Authors Note: Hey guys, I hope you had a good weekend. Sorry this didn't get out sooner. I can't seem to stop procrastinating. Thank you for all the comments and everyone following the story. Please keep reviewing as it really motivates me and I love to hear that you guys are enjoying my story.

When he got home Donnie had started dinner. It was just macaroni and cheese from a box, but it was better than Leo's cooking. Raph could at least use the microwave, but Leo had proven that one could indeed burn water.

Mikey went to set the table since the times he didn't cook were so rare that whenever someone did cook or they ordered take-out that he was the default for setting the table. By the time he was done Master Splinter came home. They all sat at the table and began to eat.

"Mikey how was your tutoring session," his sensei asked?

"It went okay. I'm meeting with him again tomorrow."

"He wasn't a jerk to you was he," Raph asked with a look on his face that said he'd was prepare to cause hell if he was?

Mikey shook his head. "No way dude, he was totally cool."

Raph relaxed a little and went back to eating. As Master Splinter turned his attention to asking his brothers how their day went he thought of Leatherhead. The guy would just not leave his mind. Mikey could see him being friends with Leatherhead, but Mikey was the type who was always willing to make new friends.

Part of him could see wanting to be more than just friends with Leatherhead, but even he knew that was an unrealistic fantasy. Leatherhead was a cool, but he most likely wasn't gay, and even if he was that didn't mean he'd want to date Mikey.

Mikey was lost in his thoughts about Leatherhead. It wasn't until Master Splinter placed a hand on his shoulder did he realize that he hadn't been attention to anything anyone else had said. Master splinter gave him a questioning look as did his brothers.

Mikey hesitated before shrugging. "I was just thinking what if you crossed a cat with ice cream? Wouldn't it be adorable? I bet it would taste good too."

Mikey's brothers all rolled their eyes at him, and groaned while Master Splinter shook his head slightly. Mikey just smiled.

"As I was about to tell your brothers I have decided that you'll not only be fighting each other in the exhibition, but others as well."

The brothers all looked each other in surprised before yelling out in joy. They had always fought each other in exhibition matches, and now they were finally going to be able to fight other people. It was super exciting, and Mikey couldn't wait to see who he was going to be fighting against.

Master Splinter excused himself and grabbed a sheet of paper. The boys gathered around it, and their eyes widened.

"Is this really who were going to be fighting against," Donnie asked in slight disbelief?

Master Splinter nodded, and the boys were left speechless. Raph, and Leo would be going up against adults while Mikey, and Donnie would be fighting college age kids. Since it was just for show they were going against people of their own level. If they ever competed than they'd be fighting their own age groups.

"When we train this week we will be focusing on fighting without the use of your weapons as they will not be allowed when you fight your opponents," Master Splinter announced.

The boys all nodded with enthusiasm. Mikey looked at the list, and groaned when he spotted a name on the list.

"What," Leo asked in confusion?

"Chris is going to be fighting at the exhibition."

The others looked at the paper, and groaned when they saw the name. None of the boys were fighting him, but they'd probably run into him. Mikey felt some of his excitement wane.

Mikey had developed a major crush on Chris Bradford in junior high. He'd done everything to get Chris's attention, and was finally noticed by him. Chris was straight, but that didn't keep Mikey from falling for him, and it had blinded him.

He'd invited Mikey to a party which he probably shouldn't have gone to in the first place, but went because Chris had asked him.

The party had started with Chris pressuring Mikey to drink, and ended with Mikey sprawled on the ground with a broken arm and the police raiding the party.

Mikey had been lucky that he'd been young and had a clean recorded. He didn't have to do any jail time though he had to spend the rest of seventh grade seeing a parole officer, and six months with a cast on his left arm.

Master Splinter had not been happy, and he had a firm talk with all of them about peer pressure, and how they should deal with it.

Mikey had made it seem like he really just wanted to seem cool to Chris, and never said anything about his crush on the teen.

Turned out Chris was a student of Master Splinters rival Saki Oroku aka Shredder. He'd taken to messing with Mikey because he felt it was a good way to humiliate the teen, and bring 'dishonor' to Master Splinter. I hadn't worked though that was mostly due to the fact that Splinter didn't think that Mikey's action reflected solely on his teaching. He felt it reflected more on his parenting, but Chris didn't seem to understand that Splinter wasn't only their sensei, but their father as well.

