Donnie.
I fold down the edges of my covers and smooth out the sheets. And now my bed is made to maximum comfort. I nod with satisfaction and look out the window. I hold up three fingers to the horizon. Perfect timing.
I turn and walk out of the room with three other beds and make my way to the courtyard behind the building. All the other kids were playing out there. Leo, Raph and Mikey were practicing what we learned last night. I make my way to my spot on the fence and sit down with my back against it.
"Are you here yet?" I ask softly as I slightly turn my head to the fence.
"Yep, thanks for helping me again." the girl says. I smile at the sweet sound in her voice. I pull out my pocket knife and pick up a stick,
"Ok what's the first problem?" I say as I start to shave the bark off the stick with my knife.
"Sixteen over twenty times twelve over eighteen." she says
"Oh, fractions, I love fractions." I say looking up from my stick
"Focus, pal."
"Oh right, so sixteen is A, twenty is B, twelve is C, and eighteen is D. so you do A times C, and B times D." I say slightly waving my stick in the air. I hear her writing on her paper. I turn and peek through the hole in the fence. "That's right, you got it." I say "what's next?" she pauses.
"Can I ask you something?" she asks
"Uh, sure?" I say nervously.
"What is it like over there?"
"Over where?" I raise an eyebrow.
"On that side of the fence, in the orphanage."
"Oh, um, it's not that bad, I mean, I have my brothers, well we just call each other brothers, honestly we're just roommates who happen to be close friends. We have Leo, he's the bossy one. Then Raph, he's the angry one, and Mikey, he's the silly one."
"And you?" she asks sweetly. I smile
"I'm the smart on I guess." I say with a shrug.
"What's your name?"
"Donnie, well technically Donatello. In fact none of those name are our real names, their just nicknames because our real names are kind of long, and fore some people hard to pronounce. What's your name?"
"April, and it's not short for anything." she says.
"April," I repeat to test the sound of it in my own mouth. "I like it. What do you look like?" I ask looking up to the sky.