TMNT © Nick

OCs © MPN

Perfect Together by Rosanna Pansino

This is fanfiction, everything you see here is fiction. Places and names were made up, and any similarities with any real life places or names are totally coincidental.

Enjoy :)

She woke to the smell of freshly baked bread.

Okay, scratch that.

She woke to the smell of freshly baked pastries. The sweet smell of vanilla essence breached the comforts of her room, not that she minded.

With a smile, she got up and stretched, greeted by the warm sunlight from her window.

It was another day.

She took a warm shower and threw on a purple tank top under a sleeveless brown crop-top and jeans.

"Justine, dear," her mom called, "are you up yet?"

Justine playfully rolled her eyes. "Yeah, mom, I'm up," she replied, "I'll be down in just a moment."

"Sure thing, hon," Mrs Baker yelled. "She's coming down, Amanda," she told her younger daughter.

Amanda rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I think I got it the first time," she smiled, stifling her laughter. The soft ding of the oven along with the alarm of the egg timer at the same time made her giggle. "Guess my cake's ready," she chuckled bitterly, "both of them."

Mrs Baker smiled, "Don't worry about the fundraiser, darling, I'm sure it'll go just fine," she said, placing a hand on Amanda's shoulder. Amanda looked up from her freshly baked cake with a smile.

"Okay, mom," she said, voice no louder than a whisper, making her mother smile a tad wider.

Mrs Baker's hand slid off her shoulder. "Now remember: when Justine gets here, be sure to give her that," her mom said, gesturing to a dish underneath a cover. "And be sure to load the goods in the van, alright?"

"Yes, mom," Amanda replied with a smile, letting the cake cool on the stove counter.

"Good," Mrs Baker smiled, "I'll be in my office." Just as she was at the kitchen doorway, she looked over her shoulder. "I'm sure he's very proud of you." As her office door closed with a click, Amanda got out the cake from the fridge.

"Is that strawberry?"

"No, chocolate, actually," Amanda replied, placing down the frosted cake on the marble countertop.

"Can I have a taste?" Justine asked, throwing an arm around her younger sister's shoulder while pointing at the cake.

Amanda chuckled as she gestured to the cake scraps placed inside a plastic container. "Take your pick," she said as Justine walked over and ate cake scraps for breakfast.

9

"Have you guys ever wondered what would happen if we weren't us?"

"What do you mean, 'what would happen if we weren't us?'" Justine echoed.

"What are you talking about, May?" Amanda asked, turning to her friend.

"You know..." May started, "What would the world be like if Amanda was a sweet and shy girl, if Justine was less of an attention-seeker, if I was an introvert?"

"You and introvert without 'not' in between in one sentence?" the eldest in the group asked, "I don't think that it's possible."

"But what if it was?" May asked, brown eyes widening in wonder.

"May," Amanda called gently, placing her hand on her friend's, "This kind of stuff will only stress you out. Sure, things would be different if we weren't ourselves, but if it was from the beginning, I guess it wouldn't be so bad, if it was at all."

"Well, I guess you're right... as usual," May giggled.

"Plus it makes a really good bet," Justine added, getting weird looks from the other two, "Just saying," she shrugged.

The three girls laughed and chatted while they finished setting up their booth. The school gym slowly began to fill with people, and not one of them could resist coming over to the trio's booth, taking a pastry. The school staff eventually closed the building temporarily, allowing the volunteers get ready for the next wave of people that afternoon.

"R&R," Justine joked, "Rest and restocking, mostly restocking for us."

"Not that I'm angry at you, but did you really think that all those sweets would last the entire day?" May asked Amanda.

"I considered the school location, the way the word got around, the way Justine would lure people over, our booth location and size…" Amanda thought out loud, "Yes, I thought it would," she confessed as she hid her head in her arms on the table, embarrassed.

"Don't worry, we still got a couple of hours before the school reopens the building," Justine said.

"But among all of us, Amanda's the only one who knows how to bake," May said, "If we help her, it might not taste the same."

"We might," Justine repeated, then her eyes widened in hope, "But if Amanda pre-makes the frosting, we'd be able to decorate the cakes ourselves as she makes them."

"But letting the frosting set will take hours," Amanda said, lifting her head up, "and even if we crank the chill up and stuff it in the freezer, it'll at least take half an hour to decorate the cake, and another fifteen minutes to sign it and pack it."

"Can't you just pre-make the signature too?" May asked.

"Sadly, no," Amanda sighed sadly, eyes downcast. "Plus the kitchen isn't big enough!"

As of then, hope seemed to be lost. The three girls dwelled on the hopeless silence that pressured them to death.

