Yay! It's Winter Break and I'm soo glad I could get this chapter up in time for Christmas!
I would also like to say thank you to all the people who have reviewed so far, especially GlitchAwesomeness and NokaKomi for all the encouragement to finish this story. It's far from being over but I'm working really hard on it.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
"I'll meet you at your locker." Kayla said to Alana as they stopped at Kayla's locker.
"Not if I meet you first." she joked as she headed further down the hall. It was December 22nd and, as Kayla like to put it, their last day in 'prison'. After this it was two full weeks of bliss: Christmas Break!
As Kayla knelt down on the floor to slide a couple of her books into her bag her blissful mood evaporated when she heard a locker door open near her. She kept her gaze fixed firmly on her books as she slid the last one into her bag and closed it. She stood up and slid it over her shoulders and reached to grab her helmet.
"Hi Kayla." a familiar mocking voice spoke up. Kayla ignored him and grabbed her helmet. She was about to make a run for it when she noticed a book in her locker that she forgot to put in her bag. Kayla gritted her teeth, cursing herself as she reached to grab it.
"Got any plans over break?" Alex asked once again in his mocking tone.
Kayla refused to give him the satisfaction of replying.
"Got any plans for your boyfriend? Oh, that's right! No one in this country would be dumb enough to date you."
Kayla stared into her locker, feeling her eyes burn and her grip on her locker door tighten. Her whole body tensed.
"I bet you're probably going to be spending Christmas all alone." Alex continued. "Your whole family will probably abandon you one…by…one." Kayla couldn't stop herself from flinching at the last part. Alex had no idea how close he was to the truth, but he noticed her reaction. "Aaw, you gonna cry now, Kayla?" he asked sweetly, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Kayla slammed her locker shut and kicked it in anger, leaving a small dent in the bottom of the locker. In her rage she didn't see Alex flinch in surprise. Ignoring him as best she could she walked right past him and headed toward Alana's locker.
Alana was just closing her locker when she approached. She took one look at her friend before stating, "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that loud bang down the hall was you." Kayla nodded stiffly, her jaw clenched in pure anger. Alana knew her friend would burst if she didn't calm down soon.
The two friends headed down the hall to the front door of the school, where Alana's mom was waiting in their car and Kayla's motorcycle was.
"So…excited for Christmas?" Alana asked to lighten the mood. Kayla relaxed her shoulders and nodded. "What did you get your brothers?" Alana asked curiously.
Kayla smirked. "I got Mikey this new video game he's been ranting about for the past month. I got Don probably a years supply of coffee grounds, which he'll probably go through in a couple months. And finally my brothers and I pitched in to get Raph a new punching bag, since his old one is nearly falling apart." Alana smirked.
"That doesn't surprise me. I've seen the way he goes after it when he's pissed. So, what about your dad? Did you get him anything?"
Kayla nodded. "Yeah. I got him some of his favorite candles. His old ones are almost completely melted. What about you?"
"I got my mom a new jacket she's been wanting and I got my dad a new set of tools. I also decided to get Katie a bag of candy."
Kayla put on her letter jacket as they neared the front door. It was a dark navy blue with white sleeves and a white letter 'A' on the left part of her chest. When they neared the parking lot the two friends said goodbye and Kayla climbed onto her motorcycle. She slid on her helmet before backing out of the parking lot. As soon as she was on the street she punched it and sped past the traffic.
Kayla pulled her hoodie on over her T-shirt before stepping out of her bedroom. They'd just finished having a turkey dinner with April and Casey down here in the lair and now it was time for the rest of their Christmas Eve traditions. As Kayla left her room she looked around.
Hearing someone clear their throat she turned around. Mikey was standing there with an innocent, pleading look on his face. In his hands was Kayla's guitar. Kayla looked at him with a 'do I have to?' look on her face. Mikey's baby-blue eyes went big and his lower lip stuck out in the most adorable puppy pout Kayla had ever seen. Kayla sighed in defeat as she held out her hand. Mikey did a little skip like a little kid before handing her the guitar and leading the way to the living area.
As she followed him she punched his arm. Mikey grabbed his arm and looked back at her.
"Ow! Jeeze, what was that for?" he asked jokingly.
