The next day, April limped out of the school as the other students ran out, excitedly cheering about the end of the day. Her ankle was still wrapped with a bandage, and she'd told her dad that the school nurse patched her up. The pain died down enough that she could walk, but she tried to avoid putting too much weight on it. None of her classmates noticed, but she'd had an uncomfortable talk with the track coach as to why she had to miss practice for the next two weeks.
Meeting the mutant turtles yesterday had certainly perked at April's curiosity; I mean, who wouldn't be curious about a family of mutants living in the sewers? For some reason, however, April was also a little nervous about the turtles coming to her apartment; sure, she wanted to be friends with them, but each of their personalities were so extreme, she hoped her dad's apartment survived it.
As she made her way towards her apartment, she scanned the roofs for any sign of the siblings. They were supposed to meet in the same alleyway she first met them the day before, since it would take her twice as long to walk home on her own. April waved at the woman who sold churros as she made her way towards the alley, grateful that she could take off her heavy backpack and sit down. She took a deep breath; she had tons of history homework, as well as several conditioning exercises her coach and the nurse wanted her to do to help her ankle heal faster. The girl had just reached down to massage her ankle when she heard a creak above her head, followed by the four turtle siblings landing in front of her, startling her a little.
"Hey April," the four turtles chorused, grinning from...she didn't see any visible ears, but imagined that if they did, their grins would stretch from ear-to-ear. Raph was easily the tallest, towering above herself and the others. Mikey was the shortest, while Leo and Donnie were both around April's height.
The girl sighed with relief, grinning as well. "Hey Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey! How was your day?"
"Pretty good," Leo said. "Even with the grueling training, at least we managed to get in some lovely meditation time!" April quickly learned that Leo was extremely sarcastic and full of wise-cracks. She also noticed that he wasn't covering his red marks around his eyes anymore, and couldn't help smiling a little at that.
"Cool," she said, climbing (painfully) to her feet. "Ready to go?"
"Of course, m'lady," Raph said, sweeping her up in his arms while Mikey struggled to lift her heavy backpack. "We're going the express route via the rooftops. Where do you live again?"
She told them where she lived, and without warning, she suddenly found herself on the roof of the building with no idea how the turtles had gotten up there in three seconds. After that, April quickly held onto Raph as he and his brothers jumped from roof to roof, soaring through the air. While she was scared, she couldn't help marvel at the New York buildings from above; they looked like a quilt with those squared buildings spread out around them, the Empire State Building towering above them several miles away.
Finally they landed in the alley next to April's apartment, arriving in half the time it would've taken April if she'd walked with a healed ankle. While the turtles waited outside, she hurried upstairs to her apartment, making sure to lock the door behind her (in case any of the turtles tried to explore the rest of the building), and went to her bedroom window, which overlooked the alley.
"Come on up," she called, leaning out the window. She stumbled back a few seconds later as one, two, three, then four green blurs shot off the ground and straight through her window.
"WOW," Mikey said, looking around the room. The walls were painted a nice, calming green (it was April's favorite color). Her bed sheets and rug were a nice cream, and the rug was the kind that was so soft, you just wanted to lie there all day and rest. Several posters hung on her wall, including one of Warren Stone (she'd joined his fan club at her school); all of the members of the school newspaper were enamored with the guy, and April was no exception. Her desk was a little messy, as was her dresser, but none of the turtles seemed to care.
"This is pretty impressive," Raph said, looking at her running medals hanging on the wall.
"Yeah," said Donnie, looking through the books on her bookshelf, counting how many of the books he'd read before.
"Ooh," Leo exclaimed, lying down on the rug. "This is SOOOO soft!"
"Yeah," April said, hobbling over to her bed and sitting down on it. "When I was little, I used to fall asleep on it, staying up reading." Donnie's head jerked a little to the side, but he continued to study the book titles.
"Can I see your knitting," Mikey asked excitedly.
"Sure." She reached under her bed, grabbing her box of yarn, needles, and unfinished sweater. The young turtle sat next to her as she showed him her sweater, feeling the soft green yarn in between his fingers. Raph pick up two needles, mentioning that they looked like some type of weapon called, 'sai.'
"It's gonna take me awhile to finish the body, and then I'm gonna have to do the neck and sleeves."
"It's beautiful," Mikey said, still feeling the yarn. "Now I REALLY want one!"
"Calm down, man," Raph said, sitting down on the rug next to Leo, who was making snow angels in the soft material. "Let her finish her own first!"
"I can't help it," the youngest brother squeaked. "It's SO soft!"
"Not as soft as this," Leo said dreamily from the floor.
"You have quite a book collection, April," Donnie said, sitting down on the other side of April. "I've read some of them, but there's quite a bunch of them I've yet to read!"
"Thanks! I have a couple more in my backpack; Mrs. Gordon gave us a TON of History homework tonight, and my coach wants me to work on keeping my ankle muscles from going out of use." She started to roll her sore ankle around in a circle, making sure her muscles didn't get too tight.
"Can I help with the homework," Donnie asked excitedly.
"Sure," April replied.
"Well don't do it now," Leo said, sadly sitting up on the rug. "I wanna see the rest of the apartment." The other turtles chorused in agreement with him.
"Fine," she sighed, Donnie helping her walk towards her door. "Now, my dad's room is all the way down the hall by the bathroom. NO ONE IS ALLOWED IN THERE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE! OK?" The four mutants nodded, and she opened the door into the hall, leading them away from her dad's room and into the tiny living room. A couch, chair, table, and TV sat in the sad-looking room, and a small kitchen sat nearby. The walls held some pictures of April and her dad, but other than that, the beige walls were bare.
"This is...nice," Leo said, slightly unconvincingly. April couldn't help thinking about how big their living room in the sewers was.
