A/N Before anything else… I honestly just want to say that even Enjoy! Chapter One: The Spotlight Came Calling
Hi everyone!
I have the lair to myself.
Mikey, Raph, and Leo are all very sick with the flu. Daddy brought them into his room last night so that I won't catch the flu, too. Daddy has also been spending a lot of time taking care of them, so I've been on my own for a while. A few times, Daddy's come out into the living room to make something for me to eat, or make sure I wasn't lonely, but for the most part, I've been by myself. I'm only five years old, but Daddy can trust me on my own. He says that I am very responsible, and that he can trust me. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with being alone too. It gives me more time to do whatever I want.
Right now, my brothers and Daddy are all sleeping in Daddy's room. But I can take care of myself. So, I decided to watch a movie. I dug out a box of movies that we had. But for some reason, none of them really stood out as something that I wanted to watch at that moment. Then, something at the bottom of the pile caught my eye. I carefully lifted it up to see. It was a VHS tape that I had never seen before, and taped to the top of it, was a note. It was written in Japanese, but I was able to understand it.
'To my love, Tang Shen,' it said, 'I hope you enjoy your birthday present. I know this is something you've wanted to see for a long time. -Yoshi.Careful not to tear the note away, I lifted the paper to take a look at the title. The picture was definitely strange. The actors were human, but they were dressed as cats! The title above them, was obviously, CATS. Now curious, I gently slid out the tape, put in the TV, then pressed play.
Immediately, I was drawn to the screen. Never had I seen anything like this! It was amazing! And quite easy to understand, if you looked at it the right way. Basically, it was about a tribe of cats called Jellicles, who all gathered on one night of the year to sing and dance, and celebrate the Jellicles. Then, at the end of the night, one Jellicle is selected to go someplace called the Heaviside Layer and be reborn into a new Jellicle. The entire time until the end of the film, I was very still. I barely even dared to breath, fearing I'd miss something. But above all, there was one thing that had me enraptured.
It was the dancing. The way the actors and actresses flew and glided, leapt and soared, twirled and swayed across the stage, was magical. It was incredible to think that a living being could be capable of something so unbelievably wondrous. It must have taken years for them to learn how to do that! Five, ten, maybe fifteen!
Then, an unexplainable thought crossed my mind. Something that was about to change everything for me, forever.
'What if I...could do that?'Just then, I heard my family start to wake up. I quickly ejected the tape and carried it to my room. Once there, I began to think of the wild possibility. On the back of the movie box, it said that CATS the Musical had played on Broadway for almost eighteen years! But then two years ago, it closed. Everybody was very surprised. But it still closed. Now, everyone's hoping that it will have a revival, which means that it will come back to Broadway, and then everyone will be happy again that it's back!
I couldn't help but imagine myself doing that. The spotlight was mine. The crowd was thundering. Feeling as if my heart was about to burst out of my chest, I leapt forwards, ready to see the proud faces of my family and friends…
(Flashback/Dream ends).
"Come on, Brainiac! I guess you don't want to turn twenty!"
I blinked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. What did Raph say? Then, I looked at the calendar on the wall. Holy Chalupa! It was September 29th! That meant that I was twenty years old, today!
I sat up in bed. "Happy Mutation Day, Raph." I said. My older brother Raph smirked. "I'm not gonna even think about getting all nice, because I'm way too cool for that, but thanks. And to you too." I rolled my eyes. Typical Raph. Always thinking he's better than everybody. Anyways, I hopped out of bed and rushed into the living room. Leo and Mikey (my two other brothers) were sitting on the couch with our brother-in-law, Casey Jones, who was twenty-two. Raph was in the corner with our twenty-one year old sister, Miwa (we had since stopped calling her Karai), and it seems that the two of them had teamed up to pummel the punching bag that we always kept, and where Raph spends most of his time. And coming out of the Dojo with my father, was the one person I had been waiting to see-
"April!" I called out to my girlfriend. Her face lit up when she saw me. "Donnie!" she cried, rushing forwards. We embraced in a tight hug, and finished with a kiss. My siblings and Casey looked disgusted at the display, but we didn't care. "Happy Mutation Day." April whispered into my ear.
