Just a little story I thought of, and it wouldn't let go until it was written out. Enjoy!
THE STORY
The zoo usually was pretty busy, but today April had it all to herself. Which wasn't ideal, since she wasn't supposed to be by herself right now.
"He's late," she muttered to herself as she looked at her watch. The zoo's bench was getting cold.
April had made sure to dress up (just a little) for today and arrive early, to make a good impression. It wasn't every day she got to meet her friend for the first time.
They've been friends for at least a year now, and this was the first time they were actually meeting face to face. Officially. They've spoken on the phone before.
April was the one who suggested this place, because it was normally extremely busy. And it had been pretty crowded when she first arrived, so it was kind of eerie that she was the only one there. If he was some kind of psycho, this would be kind of dangerous right now. At least she had told some people where she was, so if she went missing or anything-
"April?"
She turned. "Donnie!" She smiled, then frowned. "Why are you wearing a costume?"
Out of the shadows came her friend, in a turtle costume for some reason. A costume that included a ninja mask with a weapon.
"Um, it's not actually a costume." Donnie said bashfully, joining her on the bench. "April, I know this may be hard to believe, but I'm really a turtle. And I'm also a ninja."
April narrowly stopped herself from rolling her eyes. So her friend was deep into cosplay, so what?
That or he was really shy about meeting her. Either way, she could let it go. And bring this up again some other time.
"Okay," she said, and Donnie relaxed a little.
He must have really been worried about being judged, even though he had to be kind of brave to wear that in public. "So Don, how've you been lately?"
"It's been a while, huh?" Donnie said, practically chuckling. "Listen, want to go for a walk?" He stood up as he spoke.
"Sure." April said while getting up, "A walk sounds nice. It's pretty quiet right now, normally this place is really crowded."
"Really? That's not good," Donnie mumbled. He looked at his right wrist as if to check the time, and then started typing something into the...kinda large keypad on his wrist.
"Another one of your inventions?" April asked.
"Yup," Donnie said, putting his arm down. "Just checking on something."
"When did you build it?"
"Last month," Donnie brightened up, "My brothers don't know about this one yet."
"I like how close you are to your brothers," April said. "You keep telling me about all the crazy things you get into. You sure you don't all bug your parents to death?"
Donnie laughed, and started leading the way from the bench. Judging by the zoo signposts, he was heading towards either the African section or the reptile house.
"Sorry," he chuckled, "We don't really have...active parents? We're kind of being raised by...well, by a village I guess. You know that old saying, 'it takes a village to raise a kid'? But no one there actually cares about us."
"What? Um," April fumbled for the right words. How do you react to that? "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
Well, that was the dumbest thing she could come up with.
"It's not really something we think about." Donnie shrugged, continuing down the path. "We used to have someone who cared, one of the resear-I mean, villagers taught us about personal hygiene and other important stuff, even about the way of the ninja. Before he was fire-I mean, had to leave. He's the closest thing we have to a parent."
"Sorry." April said. She almost felt guilty about coming from a happy family.
"It's not your fault." Donnie smiled. "We going to be emancipated soon, anyway."
"Okay." April said. When she got home she was going to have to look that word up, if she remembered it.
"So," she continued, trying to backpedal, "You and your brothers are really close, huh?"
Well, that was the next dumbest thing she could say. But Donnie didn't seem to mind.
"Yup!" He bragged, "I think I told you over the phone about the time we all acted out an episode of our favorite tv show, right?"
April nodded. "Yeah, that sounded pretty-hey, what's that?"
A bunch of little green dots were bouncing around the path, coming closer and closer to them. They looked like little green stars, or little fireflies that were bouncing around the cement.
"Ugh," Donnie said, bringing his wrist keypad up and typing into it with his other hand, "Looks like lasers."
"Lasers?" April said, looking around. There was only the normal Zoo lights, and no one else was there. Were was the light show coming from?
"There," Donnie said as he put his wristpad down. April noticed that the lights had stopped, "So April, how do you feel about the African section? I should have asked you earlier."
"You sure you don't want the reptile house?" April asked, chuckling as she pointed to his costume.
"Eh, I've had enough of turtles." Donnie replied, leading the way. "Besides, I'd rather stay in the open for now."
"Alright," April said. She was down for whatever, anyway. "So, what other inventions have you come up with?"
"That's a hard one," Don said, "I've got a few that I'm absolutely dying to tell you about, but you'll have to wait to see them. So let's see...of the ones I can talk about, I redesigned this old computer program..."
