Kayla sat cross-legged on the cold bathroom floor, her head resting on her hand that was on the rim of the tub. Inside the tub, with one leg and arm hanging over the side, was a beaten and unconscious Raphael. A shiver ran through her whole body as she unintentionally thought of what her brother had gone through before his body was sent crashing through that skylight.
Still a little groggy, Kayla flinched when she felt someone gently take her shoulders and lay her down on the floor. Her head was rested on a pillow and she felt a blanket drape over her. She heard receding footsteps and opened her eyes slightly, tilting her head up in time to see Leo going back to the chair he had by the door. Kayla watched as he sat down and leaned his shoulder on the door, his eyes locked on their brother. Looking closer she could see how tired he was.
"Leo." Kayla's voice was quiet and tired. Leo turned his head and looked at her.
"Yeah?" his voice was hoarse and quiet. His slouched shoulders showed how worried he was about both Raph and their father, who was still missing somewhere.
"Will our family be okay? Raph and Splinter, too?" Kayla asked quietly, nervous to hear the answer.
Leo sighed heavily as he looked back at their brother. "I don't know, sis."
"Kayla. Kayla, wake up!" a whisper followed by a jab to her shoulder jolted Kayla awake. She slowly sat up and looked around, acting like nothing had happened. She was in her Biology class. Glancing over her shoulder she saw that it was Katie that had woken her up. Kayla rubbed her eyes in a failed attempt to wake up.
She hadn't had a dream like that in a long time, like at least a couple years. Well, it was more like a memory. From back when their father was taken by the Shredder and April's place was burned down, and they had to go to her old farm house to hide out. While they were there and Raph was unconscious; her and Leo had spent nearly all their time watching over Raph.
Realizing their teacher was going over notes for the test they had in a week she forced herself to pay attention and write it down, but her brain just wasn't cooperating. It needed sleep to function, and right now sleep was one thing she hadn't had for a LONG time. It was near the end of April and she'd been going out every night from about nine o'clock to almost three the next morning, and it was definitely taking its toll on her. Maybe there really was a reason as to why her brothers only allowed her to go on patrol on the weekends.
In the past few weeks her vigilante work was on the news every couple days, luckily her brothers and friends didn't pay enough attention to make the connection. In that amount of time the public had also given her a nickname, just like they did with the Nightwatcher. They were now calling her the Shadow Archer, since most witnesses who managed to catch a glimpse of her described her as wielding a bow and arrow, and blending into the shadows.
After the notes their teacher told them to get with a partner and go to a lab table to work on a worksheet. Her and Katie sat across from each other.
"You look exhausted." Katie pointed out as they started working on the worksheet.
Kayla looked up at her and grimaced. "It's that obvious, huh?" Katie nodded, her eyebrows up in emphasis.
"Why are you so tired?" Katie asked, then she leaned forward and whispered, "Are you guys back on patrol?"
Kayla looked back at her paper. "Not exactly." Katie looked confused so Kayla tried to explain without blowing her cover, "We're not allowed to go on patrol until 'Fearless' comes home." Kayla put a sarcastic emphasis on 'Fearless'.
Katie's face looked a little saddened at that. "Are you ever going to forgive Leo? I mean, he is your brother."
Kayla looked upward exaggeratingly, like she was thinking. Then she looked back at her friend and shook her head vigorously.
Katie sighed sadly. She looked at her paper before quietly mumbling something. Kayla looked at her in confusion, she didn't hear what her friend said. Katie sighed and repeated a bit louder, but still quietly, "Do you think he'll ever come home?"
Kayla was a bit taken aback. She'd heard that question a lot, but mostly from Mikey and sometimes Don, but never from one of her friends. Thinking about it Kayla shrugged, not sure if she could trust her mouth to answer. Her brothers were still a little miffed at her from her little outburst on spring break, even though that was nearly a month and a half ago. Well, Don and Mike were. Raph seemed more impressed than anything.
"What does your father think of it?" Katie asked, pulling Kayla out of her thoughts.
"He says that we should be proud of Leo because he's helping people who need him. But that's really no excuse in my opinion. There are people here who need help. But, hey, if he wants to stay-"
"Kayla." Katie interrupted her friend gently and Kayla pursed her lips together. She knew if Katie hadn't stopped her she would have kept going until she got out of control. Katie decided it would be a good idea to change the subject. "How about we just try and finish this worksheet?" she suggested gently. Kayla nodded and skimmed her textbook for the next answer.
