A month or two after Amanda's first encounter with the turtles, the school let out. The day after that, April received a scholarship from the University of John Dalton. As celebration, Justine, May, and Amanda decided to go out on a play date, brining April along, of course.
Right now, under the noontime sun, the girls were having lunch under a table with a pink and brown parasol that kept them out of the sun's rays.
"You guys remember the second time Mikey baked a cake?" April asked.
"You mean the time where he put pizza without mold into the cake? Yeah, totally," Justine groused, stirring her drink with her straw.
Amanda giggled, "She only remembers it because I didn't warn anyone -or at least her- about it that time."
"Yeah," her older sister grumbled.
"You should've seen the look of Leo's face when he took a bite out of the cake!" May chuckled.
"Too bad Donnie and Raph didn't get a slice," Justine smiled.
"That's because they learned from the last time," Amanda giggled.
The four girls laughed, enjoying their little moment. Then suddenly, Amanda stopped short. Her stare was blank, and she was frozen in place. The laughter seized at this.
"...Almond?" May called.
April turned her head to Amanda, then placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Amanda," she called, giving the latter a light shake. She turned to the others, face full of concern, "Something's wrong."
"I've known Almond all my life. She doesn't just stop abruptly like this. She doesn't have any illness or disorder, so what could it be?" May wondered out loud. "Jelly?"
The two turned to the second eldest in the batch whose steel glare was fixed on the table, deep in thought. "Amanda's only like that when she's in complete shock or surprise. I've only seen her do it twice: Once when grandpa died, and the other when..." Justine trailed off, eyes widening. She slowly turned around, the others following her gaze. Behind Justine, a man in his mid-thirties, a woman in her late twenties, and a four year old girl were playing with a baby in a dark blue stroller. Justine glared at them and got up. "Let's go," she said sternly.
Without a word, the others followed, even Amanda as she looked at three ground.
9
"I can't believe it. Leave us for five years then suddenly have the guts to come back to town with a family," Justine yelled out of stress.
May and April's concerned faces were left unnoticed by the stressed sister. Mrs Baker held Amanda closer as she rubbed her arm, trying to soothe her shaking daughter.
"Mom, you can't just let dad do this. He's having and affair! You have to do somethi—"
"Justine, that will be enough," Mrs Baker said sternly. Justine held her mouth shut, but her fists were still clenched, just as they were when they got off the bus. Mrs Baker took a breath and diverted her gaze to the tiled floor. "Your dad didn't leave you. He kept sending post cards and money and sometimes try to contact you, but I kept turning him down. I wanted you to forget him. Then earlier this week, he said that he wanted to see you again. He wanted you to have a father once more. He wanted to get married again."
"Married again?" Justine echoed. "Mom, what are you—"
"We had an annulment." Mrs Baker took her time to collect herself before continuing. "He had another love at that time and he decided to break up with me as if it were just a petty relationship. He thought that he could forget about us...but he didn't. The one he fell in love with was a bad woman, a woman who only wanted him for his money. He told me that when he called. He was coming back, but now you have a little sister and a younger brother. It was a mistake, he had said. And with how genuine he was, I let him come," she explained. "That woman you saw, that wasn't his mistress, that was his sister."
At that moment, Amanda wanted to laugh. "Sister?" she asked, voice hoarse from crying. She looked up to her mom.
Mrs Baker chuckled, "Aunt Samantha."
"You mean the one who kept sending us gifts, but she never showed up to any party or get-together?" Justine asked.
Mrs Baker nodded with a small smile, "She never came because she's a scientist, that's why she has a lot of money."
"She never came because she was a scientist?" May asked.
Mrs Baker hummed in approval as she looked at them. "She's a scientist in one of the poles. I don't really know since she's always traveling back and forth between them."
"If she has time to go to opposite sides of the world, then why doesn't she have time to visit her family?" April asked.
"It's not like there are any airports in that area. She barely has time to get on a boat before the next time her pager goes off, but she's here now, and I'm sure you would love to meet you two in person."
At that moment, the doorbell rang. Justine cocked her head to the door as she stared at her mom, who nodded. The older sister walked to the door and looked through the peep hole before cautiously opening the door a tad. There stood her father, wavy dark brown hair and black glasses, her Aunt Samantha, wavy hair tied in a pony and gray eyes reflecting the soft lights, a little girl, wavy blond hair in pigtails and dark brown eyes trying to look past her, and a baby, dark brown hair barely seen and big, blue eyes looking at Justine's dark brown ones, in a stroller. Justine looked back up at her dad, who had an apologetic, sincere smile on his lips. His smile was always contagious when it was genuine, and that caused the corner's of Justine's mouth to rise as well.
Justine opened the door all the way and let them in, her father trailed behind them. He stood at the doorway, half in a half out. Justine wanted to hug him tightly, but he beat her to it. His arms warmed around Justine's stiff frame, which had soon relaxed, and she hugged him back.
"Dad!"
Mr Baker turned to the call from his other daughter, who jumped onto him with tears streaming down her eyes.
"Nice to see you again, Amanda," he said, ruffling the top of his daughter's long, light brown hair. "Both of you," he added, looking back at Justine, whose glossy eyes couldn't hold in anymore tears as they ran down her cheeks.
