A shrill beeping woke Cori. She opened her eyes, staring up at the ceiling. It was dimpled with small brush strokes that swirled in circles. A black blanket completely covered her up to her shoulders. Its cozy warmth tempted her to fall back asleep. To her left, she saw a small desk with papers strewn on top of it. Little figurines lined up against the wall. It was her room. It took her a moment to realize that the beeping noise was her alarm clock.
She rolled over to turn it off but cried out in pain instead. As she rolled onto her left side, her body erupted in a burning pain. She muffled her mouth with her hand and threw the blanket off her bed. She looked down to find herself dressed in her clothes from yesterday. She was still wearing jeans, but her jacket was gone. She wore only a white tank top for a shirt. Most strange to her was that she was wearing her black leather gloves. She never fell asleep with them on. She gingerly touched the painful welt on her back. She winced before pulling up her top to reveal her torso wrapped with gauze. While it initially hurt to touch, the burning pain dulled as she pressed her hand on it. She turned back to the beeping clock and made another attempt to turn it off. She reached out with her left arm awkwardly, not wanting to have the pain flare up again. Stretching as far as she could, Cori hit the snooze button. She recoiled back and rested for a moment.
It was not just her wound that hurt, but a dull aching filled her entire body. She closed her eyes. Memories of the night before swirled in her head. She remembered...April. She took one of the canisters. Cori met with Fong and found the Kraang base.
She scrunched her nose while trying to remember more.
She was at the base. The turtles...they were there. There was some giant killer robot. It almost killed her. The last thing she remembered was it holding her in its arms...crushing her. Cori suspected she had blacked out, but memories still flooded her head. Something about the "lair." In her mind, she saw a figure standing above her. Her vision was blurry, but she was sure it was one of the turtles. He towered over her and said something inaudible.
Cori opened her eyes in sudden realization. When the turtles took her back to their home to fix her up, one of them touched her skin. Memories that were not hers emerged. Somehow, she knew all of the mutants' names: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello. She tried to convince herself that maybe she overheard their names last night. That's how she knew them. It would be so much simpler for her if this was the truth, but it was not. She had an instinctual knowledge of who they were, almost as if she had grown up with them her entire life. It was Donatello that took her to his lab and tended to her wound. It was his memories of the turtles that swam in Cori's head. For the most part, the memories were short and vague. Images of a rat mutant popped in her head. He was Donnie's sensei. Sensei? That did not sound right. Was a rat seriously teaching the turtles kung fu? Donnie also knew a lot about the Kraang.
Cori tried to dig further but had no luck. They were merely surface thoughts, like a pool where she could not see the bottom. Only darkness. Maybe, if she was close enough to the turtle, she could learn more.
Loud knocks from the door interrupted Cori's thoughts.
"Uh, don't come in!"
"Cori, you're going to be late again!" a voice said impatiently.
Cori pushed herself out of the bed weakly. "Um, about that…" She limped over to the door and opened it slightly. Her mother's youthful face peered through the crack. Her long black hair had been pulled back into a messy bun. She stared at Cori with dark annoyed eyes. Cori pressed her face against the side of the door so much so that her mother could barely see her.
"I don't think I'm going in today," she said timidly. Ren pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.
"Cori, you just got this job two weeks ago. Mr. Murakami is an old friend and I—"
"I just don't feel good."
Her mother looked up and sighed once more. "Could you at least let me in?"
Cori hesitantly agreed. Ren pushed open the door and stood in front of her daughter. She was shorter than the teen but only by a little. She did not change out of her pajamas yet, which were just some baggy sweatpants and a faded graphic tee of a band Cori had never heard of. She looked Cori's age despite being at least ten years older than her daughter. "Oh my god, Cori!" She wrapped her hands around her daughter's face.
"What? What!?" Cori placed her hands on her mother's wrists but did not pull them away. "Your eye! It's all red. And your nose! What happened to you?"
"What?"
Cori pushed Ren aside and hobbled over to the mirror hanging on her closet door. She flinched when she saw her reflection. The whites of her left eye turned a dark red, almost like it was bleeding. The skin of her nose was a faint purple, but her nose itself had swelled. There was a little bit of dried blood underneath her nostrils. She smeared it off her face, hastily thinking of a way to explain this. Her mother's concern loomed around her, but Cori could also feel a seed of anger slowly bloom within her. Cori turned to her mother and said casually, "Ren, I'm fine."