"What if we did it here?" May asked.

"You mean bake the pastries?" Justine asked.

"Justine," Amanda called sternly, "I doubt that Principal Jason will allow us to use it."

"But the Anna and her snobby little friends use it all the time!"

"That's because they're part of the cooking club. They have been granted unlimited access to the kitchen just as the literature club has been granted unlimited access to the library."

"Oh."

"Then how 'bout this," Justine suggested, "What if we made cake pops out of the scraps in the kitchen? We could sell those while Amanda makes more pastries. You did bake a whole lot of cakes and cupcakes, sis."

"Well yeah, but I can't bake, decorate, box, and bring the cakes here all by myself!" Amanda said.

"Who said that you were?" May asked smugly, crossing her arms.

9

April rolled her eyes at another one of Mikey's jokes, which apparently offended Raph, so now the latter was chasing the former around the lair, and if Leo wasn't around she was pretty sure that Mikey would be running through the sewer system by now.

"Leo, save me, dude!" Mikey pleaded.

Leo let out an exhausted sigh. Poor turtle didn't get any sleep the past week or so. "No, Mikey," Leo said sternly, but he still sounded tired, "You made him angry and now you have to face the consequences."

"Dude, what?!" Mikey exclaimed in disbelief as he abruptly came to a stop a few feet away from his eldest brother, allowing Raph to catch him.

Both fell into the pool with a big splash, making Donnie let out a relieved sigh, "I didn't think they'd stop any time soon."

"It would've been sooner if Leo was actually alert today," April whispered to Donnie. The two watched as their fearless leader began to doze off, constantly stopping himself every time his chin hit his plastron. "Is he okay, Donnie?"

Either Donnie didn't hear her or didn't have an answer to the question. "Hey, Leo," Donnie called. Called turtle rubbed his tired eyes before turning to Donnie, if it weren't for the mask, you'd be able to see the bags under Leo's eyes, those of which were slightly visible through the said piece of fabric. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Leo answered drowsily, rubbing his left eye, "yeah, I'm fine, Donnie."

"You sure?" Donnie asked, "You look a bit...tired."

"Don't worry, D," Leo yawned, "I'm okay," he said from the back of his throat as he stretched his arms up before relaxing on the bean bag.

"Leo, you need to get some sleep," Donnie ordered.

"I'm serious, Donnie," Leo managed to say despite a wave of exhaustion washing over him, "I'm fine..." At the last word, Leo gave in to the much needed sleep.

"We're gonna have to move him," Donnie stated, "He's not gonna be able to sleep very well that way."

At the moment, April's phone rang, waking the leader up. April gasped as she got up and out of the lair with her stuff, telling Leo to go back to sleep as she passed him.

The only time she dared to look at her phone was when she was up the manhole cover and on the streets, headed for home. The picture of a tanned girl with neatly combed shoulder length dark brown hair with cream lowlights and brown eyes with the label 'May O'Neil' was up on her screen.

April brought the phone up to her ear as she answered it.

"May?"

"April, hey, can I ask you a favor?" her cousin requested.

"What favor?" April asked.

"You do know that GMH is raising money for the kindergarten building, right? I told you about it last time," May started.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, Amanda, Justine, and I volunteered for the fundraiser."

"Really? That's great!"

"Yeah! It's so awesome!" May squealed. Then April heard someone sternly hit the table. "Oh, right. Can you come over and help Amanda bake? We ran out of sales halfway through the day."

"Sure, be right there," April replied.

"Thanks a lot, coz."

"No problem," April smiled as she hung up. She put away her phone and let out a satisfied sigh. This is gonna be great.

9

"April, I'd like you to meet Amanda and her older sister, Justine," May smiled, gesturing to her friends.

"Hey," Justine greeted briefly as Amanda waved with a gentle smile.

"Nice to meet you, I'm April," May's cousin smiled, shaking the sisters' hands.

"Dad's side?" Justine asked.

"Yeah," April replied.

"Did they agree to name you in consecutive months, or something?" Justine questioned.

The two cousins were lost, as if they didn't know the reason behind their names, because they didn't. "Uh..."

Justine chuckled, "I was just kidding. April, you and Amanda better get baking," she said. She lifted a few boxes of cake pops, May carrying the rest, which was a lot. "May and I will be at the GMH gym."

Justine walked out the back door, May following. "Have fun you two," May added.

As the door closed with a click, the two girls stood in silence as Amanda poured in the next batch of cakes. The only time April decided to talk was when the other girl's egg timer went off.

"So, uh..." April started as Amanda got a round of cakes out the oven, placing them down on the stovetop to cool as she put in the next batch, "How can I help?"

