Pre-AN: This was originally gonna be a one-shot but Theaterkidgoboing(on AO3) left a comment with some alternate ways my story could've ended. With permission, I'm gonna write out the different endings. So my original ending, this one, and then one more ending that's a lot shorter lol.
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"Weirdo Magnet"
"Freak"
"Creepy girl"
"Oh-No O'Neil"
"April the Fool"
"That weird girl"
April was pretty sure she had heard it all. All those 'wonderful' nicknames her friends acquaintances had given her since starting high school. Okay, maybe it actually started around middle school, but it doesn't matter. It wasn't that bad really. Just some too-loud whispers she overheard in the hallway, and every now and again there'd be a snide comment. Nothing too annoying.
And yeah, April sat alone at lunch every day whenever Sunita wasn't visiting her, but hey, at least she had Barry's antics whenever someone insulted his cooking to amuse her. Could be worse.
She could've ended up with Dale in her lunch period. April shuddered at the thought. He was sweet, but in an over-the-top way that rubbed her the wrong way.
The teenage girl was just grateful she had her bots to text throughout the day. Things could be better, but they could also be worse, so you wouldn't be hearing April complain.
Much.
"And then he had the nerve to say I'm the weird one," April ranted to Leo, who was always up for some gossip over the phone during lunch period. "Puh-leaze. Wish Sunita was here. At least she'd have backed me up."
"Hey, what am I, chopped liver?"
"Sorry, sorry," April apologized, a fond smile tugging at her lips. "Of course I have you and the guys, I just meant someone here at school. 'Sides Barry, but he won't be backing me up in any arguments anytime soon."
"Yeah no, he's too busy pushing people off roofs," Leo replied, drawing a laugh from April.
"You ever gonna let that go?" April asked amusedly.
"Nope. Can't believe he hasn't been fired yet."
"I think people are too scared to fire the guy," April admitted as she heard a soft ping go off. She pulled the phone from her ear to see an Instagram notification telling her she had a new DM. She absentmindedly listened to Leo ramble about how bad of a guy Barry was as she opened the app, curious to see who was messaging her.
She recognized the username as one belonging to a classmate from her Geometry class and wondered if maybe they needed help with the homework. But once April opened the messages, her heart sank.
'Poor little freak'
'Acting like you're on the phone just so you can pretend you have friends'
'How pathetic'
"Hello? You still there, April?" The concern in Leo's voice pulled April's attention away from the rude messages.
"Heh, sorry Leo. Classmate texted me for help on tonight's assignment, must've gotten distracted," April replied, praying he didn't notice the shake in her voice.
"Oh ok." Leo didn't sound convinced but at least he didn't push things.
"I should probably start working on it, actually. I'll have to let you go.
"Yesh, you have fun with that. You're still coming on Friday, right? All-night Jupiter Jim movie marathon, with your favorite snacks~" April could hear the smile in Leo's voice and grinned slightly despite herself.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world. Later," April ended the call, groaning as she hid her face in her hands. She loved her boys, she really did, but it was hard having friends that no one could ever meet, with no way of proving that they exist.
April glanced around the cafeteria, trying to see if she could find the classmate that had DM'd her. She didn't spot the girl, though that didn't necessarily mean anything, it was a crowded area and April's eyesight wasn't great even with her glasses. The teen sighed and got out her homework, hoping to take her mind off the awful message. After all, it was just a one-time thing, no different from the rude remarks she received every now and again. Right?
Wrong.
April's phone was blown up with DM's and texts from various classmates and random students, though how they got her number was a mystery. Some of these kids weren't people April could ever remember interacting with. Yet they all seemed awfully eager to send harassing and/or just plain cruel messages like everyone else.
New Ending: Unlocked
And this kept up for the rest of the day, continuing into the next. So she kept her head down, tried to avoid talking to the guys on the phone in front of other people, and prayed the week would pass by quickly.
On Wednesday, the third day of the cyber onslaught, April had taken to eating her lunch outside in the courtyard, as she'd found a nice secluded bench near the back where no one really went. The perfect place to avoid unwanted attention.
Just as she was about to eat whatever mess Barry had concocted, she heard a familiar voice call out to her.
"April! Where you at?" Sunita yelled as she searched the courtyard. April hadn't been in the cafeteria like she usually was when Sunita had decided to come and surprise her with some good ol' fashioned McDonalds for lunch instead of the awful stuff Draxum made for the students.