"For going in my room." Kayla answered as she passed him and sat on the armchair.
When Mikey entered the room he took a deep breath and cupped his hands around his mouth. Kayla knew what was coming.
"Mikey, don't-"
"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO OUR VERY OWN: KAYLA HAMATTO!" Kayla dropped her forehead onto the top of her guitar that was sitting on her lap. Her brother was SOO embarrassing! She looked up and saw April, Don, and Casey enter the room and sit on the sofa. Master Splinter entered soon after them and sat in his own armchair across the room.
Mikey looked around. "Where's Raph?" he asked. Kayla looked down. She honestly hadn't even seen her hot-head of a brother in about three days, but that was becoming more and more common. Don looked around before getting up. He went to stand at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the second floor.
"Hey, Raph! Wake up! Kayla's going to sing!" he yelled up the steps before coming back to sit down. Kayla didn't think he'd come but to her surprise he did. He stood on the opposite side of the couch and leaned against the wall.
Casey turned to him. "Nice of ya to join us." he joked.
"Shut up, bonehead." Raph muttered back. Everyone looked at Kayla expectantly.
Kayla blushed. "Any requests?" she asked hopefully.
"Just sing your favorite classic Christmas song." April suggested. Kayla thought for a moment before smirking sneakily.
Raph smirked. "Shouldn't'a said dat."
Kayla giggled as she started playing.
"You know Dasher, and Dancer, and Prancer, and Vixen,
Comet, and Cupid, and Donner, and Blitzen
But do you recall
The most famous reindeer of all?
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say,
'Rudolph with your nose so bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?'
Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee
'Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer,
You'll go down in history!'"
Everyone in the room applauded and Kayla felt her face grow warm as she blushed. Mikey whistled loudly and Raph had to smack him.
When everyone grew quiet Kayla asked, "Can I sing a more…modern Christmas song, please?"
"What do you mean modern?" Don asked curiously.
"Like it was written within the last few years."
"You're the singer." April answered. "Go ahead."
Kayla smiled as she began to play.
(It's Christmas Time By: Megan and Liz (I suggest listening to it!))
"Let's be like kids on Christmas morning
First ones awake all the snow is falling
I wait all year to be feeling like this
Ah oh, ah, ah, ah, oh, oh
Deck the halls with sparkles and glitter
We'll chase away the gray this winter
So lets get up and out
Everybody shout
Ah oh ah oh
Everybody, everybody
What you waiting for
It's in the air it's everywhere
You couldn't ask for more
So hang your mistletoe
And play out in the snow
Oh lets go, cuz it's Christmas time
Let's paint the town with green and red
You heard me right, that's what I said
I've waited all year, and now it's here
Ah oh ah, ah ah oh, oh
The lights in New York City couldn't even
Compare to how the world's lit up this season
So lets get up and out, nobody's missing out
Ah oh ah oh
Everybody, everybody
What you waiting for
It's in the air it's everywhere
You couldn't ask for more
So hang your mistletoe
And play out in the snow
Oh lets go, cuz it's Christmas time
I wanna get up at 5
Wanna feel like I'm 6
Start a party at 7
Keep it goin', keep it goin'
Way past eleven
Wish it was Christmas time
All the time
Everybody, everybody
What you waiting for
It's in the air it's everywhere
You couldn't ask for more
Everybody, everybody
What you waiting for
It's in the air it's everywhere
You couldn't ask for more
So hang your mistletoe
And play out in the snow
Oh lets go, cuz it's Christmas time
It's Christmas time"
Everyone applauded and once again Kayla blushed. She personally didn't think she was that great of a singer, but every time she said that they yelled at her and insisted that she was. After that she sang Silent Night, Jingle Bell Rock, Frosty the Snowman, and Grandma Got Run over By a Reindeer (which Mikey laughed through the whole song). After singing all of those Kayla was more than ready to move on to their next Christmas Eve tradition: Christmas movies.
