His True Love
Disclaimer: I deny any ownership of any adult or adolescent shadow warrior chelonians.
Chapter Twenty – Schooling Problems
DONATELLO:
" Wants to see me spin my sai?" Ramiela asked cheekily.
I rolled my eyes this seemed to be her latest diversion from concentrating on schoolwork itself. I had all ready permitted her to show me it once before us starting our day of lessons but Ramiela, typically grew bored and she obviously felt that spinning her sai was far more important then concentrating on conjuring verbs in German, or math equations or Science, which is what we were currently on.
Her hand seemed to move of an impulse all of its own in plucking out her sai and spinning it whether I wanted her to do so or not. She was of course quite proud of the fact that she could now perform what was a very difficult move for her to learn and she was quite willing to perform it as often as possible to prove that she had achieved her goal.
" No Ramiela I want you to concentrate on your work and watch what you are doing carefully. Chemicals in science have a way of reacting badly if you do not mix them the right way." I informed her patiently, " Just leave your sais alone right now," I ordered her.
Ramiela scowled for a second or two " What could happen if I mixed up too much of this stuff?" She wondered.
" Depending on how you mix it, you could end up with a poisonous gas," I admitted. That was one of the reasons I was hovering close by her I didn't want to risk her mixing the elements up in the wrong amounts.
" Cool!" Ramiela replied drawing the word out " Lets try it!"
" Let's not and say we did" I replied quickly before she could gain any other ideas " Instead why don't you concentrate on the work at hand?"
" You know what your problem is Uncle Donatello? You gots no sense of adventure. Isn't Science spose to be bout learning stuff, testing theories and…" Ramiela droned on.
" I don't need you endangering our lives to test something that I all ready know and am fully aware of," I stated patiently.
" You knows it. I don't and I'm just to take your word for it?" Ramiela asked.
" In this instance Ramiela yes you are" I declared.
Ramiela shook her head and blew out a large puff of air in exasperation then I saw a light come to her eyes as if some thing had just occurred to her. I groaned inwardly to myself knowing only what that could mean.
" Uncle Donatello aren't ninja spose to use poisons and stuff like that?"
Yep, I had been expecting this question " Yes they do but they know what they are doing when they do it and they don't put members of their clan at risk when they perform the task."
Ramiela sighed and for a few minutes, thankfully, actually did end up concentrating on the task at hand while she mixed the correct amounts of chemicals. I could now relax from here on end if she made a mistake she would, at the very least not be endangering any lives.
" Uncle Donatello?" Ramiela asked after considerable silence on her part.
" Yes."
" What makes two people like each other?"
I smiled " Different things Ramiela."
She rolled her eyes and gave me a rather frustrated look, which said clearly that she wasn't amused with my reply. I couldn't help but chuckle a little at her expression.
" Think of it like Science some people like certain chemicals get along quite well, others don't mix at all and still others are best kept far away from each other or prove hazardous to those around them." I explained.
Ramiela gave a negative shake of her head " Forgets I asked. I think dad could tell me, or Uncle Raphael. You don't gots to make things up when you don't knows." She informed me.
" I am not making things up Ramiela different things attract different people. For Jen and I it was the intelligence and our interest in computers that drew us together but for some people it is the persons looks, or a sense of humour or any number of other things that could attract one person to another" I tried to break it down to her to explain in simpler terms but I could tell that I wasn't quite getting through to her so I tried a different way.
" People start with one thing they might like about another then if they are interested they might decide to reach out and learn more adding on to what they all ready have and know."
" First you says its science now its math. Knows what I think?" Ramiela piped up.
When I didn't bother to ask her what she thought she felt quite comfortable informing me any ways " I think your fraid to admits you don't knows somethin' for a change."
Obviously the answer I had given her hadn't been what she was looking for and now any answer I tried to give would not be satisfactory to her as she had all ready determined that I knew nothing.
How could a seven year old make me, always end up feeling that I knew absolutely nothing?
Perhaps Mike would know how to answer this question a bit better then I could.
Ramiela did drop that avenue of questioning however she wasn't about to drop all queries just on the basis of my answers on relationships.
~*~
Between her numerous questions and her slipping in her sai spinning wherever she could along with numerous other distractions, which could be expected when trying to instruct Ramiela, I realized that only half of the days work had been done and I was forced to give her quite a load of homework if she was to complete the days assignments.
She sulked as I listed off the homework I wanted done for the morning.
" Whys do I have to do all that?" She grouched miserably.
