The knife dug deeply into April O'Neil's picture. Karai stared up at it with disgust in her face and threw another tanto, this time nailing the photo in the eye. Already numerous blades stuck to the picture of the red head Karai had taped to her bedroom's ceiling but nothing made her feel better. What made this girl so special?
Karai had managed to track down where April had lived and found the picture. When she realized April was never coming home to her aunt, Karai left the room behind but took the picture with her. It was a portrait of the girl with a purple and yellow lotus in her hair. The girl's locks were down and she grinned down at Karai, her eyes crinkling up with sickening joy.
The teenager scowled and tossed another knife, this time hitting directly in the center of the forehead. Ever since she met this girl, she both wanted to befriend her and strangle her. Both urges were very strong and it sent Karai on an emotional rampage. Why did this girl bother her so much?
Karai chucked another knife up at the picture. The knife dug into the lotus and Karai stared at it. She supposed the both of them were like lotuses...but one was bright while the other one was decaying. April had everything Karai didn't: a supportive and functional family, friends that truly care about her, the opportunity to be normal...
She was jealous. Not that Karai would ever admit that, though. She longed to have the warmth of coming home to a fresh cooked meal and a family that's willing to eat with her. The Foot Clan wasn't exactly family, despite the name. They never ate together. And the Shredder always had better things to do than to have a family meal.
The more she thought about it, the more Karai came to accept the facts that her father's 'love' for her was really just the pride of a teacher. He never wanted to play with her as a kid, and if she did something wrong he wasn't exactly afraid to strike her. She had grown to be the tough shell she is to prove to everyone that she wasn't a scared little girl.
Karai felt herself sneer as a sarcastic remark came to her mind. She gasped and felt her smile drop. Sarcasm had always been apart of her...but she didn't realize it was now a defense mechanism. When did that happen?
Karai laughed at herself. That had always been how it was for her. If something got too personal: sarcasm. If something got too emotional: sarcasm. It was now her natural reaction to everything, just how it was natural for people to laugh or cry in situations.
The ninja turned onto her side, suddenly not feeling funny anymore. Or angry. Now...now she felt disturbed. They were two sides to a lotus flower, and April was everything Karai wasn't. She was the part of the lotus flower that prospered. Part of the lotus flower that grew beautifully from the hardships in her life and became stronger with the love and support of her friends and family while Karai was the part that was dying...decaying...she had nothing to grow from except the despair she had grown up in. She didn't have the family and friendship love and support like April did. She had Leo's heart at one point, but now...now she was a dead lotus flower, and she envied her ginger opposite that continued to grow and thrive while she herself continued to sadly shrivel up and wither away like the pedals of a dying lotus flower.