Karai had found it strange when Mrs. Baker called her at work and asked her to pick up Haleigh at school, considering she got out of work a half hour after Haleigh got out of school. But she said that Haleigh had been held after by her teacher and that only made Karai more confused. Haleigh isn't exactly a little angel and has gotten into her share of trouble at school before, but not usually anything beyond missed homework and one time she accidentally set the class pet free, god Karai was hoping that hadn't happened again. She walked through the now empty halls of the elementary school, after asking a woman at the front desk for directions to Mrs. Albow's classroom. With every step she took, Karai became more and more anxious. Shouldn't Mrs. Baker be the one picking up Haleigh from detention? Would they even let Haleigh go with her? Unfortunately her questions were only made worse when she reached the classroom and found it occupied only by the teacher.
"Um, excuse me? Is Haleigh here?" She asked in a shy voice, wondering if maybe she had the wrong room.
The teacher looked up from her desk and took off her reading glasses to see the girl in her room clearly.
"I was sent to pick her up" Karai further explained, now almost convinced that she had the wrong room. But then she noticed Mrs. Albow's name plate on her desk, this was the right room.
"I'm sorry but who are you?" Mrs. Albow questioned, looking almost as if she had seen a ghost.
"Karai, I'm-" she began but she was cut off
"You, you're Karai?" Mrs. Albow asked in surprise, her eyes going wide as Karai only looked more confused than ever.
"Yes" she answered and that was when Mrs. Albow told her to sit down as she began rummaging through the papers scattered all around her desk.
"I'm sorry, I called Lisa, Haleigh's grandmother, because well I knew Haleigh's mother and last week I asked the kids to write about someone in their family and Haleigh, I figured maybe she would write about Lisa or how she misses her parents but, I'm sorry I was just concerned because I, I didn't think you were real" Mrs. Albow frantically tried to explain but Karai couldn't quite figure out what exactly it was that she was trying to say, and she tried ignore that last comment.
It all made sense, however, when Mrs. Albow finally found the paper she was looking for and handed it to Karai, it was Haleigh's writing assignment.
My big sister
My big sister is seventeen years old and her name is Karai. She is very nice and I love her very much. Karai is adopted, she has a daddy and four brothers who live in New York city but she was separated from them a long time ago. She is friends with her brother Leo but doesn't know the other three that well. I hope that someday the aliens leave new york and Karai can go home but when that happens I know that I will miss her very very much. She sleeps on our couch and doesn't get mad when I watch TV in the morning, she helps me with my homework and sometimes teaches me words in Japanese. When my mommy and daddy died I was very sad but then Karai joined our family and I was happy again. She is the best big sister ever and I love her very much.
To say that Karai was touched by Haleigh's words would be an understatement. She knew that Haleigh saw her as her friend, and she knew that she looked at Haleigh as a little sister of sorts. But to see what Haleigh truly thinks of her, to see it written down that she loves her, Karai almost couldn't believe it. But here it was, written in black and white.
On the way home Karai felt truly happy for maybe the first time in her life. For once her life seemed to be falling into place instead of falling apart. Even if she would never see her real family again and never get the chance to apologize for what she did, for everything she did, she has a home here. Haleigh views her as a sister, Haleigh loves her, and it feels so amazingly different than Shredder who claimed to have cared about her. This place, Northampton, no matter if she ever returned to New York or not, was home to Karai now.
But like so many good things the happy feeling didn't last long.
As soon as she got out of the car she saw Haleigh and Elaine come running from the backyard, fear written all over their faces. Karai had just barely shut the door when the two girls reached her and Haleigh jumped into her arms. Karai just managed to catch her, the little girl sitting on her arms as she wrapped her own arms tightly around the teenager's neck. At first Karai was shocked by this, no one had ever in her life gone to her for protection. Elaine also stopped upon reaching Karai and stood in front of her catching her breath.
"What happened?" Karai asked in concern
"The monsters back!" Haleigh shouted into Karai's ear, she winced slightly at the sudden outburst right into her eardrum.
"What are you talking about?" She questioned, suddenly a lot less concerned.
"The monster of the big white house! He's back! We saw him!" Elaine exclaimed, still slightly out of breath.
"And again I ask, what are you talking about?" Karai questioned again, she tried to put Haleigh down but the little girl only tightened her legs on Karai's waist, however she pull back enough to look her 'big sister' in the eyes.
"There's a big white house on the other side of the woods and a monster lives there, sometimes he walks through the woods. Nobody's seen him in a few years but we just did! He's back!" Haleigh explained, throwing her head back onto Karai's shoulder once she was finished.
"Alright if you're not going to get off at least loosen your grip because you're choking me" Karai squeaked out before Haleigh relaxed her arms, allowing her to breath again.
"Thank you, now I'm sure that whatever it is you two saw in the woods was just an animal. There's no such things as monsters" Karai tried to tell them but Elaine only glared up at her.
"There's such things as aliens" she pointed out and Karai rolled her eyes.
"Ok yes aliens are real but monsters aren't" Karai deadpanned, in the end no one was really sure who won that argument but the girls ended up playing in the house.
