TMNT

Mutant Kunoichi

A girl from our world is somehow transported to the TMNT world, where she is subjected to becoming a mutant not in body, but in spirit. Protected by the turtles, and hunted by Foot Clan, will she find protection or even love?

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The Waitress That Sings

"Emma," Keno said to me. "I have a favour to ask of you…"

"What?" I asked warily. I was sitting in a classroom in the middle of my school inNew York, thinking about how I wished it was the weekend and not Monday.

"Everyone who's come in toRoy's has been asking whose voice is playing over the speakers," Keno was sitting at the desk in front of me, and had turned his chair around. Next to me, Mary was scribbling something in her notebook. Danny was…well, elsewhere. In other words, he was skipping school. I wished I could do that sometimes…I used to skip TAFE, back in my own world…I thought my parents would kill me.

"Keno, are you saying you want me to actually show up atRoy's and sing?" I asked in disbelief. I lowered my voice slightly, leaning forward, and said: "Leo's already on my case about gallivanting around the countryside with Raph this weekend, and the Foot Clan is still after me…"

"You could wear your sunglasses, and whatever else you need to stay incognito," Keno said earnestly. "Remember, you did promise…"

"Keno," I gave him a Look. "I can hardly remember what I promised to do…but I'm sure it did not involve…will there be free pizza involved?"

Keno leaned back in his chair and laughed. "I can't believe you're thinking about that right now!"

"Actually, I was thinking about Mikey," I admitted. "I feel bad about hassling him to keep his cat away from my birds…"

"Of all the things to feel bad about." Keno rolled his eyes.

"That's what Leo said." I grinned. "Actually, Klunk's not too bad…none of them are, really…" I hope I didn't blush as I said this. "I'm surprised I haven't gone insane yet, actually…"

"Why would you go insane?" Mary asked, glancing up from her notebook. Her blue eyes pierced into me, like Angel's.

"Umm…" I wasn't sure what to say. It was hard keeping my personal life a secret from Mary (and Danny), especially since I was spending approximately one-quarter of my time with them lately. Another quarter was spent with April, a third quarter with Leo, Don and Mikey – Raph had an entire quarter of my time all to himself. I was balancing my life very well. I never had before.

"Emma needs a job." Keno said smoothly.

My mouth dropped open. "I never said that!" I gasped.

"No, I did." Keno grinned.

"Why don't you ask April if you can work at her shop?" Mary asked. "Aunty Irma said they're understaffed…"

Because there's only the two of them working there. I thought. Work your way out of this one, Keno.

Keno didn't have to, though, because the bell rang, and we all had to hurry to avoid being late for sport.

OoOoOoO

Leonardo's P.O.V:

Michelangelo and I were on the rooftop, watching Emma's sport class. From what Emma had said, she wasn't terribly into sports. She said she hated walking – when she had to water the plants at the back of her parent's property, she took the ride-on-lawn-mower, even though it was only, like, one hundred meters. She liked rollerblading, though, and she managed to walk the distance from our lair or April's apartment to school and back each week day.

And, watching her now, I wasn't sure if hating sports was quite true of her.

The teachers had set up a sort of obstacle course for the students to go through. They had to run one hundred meters, climb up a rope that was suspended from a wall (the wall wasn't very high), then take up a bow and shoot an arrow at a target (well, hopefully they would hit the target), then crawl under a rope net, jump over four hurdles, before running another one hundred meters.

If my brothers and I had been doing the course, we would've had to be blindfolded to make it fair.

At the start of the course, I could practically see Emma's eyes glaze over. She turned to the girl, Mary, standing next to her, and muttered something that looked like: "No way…"

But, as soon as she'd started, she seemed to switch into a different frame of mind completely.

She didn't look like she was enjoying the running bit, but when she hit the wall she scrambled up the rope like a monkey, climbing up swiftly before running down the stairs on the other side. She reached the archery range, and a teacher handed her a bow and arrow.

Emma took the bow, nocked the arrow, and shot it squarely at the target, not quite hitting the bulls-eye, but it was close.

She then ran over to the rope net, and began to crawl under it. Beside me, Mikey began humming the Mission Impossible theme.

I gave him a Look. "Could you not?"

"Sorry." He murmured contritely.

We both returned to watching Emma who, by now, had reached the hurdles. She leaped over the first three with ease, but her foot caught on the fourth one and she fell. Mikey and I both stood up, but just as quickly so did Emma.

"I'm okay!" We heard her shout.

Mikey and I exchanged a glance, and then watched Emma run the last one hundred meters.

