(Author's notes: I forgot to mention, the story is rated T for violence. I'm sure I'll have some violence somewhere in the story, but for the most part, this story will be clean e.g. no swearing, sex or mature content.)
Mock Turtle Season
Episode 1: Money, Money, Money Part 2
Leo dropped the two large boxes of DVDs on the sidewalk, rolled out a blanket and started setting up. He hadn't bothered to look at the DVDs when he had packed as many as he could. Most of the movies they loved were already next to the TV—like all the Lou Jujitsu and Jupiter Jim DVDs. All the rest were shows they would watch once in a while, and since most of them could be found online, why bother with keeping the DVDs.
Raph had suggested that he sell them to a pawn shop, but he knew that those places would give him pennies for most of the movies. It would be better to cut out the middle man and just sell to the masses.
After displaying all the DVDs, he made a sign that said "$5 OBO." It was easy money.
Already, other guys were doing the same, pulling out dozens of DVDs, some of them brand new. There were others who were selling some nice sunglasses, shoes or bags. They looked way too nice to be selling them on the streets. But Leo supposed that there were a lot of people who needed to sell their nice things to make money in hard times.
Leo had chosen this part of town for this reason. Sure, it meant there would be some competition, but he figured if people were looking for movies, they would come here. And he was happy that nobody seemed to find his disguise of a hoodie, baseball cap, and sunglasses to be unusual. In fact, most were dressed in similar attire.
Soon, they had a pretty good crowd coming down the sidewalk, and money exchanged hands. However, Leo noticed everyone was doing much better business than he was. People passed him up for the brand new DVDs that were going for four times what he was asking. Once in a while, someone would barter him a dollar or two for one of his movies. What was he doing wrong?
"It's the cops!" The kid who shouted disappeared quickly.
As one, all the sellers swooped up their merchandise, packed it up, and raced away.
Leo watched them dumb-founded. "Hey, what's going on?" he asked one of the sellers as he passed by.
The seller, with his arms filled with lady's purses, shouted, "Are ya dumb? Do ya want ta be arrested?"
"For selling my old movies? Selling old purses?" Leo asked, confused.
"This ain't no yard sale. These are knock-offs," the man said and rushed away.
Then it dawned on Leo. "You guys are boot-leggers?" he shouted, pointing at his neighbor who had an armful of DVDs.
The man smiled and sprinted away, leaving behind a couple of movies that were still in the theater.
"Aw, crap," Leo grumbled as a cop car rounded the corner, their lights flashing. He grabbed the four corners of his blanket and used it as an impromptu sack, racing away from the police. "Stupid Raph and his stupid ideas," he shouted as he fled from the scene.
At first, April hoped that taking the tall girl on a private tour of the college campus would be kind of fun. Most teens that she had shown around East Laird University were either rude or apathetic or tried to goof off, not caring that April was just trying to do her job. However, after taking the tall girl to the cafeteria, she wondered if this was a bad mistake.
First, when they went to the food court to cash in their free vouchers, April felt bad when she sat down with her burger, fries, extra-large soft drink, and chocolate cake, only to find the tall girl had chosen a limp cobb salad and a can of diet coke. The girl wasn't just tall, but she looked as if she hid a lot of bulk under her hoodie and sweat pants, which must mean she was on a diet. To make up for it, April tired very hard not to eat her food with relish, even complaining that the chocolate cake was no good—but it really was and it was super hard not to say anything.
To make things even more awkward, April didn't know the girl's name and ended up calling her "New Girl" accidentally. Soon it was:
"Hey, New Girl, check out the statue of the college mascot."
"Hey, New Girl, this is the library."
"Hey, New Girl, don't eat fish tacos from that food truck or you'll regret it in the morning."
The awkwardness between them was so dense, they would need a chain saw to cut through it. And New Girl was aware.
"Look, I appreciate what you're doing for me, but we can just stop," New Girl said, looking embarrassed. "I didn't even want to come down here today. My grandpa made me."
"So, you don't want to go to East Laird University," April said with a grin. "Go lions?"
The girl gave a half-hearted smile. "I don't really know. All I wanted was to see the auditorium, and my grandpa pushed me to do the whole scouting the campus thing."
