Chapter 8
[OMG, I just realised that I had been spelling Donnie and Mikey wrong, I'll spell their names right starting now, and I'm too lazy to go back through the other chapters to fix them up. Please don't hate me]
Over the course of the next two weeks, I was learning more about myself. I had learnt that I had a bad temper, which I had apparently denied in the past. I also learnt that I was too impulsive and never thought things through. I had learnt more about the turtles then what I knew before and I had become friends with each of them. I had learnt to stay on their good side, but occasionally I would say or do something to irritate Raph and start a verbal fight, which would only end with either Donnie or Mikey intervening. As strange as it sounds, I enjoyed my fights with Raph as it was fun to say something then usually end up winning whatever battle took place. Whenever we ended a fight, we would keep away from each other for three days or more at a time then talk like nothing ever happened. Most of all, I learnt that I was easily amused.
I was holed up in my room after a fight with Raph, which I had won. I was busy shredding a piece of paper into tiny pieces of confetti. I had created a small pile and had a large stack of paper beside me, which I planned to shred before the turtles went to bed. I was feeling pride and happiness bursting in my chest at the thought of winning another fight. I placed the last of the shredded paper from my hand onto the pile and grabbed another sheet of paper. I ripped a small piece from the corner and heard a knock at the entrance of my room. I looked up and saw Mikey, he had a trench coat draped over one arm and he held onto a hat with his other. I smiled at him.
"Hello Mikey" I said. Mikey walked in and sat in front of my pile of confetti.
"Hey dudette, want to come out for a walk? Raph is at the couch, fuming that you won another argument" He replied. I smiled, and then turned to my paper pile.
"Alright, let's go" I said, placing the paper on top of the pile and standing up. Mikey followed me after placing on his hat and coat and the two of us walked out of the room and towards the lair's entrance. We left and headed to the surface of the darkened streets above. We walked around then stopped at a pizza pallor. We ordered two large pizzas then sat down at a booth. While we waited we ended up playing a few games of thumb wars. We kept score by placing a straw in front of either myself or Mikey. As the pizza was placed onto our table, we had counted the straws. We laughed as we found that we had come a draw. Mikey grabbed a pizza box and opened it up. I grabbed the other and opened it also. I grabbed a slice of my vegetarian pizza and took a bite. The two of us sat in silence for a few minutes, before I decided to speak.
"Is Raph really annoyed?" I asked. Mikey nodded.
"Yeah, what did you do to tick him off this time?" Mikey asked. I shrugged.
"I guess I may have said something to upset him...again" I replied. Mikey laughed.
"That sounds about right. What did you say to him?"
"I may have said something about his hot-headedness." I took another bite. Mikey snorted.
"Yeah, that's enough to set him off" He stated, taking a sip from his glass of soft drink. I stretched my arms out in front of me and felt my shoulders pop. I sat back properly and placed my arms on the back of the booth's couch.
"Hey did you want to go and check out the late night movie shop after?" I asked. Mikey nodded his mouth full.
"Sure thing" He replied, after swallowing.
We ate the rest of our meal in silence, and then walked out of the pallor to head to the closest video store. We entered and quickly ran to different genres of movies. I headed straight for the horror section and browsed the titles. I grabbed a few movies and tucked them under my arm. I headed towards where I had left Mikey and stood beside him. He was looking at the superhero movies. I smiled as I saw he had a bigger stack than mine.
"Mikey, are you seriously wanting to watch those?" I asked. Mikey nodded without looking at me.
"Superheroes are awesome. Haven't you ever seen one?" he asked, holding up a movie based on Superman. I shook my head.
"No, if I recall I had lived on the streets according to you guys, so I don't remember if I have ever seen one" I replied. Mikey grinned and faced me.
"Then I'm going to teach you a little something about superheroes" He said. We walked towards the front counter and we both dumped our movies on it. The man behind the counter looked really unenthusiastic. He turned to me then to Mikey.
"If you guys want, I can show you to where the less scary movies are" He said, in a dull and bored voice. I shook my head.
"No way, we'll just take these" I replied. The man shrugged and beeped the movies across the barcode scanner, then placing them in a plastic bag.
"That'll be thirty two, fifty" He said. Mikey fished out a wallet and paid the man. The man took the money and gave Mikey back a receipt. "Have a nice day." Mikey took the plastic bag and we walked out. Once we were out of earshot, we burst out into laughter.
"Man, he must be bored out of his mind" I said.
"I know, did you hear the tone in his voice? It was all "Have a nice day" Mikey replied, imitating the man's voice. Mikey sounded exactly like the man, which made me laugh harder. We walked into an alleyway after making sure no one was watching us. We entered a manhole and down into the sewers. We walked along the familiar tunnel and entered the lair. Leo and Raph were nowhere in sight, then we heard them fighting each other in the dojo area. Donnie was sitting at his small work station and working on something new. Mikey and I walked over to the couch and dumped the movies on the cushions. We spread them out and started debating which order we should watch them in. We agreed on watching a horror movie after every three superhero movies. I grabbed all the horror movies and sorted them in what order I wanted. Mikey did the same with his choices. As we finished, Mikey had placed his first movie into the DVD player. I watched as superman came on. I was so intrigued in the movie that I found myself asking questions that contradict what the movie was about. At some point during the second movie, Mikey had made us both some food and we sat in silence eating it. I heard the lair's doors open and someone walk in.
