SCOUT

Scout climbed the front steps to the school, uncertain if the knot in her stomach was too much post workout omelet pizza or the fact that her cousins had gotten closer, united even, while she was gone. Finding her place again might be harder than she'd expected. Her stomach clenched. Or maybe it was her first day back at school. The odd looks of the popular kids, or the way Mimi smiled and waved at her, like she knew her well, before linking her arm through Jem's.

How had everything she knew changed in slightly less than a month? Ugh, and she was going to have to break it to her dad that her diet was going to become more like Jem's… Maybe she should just tell him she wanted to start competing again. She wasn't sure what she was waiting for anyway. If she changed her eating habits without explanation he and mom might think she's becoming Alli. Scout sighed. Guess that talk was happening this evening.

A tapping on her arm brought Mimi into focus. "How. Are. You? I've. Missed. Seeing. You. In. Class."

As the blonde enunciated every word and Scout looked to Jem and signed. "Seriously?"

Jem's mouth set in a flat line as he signed back. "Please, Scout. She's trying. Give her a break. Just, talk to her. You can trust her, I swear. She's helping us bring down her own brother."

Scout's jaw shifted and Jem began to fidget. Damn it. Mimi stared at her, smiling bright, eyes shining. Damn, hopeful. Not unlike her dad's expression, when he really wanted something. Except, what could Mimi Voss want from her?

Then Mimi looked at Jem, her smile widening, color rising to her cheeks. Shit. She really liked him. Well damn. Scout rolled her eyes and signed. "I'm fine. Has Jem invited you to our family dinner tonight?"

Jem eyed her for a second, as if reluctant to extend the invitation. What, brother? Hasn't your little princess met the whole fam yet? Ha-ha. Yes. Please, invite her.

"Well go on, Peaches. Invite her to dinner." Scout winked as she signed to him.

Then she read Mimi's lips. "What's she saying?"

Jem sighed as he told her.

Mimi's eyes grew wide and she bounced on her toes. Gods. Was her brother dating a girl version of their dad? Creepy. Then the blonde lunged toward Scout with her arms open. Scout resisted the urge to swat her away, her eyes shooting to Jem's as he cringed, frantically signing. "Please don't hurt her."

Fanfuckingtastic.

Scout patted the girl on her back, forcing a smile. She wiggled free, signing to Jem. "Gotta get to class."

But as she turned, she ran into the very hard chest of someone tall. Stumbling back, she brushed off the person's hands as they tried to help right her. Looking up, her insides stilled, eyes growing wide as she looked into the face of one of a handful of Koreans in their high school. Only this particular Korean had spectacular grey eyes. His cheeks flushed as he offered her an uncertain smile. Grey McCoy.

Then, to her pure shock, he lifted his hands and signed. "Are you okay?"

For some reason her heart began to pound. She stepped back, bumping into Jem and her ire rose. What kind of ninja kept bumping into people? Mimi was on her left now and Scout was just feeling really confined.

But there in the forefront of it all was the fact that Grey McCoy, who she'd near hospitalized in middle school, was standing in front of her, actually trying to speak her language.

She lifted her hands, eyeing him with uncertainty. "I'm fine. When-" she hesitated. "When did you learn to sign?"

The color in his cheeks darkened, his spectacular eyes darting around before meeting her gaze. "I started taking classes around eighth grade."

Right after she beat his ass.

He kept staring at her and she began to feel squirmy. This was all too weird. She beat him up and he learned sign language? Hm. Okay then. She forced a tight smile. Signing, "Good for you. I've got to get to class."

His eyes shot to Mimi's and Scout looked to Jem who held his hands up, waving them. What the fuck was going on? Mimi seemed to be reassuring Grey and Jem looked guilty. What. The. Hell?

She hated high school.

She turned her back, leaving them all. In the main hall she spied Drea at her locker, eyeing Luke Voss. How was that going to go down? Her phone was flashing, an alarm letting her know she was about to be late to class. She had to get upstairs and to the other side of the building in two minutes. Now this brought a smirk to her lips. No problem.

DREA

Time to kunoichi this bitch. Drea slid her books into her locker. Sensing she was being watched, she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, pretending to move things around as she tapped into her hybrid senses. Filtering away the brush of material, jackets, pants, then the clopping and scratching of shoes and heels, the slamming of lockers, down to the cacophony of voices. Now just to narrow it down.

"I mean she still has the best ass in Franklin." Luke snickered. "And I hit it. More than once. Bet I could hit it again."

Andrea closed her eyes, struggling with her simmering rage. What did her dad always say? "Like water over a stone." Water over a stone. Water over a stone. Water— Her waters calmed, as she inhaled deep, exhaling the energy of her rage. A little thrill rolled through her at achieving control. She smirked, peeked around her locker door and made eye contact with her target.

