Hello all! Although a day later than planned, I give you the next chapter of Changes! I am sooo happy to get this chapter out so quickly, but I'm afraid I don't know when the next one will be out at all. I haven't quite decided what I should do next, although I'm leaning towards spending more time in letting the guys get used to school. Then there is also real school starting tomorrow... my senior year at college! So between studying, trying to figure out what's next, and work, I can't guarantee anything on the next update.

After I posted the last chapter, I realized I created two Amelias. TWO! Well, here is one thing I can say about that - I don't think Hitomi's cousin Amelia will be in here very much, if at all. For this story's purpose, 'Mia' will be Amelia Stoner in Don and Mikey's clay class, and 'Amelia' will be Hitomi's cousin. Sorry for doing that!

I want to thank Alluring Alliteration and Laughter's Tears for their reviews! They were much appreciated!

Warning: Language. There are a few swear words in here. (Again, it's Raph - he just can't seem to help it.)

Disclaimer: Only the plot, Hitomi, and a few other, but non-mutant characters are mine. If you are confused about which the non-mutants are mine, either review or PM me, and I'll let you know.

Chapter 14, Give Us Time to Acclimate

Leo sighed as he shut the history book that his teacher had provided him with, grateful to be finished the section that they had been assigned to read. The four of them had decided to tackle as much of their homework that they could on their own. If they had too much trouble, they'd get together (probably in Don's room), and work it out together.

The hardest part, Leo decided, wasn't the homework. Or at least, it wasn't the hardest part directly. It was more that they were leaping into the classes with most of the semester gone, and had to, somehow, catch up. In the two 'core' classes he had had today, both teachers had assured him that he could take his time to catch up. The goal was to be as caught up as possible by the time they hit midterms, which were just over a month away.

Thankfully, the teachers were prepared to be lenient, considering everything, but it was preferable that they were all up to speed on things before midterms. Leo knew they'd all try, but probably only Donnie would be ready to take the normal midterms. Mikey was most likely to not be ready at all, simply because of his goof-off nature.

And I don't think Evan's being that good of an influence on him, either, Leo sighed as he stood up and stretched. Evan, Leo knew from the other students, would sometimes ditch classes to go skateboarding. Leo was pretty sure that he'd have Mikey doing that soon enough. Then again, Evan didn't have either of his parents here, and Mikey had Master Splinter. It wouldn't be hard keep Mikey in line, although Leo still guessed Mikey would skip class at least once before Master Splinter would come down hard on him.

Just as Leo was about to try and work on his biology homework, he heard a knock at the door. He looked up as he called out, "Come in." He was a little surprised to see Hitomi open the door. "Hey – what are you doing here?" Leo inquired.

"I'm here to see if you need any help," Hitomi answered honestly, grinning as Leo's jaw dropped. "Jean suggested it," she continued. "She said something about how you're all going to need to catch up as quickly as possible, and it was easier with help."

"Then shouldn't you be helping Donnie?" Leo wanted to know. It seemed more appropriate to him that the Japanese girl would do better helping out his smart brother than him.

"I did already – we had the same study hall this morning, so I made sure he wasn't going to need any help understanding the homework we had in our classes then," Hitomi shrugged. "Apparently he already learned everything and didn't need any help completing the homework we were assigned."

"Okay… I guess that makes sense…" Leo blinked, before he shook his head. "It figures Don wouldn't need any help," he chuckled. "And… I guess I could use some assistance… I'm having a little bit of a problem with this biology homework." A light blush rose in his cheeks as he admitted that.

Blushing was still a new concept for them, considering they hadn't been able to when they had been turtles. For Leo, it was especially humiliating. He was used to hiding his embarrassment from his friends and family, and now he was having trouble controlling a basic body function that made his embarrassment very obvious to people.

"Okay, let's see what the problem is," Hitomi told him as she walked up to stand next to him as he fished out his biology notebook and textbook.

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Mikey hit his head against the textbook that sat on his desk. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't wrap his head around the math problems that he had to solve for Wednesday. He didn't understand how to prove two triangles were congruent, or even what them being congruent meant! He didn't want to go to any of his brothers and admit defeat just yet, but it was slowly looking like he didn't have much choice.

