Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter posted. I had it just about finished the other day and then the power went out! THEN when I re-wrote it, had all but the last paragraph finished and my friggin' computer just up and restarted itself out of nowhere! So I lost all of it again!! :beats head into computer desk: Luckily, I have it finally finished and here it is...safe and sound. So please enjoy and leave me feedback. Thankies!!
Chapter Ten: The Truth is Out
:Tabby's POV:
Ok, so going out after my dad and uncles told us not to wasn't exactly one of my better ideas, I admit that, I've come to terms with that, it's all good now. I know I did wrong, I've learned my lesson by it, so you'd think we could skip all the dramatics and just send me off to my room…right? I mean, really…what more punishment could they throw on me for sneaking out. Besides, I was only following Chris and Chip…they snuck out first.
It'd be just my luck that they'd get away with it too. Heh…that's ok…I'll show them. If they get away with it, I'll slip an anonymous note under Uncle Leo's door later tonight telling him what they did. That'll fix them.
Ya know, even though I knew I was in trouble and was probably marching back to the lair-of-death to be done away with, I couldn't help but smile at the thought of Chip and Chris getting their tails whooped for going out without permission. See? There is a slight advantage to being so bright and bubbly…I can weasel my way out of most any punishment. Well, any set by my dad or uncles…not so much my mom and aunts…come to think of it…my charm doesn't always work on Uncle Leo either.
Well that was obvious! I mean, I flashed my most charming and innocent grin at him and he still made me walk down the 'Green Mile'! Now that brings up an interesting thought. If we were accepted topside…what would our dad's do? Uncle Donnie would obviously be that mad scientist guy that most parents won't let their kids hang out with cuz they're afraid he'll invent some time machine and suck them back in time or something. I know dad always says he wanted to be a professional skateboarder but…I don't see that one much. Chef maybe…or possibly even as a voice over actor. Heh, can you just imagine my dad's voice coming out of some stupid animated character?! Uncle Leo and Raph though…I can somehow picture both as prison guards. Ya gotta admit it suites them!
I wasn't exactly tickled pink when Uncle Leo pushed me through the door to the lair. I bruise easily and there he was pushing and shoving me around. Oh well…in this house hold you get used to that kind of abuse. Don't have much choice on the matter really.
What did make me smile was seeing Chip and Chris already seated on the couch, Chris with an ice pack on his head. HA! Busted! Again! And from the looks of it, Uncle Raph did more than just bust them for sneaking out. It looked like he busted their heads together too. Serves 'em right. It was about that time I saw the less than pleasant face of my Uncle Raph and knew we all were in major trouble.
"She was da othah one ta sneak out?"
I cringed as I heard the shock and surprise in my uncle's voice. I was the golden child…I wasn't supposed to get into trouble. Heh heh…oops. I offered my ever-so-innocent smile to Uncle Raph as I plopped down on the couch next to my brother and cousin—both by the way looked insanely funny with looks of confusion on their faces.
Glancing over at them, I couldn't help but give a fake look of dulled interest and a small shrug before looking back at my uncles. It was really hard not to laugh at the looks everyone was giving me.
"You three deliberately disobeyed our direct orders to stay in the lair. Do you realize that order was put into affect to insure that nothing happened to any of you? What was so important that you felt it didn't apply to you?"
"Well, I was just following them. They snuck out first. And besides, I had to go meet up with—um…never mind." I gave a small nervous chuckle as Uncle Leo pinned me with one of his shuriken throwing stares. It's times like these where I wish it were possible for us to shrink into our shells. I should have known that was a rhetorical question.
For the next five minutes or so I was able to zone out on Uncle Leo's lecture and Uncle Raph's occasional outburst. Ever seen those old "Charlie Brown" cartoons where all the adults sound the same? "Wha-wha-wha-wha-whaaaaa…" That's exactly what my Uncles started to sound like after awhile.
It wasn't until my parents, Uncle Don, and aunts all came in to investigate what was going on that I started to somewhat pay attention and get nervous. I knew daddy wasn't going to be happy to hear I snuck out even though they all told us not to and had good reason for saying so. I could tell Chip and Chris were also starting to get nervous. It was about time those two started acting like teenagers and not jerks!!
"What's goin' on?" Aunt Julie asked as she cautiously stepped up closer to us.
"Dese three decided rules don't apply ta dem no more and snuck out jist ta go play up top!!"
"They what!?"
