“Hellooooo!” called an unfamiliar voice. I turned to face the owner of this clear voice. I found myself looking into the face of a pretty woman who must have only been in her mid twenties.
“April!” cheered Mike, bounding towards the newcomer.
“Hi Mikey!” April (I assumed it was April, as all the facts seem to point that way!) replied, handing Michaelangelo the four boxes she was carrying. I inwardly wondered how she managed to get herself and the boxes down the ladder safely. My common-sense told me that she must have had a lot of practice.
Michaelangelo lifted one corner of one of the boxes and peeked at the contents. April slapped his hands.
“No peeking!” she declared. Michaelangelo pretended to look hurt, while I sniggered. Leonardo took advantage of my averted attention and swept my ankles, forcing me to fall forwards, in a breakfall, onto the Tatami.
“You really know how to sweep a girl off her feet!” I punned. I was rewarded with laughter as my joke was acknowledged. I hopped to my feet and examined April while she was busy trying to stop Michaelangelo swiping the pizzas while she put them in the microwave to heat up. April was a good 8-9 inches taller than me and it made me think more about my stunted height. Being around the turtles, who weren’t much taller than me, had made me temporarily forget. April turned to look at me.
“You must be Andrea.” she said. I nodded.
“I’m April.” she introduced, “I expect you’ve been told about me..?” I nodded again, unable to think of anything to say. I was saved from the impending, embarrassing silence by the ‘ping’ of the microwave bell.
“Food s’up!” cheered Mikey. Donatello and Leonardo bounded over and took their slices.
“You’d better get some pizza quickly, or there will be none left!” exclaimed April, pushing Leonardo round to the other side of the table so there was enough room for both of us to reach the pizza. I took my slice and examined it dubiously.
“Um. What is it?” I asked. Everything fell deathly silent.
“Y, you don’t know what pizza is?” ask Donatello in disbelief.
“Um. No.” I replied. Michaelangelo’s jaw dropped.
“Er, well...” Leonardo started. “It’s kind of dough, with tomato and cheese on it. Then there are all the toppings...”
“You’ve never had pizza before?” Mike asked, eyes wide.
“No.” I answered. Michaelangelo was giving me a sort of ‘I don’t know if that’s even remotely believable’ expression, the other three just looked a little startled and possibly slightly bemused. There was a rather long silence before Leo spoke.
“Jeez. No wonder you left that orphanage!” he declared.
“Yeah.” Michaelangelo agreed. “Life without pizza, is like life without, uh, pizza!”
“That was a pathetic simile.” Donatello pointed out. “But from you, it makes perfect sense!”
I took a small bite from the edge of the pizza. I chewed the cheese and tomato covered dough thoughtfully.
“You like?” asked Michaelangelo eagerly.
I grinned widely, exclaiming “I love!”
The rest of the day continued happily. I was shown around the sewers and introduced to other experiences such as bananas and mustard. Although I must admit I wasn’t as impressed with this one! April left at about 4 o’clock and Raphael didn’t reappear until late that evening. He glanced at Leo, Mike, Don and I squashed on the sofa watching TV and headed off to his room without a word.
“What is it with Raph?” I asked.
“Awww. Don’t worry ‘bout him.” dismissed Mikey, snuggling down into the couch. “He’ll get over it.”
So we continued watch TV until late that evening. In fact there were no signs of going to bed until Splinter shuffled in and stared disapprovingly towards us. This was at about midnight.
Donatello, Leonardo and I all mutually decided that then might be a good time to retire for the night, especially as normal waking up time was at about 6 am for morning exercises. This normal time was rarely stuck to by the majority though.
Michaelangelo said that he wanted to watch a film or something so he was left implanted in front of the TV. I think that maybe he was just avoiding going to his room where his 'room-mate' Raphael could be heard playing obscene music at full volume.
I was woken up the following morning at 6 am by Leonardo.
“Morning exercises!” he said grinning as he woke me. I groaned and dragged myself out of bed. I had never really been a morning person.
At breakfast it was plain to see that Leo was the only one who liked mornings. Donatello was staring, slightly bleary, into a cup of coffee. Michaelangelo was yawning and rubbing his eyes while he ate his cereal. Raphael was silent and sullen. I hoped that this wasn’t his normal behaviour, but judging from what I had seen yesterday, I wasn’t too sure. Breakfast continued in silence.
As breakfast progressed, Mike woke up and started bouncing about as the sugar entered his system. The caffeine in the coffee appeared to stimulate Don to get up and fetch his bo for morning practice. Raph finished eating and made his way gruffly to fetch is Sais.
Splinter was waiting on the Tatami. All the turtles lined up and dropped to their knees before bowing in respect to their Sensei. Their bow was similar to Za-Rei, the bow I had been taught by my Judo sensei, so I followed their suit.
As I raised my eyes I saw Splinter bow in return. The elderly rat then climbed to his feet.
