Hey everyone! Tis another Friday and I am very very very tired and basically brain dead right now because I was playing lacrosse ALL DAY. whew. Not gonna have trouble sleeping for once, I guess. Lol. anyway… This chapter is mostly Raph! You all know I can't go too long without a Raph-centric chapter LOL. Anyway yeah, this is a good one.
To Nukas: I'm sorry, I don't get that reference. I feel like it was something Megamind would say….? But I can't recall. Ah well. Awww, thank you! You made me smile!
To efarraiz: whew, I'm glad you guys seemed to be okay with Karai and Miwa being different people. Lol. and as for your ideas about the boys in school, you'll see. Hehehe. Thank you for saying how important I am to you, it really means a lot. I've been doing better the past few days. As for where I got the name for Popcorn…. I wanted to name her after a food so I looked up food names. Then I saw the word Popcorn and basically, that was that. I'll give her a big hug when she comes back in from the backyard! Lol. hugs and kisses, thank you for reviewing!
To SuperStarSykor58: Thank you! And it's fine, I like getting reviews no matter what the time is! :D
To TMNT Fan 2012: I like to tie in as many characters as possible… but in this fic, Leatherhead is not one of them. :/ sorry. But you do meet someone next chapter that may not be obvious! ;)
Disclaimer: I ONLY OWN THE OC'S!
And now, enjoy the chapter!
"Wake up!" Mikey's voice shouted through the door, Raph groaned and pulled a pillow over his head. The past week had been exhausting, and now he got to go to yet another new school, meet yet another new principal, and start yet another new life. Hooray and whoop de doo da day. "Come on, Raphie boy! Don't wanna be late!"
"Maybe you don't," Raph muttered under his breath, finally forcing himself up off the bed.
"I heard that! And besides, you get to learn how to sign up for Baseball today! And I can sign up for track! Man, I'm so pumped!" Raph couldn't help but smile as he heard Mikey run down to Leo's door. He pulled on a red t-shirt and jeans and was tying his shoes when Mikey got back.
"How long are you gonna take?" he complained.
"Unless you want me ta come ta school naked? As long as I want." Raph said, rolling his eyes. "Almost ready, Mike."
"Good," Mikey replied, Raph imagined the kid with his hands on his hips. "Because I, for one, don't want to be late!" Raph smiled and grabbed his backpack, opening the door. Mikey really did have his hands on his hips.
"Alright, alright, I'm ready." Raph sighed. Don cast him a sympathetic look before walking down the stairs, and Leo stumbled out of his own room with a yawn, hair disheveled. "Ah, fearless, ya don't wanna go ta school like that!" Raph teased, "not if dat neighbor girl might be in yer classes!" Leo glared at him, walked to the bathroom, and closed the door. Raph smiled. Leo always combed his hair meticulously, while Raph preferred to let it hang in his eyes, though he was thinking about getting a buzz cut, or a mohawk.
"Race you downstairs!" Mikey sang, grabbing his backpack off the foosball table and sprinting to the stairway. Raph ran after him, smiling slightly. Mikey still beat him, but it was close. Man, the kid was fast!
"Good morning." Mom said from the counter, where she was placing bread in the toaster. "Are you ready for the first day of your new school?"
"Hardly," Raph said, while Mikey replied;
"Totally!" he laughed, "c'mon Raph, it won't be that bad. You've never been here before!" that was true, Raph conceded. Most of his problems had occurred when he knew people at the school, but he'd never lived this far north before.
"I guess, but with my luck, there'll be some kinda school shoo-"
"Raphael!" Mom snapped, looking at him. "I will not tolerate those kinds of jokes! And you do not have bad luck."
"What would ya call it then?" Raph asked, "Sorry Mom, I guess I'm just in a bad mood because somebody was having a karaoke party in his bedroom last night." he cast a meaningful look at Mikey, who chuckled nervously.
"Oh, hehe, sorry dude." he said, opening the fridge to get something, "hey! Apple juice! Want some?"
"What do ya take me for?" Raph asked, "a' course I want some!" Mikey grinned and took out the jug, then retrieved two newly unpacked cups from the cupboard. Leo came into the kitchen, hair restored to its usual flawlessness. Raph snorted.
"What?" Leo asked, looking at him. Raph shrugged. "Fine, whatever." Leo rolled his eyes and accepted a plate of toast from Mom. "I can make my own-"
"No you can't." everyone else in the room corrected before he finished his sentence. Raphael cracked a grin while Leo pouted, sitting at the small kitchen table to eat his toast.
"Ah, don't be sad Leo." he said, "at least now we won't have to fix the toaster."
"Be kind, Raphael." Mom scolded, smiling at them. "Yoshi is already at the new restaurant, he wants to be there early to open it." The all nodded absently, Raph looked out the window to the yard as he nibbled on his toast, tired. He hadn't slept well last night, being in a new place usually did that. Coupled with the fact that there were nearly no city noises at all and Raphael was just an insomniac.