"Thanks, love." I whispered back into hers. Oh, April. The one true love of my life. I could hardly even believe that today marked the fifth year since I met her! When she first met me that cool, September night, I could tell that she was a little wary and nervous. But by the end of June, I could tell that we had started to fall in love with each other. Just before I was about to turn sixteen, I asked her to be my girlfriend, and she excitedly agreed. I only wish her father would be more impressed by me. I've gotten him into trouble plenty of times in the past (one of which we all agreed to never speak of again), but that was all behind us now. Still, he had looked a little frustrated and mad when April had told him exactly who her new boyfriend was, despite sounding happy for his daughter. Luckily, April hadn't noticed a thing and ended up not getting upset about anything. On the other hand, I felt kind of hurt. Even after all of these years I still think he's not my biggest fan.
Anyways, after a while, it was starting to get pretty late in the afternoon. I glanced up at the clock, then told everyone that I was going out to spend some time rummaging through the small junkyard not far from here. I did this often, so it was normal for me to say this. "That's fine, Donnie. Just be home before all the pizza disappears down Mikey's throat." said Leo. "Hey!" yelled Mikey. "I can't help it! Pizza needs to be worshiped!" I rolled my maroon-colored eyes as my little brother's antics as I sprinted off down the tunnel. At least it'll distract everyone, so that no one could follow me to where I was really going.
I only had to travel for around fifteen minutes before reaching my destination. It was where we had fought Rahzar and Fishface (both long gone and in prison by now) for the first time. Even before that, I had used this place for a long time. I just never told my brothers. And this was the reason why.
Very slowly, I slipped the earbuds into my ears (which must have looked pretty strange, considering the fact that turtle ears can't be seen). I clicked 'Play', and began. It started with a few delicate movements, maybe some gentle spins and turns, before really getting going. Breaking into a run, I did a flying leap, landing perfectly on one foot. I twisted around and broke into a series of spins, before jumping into the air and doing a split before coming back down again. I ran forwards again, and then bounced off of the ground once more and spun around in mid-air. I landed soundlessly, balancing myself just right.
Yes, you heard every bit of that right.
I was dancing.
And not just the normal type. I meant the complex, Broadway-worthy, contemporary type of dancing.
I've been training myself for fifteen years now, ever since I was five and saw the CATS tape. I remember how hard I trained, how many times I willed myself to try my hardest, even though I wobbled while balancing on one foot, or if I fell while attempting a leap. I remember how many times a day I would rewatch the tape, just so I could get the moves right. I remember how I thought of it every waking moment of my childhood days. But most importantly, I remember the one wish I had.
I wanted to be on Broadway. And not just Broadway. CATS the musical on Broadway. It sounds utterly ridiculous, but it was true. I wanted to be just like everybody on the film. They inspired me, big time. But, unfortunately, that was around the time that Sensei began to teach us about just how different we were from the world above. I understood the situation, but was heartbroken about the fact that my goal had been crushed into bits.
However, that didn't pull me down. If anything, it made me stronger and more determined than ever. I trained every day. In my room, in the dojo when Sensei wasn't there, everywhere that was completely unoccupied. The reason behind that was because I dreaded the thought of my brothers finding out that I could dance. If they ever discovered my secret, they'd make fun of me to the ends of the earth. They'd laugh and call me all sorts of things that I didn't want to be called. Lame, weird, crazy. I shudder just to think about it. Which is probably why I get strange glances when I just shudder at random.
Very quickly, I realized that the one way to keep the possibility of my brothers finding out my secret at bay, was to do something else in my spare time (the time I spent at the lair). So when I wasn't dancing, I was trying to get smarter. And to my surprise, I became very smart, at a fast rate too. Within a few years, my family labeled me the genius of the lair. I was okay with it, to some extent, because it covered up my dancing tracks. But it made me a little sad at the same time. I was too frightened to share with my family what I had really been doing all these years. And since it had been fifteen years, they still don't know to this day.
Suddenly, a yelp and a splash made me fall over. I quickly sat up again and looked over to the tunnel entrance. To my horror, I saw April attempting to get up! I jumped up and ran over to help, but the look in her eyes told me that my worst fears had been confirmed.
Just how much, had my girlfriend seen me dance?
A/N. That's just about it for this time. Leave a review, favorite, follow, and as always… Stay Tuned! ;)
Well, here goes nothing. I hope you liked this. Also, another thing about this fanfiction is that it takes place five years after the show. It's an alternate timeline, so Master Splinter is still alive. And, Miwa (they don't call her Karai anymore, as mentioned above) and Casey are married.