Truthfully, she was here because Leo had texted her, telling the gooey Yokai that April hadn't quite seemed like herself during a phone call they'd had on Monday.
"Over here," April waved her arm, drawing Sunita's attention. She thought it was strange that April had decided to sit all by herself, far from everyone else, but she decided not to pay it any mind. Maybe April just wanted some alone time?
"Hey, girl, good to see you," Sunita hugged April tightly before setting down the bags of McDonald's she had brought with her. "I brought chicken nuggets and fries!"
"Thank goodness, Barry's slop looks even worse than usual today," April quickly grabbed her share of food and began to eat. She and Sunita ate in silence for a couple of minutes until she glanced at her usually gooey friend. "What brings you by? I thought you were gonna be busy till next week."
Sunita paused, thinking carefully about how she should respond. Before she could think of a good excuse, she heard April's phone go off. April tensed as she grabbed her phone. Sunita didn't like the way her friend's shoulders slumped or the defeated look in her eyes as she stared at her screen.
The Slime Yokai set her hand gently on the human girl's shoulder, waiting until April looked up to meet Sunita's worried gaze.
"Hey, April, are you okay?"
April sighed before she took a seat on the bench, the purple-clad teen sitting beside her. They sat in silence for a few minutes. Just as Sunita was about to tell the other girl that they didn't have to talk about it, April's phone was shoved into her hands.
The daughter of Exploding Frankie took a look at the phone and froze.
Her eyes scanned through all of the notifications, insult after insult being thrown at her friend along with awful nicknames, 'Weirdo Magnet' being used the most often. As Sunita turned toward April, she took in the hint of red on her face, almost like she was…embarrassed?
'If anyone should be embarrassed, it should be the ones sending these horrible texts,' Sunita thought. Before she could voice this out loud, April began to ramble on about when these messages first began to appear, during her phone call with Leo, and how she had a feeling it had to do with her latest article for the school newspaper. Though she blocked each user and number, new ones would send even more despicable texts and DMs.
At one point, April seemed to be in tears and Sunita embraced her, fists clenched as she thought about what to do. Obviously, the situation needed to be dealt with, but how?
She could try and get the whole 'no friends' thing rebuked, and maybe show April's classmates how she had people to rely on. But Sunita stopped officially attending that high school after the Foot had quit following her, and her time in the human world was limited to mostly at night due to her father's fear that she would be discovered.
And Dale was useless. Which left…Sunita smirked as she got an idea. Maybe she couldn't fix things, but she knew who could.
The Yokai pulled away and held April's hands in her own as she smiled reassuringly.
"I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this, but I think I've got a plan to deal with these bullies once and for all," Sunita stated confidently. "Just give me a little time, till tomorrow or maybe Friday depending on how quickly I can get the stuff we need."
"What are you gonna do?" April asked her friend, looking a little wary.
"Leave it all to me, O'Neil. I'll take care of everything," Sunita gave April's hands a quick squeeze before letting go. "Go about your day like usual, and try not to pay them any mind. I know it'll be hard, but maybe don't look at your phone if you don't have to, or mute notifications."
"I can try," April sighed. "But they'll just start saying it in person, won't they?"
Sunita paused. She didn't know much about the students at this school, her only knowledge was limited to what April told her.
"Maybe," she shrugged. "I don't know for sure. I do know that my idea should help you with your cyber worries. So just try to be patient, please."
She refused to say anything else, even as April tried to pry for details. So the future reporter simply left it alone and they enjoyed the rest of their lunch together before Sunita had to go.
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April tried to do as Sunita had asked. She rarely checked her phone if she didn't need to, muting all notifications except texts from her parents, Splinter, the boys, as well as Sunita, of course.
She ignored her classmates, or at least tried to, though it was hard when they were snickering at her in the hallways or walking up to her to ask if she'd gotten any "interesting" messages lately.
Come Friday, April was ready to leave school and all her terrible acquaintances. Unfortunately, she still had half the day left. Then, she got a text from Sunita that filled her with both anticipation and worry.
BGF (Best Gooey Friend): Go to the courtyard, and go to the spot we were at on Wednesday. Don't get slop.
Looked like Sunita had started whatever crazy plan she'd concocted. Hopefully, it wasn't as insane as some of Donnie's more morally-questionable schemes.
'As long as I don't have to clean anything up, I'm sure it'll be fine,' April thought in a last-minute attempt to reassure herself that she wasn't about to walk into a total disaster outside of the cafeteria.