There was dirt and grass covering her white sports t-shirt, and her hair had come out of its usual ponytail but, at that moment, she was grinning, and I found myself thinking: She looks really pretty…

Beside me, Mikey voiced my exact thoughts, and I gave him a startled look. "What?" He asked, and I just shook my head.

But, glancing back at the school grounds, to where Emma and Mary were now watching the boys sport class (the boys were playing soccer), I found myself wondering why I couldn't just come out and say it.

Judging by the way Raphael had started looking at Emma lately, I thought that maybe he might feel the same way…which surprised me, because Raphael is not known for harboring such emotions. Then again, he's a teenage boy, so maybe…

I thought back to this weekend. Emma had spent most of the weekend out and about, either with her school friends (rehearsing for their school performance) or with Raphael.

"Hey, Leo," Mikey interrupted my thoughts.

"Yeah, Mike?" I looked at him.

"Do you think Emma's been spending a lot of unnecessary time with Raph lately?" Mikey asked.

Well, it's official. My youngest brother can read minds. I tried to come up with a way to answer that.

I didn't get a chance to, though because, just then, we heard a loud caw from behind us, and we both turned to see Emma's crow, Karasu, perched on a TV antenna, and staring at us.

"Quoth the raven nevermore." Mikey said solemnly.

I just stared at him.

"What?" Mikey seemed offended. "Donnie's not the only turtle who watches The Simpsons!"

I just rolled my eyes. I glanced back at Karasu, and found myself thinking again how Emma had given the birds Japanese names.

That was pretty cool.

Like her.

OoOoOoO

Emma's P.O.V:

"I can't believe Leo agreed to let you do this." Keno sounded thrilled, though, as I stood holding the microphone in the corner ofRoy's pizza place.

Neither can I… I thought, glancing at the guy wearing the trench coat at the opposite end of the building. I couldn't see his face, but I could tell that he – Leo – was thinking the exact same thing.

I, meanwhile, was wearing a trucker girl's cap, with sunglasses, jeans, an over coat and a scarf – we'd spared no expenses to make sure that I was hidden.

I clutched the cordless microphone in my left hand – with my right hand I held onto my yin-yang necklace. The yellow bead on it was gone, to be replaced by an orange bead that Mikey had found. He'd said he wanted the necklace to perfectly represent the group that was TMNT. His eyes had sparkled when he'd said that…his eyes, which were exactly the colour of summer skies, just like in the song.

"Keno, I don't want to do this!" I whispered desperately.

"It's too late to get stage-fright now," Keno replied, as people began filing into the building. "Just pretend that you're at Mary's house or something!"

Yeah, pretend I've got Agent Bishop in the next room, scheming ways to "protect the world". I thought drily as, from somewhere, the music began to play.

Donnie, Keno and I had gone over the playlist – and then Keno and I had re-gone over it with Roy himself. I'd been practicing practically non-stop – I still couldn't quite believe that I could sing! The first song on the playlist was Kids In America, by LEN.

Why did I choose the LEN version? I wondered in panic, as the music began to play. Why can't I sing like Tachikawa Mimi? Why haven't I started singing yet? ! I realized that I was supposed to have started singing, but I hadn't, because I was so nervous!

Oh. My. God.

Everyone was staring at me, and I was staring at the microphone. I had never been so mortified in my entire life, this was even worse that the time we'd all had to make up songs about Australia in society and environment and sing them, and everyone had laughed at my song about the green snake taking a twig from a tree (for unknown reasons).

Keno was looking at me, but I couldn't read the expression on his face.

So, I did the only thing I could do – I dropped the microphone and bolted into the back of the shop.

OoOoOoO

Out in the kitchens, I sat in a corner, with my head in my hands, and stayed there until someone came in.

"Emma?" Leo asked, kneeling down beside me.

"I was so nervous," I said. My heart was pounding. "I don't want to let Keno down, but…I dunno…I was just thinking about things, and standing there with the microphone…"

"It's natural to feel nervous," Leo explained, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You need to get over the nerves somehow…think, how can you do that?"

"I dunno…" I shrugged. "Keno said to pretend I was at Mary's…I don't have a microphone there, though…"

"Maybe that's the answer…" Leo said, quietly, just as Keno came in.

"Where's that pizza for table three?" He asked.

"Here." One of the cooks said, handing him the plate.

I stood up suddenly.

"Keno!" I called, hurrying over to him, remembering the time I'd gotten drinks for us at Mary's. "Give me that." I snatched the pizza from him and, walking back out into the front room, I began to sing to the last part of the song, keeping my eyes on the pizza tray.

People were staring at me, but not like before.

Because I was singing…and they liked my voice!