Howdy, y'all! This is JustAnotherFan15, better known as JAF to my good friends back in the Sonic the Hedgehog category, so don't be shy about callin' me that as well!
Anyhow, if you picked this unassuming story, you most likely saw the trailer for it. Or you liked the summery. Either way, I'ma glad you did! Whatever the reason that brought 'ya to my story, I will do my best to see that yer entertained!
So, let's check out the summery and then dive right in! Just remember, its been a while since I wrote any fanfiction due to personal reasons involving moving, my aunt and grandfather in a car crash, and no internet. So, basically, if it sucks, I'm rusty. Enjoy!
Summery: It was all perfectly normal. Just a simple slumber party to try and rekindle old ties, and it somehow ended all so wrong. In the blink of an eye, they knew they weren't in Kansas anymore. Now, lost in another dimension, three friends must overcome the greatest trials of their lives and find a way to return home. Maybe those green guys can help them...
Okay, so its the same thing. Whatever works, right? I'ma stop talking now.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in any way, shape, or form. I merely own my own ideas and imagination. Thank you for understanding.
Chapter One: Texas, California, and Dakota
It was normal enough, she supposed. After all, she was used to being forgotten.
She was forgotten when her teacher took the class back to the classroom when they had to go to the sixth graders' hall for a bathroom break during the TAX Test. She had had to walk back to the classroom alone, down eerily silent and empty halls to get back. Looking back on that, she was kind of surprised no one stopped her, since she wasn't suppose to be out of the classroom, and she didn't have any kind of pass.
She had been forgotten by her friend on her own birthday. Or had Amberly been mad at her again for something? She couldn't remember, Amberly often got mad at her for some reason or other. Though, she had thought Amberly would have come to her birthday. She had gotten gifts for her guests, and picked out a movie just for Amberly. Of course, Amberly being mad at her only explained why Amberly didn't show up. Only two or three people actually showed up for her birthday, one of which being her mother.
She had been forgotten by a number of people over the years. People she called friends and had stopped coming by her house were plenty. Of course, she didn't blame any of them. She was the one who moved, after all. That didn't really explain why they didn't call though, she still had the same phone number.
But that was why she was saddened, but not overly surprised, when her two childhood friends, Dakota and California, didn't show up for their scheduled lunch at that nice little cafe they used to always go to on Baker Street. It wasn't the first time she had been stood up by someone, but it was the first time in five years since she had moved away that she moved back to town. Granted, it was a bit out of town, technically in the middle of a field with no neighbors, but she was finally back home!
Which was why Texas Wolf had ordered an appetizer for three when there was just her, and why she assured the waitress that her friends would be there, they were just running late, almost an hour after they were to meet. It was why when her mother drove up to the cafe to pick her up at closing four hours later, she was still in her seat while the sympathetic waitress brought her her check and let her take her time to leave.
And while most people would probably get the idea that their friends were outgrowing them, Texas just couldn't (or rather, wouldn't) believe that Dakota and California would just stand her up. There had to be a valid reason to why they didn't come to the lunch, or why they hadn't called at all to explain why they hadn't showed. Maybe something had happened in the family, and they didn't have time to remember a silly little lunch with old friends. Sure, it was a bit of a stretch to think that both had family problems at the exact same time, but Texas was sure it was something major.
Of course, all bubbles must be popped at some point.
"Oh, Texas, was the lunch today? I thought it was tomorrow!" California Lynx said over the phone. "I am so sorry! I was working today, and was going to take tomorrow off to go. I hope you and Dakota had fun though."
Texas didn't tell her that Dakota hadn't shown up either. As for Dakota, Texas didn't have to call her, she called Texas.
"Tex, I'm so sorry I didn't come to the lunch!" Dakota Bronco practically shouted over the line, noise playing loudly in the background. "I was going to come after I stopped by Fisher's, but then I got caught up with Dave and Laura, and when I realized the time, I called you. How was the lunch?"
Texas didn't feel like a liar when she didn't tell Dakota and California that neither had gone to the lunch. And she didn't feel like a liar when she told them that it had gone well. She did feel like a liar when she told them that she had had a great time, and was honest when she said it would have been better if they had been there.
Because it would have, but Texas was used to being forgotten, and she was used to being the understanding one. She was understanding that they had had things to do, and had truly meant to show up. Dates got mixed up all the time, and time was always being lost. She couldn't fault them for that, and she wouldn't. It just wasn't in her nature to do so.
