And Rocky keeps a balancing act on juggling through training and being a normal teenager in New York City...

Chapter 20: Balancing It All

During the time he slowly got settled into New York City, Rocky just focused on how to get through school without being confronted and/or harassed by Lukas and his goons as the school dance at the pizzeria is starting to fly by faster, Rocky knows he has to focus on the moment and not let anything or anyone spoil it at any costs...even if it means having to be constantly harassed by Lukas and being called out...as well as Lukas getting revenge against Casey and April for being co-conspirators.

Over the next two weeks, Rocky has balancing between school life, helping out his dad with some of the arrangements for the school dance at the pizzeria as far as being in charge of the decorations, flyers on both paper and social media for the classmates only and outside of those things; dealing with family, meeting his new school friends and looking all around parts of New York City.

But of all those things that culminates, he spends most of his days in the lair with April and Casey as they hang out with the turtles and Rocky in the midst of training with Splinter as well as the turtles and this time around...April is included into Rocky and Casey's training as all three humans begin to show what they got in training and as April began to spar with Rocky, she can see that all of his martial arts moves and skills are the real deal as she does a roundhouse kick and did some flips while Rocky's new skills took her by surprise as she actually experiences that firsthand. Some of Splinter's training have completely been cemented to his abilities as to how to do ninja and martial arts well, which helped boosted his confidence.

As Rocky learns more about Splinter's training skills, he finds himself deeply entrenched into what Splinter taught him and it's like he's taking all of it in as he learns more ways of ninjitsu and self-defense and as he's learning, he's also learning about self-discovery about how many things happen for a reason and it definitely puts him in perspective on how he's adjusting to life in New York City rather than in Malibu.

It definitely brought him to the realization that maybe there might be some good things coming out of New York City, but he just has to find what that is and by the time he looked at April and Casey, he could definitely see that this is just the start of a new beginning for him.

When Rocky's not training, he's introducing the turtles and Splinter a little taste of some Southern food; fried chicken, ribs, collard greens, mac and cheese, black-eyed peas and every other southern delicacy in the sun. Some of the turtles were completely reluctant to try it out because they've never seen most of those in New York and they're not big fans of the greens and peas, but once they ate some fried chicken and mac and cheese, they were all about it.

"Dude...this mac and cheese is like a good case of booyashaka awesomeness!" Mikey exclaimed.

Leo agreed, but kept his enthusiasm to a medium and said, "I have to say...it's very enticing. NEver had any of those before."

Rocky chuckled softly and liked the turtles positive reception of the mac and cheese and fried chicken and as they were eating, Rocky pulls out some leftover Cajun food; jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp etouffee and some beignets. Once the turtles were through with the Southern food, Rocky presented them yet another set of food and Raph was a little wide eyed about this and asked, "What the heck is this?"

"This is what we also eat in New Orleans. If you gotta embrace Southern food, you have to embrace Cajun food." Rocky replied.

Leo and Donnie were a little unsure of how it'll taste when they saw the shrimp etouffee and once they took a bite of it, both of them were a little uneasy with the taste and Donnie asked, "They really eat this in New Orleans?"

"Yep, they do. It doesn't stop at shrimp; they have chicken and vegetable etoufee." Rocky answered.

"Okay then." Leo replied.

Some of them took the jambalaya really well and as far as the gumbo goes, it's okay for some of them, but they love the beignets as well and Leo said, "I don't know if I can pronounce it well, but these are the best things I've ever tasted."

"Maybe I can bring you all to New Orleans one day...if we can help you remain low-key." Rocky answered.

Some of the turtles were surprised by what Rocky just said and had no idea how to respond to that and Splinter immediately came to Rocky and said, "Absolutely not. My sons cannot be exposed to the other parts of the world in the surface. I cannot let them go off on their own in another part of the country."

"They won't have to go by themselves. You can go too." Rocky responded.

Splinter just froze after hearing what Rocky just said that he'll be in the surface as well, which is something he never does before and he just stared at Rocky almost as if he's either serious or just joking and he then responded, "I never go to the surface."

That surprised Rocky to hear that Splinter has never gone off to the surface and asked, "Ever?"

"Ever...for 15 years." Splinter answered.

Rocky couldn't get his head wrapped around the fact that Splinter has never been in the surface for 15 years and that he's not going insane with that as he stared at him, then looked at the turtles and did a double take back at Splinter with an 'are you serious' look and responded, "You need to get out more."

As the days pass, Rocky starts getting to know more about the turtles and Splinter and with more training on the mound, Rocky's gaining a little bit of confidence in himself and he's hoping that he'll do anything he can to defend himself...even in the face of confrontation with Lukas and crew. At the same time, he keeps up with the normal stuff; hanging out with friends and family, strumming his guitar, walking with A.J. and as he looks on the rooftop on top of the house, it's one place that feels free, despite sounds of horns honking, police sirens wailing and things like that.

His own concern...how can he keep the thought of being friends with the turtles living under the sewer away from everyone? But he knows for a fact that it might never happen because he always keeps things to himself a lot.

But he never told his parents or family about dealing with Lukas and his goons trying to tear him down at school because he doesn't think that they could ever understand it at all.

Two more chapters left! It ain't the end of this saga yet!