A couple hours later Kayla was at lunch. She'd just ordered her lunch and was making her way across the lunchroom to where she and her friends normally sat. When she was almost there she felt something hook onto her ankle.
Kayla's whole body lurched forward and her tray flew out of her hands. There was a loud crash and Kayla barely caught herself with her hands. Her tray had landed about a foot in front of her, her food and milk scattered on the floor.
The whole lunch room went silent and Kayla could feel hundreds of eyes on her. She slowly sat up and looked around her, seeing everyone in the cafeteria staring at her. Hearing a snicker she looked over her shoulder. Alex was standing there looking down at her, his friends behind him. Gradually the whole cafeteria started laughing.
Kayla felt her throat tighten and eyes sting as the laughter echoed in her ears. She fought the urge to race out of the cafeteria and cry her eyes out. That would give Alex the satisfaction of seeing her break. Instead, she turned her embarrassment into rage as she pushed herself to stand, grabbing a fistful of spaghetti from her tray. Alex was still laughing as she turned to face him. She could still feel all the eyes on her but instead of feeling embarrassed she felt herself smirk, which made Alex stop laughing and look uncertain.
Then, Kayla took the spaghetti and threw it, smacking Alex square in the face. The gasp echoed around the cafeteria and Alex's reaction was priceless. His eyes were closed and his mouth was wide open in shock, spaghetti on his forehead, cheeks, and hanging from his nose and chin. To Kayla's satisfaction she could hear people trying to hold in laughter while others just burst out laughing.
Kayla felt someone grab her arm roughly and pull her out of the lunchroom.
"You are going to the office." a teacher whispered roughly in her ear as he pushed her in front of him. As Kayla passed people in the lunchroom she refused to make eye contact with anyone, keeping her facial expression perfectly livid.
The teacher sat her in a chair in the office. She only had to wait for a few minutes before someone moved her to the principal's office. She sat in front of his desk while he looked through her files they had on the computer. When he was done he turned to her, a look of concern and utter confusion on his face.
"Kayla, you're an A student; perfect record; on the varsity swim team. You're an exceptional student. Why would you pull a stunt like this and tarnish your spotless record?"
Kayla refrained from rolling her eyes and just shrugged, sinking lower in the chair.
"Alright, let me rephrase that question. Why did you hit Alex with spaghetti?"
Kayla tried not to smile remembering it, that would only get her in more trouble. So she just shrugged.
The principal sighed and shook his head at her. "You've gotta give me something, Kayla."
Kayla glared at him. Oh, how she wanted so much to just yell everything Alex had done to her since they met in ninth grade. But she knew that would only make matters worse. And besides, that would be asking for help, and she didn't need help. From anyone. So she kept silent, staring the principal down.
After nearly a minute of silence he sighed. "Alright. Fine. I could've tried to work something out, but if you insist on fighting me on this I have no choice. I'm going to have to give you four full days of ISS. That also means no swim practice or school activities, no computer lab, and no class. I'll also have to notify your parent or guardian."
Through most of this Kayla had been more annoyed than anything, but when he mentioned calling her family she jolted to attention.
"You don't really have to tell my family, do you?" she asked slightly nervously.
He looked slightly surprised at her question. "It's procedure. So yes I do. Now, you are dismissed to ISS for the rest of the day, however the four days don't count till tomorrow." So Kayla was escorted to the detention room.
Later that afternoon Kayla grabbed her board and entered the lair. It was dark and quiet. Was everyone gone? Maybe, if she was lucky, she could make it to the payphone hanging in the wall and check for messages. Maybe no one was home when the school called. So Kayla silently made her way over to the payphone.
Just as she reached her hand towards the receiver all the lights in the lair turned on. Kayla spun around to see Don standing across the lair, his hand on the power switch. 'Guess I'm not THAT lucky' Kayla thought to herself.
"Detention?! Seriously Kayla?!" Don shouted. Kayla grimaced and hunched her shoulders, waiting for the lecture. It would be the first of many if she knew her family and friends. Don crossed the lair and stood in front of her with his arms crossed. "Want to explain yourself, Kayla? What happened?"
"The school called you I would expect they told you everything." Kayla grumbled.
"Yes, but they also told me you refused to give your side of the story. So, talk."
Kayla breathed out through her clenched teeth. "Alright, fine. I threw spaghetti at his ugly face! Is that what you want to hear?" she shouted, her voice echoing of the walls.