So she told them that she couldn't wait to see them again, hung up the phone, and pretended that she didn't cry herself to sleep that night as her cats curls around her.
California had never felt so terrible in her life.
She had mixed up the dates for when she was to meet with Texas and Dakota! What kind of friend was she?
Granted, she wasn't on the best of terms with Dakota, after the blonde had started dating Cali's old boyfriend just a month after they broke up. Wasn't there some kind of code about friends not dating friends' ex-boyfriends or something? And Dakota's hot-headed attitude and stubbornness didn't help any.
Still, California hated to upset Texas. The kid had a way of making you feel as guilty as you would swiping the last cookie from the jar with just a look. The worst part, though? It was that she honestly didn't realize that she was making you feel guilty. Her big, dark brown eyes would get a slightly misty sheen to them as they lowered submissively, her head slightly ducking like she was being scolded. She would hunch up, and rub her finger nails in a anxious manner, and Cali always felt like she just kicked a puppy whenever Tex did that. It was probably a good thing, though, that Tex didn't know what she was doing. Kid would be invincible if she did, and only the most cold-hearted people would be able to say no to her.
With a sigh, Cali rubbed her first finger and thumb against the bridge of her nose, trying to relieve the headache she could feel coming on. If only life hadn't gotten so complicated. Ever since Tex and her mother had to move out of their house, it was as though life said 'screw you' to Cali. Her cousin got cancer, then her mother died in a car crash, and her father drowned himself in a bottle because he couldn't cope with the stress as the bills began to pile up. California had only managed this long because she had gotten a job at Walmart when she was fifteen. She was eighteen now, and things had started to begin looking up around Summer last year, when Tex called out of nowhere in a excited babble saying that she and her mother were moving back to town.
"Sure," Texas had said. "We would technically be out in a field with no one around for about a mile, but its still in the city limits! Ooh! Me, you, and Dakota should get together when me and Mom get back!"
California had agreed of course. Sure, she hadn't spoken a word —or rather, any nice words— to Dakota since Texas had moved, but she could suck up being around Dakota if it was for Texas.
And now she felt even worse.
They had been planing this get-together for almost a year! How could she have gotten the dates wrong? She had to have spent over a hundred hours scheduling with Texas' mom to figure out the best date for them all.
"Gah!" Cali thumped her head onto the desk she was seated at, various papers drifting to the floor lazily from the action. Groaning, Cali didn't respond when her cell phone suddenly started ringing, too caught up with her self-loathing and self-pity. The phone, however, wasn't going to be having any of it, it would seem, since it started ringing again after the tone ended.
Another groan, and Cali turned her head to glare at the offending object. Whoever it was, they caught her at a bad time. Picking up the phone without looking at the ID, Cali was ready to give them a scathing tongue-lashing, but she froze when she heard that tell-tale soft voice.
"California?"
Dakota wasn't one to think about 'what-ifs' and 'could-haves'. She preferred to think in the here and now, rather then in the past.
Today, though, she seemed to be unable to let the past go.
Dakota Bronco didn't know very many people back in kindergarten, and she was more violent then the other kids were. While the other students built things, she knocked them down. When they were drawing pictures of bunnies and kittens, she was drawing pictures of bunnies and kittens fighting to the death. She was the classroom bully, stealing lunch money and all that other cliche junk.
Was she a troubled child? Maybe. Was she a violent person, even now? Oh yeah. Would she ever hurt a friend? Hell no.
Dakota growled to herself as she leaned back in the front seat of her old Volkswagen. The beat-up car had seen better days, the paint almost gone and more dents in it then a badly paved road, but Dakota could see past that to the potential the old car had. She had already replaced the broken engine, now it was just a matter of getting the money to fix the rest of the car.
The radio played was playing some kind of hip-hop or something, she wasn't really paying any attention to it. She was too busy thinking of the days back in school, before she met Texas.
She had been a troublemaker, that was for sure. Often doing what the teacher told her not to just to spite them. The older she got, the more trouble she would get into. It started with detentions, then suspension, and finally juvi after she snapped and nearly beat a kid to death. Thinking back on it, she got off light on that one. She only got a few months, probably because of her dad, or maybe because it was technically self-defense. The kid had jumped her after all.
A frustrated sigh passed Kota's lips as she set her head against the steering wheel. Thinking about all the trouble she got into back in school made her think about the day she met Texas, ten years ago.