"The auditorium?" April asked, frowning. "Oh, you mean the concert hall."
"Yeah," New Girl said. "I wanted to check out how it sounded." She lifted up the large case she had been carrying.
April had been impressed by how easily she had carried the case all across campus. "Well, I guess we can stop by, but it's on the far side of campus."
"I can go by myself if you want," New Girl said. "If you could just point out the way."
"No, it's no problem," April said. "As long as there's not a concert taking place, we can go inside."
It took them ten minutes to get across campus. It turned out that a concert was using the hall that day, but the orchestra wouldn't be performing until later that night. In the meantime, the musicians were on break after practicing, which left the whole building practically empty.
As soon as they entered the spacious hall, the new girl went up to the stage, pulled a chair from the flute section to the middle stage where the conductor would stand and opened the large, black case. She pulled out a cello. It seemed the right size for her as she sat down and tested the strings for a minute before pulling the bow across the strings. The cello hummed deep and clear through the hall as New Girl went up and down a scale before going into a slow, melancholy song. New Girl played for a few minutes before putting it back into its case.
Then she surprised April by pulling out another instrument, an oboe. It was then that April realized that New Girl had something in her mouth while playing the cello. She took out the reeds she had been sucking on into the oboe's mouthpiece then played the instrument just as she had the cello, first going through the scales, then playing a couple of songs.
For a third time, New Girl reached into the case and pulled out a violin, testing the strings and tightening the bow before playing a song fast and furious, her fingers moving so quick, April was surprised how someone could even play at that tempo. When the song was over, April clapped as loudly as she could.
"Dang, girl. You got some skills," April said, jumping onto the stage.
"Thanks," New Girl said, smiling and shrugging. "And thanks for bringing me here. It's not often I get to play in a place like this."
"How did it sound?" April asked.
"Well, it's not Canegie Hall, but it's not bad," New Girl said.
"It's amazing that you can play the cello, oboe and violin. How long did it take you?"
"Around two years per instrument," New Girl said, putting back her instrument. "And this is a viola, not a violin. That is a violin." She moved around to the string section and picked up a violin that was left behind. She tested it with the bow, playing it a little but not as deftly as the viola. When she was done, she gently set it back down. "The violin's a little smaller and it has a softer sound. It was my first instrument. I can play a full size, but this one's too small for my fingers."
It explained why it didn't sound so good.
"You're first instrument?" April asked, walking around to the percussion section. She picked up a soft hammer and played on the five timpani drums in the back. "How many instruments can you play?"
"Around twenty different instruments," New Girl replied, although her eyebrows knit together.
April's jaw dropped. "Are you some kind of genius or something? Are you getting a musician scholarship?"
"I'm not really good enough to get a scholarship. Plus my grades are crap," New Girl said. "I can play the instruments, but I've only mastered like five of them." She found a guitar on another seat and sat down to play Iron Man. "I'm not good enough to be in an orchestra like this. I've done a few competitions, but nothing to write home about."
"Quit selling yourself short," April said. She picked up a large set of cymbals and crashed them together. "What else can you play? Can you play that?"
"I can kind of play the trombone," New Girl said with a smile and shrug. "But I don't own one. I do have a trumpet and a saxophone."
"I'd love to learn to play the saxophone," April said, remembering how she tried to join band in sixth grade. Unfortunately, there were too many kids wanting to play saxophone, so she was put on clarinet. She hadn't played it in a while. "Hey, here's a sax. Play it."
"Uh…I don't think the musician who left it here would be happy about that," New Girl said, cringing at the thought of putting her mouth on it.
"Oh, yeah," Aprils said, grinning sheepishly. She looked around for something that didn't require a mouthpiece. "Oh, what about the piano? Can you play that?"
A large, grand piano was a little off-stage on a rolling platform, perhaps to be pushed back and forth for special musical numbers. New Girl jumped onto the platform, sat down, and immediately started playing Scott Joplin's The Entertainer.
April danced as best she could to the ragtime, trying to imitate the old-timey dances she saw in the historical movies her teacher showed back in high school.
When New Girl finished the song, they both jumped as they received a small round of applause. Embarrassed, New Girl quickly exited the stage as a janitor watched with good-humor.
