~Chapter Two: Welcome Home Kid~
From the moment he hit that second rooftop the most terrifying twenty minutes of my life began. It was a hair-raising combination of back-flips, jumping off of buildings, running like crazy, and other acrobatic-like feats meant to make me as nauseated as possible. My ability to curb my screaming quickly went downhill as the ride went on. Pretty soon, I was clinging to Michelangelo shrieking at the top of my lungs as series of phrases—which in my state of panic came streaming out of my mouth like: "I'M GONNA FALL!" and "I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!" and "MICHELANGELO IF I DIE I'LL COME BACK AND HAUNT YOU FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!" And to tell the truth, I think being blindfolded just made the whole thing worse!
Mercifully, the ride from hell ended, and Michelangelo stood, waiting for me to unlatch from him. After a few seconds, he finally said, "Uh, you can let go now."
A wave of chagrin passed through me as I finally realized that I hadn't let go of him yet. And then a second wave of chagrin hit me as I realized that I couldn't let go, not for lack of trying, but my body had gone into self-preservation mode, and I couldn't muster the strength to pry my arms from around his neck. I flushed with embarrassment as I informed him that I couldn't. " I'm stuck!" I said, flustered.
"Oh," Michelangelo said, with a hint of smile in his voice. He reached up to grabbed my wrist forgetting about my injury.
"AAAAUUUGGGHH!" I screamed in protest, as a flash of pain shot up my arm. In a primitive reaction beyond conscious thought, I released his neck, stepped back and swung my good arm where I thought his face would be. (I was blindfolded still.) My hand connected, and I suddenly realized what I had just done, and I instantly reached up to pull the blindfold down from over my eyes. Once my eyes had adjusted to the light again, I found Michelangelo had a wide-eyed expression, and one hand over his assaulted cheek.
"I'm so sorry, Mike, I didn't mean—it just happened—I'm so—"
Laughter erupting from nowhere cut me off in my apology, "Mike what's the matter, you feelin' a little slow today or somethin'?" Red said from somewhere behind me.
He was quickly followed by Leo, "Does someone need to go back to ninja pre-school?"
Michelangelo or Mike as everyone called him was dethawing from the frozen state of shock he had been stuck in. He smiled, and said to me, "Well that was easy." He turned me around and began untying the blindfold so that he could re-tie it around his head.
Red mentioned, "Mike, ya shoulda tied that thing around her mouth and not her eyes. Sheesh, talk about stealthy."
I wanted to pummel Red or maim him slightly, but felt too drained to do anything but mildly mumble, "Just shut up."
I followed the turtles to the fire-escape, which led to an opened window on the side of the building that we had landed on. Mike leaned down to stick his head inside. "Yodelay-he-hooo! Yo, April! Ya here?"
The girl named April—who had the fieriest red hair I'd ever seen, bright green eyes that didn't match her outfit, and had on a purple cut off revealing her stomach, and low-rise cargo pants, complete with blue converse tennies—leaned around the corner waving a hand in the air to signify that she was there, but currently was unable to speak to us as she had a phone attached to her ear. As we filed in through the window, we overheard the last bits of her conversation. "Yes, it'll be a large. Well, better make that two large—no three—no wait, it's better to just make it five large pepperoni pizzas. Fourty minutes? Okay, thanks."'
Mike's eyes brightened at the mention of pizza. "Pizza? Muy excelente compadre!"
When April made her way around the corner again, she did a double take of me. "Who's this? And what did you do?" She looked pointedly at Red.
Red started, "Me? The better question would be what did she do?
I grabbed my chest, dramatically conveying my "wounded-ness." "Me? I'm offended. I couldn't hurt a fly!"
"Ya got that right!" Red said, rolling his eyes.
Unable to curb the urge to slug him, I turned on him, pulled back, and swung. He blocked it easily of course, but unfortunately for me I was met with instant pain which enveloped my arm, causing me to scream.
"Yeeeeooooww! I forgot! Why did I have to hurt myself?" I grabbed my wrist, and I pitifully turned to Don before Red could get in any more snarky comments. "Wasn't there something about a shower I was promised?"
"First, we better take a look at that wrist of yours." He said, holding an open palm out to me.
I surrendered my injured limb to the masked ninja doctor, who set to work examining my wrist. The diagnosis: "It's not broken. Just sprained."
In an attempt to be funny, Michelangelo commented in his best impression of a British accent, "Merely a flesh-wound." He winked.
I looked over at him with a less-than-amused raise of my eyebrow. "It still hurts!"
Leo pulled out a bandage wrap meant for sprains, and tossed it to his purple-clad ninja partner, who began wrapping my wrist with it. It occurred to me that Leo had no pockets, and I couldn't figure out where he'd pulled it out from.
"Um, Leo, did you have that on you the whole time?"
He looked at me in confusion. "Yes. A ninja is always prepared."
Michelangelo and I both said in unison, "I thought that was the boy-scouts." We both turned to each other and laughed.
After my wrist had been properly wrapped, April kicked into "good-hostess" mode —completely oblivious to my demanding demeanor—and said, "The bathroom is right over here, come this way." She grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me toward the back of the apartment, jabbering the whole way about how I could use whatever I needed to, and how I shouldn't be too put-off for the way the turtles had pounced on me, and to ignore everything that Raphael said, which I had already figured out.