A low chuckle made them looked up. Raph was on the second floor balcony, leaning on the railing and looking down at them.
"Raph, this isn't funny." Don pointed out, "She got a detention. Four days of it." he added pointedly at his sister, who glared up at him.
Raph chuckled again. "So I heard." he leapt down and approached them. "Did he deserve it?" he asked Kayla.
"Yes." Kayla answered blatantly.
Don raised one eye ridge at her. "You gave me no answer explaining how he deserved it."
Kayla glanced from Raph to Don. "Yeah, like I'm gonna be dumb enough to do that."
Now Raph's face turned serious. He caught the tone in her voice suggesting it was something she really didn't want HIM to know. "What did he do to you?" he asked slowly and darkly.
Kayla crossed her arms and pointedly turned away from him. She knew if she wasn't careful he'd force the truth out of her one way or another.
Loosing his temper, Raph punched the wall closest to him, making Kayla flinch. "What did he do?!" Raph yelled.
"Raph." Don warned him, but Raph took no notice as he took a step closer to Kayla, causing her to back into the wall.
Kayla's back pressed against the wall and she had to look down, staring at her feet. If she looked into his eyes she knew she'd break. She could feel his warm breath on the top of her head. He was standing only a few inches in front of her, his hands planted on the wall by her head on either side so his arms boxed her in, giving her no chance of escape.
"What. Did. He. Do." Raph repeated slowly, his voice alone was a silent threat. Kayla bit her lip, trying to stay silent. Deep down she wanted so badly to just let everything out. To scream everything that she'd gone through at the top of her lungs, and let her brothers take some of the burden off of her. Like they used to. The more she thought about it, and the longer her brothers' eyes burned into her, the more appealing that option seemed. But as she opened her mouth to speak-
"Honeys I'm home!" Mikey's voice echoed around the lair as he slid down the railing into the den. Don and Raph looked up, distracted for a split second. Taking advantage of the distraction, Kayla ducked under Raph's arm and raced to her room.
"What-Hey! Kayla!" Kayla quickly ran into her room and slammed the door shut, locked it, and grabbed her new computer chair; setting it against the door and sitting on it. She heard the handle rattle as someone tried to open the door. Raph sighed from the other side of the door. "Kayla, you do know all I have to do is pick the lock with my sai or kick the door in. You really want to live without a bedroom door?"
"What difference would it make?" Kayla retaliated, "I don't have any privacy around here anyway."
This time Don responded. "Kayla, you threw spaghetti at a kid's face. In front of an entire cafeteria. That's not exactly private."
Kayla rolled her eyes, planting her feet on the ground as Raph kept shoving against the door. "Yeah, well, you guys weren't there. So, you don't need to know."
Raph suddenly stopped pushing the door and asked, "Donny, did the school give you the name of the kid she threw the spaghetti at?"
"Um, I asked but they said that's confidential." Don answered.
Raph sighed in exasperation, "Alright, fine. Kayla, can you at least give us his name?"
Kayla turned around in her chair. "Oh, come on, Raph. Even I know you mean give 'me' the name. You just want his name so you can find him and beat the shell out of him."
There was a long silence. "And?…What's your point?"
Kayla chuckled as she turned back around, slouching in the chair and crossing her arms. "Nice try, bro. But this is MY fight, not yours."
"Fight?" Don repeated, and added warningly, "Kayla."
"It's a figure of speech, Donny" Kayla said in a singsong voice. Then she muttered under her breath, "Maybe."
Hearing Raph chuckle, Kayla had a feeling he heard her, but luckily Don didn't.
Finally Don gave in. "Fine. We'll leave you alone for now, but for the next couple weeks I want you home right after school. You're officially grounded."
"K' dad." Kayla muttered sarcastically.
"Speaking of 'dad'." Don added, clearly hearing Kayla's comment, "Master Splinter wants to speak with you sometime tonight." Kayla grimaced and heard Mikey go, "Ooohh!"
"Shut up, bonehead." Raph said to their youngest brother before Kayla heard a loud SMACK followed by Mikey groaning, "OW."
Kayla shook her head and laughed slightly. No matter how annoying her brothers were, she had to admit they were good for a laugh now and then.
"Kayla," Don spoke quietly into the door so only she could hear, "I know you probably want some time alone right now, just remember to go talk to Sensei later, okay?"
Kayla answered quietly back, "I will, Don."