Hot and Cold
Someone call the doctor
Got a case of love bi-polar
Stuck on a roller coaster
Can't get off this ride
Katy Perry
Wednesday
Zoe
"Get out of the bathroom Karai!" Exodus pounds on the upstairs bathroom door.
"Go downstairs!" Karai barks.
"The boys are downstairs!" X growls.
"And, I'm in here!"
As I stand behind my irritable blonde friend, sniffing the scent of fabric softener on my bath towel, I giggle. I don't think Raph realizes that I know he sniffs me every time I get close to him. It's kinda cute.
"What're you laughing at?" X whirls around to snap at me, then sees the expression on my face and her blue eyes shift from irritated to amused, in a more playful tone she repeats, "What are you laughing at?"
Before I'm forced to reply I hear the lair door open, "Good morning! Where is everyone?" April looks up and we both smile and wave at her.
"Your early this morning April! Oh, good morning Mr. O'neil," my stomach plummets. If Kirby O'Neil is here, it's to finish his discussion with Master Splinter about us going to school.
They wave at us and Splinter comes out to greet them.
Karai flings open the bathroom door, "Your turn Horse Girl!" She glares at Exodus and moves to go around me, but I fling an arm out to stop her. "What?" She snaps at me.
"Calm down Karai," I say coolly, "What's with the new make-up?"
Karai's thin red lips curl into a wicked smile, "Do you like it?"
Exodus gives her a once-over from the bathroom door, "Oh, Leo will love it."
It's strange to see Karai blush, and it's such a faint pink cast that if you weren't paying attention you'd miss it. "Good," she says softly.
Her blonde undertones, red streaks and eye shadow have all been traded in for a beautiful electric blue. Somebody is going to lose it this morning and I have my money on one Hamato Leonardo.
"Hey Zoe, Karai, get X and come on, Sensei wants us in the dojo!" Mikey bounds into the living area and calls up to us. He see's Karai and his eyes widen, "Love the new look Rai!"
She gives him a knowing grin, "Thanks Mikey."
"Zoe, Sensei wants to see us." Donnie appears behind Mikey and calls up to me.
"I haven't had my shower yet. Karai took forever and X just went in."
Donatello frowns, "Sorry."
Rolling my head back I groan then turn to go in Karai's room and get dressed. If Donnie is coming along right after Mikey, then Splinter's must be getting tired of waiting.
I tug on my black yoga pants, sports bra and an olive green crop tank before wrestling my hair in a floppy knot on the back of my head and jogging to the dojo. I take my place in line up in between Karai and Exodus, April on X's other side. How'd they get here so fast?
Sensei's eyes follow me to my spot as he strokes his long chin fur thoughtfully.
Before I steal a glance at Raph, I find myself holding back a fit of laughter at an ogling Leonardo. The boy all but has hearts in his eyes and I didn't think it was possible for a turtle to turn that red. Even better he keeps swallowing and licking his lips.
"Leonardo," Sensei picks up on his eldest son's odd behavior immediately.
"Sssssss, sssss, sssss," Leo stammers, still staring at Karai.
"Leonardo." Master Splinter repeats.
"Ssssss, sssss, sssseee," Leo's lip is trembling, his Adams apple bobbing madly.
All four of us girls burst out laughing.
I bite my lip, hating to embarrass him any further but loving how much Karai's look has affected him.
"Leonardo!" Sensei flicks his tail, tapping Leo on the shoulder.
Leo jumps and his eyes turn to our master. "Yes Karai, I mean-" His blue eyes widen and his color now resembles a beet, "I mean, I mean Sensei, Sensei, yes, yes Master Splinter."
At this point Mikey and Exodus are laughing so hard they can't breathe and from opposite ends of the room they are rolling around on their sides in identical hysterics. Karai and April suppress their own giggles. I roll my eyes then glance at Raph and find him shaking his head with this 'I am not amused' expression on his face. His eyes flicker to me and we exchange a good morning smirk.
"Leonardo, are you ill?" Sensei asks our blushing leader.
"Nnno, no Sensei. I'm fine Sensei." Leo straightens his back and shoulders, before looking straight ahead, putting Exodus in his eyesight instead of Karai.
"Nice job Karai, Leo's just short of the Ha-Shi first thing this morning." Exodus whispers behind my back.
"Exodus, attention please." Sensei taps the floor by X's knees and she trains her focus on our teacher.