At least the English assignment had been relatively straightforward and simple. He just had to read up to the point that they were in the book. That had been time consuming, not to mention a little boring, but he had managed it. The only good thing was that they were only four or five chapters into the book, so he didn't have to read the whole thing as fast as he could. Now he was trying hard not to rip his math textbook to shreds for being so impossible to understand.

His head whipped when he heard a knock on the door. Did one of my bros give up already? he wondered, hope rising in the pit of his stomach. If either Raph or Leo had already given up, then he wouldn't look like a complete failure after all! And it would give him the rights to tease whoever had given up unmercifully for the next twenty-four hours.

"Come in!" he called, feeling more cheerful than he had been a minute ago.

"Hello, Mikey," Jean greeted as she opened the door. "How's your homework coming along?"

Mikey deflated a little. So it wasn't one of his brothers here to admit he had given up. "Uh… okay, I guess… I've finally finished my English assignment!" he told her cheerfully, glad he had one positive thing to say.

"And how's your geometry homework coming?" Jean inquired, smiling a little. Mikey deflated, and glared down at the textbook. "Not so well, huh? Would you like some help? It's been a while since I've tackled geometry, but I'm sure I can help you out."

"Would you?" Mikey gaped at her. Sweet! So I won't have to admit to my brothers that my math homework is too hard! "That'd be totally awesome!"

"I'll be happy to help you out," Jean answered cheerfully as she approached his desk. "Let's see… ah, proving two triangles are congruent, huh? Proofs can be pretty tough, especially if you've never proven something before."

"What's congruent?" Mikey wanted to know. "I've been trying to figure it out…" he explained hurriedly.

"If two things are congruent, that means they have are the same size and same shape as each other," Jean answered, a little sympathetically. "Okay, I think it'd be best if we started a little closer to the beginning…"

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Raph hated biology already. It wasn't just that it was a little confusing, and definitely heavy on the whole 'science' aspect that he generally seemed to just suck at. Actually, it was probably that and the fact that he was trying to start studying it towards the end of the first semester. Thank Shell I'm not tryin' tah understand this shit any later than I already am, he thought with a frustrated growl.

He was mostly done with his English assignment. He had had to set the book down every few minutes and get up to pace. He was tired of just sitting down. At least the gym class had helped with the whole thing. He just couldn't sit still all day, and that gym class had been perfectly timed to get him out of a chair.

Raph wanted this biology assignment done already. It was driving him nuts, and it wasn't getting any easier. Since they had all decided that the first one who gave up would knock on the other three's doors and they'd all work on it together, he knew no one else had given up. Probably doin' all th' easy stuff first, he thought with a frustrated sigh. An' who knows where Don is with his homework.

Just as he was contemplating picking up his textbook and hurling it somewhere (contemplating, because he didn't want to damage the damn thing and get fined), there was a knock at the door. That's probably Mikey, Raph thought with a smirk, grateful nonetheless. I'd be surprised if it was Leo, but it'd be sweet if it was. And if it was Donnie – yeah, who'm I kiddin'? Don wouldn't need our help to take care of his homework.

Raph, already standing up, walked over to the door and yanked it open. He blinked in surprise to see that it wasn't any of his brothers at all. "S'up, Kurt?" he asked as he leaned on his door frame, surveying the blue boy. Interestingly, Kurt didn't have his watch on. Of course, that was probably to save battery or something like that.

"I vas vondering if you vanted any help," Kurt answered simply, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah? Why're yah offerin'?" Raph frowned at him, trying to guess where he was coming from. Although it might be nice to have help and not admit it to my brothers…

"Vell, Jean zhought zat you, Mikey, und Leo might like some help vith your homevork," Kurt answered honestly. "After all, zere is a lot to learn in a short amount of time. Vould you like help?"

"Yah know anythin' about biology?" Raph had to know.

"Vhile I am not in your biology class, I am taking it myself," Kurt replied with a grin. "I should be able to help."

"Then c'mon in," Raph jerked his head at his desk. "I've been tryin' tah figure it out fer a while now."