"Good job, girls. But it's best you skedaddle. The musicians will be back, and they'll be ticked to see someone messing with their instruments," the janitor said as he ran the cord for his vacuum to the nearest outlet.
"Thank you," both girls said, April laughing and New Girl trying to look discreet as she retrieved her large instrument case.
Dressed in trench coats, Raph and Mikey entered the music store, carrying the latter's entire music collection. The man at the register didn't seem at all phased by the volume of boxes they carried, but he did say in a droll voice, "Those better be vinyl."
"My man. You are about to be blessed with the most awesome collection of music," Mikey said, dropping his one box on the counter while Raph set down four just like it. "We take cash only, that is, if you have enough in the register."
The man stood up slowly, opened up Mikey's box and ran a finger down a line of CDs. "I'm sure we have enough. We pay ten cents per disc."
"Ten cents?" Mikey shouted. "This is the best music that the whole world has produced in the past ten years. I'm sure that you can pay more for such quality audio candy."
The man sighed. "I just work here. That's store policy. And as you can see, we have just as much 'audio candy' as we could possibly need." He gestured to an entire wall of shelves that had used CDs on every inch.
Raph stared, sighing heavily.
"Nobody buys CDs anymore," the store worker said.
"Ah, man," Mikey said, his shoulders sagging.
"It's okay, buddy," Raph said. "We don't have to sell them. Or we can put them on Ebay."
"Good luck," the store worker said. "Sure, you'll get more money, but it's a pain to ship them."
"No, it's okay," Mikey said. "I don't use them anymore. They're just taking up way too much space. Besides, we need the money."
Raph gave his younger brother half a smile and patted his shoulder.
As they waited for the store worker to count all the CDs and make sure each had the right disc—which would take a long time—the two turtles wandered the store. It didn't just sell used CDs and vinyl, but they also sold used instruments from guitars to school band instruments to pieces of drum sets.
Mikey first browsed the used CD display just to see if he was being ripped off—he wasn't; the store wasn't charging more than a couple of bucks for each CD—before his eyes caught sight of a bunch of instruments in the corner. Unlike the other instruments, these looked older and worn as if well-used. There was a battered violin with a few broken strings, a guitar that needed just a little polish, an ocarina with a crack in it—right through the tri-force—and a couple of other pieces. But the one that caught his attention was a reed panpipe. It was dull in color, bound by some sort of twine, and not at all interesting. But for some reason, he felt drawn to it.
He picked it up, feeling the texture of the old reeds under his fingers. It fit perfectly in his hands,as if it were made for him. He put it up to his mouth, ready to blow into the reeds. He wanted to know what it sounded like. He needed to know the sound of each note.
"Mikey."
Mikey jumped at the sound of his name, feeling as if he were woken up way too early from a good dream. "Uh…what?"
"You've got a lot of discs in the wrong cases," Raph said from one side of the register counter. "Help us out and then we can get out of here."
The man at the register was flipping through the CD cases almost quicker than thought with the deftness of a man who had done this a lot. There was a stack of CDs twenty cases high that Raph was indicating.
"Oh, right," Mikey said. He moved toward the counter.
"Uh…dude," the store worker said, pointing a finger to a sign that read, "You put your mouth on it, you buy it."
It was only then that Mikey realized he was still holding the panpipes. "Oh! Yeah, I didn't do anything." He grinned and put the panpipes back on the shelf. But when he did, he felt as if something was wrong, as if he had left a part of him behind.
It took the three of them over an hour to sift through all the CDs and make sure every case had the right disc. In the end, they had five discs without cases and ten cases without discs for Mikey to take home, and a fistful of money that was pitifully too small for their needs.
"At least it's something," Raph said, giving his little brother an affectionate nudge. "Hopefully Leo and Donnie will be more successful than us."
Mikey wasn't paying attention. As they walked out of the store, he stuck his hands in his pocket, his fingers caressing the dried surface of the panpipes. He didn't remember taking them. He wasn't sure if he had or if they had somehow appeared in his pocket. He didn't wonder nor cared how they got there. All he cared was that he had them.
Leo portaled into the lair in a fury of limbs and DVDs, landing half on his face and nearly skewering himself on his swords. He panted deeply, scared after his run from the police, only to find Donatello staring at him from his desk, hands hovering over his computer.