"Christopher Joshua Miller you are so grounded!! No TV, no video games, no computer, no going out, no hanging out with Chip. Nothing! Nada! Zip zero zilch! Until…until…well…until I say so, that's how long!! You are gonna sit in your room and count the bricks until your eyes go—"
"Whoa…simmah Angie. I t'ink da kid gets da point. Trust me…I'll add my own punishment ta dat in a little bit." Uncle Raph said as he placed a hand on my overly-worked up aunt's shoulder. It's really pretty amazing how fast my aunt can talk when she's upset. Not to mention how funny it is.
"Wait. You three snuck out? How did you get past all my security cameras?"
Ah…leave it to Uncle Don to question the method of our escape. Probably so confused as to how three teenagers got by his security system he's been perfecting since he was a teenager. Poor
Uncle Donnie, out smarted by his own daughter. Of course, I wasn't going to rat Laney out though; Chip and Chris might…but I wasn't going to.
"Who helped you sneak out past all of your Uncle's security precautions?" Aunt Su asked as she stepped up next to Uncle Leo.
"No one." Chris mumbled as he stared down at the floor. Holy macaroni I had to seriously force my mouth to stay closed when I heard that. He wasn't going to rat Laney out either! Maybe Chris isn't such a bad guy after all.
Boy, I gotta tell ya though, the vibes in that room turned super bad when he said that though. None of the adults were buying that answer and I was starting to really want out of there just so none of them killed me with their looks of death.
"Like Shell no one did! You ain't dat good of ninjas yet ta be able ta sneak past Don's stuff an' get away wid it! Now who helped ya's?"
Not sure if what we did was incredibly brave…or just ridiculously dumb…but amazingly enough none of us answered Uncle Raph's demanding question. May not have been a smart move but hey, we may not always get along but none of us have ever been known to rat out one of our own to our parents or aunts and uncles. We sure weren't gonna start now. Of course, if I thought the vibes in the room turned bad when Chris said no one helped us…I was so wrong. Us not answering them made the room fell like it was being dropped down to the 17th layer of inferno. Not a joyous feeling.
"Tabitha Lynn and Chip Douglas you two had better start answering your uncles or you're going to be in even bigger trouble than you are already in." Man I hated it when mom used our middle names in that flat and threatening tone of voice. That's by far the worst thing for us to hear. I glanced at Chip who was slumped down on the couch, his head on his hand, and looking none-too-thrilled for getting chewed out. Since he didn't make a move to answer, I decided it was best that I just kept my mouth-shut too (a hard thing for me to do, I know, but trust me…it is possible).
It was about that time that an insanely loud and shrill alarm started blaring through the lair. I was grateful for the distraction since it meant for the moment our lecture and punishment was put on hold, but then again I was also terrified. What if that thing that had attacked my dad and uncles had found us and were coming down to finish the job? What if they followed us? What if they were going to finish off the adults and then sell us kids off to crazy scientists so we could be poked and prodded and eventually killed?
Chip and Chris both sat straight up on the couch as Uncle Donnie and Uncle Leo moved for the monitor screen in his lab. My ribcage felt like it was going to break my heart was pounding so hard. I gulped quickly and shot a nervous glance at my mom. She didn't look to sure about anything either. We were sitting ducks! Fish in a bucket! Turtle Soup Walking! I could hear Uncle Leo and Uncle Don talking quietly though I couldn't hear what they were saying. Was that a good or a bad thing?
Finally Uncle Leo stepped back out and pinned me with a cold hard stare. I didn't like that look, it wasn't a very happy look.
"It seems your new friend is lost in tunnel three. Go get him before he falls into the drainage junction."
I couldn't have been more surprised if you told me I'd just been voted Miss Teen USA. Jumping off the couch, I bolted up the stairs and out into the tunnel. I could faintly hear Andy calling for me. Bouncing a little on the balls of my feet, I turned towards the sound and booked it down the tunnel. He was getting pretty close to the junction and the last thing I wanted was an Andy Soup for a friend.
It didn't take me long to find him considering I knew those tunnels better than anything else. I don't think he'd ever been so happy to see another living creature before in his life when I stepped up behind him with a small smile and raised eyebrow.
"Lookin' for someone?"
"Tabby!! What the—"
"C'mon. If you keep walking that way you're gonna become a ghost and I'll have to send someone out to investigate you!" I said as I turned and started back towards the lair.