"Zen help is here," Kurt grinned, giving Raph a mock bow before the two of them headed over to Raph's desk.

Raph couldn't help but grin. There were a lot of things he could hate about his new life, including having to get used to five fingers, but there were also a lot of things that he loved about his new life. Before, they would have had to admit defeat at one point, and get teased unmercifully (usually by Mikey) for needing help. Donnie wasn't the sort to tease, which (in Raph's opinion) was a miracle. If he had been the teasing type, no one would've gone to him for help, regardless of how easy it was for him.

In any case, this was one of the good things about their new lives. The older students had obviously thought about how hard this whole thing would be on them, and were now going out of their way to help them adjust to it. Raph guessed that, once they'd been there a year or so, this wouldn't be a problem for them anymore. It was a passing pain, even if it was an enormous one at that.

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Don leaned on the railing, glaring up at the sky. He couldn't stem off his disappointment, although he could rationalize why he found it so easy. He had been teaching himself everything he could because he had never thought it was possible to go to school. In fact, the only reason it was possible was based on a series of events that Don couldn't have predicted coming to pass.

Of course, that still left him with the problem of knowing pretty much everything that they were teaching him, and more than that, he could probably teach it to other people. He might even be able to teach the instructors something about the subjects they were supposed to be teaching!

It was so frustrating. He wanted to be challenged, and there weren't many ways that the local high school could do that. He knew that, if he wanted to be challenged, he should drop out of high school, get a GED to equal a high school diploma, and attend whichever college he could get into. However, there were several things that spoke out against that.

He wasn't used to people. That was probably the biggest reason to continue high school. At least in high school, he could slowly acclimate to being around large groups of normal human beings. He could argue that he could get used to people in college, but it wasn't quite the same. Besides, if he attended college, he wouldn't know anyone.

At Bayville High School, he knew a small percentage of the population already, with three of them being his own brothers. It wasn't that he wasn't planning on trying to make friends outside of the Institute, but having friends to fall back on while he was there was something that made him feel more at ease.

So there was one good reason to continue attending the high school. It was a social challenge, and that was something, at least. And there were things that attending high school could teach him that he didn't already know. He had never worked with clay before, and it was actually kind of fun. After looking over the rest of the potential courses that Bayville offered, he had to admit there were a few things that he wanted to try out.

He could wish he had gotten into the advanced computer course that Hitomi was in. That sounded interesting, and when he had asked her about it, she had told him that she was actually learning new things in it. Instead of wishing, he simply put that class on the list of classes he wanted to take at some point.

In the meantime, he'd just have to see if he could convince Dr. McCoy to teach him things that the high school couldn't, like advanced chemistry.

He turned at the knock at his door. Huh… it's almost six… he thought with a frown. He had expected someone would come asking for help earlier, hoping to avoid admitting that they were having trouble. "C'mon in," he called as he headed back inside.

"Hey, bro," Mikey grinned as the door opened, his hands surprisingly empty. Leo and Raph both stood with equally empty hands. "Wanna do something?" Mikey asked cheerfully. "Or do you still have homework to complete?" he teased.

"Mikey, my homework has been done since noon," Don replied dryly. "So all three of you are done now?"

"Yeah – apparently Jean decided to corral two of the other students to help us complete our homework," Leo answered with a grin. "Hitomi helped me with mine, Jean helped Mikey, and Kurt helped Raph. We're all done."

"Wow, that's great, guys," Don couldn't help but grin. That makes things easier… "So what were you thinking about, Mikey?"

"I was thinking we could play either ping-pong or pool!" he grinned. "Or maybe even take over the TV and play some video games!"

"Let's not get our hopes up," Leo pointed out dryly. "We might not be able to get the TV, but we should be able to get the pool table or ping-pong table."

"Hey, I know what Leo wants to do!" Mikey grinned, obviously wanting to turn the tables on his brother. "He wants to go to the dojo to practice!" he laughed. "But he caaan't!"

"In case you haven't noticed, Mikey," Leo remarked dryly, "I have been going to the dojo these past few weeks, as have Donnie and Raph, during the hour after dinner. I can wait until then to practice."

