Chapter Three
Pandora moved a little closer to the children tying her scarf around her neck like a cowl, and pulled her hat lower down so only her eyes could be seen.
As she was about two meters away from them, the children stopped playing and looked at her in surprise.
"Hi!" said Pandora waving.
"Who are you?" asked one of the girls, a blonde girl in a white and blue winter outfit.
"My name's Pandora!" said Pandora "I live up there!" she pointed to the hill behind her.
"You live up that way?" asked one of the boys, a black haired boy wearing a blue coat and trousers and a red hat with a blue bobble.
"Yeah!" said Pandora "I was sledging here with my Uncle, yet I seem to have lost him."
"Oh dear!" said the second girl, this one was a red head and wore pink winter clothes.
"Maybe she could play with us until her Uncle comes?" asked the second boy, a blonde boy in a green coat and hat.
"Yeah!" said the last boy, a brown haired freckled boy in a grey coat and green hat "She can stay with us! Besides, we can get an even number on our snowball tournament!"
"Good idea!" cried the blonde girl "Boys verses Girls!"
"Yay!" said the red headed girl "Snowball fight!"
Then at once, the children started to throw snowballs and laugh.
Pandora grinned and picked up some snowballs and threw them at the boys.
As they played, Pandora's heart sang within.
For a while she had wished there were other children she could play with, she was overjoyed that Kemeko would be her new sister, but because she was so young she couldn't play with her.
All she wanted was to play with children her age, and it seemed she had gotten her wish, who cared if they were human? They seemed nice enough!
For about five minutes or so, the snowball fight went well, but suddenly a snowball hit Pandora in the face and she went flying backwards.
"Oh no!" the black haired boy ran up to Pandora "I'm sorry! I wasn't aiming for your face!"
The blonde haired girl ran over to help Pandora who shook off stars and sat up in the snow wiping the snow off her face.
"Are you okay?" the other children asked as they walked over to Pandora.
"I'm fine!" said Pandora wiping the snow out of her eyes.
As she did, she accidentally pulled her scarf down exposing her face and the blonde girl saw it.
"What the...?" she cried.
The boys and the second girl also saw Pandora's face.
"What in the world is that!?" the freckled boy cried.
"What?" asked Pandora, she then lifted her mitten covered hand to her face and realised!
"Oh no!" she thought.
The blonde girl then pulled off Pandora's mitten and exposed her scaly hand.
"It's not a girl!" cried the black haired boy "It's a...It's a..."
"An alien!" cried the blonde boy.
"Hey..." Pandora tried to speak, but the children started to back away from her in fright.
"An alien!" they began to cry out "It's an alien! No wait! It's a Grinch!"
"A Grinch!?"
"You know! The creature that takes away the presents and Christmas decorations! They steal Christmas!"
Pandora's eyes widened as they called her that.
"No wait!" she cried "I'm not a grinch!"
But her words stuck in her mouth when a snowball hit her shoulder.
"Go away!" the children began to scream "Go away Grinch!"
They then began to pelt her with snowballs and Pandora realised she wasn't going to get a word in!
Feeling scared, the mutant grabbed her glove and started to run away back to the trees.
"Get out of here Grinch!" the children shouted "Leave our Christmas alone!"
Pandora stumbled as she ran to the trees but the snowballs still kept coming at her, and the voices still chased after her.
"Grinch! Grinch! Grinch!"
Pandora kept on running until she went crash into someone coming towards her! She looked up and to her relief, it was her Uncle Michelangelo.
"Pandora!" he cried "I've been looking for you..." he stopped mid sentence as he saw the children throwing snowballs and chasing after Pandora.
"What the...?" He looked up and glared at the children who upon seeing him stopped in their tracks.
"Oh man!" cried the black haired boy seeing Michelangelo's face "There's another!"
"Run!" the red haired girl shouted.
The children instantly turned and fled, but Michelangelo picked up some snowballs and threw them at the children.
"Yeah! You better run!" he shouted "And leave my niece alone! Santa would put you on the naughty list for that!"
He watched at the kids ran away into the trees then looked down at Pandora who was hugging his knees for dear life.
"Pandora?" he asked "What happened?"
Pandora didn't speak but she just cried.
Michelangelo quickly picked Pandora up and they ran back into the woods and hid deep in the mess of trees just in case the children had alerted their parents.
As soon as he believed they were hidden in the woods, Michelangelo sat behind a large tree trunk and cradled Pandora in his lap.
"Pandora?" he asked in a firm voice "What happened?"
Pandora sniffled as she looked up at Michelangelo.
"I lost you when we sled down." she said "As I was looking for you, I saw those kids...they asked me to play with them..."
Michelangelo's eyes widened
You what!?" he cried in shock.
"But we were having fun!" Pandora said "Until they saw my face and chased me with snowballs! They called me a Grinch!"
"A Grinch!" Michelangelo cried angrily "How dare they!?"
He held Pandora close, he knew he should be reprimanding her for interacting with humans, but seeing how upset she was he felt he couldn't, and he didn't want to tell Raphael, Mona and the others about it.
After a moment of silence, Michelangelo decided to talk to Pandora himself, in the past, he had been reprimanded by his brothers, Mona and Master Splinter for being immature and how sometimes his reckless behaviour would get him into trouble and he knew Pandora looked up to him.
Also, he blamed himself that she wandered off and found the human children because he had crashed into the tree.
Taking a breath, Michelangelo positioned Pandora on his lap and looked at her.
"Pandora." he said "Do you remember when your parents, uncles Leo, Donny, Granddad Splinter and I always told you to stay out of sight and away from the humans?"
Pandora looked ashamed for a moment.