They watched A Christmas Story, The Polar Express, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman. By the time they were half-way through with Frosty the Snowman Kayla was half asleep. She was dimly aware of a pair of strong arms lifting her off the couch and carrying her bridal style, her head resting against his shoulder. As he walked she could slightly feel the end of a sai handle pressing against her back…
"Kayla. Kaaayyyla." Kayla squinted her eyes before peaking them open when she heard someone whisper her name. Her blurry eyes could make out a green face with orange across it and something in front of it. A loud honk made Kayla's head fly back so she was sitting up, her eyes wide open.
"Wake up, Kayla! It's Christmas!" Mikey yelled, once again honking his noisemaker one more time before rushing out of the room.
Once Kayla figured out what happened she glared at the doorway. "You're a dead turtle Michelangelo! Dead!" she shouted out the doorway before falling back on her bed. The creak of her door opening more made her turn her head to see who it was. Don smirked in at her.
"You get the 'Mikey Wake-up Call', too?" she asked her brother.
Don chuckled. "Yeah. You gonna get up?"
Kayla looked over at her clock. It was 5:28. She glared over at her older brother. "Seriously? Why do I have to get up this early? The presents will still be there in another hour. Didn't Master Splinter ever teach Mikey anything about patience?" Kayla grabbed her pillow from under her head and held it over her face.
She heard Don answer, "Probably, but I guess it didn't stick. And anyway, you wouldn't want to miss the show, would you?"
Kayla lifted the pillow from her face and looked at him. "What show?"
Don's smile grew as he leaned against her door frame. "Well, Mike may have just woken you up, however he called April and Casey around five this morning telling them to get down here to open presents. Casey was not too happy about it." As Don spoke Kayla felt a smile slowly start to spread across her face.
Then she threw her covers off and sat up. "Okay, okay. I'm up. I wanna see Mikey get pounded." Don laughed as he left the room. Kayla sighed as she glanced down at herself. She was still wearing her dark navy sweatshirt and gray sweatpants from last night. She looked down where her pillow would normally be and saw her picture resting on her bed. She picked it up and looked it over.
Her brothers were about ten or eleven in this picture while she was probably about seven. Leo was in the center of the picture with her on his shoulders, Don was to his left, and Mikey was to his right giving Raph bunny ears. She smiled gently before laying it back on her bed and gently placing her pillow over it. She always kept it there so it would always be close to her when she slept.
Kayla hopped off her bed and left her bedroom. Glancing around as she walked towards the Christmas tree she saw Don refilling his mug with coffee in the kitchen, but she didn't see anyone else. As she sat down on the couch near the tree she heard the sliding brick door and glanced up. Casey lead the way into the lair followed more slowly by April. Casey stalked right up to Kayla.
"Alright, where is he? Mikey's a dead turtle." Casey pulled his baseball bat out of his jacket and slapped it against his open palm. Kayla shrugged before looking past him. Mikey had just come out of the bathroom.
Casey followed Kayla's gaze. "Mike!" he yelled.
Mikey stopped dead. "Eep!" he squeaked before running away screaming like a little girl.
"Get back here you lousy mutant!" Casey yelled after him as he chased Mikey, swinging his bat around. April and Kayla rolled their eyes as April sat on the couch next to her.
"Boys." April shook her head and Kayla laughed a bit.
"Can't live with em', can't live without em'." she put in. April nodded with a small smile.
"Oh, that reminds me." April reached into her pocket, pulled out an envelope, and handed it to Kayla. She looked at it while April talked. "I was going to give it to you yesterday but I forgot. Sorry."
"That's okay." Kayla answered quietly. She ripped the envelope open and pulled out the letter.
Kayla,
Merry Christmas. Tell everyone I miss them and that I say Merry Christmas to everyone else, too. I really wish I could be there with all of you. Tell me if Master Splinter likes the gift I made for him. I hope everything at school's been going okay for you. If you ever need to talk just write about it in your letters. Love you.
Leo
Kayla took a deep breath as she stood up to take the letter to her room quick. She couldn't help but notice a few things. For starters, it had been exactly 19 days since she got her last letter from Leo, yeah she was counting. Second, in every letter before this one he'd written something about how much longer before he would be home; like 'only three more months and one week left' or something like that. Finally, he said in this letter that if she needed to talk about trouble at school to write about it and he'd help. Well, she'd been writing to him about it, but lately he hadn't been giving her any advice on how to deal with it. So now she had no idea how to deal with all the things people were saying about her.