"So…did it go well?" Donnie asked.
"No," Leo grunted, pushing his blanket-wrapped DVDs out of the way. "I kind of didn't go with Raph's plan of selling them at a pawn shop and ended up in the middle of a boot-legged ring."
Donnie shrugged. "It happens. How much did you make?"
Leo pulled out a handful of wadded up bills. "I think eighteen dollars."
Donnie winced. "Yeah, we can live off of that if we only eat ramen."
"Don't worry. I'll just portal to the pawn shop and unload the movies," Leo said. "Not that we'll get a lot. Man, our lives totally suck. Here we are, heroes who have saved the world at least twice—three if we count that one time—"
"No that doesn't count," Donnie interrupted.
"Fine. We're these big time heroes, and we have to sell our stuff and scrounge around for coins so that Splinter can buy us no-brand foods that taste like cardboard," Leo whined, sagging onto Donnie's desk space.
"Oooorrrr…" Donnie started, his face completely stoic, "we don't give Splinter all the money."
Leo's face popped up, his face stretched in exaggeration. "Whaaaat? But that would be dishonest. But I'm listening."
"Okay, so think about it," Donnie said, putting his arm around Leo's shoulder. "Dad is like super old and a rat, so he could totally survive on that garbage. And Raph is basically an adult by now and he could stand to lose a few pounds. Am I right?"
"I see where you're going," Leo said with a smile. "We're still growing boys who need a certain quality of food to survive, so it would make sense if we were to, say, use some of the money to buy a few things and not tell anyone."
"Exactly," Donnie said, finally smiling. "Just a little off the top for our efforts. Not to mention, without my brains and your…Leo-ness, the team wouldn't be the same. If another threat appears, we need to be at our best. We owe it to the world."
"What about Mikey? He's a growing boy, too," Leo said, finding a flaw in their justified reasoning.
"He's wiry and will survive," Donnie said, turning away back to his computer. "Besides, he'd tattle."
Leo looked over his brother's shoulder. "So, how's doing Raph's bidding doing?"
Donnie stretched and showed off his Ebay listings.
"Whoa-ho-ho. Ca-ching," Leo said. "Mikey's comics are starting a bidding war. You were holding back on me."
"Well, I was going to keep it to myself and buy my Soundblaster 3000! but my conscience got to me," Donnie said.
Leo picked up one of the stuff animals that was on a table nearby. "And what of Raph's loot. Can we get a couple of cents out of his stuff?"
"Oh, that's the best part," Donnie said, his eyes lighting up. "You know how we were teasing Raph and getting him to believe that his junk was worth something, just to see how he'd react because we know just how much he loves this stuff. Well, most of his stuff is junk, but a few of them are totally worth a lot."
"How much?" Leo asked.
"Well, it's not that easy," Donnie said. "Some of these bears are so hard to find that there are no listings on Ebay. From my research, we can make thousands of dollars."
"Awesome. He's going to be so ticked off," Leo said with a big grin. "Hey, do you remember that year when we all bought him teddy bears for his birthday?"
"Yeah, that's when he turned thirteen. I never saw him loose his temper so quickly," Donnie said, taking out his camera and taking some pictures of a stuffed bear. "But he did end up keeping them all."
Leo frowned, staring at the bear he held. "Hey, isn't this mine?"
"Huh?"
"Yeah, I got this one for Christmas like forever ago. I thought I threw it out," Leo said, squishing it's face. "Look. I wrote my name on its tag."
Donnie shrugged. "Raph must have taken it out of the trash. Hey, wasn't he the one who gave it to you?"
"Yeah, but that was when we were really little," Leo said, glaring at the bear. "You don't think he's sore because I threw it out."
"No, of course not. It's just a bear," Donnie said, picking up a toy cat dressed in a tutu. "Just like how this plush kitty has no sentimental value. Remember when Dad gave it to me for my birthday, and I suckered Raph into trading it for his nerf gun."
"Didn't you cry like a baby because you didn't want a girl toy?" Leo teased.
"Those were tears of frustration. You know I cry when I get angry," Donnie shouted.
