come home, she usually spends a lot of time in her home office, trying to catch up. Their dad, Mr. Suzuki, is usually away on business for long periods of time, and isn't usually home.
Hazel listened outside for a while, and concluded that Alex and Izzy were done fighting and had probably locked themselves away in their rooms. Hazel decided that the best thing to do at this point is to let them have space and see how it goes tomorrow. She sat down in the kitchen and made some instant noodles for dinner. She began to get a bit lonely, so she texted Hannah for a while. Once it got pretty late, she decided to go to bed.
Back at the lair, the turtles were just hanging out, since they finished their patrols a bit earlier than usual. Michelangelo was making something that resembled pizza in the kitchen while listening to music. Donatello was in his lab, as always. Leonardo and Raphael were sparring in the dojo.
"Pizza's ready!" Mikey shouted. "If you don't hurry up I'm just gonna keep it for myself!"
The turtles all rushed to the table and began eating. Even Master Splinter came out of his room to join his sons.
"Good work today on patrols, guys," Leonardo commented, eager to get a conversation going. The lair had been awfully quiet lately, especially since April had gone on a vacation to Europe with her dad for the summer.
"Yeah, I thought I did pretty awesome, especially when I caught those Foot Ninjas by surprise," Mikey said, congratulating himself. "But, uh, you guys did a pretty good job too, I guess."
Raph reached over to smack Mikey on the head, but Master Splinter gave him a look along the lines of 'don't do that or you'll have to do extra training tomorrow.' Raph dropped his hand and decided to just glare at Mikey.
"I do believe that things have been awfully quiet around here," Master Splinter noted. "Your idleness is beginning to take effect on your training. It is important to maintain a balanced life, and that includes a balance between excitement and downtime."
The turtles exchanged glances. Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing: What else can you do when you're a mutant turtle that would probably be considered a "freak" by the general public?
"Well, I shall return to my room to meditate for a while before going to bed. I suggest you do the same," Master Splinter concluded before walking out of the room. Left with nothing better to do, the turtles all decided to return to their respective rooms and leave Splinter's words to think about tomorrow.