Luke's eyes met hers, the blue of them widening. Then he smiled, that cocky, jock-swagger grin of his. Her stomach turned, as she smiled back. Your. Ass. Is. Mine.

Closing the door, she turned, hips swinging as she sauntered up to him. His boys scattered, leaving just the two of them.

Drea reached up, hooking the gaudy gold chain with her finger. "I've been catching you looking at me." She leaned in, her breasts mashing against his chest as she brought her lips to his ear, whispering just loud enough for the bug to pick it up. "What I want to know is why?"

He lifted his chin, puffing his chest out. Then his fingers closed around the belt loop of her jeans as he pulled her hips flush to his. "Because, your ass is still the finest thing in Franklin. In fact, I can fix all of the damage you've done to your reputation. If I take you back, all will be forgiven."

Drea wanted to sink her teeth in his earlobe and bite it off. Water over a stone. Water over a stone. Water-

As her fury quelled, she willed her jaw to unlock, echoing Luke's words back to him in her best kunoichi tone. "So, you're saying, that all of the terrible things you've done to me, like making those fliers, sending out that text blast, and screaming at me that I'm a slut and the nonexistent baby isn't yours, all of that, you will forgive me if I take you back?"

He scoffed. "So, what if I did those things? Hm? You make me sound like I'm the bad guy here, Drea." His hand slid down, cupped her ass and squeezed. "But let's face it. You brought it all on yourself." He wrapped his fingers around the back of her neck, as if he would steer her by her throat. "I've missed tapping this. I could do it again. I mean I lifted you up once, took you down easy enough when you threatened my rep. I can make things worse too. Yeah, I can do it all, the good and the bad, again and again and again. But you should know, if I do decide to do this for you, there will be conditions."

Do. This. For. Her. Lifted her up? Took her down? The water over a stone rose to a boil. Sometimes being a kunoichi, in her position downright sucked. She tipped her head to the side, exposing her neck, knowing he liked the vulnerability of an exposed throat. Fake alpha bullshit.

The warning bell rang. Wrap this up quick, Drea.

Her eyebrows lifted and dropped, her lips parting. "Conditions?" she whispered.

"Yeah, like you get on birth control and if you get knocked up it's on you. None of this whipping out pregnancy tests in public places. Or. I. Will-"

Water boiling over. Drea's arm came up and over, driving his hand down from her throat only to bring her fingers to close around his. "You'll what? End me? Or-" She imitated him, "You'll do it all again, and again, and again? You. Have. No. Idea."

CHANE

Drea said she had it handled but Chane wanted to be completely sure. It wouldn't do for Drea to get arrested for taking Luke apart when they were so close. And, for the plan to work, he needed to be both alive and clueless as to what was about to go down.

Having followed at a distance, keeping an eye on her cousin, she was attempting to wait discretely outside, giving Drea her chance. She tried to look inconspicuous while straining to hear.

"You. Have. No. Idea."

Oh shit. She knew that tone.

Flinging open the door, she charged in, paying Luke no mind as he shrieked. "What the hell?"

Instead, she clapped a hand on Drea's wrist, pulling her out of the room. "We need to get to class."

Tensed for battle, Drea resisted being moved, but only for a moment. Releasing a breath, her body lost some of its rigidity and she willingly followed.

When they got to the door, Luke called out to Drea. "Keep my offer in mind."

Feeling Drea's muscles coil again, Chane tugged her cousin away before things could get messy. He'd be sorry enough tonight.

SCOUT

In some ways, perhaps more than she realized, Scout was a bit more like her mom and it went beyond looks. For example, if she had to hug one more person today she was going to the dojo not just to work out, but to seriously hurt a punching bag. Normally, she didn't hate all the touching. In truth she might not, even as she internally complained about it. Except that these hugs, were deep, emotionally supportive, and spoke all the words of support her family wanted to offer in their welcome home message.

If only she was being welcomed home after doing something amazing. Rather than a nasty fall from a respectable place.

After she accepted a near bone crushing hug from her Uncles, Raph then Arcos and Aries, she finally got to sit down. Her parent's parlor seldom closed. Her dad's firm belief that pizza should be available at all hours. But the dining room was closed, even if the kitchen was still making deliveries, so that the entire family could push all the tables together. And they took up all the tables.

Her dad literally moved Jem's place setting down one, so he could sit right next to her and Scout wanted to both laugh at Jem's stammering over it, as well as shoo her dad back just a little. Her mother was on her other side. In fact, for this meal the boys were all directly across from the girls, with the exception of Medusa who was coiled at the end of the table, Uncle Horace beside her, Grandmere across from him.