Kayla sighed as she pinned the letter to the bulletin board before going back to the couch by the Christmas tree.
She sat on the couch and looked up as Don came into the room and rested his elbows on the back of the couch, holding his coffee in his hands. After a few minutes Mikey and Casey came back in; Mikey rubbing his head and Casey with his bat swung over his shoulder and a smug grin on his face before sitting next to April.
"Where's Raph?" April asked.
Mikey looked around. "Jeeze, he's the hardest to get out of bed, ya know that. It's like pulling teeth."
Kayla glanced up at her brother. "Um, Mikey-"
"I mean, seriously." Mikey ranted on, "I banged on his door,"
"Mikey." Don spoke up, but Mike ignored him.
"I honked my noisemaker,"
"Michelangelo." April tried but got the same result.
"heck, I even threw an old soda can and hit him on the head!"
"Mikey!" Kayla shouted.
Mikey blinked at her. "What?" Kayla pointed behind him. Mikey turned around to see a very grouchy-looking Raph standing there with his arms crossed. Mikey took a step back before saying. "Um…hehe, hi Raph." he closed his eyes and lowered his head as Raph balled his fist and clonked him on the top of the head. "Ow."
Raph walked away to stand next to Don behind the couch. "Moron." he muttered. Master Splinter then came in and sat in his armchair.
Mikey walked up to Kayla and held up a balled up piece of green and red cloth. Kayla grimaced and slumped her shoulders.
"Do I have to?" she whined.
Don sipped his coffee. "Yes, Kayla. Whether you like it or not, you're still the baby of the family. Therefore, it's your job."
"But, I'll always be the youngest in the family." she protested.
"Exactly," Mikey put in, holding it closer to her, "that means this'll always be your job." Kayla glared at him for a long moment. Then she snatched it away from him and stood up.
"Fine. But if any of you take a picture you're dead." she gave all her brothers and Casey a death glare before putting it on her head. It was a green elf hat with red around the brim, it curled backwards and had a bell at the end that jingled when she walked, and fake pointed ears. She heard Raph and Casey try to muffle their laughter and glared at them, but that just made them burst out laughing because of the hat. Even April had to hold a hand over her mouth.
"Alright, alright enough." Mikey tried to calm everyone down. "Okay, Elf. Start passing out presents." Kayla glared back at him before kneeling down by the Christmas tree.
"Kayla, remember which one we agreed would be first." Don reminded her from his spot behind the couch. Kayla nodded and grabbed a long gift that was covered with a large cloth. She held it gently in both hands before standing up and approaching Master Splinter.
"Um, Sensei. This is from Leo. He made it and mailed it to us about a month ago and wanted us to give it to you. Merry Christmas." she held it out to her father, who took it gently and placed it on his lap.
Splinter removed the cloth to reveal a beautifully carved walking stick. It was about three feet tall and narrowed slightly at the bottom. Intricate vine and flower designs were carved up the entire length of the stick. Kayla saw her father's golden brown eyes glisten with tears as he looked it over, a sad smile spreading across his face.
He looked up at her. "In your next letter, tell him thank you." he said, his voice thick and raspy. Kayla smiled sadly and nodded, accidentally causing the bell on her hat to jingle. She had to hide her annoyance when she heard muffled laughter from a couple of the guys. She went back to the tree and began passing out presents.
After everyone else had opened one present Don looked at Kayla.
"You haven't opened one yet."
Kayla shrugged. "I was waiting till last."
"Well, you are last. Now pick a present and open it."
Kayla rolled her eyes before reaching under the tree, shifting the gifts around. Her hand found a long, wide present and pulled it out. Looking it over she found the name tag that said "To: Kayla From: Mikey". She looked up at Mikey.
"Oh, dear." she murmured loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Who's it from?" April asked. Mikey's hand shot into the air and everyone laughed.
"Well, it's from Mikey, but we all kinda helped a bit, since he asked." Don put in from his place behind the sofa. Kayla nodded before ripping the wrapping paper off. She gasped and a huge grin spread across her face as she lifted up a brand new skateboard.