After the Party Mikey refused to talk to Chris, and his brothers had also taught Chris a lesson by beating him, and some of Shredders fellow students in a fight. Chris retaliated by trying to make the rest of junior high a living hell for Mikey, and had almost succeeded with the claiming he was a girl rumor. However, with him stripping down to his boxers showing off his body it had somewhat of an opposite effect.

People thought he was tough, and cool. Mikey was at first mystified by the attention, but figured out that people hoped he would either make them popular by association, or were looking for someone to protect them.

Mikey understood the last part, but the problem was that he wasn't really aggressive. Sure he could kick seven kinds of ass and never break a sweat, but Mikey didn't like to fight to show he was tough or intimidating. He was admittedly a goofball. He liked fun, and while fighting could be fun Master Splinter had taught them too much discipline to try and get a rush out of fighting.

Raph was still kind of learning that, but he was getting better. Mikey refused to use his skills to intimidate and paid no mind to the suck ups. His school life settled back down soon enough, and he liked it better that way. Once in a while he'd step in if someone was being bullied, but that had more to do with not liking bullies rather than trying to be the superhero of junior high.

By the next year Mikey made a few casual friends, but he never felt a strong connection with anyone. Not like he did with his brothers. Master Splinter, and the school consoler had worried that Mikey might be too close to his brothers. He showed he could be fine on his own, and he explained that while he did prefer being around his brothers he could make friends if he wanted to.

"Mikey it's going to be okay" Leo said. "We'll make sure that Chris doesn't bother you."

Mikey wanted to say that he could take care of himself, but he saw the concern on all three of his brothers faces and decided to simply nod. Mikey had given them all a scare when he broke his arm. He'd also disappointed them slightly.

Mikey had never gotten into any major trouble. Sure he got sent to the office for being disruptive or being late for class, but never anything serious. Never anything that involved breaking the law. It had taken a while to get back the trust he lost, but it left his brothers forever worried about anything to do with Chris Bradford.

Chris attended the same high school as Mikey, and his brothers, but he'd only taunted Mikey from, and never in front of his brothers. Chris was cocky, but he knew that while he might be able to take on Mikey alone he'd never be able to take on all three of his brothers at the same time. So Chris had taken to bugging Mikey when he was alone. Mikey handled it fine since Chris seemed to take more pleasure from taunting Mikey than actually hurting him.

"Could we compete this year?" Raph asked curiously. They all looked at Master Splinter with pleading eyes.

Master Splinter smiled. "We will see. Let's focus on the exhibition, and we'll talk about whether you four are ready to compete. I do want you boys to know that if I do allow you to compete you must keep us with your school work. If you cannot maintain your currents grades you will not be able to compete."

All four nodded in understanding. Master Splinter always made sure the boys did their best in school. He wasn't asking for perfection, but he knew what the boys were capable of, and refused to let them slack off.

The boys talked about the exhibition, and who they were fighting. Soon though Master Splinter reminded them they had homework, and they headed to their rooms.

Mikey got to work on an essay for english. He had to pick an emotion and describe it without using the name of said emotion. Mikey like these kinds o assignments because it allowed him to get creative which was what he was best at.

He got his speech recognition program set up, and began to speak into his headset. When he finished he had Donnie look over it, and offered advice on different words he could use, and reviewed his grammar. Once that was done Mikey went back and fixed everything. Mikey had of course picked happy, and as he looked over his final draft he felt he'd done a good job.

After homework Mikey, and Raph played a video game together wile Donnie, and Leo watched. It was fun, and Mikey had ended up winning. He, and Raph were both very good at video games. Whenever they played it was always a close game. It was relaxing, and he liked spending time like this with his brothers. They all had different interest, but they had always been close and growing up hadn't affected that. Mikey had always been proud that he, and his brothers got along so well, even with the age gap between them.

Once it was time for bed Mikey brushed his teeth and changed. As he drifted off to sleep he thought of Leatherhead shy smile. He smiled as he dreamed of Leatherhead punching Chris Bradford in the face.

He got up and waited his turn for the bathroom. They had a quick breakfast before heading off to school.