" If you had been concentrating on your work instead of fooling around you wouldn't have so much to do" I replied testily. It was probably a good thing we didn't have hair I think I'd be ripping mine out by now if we did.
" One more thing Ramiela, I don't want you bringing your sais into class any more they pose too much of a distraction for you."
Rama crossed her arms over her plastron and glared hard at me her bottom lip sticking out.
" If you bring your sais into the school room I will confiscate them until after our school time is over" I declared.
" The rest of the clan is happy I can spins the sai" She replied petulantly saying in no uncertain terms that she felt the clan would back her up in this new found mischief, this was just what I didn't need!
" I am happy about your achievement too Ramiela, but you also need to concentrate on your schoolwork and listen to me when I ask you to do something."
She glanced away from me refusing to meet my eye she clearly thought I was being mean to her.
Not for the first time I wondered how I could possibly bridge the gap between us. Somehow I felt that if we had a better relationship that Ramiela wouldn't cause the sort of hassles she insisted on pulling. How could I earn her respect?
I sighed inwardly deciding to see if perhaps Mike might be able to offer me some clue in getting to know and understand Ramiela better.
I recalled when she was four all my firm insistence that she was not developing correctly for her age group due to her way of talking, sometimes I think her way of talking now was a holdover of that time or a way to irritate me further. At any rate Splinter felt that there was nothing wrong with the way she talked and that she would talk correctly when she was ready to. It turned out Ramiela had been having problems saying our full names and opted not to say any word correctly that had an l or a t in it until she had mastered our full names.
I had to wonder how much Ramiela remembered of that time, did she perhaps feel that I had felt her to be stupid due to her improper use of words? I don't know. I just knew that I wanted to have a better relationship with her I just didn't know how to gain it now.
Perhaps trying to get an understanding of children now might not be such a bad idea one day possibly Jen and I might want to consider having some of our own. Of course it might take time before Jen took that step, as I didn't know how far she had come since losing Nicole.
~*~
Ramiela seemed far more subdued by dinner time and I felt like an ogre for taking some of her precious fun from her success by piling so much homework on her, though I had a feeling from Mike's present mood that Rama still wasn't really concentrating on her work and might be condemned to her room to finish the school assignments after dinner. I felt sorry for her, I really did but she had to learn that there were consequences, for every action, a reaction would follow.
Raph glanced around the table " I hear Ramiela is being a pain in the shell to you Donny." He drawled.
" She was far more interested in spinning her sai today then paying attention to what I had to teach her," I admitted.
Raph grunted and gave a hard stare Ramiela's way.
" I want to make sure it don't gets away nows I got it" Rama sniffed.
" Now that you know how to do it I promise it won't go any where. Meanwhile Don here has all kinds of new stuff for you to learn that you need to pay attention to. You won't get far in life if you don't apply the same hard work, you put into learning the spin move, to other aspects of learning." Leo informed her a slight scowl on his face.
Ramiela looked over at Leo " You mean I ought to listen to Uncle Donatello even when he's borin?"
" Ramiela!" Mike snapped.
" He is dad!" Rama declared firmly.
Well I had been called far worse and I suppose that I was boring to her.
Leo shook his head " Ramiela why do you listen to me?"
" You Sensei. You teach me how to be kunoichi and I don't know how to be one and I wants to learn that." Ramiela replied.
" I have things to teach then that you want to learn." Leo summarized, " Why do you listen to Karena when she teaches?"
"I like Aunt Karena she helps me with reading and writing and teaches me all kinds of new words. I like words."
" So we both teach you things you want to learn but Don has things to teach too and as a kunoichi in training you ought to keep your heart and mind open to gain the most from his teachings." Leo explained gently.
I had talked to Mike about my problems with Ramiela today and it seemed Mike had found it necessary for the others to know about it, of course disrespect towards me could lead to other problems in respecting others and though it was a hard lesson it was one that might have to be enforced.
" You respect all of your teaches Ramiela" Raph snapped sharply.
She looked up at him in shock as if she hadn't expected this from him, of all people I couldn't say I blamed her I could hardly believe it either.
Ramiela gave a heavy resigned sigh " I'm sorry" she muttered, " I'll tries to be goods and pay attention like I should Sensei."
I knew that she was willing to behave more because she had been reprimanded by both Leo and Raph whom she cared for and respected a great deal, rather then simply agreeing to get them off her back. I also knew that Mike had probably all ready said his piece to her after I had spoken to him. She was learning that the Clan might not approve of her behaviour or back her in this.