Her words did not convince Ren and her frown deepened. "Like hell you are! What happened to you? Why didn't you call me? Did someone beat you up? Do I have to call the cops?" Cori ignored her mother's frantic questioning. She sat down on her bed and placed her face in her hands. There was no escaping this one.
Cori felt the bed shift as her mother sat down next to her. She placed a hand on Cori's back and softened her tone. "Cori-chan, whatever happened...it's okay. But, I need to know what happened." Cori lifted her head to see Ren staring directly at her. She was not mad. Well, she was a little mad. Not so much at Cori, but more angry that someone had hurt her daughter. Her emotions churned inside like a storm, ready to explode any second.
"Ren, I'm fine," Cori reiterated. She sighed and continued. "Last night, I...I got into a fight with April." Her mother squinted her angular eyes and slowly said, "April? You mean…that girl in your science class?" She gestured towards Cori's bruises and continued, "She did...this?"
Cori would have trouble believing her own lies. She could not imagine April ever beating someone up. Her soft and rounded face always had a gentle demeanor, never violent. Then again, Cori thought back to the afternoon before when April stole one of the canisters. She had never seen her classmate be so fierce, and she avoided Cori so easily…
Cori slipped one of her gloves off and affectionately grabbed Ren's hand. "Mom, I mean it. I am fine." The words were hard to spit out, but the storm inside her mother grew quiet. Cori continued. "I was working on a project with April. We were going to go back home when it started to rain. We ran into some of her friends and they were...not so friendly. I got mad, and we know what usually goes down when that happens." Cori finished with a rueful smile. Her words washed over her mother, calming her nerves. The woman's anger and concern vanished, leaving confusion behind in its stead. She knew that Ren believed every word. It was not hard to make her believe in Cori's lies. It was only hard lying to her.
"I don't understand… Why did you come back so late last night?"
"What?"
Her mother's confusion was contagious, spreading to Cori. "I heard you come in last night. Through your window."
"I did?" Cori realized Ren mistook the turtles for Cori. They must have taken Cori back to her bedroom after fixing her up in their "lair."
"I mean, I did. I went back out after the whole fight. I just...needed to clear my head."
"Cori, I know you get angry," her mother said. She squeezed her daughter's hand while Cori looked away in embarrassment. She continued. "But, you need to be careful. I'm okay with you staying out late, but I need to know that you're okay. Especially when you were in the fight of your life earlier." She reached over and pulled Cori's face so that she may look into her daughter's eyes. "You can tell me these things, Cori. You don't have to sneak back out of your room at night. Or sneak back in. We've been through a lot together. I just want to keep you safe." Cori grabbed Ren's hand and gently rubbed her face against it. Her hand smelled of oranges, her daily snack before she went in for work. Ren would always offer Cori her half, and Cori would accept it. Cori hated oranges. They were bitter and acidic, burning a whole in her stomach and tingling her lips. But they smelled so sweet.
"Okay," she promised quietly. Her mother smiled and stroked her thumb against Cori's cheek. Ren's touch was the only one that Cori would not shrink away from. She finally let go and stood up from the bed. Before she left the room Cori's mother turned around and leaned against the doorframe. She pointed a finger at her daughter and said sternly, "You are going to work tomorrow, though." Cori nodded but said nothing. Her mother sighed one last time and left without closing the door behind her.
Cori listened to her mother descend down the staircase with squeaky footsteps. When she could no longer hear her, Cori hunched over and let out a loud groan. She rubbed her face, trying not to stress over her situation. "It's okay, it's fine. You almost died last night and four giant mutant turtles saved you. Nothing to worry about." She contemplated rolling back into bed and hoping this was all a dream when she noticed her mask sitting out on her dresser.
She got up and slowly walked over, clutching her side. Her mask was laying on her red scarf, perfectly centered on it. Underneath both items was a small piece of paper. The little note had messy handwriting on it, like it was written in a rush.
Let's keep last night a secret. You don't tell anybody about us, and we don't tell anybody about you. Leave the alien stuff to the professionals.
Cori bit her lip angrily, her shoulders tensing with each word. She crumpled the note into a little ball and tossed it to the ground. How could she pretend that last night did not happen? Were they really never going to talk to each other again? Cori did not want to befriend the turtles. She needed answers from them. Answers about the Kraang. With her hands clenching the corners of the dresser, she understood what she had to do. She had to find the turtles again.