Once there Mikey grabbed his books and headed to class. He paused when he saw Leatherhead, but before he could say hello the warning bell rang, and Mikey had to run to class. As he sat down he realized his heart was slightly racing. This confused him because the run to class was like walking to him. He realized that it might be due to Leatherhead. He held groaned, and laid his head on his desk. He didn't even know Leatherhead that well, and yet his crush seemed to be growing. He needed to get it under control, or he'd start acting like an idiot…..well a bigger idiot. He again thought of Chris and how that had lead to a very bad thing. While he didn't think Leatherhead would do anything like Chris did Mikey didn't want to get his heartbroken.

Mikey frowned, and decided he needed to get his thoughts in order about how he felt about Leatherhead. He felt bad, but he determined that he needed to skip out on tutoring until he figured out his feelings for Leatherhead. Being near Leatherhead would only cloud Mikey's judgment, and Mikey remembered the last time he'd allowed that. He could almost feel his arm ache at the thought.

When classes ended Mikey headed to his next class when he saw Leatherhead. He called Leatherhead's name causing the older student to turn, and smiled slight when he saw Mikey.

"Hey Leatherhead I can't meet for our study session today. Master Splinter wants us to do some extra training."

Leatherhead frowned, but nodded. "Okay Michelangelo how about we meet on Tuesday then?"

Mikey nodded and put on a fake smile. "Sounds great Leatherhead see you then." He raced off to class trying not to feel too guilty about lying to Leatherhead.

At lunch he made sure to act normal. He smiled and laughed, while joking around. Donnie rolled his eyes as Mikey told a lame joke. He had his arm around April and was reading a book, but Mikey could see the sides of his mouth twitching as if not to smile.

The rest of school day went fine, but Mikey was glad when it was over. He made his way to the park instead of meeting up with his brothers. He needed to be alone, and he knew the perfect place.

Mikey headed to the park that he knew well. It was small and pretty rundown, but it was a good place to think since it wasn't really used. He sat down on the swing, and tried to figure out just what he thought about Leatherhead.

The older teen was good looking, but Chris had been that too. He was nice and it didn't seem to be an act, but that didn't seem to be enough to not only develop a crush, but for it to grow. Then again maybe it was that simple, and he was over thinking things. This was odd since Mikey was the king of going with the flow of things. Donnie, and Leo were the ones who would end up in a tizzy trying to figure something out that was really simple.

Mikey groaned, and threw his head back, letting out a loud sigh. He liked Leatherhead, that much he knew, but the more important question was should he act on said crush? Leatherhead gave no indication that he was gay or even bi. Mikey could make things really awkward if he tried to act on his feelings. He wanted to be friends with Leatherhead, and he wanted to get better at math. Both of those things could be difficulty if there was that odd tension of liking someone who didn't feel the same way about you.

Mikey didn't even know if this crush would ever fully develop or just fade away. He wanted Leatherhead to like him, but he didn't want things to be awkward if he didn't. What did he find about Leatherhead that made him attractive and what could make that attraction grow? Mikey let out an annoyed sound as he realized he was going in mental circles. He was just about to wonder if maybe he should talk to someone about this when he heard his name called.

Mikey looked up and frowned. "Go away Chris."

Chris Bradford smiled and moved closer. "Why would I do that? I finally catch you without your bodyguards and you expect me to walk away without fighting you?"

Mikey sighed. "I don't need my brothers to kick your ass Chris," Mikey said his voice dripping with annoyance.

Chris laughed. "I'd like to see you try, but I'm kind of curious as to why you're here all alone looking like your trying to solve what two plus two is. The answer is four."

Mikey growled and stood up. "Go the hell away Chris. I just want to be alone."

Chris smirked. "You mean like how you decided to be alone after the party? Mikey I know I broke your heart, but it was all part of my little experiment. Just how high would you be willing to jump if you thought it meant I would return your feelings? I guess the answer isn't how high you'd jump up, but how high you'd jump off of something."

Mikey frowned and tired not to let his surprise show. He was positive that he never did anything that showed he had a crush on Chris.

He must not have done such a good job at hiding either because Chris again laughed.

"Still not very bright? I know all about your little crush Mikey and I always have. It was so fun to see just what you would do for my attention. If I'm honest it was quite the nice ego boost. I would have loved to see how much longer I could have strung you along."

Mikey got off the swing and tried to walk away, but Chris blocked his path.

"You will fight me Mikey. I'm not going to let you just walk away. If you want to leave you'll have to go through me."

Before Mikey could move Chris pulled back his fist and threw the first punch.