"Yeah, yeah. So you 'suckered' Raph into giving up this toy," Leo said, looking over the pile of stuffed toys. He then realized that a lot of them he recognized, although vaguely. One that stood out was a large alligator that was over three feet long. Hadn't he woken up with that in his bed occasionally, especially when he had a bad dream? It was just right for cuddling.
Donnie looked to Leo, and by the look on his face, they were both thinking the same thing.
"Hey guys. We're home," Raph shouted. "We picked up some groceries. It's bologna sandwiches for lunch."
Donnie and Leo stuck out their tongues.
"How's it going on the Ebay front," Raph said, sticking his head in Donnie's room. "Any good news?"
Donnie and Leo both looked at the stack of stuffed toys.
"Bologna sandwiches?" Donnie whined.
"Okay. Okay. Let me do the talking," Leo said, gesturing for his brother to cool it. "Uh…Raph, it appears that we can make a lot of money off of your stupid teddy bears."
"What?" Raph's voice broke as he stepped into the room. "Uh…Oh, is that so. That's cool. So, which ones?" His brows knit together, deepening the usual worry lines.
"Well…why don't you guess?" Leo said, smiling. "It's probably going to be your favorite."
"Psh, like I have a favorite," Raph lied. His hand hovered over the pile for a while before grabbing the bear that Leo swore he had thrown out. "Is this one?" He looked hopeful.
Leo looked to Donnie, who tilted his head away from his computer.
"Whoa, bad guess," Leo said. "That one is totally worthless."
There was a subtle sigh before Raph pulled out Donnie's tutu kitty. "What about this one?"
Donnie waved it away.
For five minutes, they played this game, Raph guessing which would be sold heartlessly to the highest bidder. To his surprise and glee, most of what he chose was free to leave Donnie's cold and unfeeling lab. Those that Donnie refused to return were put carefully in a box where they awaited their doom. But it was enough to relax Raph.
"I haven't done enough research on the rest, but you can take those out of here," Donnie said, waving his older brother away.
"What about the alligator?" Raph asked, his arms filled with plushies.
"Yeah, what about the alligator?" Leo asked, his voice hopeful as well.
Donnie raised an eyebrow. "Yes, the alligator is free to go. Take this rift-raft out of here."
Leo snatched the alligator up. "Here, I'll help ya out bro."
"Aw, thanks," Raph said. "I knew you always liked Leatherhead."
Leo scoffed. "Leatherhead? What kind of name is that for a toy?"
As they headed to Raph's train-car room, they passed by Mikey who was sitting on a couch, fidgeting and mumbling to himself.
"Hey, buddy, is everything okay?" Raph asked, concerned.
Mikey stared ahead, rubbing the pocket of his trench coat that he still had on.
"What happened at the music store?" Leo asked.
"Nothing," Raph said. "Although, we sold all his CDs for a ridiculously low price. Hey, sorry Mikey. If they meant that much to you, you should have said something."
But Mikey didn't reply. He kept staring off into space and rubbed his head.
"Are you okay?" Leo asked. He touched his brother's shoulder. "Ew, you're kind of sweaty."
"I'm fine," Mikey mumbled. "I'm fine."
"You don't look it," Raph said. "Go lie down for a while, okay?"
Almost robotically, Mikey stood up and headed to his room.
"Man, he's totally out of it," Raph said. "I hope he's not getting sick." He worried that would mean having to buy medicine. Could they afford medicine?
"He's probably just in shock," Leo said. "Maybe ol' Leatherhead here should go visit him and give him a snuggle."
Raph smiled. "Just like he would visit you when you were sick."
"Hey, what happens between me and Leatherhead is private."
Mikey did as he was told, uncertain why he was feeling the way he was. He didn't feel sick, at least not like the many colds and flus he had suffered in the past. But he felt tired…weak, but at the same time empowered. He could feel the strength coming to him, and he knew it was from the panpipes.
But he didn't dare touch them until he was alone. Now, with the subway doors to his room shut, it was just him and the panpipes. He pulled them out of the trench coat. He fingered each individual reed as he took off the coat, feeling as if the cloth was restricting him. In fact, everything felt restrictive, being underground, being in the sewers, being surrounded by metal, by man-made objects, and not out in the world underneath the big blue sky and feeling soft green grass on his toes.
He needed to escape it all.
He brought the panpipes to his mouth and blew.