"Mr. O'Neil and I have been working together for the past two days to get you three registered in High School as April's cousins. He will be listed as your guardian. Donatello will prepare your necessary documentation. You should be able to begin classes Friday."
I feel sick. Exodus seems eager, and she would, she's so freaking chipper. I glance at Karai, she looks like I feel. We both sigh.
"That is all for now. Let us begin warm-ups."
XXX
Donnie, Master Splinter and Mr. O'Neil were in the lab working on preparing documents after lunch. Our afternoon training was cancelled in the wake of school preparation, as was the evening session because Mr. O'Neil was supposed to take us shopping for school supplies.
Raph was conditioning on the landing of the entry steps, Mikey and Leo were playing a video game and I was sitting with the girls.
"So are you excited to go to high school?" April tried to sound optimistic but I could tell by her forced smile, she knew.
"No." Karai and I said at the same time.
"Yes! I can't wait. We can make so many friends!" Exodus bounced so much I could've sworn she had rabbit DNA, but no, just horse. If it weren't for her quirky traits you'd never know. The girl was tall, strong and fast, other than that, and her strange run like hell instincts, you'd never know she had equine genes. When it comes to us hybrids, knowing is in the details not a cursory glance.
"Yeah and the first time you whinny when you giggle, or get startled and bolt like a freaked out filly, that won't seem weird at all." I roll my eyes and rub my face.
"I think you'll do great!" Mikey chirps, never looking away from the game.
"Thanks Mikey!" Exodus's eyes float up to the tails of his mask and she seems to glow.
He loses his round and moves to surrender his spot to Leo but our leader turns to face us, "Just be careful. You three have a lot of enemies. I don't know how safe this idea is. I already worry when April goes." He frowns, his gaze drifting to Karai.
"You worried about goons, or all of the loser guys running around our school?" Casey quips, hopping over a turn-style and fist bumping Raph before plopping down next to April. "Sup, Red?" He wiggles his dark eyebrows and April laughs.
"Goons. I think these three can handle losers." Leo rubs the back of his neck and glances toward the lab.
I don't know if I believe you there Leo.
I snort, "Please, we can handle goons too."
Leo looks at me, raising an eye ridge, "Just be careful Zoe."
"As if she even knows how," Raph snickers from behind me.
"And you do?" I look over my shoulder to find him finishing up his push-ups and heading towards Casey. He stops and glares at me.
"I'm not the one working for a thief." He snaps.
"Ouch," Mikey and Exodus grimace as I lift my chin and set my jaw.
My gaze follows him, I already know what he's doing and yet I can't help myself. "Nice Raph, that's really great." I stomp off for the kitchen, knowing he won't follow.
Throwing open the freezer, and giving Ice Cream Kitty a pat on the head, I grab my pint of Ben and Jerry's and it's too light. As I rip off the lid I already know it's empty. "RAPHAEL!" I yell slamming the empty carton onto the table.
He doesn't answer me.
"Raph!"
I snatch up the container and storm into the living area right up to Raph, who's sprawled across his red beanbag, with his ankles crossed and his hands behind his head, talking to Casey.
"You ate my ice cream."
He raises an eye ridge and looks at me. Casey's eyes narrow. The group sitting on the stairs stops chatting.
"What is your problem all of the sudden?" I ask before kneeling down to whisper in my most threatening tone, "If you want to keep our private life private, I suggest you get on your feet and meet me in the kitchen right now."
He crosses his arms and stares straight ahead.
"Boy, I tell you-" I shake my head and grit my teeth.
He doesn't move.
"Now Raph!" I tap his leg with my foot and he glares at me.
"Uh-oh," Mikey squeaks.
"Zoe," Exodus says meekly.
"Don't do that again." Raph growls.
"Or what?" I poke him again.
He's on his feet and in my face, green eyes searing. "Knock it off Zoe. I ate your ice cream. Who cares?"
"Zoe," April tries to get my attention.
I thrust my hands into his plastron, pushing him back a step, "I do. I bought it for us to share and I wouldn't care if you ate it, but you put the empty container back in the freezer and you didn't tell me."
"Don't put your hands on me again Zoe." He snarls.
I lean in toward him, "Raph, what is going on with you? You're moodier than Karai with PMS!"
"Excuse me! Your no better," Karai hisses, "and leave me out of your drama."
I can feel my heart pounding. We're getting along so well, why's he doing this? Ignoring Karai, I keep my eyes fixed on Raphael. "Are you going to talk to me or what?"
"Or what," He bites, shoving past me. I turn around and launch the carton at his shell where it explodes, sending melting ice cream drizzle all over him.