April took note of how crowded the courtyard was for a change, and how even in her isolated area, there seemed to be people standing around, staring at something.
As she got closer, she realized that 'something' was a picnic blanket set up, filled with drinks and snacks, including a box of what looked like triple meat pizza; her favorite.
Standing around the blanket were four teenage boys that April could have sworn she'd never seen in her life, yet they all looked strangely familiar.
The tallest boy was fairly muscular, with a red hoodie on that had the sleeves torn off. His eyes were a light shade of brown, almost like amber, and his skin was a medium-deep golden brown. A red bandana covered most of his dark mahogany brown hair, though what drew April's attention was a snaggle tooth that looked a lot like Raph's…
Next to him was a boy with similarly colored hair except he had dyed the tips an ashy blond, tied messily into a ponytail. He had a blue headband with a long tail of blue ribbon and a simple black tank top with odd blue gloves covering his hands. The boy's eyes were hazel with a mostly sky-blue color, with a shade of brown surrounding his pupil. His skin tone was lighter, though he had vitiligo, the skin around his eyes and parts of his arm a paler shade than the rest of his body. Kind of like Leo's markings, actually.
The third boy, slightly darker than the guy with the red torn-up hoodie, wore a simple white and purple hoodie covering a t-shirt that was a slightly darker shade of purple. Like the boy in the tank top, he had gloves, though his were fingerless and purple. His dark brown hair was tied back with a purple bandana, with a familiar pair of goggles, and…was that a tech sleeve exactly like Donnie's?
The final boy had his dark hair in curls, with a similar headband to the boy in blue except his ribbon tails were tied into a boy. Upon further inspection, he also had some short braids along the side of his head with a couple of beads. The boy's face had a couple of stickers on it as well as his orange hoodie, along with freckles that marked his darker skin, darker than all of the others. The stickers reminded April of the ones Mikey liked to use.
All of them were so similar yet so different from her boys, the main difference being that they were human and not mutant turtles.
And pinned to each of their shirts or hoodies was a weird pin, each with a different colored stone in the middle. The stones matched their main colors (red, blue, purple, and orange, but each had a different design. The boy in red had his stone embedded in a simple brassy-gold circle. The guy with the dyed tips wore a pin with a silver moon. Meanwhile, the one with the tech sleeve had his in the shape of a black metal gear and the boy with freckles had a bright golden sun.
All of which looked an awful lot like the Cloaking Broach Sunita had, as well as the ones in the book her friend had shown her about the types of broaches created in the Hidden City.
The gears were turning in her head as the boy in red walked up to her hesitantly, his face flushed.
"Hey, Riri."
That childhood nickname of hers cemented the fact that these were, in fact, her boys.
April grinned as she gave Raph a quick hug, earning a wide smile from him.
"April! What do you think?" Leo asked, posing confidently. April rolled her eyes as he smiled smugly. "We look pretty good, don't we?"
"Nice to see how modest you are," April replied dryly as Mikey hugged her tightly. "What are you guys even doing here?"
"We came to surprise you! Tada!" Mikey smiled as April sat down, admiring all the food. "You like it?"
"I love it," April stated as each of the boys sat down in a circle.
At that point, she didn't even care what Sunita's plan was, she was just so happy to see her brothers in the human world without having to hide their appearance, surprising her with a picnic of all things.
Donnie smirked as he passed her a few slices of her beloved pizza, typing something in his sleeve quickly.
"I got your favorites while Raph and Leo helped Sunita to acquire the Cloaking Broaches. Miguel here got all the picnic stuff like the blanket and food containers and whatnot," Donnie stated, looking very pleased with himself. April nudged his shoulder and signed 'thanks' as she munched on a pizza slice. "I take it you're happy with this arrangement?"
"Thrilled, actually," April admitted. Then she paused, wondering whether or not she should ask how this fit into the plan. It was highly unlikely that Sunita hadn't filled them in but April didn't want to accidentally let it slip. They had enough on their plate already. "Though I am a little confused about how this is supposed to help me."
The boys' faces darkened as they glanced around the area, April only just noticing how her classmates seemed to be lingering near the group, looking completely dumbfounded. She huffed quietly; was it really that hard to believe that she had friends, let alone friends who would do something like this?
"About that…while we are not happy about having to find out from Sunita, and will definitely be having a conversation about this before the movie marathon today," Raph gave April a stern look and she winced, not looking forward to what would surely be an emotional conversation. "We are happy to help you in whatever way we can."