Splinter smiled " Ramiela child, the knowledge we give you as a kunoichi can save your life but the knowledge Donatello gives you is for living. All knowledge is valuable as is all life. Though a teacher might be boring he may provide a key to other doors."
Ramiela nodded humbly accepting Splinter's words.
Raph looked at her crestfallen face and her defeated air " Ramiela we all know how long and hard you worked at obtaining the spin move, we know how special it is to you. But as Splinter says there are other things of value and if you can use that drive that taught you the spin move, to learn other things nothing will stop you." Raph spoke softly a calm smile on his face. " As your Sensei in sai work I know everything you put into achieving that goal you worked hard, refused to give up determined to learn it no matter how many times your sai fell to the ground, you practiced often. Just think what you can do if you put that to some other goal in life."
Leo smiled " We provide the tools it is up to you how to use them, but if you don't learn how to use them it is useless to you."
" All that hard work and effort does require some sort of recognition though because we do all know what this means to you, but I as your Sensei in this matter I was in charge of finding out how to compliment you for your success."
Rama grinned a bit realizing that perhaps the problem had been worked out and a light started to come up into her eyes as she glanced towards Raph eagerly in anticipation.
" To that end I brought you a little gift." Raph handed her a brightly wrapped package and half a dozen red roses as well.
Rama's smile grew at the roses. I had to smile a bit myself figuring Raph might have picked the red roses for his bandanna colour and the fact Rama liked roses. I knew Raph loved her but the red rose had two other meanings that were appropriate for this occasion though I doubted Raph was aware of that fact.
" Roses and a present" Rama squealed with delight. The squeal became a shout of joy when she finished ripping the paper off to reveal the contents of the gift. Three books one of them was a journal with a unicorn on the cover and a unicorn bookmark. The other two books were horse books.
Ramiela had a thing for horses and unicorns she wanted to own a horse of her own, she had toy horses and horse ornaments and read whatever she could about horses. She insisted that one day she was going steal a cab horse to keep as her pet if we didn't get her, her own. She felt that there was nothing wrong with raising or caring for a horse in the sewers, and of course we did have the farm. Never mind the fact we were never out at the farm that often or for very long she couldn't understand why we couldn't keep a horse there for her.
Ramiela turned the top book over and I saw the picture on the cover it depicted a snowy mountain scene with two horses on hind legs looking like they were about to do battle. One horse was red with reptilian eyes, carnivorous teeth and claws instead of hooves. The second horse looked like a normal horse except for the mane and tail which was every colours of the rainbow from purple to blue to green to yellow, orange and red.
There were also two dogs a collie and a strange bizarre looking dog creature. The title was The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West.
The second book was called Piper at the Gate.
Ramiela read aloud from the back cover " The heavenly horse is the Dancer, Anor monstrous and fanged comes from the gates of death. If he can he will destroy the Dancer. Between them stands the Duchess the last true Mare of the Appaloosa line if Anor and the Harrier hounds can kill her and her foal the Appaloosa breed will be ended." Ramiela looked like she was ready to dive in and start reading right then " Oh boy this looks good" she crowed.
She got up and went to hug Raph " Thank you Uncle Raphael."
" I figured those books might be a bit hard for you to read at first but if you keep trying you will get it and you can write down some of your thoughts, dreams or goals in the unicorn journal."
Ramiela returned to her seat and opened the journal Raph had written a note, in his bold large script, to her I could see it from where I sat it read Ramiela never stop learning, growing or dreaming Raphael.
" Just give your Uncle a break all right?" Raph asked arching an eye ridge at her.
" Whats he want broken I could break it for him" Ramiela declared.
" I just want you to pay attention and concentrate more on your work Ramiela." I assured her
" Yeah he will be thinking more of Jen now and one of you has to be focused on schoolwork, which means it is up to you." Raph smirked my way.
"Okay I cans do that" Ramiela agreed nodding her head vigorously.
Oh boy, why did I have this sudden sinking feeling that I was in trouble here?
TBC
Author's Note: I did not mention the other two things the red rose can mean that were appropriate for this occasion. See if you can guess it.
As for the books The Heavenly Horse from The Outermost West it is actually a book written by Mary Stanton it was published in Canada copyright 1988, and produced by Baen Books. The Sequel to The Heavenly Horse is Piper at the Gate.
Very good books! I own them and read them numerous times but that is the only claim I can put to them other wise no other ownership is involved. The part from the back of the cover is actually on there.