"Zoe run!" Exodus shrieks as Raph wheels around, snatches me up and throws me over his shoulder.
Before I know it I find myself dropped on my butt in the middle of the dojo with him standing over me, with ice cream drizzle, from his shell, smeared all over my shirt. A cat like hiss escapes my chest as I move to get to my feet and he sweeps them from under me.
"Stop it Raph! At least let me off the floor so we can talk about this!" My voice is small against the rising animal noises I'm making. I make a conscious effort to control the beast within me and move to get off the floor again. As his foot comes towards me for another leg sweep I grab it and yank him onto his shell. As he moves to roll to his feet, I'm already on mine and placing my foot at his throat. He wraps his hand around my ankle and sends me crashing to the floor beside him. Now we both get to our feet and stand glaring at each other. "What is going on with you and why can't we just talk about it like a normal couple? Why do you have to get all pouty and mean? We haven't even disagreed about anything!"
His eyes narrow, a deep frown stamped on his face. "We're not a couple and I don't want to talk about it."
Unclenching my fists, I close the space between us, so close the energy radiates off him and into me. His gaze is set to the floor, arms crossed. My anger melts away as the closeness of him warms my heart. How can I be so soothed by someone I'm fighting with? Someone who's anger would terrify any sane person. As I reach up with my left hand to stroke his right cheek I place my lips gently against the side of his face. "Just because Sensei is making me go to school, my feelings for you won't change."
His eyes clamp shut and he shivers. "Maybe they should," his voice trembles.
"I wish you'd stop doing this at every turn. You're still holding on to the whole you're a turtle and I'm not thing." There's an ache in my chest and a lump in my throat because I know what I have to say next and it hurts already. "Raphael, if you can't get past this, there's nowhere for us to go. When the day comes that your feelings, your emotions, outweigh our differences… well I hope it's not too late for us. But I can't keep opening my heart to you, only for you to shut down on me, when nothing has actually happened to us. I've done nothing, you're acting on fear."
He stiffens, "I'm not scared."
I scoff, "Yeah, you are." I place my hand against the center of his plastron and try to fix the feel of scuffed keratin into my memory. After this conversation I don't know if I'll ever…
His large hand wraps around mine, pulling me so close my body brushes against his and he looks me in the eye, "I'm trying Zoe. This…" his other hand appears between us, waving back and forth, "you and me, it ain't easy."
"You make it more difficult than it has to be." I just want to wrap my arms around him and tell him it will be alright, if he would just let it be. But at the same time, he needs to figure this out without my coaxing him along.
His jaw flexes as his eyes shut again and he breathes me in.
"Raph don't kill her!" Mikey barges into the dojo, followed by X.
Raph and I groan.
"I'm not gonna kill her Mikey," Raph releases me and yet again I'm left wondering where we stand. He keeps flipping on me easier than a darn light switch.
"Zoe, my dad's ready to take us shopping." April's head appears behind Exodus.
I sigh and follow her to the lair door, not looking back.
XXX
"Did your dad seriously just give you his credit card and turn us loose?" Exodus leapt toward a display of brilliantly colored scarves, wrapping an orange one with yellow daisies on it around her neck.
"Yes, but we have a spending limit and a shopping list." April reaches into the pocket of her denim cutoffs and pulls out a folded piece of paper. "Oh and here, Donnie gave me your T-Phone Zoe, he said it's fixed."
As she handed me the shell shaped phone I realized that I may have missed messages from Hunter. We had a regular scheduled meeting time and place, but sometimes stuff came up, and we'd have to move things forward or back. "Thanks April."
I looked down at the blank screen and hit the power button. As it lit up, Donatello's face looked back at me. What the-
"What is it Zoe?" Karai leaned over my shoulder and April leaned forward. Exodus had put on a ridiculous pair of horn rimmed sunglasses, along with a floppy beach hat and she brushed up against my side to get a look.
"Hi Zoe, meet your new T-Phone. In order to use it, you'll need to answer a very serious question." It was a recorded message. Donnie was clearly trying not to grin, "Just type in your answer and you should be all set." The corner of his mouth quirked up and I can't believe what he said next.
"Who's your Daddy?" His eye ridges wagged, kind of the way Casey's usually did when he was being clever.
"What?" I gasp, staring at the screen. "What the-"
"Is he serious?" April thrust her hands on her hips.
"Oh no, he didn't," Karai gasped before clamping a hand over her mouth.