I was grateful for a shower; I'd forgotten what actual hot water felt like.
After the shower I realized my clothes were gone.
Good riddance, I hope someone burned them, I thought.
I walked out of April's bathroom and into her closet helping myself to her entire wardrobe… of khaki and purple.
Gees doesn't she own anything else? I dug around and found at the bottom of her closet was a bag that helda peasant top that had a black lace-up corset effect, and a white ruffled bust with short puffy sleeves. I also dredged out of the bag black skin-tight cotton pants, a pair of knee-high black leather lace-up boots, no heels. Also, a black leather jacket that had a soft belt that tied around the middle.
Considering my options at this moment stood khaki and purple—a zero on my scale between one to ten of "desire to wear"—and the hot semi-Goth girl… way better than the alternative. Plus, it would probably be met with more a better approval rating than in my birthday suit.
I put on the outfit, and styled my short hair into a spiky mess with mousse from April's bathroom drawer. Quickly fixing up my face with her makeup, I realized that my stomach was suddenly very mad at me and protested at the thought of more primping. It interrupted me with an ungodly "Mmmuarp!"
Exiting April's bedroom, I hoped that the pizza had arrived. I saw Don sitting in a chair in the living room, he was tinkering with something small and round. Mike was sitting on the couch; he had one arm up over the back, his foot bouncing to the tempo of a song he was listening to on his MP3. Leo and April were sitting at the kitchen table with their heads together like they were having a secret conversation and it was so deep they had forgotten the outside world. I took a deep breath and sighed, stretching with my arms over my head, I arched my back so I could get the blood flowing again. Don looked up from his project, and did a double-take. I walked up to the chair he was sitting in.
"Wow… umm Chloe, nice outfit." He said his eyes as big as saucers.
I smiled and looked down at myself, "You like it? I found it buried in the back of Aprils closet in a bag with an inch of dust covering it." I was going to say more, but my stomach reminded me that I was starving. I slid my arms over my belly, and looked up at Don red-faced. "Sooo, when's that pizza supposed to get here?"
He didn't have time to answer because the apartment doorbell rang. April and Leo's trance was broken and she jumped up to go get the door. I looked back at the place where Don had been sitting, surprised to find it empty.
"Never mind." I said to now a very empty room.
When the door shut, Mike reappeared and had pulled off his head phones before going to help April with the load of pizza boxes that were successfully carried halfway across the room until April saw me.
She dropped the boxes making Mike dive to save them from the terrible fate of meeting the ground. A round of, "Whoa, Ah, No! No! No! No! No!" Came streaming out of his mouth as he tried to save the falling chow. He almost dropped his boxes in the process, but managed to get all of them safely stacked on the table in a series of front-flips side-steps and tossing or catching pizza boxes.
He on the other hand, ended up in a crumpled heap on the floor. I heard a pathetic moan come from him as he sat up rubbing his chest. He turned around with a panicked look on his face. "Dude! April! What the shell is wrong with you?" he said throwing his arms in the air, walking toward her.
April didn't seem to hear him, she was staring at me, or rather the outfit I had found in the back of her closet. "Where in the world did you find that? I thought I got rid of that old Halloween costume years ago!" She said exasperated.
I smiled, "I found this poor thing in a bag under a layer of dust and neglect. I like your taste though."
Turning redder than Red's mask she looked down at the floor and said, "Yeah, umm thanks…"
I walked over to the table and the first box of pizza I could get my hands on, and grabbed myself a slice. Before I knew it I was on my fifth slice and incredibly happy and satisfied. Plopping down on April's couch and heaving a happy sigh I said, "Guys, can you stop staring at me please? I can't look that funny, can I?"
"It's not that you look funny Chloe, it's just different than we are used to. That's all." Leonardo said in a very matter-of-factly tone of voice.
There was a grunt from the kitchen, "Keep your 'pinions to yerself. She looks funny and that's all there is to it."
"I think it fits her perfectly!" Michelangelo said happily as he came to sit by me. Throwing his arm up on the couch and resting his ankle on his knee he continued, "It's very Chloe-ish, ya know? It just screams "Beware! Violent red head with a bad attitude."
Everyone laughed including me, I don't know why but there was something comfortable about these guys. Setting aside the fact that they are five foot five walking talking turtles. Yawning, I stretched and lied down throwing my legs over Mike. He looked shocked and a little uncomfortable like he didn't know what to do, but he didn't say anything, so I shut my eyes.
"Uh guys, I think she is fading fast. If you want Master Splinter to meet her tonight you had better get moving." April said, looking at everyone and smiling. Her voice brought my eyelids open once again. The prospect of having to face another terrifying ride of doom made my heart begin to pound. But I was so exhausted that I didn't move.
"It's late, we should be going anyway. Thanks for everything April, we will see you later." Don said, getting up from the table. He walked towards the window we came in, with a last look around the place he threw himself out the window.
"Well it's been fun Apes," Red said throwing his empty beer bottle in the trash. "Drop in if you want to try to take the gaming championship of the world from me again." He smiled, turned, and leaped out the window.
