And Rocky puts all of those events into perspective.

Chapter 21: In Perspective

10:01 PM, Friday Night

Rocky's just sitting back, watching some anime where this lone wolf tries to seek redemption after a life-long self-discovery of who he is and tries to shed everything from his past to start a new life, but what holds him back are the stuff he used to do in the past that might catch up with him and everyone else remembering who he was and all of those painful memories of what he had done as well as never forgiving himself for the person he used to be. Rocky kept watching the English dubbed version and thought that during his unwinding time that he can write a little something on his journal to put a little cap on the day.

He paused the movie, got his pencil and journal and starts writing whatever comes to mind as far as what he's getting used to over those past 2 weeks being in New York City.

Sup, journal?

Man, those 2 weeks for me were definitely a roller-coaster ride for me ever since I came to New York City. Everything that I've experienced is still taking me a long time to process. I know I'm not in California and I definitely know I ain't in Lousiana or Mississippi and I miss all three of these places so badly. But...I guess in a weird way, I've grown accustomed to this big banger called the city that never sleeps. As far as I can tell, it will never go to sleep with all them lights and loud sounds that'll keep anyone up at night.

However...there are some good in this place. Meeting Casey Jones and April O'Neil was the best thing that ever came out of this new move. They like the kind of friends that you'd want to hang around with all the time and it's like they got my back...no matter what the circumstances are. I gotta tell ya, man...I've never actually had friends like that aside from the ones I've known from Malibu and New Orleans. And just meeting some new friends who were originated from parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, plus some who have that New York attitude...I don't know if I can get used to that, but hey...I've met characters like them and they ain't no bother to me.

The turtles...they're cool guys to hang around with and not many people I meet are mutants and live under a sewer, but this is considered to be the coolest way to have friends. During those few weeks, I started doing some training to learn some self-defense. I gotta be honest, I never thought that it would require so much hard work. For the most part...it's actually a lot of cool things to learn when someone tries to mess with you. I always knew that my martial skills are unlike any other skills, but when I put them off...I just don't know how radically advanced it became.

For some odd reason, the more I practice on my rooftop as I film myself practicing on my own, my confidence starts growing so much higher that I can do anything. All of Splinter's training completely helped me a lot. But like I said...I can only use my skills when it's necessary to defend myself. I don't want to end up doing it right away because lord knows how much trouble I'ma get myself into if I beat up someone at random.

The school dance at my dad's pizza shop is just a week away and hopefully, it'll be really awesome. I have to pinch myself most days because I still couldn't believe that my dad would want to bring the school dance to his pizza place and I've been well-known since. But I'm still the new kid around, just trying to figure out what living in New York City is like. I'm just not in it to be popular. I don't care much for being the popular kid anyway, so...

My biggest issue right now is how to deal with Lukas trying to break me when he's making something out nothing. I don't have anything against him and I would never steal anything that was his, but in Lukas' mind, he's got something against me and his best way to eliminate the problem is to humiliate me and shame me in front of the whole school...constantly harassing me with mounds of text messages, Spacehook messages, memes and all the other bullcrap that he's trying to do. But...what I figured out is that no one in Roosevelt High accepts Lukas' friend request so that he can grow his own posse. I don't know what's on that rich boy's mind.

One thing I know for sure...I'm not gonna let him get to me. I got nothing against the dude, but why he's got something against me...I'll never know. And let's hope that he's not gonna sabotage this party.

Well...I've written all that I've written tonight. Gotta keep watching this young lone wolf try to redeem himself and hopefully, leave all the stuff he was in the past behind. Till next time, write ya later!

After that, Rocky puts down his journal, grabs the remote and keeps watching the anime until he fell asleep nearly 90 minutes later and everything was silent in parts of New York City, though some of the noises were kept to a minimum.

Thought this was the end of the story? One more chapter left!