"Oh yes, he did." Exodus giggled.
"Wow." I blinked, "Oh, ohhhh, oh no. This is him getting me back for messing with his stuff." I rolled my eyes.
"Well I guess we know the answer to his question." April seemed upset.
"I definitely get the lesson." I mumble, tapping the screen so the keyboard pops up.
"What's that?" Exodus asks, the rim of the hat scratching my cheek.
I waved her back. "Not to mess with the tech guy. He kind of has a lot of control over our lives."
"You can say that again." Karai says as I type in Donatello and hit enter.
The video message disappears and my home screen pops up, with a picture of Raph.
"What? What all did he do to this phone?" I yelp as the girls start laughing. "Stop! Stop it you guys! Oh my God, how do I change it?"
April gasps for a breath, "I don't know if you can, Donnie sets everything up. Here let me look at it."
She looks at it, presses a few keys then stops.
"What's wrong April?"
"Are you sure you want me to change it?" She bites her lip and looks at me, her blue eyes shining.
Where I should be feeling the giddiness of a girl, as crazy about a guy, as I am Raph, I don't. I feel confused. Do I want his picture there, yeah, I love looking at him. Do I want him to see it? Shell no.
"You know there's a pic of you on his phone, right?" Karai says casually, playing with a cobalt blue scarf.
"What?" My head jerks in her direction. I didn't even know he had a picture of me.
"Yeah, but I don't think he wants you to know that, and Donnie didn't do it." Karai wraps the scarf around her neck.
"He's really into you Zoe." X says dreamily, as she placed the hat back on its display.
I sigh, "I'm really into him too."
April hands me the phone back without changing the picture. "So, what's the problem?"
"Honestly, he's insecure." I shake my head and try to change the subject, "Enough about me. It's not like you three don't have your own turtles to worry about. Leo's obviously nuts about you Karai, and Donnie's head over heels for you April and Mikey is wild about you X."
"Oh, I know. Mikey and I are totally together." Exodus shrugs.
Karai, April and I groan.
"At least somebody has it together." I say, tugging off my rubber band to play with my hair.
"Who would've thought it'd be Mikey?" Karai sighed hanging the scarf back up.
"Why don't you just make a move on Leo?" I ask her.
Before she can answer my phone vibrates in my pocket, followed by a loud obnoxious melody, "What does the fox say? Ring-ding-ding-ding-"
"That is awful! Hurry, answer it, make it stop!" Karai screeches, clamping her hands over her ears.
I look down at the horrendous sounding device, "I can't, it's a text!"
"Ring-ding-ding-ding-ding-"
"Well, try opening the message and see if that makes it stop!" April grimaces.
I touch the envelope and as the message opened the sound faded.
Donatello: Hope your enjoying your new phone Zoe :P
"Grrrr," I snarl. "April tell me you can change this, please!"
She took the phone from me again, hit menu and frowned, "Uh, Zoe, he's password protected the ability to make changes."
I palmed my face, "Of course he has." I shook my head, "Girls, don't ever piss off Donnie."
"Yikes." Exodus pink mouth twisted and she flinched, "Got it."
My phone buzzed and the damn ringtone started up again, "Ring-ding-ding-ding- What does the Fox say?" My teeth set on edge. I'm going to break this darn thing, and I just got it.
Donatello: So, do you like it?
Breathe in through your nose, out through your nose, in through your nose… I'm not going to throw it. Not going to throw it. I tap the screen and a keyboard pops up. I press N and O and hit enter. Then I look at the screen.
Zoe: Donnie is king.
"Oh, no! Seriously?" I yelp.
April looks over my shoulder and turns a deep shade of pink.
Donatello: Why Zoe, I didn't know you felt that way.
I tap the keyboard, N and O.
Zoe: Donnie is king.
Then I try to type, MAKE IT STOP. I'll NEVER TOUCH YOUR STUFF AGAIN. JUST MAKE IT STOP and hit enter.
Zoe: I have a crush on Raph. I have a crush on Raph. I have a crush on Raph.
"Okay, I am officially horrified." I rub my face.
Karai grabs my hand, holding the phone, and lowers it down so she can see it. "Wow. He really got you good."
Donatello: Well I'll be sure to tell him.
"No!" I shriek and immediately start typing. N and O.
Zoe: Donnie is king.
N and O.
Zoe: Donnie is king.
N and O.
Zoe: Donnie is king.
Donatello: Ha, ha, ha. See you when you get home Zoe. ;)