"Wait, what? You mean… all three of you have been practicing?" Mikey started, staring between his brothers. All three of them laughed.

"Yeah, knucklehead," Raph snorted, grabbing Mikey's head in a headlock and ruffling his hair before letting him go. "I felt so damned outta practice that I just had'tah go down."

"We all did," Leo agreed calmly. "While you've been playing video games, Mikey, we all decided to practice."

"It wasn't required, Mikey," Don put in hurriedly, seeing his little brother's shoulders slump. "It was just something we decided to do, to try and get back in shape."

"I still say it was a damn good thing tha' Hitomi trained with us, too," Raph grumbled, shaking his head. "Those first two weeks were damn embarrassin'."

"Hitomi trained with you guys?" Mikey's eyes widened at that.

"Yeah," Raph shrugged. "Haven'cha heard tha' she tends tah practice every day? Sheesh, Mikey, g't yer head outta th' clouds."

"Let's go," Leo suggested as he started towards the stairs. "So – what did you all think of high school?"

"It's diff'rent," Raph shrugged. "I gotta say, I liked that auto-shop class. Heck, I kinda like that Lance kid – he's pretty in'erestin' once he gets pas' the whole 'are yah a mutant' thing that he so needs to practice bein' subtle with."

"Oh yeah?" Leo asked in surprise. "So you got along with him…"

"Yeah – he knows his way around an engine," Raph grinned. "He's not that bad. How 'bout you, Mikey?"

"It was okay… I met this awesome girl in my clay class, though! She's so much fun!" Mikey perked up at that, grinning widely.

"She definitely is interesting," Donnie agreed dryly. "Her name is Amelia Stoner, but goes by the name Mia," he explained.

"What did you think of school, Don?" Leo asked, a slight smile playing across his mouth.

"It was interesting," Don shrugged. "And quite honestly, I was hoping for something a little more… challenging, I guess. But it's interesting nonetheless."

"Ha! That's so you, Don!" Mikey laughed at that as Raph snorted, and Leo's smile turned to a grin.

Yeah, laugh it up, guys, Don thought irritably. But I'm serious about it. At least you guys are getting challenged.

"So what about you, Leo? How'd you like school?" Don inquired, lifting an eyebrow as he met his oldest brother's gaze.

Leo blinked, the grin fading from his face. "It was… I don't know, interesting, I guess. It's kind of hard to make a good assessment right now, since I feel so far behind in some subjects," Leo answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "There is just so much going on that I can't really get a good handle on everything."

"It's gonna be tough tryin' tah catch up," Raph agreed with a sigh. "Not tah mention gettin' used tah bein' human and goin' tah school 'n' all."

"We'll just have to acclimate as best we can," Don remarked with a shrug.

"Aw, there's our Donnie!" Mikey grinned. "Using words the rest of us can't understand!"

"Acclimate – it means to adjust to change," Donnie explained, hiding an inward sigh. He never could seem to remember to use words that all of his brothers would understand. Of course, some of them weren't even that hard to understand that Mikey just couldn't seem to get, but he was used to being teased about his vocabulary.

"Hey, cool! The TV's open! Let's play Mario Kart on the Wii!" Mikey gasped as they entered the game room, turning to grin at his brothers.

"Sure, Mikey – let's go," Leo smiled at his little brother, and the four headed towards the gaming system.

Author's Notes

I really enjoy this chapter, in part because of how it shows the brothers, and their attempts to get a handle on things. If the last chapter had been written faster and with less delays, some of the topics I touch in this chapter would have ended up at the end of the last one. That said, I much prefer this chapter to my original plan. Originally, the guys would have just chatted about what they thought of school and then separated and gone to work on schoolwork. This way feels much more natural to me, and I have to admit I really like how it turned out. Especially Raph's part.

Besides that, I think it would have taken me at least one, maybe two more weeks to get that last chapter out if I had tried to fit in their discussion without making it seem forced.

I'll try to get the next chapter out as quickly as possible, but don't expect an update soon. (I'm hoping that I'll have time enough to get one ready for 9/11, but we'll see.)

Finally, please REVIEW!

~Star~