"Yeah, Sunita thought if we showed up then we could show those losers how wrong they are," Leo glared at a couple of the students, who seemed to draw away from him nervously. "By letting them see what awesome friends you have."
"And we can make sure they know not to mess with you. Don't worry; Dr. Delicate Touch is on call," Mikey smiled menacingly and April gulped, absolutely terrified but also extremely grateful that the 'doc' didn't seem to have anything to say to her.
"Unfortunately, I've been told manslaughter is not an option," Donnie sighed sadly and April couldn't help but roll her eyes. "But I will be taking care of those idiots."
"Honestly, D, if you could just mass block all of these numbers and accounts so I don't gotta do it all individually, that'd be a huge help. I'm tired of my lock screen being filled with jerks instead of my picture of Mayhem," April said. Donnie nodded as he reached his hand out, April taking the hint and handing him his phone.
A couple of students started to walk towards April and them, the girl groaning internally as she realized it was a couple of the guys who had sent the most texts, creating profile after profile each time she managed to block them.
"Can't believe you went to the trouble of hiring some tough guys to pretend to be your friend, O'Neil," one of the boys, Brett if April wasn't mistaken, laughed. His buddies as well as the surrounding students all got a good chuckle out of that and April tried to hunch down, avoiding eye contact as she eyed the ground.
It was so embarrassing, having this happen in front of her brothers. They must think she's ridiculous for getting so upset over something so dumb-
Before April could finish her thought, Raph stood up, standing taller than the majority of the students in the courtyard. He towered over Brett and his friends, who all took a step back away from him.
"She didn't hire us," Raph practically growled. Leo stood up as well, leaning against his brother's shoulders.
"Unlike you bozos, April simply has higher standards for who her friends are. We, luckily, met the criteria," Leo stated, looking almost bored. Brett frowned and opened his mouth to say something when Donnie spoke up.
"She probably doesn't want guys on the verge of academic probation that have to take summer school while everyone else gets to enjoy their summers."
April couldn't help but laugh, noticing how other classmates began to whisper amongst themselves.
"If there's one thing you guys need to know, it's this," Mikey took a deep breath and April mentally prepared herself for whatever 'delicate' words he was about to say. "This girl is our best friend, and if you or anyone else at this lousy place messes with her again, in person or virtually, then we'll do everything we can to make your lives miserable. Teachers, parents, your neighbors, everybody will know how pathetic you all are for picking on someone because you can't handle how much you hate yourselves."
Silence.
One by one, kids began to disperse, walking away from the group.
April could've cried as she dropped her pizza on a paper plate, rushing to hug each of her boys.
"We got you, April," Leo said softly as the group hugged her back.
They enjoyed the rest of their meal and April had a great time. Even when she had to have a long conversation that may have ended with her getting pretty emotional, April still thought she'd had an amazing day. Especially when they agreed to a Turtle Pile after a tearful group hug.
The following week, April noticed that no one said much of anything to her when she came back to school. She might've gotten the occasional glance her way or had people move away from her as she walked through the halls, but no one had anything to say to her.
If they had to interact with April, her classmates were extremely respectful, being polite as they got their schoolwork done. People seemed to panic a little whenever they were paired up with her and even looked a little afraid sometimes.
She smirked as she walked through the hallway, holding her head high. April might not have approved of the sneakiness of Sunita's plan, but she had to admit, the results were definitely worth it.
AN:Instagram link for the artist who I referenced for what the boys' Cloaked Versions looked like.
kikichibee/
p/CjjGL1CLPmE/ Group picture of the boys
p/CjQTrDqrKH5/ Raph (individual)
p/CjJeeTAr33m/ Leo (individual)
p/CjOMAI4rR4q/ Donnie (individual)
p/CjLa9Q3rBm3/ Mikey (individual)
Comment that inspired this chapter:
"The part where April was on call with Leo and got a nasty message was the point where I stopped and immediately came up with my own satisfying resolution.
The ending we got was fine, too. Since it was kind of similar. But my ending was that Sunita finds out about all the cyberbullying April was dealing with and ends up giving the guys cloaking broaches so they could go to her school and show everyone that she DID in fact have friends and that she is NOT to be messed with."
Thank you for the idea, Theaterkidgoboing! I always appreciate story ideas and I hope this turned out the way you wanted.
I appreciate you reading this!
- Kitkat Out!