It had been just another day as far as Kota had been concerned. She had just 'convinced' a kid to pay for her lunch that day, and was on her way to her usual seat in the back of the cafeteria, alone. So she didn't have any friends, really, but she was okay with that. The only people that had ever tried to be her friends had only wanted to because of her daddy. He was a big-shot CEO of his own company, and had always told Dakota to be careful about who she socialized with, because they may only want things from her because she was rich.
Being only eight, it was a very morose thought-process, suspecting everyone only wanted to know you because of who you were. Then again, she enjoyed envisioning cats and rabbits fighting each other when she was five, so maybe it wasn't that dark for her.
So you can imagine Dakota's surprise when a scrawny girl with plastic-framed glasses was sitting at her table in the back of the cafeteria, where no one else ever wanted to sit just because she sat there.
"Hullo," the girl said in a quiet voice, smiling nervously. "Am I sitting in your seat? I'm sorry, but no one else would let me sit with them for some reason. No one was here, so I thought it would be okay, and no one's been here for a few days..."
Of course not, Dakota thought. She had claimed that table, but she'd been suspended for putting graffiti on the principle's new car. She hadn't been suppose to be back for a week, but her dad called the school, and here she was.
Something bothered Dakota about the whole thing, and it wasn't just the fact that Glasses was apparently wearing a rainbow peace-sign necklace, peace-sign brown shirt, and gray sweat pants.
"Yeah," Dakota said slowly. "Sure, go ahead. No one else sits here anyway."
"Really? Why?" Glasses asked, looking surprised. "My name is Texas, Texas Wolf. I just moved into town last week." that explained why Dakota had never seen the kid before. She was certain she would have remembered that necklace anywhere. Honestly, it was like the kid was trying to be a hippie, but didn't know how. All she needed was a bandanna and charms.
"Texas Wolf?" Dakota asked, raising an eyebrow as she sat across from the girl. "You kidding me?"
"No?" Texas said, sounding confused. "Is something wrong?"
"No," Dakota said with a shrug. Her own name was Dakota Bronco, so who was she to judge names? "Why won't anyone let you sit with them?" she asked, wondering why she was talking to the odd hippie-wannabe.
"I don't know," Texas said quietly. She opened her lunch bag and pulled out a peanut butter sandwich. Tearing it in half, she offered half to Dakota. "You want some?"
Not one to turn anything free away, Dakota took the offered sandwich slice. "Thanks, kid," Dakota bit into the slice.
"You're welcome," Texas grinned. Dipping her head, she pulled a water bottle out of the bag before closing it up. Dakota frowned as she swallowed. "Uh, don't you have anything else to eat?" she asked.
"No," Texas said simply. "Why doesn't anyone else sit here?" she asked, not seeming to notice the surprised look on Dakota's face.
"Huh? Oh, I don't really have any friends," Dakota said, still in shock. Texas' eyes widened with their own shock. "Really? That's so sad! I don't have any either," she said.
"You just moved here kid, that's to be expected," Dakota snorted, shaking the shock off.
"Oh, I mean that I never really had real friends," Texas told her. The small girl took a bite of her sandwich before continuing. "Human ones at least. All the friends I ever had always seemed to forget about me. That's okay though, the animals don't really forget."
Dakota wasn't sure why, maybe it was that sentence, about animals not forgetting, but she ended up talking with Texas all through lunch. She gave the scrawny girl half of her own lunch, telling herself it was because she wasn't hungry, and after lunch, when she discovered they had the same recess she found herself sitting on the swings with the hippie-wannabe continuing their talk in the lunch room. By the end of the day, the troublemaker and the hippie were friends, and while she watched Texas climb aboard her bus, Dakota found herself thinking just one thought.
I won't forget.
Hmm-hmm-hmm!
Now, y'all may be wonderin' 'where are the Turtles?' Well, my furry friends of furriness, they will be makin' an appearance soon! I will not give anythin' away before its due time!
So, any questions? And does anyone else feel really bad for Texas? Or is that just me? What was Texas callin' California about? And will Dakota and California try to make it up to Texas?
Find out in Chapter Two: Slumber Party Madness!
Fun fact, all those events that happened to Texas, actually happened to me. Crazy right? Who forgets a kid in a bathroom? Though, the cafe event never happened. I've never been to an actual cafe. So that's a work of fiction.
Until next time, my fine furry friends! -JAF logging out!