"Sorry it's kinda small," she started.
"Oh no, it's fine," Raph said, sitting down on the couch and glaring at his brother. "Right, Leo?"
"Oh, yeah, it is!"
April became a little relieved at Raph's comment. "We-we have cable, so if you guys wanna watch TV we can get any channel."
"What about the Science Channel," Donnie asked.
"Nah, I wanna watch cartoons," Mikey said, jumping onto Leo's back, bringing both of them to the ground with a thud. They playfully wrestled with one another, and April couldn't help but laugh at that.
"How about you help me with my homework Donnie," she said, "and the rest of you can watch cartoons. The channel guide is on the coffee table."
"And PLEASE DON'T BREAK ANYTHING," Donnie added, following April into her room, watching April pull out her large History textbook.
"Well, we have to write a paper on today's lesson, which was about the Industrial Revolution. Do you know anything about that?"
"Loads. Master Splinter used to bring us books from a book drop where humans leave old books. I've read every single one of them, from romance, horror, to history. What do you need help with? I'm afraid my fingers aren't well suited for typing," he said, holding them up.
"Don't worry; maybe I'll teach you someday. But for now, I need help choosing a topic; we need to choose one invention and write about how much of an impact it had on the industrial revolution."
"Well," Donnie said, sitting on the edge of her bed, "why not do something with textiles, since you like to knit."
April hadn't thought of that. "Good idea. Which one, though?"
"Well," he said, grabbing her textbook and opening it, "I would suggest…"
For the next hour and a half, Donnie and April studied everything there was to know about the Industrial Revolution. The turtle read the textbook while April searched on her laptop, as well as typing her paper. They decided to write about the cotton gin, which was a machine that separates cotton from its seeds at a quick speed. Having Donnie help her made the homework go by faster, and actually enjoyable. April could tell how much the turtle loved learning, and he seemed to soak in all the information of the textbook like a sponge. When they finally finished her paper, she found him engrossed in reading the textbook.
"Thanks for helping me," she said. "Do...you wanna keep reading the textbook?"
"Huh?" Donnie looked up from the book, almost distracted. "Yeah, I'll do that." Deciding that she should check on the other siblings, she made her way into the living room.
The TV was on, and the turtles were watching some comedy show, but it must've been old, because it was in black and white. Mikey, Raph, and Leo sat on the couch, but they all had different reactions to it; Leo looked bored, Raph was rapt with attention, and Mikey was upside down, asleep.
"Hey guys," she said. "Sorry it took longer than expected."
"It's no problem, April," Raph said, followed by laughter at something funny on the TV show. "Though I think Mikey fell asleep." He nudged his brother, who fell on the ground with a thump.
"OW," he cried, rubbing his head. "Not funny, Raph!"
"Hey Mikey," April quickly said. "Do you wanna be measured for a sweater?"
The young turtle's eyes lit up and he shot to his feet. "YES!" April walked back to her room, grabbed her tape measure, and returned to an excited Mikey.
"OK, hold your arms out like this," she commanded, measuring his arms and wingspan. The only awkward part was the chest, because she had to measure around his shell. Once, when she was in kindergarten, her class went to a petting zoo, and she had held a turtle. Mikey's shell wasn't unlike that one; it was bumpy yet smooth, and was cool. She eventually got the turtle's measurements down, and asked him what color he'd like.
"Orange would be nice," he said. "It'd go with my mask!" The young turtle's enthusiasm was infectious, and April couldn't help laughing out loud.
"I'll start it as soon as I finish mine," she promised, watching Mikey do a fist pump. "How old are you, by the way?"
"Nine," he said. "Raph's the oldest; he's eleven, and Leo and Donnie are ten."
"Were you guys mutants from birth?"
Mikey stopped jumping around, pausing to think about it. "...No. Master Splinter said we used to be turtles before we got mutated. We were all mutated at the same time. And before you ask," he added, seeing April's mouth open for another question, "no, we don't know who did this to us. Not even Master Splinter knows."
"...Wow," April said, not sure what else to say; she had so many questions buzzing in her mind. "Do you guys ever miss your real parents?"
Immediately after saying that, she knew she'd hit a sore spot; Mikey looked down at his feet, and Leo and Raph stopped arguing about changing the channel. Hearing footsteps behind her, she saw that Donnie had entered the room, clutching the textbook to his taste.
"We...never really knew our biological parents," Raph said, twiddling his thumbs.
"The only parent we've ever had is Master Splinter," Leo added, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I'm sorry," April said quickly, embarrassed and ashamed for bringing it up. "I didn't-"
"Of course you didn't know," Leo said irritably. "How could you? "
"LEO," Donnie snapped, horrified by what his brother said. "How could we expect her to know?"
"Right, Donnie," Leo said sarcastically. "Because how did she not know after meeting our adoptive rat father?" He now looked at April. "At least you know your parents; that's all that matters, does it?"
"LEO!" This time Raph, Mikey, and Donnie yelled at their brother. April stood there, shocked by what the turtle had said, but also upset as well. She clenched her fists as she stared at the mutant.
"Yes," she started slowly, "I know my parents. Both of them. My dad currently works 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, in order to keep a roof over our heads and food in our fridge. I rarely see him anymore, but at least you get to see your dad every day, and don't have to wait up at night wondering when your dad is coming home!"
"April-"
"And, and, and," she stammered, growing angrier with every second, "I know my mom too! Yeah, even though she died three years ago, I still visit her once a month in the cemetery eight blocks away! So, yeah, they're all that matter to me; even more than being friends with you four! Maybe you should be more grateful for the parent you have instead of complaining about the ones you don't have!" She quickly limped to her room, slamming the door behind her.