He kept talking as they went past several of the zoo exhibits, including the Cheetahs, African Elephants, and even an Addax. This was the Donnie that April knew from all their chats, emails, and phone calls. The really excited Donnie who talking about new ideas and bouncing them off of April, even when they both knew she wasn't as deep into the technical stuff. More than once she was able to point out something he found helpful.
"Oh." April interrupted, looking at the path ahead of them.
There was a giant fence blocking the path, the kind of construction fence that included a "We're Building This For You!" slogan on it.
"Guess it's a dead end." She said.
"That's odd," Donnie said, "This path should be open."
"I guess we could go back towards the reptile house," April suggested, already turning around.
"Seems so..." Donnie said distractedly, doing something with his wristpad.
But just when they passed the Addax again they came up to another construction fence. This one was, once again, blocking the path.
"That's weird," April said. "We came from this direction, right?"
"Right," Donnie said, distracted by his wristpad. Whoa, were his fingers flying.
There was a small boom somewhere behind them, like a trash can crashing, but April ignored it.
"I wonder if this is why the place is so empty." April mused, "Hey, do you think it's actually closed? And we're just accidentally left behind?"
"Sure, that must be it." Don said a little too quickly, sounding very unconcerned. He put down the wrist pad and grabbed April by the arm, "Come on, I know a shortcut out of here."
"A shortcut?"
Donnie started running, racing down the path they had just left.
"Don, it's closed this way remember?" April asked, but Donnie didn't even bother to answer.
When they got to the construction sign at the end of the path, it was no longer blocking anything. It was lying down flat on the ground with a giant hole in it, a smoking hole.
Donnie let go of April and immediately started over the fence.
"Whoa, what happened here?" April asked, scrambling over the remains of the fence.
"Come on, we've got to hurry." Donnie said, racing off towards a Staff Only path. That must be the shortcut he mentioned earlier.
"Where the heck are the staff, or security guards?" April asked as they ran. Someone should have heard that large fence get hit by something and fall over, right?
"Must be busy," Donnie said, coming up to a door with a keypad.
He typed something into his wristpad and then just pushed the door open. Weird, he didn't even bother typing a code into the keypad.
Guess it wasn't even locked.
"Hey, have you worked here before?" April asked, "Or volunteered?"
"Maybe," Donnie grinned. "Come on, April. Let's get you back to the streets."
April thought she heard a deep boom or two behind them as they were running through the building, but maybe she was imagining it.
After a few more twists and turns, with Donnie occasionally typing things into his wristpad, they finally made it out of the Zoo and the Zoo's staff parking lot. Once they had made it across the street, Donnie hailed a cab and they both jumped in. Donnie told the driver to go to this one bus stop that was, coincidentally, close to April's house. When they got there April offered to pay the fare.
A few people stared at them when Donnie got out of the cab with April, but it was kind of obvious he was in costume.
"Sorry that didn't work out," Donnie said, leaning against the nearest building. "But you should be safe now, especially if I leave."
"Safe?" April said, "Don, no offense but you aren't scary. It felt weird to be there when it was closed, but hey, that was still an adventure right?"
"Right." Donnie smiled, a genuinely happy smile. "Still, I guess I'd better get back to the-back home. It isn't great, but it's the only place I know and at least my brothers are there."
"Where should we go next time?" April asked.
"Next time?"
"Yeah." April said, "There will be a next time, right? Please don't ghost me just because this is the first time we met in person, you're the best friend I have."
"Yeah." Donnie smiled, "I mean, yes. Next time. I'll-I'll text you. Um, we'll probably break out soon, so it'll be after that. And then I can introduce you to my brothers."
"Alright."
"And sorry to cut this short, but I have to leave like, right now. I'm going to make like a ninja so this is our goodbye for now, okay?"
"Okay?" April said.
"I had fun today, April." Donnie smiled.
Suddenly there was a small but blinding poof, and April inadvertently closed her eyes. Some of the other people on the street also got caught up in it, and a few of them exclaimed or mumbled under their breath while pausing mid-step. The walkers started walking up again a few seconds later as soon as the smoke cleared, and when April could finally look around she saw that Donnie was truly gone.
"He really left like a ninja," she chuckled.
Suddenly she noticed that a few of the street-walkers were pushed aside, pushed by some weirdos in lab coats racing down the road. A few of them were holding things that almost looked like giant guns.
"Where'd he go?"
"That's the girl, where is he?"
"Man, we are so in trouble..."
Forget the looks her friend got by dressing in a turtle costume, these guys were truly noticeable. Everyone on the street gave these guys at least one glance.
But they were soon gone, racing down the street again. And April forgot about them pretty quickly, she was too caught up with thinking about her next outing with her best friend.
THE END