It was nice that no one made any speeches or drew attention to the reason behind the dinner. Rather treating it like any other family get together. There was talking across the table. Uncle Leo flagging down the shift manager and making requests, perhaps to gain some control over the fray that was the Hamato family. But Scout's attention was drawn to the curly-haired blonde human sitting across from her brother, looking quite comfortable between both Shen and Nellie. Drea was chatting with Nik which was odd, but apparently everything was on its head so- whatever.

Mimi was beaming at Jem, and Scout's stomach turned at the sick-sweet way he doted over her. As she sipped her soda, leaving a bright pink ring of lip-gloss at its top, she lifted her hands, glancing from Jem to Scout as she attempted to sign. "Did you see Grey McCoy anymore at school today?"

Both of Scout's parents' heads lifted and Scout wanted to throttle her brother. First of all, drinking a soda while making a pathetic attempt to sign was downright frustrating. Fortunately, most of her family was lost in conversations of their own. Doing their typical forgetting that she couldn't follow them all at once. But her parents, they could piece together even broken sign.

Scout's head pivoted toward her brother and she kicked him hard under the table.

"Ow! Shit, Scout!" Jem's mouth opened and Scout grinned as she read the pain on his lips. That smile fell as table talk ceased and all heads pivoted toward her.

He must've been really loud.

Then her darned sister, much to Scout's dismay, was actually paying attention, in between her open hand-holding with Anton. She lifted her hands with an excited smile on her face. "Who's Grey McCoy?"

Scout's face flamed as she lifted her hands to sign only to see everyone's eyes shift to Mimi whose lips read, "A really hot guy at school that learned sign language so he could talk to Scout!"

Scout kicked her brother again. Peaches really needed to shut Blondie up.

"Ow! What the actual fuck?" Jem glared at her, angry signing, "What are you practicing your kicks on, fucking titanium?"

Nellie cocked her head to the side, signing to Scout. "Isn't he that guy you practically smothered in his own mashed potatoes at lunch back in middle school?"

"Yep. Two black eyes and a bruised kidney." She thought for a moment. "Can't remember what he said anymore. But he was making fun of me." Scout signed, not caring if Mimi could follow or not. But she saw her twin's lips moving to translate. Grrrr. Still, she gloated just a bit for defending herself. "He was one bruised potato."

Her mother frowned, signing her name with a warning look. "Scout."

Scout glanced at her dad who was obligated to side with her mom, that is if he wanted to keep teaching her. He looked down at his plate then to her mother and back to Scout.

Scout sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'm so sorry. It was awful. Way too much. My bad." Then she exchanged a knowing look with Nellie.

Then Mimi lifted her hand, waving it in the air. Scout's eyes shifted to the pixie. Really? What the fuck was she doing?

Scout read her lips. "Jem, sign for me. This is way more than what you taught me so far."

Scout was beginning to regret inviting Blondie.

"He wasn't actually making fun of Scout. He had a lisp and I can't remember what he said either. In part because I had a hard time understanding him. But I was sitting at a table near him that day. It wasn't anything mean at all. He's actually been crushing on Scout for years."

Scout began to cough. Either she was going to break Jem's leg, or he'd better shut her up. He sure as shit didn't want Scout doing it. She glared at her brother, willing him to get the message.

"Okay." Scout signed, avoiding eye contact with half the people at the table. "No more of talk of Grey McCoy. Surely, someone else has some exciting news."

Then, of all people, her mother signed as she spoke. "Learning sign language to talk to someone after they've beaten you up is pretty impressive, Scout. I might like to meet this boy."

Scout lifted her foot to kick Jem's leg again, but he blocked her. Their eyes locked as they engaged in an under-the-table kicking match.

Her mother, leaned back in her chair, and signed to her father. "You taught them. You fix it."

Mikey's brain caught on 'crushing on Scout' and immediately rallied its defenses. There was a teenage boy out there ogling his little Cubs' lady bits? Nope. Nope. Nope. Definitely not going there. Happy place! Happy place! Pizza, ice cream, videogames, giant transforming space robots...

"Mikey!"

Denim's voice snapped him back to reality and he followed her head gesture to where Jem and Scout were waging a kick war under the table.

After carefully considering his options, he took the obvious course of action. "Smoke bomb!"

Disappearing into a purple haze, he quickly darted out to the kitchen, grabbing up baskets of chips, seasoned with a special blend of his own creation, and hurried back to the table before visibility returned.

As anticipated, everyone at his end of the table, particularly Scout and Jem, were too busy coughing and swearing to participate in the time-honored tradition of table-kicking.

Smiling through the clearing smoke, with whip-like flourishes, he slid the snack baskets into position down the table. "Ta da!"

"That's it!" Raph stood knocking his chair back, still coughing as he stomped towards his brother.

"Meep." Mikey squeaked out as he took off for the kitchen.

"Yeah, you better run." Raph yelled between coughs as he gave chase.