Karai didn't think that this 'monster' was anything to be concerned about, until the girls told Mrs. Baker and she scolded them for having gone near the house.
"What's the big deal about that house?" She asked casually once the little girls had disappeared upstairs to Haleigh's room.
Mrs. Baker sighed, thinking about that horrible house twenty minutes down the road.
"For years nothing. The O'Neil family used to live there, they were strange people. They kept mostly to themselves, people used to say that Mr. O'Neil had once been very friendly and one day he just shut the world out, same with his wife, of course they both passed away around sixty-five and anyone who knew them is now long dead. It was local legend that he was a mad scientist or something along those lines and that his son was carrying on his work, just a legend mind you. But ten years ago, the O'Neil's just disappeared." Mrs. Baker explained, it took everything Karai had in her not to let her eyes go wide.
"What, what happened to them?" She asked, mentally telling herself that O'Neil is a common last name and that it couldn't be April's family.
Mrs. Baker shook her head "I wish I knew. But I don't want Haleigh or you anywhere near that house" she said sternly and Karai nodded.
She knew she shouldn't be doing this, she absolutely hated disobeying Mrs. Baker, but Karai snuck out that night. She just had to see this house for herself, not being too far from New York it really could be April, besides Haleigh and Elaine had claimed to have seen a monster, what if it was one of the turtles?
Don't get your hopes up Karai mentally scolded herself. She couldn't hope too much, couldn't let herself feel that kind of disappointment if she turned out to be wrong.
"What was that?" A questioning voice snapped Karai out of her thoughts as she walked through the woods, and she froze in place. Scanning the surrounding trees she saw two figures also frozen where they stood, staring back at her.
"What are you guys doing out here?" Karai questioned as the other two figures released their breath.
"We could ask you the same question" Jarrod's voice joked as Karai approached him and his sister.
"Elaine came home saying she had seen a monster in the woods and he says that he saw Mr. O'Neil's van at the old house last week, we're going to check it out" Paton explained but Karai eyed her curiously.
"And the bat?" She asked, Paton was carrying a softball bat
"Hey my best friend used to live in that house and one day she just vanished, now my little sister claims to have seen a monster there. I ain't taking any chances" she answered bluntly.
Although Karai knew that the turtles, along with April, would probably kill her for bringing Paton and Jarrod along if they in fact are there but with no good excuse she kept her mouth shut and fallowed her friends through the woods, besides she had no idea how to get to the house. As they walked she couldn't help but steal a few glances at Paton, who was being uncharacteristically quiet.
"You alright?" She asked and Paton snapped her attention out of her thoughts
"Fine" she replied
"So, you knew someone who lived there?" Karai awkwardly asked but Paton sighed
"My friend April, aside from Jarrod she was my only friend. We were only six when she disappeared" Paton admitted, Karai didn't know what to say, mostly because she knew what had happened to April, but luckily Jarrod butted into he conversation before she could've said anything.
"Which I still don't get. She was your best friend so why do you keep insisting that she's dead?" He asked, Paton looked at him in annoyance.
"Cause if she's fine, and if she is at the house, then what's us showing up in the middle of the night going to look like hm? Hey April, remember us? The friends you left behind back in first grade?" She questioned "Not to mention how weird and obsessive it sounds that we still care" she continued but Jarrod wouldn't give in.
"Our best friend disappeared. I don't care how young we were, we should still be worried about her" he argued, the rest of the walk was silent.
Upon reaching the edge of the woods by the O'Neil's farmhouse the three teenagers saw the colorful van parked in the driveway.
"I don't believe it" Paton said, eyes locked on the van she never believed she would see again.
"Come on" Jarrod said, exiting the woods
"What are you doing?" Paton exclaimed as her brother made is way closer to the house
"Getting some answers" he responded and against her better judgement Paton chased after him, still clutching her bat.
"Dude it's after midnight, everyone here is asleep. Let's bail and come back tomorrow" she argued with him and he looked like he was about to argue but that's when Karai stepped in.
"She's right, we'll come back tomorrow" she intervened
"Are you kidding? We've learned the hard way once that people can just vanish from this house in the middle of the night, do you seriously want to take that risk again?" Jarrod questioned, aiming it more at Paton than Karai.
"I doubt whoever is in there wants to have this conversation at midnight" Paton argued.
Little did the three teenagers on the front lawn know, their quarreling had attracted the attention of the hockey player asleep on the living room couch inside of the house. Still groggy from sleep he stood up and peeked through the curtains to see three kids about his own age on the lawn arguing amongst themselves, and one had a bat. Not knowing what else to do he ran upstairs to April's room and began shaking her awake.
"Red, Red wake up, April!" he said quietly and urgently as he shook her shoulder a little harder than he maybe needed to.
"What? I'm up Casey quit shaking me" She snapped as she sat up on the bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
"Sorry but I heard noises and there are people outside" Casey explained and April shot up before bolting out of the room, Casey right on her tail, and they raced down the stairs to look out the living room window.
"What's going on?" Raph's voice came from the top of the stairs, obviously the two humans barreling down the stairs had woken him up.
"There's people outside" Casey admitted and that was when April gasped
"Yeah, and one of them's Karai" she told them.