Raphael
After Mikey and I got back from Market Street with the 'groceries,' Mary actually made each of us a baloney and cheese sandwich.
"Thank you so much for going to the store for me boys. I hope you like your lunch," she said as Mikey and I took a bite of our sandwich.
"It's super good; but not as good as pizza though," Mikey mumbled with food in his mouth, and I just rolled my eyes.
"Don't talk with food in your mouth Michelangelo," she said and Mikey swallowed his sandwich. "I'm guessing you really like pizza huh?" she asked. Now she was in for it.
"Yup! It's the bestest food in the whole world. Ms. Adams, our other foster mom, would sometimes buy a pizza kit and I'd make my world-famous pepperoni pizza for us and all the other kids. Raph says my pizzas are gross, but he just doesn't have good taste," he said and I hit him on the back.
"Ow!" he whined.
"I never said I didn't like your food, Mike. I said I hated your experimental food," I said taking another bite of my sandwich.
"Experimental food?" Mary said.
"Oh yeah. When I grow up, I'm gonna be a ninja, like my older brother Leo, and then open up my own pizza shop; so I gotta start working on my recipes. I've already come up with pizza-noodle soup, and pizza dogs, and nacho pizza…" he said and at that point, I just grunted, and covered my ears so I wouldn't listen to this again. I didn't unplug them until Mikey tapped me on the shoulder.
"What?!" I snapped.
"Which one was better? The pizza-noodle soup or the pizza shake I made last week," he asked.
"Neither," I responded.
"You're right, I can't decide either. They're both super yummy; which means I gotta watch out for anyone who would want to steal my secret recipes. No one will dare try to rob me though. I'm Michelangelo; ninja-chef," he said in a deep voice while standing up and doing a defense pose while Mary chuckled.
"A ninja-chef huh? Don't think I've heard that one before," Mary said. "Perhaps the next time I'm at the store, I'll buy you a pizza kit and we can make one together. You'll have to tell me your favorite toppings though."
'Yeah, the next time you're at the store,' I thought.
"Really? All right! You're gonna love one of 'Mikey's world-famous pepperoni pizzas'!" Mikey cheered. "So did you find your inspiration for that painting you were doing?"
"Some. I got what I wanted to get done but I'm afraid the painting's not quite done yet," she said.
"Can I see it?" Mikey asked.
"Not right now. An artist never shows an unfinished masterpiece until it's fully complete," Mary said.
"Oh, okay," Mikey said.
"Speaking of which, I think it's time that we go over some rules," she said and I saw her reach over to grab her sandwich, but knocked over her cup spilling soda everywhere. "Oops. Michelangelo, be a dear and grab some paper towels over there for me," she said.
"Okay," Mikey said and he went over and grabbed a whole roll of paper towels by the sink. Then he ran back over and handed the paper towels to Mary, but she just looked at him with her arms crossed.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Hurry up and wipe it, Michelangelo, before it spreads even further," she asked. My eyebrows rose and looked over at Mikey who seemed lost; more lost than usual.
"Oh. Alright," he gently said and before going to tear off a paper towel from the roll, I grabbed his shoulder stopping him.
"No," I said grabbing the paper towels from Mikey. "You knocked it over, so you clean it up," I said and slammed it on the table in front of her.
"Raphael, I asked Michelangelo to…"
"Oh I heard ya. But I also saw what you did. If you wanna talk about rules, then I got one just for you; yer not ordering my brother and me around just to do your chores," I snapped.
"Raphael, I will not be spoken to like that! This is a small apartment complex with two more mouths that need to be fed while living off of my painting salary. If you want to have food on the table then both of you need to co-operate and help out around here," Mary said and I jumped out of the chair I was in nearly knocking it to the ground.
"Shut the hell up with this whole 'extra mouths to feed' thing! It's getting on my nerves," I yelled and she just gave me 'a look'.
"But you can't deny it, can you? My husband died leaving me with nothing but an empty house and bills that weren't going to be paid themselves. I've worked too long and hard to lose everything I've accomplished so far and won't stand to lose it all. I want to extend my kindness to others less fortunate like yourselves, but rest assured that I'm not afraid to throw you out into the streets if I have to," she said and my hands turned to tight fists.
"No! Please don't," Mikey begged. "L-look! I'll wipe it up, I promise!" Mikey tore a few paper towels off the roll and started to wipe the table.
"Mikey, don't you dare," I warned but he just ignored me and cleaned the table surface really fast.
"S-see? No problem," he said and threw away the soaked towels never taking his eyes off of her.
"Thank you. Now as I was saying before, we have rules in this house. Rule one, both of you need to pick up after yourselves around here," she told us. "Rule two, I'm not to be disturbed for any reason while I'm working in my art studio unless the house is on fire. Remember, good paintings equal money that we need to survive and I need to concentrate."