April laughed.
Leo put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Thanks, we really appreciate this."
April cut off, "Leo, you guys are family, plus you have helped me more times than I can count. Plus she looked pretty bad; I couldn't just throw you out." She gave a tired smile, "And besides I didn't have anything more interesting planned." They both laughed, and Leo was out the window.
Michelangelo gingerly moved my legs off of his lap and then he picked me up.
I was too far gone to really help hang on so I just let my arm hang over his shoulder letting my head and other arm rocked back and forth as he walked.
"Bye April, see you tomorrow. Thanks for the pizza, I was starved! It was a worthy opponent as usual." Michelangelo turned to the now empty boxes, shifted me into one arm, and saluted his fallen enemy. With a giggle, he shifted me back and climbed out the window.
This ride wasn't nearly as terrifying; he walked most of the way this time. I think he was trying not to wake me up—although I was in a sort of semi-conscious state. I was just starting to think that the rocking motion was soothing, and contemplating getting him to walk me to sleep every night when suddenly it was a whole lot brighter, like someone tuned on a spot light directly above my head.
"Mmmm?" I managed, as I was being laid down on something soft.
"Chloe wake up, we are at the lair. Our father wants to meet you. Don't worry, he isn't mean, you will like him." Michelangelo said.
I opened one eye to peak at him. He was grinning. I could see all of the guys gathering behind him.
"Chloe Sypher," an aged man voice said. Mike moved out of the way and I could see... a rat.
It's funny, with the whole walking talking turtles thing, you would think I would have been expecting something similar, like maybe another turtle. But no, the whole rat thing totally took me by surprise.
"Uh, yes?" I said tentatively, not really sure what was going on.
The rat stood about five feet in front of me with his feet planted and his hands on top of a walking stick. He had a tattered old brown robe on, and he had a wise look to his eyes that made me feel like he knew what I was thinking. It freaked me out, truthfully.
"Welcome to our home. I have heard about your situation, and what you have done. Hun isn't one to forget a grudge or to forgive one so easily." He said matter-of-factly. He put his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Now our dilemma has become what to do with you. Maybe we should start at the beginning."
He then went through explaining their origins and why everybody had the names they did. It all made an eerie kind of sense. Sure, the mutating goo was a bit of a stretch for me, but who was I to argue with the four turtles and rat that were more than compelling proof.
Splinter interrupted my train of thought, "Can we trust you Chloe Sypher? Can we trust you to keep us safe?"He asked looking straight into my eyes, not blinking. Not knowing my answer right then, and feeling a little uncomfortable I looked around the room for the first time since he told me his epic tale.
I looked at each of the turtles, Leonardo, who was standing to my left, he had his leg on the sofa that I was on and his two arms were folded over his knee, he had a serious look on his face. It morphed into a smile and he nodded his head ever so slightly, his way of encouragement I guess.
Michelangelo or Mike (which I preferred, it seemed to fit him better) was sitting in a lazy boy with a small orange cat lounging in his lap, he flashed me a thumbs up sign. I couldn't help but laugh and give him one back.
Raphael (I finally knew his name, but I would continue calling him Red because it ticked him off) was standing with his hands on the enormous salad forks strapped to his sides. Winking at me he shifted his weight and crossed his arms.
And Donatello was the last I saw; when he smiled you can't help but smile. There was something about this bunch of oddballs that put me at ease and made me feel safe.
Sure of my decision, I looked at Splinter and said, "I can keep a secret." Shrugging I said, " And besides who would believe me anyway? Four talking turtles and a rat? I would be locked away in the looney bin for the rest of eternity." I smiled at him.
"I thought so," Splinter said with a pleased look on his face. "If that is the case you may stay with us if you like."
"Really?" I was shocked, keeping their secret was one thing, but I never expected that they would ask me to live with them. Looking around at all of their now beaming faces I said, "Are you sure? I'm hard to live with and I'm violent sometimes, and I attract trouble wherever I go."
Red laughed and said, "Bring on the trouble, just for that it would be worth it to have ya hangin' around Sparky."
Leonardo put a hand on my shoulder, "Shell knows we are all a little violent sometimes, I think we can handle that." He was starting to go blurry because of the tears that I couldn't stop from welling up.
"And who could be any harder to live with than ol' Raphie-boy?" Mike said giving his brother a punch on the arm. The lump in my throat made it impossible to say anything so I nodded a vigorous yes and scrubbed my eyes with the back of my hand, choking out a feeble laugh.
"You can have the free room next to my lab if you want, I will have to clean out the storage but it's basically like a small apartment." Donatello walked over to me as he explained that there was a bathroom, and a bedroom area, and even a place they could put in some kitchen appliances. We started walking to the "apartment" so he could show me around when Red yelled at me.
"Yo Sparky!"
Turning around I looked at him and said, "What? You change your mind already? That was fast."
"No I didn't change my mind." He said smiling.
I waited a couple of seconds to see if he would say more, he didn't. Getting impatient I said, "What do you want?"
"Welcome home kid," And with that he turned around and walked away.
"Yeah, thanks Red."