Chapter 7: Feel So Alone
After school had ended Leo walked all the way to Donnie's house.
He quickly rang the bell and waited patiently for his friend to answer the door. Soon Donatello Clarks opened the door and flinched ever so slightly when he saw who it was.
The two turtles stood there staring at each other for what seemed liked forever.
"You can come in you know." Donnie finally said. "Let me ask you one thing. Are you still my friend?" Leo asked with a slight glare. Donnie shifted nervously. "Yeah, I guess." He muttered.
"Does that mean your my friend everywhere except in school?" Leo asked, his voice raising a little.
"I don't know what you expect, none of this is my fault!" Donatello exclaimed. "Well Raph can still standing by me why can't you?" The blue eyed turtle asked desperately.
"And why can't you just not flit with people that you don't know?" Don growled.
Leo froze. "I mean you didn't have to talk to the Jade girl." He added. Leo could feel tears in the corner of his eyes. "So you really think that this is all my fault?" Leo asked.
"Well you called Karai a bitch online, so of course she was going to come after you."
Leo just stared at his now former friend in shock. Before he could break down into tears, the blue eyed turtle ran away as fast as he could...
Soon Leo came home.
His father was in the kitchen ironing some shirts. "I made some spaghetti if you want some." He smiled when he saw Leonardo. But Leonardo didn't answer and ran up stairs to his room.
Splinter cell phone suddenly went off.
"Hello?" He asked when he answer. "Hi Yoshi, this is Arthur Clarks, Donatello's father." The caller said. "Oh hello Arthur." Splinter smiled. "Yoshi I don't know...are you aware of what's been happening with Leo?" Arthur asked.
Splinter frowned slightly...
As soon as Leo had entered his room he immediately logged onto Clicksters.
"I NEVER SLEPT WITH JADE!" He posted. Leo tried desperately to contain his tears as he turned his attention away from his post and to what other people were saying about him.
"Saw his skeevy crabs crawling on him in the locker room."
"See Leo's face, poor victim." Karai had posted. Suddenly Leo's bedroom door burst opened and a furious Splinter walked into the room. "Show me your Clicksters page. Now." He glared.
Leo sighed and moved away from the laptop.
Splinter looked at the screen to see if what Arthur had told him was true. It was then did he seen all those horrible messages. "Want to see nekkid boys in locker room, not Leo slut gross."
"He makes me want to be sick."
Splinter turned and glared at his son. "Why didn't you shut this down when I asked you? And why would you subject yourself to this?" He asked. Leo looked at his father in shock.
"Shut your profile down Leonardo, you've no choice any more!" He shouted.
Leo went over to his laptop. The blue eyed turtle started to cry as the beeping that signalled more comments kept going. It was another from Karai. "His fake virgin act, Jade girl told me he strips all his clothes off for 5 bux."
Leo slammed his laptop shut and rubbed his forehead.
Splinter closed his eyes and sighed...
The next day Leo decided to take a day off school.
He was sitting in the dinning room, staring out the window at the rainy weather. Hamato Yoshi soon walked up to him before he headed for work and sat down next to his eldest son.
"Are you sure your not going to change your mind about going to school?" The mutant rat asked.
"You said I could have one day to stay home." Leo mumbled. "I just do not want you to get into this bad habit of avoiding all of your problems. Sometimes the best thing to do is to face the things that trouble you head on." Splinter replied.
"Don't you think?" He added.
Leo looked at him as if he was crazy. "Maybe you should just walk in with your head held high and tell those kids that they shouldn't believe everything they read online." Hamato Yoshi added with a small smile.
"Yeah, that's going to be a big help." Leo groaned and turned away from the window.
Splinter sighed. "I'm going to stop by your school and talk to your principle." He said. "Great." Leonardo replied sarcasticly. Splinter shook his head slightly and left for work.
Once he was gone Leo quickly grabbed his cell phone and dialled up a number.
Leonardo sighed when it went straight to voice mail. "Hello this is Tang Shen, I can't get to the phone right now but please leave a message." Then there was a beep.
Leo swallowed the large lump in his throat and began to speak.
"Hey Mom it's me, you probably won't pick up because you think I'm still mad at you but I take back what I said about never wanting to speak to you again but I just fell so alone right and I don't now if you care or not. Just please call me back."
And with that Leo hung up with tears trickling down his cheeks...
At Leo's school Splinter was talking to the principle Mr Lewis.
"I'm sorry about what's happened with Leonardo." He said as he and Splinter walked down the halls. "I know being bullied online problems can always give me a headache, I'm afraid I still can't figure out what to do about it." Mr Lewis admitted.
"Well why wouldn't you treat a cyber bully like any other bully?" Splinter asked.
"But I can't control the internet or what students do on their own computers when their at home. And people who bully online can use anonymous user names so you can't tell who's who or who started what." Mr Lewis sighed.
"But the kids know who's who, they could tell you." Splinter suggested.
"Maybe, but the children won't do that unless I can get the school board to give me some sort guidelines that allows me to compel them to do so." The principle explained sadly.
"Well then you must have some kind of policy?" Yoshi asked desperately.
"A vague one. created by insurance companies to protected the school from liability." Mr Lewis sighed. "I keep asking the school board to give me some kind of policy that has some teeth that I can use to bite down on these kids but they won't give any to me." He added.
Splinter lowered his head and sighed...