Hey, since I technically by all rights wasn't allowed topside, I wouldn't have been able to make sure Andy got home safe and sound, right? So, I decided to bring him back to the lair with me. Besides, he'd already seen Uncle Leo and if he was smart enough to follow us down into the sewers he was bound to be smart enough to put two-and-two together and realize we weren't exactly 'normal'.
I listened and smiled as Andy told me about how terrifying it was down in the tunnels and how he'd gotten lost simply by taking one small side-step to avoid walking through water and forgot which way he'd been going. It was an easy thing to do down here if you weren't careful so I wasn't surprised when he told me about that.
What did surprise me was the reaction he gave when I pulled down on that third pipe from the left and the brick wall split in two and opened into the main room of our humble little home. Instead of being horrified to learn that I lived in a sewer with my entire family (the majority of whom just happened to be turtles or turtle/human hybrids), he looked as if he'd died and gone to heaven! Of course my Uncles and Aunts weren't too happy to see I'd actually brought him home and not lead him back to the safety of an alley manhole cover, but oh well, tough beans.
"Oh my…Oh my God…you're…you're…you guys are…it's…I mean…it's really you!" He exclaimed his eyes as wide as pizza pans as he practically fell down the stairs to go and meet my dad and uncles.
"Who da heck is dis?"
"This is my friend Andy. Andy, this is um…that's my Uncle Raph, my Aunt Angie, that's Uncle Don, that's Aunt Su, this is my Aunt Julie, my Uncle Leo who you met up in the park, my mom Gwen, and my dad Mike." I answered as I forced myself to smile brightly and not sound nervous of my family's reaction to him.
"I know who you guys are! Well…I mean, obviously not all of you, but I've heard about you turtles! I never thought I'd ever actually get to meet you though. My parents talk about you all the time!"
It's really funny the way things in life work out sometimes, ya know? As it turns out, my dad and uncles saved Andy's parents lives twenty-years prior. His mom had been pregnant with his twin older sisters and both she and her husband were on their way to the hospital when they got ambushed by thugs trying to rob them. The stupid punks had even pulled a gun on them and were threatening to shoot his mom if they didn't hand over every dollar, cent, and keys to their car.
That's where my dad and uncles came in. They dropped in out of nowhere, silent as shadows, and were able to chase the punks off and return the money and keys to Andy's parents. Through the course of all this happening though, Andy's mom started to faint cuz of the pain and stress and everything. So my Uncle Leo and Uncle Don stepped up to help Andy's dad place her safely in the backseat of their car and even went so far as to shadow them all the way to the hospital while my dad and Uncle Raph continued to patrol. Have I mentioned lately how great my family is?
Anyways, Andy's dad was kind of upset that he never got a chance to really properly thank my uncles and dad for saving their lives since they took off so fast—and plus his mind was too busy worrying about his wife and daughters. But, as it turns out, they named their daughters Donna and Leona in honor of my Uncle Don and Leo. How sweet and cool is that?!
It didn't take Andy long to somewhat weasel into the hearts of the adults. He was polite and he was totally awe-struck by getting to meet 'the turtles' in person. Hee hee. And because of all that, my mom thankfully stepped forward and suggested that he call his parents and let them know he was staying the night at a friends house since it was becoming late and my uncles and dad didn't want to risk another attack from who ever this evil force was.
I watched as Andy went to our pay phone and quickly dialed in his parent's number. I was kind of hoping that our punishment had been forgotten in light of us actually having company (other than Aunt April and Uncle Casey or Uncle Greg…they don't count…they're family), but sadly it wasn't. As I turned back to smile at my dad in admiration, I saw his look of disappointment and my smile fell.
"Tabitha, go to your room. We'll finish this in the morning." He said. I have never felt so ashamed and guilty in all my life as I did right then when I heard my daddy's voice so soft and disappointed in me. Gulping hard and glancing towards my brother and cousin, I sniffed back tears before turning to head for the stairs.
Aunt Angie moved past me with a pillow and blanket for Andy to use on the couch and didn't even offer me a small smile. I didn't even wait to say goodnight to Andy, I just shuffled off to my room and shut the door.
Ok, so going out after my dad and uncles told us not to wasn't exactly one of my better ideas, I admit that, I've come to terms with that, it's all good now. I know I did wrong, I've learned my lesson by it, all I want to do now is crawl into my shell and make like a rock.
One last thing. Andy's other sister's name is pronounced "Lee-Oh-Na" just in case anyone was curious as to how to pronounce that. Please don't forget to review. Reviews make me oh so very happy.