"Earth to Raph!" Earth to Raph!" Mikey waved his hand in front of Raph's face, he shook his head to clear it and looked at his brother. Then noticed that Leo and Don were standing up and grabbing their backpacks. "Time to go!"
"Oh, right." Raphael abandoned his half-eaten breakfast and followed them out to the car, still thinking. Not about anything really specific, and then a stronger thought than ever hit him. One year ago, he hadn't known any of the people he now called family. One year ago, he had just been released from Juvie. One year ago, Raph had already hidden that bottle of prescription drugs in his bag, just in case. Raphael shivered and walked faster to the van.
As he had gotten used to after the accident, worry seeped into the green-eyed teens' mind as Mom started the car. He glanced sideways at Donnie just once and then took a deep breath, reaching up to run a hand over his scar. Now that he thought about it, it was weird. A year ago, Raph hadn't known or cared that any of these people existed, now he would do just about anything for them.
"BOO!" Mikey shouted in his ear, making Raph jump, he glared at the kid.
"Mikey!" Mikey giggled. "Haha, you should see your face right now, you look so mad!" Raph narrowed his eyes, then sighed.
"Yeah, whatevah."
"Whoa, dude!" Mikey exclaimed, "you know what would be cooler than your Brooklyn accent?" Raph rolled his eyes. "If you only spoke in, get this, Norwegian!" everyone but mom looked at him oddly. "What? I think it would be cool."
"I don't." Raph said, "yah couldn't hear me when I tell ya yer a weirdo."
"Thank you!" Mikey beamed. Mom pulled into the parking lot of a large school, large meaning bigger than any high school Raph had ever been to. Probably because it was a middle school and a high school combined.
"Here we are!" Mom said, looking back at them as they unbuckled. "You four be kind to each other alright? Don't cause trouble."
"Who, us?" Mikey asked.
"Cause trouble?" Don added. "You must be thinking of Raph." Raph rolled his eyes again and got out of the van, pulling his backpack over his shoulders. As they approached the doors to the school, A man and two kids who looked like seniors stepped out to meet them.
"You must be the Hamatos!" the man greeted, he had a nice British accent.
"Or you could talk like that," Mikey whispered to Raph, who elbowed him.
"I am Dr. Rockwell."
"My name is Tang Shen." Mom said, shaking his hand. "These are my sons, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo." Raph nodded when she introduced him.
"Call me MIKEY!" Mikey declared loudly, the three people smiled.
"I have your schedules, and Ms. Lisa and Mr. Ryan will show you four around, are there any questions you have for me?" Rockwell asked, seeming preoccupied, kind of like Donnie when he's thinking of a project.
"Yeah, how do we sign up for sports?" Raph asked, tapping his fingers on his leg.
"Ah, yes, erm, those papers are…" Rockwell rifled through his side bag. "Right here, track and field, and then baseball." he handed them over and Raph glanced down at the paper, tryouts were that weekend. Perfect.
"Thanks."
"Well, yes, why don't you kids show these boys around and I will finish up their paperwork with Mrs. Hamato," Rockwell said to the two seniors, Lisa and Ryan. Raph glanced at Mikey, he seemed fine, must be a different Ryan.
"Hi, I'm Mona Lisa Hansen." the girl said, holding out her hand, Leo shook it. "Call me Mona or Lisa."
"Ryan Garner, we're the student body representatives." the boy explained, "part of our job is skipping school to show around new kids, one reason I like it." Raph grinned. "Come on, we'll go to the cafeteria first, then we'll show you your lockers and introduce you to your first-period class."
"Awesome!" Mikey beamed, "Come on guys!" he ran down the hall, Raphael rolled his eyes.
"Wow, they remodeled since I was ten." Don murmured from next to Raph, looking around. "Neat."
"Everything is neat to you." Raph pointed out, Don shrugged with one arm as they walked after Mikey and the others.
"You went here before?" Mona asked, looking back at him. "It recently switched from being a private school to a charter school, so they remodeled and no uniforms."
"That's a relief." Raph snorted, glancing down at his leather jacket.
"Are you two brothers?" Mona asked, "you look alike." Raphael blinked, he had never heard anyone say that before. Donnie was a head taller than him, fair skin, brown eyes, brown hair, lanky. Raph was short and had a few freckles across his nose, not as prominent as Mikey's, and a large mole on his neck, red hair and green eyes, and he was fairly muscled.
"Well, yeah, actually," Don admitted. "No one ever notices, it's mostly the hair and height that throws them off."
"You have the same faces." Mona shrugged. "What about the other two? They your brothers?"
"Technically, yes." Don said, "It's a really really long story, but they aren't biologically related to us, no."
"I figured, come on before Ryan decides to take a field trip to get ice cream," Mona said, speeding up to catch up to her classmate. Don and Raph followed. Maybe this school wasn't going to be as bad as the others.
"Hey, Mrs. Mcmurry." Ryan said, opening the door to let Raph and Leo in. "these are your two new students." Raph suddenly felt awkward, everyone in the classroom turned to look at him and Leo.