"O-Okie Dokie Ms. Mary," Mikey stuttered. Then she looked at me still with that look.
"Well, what's it going to be Raphael; a roof over your head or the dark streets of New York City with no food where no one will give you two-second glances?" I stared her back down with a scowl ignoring Mikey giving me his favorite 'puppy-dog look' with those baby blues of his.
"Please Raph," Mikey whimpered.
"Fine!" I grunted before turning on my heels and leaving the kitchen shoulder-hitting Mikey as I walked away.
"Raphie's not really good with his emotions and all Ms. Mary, but I'm an expert. Basically, him shoving me and talking back to you his way of saying he's really…" I heard Mikey say but I didn't care. I just stormed up the two flights of stairs up to our room. I walked in and slammed the door shut behind me. My fists were clenched, I inhaled and exhaled through my clenched teeth, and I felt how sweaty my face was getting. Then without thinking, I grabbed our backpacks and started stuffing clothes in each of them; mine in the red one and Mike's in the orange and black one. I didn't pay too much attention to which shirts or pants I put in; no way would she notice them missing. When I was done, I zippered back up the backpacks and put them back into the closet we shared.
The Next Day
Donatello
I opened my eyes and looked over at my alarm clock; 7:15. Best I better get up now. It felt weird not being woken up by Leo for once to go on our annual run but I, to be honest, had been up for hours unable to go back to sleep. As quietly as I could, I got out of bed, sloppily made the bed, put on my glasses, grabbed my black shorts and purple workout shirt, and tiptoed out the door without waking up one of the seven-year-old twins who I now shared a room with. After I got dressed and did my 'morning routine,' I went downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed a banana and a bottle of water.
"Still going on your run?" a voice asked. I looked over and saw Ms. Adams staring at me from the doorway.
"Have to. Leo will kill me if he found out I missed it," I responded.
"I honestly don't think Leo will care because of everything that's going on, but I still commend you for keeping up with your exercise," she said.
"Thanks," I said tossing my banana peel in the trash.
"I meant to tell you this yesterday when you came back, but I feel more comfortable with giving you the pocket knife to keep. I know you're not going to make a stupid choice like your brother did," she said holding out the pocket knife. I took the knife from her and put it in my pocket.
"Do you have your phone?" she asked.
"Yup," I said patting my other pant pocket and pulling out the Bluetooth earbuds putting them in my ears.
"I'll have a proper breakfast made by the time you get back. I still want you to clean up the dishes and take out the trash when you come back," she said.
"I will," I said grabbing my water bottle and headed out to the kitchen.
"Be careful," she called out and after a quick reassurance on my part, I left the apartment.
A half an hour later I was running through Central Park. I was just coming up on the Bow Bridge when I decided to take a quick breather and slowly walked over to a bench near the edge of the water. I pulled out my phone a paused the music I was listening to and just looked at the water. It was Saturday and not many people were out and about around eight o'clock. There were a few people out boating but that would all change in another hour. Hundreds of families would come to this park every day as tourists, locals going for a run like me, or a mother and father taking their children for a little summer picnic. Speaking of picnic, the Fourth of July celebration was next week. It was a day all four of us had always looked forward to. Every year, Ms. Adams would take all us kids to the park for a little cook-out, and then we'd all go watch the fireworks together. This is going to be my first year going without my brothers; if I even go at all.
Suddenly I felt my eyes begin to get watery. I gasped and looked at the ground trying not to catch anyone's gaze who was walking by.
'Not not. Please not now.' I thought to myself. I felt the tears begin to fill up my eyesocket and would pour down any second now. That's when I saw a stone by my foot. I scooped it up from the ground and ran towards the edge of the lake before I lost my fading sight. I aimed the rock back and skipped it across the lake just as a tear started to roll down my cheek. Quickly, I swiped away the tear off my cheek and scouted the ground for another flat rock. When I did, I picked it up and tossed it again watching as it skipped across the water four times. Again and again, I picked up a rock at attempted to skip it trying to beat the previous or improve.
'Come on Don. You shouldn't be this upset. Leo said this would only be temporary,' I continued to tell myself by my heart still had doubts.
I wasn't sure just how many rocks I had thrown, but I threw one more ignoring just how wet my face had become. This time it didn't skip at all but just 'plopped' into the water.
It was over.
I felt to my knees letting out some silent sobs that made me feel like I was going to throw up while my hands gripped the hard ground.
'Calm down Donnie. It's okay. You gotta stop before people start staring at you,' I thought, trying to do some deep breathing technique that I had previously done with Leo.
Leo!
' That's it!' I thought and got into a lotus position; well the best I could do anyway and put each hand facing upwards on my knees.
'Come on Donnie. Clear your mind and focus on your breathing.'
