Raphael stomped back and forth in his room. What had happened today was really bothering him. He stopped pacing for a moment and turned to spike, his pet turtle. "I don't know about her spike. She gives me a funny feeling in my gut." He returned to his pacing. Spike just chewed on the lettuce leaf that was in front of him. Raph couldn't figure out what is was that was bothering him. It wasn't that she had hit Donnie in the head, that was just funny, and it wasn't that she had freaked out as that was to be expected. So what was it?
He mulled it over as he watched his pet finish his dinner. It was probably getting early by now, and he should hit the hay, especially if they were going back to Aprils tomorrow. He wanted to be fully rejuvenated if he was going to figure out why this girl was on his mind so much. There had to be something. He didn't think she was going to tell the secret, from what little they had talked, she seemed cool, just as April had. But what was different?
Raph groaned and threw himself on his bed. He'd figure it out tomorrow. This was too much thinking for his liking, which was normally Donatello's field of expertise. With one final glance at his beloved spike, Raphael rolled over and drifted off to sleep.
The following day Donatello was up early, he was anxious to see April, as always. But he was also somewhat excited to see Holly again. See seemed nice, and uncommonly smart. She had instantly come to the conclusion that someone had manufactured the mutagen. He didn't get the opportunity to talk to others that astute very often, look at what he had for brothers for goodness sake! Regardless it would be nice to have someone else on the surface to keep an eye on things while they were stuck underground during the days.
As he made his way to the kitchen for some breakfast, Donnie was surprised to see Raph already sitting at their small table with a cup of coffee in front of him.
"You shouldn't drink that stuff, it will stunt your growth." Donnie snickered, Raph always was a bit sensitive at the fact that he was the shortest of the four of them. Even Mikey had an inch on him.
Raph just glared at him, he was too tired to really give a damn today.
"What's up? You look awful." Donnie asked.
"Didn't get much sleep. Why are you up so early?" Donnie just grinned and scratched the back of his head. "Oh, never mind."
"So, why couldn't you sleep? Something on your mind?"
Raph debated whether or not to talk to Donatello, he was the smartest guy he knew so surely he had some kind of idea what was going on. "What do you think of Holly?" He had to ask, he couldn't take it anymore.
"She seems nice. I'd like to get to know her better just to make sure we really can trust her, but I'm pretty certain everything will be fine. Why, don't you think she's trustworthy?" Donnie was a little concerned. He hadn't known Raphael to ever really worry about their safety with in the city.
"It's not that." Raph was silent, but Donatello was able to read him like a book , and he had a feeling he might know what was up. But he knew Raph would figure it out eventually, so he kept his thoughts to himself and just asked some questions to steer conversation in the right direction.
"Well, what do you think of her?"
"She seems nice enough, and she has one hell of an arm." Raph shot Donnie a smug look.
"Anything else?" Donnie urged, letting the snarky comment slide this one time.
Raph shrugged. Donatello just sighed, this was going to take a while. Donnie took a breath to continue his interrogation but was interrupted by a bleary looking Mikey shuffling into the kitchen.
"What's for breakfast? Oh, is there any pizza left?" he smiled brightly at his brothers before bolting to the fridge.
"No, because you at it all yesterday!" Yelled Donatello. "You ate my slices too, remember?"
"Not really, all I remember is you getting beat up by a girl!" Mikey laughed at his own joke, Donnie huffed but remained silent while Raph just drank his coffee.
"Urgh. Hey Donnie could you have April get us a few things, we need something to make this bearable." Raph said before standing to leave. He drained the rest of his mug and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" asked Mikey.
"To practice, might as well do it now before we have to go." and with that, he was gone.
"Is he ok? He seems out of it." Mikey asked Donnie, voice full of concern.
"Don't worry, he's fine. He just doesn't know it yet. I'll text April quick, then we should probably train too. Master Splinter won't go easy on us just because we're having company over."
The two youngest turtle brothers sat eating breakfast talking about the girls. Donnie texted April a list of a few things they needed and asked if they wouldn't mind picking up for them. It was difficult grocery shopping when you're a five foot tall mutant turtle.
April and Holly had woken up ridiculously early that day. They were both too wound up to sleep and had spent the majority of the night going over every detail of Aprils life with the Turtles to this point. They dressed and went down stairs to eat breakfast with April's aunt, who was surprised to see them up at this time of day. The girls tried to get some homework during the day, but Holly was so nervous that she couldn't concentrate at all.
They dashed back upstairs to get their belongings and practically ran out the door when April had received a message from Donnie.