"Ah, yes, Leonardo and Raphael." the teacher, a white-haired lady, recalled. "Welcome, that's good, Ryan. You go back to class, we can take over from here." it sounded like a prison sentence to Raph, but Ryan smiled and left. "Come up here boys, last names again? I'm bad at remembering."
"Hamato Leonardo." Leo recited, "uh, my parents are Japanese." Raph suddenly felt torn; he wasn't a Hamato yet. Mrs. McMurry looked at him expectantly.
"Uh, Raphael Jameson," he said, looking at the floor. Jameson, he hated his last name. After everything with his biological parents, grr. A smatter of whispers echoed for just a moment, and Raph thought he made out the words 'prison' and 'Luke'. Just his luck, there goes a new beginning.
"You two can sit next to each other back by the window." Mrs. McMurry pointed, "we were just in the middle of silent reading, alright?" Raph nodded and walked with his head down next to Leo, who, just before they sat down, put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Raph let out a sigh.
"New school, can't get better than this." he quipped lightly, Leo grinned and they took their seats, Raph felt like everyone was still staring at him. Why was he surprised that everyone knew his name? Luke's case had been national news, for years. And once Raphael's identity was leaked, everyone knew. He really wished he could get his hands on whoever told reporters it was him. "Ya got an extra book?" he hissed back to Leo, who smiled and passed one to him, still immersed in his own novel. Raphael wrinkled his nose at the title, but sighed and began to read.
"Alright, books away." Mrs. McMurry said, clapping her wrinkled hands. "It's junior year of high school, almost three-fourths of the way through, you kids need to be thinking about graduation." everyone groaned. "Come on, do you want careers or not? Some students in this school already have their associate's degree." Raph grinned to himself, he knew one of those people was Donnie.
"Yeah, but we don't." one kid pointed out, "and besides, why do we need to talk about graduation when we're only juniors? Overachievers can do what they want, I have my own pace." Raph smirked, sure that the kid was about to be told off.
"Very well, instead of what we were going to do today, we'll have a class debate discussion about this." Mrs. McMurry declared, "desks to the sides of the room, class." everyone started talking at once, and moving their desks. Raph looked at Leo, who shrugged and followed suit. Apparently, debates were fun; Raph was sure he would like that arguments were encouraged in this new school.
"Hey, new kid!" Raphael turned, he'd been looking for Leo, Mikey, and Donnie to eat lunch with them. The person who'd called to him was sitting at a picnic table with a group of other people. "Raphael- that's your name right?" Raph frowned but walked over. "Hey, I'm Cash Wilson."
"Hey." Raph said dully, looking around at the other people, "uh, what did ya want?"
"You can sit with us." one of the girls at the table said, "If you want. We don't mind, you want friends right?"
"Uh…" Raph wasn't sure what to say. No one reached out to the new kid who wore a leather jacket to school, no one. At least not that he ever remembered.
"We don't bite." Cash prompted. Raph sighed, shrugged, and sat on the open spot on the end of the bench.
"Ah, what da heck, why not?" he declared.
"HI RAPH!" Mikey shouted, now visible, from across the courtyard, where he stood with a group of freshmen. Raph nodded at him and smiled.
"Who's that?" Cash asked.
"My brother," Raphael replied, pulling his lunch out of his bag. "Mikey."
"Oh, He was in my art class." one of the kids said, "he's awesome and really talented."
"I know," Raph replied honestly, looking at his peanut butter sandwich. He listened to the chatter and laughter, jokes, even was included in some conversations, but finally, his confusion grew big enough he couldn't stand it. He turned to Cash. "Why did you invite me over here?" it came out sounding rude.
"Why not?" Cash asked, "everyone needs friends." Raph frowned.
"But- I don't wanna be rude, but no one's evah wanted ta be my friend the first-day befo'ah." he shrugged. "So, why do you guys?" the table seemed to fall silent, hesitant.
"Well, why don't people want to be your friends?" the kid who was in art asked. "You seem nice enough. Besides, We've all been new kids before."
"Yeah, but…" Raph shrugged. "It's just weird."
"Must not have gone to good schools before." Cash shrugged, taking a swig from his water bottle. "Plus, I've been trying to figure out where I recognize you from. You were in my math class second period, and I know I've seen you somewhere." Raph shrugged, knowing full well that Cash probably saw him on the news.
"Maybe I jus' got one o' dose faces," he suggested.
"I guess." and then the table went back to what it had been, happy, loud. High School students on lunch break, a group of friends. Raph felt out of place but allowed himself to be drawn in.
ChArAcTeR dEvElOpMeNt? Hehehehe. So what did you guys think? What do you think will happen? Track tryouts are next chapter, as well as a new friend and an old friend returning! Hehehehehe. As well some Raphie Angst at the end. :) as always, thank you for reading and please please pleasssse review!
Until Tuesday,
-Jelly
