Disclaimer: Turtles not mine, darn!

Author's note: Sorry about the long wait for such a short chapter, Writer's block. Yes, that's my excuse for everything it seems. But thanks toCynlee, Tripleguess, Artykidd, Mikol, The REAL Cheese Monkey, Sugar-high pixie, kaya lizzie, Dragonfly Rider, SaphireCatElf for reviewing one or both of my previous chapters! P.S. anything Leo says about fighting in this chapter may or may not be true. I'm taking what he says from the various books I've flipped through and my common sense. So correct me if I'm wrong.

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"So, um...what were you saying about my fists?" Aaron asked unconsiously tugging on the bottom of her shirt.

"What?" Leo asked, confused.

"You said I was making my fist wrong," Aaron said blankly, "How can one possibly make fists wrong?"

"Well, uh...see you had your hand like-" He reached out for her hand, but stopped suddenly and seemed to change his mind, then held out his own hand instead, "like this."

He balled up his fist.

"You're putting your thumb inside your fingers, see?"

Aaron nodded compliantly.

"What you should do is keep your thumb outside your fingers while making a fist."

Aaron nodded again and tried to make her own fist.

"Like this?" She asked, holding out her hand for Leo to see.

Leo peered at it.

"No, now your thumb is on your knuckles, see?" He hesitantly reached out and fixed her hand to the right position, "Now it's not going to get in the way when you're punching some thug's lights out."

Aaron smiled and laughed softly, "Um...yeah, about yesterday..." she trailed off and glanced down at her feet.

"I'm sorry I was acting all sensitive and stuff." She huffed a sigh, "I shouldn't have gotten so angry. I've just-" She shook her head and shrugged, "I've had a lot of stuff going on at home and I've just kinda been in this weird funk lately."

She glanced back up into his eyes and quickly dropped them back to the floor, "I mean, you're right," she paused a moment talking half to him, half to herself, "If some punk decided to mess with me, the cold, hard facts are: I'd lose."

She smiled softly, "My mom's always telling me that I think I'm invincible and that that's going to get me into trouble someday." She glanced back up at Leo, "So...I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I understand," Leo nodded, accepting the apology.

Aaron looked off into space and seemed to be thinking deeply about something. Out of the blue, she softly whispered in her absent state of mind, "No, you don't..."

She abruptly snapped back into reality. Before Leo had a chance to ask her what she was talking about she quickly glanced down and asked, "Um...do you think I could have my hand back now?"

Leo looked down to see he was still holding Aaron's hand, he'd forgotten to let go after fixing her grip.

"Oh! Sure" He exclaimed, letting go instantly and in his embarrassment forgot to question her.

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"Ok, we're done for today," Leo announced.

"Thank you!" Aaron exclaimed and collapsed dramatically onto the floor.

"Geez Leo, what did you do to the poor girl?" Raph asked wandering through the dojo area.

"All we did today was conditioning." Leo shrugged and smiled, "not even that hard, either."

"Not hard?" Aaron sat up abruptly, "You call 5 wind sprints, a 2 minute wall-sit, 250 sit-ups plus 150 crunches, 5 more wind sprints, two sets of lines, push-ups-which I utterly failed at, mind you- twenty-two laps around the dojo, handheld weights up to 15 pounds a lap of lunges and another 5 wind sprints nothing?"

Leo shook his head no. Aaron's eyes bugged out in disbelief. Raph snickered at her expression,

"Welcome to Leo's Land of Perfection, kid, You must be this perfect to ride all rides."

He held his hand up way above his head as if to mark a height.

Aaron flopped back onto the ground and moaned, "Will someone find me a hole to crawl in and die? I'm too pooped to do it myself."

"Hey by the way," Raph turned to Leo, "We're all going to April's tonight to see if we can't fix up her apartment before she gets home tomorrow, kay?"

Leo nodded in agreement.

"You're welcome to join us," Raph added to Aaron. He held out a hand to help her up. She took it and he heaved her up off the ground.

"Thanks, but I'll pass, I'm trying to give up mopping up after overflowing toilet bowls." She dusted imaginary dust off herself and fixed her clothing. "Hey, what time is it?" She asked.

The two turtles shrugged.

"Yo Mike," Raph shouted across the lair, "What time is it?"

"Time for someone to restock our pantry. We're all out of Hot Tomales, " he said sauntering in. "Oh wait," he stopped in his tracks, "Never mind. I found one!" He gestured towards Aaron.

Aaron rolled her eyes, "Oh, ha-ha." She glared fiercely at him and spat out, "Mike, you don't honesty think any girl would be stupid enough to fall for your ridiculous, pathetic little pick-up lines, do you?"

Mike stood there dumbfounded, not entirely sure what to do or say. Aaron's expression instantly changed from hard and irritated to remorseful and mortified at her words.

" Oh Mike, I- I'm sorry." She looked panickingly around at all their shocked faces. "I- I...I have to go!" She stammered and ran from the dojo as quickly as she could.

The four turtles stared after her.

"That was wierd..." Mike trailed off, puzzled at Aaron's sudden explosion.

They continued to stare for a couple more moments.

"What's up with her?" Raph asked eventually; breaking the silence.

"Aaron's never burst out like that before, I mean, this morning she put up with me just fine." Mike added.

Leo shrugged and shook his head as the memory of her words earlier echoed back to him,

"No, you don't."

He mentally kicked himself for forgetting to question her. Oh well, it would have to wait till tomorrow, that is, if she came back.

Master Splinter stood in the shadows. He'd been silently watching Aaron's first practise session, but had wished to keep his presence unknown. Not wishing to disturb his son's first teaching or make the young girl nervous.

He quietly crept back to his room without the knowledge of his sons. Young Miss Smiley would be back, he decided. In her own time of course. But how long that was, he was not sure. What he did know was that something was amiss and he was sure it would all come clear soon.


Author's note:

So there's my attempt at a dramatic semi-cliff-hanger ending.
I'm having trouble feeling the magic in this story anymore, so I beg you, now that you've read it, give me a super critical (but still polite and honest) review! All who do not shall be hunted down and pied in the face! (As soon as I learn to make pie, which could be years, so you're safe for now, but nonethelass you will be HUNTED!)