The walked the streets of New York until they reached a small convenience store, where they bought some milk, sugar, eggs, bread and some other bits and pieces their awaiting friends required. Lastly, they went to Mikey's favorite pizza place and ordered four large pizzas, all with different toppings on them.
As they walked back to Aprils home, Holly had to ask something. "Do you think they like me? I mean, I know that meeting me was unexpected, but I don't want them to think they can't trust me."
"Of course, they'll be a little reserved at first, well, except Mikey, but they'll warm up to you." April beamed at her human friend. It was so nice to have another girl around.
They snuck into the apartment and crept up to the roof as quietly as possible. It was awkward trying to get the Pizza up to the roof, but they managed to get everything they needed up the ladder before it got too dark.
April looked at her friend and have her a reassuring smile, "Everything will be fine." Holly tried to smile back, but before she could say anything, the boys were back. A blur of green and a streak of orange come flying at them from across the roof.
"APRIL!" Mikey yelled as he almost collided with the April. "What did you get us?"
April grinned and handed the a pizza box over to the drooling turtle. He beamed up at her and sat where he was to start chowing down.
"Save some for the rest of us Mikey!" Leo said as he walked towards the girls. How are you today Holly?"
"Alright, I think." She shrugged. "I still am not sure if you are real, or if I have totally lost my mind"
"Understandable" piped up Donnie, "We're not exactly inconspicuous."
"Uh, no. No you are not" Holly sat, she had a feeling this conversation was going to be a lengthy one.
Everyone was sat in a little circle around the boxes of pizza and assorted drinks. Raph was leaning against an old air conditioning unit and would occasionally offer up a comment, or ask for a slice of pie. But he didn't join in much of the conversation. Leo and Donnie were asking most of the questions. They wanted to get an idea of who Holly was, and make sure they could count on her. After an hour of light interrogation, Holly felt more at ease, and finally offered up her own questions.
"So, I am still a little confused about how you guys came to be in existence, where were you guys that you could just so casually get highly experimental mutagen spilled on you?"
"From what Master Splinter has told us, we were his pets when he moved over from Japan. He was carrying us in a terrarium when he bumped into a guy carrying the mutagen. I couldn't tell you exactly how it got on us, but that's the gist of it."
"A guy was just carrying it around the city?" Holly sounded incredulous. "Who on earth would just carry something like that around? Its a scientific marvel. It would be worth millions. Billions even!"
"Well..." Donnie trailed off, he didn't think she could cope with the 'aliens did it' theory just yet.
Holly shook her head, "I just can't grasp it I guess".
The group chatted about more traditional things for the rest of the evening. But it soon started getting late and technically speaking April and Holly were not at home. They had told Ms O'Neil that they were going to Holly's house for a while and would be back before it was too late.
"Oh, wait." April said as she reached for a small cooler that had been nearby. "Here's the stuff you guys wanted. I threw it in an ice box to keep it fresher."
"Awesome, you're the best April" Mikey rummaged through the bag in case there was something else he could eat now.
Everyone stood up and stretched, sitting on the hard roof had not been the most comfortable place to hang out, but It had worked for the purpose. The girls picked up the few things they needed to take back down to the apartment, while the guys folded the boxes up to go into the recycling.
"Can we hang out again?" asked Mikey as he slung the bag over his shoulder. "Maybe somewhere with a sofa, next time?"
"I guess so" Holly replied cheerfully, "I'm sure we can work something out."
There was a chorus of happy exchanges as April, Donnie, Leo and Mikey started offering suggestions of where they could meet next. Raph on the other hand just snorted and rolled his eyes at the whole situation.
Later that night, April and Holly were back in Aprils bedroom. They sat with their notebooks and text books all over the room open to various pages, all covered with sticky notes and scribbles highlighting the important information.
Holly tried, she really did. But her mind kept wandering back to the turtles, one turtle in particular.
"Do you think that Raphael hates me?" She finally voiced the thought aloud.
"What? No, he's just stubborn, and kind of an ass." April dropped her head back to her work, she knew that wasn't going to be the end of this discussion.
"I know. But he seemed so mad about something." she bit her lip slightly. "I don't want to make life uncomfortable for him."
April sighed. "I'll tell you what, I'll ask the others what's up and if it's something you can fix, I'll let you know."
Holly didn't look convinced, but decided not to push the topic any further. She put her nose back in her books and started copying down complex equations into her notes.
April glanced up at her friend, there was something going on here, and she was damn well going to find out what.