"We saw that your other one was kind of…old." Don explained as he nodded across the room where Kayla's old skateboard was leaning against the wall. Her old board was black on the top with silver and green flames on the bottom. The colors were faded and the edges were scraped and chipped. She always thought her board was cool and wouldn't trade it for anything.
But her new board was amazing! The top was a shiny black with red, blue, purple, orange, and green paint splattered over it; and the wheels were a neon green.
"The paint splatters was my idea." Mikey spoke up. "It's glow in the dark. Look at the back! Look at the back!"
Kayla turned the board over and her mouth dropped open into another huge grin. The bottom was silver but from the front to the back her name was written in huge, black bubble letters that narrowed at the tips. Almost like it was sliced into the board. Kayla looked up at Mikey.
"I love it! I love it!" she screamed as she dropped the board and hugged her brother. When she pulled back she picked it up and placed it off to the side. "I'm trying it out when this is over." she stated, pointing over to the large half pipe. Everyone laughed until Kayla began passing out presents again.
Kayla also got a black vest with a fur-lined hood from April, a new journal from Master Splinter, Don burned her a CD of several of her favorite songs, and Casey got her a new baseball cap.
When all the presents under the tree were gone Mikey threw a bundle of wrapping paper on Kayla's head, laughing and goofing off.
Casey glanced over at Raph, who was leaning his elbows on the back of the couch watching his two youngest siblings. "Hey Raph, didn't you get anything for Kay?" he asked teasingly.
Kayla looked at the ground, uncomfortable with what Casey said. She didn't really care how many gifts she got, she'd be happy with no gifts at all as long as she could spend time with her family. She glanced up at Raph, who was looking at his folded hands. As if he felt her eyes on him he looked up and met her gaze. He glanced back down and up again before nodding his head to the side, motioning for her to follow him.
Kayla stood up and followed him out of the room. She saw Mikey stand up and take a step after them, but Don grabbed his arm.
"Aw, but Donny!" he protested.
"No, Mikey. Just sit down like a good little boy." Don answered.
Kayla was quiet as she followed Raph up the stairs. When they reached his bedroom she stopped in the doorway while he went in. Raph never let anyone go in his room without good reason. She watched as he crossed his room and bent down to reach under his bed. He pulled out a present loosely wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. He blew some dust off of it before coming back out of his room and handing it to her.
"I didn't really wanna give it to ya in front of everyone. I'm not exactly the sentimental type." he explained as she looked at it. She glanced back up at him before slowly ripping away the wrapping paper. It looked to be a large, old book. The cover was a faded brown and it was held together with large, darker brown stitches. She opened it up to the first page and could believe what she saw.
On the first page were four pictures. She was a baby in all of them. She flipped through a couple more pages to find several more pictures. As she looked through them Raph spoke.
"I put it together. Master Splinter had me cleaning his room as punishment for beatin' Mikey with his own nunchucks. When I was lookin' through this old box I found these. I asked Master Splinter if I could have em' an' he said I could. Ya like it?" he asked nervously.
Kayla nodded slowly with a huge smile on her face as she continued to look through them. She laughed when she saw an old picture of her brothers' fifth birthday party. The picture showed Mikey blowing out all the candles, slipping slightly, about to fall on the cake in the picture. Raph looked at it and laughed too. Kayla closed it and threw her arms around her brother's waist.
"Thank you." she whispered. She felt Raph hug her back slowly, he wasn't used to this stuff. As they pulled back Kayla opened it again to a random page to look through it again. She rolled her eyes when she saw an old picture, she was about six or seven, and she was wearing the same elf hat she was currently wearing. It was really big on her in the picture, almost covering her eyes. Raph chuckled before looking back up at her.
"Ya know…there's plenty of extra pages in the back." he pointed slightly at the hat on her head. "We could always-"
"Not on your life." she interrupted, taking the hat off and slapping his arm with it.
"Are you two going to spend all Christmas up there?" Mikey shouted up the stairs. Raph and Kayla glanced at each other, both slowly smirking.
"Ready for the next Christmas tradition?" Raph asked sneakily.
"You mean the part where we tie Mikey to a chair and give him a makeover with some of April's make-up?" she asked teasingly. Raph nodded slowly, still with his devious smile. "Okay." Kayla answered before they both headed downstairs.