"April, how are you?" Called Donnie, from where he had been since before we had gotten to the lair. I turned and saw April walking over to Donnie. She sat down beside him and the two were discussing something technical. I turned back and Raph walked to sit down on the small armchair, beside the couch.
"How was training? Did you win or did Leo beat you again?" I blurted out. I flicked my eyes to Raph and found he was glaring right at me.
"Look, why don't you just drop it" Raph said, in an icy cold tone. I smirked.
"So Leo beat you. It doesn't really surprise me" I said, mumbling the last part of my sentence. Raph turned so that he was facing me directly.
"Kid drop it. If it's so easy why don't you duel him" he said. I shook my head.
"I have not been trained in martial arts and besides even if I was, I would hate to beat him when you couldn't" I replied, with a smirk planted firmly on my face. Raph stood up and walked over to me. I stood up and the two of us stood there glaring at each other. Mikey looked up and seemed more interested in our fight then what was going on in the movie.
"That's it, you are starting martial arts starting tomorrow and then we'll see who can beat Leo when you reach our level of training" Raph declared, in a low and deadly voice. My grin turned evil.
"You're on and if I win, then you have to forfeit trying to beat Leo" I said.
"But if I win, then you have to go and live with April" Raph replied.
"Deal." I held out my hand and we shook. We both turned and went to different areas of the lair. I ended up back in my room and shredding what paper I hadn't when I left. By the time I was tired, my anger had left and I sunk into depression as I thought about the deal I had just accepted. I hung my head lowly and played with my paper confetti with one finger. Horror and doubt rushed through my head. What if I lose? What would happen if I actually ended up living with April? Nothing would be the same and I would be out in the open, free for anyone to attack me. I sunk lower and lower before I gained a headache from the stress I was placing on myself. I stood up and went over to my bed. I lay down and closed my eyes. I heard someone walk in, sigh then leave. My eyes snapped open as I realised that the sigh had come from Raph. I turned my head and saw a shadow leaving the wall outside my room. I watched it leave before turning back. I stared at the wall and wondered what Raph had wanted. I closed my eyes again and this time felt myself drift off to sleep.
By the time I woke up someone was shaking me. I opened my eyes and turned over onto my stomach. I buried my face in my pillow and refused to move.
"Come one, get up" Shouted someone's voice. The blanket I was under was then removed and I felt cold air rush to my body. I curled up and groaned. "Get up. Time to start your training" said the voice. I then felt my brain processing what had been said. Training…training…time for training…the deal, ah training. I quickly sat up and the back of my head collided with someone's face. I clutched the back of my head and looked to see who I had hit. I saw a red headband. I smirked.
"Serves you right," I told Raph, getting out of bed, "You should never wake a woman from a deep sleep." Raph glared at me, still clutching the front of his face. His eyes turned icy and he walked out.
"Hurry up, we have a deal" He said, over his shoulder. I stood up and brushed my hair, which now reached down to the middle of my back, up into a high ponytail. I changed my clothes into a white singlet with thick sleeves and black tracksuit pants. I walked out and headed for the dojo area. The only one in there was Raph, his arms crossed. He had cleared the area and set up some training dummies. I raised an eyebrow, but refused to say anything.
"I guess you are my teacher" I said. Raph nodded his head once.
"You will be learning the basics of fighting" He said.
"What does that include, anger management?" I sneered.
"How can you be so angry for so early in the morning?" Raph asked.
"You did wake me up too early and besides my head is still throbbing" I replied. Raph smirked.
"Let's start with these dummies" He said, pointing to one that had wooden bats hanging loosely at the sides. I frowned.
"Those thing move don't they?" I asked. Raph smiled.
"You catch on fast. Yes they do in fact move, nothing you can't handle right?" I clenched my teeth together. "Begin, try to dodge the attacks and push the dummy away." I moved around the dummy and attacked from the front. My hand slipped and it moved. The wooden bat came right at me and I couldn't move fast enough. I was hit in my side and flung across the room. I landed on my side and tssked. Raph laughed loudly. I stood up and stormed over to the dummy. I kicked out and hit it. I then ducked the first wooden bat, but forgot about the second one in my rage. I was hit and knocked back again.
By the time I had managed to dodge ten times in a row, I was bruised, battered and really angered. I stood before the dummy, puffing and seething. Raph walked in front of me.
"That's enough, now go and cool off" He said, looking impressed with how much I had learnt in just a few hours. I stalked out of the dojo area and towards my room. I slumped on my bed, face down and just lay still. As my anger faded, pain replaced it. I didn't make one noise as the pain became almost unbearable. I then started cursing Raph silently for getting me in a fit of anger. Then I cursed myself for getting Raph angry in the first place. All in all I blamed everything. I heard my stomach rumble and someone call out breakfast; still I refused to make one move. I shut my eyes and decided to sleep off my pain.