"Yes..." she said "But those children, they looked like they were having fun, and I didn't think they were bad, not like the grown-ups you tell me to keep away from."
Michelangelo sighed again.
Pandora was indeed innocent and it almost made him want to chuckle at how naïve she was, it was true, if he was her age he would have thought human children weren't as dangerous as the grown-ups but he knew that even children had their darkest moments.
"Oh Pandora." he said "I'm sorry, but even children can be bad, especially when they are in groups, they too get scared of us, mainly because they don't understand how we're different."
Pandora looked sad again.
"You're only young Pandora, and you have a lot to learn." Michelangelo continued "But you must listen when we say 'Don't go near the humans', we mean, stay away from the humans and stay close to us! Even though April and Casey are our friends, many humans aren't like them."
Pandora nodded.
"And you know why don't you?" asked Michelangelo.
"Because I'd be put in a zoo?" asked Pandora "Locked in a cage and people stare and laugh at me?"
Michelangelo nodded.
"Or worse..." he said "There are bad people in the world Pandora, and we stay hidden for a reason, right now you are too young to understand, but one day you will."
Pandora listened to Michelangelo then her eyes watered.
"Are you going to tell mummy and daddy?" she asked.
Michelangelo looked down.
"I won't tell them you wandered off Pandora." he said "I'll tell them something else, that the children found us."
Pandora nodded but then her eyes widened.
"But will I be put on the naughty list?" she asked, tears streaming from her eyes "I was naughty going near the humans!"
"Of course not sweetheart!" said Michelangelo hugged Pandora close "If anything, I should be on the naughty list for lying to protect you!"
He chuckled but Pandora looked down sadly and guiltily.
"Awww, Pandora!" he said "Don't put on a frowny face! Lets go home and we'll have some treats before bedtime!"
Pandora looked up.
Normally she would be cheering and squealing happily but this time she gave a small smile through her tears.
"Awww! There's that pretty smile!" said Michaelangelo "Come on sweetie! Let's go home!" he placed Pandora on his shoulders and began to trudge back to the farmhouse, as he did, he started singing again:
"You better watch out! You better not cry! You better not pout I'm telling you why! Santa Claus is coming to town!"
He bounced Pandora on his shoulders, but he sighed sadly as he got no happy response from her.
Before long, they got back to the farmhouse where the lights from the windows shone brightly in the darkness.
"Here we are Little Geisha!" he said happily "And I think I can smell the gingerbread from here!" he picked Pandora off his shoulder and set her on the snow "And look!" he pointed to the snowman they built earlier by the porch "The snowman's still there!"
Pandora smiled at Michelangelo yet she still had streams of tears falling from her eyes.
"Don't worry Pandora." said Michelangelo holding her hand tightly "Everything will be alright, I promise!"
"Okay." said Pandora still looking guilty.
Michelangelo smiled at Pandora then walked into the farmhouse where the others were sitting in the living area relaxing.
"Ah here they are!" said Casey brighter "Hey you two! You're just in time for some mulled wine, hot chocolate and gingerbread!"
Mona stood up to go over to Pandora then saw her daughter looking upset.
"Awww, Pandora!" she said "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
Raphael also jumped up when he heard the concern in Mona's voice and saw his daughter looking sad.
"Pandora?" he asked "What's wrong sweetie?"
Everyone else also walked over to find out what had happened.
Michaelangelo sighed.
"We were sledging down that hill on the other side of the woods." he said "And we ran into some human children."
"WHAT!?" everyone cried in shock.
"They saw us before we could hide." said Michaelangelo "They called Pandora and I Grinches!"
Pandora looked at the floor again and cried to which Mona put her arms around her daughter.
"The horrible kids!" Raphael growled "How dare they!"
Mona hugged Pandora who leaned against her crying.
"They said horrible things to us and threw snowballs at us." sobbed Pandora.
Mona gently carried Pandora to the sofa and gently sat her down.
Kemeko who was sitting on Leonardo's lap looked at Pandora and reached her small hands to her to which Leonardo placed the baby girl next to Pandora as an act of comfort.
Everyone gathered around Pandora as she wiped her eyes.
"Awww baby girl." Mona said softly "My Little Geisha."
"I'll be on the naughty list." Pandora whispered "Because I let the humans see me."
"You're not going to be on the naughty list sweetie!" said Michelangelo "You didn't mean it, if anything, those children should be on the naughty list for being so horrible to you!"
"He's right Pandora." said April "Those children were nasty to throw snowballs at you."
"I blame myself." said Michelangelo "I should have been more careful."
"But at least you were there Mikey!" said Donatello "You were protecting her."
Raphael nodded and placed his hand on Michelangelo's shell in reassurance.
"She looks up to you!" he said "She loves you so much!"
"She does!" agreed Leonardo as he stroked Kemeko's hair.
Michelangelo smiled as he looked at his family, he was glad that everything thought he was great at looking after Pandora, yet he felt bad telling a few little lies about the children attacking him and Pandora, but seeing how upset and guilty Pandora looked and after the little talk they had, he hoped she had learnt a lesson.
"Come on sweetie!" said Mona "We're going to watch some Christmas films then we'll get you ready for bed and ready for when Santa comes!"
Pandora looked up.
"Are you sure Santa won't put me on the naughty list?" she asked.
"We're sure kiddo!" said April "You're not a bad girl! You might be curious, very curious, but you're not a bad girl!"
"Okay..." said Pandora then a small smile formed on her face.
"That's my girl!" smiled Raphael.
"Alright!" said Michelangelo "Let's get our Christmas Eve fun started shall we?"
Awwww! Poor Pandora! She was having fun with those kids! Until she realised what she was!
I wonder how the rest of the evening will go?
Stay tuned for the final Chapter!