"You can start by frosting those cakes over there"—Amanda gestured to the red velvet cakes on the stove counter—"with the buttercream frosting over there"—she pointed to the bowl filled with a thick white substance placed on the pad of an electric mixer with the machine part raised up— "using the this," Amanda finished, handing April a frosting tool.

"Um..."

"Just act as if the cake's a bread, the frosting's the butter, or whatever you put on bread, and this"—Amanda pointed to the spatula-like tool in April's hand—"is the spreading knife, except instead of just spreading the butter on the top, you spread it on all sides except the bottom. Any questions regarding my instructions?" Amanda finished. April shook her head nervously. Amanda sighed, "Good, now go," she ordered.

April did as told, but she couldn't help the glances she secretly passed at Amanda while she was doing her job. Amanda is such a gentle-looking girl, how would she be so stern?

9

"Thanks for bringing the pastries here, mom," Justine smiled.

"No problem, dear. April and Amanda just need more ingredients. So I thought: might as well bring the sales here while I'm at it," Mrs Baker returned the smile.

"How are those two doing, anyway?" Justine asked.

"I don't know," Mrs Baker replied with a small shrug, "They have been pretty quiet."

"I'll call April," May said, "see how's it going."

9

Amanda tapped the marble countertop with a spoon. She was bored, but what could she do? She was in her house with a her best friend's cousin.

Amanda was a very shy girl. She was also negative, her gloomy fashion showed it. The only known thing that was an unexpected twist in her personality was her love for baking. May was a very positive person. The two are best friends for two reasons: opposites attract and they cancel each other out.

"So..." April started. Amanda could tell that she was lost for words. "How long have you and May been best friends?" April didn't know what she was saying. She knew how long those two have been best friends! May was her closest cousin, always telling her about her life ever since they first met.

"You know the answer to that," Amanda replied bluntly.

"Uh..."

"You're nervous," she added.

April's heart nearly jumped out of her chest when Amanda read her like a kindergarten book. April was sure that she looked just as bored as Amanda did, and that her back was turned on the her, so how could she read her? Was she shaking?

April slowly turned Amanda, who was now idly tapping a spoon, who knows where she got it, on the counter top.

"You... you must read people really well," April started, her second attempt to start a conversation was just as futile as the first.

"Thanks. I get that a lot," Amanda replied, not making eye contact.

April let out a silent sigh as she diverted her gaze to the tiled floor below her. Then the spoon taps slowed and started coming together in a beat unfamiliar to April, but a satisfying beat was equal to music. She dared to glance up at Amanda, whose lips were making small movements, as if she were singing. April strained her ears to hear the surprisingly soft vocals of Amanda.

'If you would be the popcorn

I would be the movie

If you were strawberries

Then I would be the smoothie

If you were October

I'd be apple cider

And if you where the waffle fries

Then I would be the slider'

"That's a nice voice of yours," April commented, only loud enough for Amanda to hear.

The spoon tapping stopped as Amanda started at April in surprise. No one has ever heard her sing before, much less compliment her voice.

"You...you heard me?" Amanda asked shyly.

"Yes. I'm actually surprised at how good you sing," April smiled. "Can you sing again?

"Oh, no it's only good when I sing softly," Amanda denied. That actually wasn't true, the louder she sang, the better her voice became, but she was too shy to admit it.

"You're lying," April said bluntly.

"How could—"

"You're not the only person who could read others in the room," April replied with a smirked.

Before Amanda could retort, April's phone rang. The latter took her phone out of her pocket and saw an olive green turtle with girly clip art all around with the caller's ID labeled 'Donnie-Boy'.

"I need to take this," April said, pushing herself off the counter and walking to the living room.

"Sure sure," Amanda called after her before her own phone rang. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a black phone in a dark pink case, as opposed to her normal clothing. On the screen was May leaning forward in an attempt to catch two eggs that were on her nose. Answer. "Hey, May, what's up?"

"Hey, Amanda, is April still there?" May asked

"Yeah," Amanda replied, turning to the doorway, where she could see April talking with someone on the phone, "why?"

"She's not answering my calls."

"That's because someone called her."

"Seriously? Justine, your mother, and I have been worrying for the past two minutes just because someone else called her?"

"Yeah," Amanda replied bluntly, "but why are you so worried?"

"Because April always, always answers."

"Well you don't have to worry, she just got a call."

9

Answer.

"Hey, D, what's up?" April called.

"It's Mikey, April," a sad voice corrected. It was Mikey, but he was sad. Like, really sad.

"Mikey? Is there something wrong?"

"It's Leo. He's poisoned."