“Raphael.” he said in a voice that could have stopped a waterfall from flowing by its quiet power. I saw Raph flinch to look at his sensei with an unreadable expression on his face.
“I did not see you at practice yesterday.” continued Splinter. I didn’t remember seeing Splinter at the sparring that I had done yesterday. However I hadn’t really been looking for him, and there were plenty of places he could have been.
“I was out.” Raphael replied. His head hanging, muffling his angry voice.
Splinter said nothing but continued to stare calmly at Raphael. Raphael looked back, refusing to break his gaze. Thirty seconds or so later after unblinking tension, I watched Raph’s cheeks glow red as his expression dropped to the ground.
Splinter closed his eyes and let out a long deep sigh. He opened his eyes again a couple of seconds later and addressed each of the other turtles in turn.
“Leonardo. I am proud of the practice you have been doing with your katana’s. The skills you used yesterday would strike fear into even the toughest enemy. Do not cease with your study.”
Leonardo smiled and nodded his head modestly. Splinter turned to Donatello.
“Donatello. No matter whether the practice is serious or not, never stop paying attention to your enemy. If Leonardo and Michaelangelo had been real adversaries, they would not have just knocked you to the Tatami when your cognizance was diverted.”
Donatello had the manners to blush.
“Michaelangelo. You fought well against Leonardo, but do not be put off by a larger enemy. I realize that your smaller height may make you feel vulnerable, but height means nothing, skills mean everything. Do not forget this.”
“Sure Master!” grinned Mikey, “But I’m not the smallest anymore! Andrea is littler than me!”
Splinter turned to me next and I found myself turning red before he even spoke. Splinter smiled kindly.
“Andrea. You are new among us and inexperienced in the ninja ways. However I was very aware of the judo skills you used and can see that you have great potential. With practice and dedication your skills will increase. This I am sure of.”
By now I was bright red and starting intently at my feet. Splinter turned to address everyone.
“Pair up and practice while I speak to Andrea.”
I watched the four turtles pair up. Mikey went with Don and Leo went with Raph. Raphael attacked straight away and fought with fury, while Donatello and Michaelangelo started mucking about. While Splinter started to teach me, I kept an eye on the sparring. It was plain to see that Raphael was slightly ticked off as he attacked Leon without mercy. Leonardo’s face was screwed in concentration to block the angry threats made at him. On the other hand Donatello and Michaelangelo were tapping each other with their respective weapons and constantly tripping the other up.
After about an hour, Splinter decided that enough practice had been done for one morning. I bowed to him as did Don and Mike. Raph grudgingly stopped his fight with Leo. From what I could tell there had been no obvious winner.
All having bowed, Splinter headed slowly off for the meditation room. Everything was quiet until he was out of sight.
“Awww man! I’m gonna have bruises for weeks!” moaned Michaelangelo, rubbing the areas where Don had clobbered him with his bo-staff.
“That’s rich, coming from Mr.Lets-see-who-hits-hardest!” Don retaliated, pointing to the bruised areas on his arms where they had come in violent contact with Mikey’s nunchuks.
“I’m goin’ t’see April.” Mike declared, heading for the ladder leading out of the lair.
“Yeah, I’ll come too.” Don replied, following.
As the two disappeared, Leonardo rubbed the beads of sweat from his face. “Geez Raph, you fight like a wild animal.”
Raph turned to face Leo, fury in his eyes. “Yeah? Well the fights not over yet Nardo. There can only be one winner.”
“Chill Raph. It was only a practice. Does it really matter? I’d only have beaten you eventually anyway. Then you’d get even madder.” Leonardo narrowed his eyes.
“You? Beat me? Shyeah.” Raphael scowled mockingly. “I could cream you, like all the times I’ve done before.”
“What is your PROBLEM.” Leonardo said pointedly, raising his voice. “It was only a PRACTICE.”
Raphael turned and pointed a finger straight at me. “SHE is my problem. For all you know we’ve invited an enemy into our home. First chance she gets and she’ll run off to Shredder, endangering us all.”
I was startled by this accusation and jerked to step back. I also wondered who, or what, Shredder was. I saw Leonardo look slightly surprised by Raphael's wild assumption before he started to look real mad.
“Shredder is DEAD. And anyway, there is NOTHING wrong with ANDREA.” Leonardo shouted back. “The only thing wrong is in your HEAD.”
“YOU BELIEVE HER?” shrieked Raphael, “YOU BELIEVE HER? THAT STUPID ORPHANAGE STORY?”
“I HAVE NO REASON NOT TO!” vociferated Leonardo. I started to back up and cower, all the time watching the two fight.
“THAT BITCH IS AN ENEMY!!!” Raphael yelled, drawing a Sai and pointing it at me, straight at my face.
I stared along the shiny metal over Raph’s reptilian hands and up into his face. As my eyes met his for
a split second, I saw deep into his fear and enragement. As his lips curled back in a furious snarl, I
broke the gaze and raced off into the darkness of the sewers, hearing Leo call after me and then the
fighting between the two continue...