"He smiled at me!" May suddenly squealed. The three turned to see Amanda's best friend jumping up and down while cooing at the baby, who was babbling in response.
9
"Cole?" Amanda chuckled, lightly tossing the baby up and down. "Where'd you get the idea?"
"Honestly, I don't even know," Mr Baker chuckled.
Samantha rolled her eyes. "Don't play games with them, Junior," she said, lightly elbowing her brother.
"Junior?" the four teens chorused.
"Oh, hasn't he told you? Your dad's fast name is Kendrick Junior. His second name is Cole," Samantha teased. "So this little fella," she wiggled her finger into Cole's belly, "is Cole Junior Ken Baker."
"That's a long name compared to Almond and Jelly," May said.
Mr Baker chuckled, although not knowing who the two were, unlike his older sister. "Well that's because Cole Jr here is Kendrick's first, and possibly only, son."
"What's your name, then?" April asked the little girl.
"Are you Amanda?" the little girl asked. April shook her head. "Then you must be Justine!" April felt herself flush.
May threw her head back and covered her mouth, laughing along with Amanda and Justine.
"She's not Justine, or Amanda, Kelly," Mr Baker said, lifting the little girl up to the couch. "In fact, I don't even know who she is." He turned to April. "I haven't met you before."
"I'm April O'Neil, May's cousin."
"Daughter of Kirby and Gena? I've met them a few times in the past. How're your parents?" Mr Baker asked. At his question, April's eyes widened as she looked down. "Sorry..." Mr Baker said, realizing his question.
"Oh, no, no it's fine," April said, waving it off, "Dad's still okay...it's just that mom went missing when I was six or something."
"What happened?" Justine asked.
"No one knows," May answered.
"Dad just woke me up one night, and we drove to New York as fast as we can. He told me that she was kidnapped, but no body was found. All I know is that her kidnappers or someone sent someone to act like her, make me trust her enough for her to bring me to them. Of course, I found out and she's gone now, and some reason, once I found out, she stuck her hand in a circuit breaker and died," April explained.
"Oh..." Amanda breathed, looking down.
"I'm so sorry," Mr Baker said, placing a comforting hand on April's shoulder.
"No worried, Mr Baker sir. I'll manage, just as I have for the past thirteen years or so," April said.
"Please, call me Kendrick or Ken."
April looked up at him confused. Then another hand landed on her other shoulder. She turned her head to Mrs Baker, who also had a smile on her face.
"Rebecca or Becca," she said.
9
"Nice to know that your dad's back," Mikey said, serving bowls of ramen to his friend and family.
"Yeah, it's great," Amanda mumbled, deep in thought. She turned her gaze up to Mikey as he placed a bowl of ramen in front of her. Whether it was good or not, his smile was just as contagious as her father's.
"You guys should meet them someday," Justine said as Mikey took a seat next to her sister. She quietly smiled to herself.
"I'm not sure that they would like to," April chuckled.
"Why not? Ken's really nice, and Samantha's really smart. You should get to know each other better, Donnie," May said.
"As nice as that may sound, mutant turtle and scientist don't go together," Leo said.
"Agree," Donnie said, "But maybe one day. I might even ask for some scraps."
"Oh, boy," Raph grumbled.
"But can I meet Kelly? Or Cole? Maybe both?" Mikey asked, slamming his hands on the table and slightly standing up in excitement.
Leo sighed as he rolled his eyes. "No, Mikey."
"Aw, but why not?" Mikey whined.
"May I point out that they're human, and their aunt is a scientist?" Donnie said, putting his index finger in the air. "No pun intended," he added.
"No offense taken," May replied, taking a sip from her not-at-all-stolen-from-the-blue-clad-turtle-who-is-currently-glaring-at-her soup.
"They're kids!" Mikey whined.
"Which gives you more of a reason not to meet her."
"But Leo had tea with a little girl once!"
Leo choked on his food, making May giggle, making her choke on her food.
"No!" Leo denied.
"Yes you did, Raph me told me!" Mikey said.
Leo glared at Raph, who shrugged.
Amanda chuckled, "I'm sure you'll get to meet them, Mikey," she said, placing a hand in Mikey's as he sat down, "Someday."
"Urgh! Just get together already!" May exclaimed, looking at the two of them. Amanda immediately drew her hand back.
"Wha- I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Didn't hear a thing!"
The two chorused their denies as they turned away from each other, faces red.
"Aw, c'mon, Mike, just admit it, you like her," Raph cooed.
"And she likes you back~" Justine teased, receiving a glare from her sister.
"And so do the other two girls who like you," Donnie deadpanned.
"Wait-what?" Justine stammered as she looked at Donnie.
"Why don't you two just admit your feelings to each other?" May suggested, "Amanda, you go first."
"I don't like Mikey," she mumbled.
"Really?"
"Okay, so maybe I do," she huffed, crossing her arms.
"She admits it!" May squealed. Amanda received an applause.
"So what if I do?" Amanda asked, "My parents wouldn't give me their blessing anyway. They won't have any grandchildren out of me."
"You wouldn't have biological children with whoever you get together with. You're infertile, remember?" Justine said.
"Shut up!" Amanda yelled (playfully) as she blushed harder.
The others laughed as Mikey looked at her, shocked.
"Orange Almond," May said in between giggles, "I ship it."