'Inhale'
'Exhale'
With each breath, my shaky breath got longer and longer. When I felt calm enough to open my wet eyes again, more people were out boating and walking around. Just as I thought, no one cared about a thirteen-year-old orphan crying by the lake because his brothers are gone. I wiped my face before standing back up to start heading back. That's when I saw him; the same Japanese man I had seen yesterday on the bench near the one I had been sitting on. His face wasn't as stressed as it had been, but he still just looked at me.
'How long has he been sitting there watching me?' I wondered. It didn't matter though as he looked at me with guilt and sadness. 'Perfect. Guess he saw my little meltdown.' Even though my face was still wet, I could feel how hot my cheeks were becoming as I squeezed my lips together and held onto my left arm. I glanced at the man one more time before speed walking away from him as fast as I could wiping away a stray tear from my face.
Break*Break*Break*Break*Break
On my way back to the apartment, I decided to walk in silence most of the way with my head down. The last thing I wanted was for another person to see me the way I looked.
Suddenly, I felt someone grab my hair and cover my mouth pulling me into an ally. It was a taller man I'd say in his mid-thirties wearing a shirt with the sleeves cut off, jeans, and all with a tattoo of a 'purple dragon' on their arms. He slammed me against the wall and held me along with some of his buddies. One had a blonde Mohawk who was holding a long pipe, and another had hair longer than mine that came a little past his shoulders.
"What's a little one like you doing in a neighborhood like this?" The leader holding me asked while taking his hand off my mouth.
"Case you didn't already know, this here's our turf kid," said long-haired dude.
"I-I don't want any trouble," I stuttered trying to reach for the knife in my pocket.
"Neither do we. We just wanna ask you somthin'. How much dough you got in your pocket?" Mohawk man asked.
"N-nothin'," I said.
"Aw come on. It's summertime and your free to travel and go wherever the hell you wanna. You gotta have something on ya," the leader asked.
"I don't! Honestly," I gasped.
"I don't believe ya. Frisk him boys," leader said and Mohawk and the long-haired dude started going through my pockets.
"Don't touch me!" I shouted but they continued.
"Ooo, lookie what we got here," Mohawk said pulling out Raph's knife.
"Give that back! It's my brothers!" I shouted.
"Your brother's huh? Bet he taught you all kinds of moves with this thing. We could use fighters like you in our gang," the leader said. "What do you say about giving you a nice tattoo right about here?" he asked holding the knife up to my arm.
"No!" I shouted now shaking. I was going to die right here and I'd never see my brothers again.
"Damn! The kid really doesn't have anything on him," long-haired guy said. I felt a cold shiver sliver it's way up my spine.
"Really? That's too bad, but we can take payments with your blood," the leader said.
"NO!" I screamed as they laughed at me.
Then before I could let out another word, the long-haired guy was yanked backward and thrown against the wall across from us. He fell to the ground totally out cold as the rest of us all looked at his attacker in awe. It was the Japanese man from the park.
"Release him. Now!" He ordered.
"G-Get 'im Brooks," leader ordered Mohawk as he still had a death grip on me.
"With pleasure," the guy called Brooks said. He ran at the man and started swinging the pipe at him, but the Japanese man dodged his attacks and then started punching his arm a few times. All of a sudden, his arm fell completely limp and the man hit Mohawk's chest a few times. He grunted in pain and then just fell to the ground unconscious.
"Whoa," I mumbled. Then he turned to face us two. The leader then threw me to the ground hard and turned to face the man.
"Shoulda minded yer own businessman," leader said and started running towards him. From my end, I saw the leader reaching for his back pocket and pull out something.
"He's got a knife!" I shouted. The Japanese man literately moved just the top half of his body causing leader to miss him completely. Then he gave a hard slap across leader's chest and kicked him so hard that he was launched back into the large dumpster and fell unconscious like the rest of those thugs. I stared at all three of the knocked out muggers while the man slowly made his way over to me.
"Are you alright?" he asked in his deep Japanese dialect holding his hand out to me. I stared at him for a moment before taking it and he helped me off the ground.
"I…I guess so," I responded refusing to take my eyes away from him. The man nodded his head and started to walk away from me. "Wait!" I called holding my arm out. The man stopped and faced me once more.
"Yes?" he said.
"Why…..why did you save me?" I mustered out.
"Would you prefer that I didn't?" he asked me and my eyes went wide. Nice going, Donnie.
"No! No! I'm…really grateful that you did, but…..why did you do it? You don't even know me," I said.
"Why not?" he asked me and proceeded to walk away leaving me still in awe.
Ooooo! The Japanese man and Donnie actually talked to each other. I told you guys things would start getting interesting. Really enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you all enjoyed it.
Don't forget to leave a review and have a great day.
LaurenHardy13