Book One In The Ahh-Ness Of Things Series: April & Donnie were once inseparable, but now almost six years have passed since she left NYC. What if April O'Neil could set the record straight, once & for all! The only girl down enough to chill with the...
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"I don't know if you like seafood."
He was standing in her doorway with fresh fish hung on a line. She wasn't expecting him, but he looked so sweetly at her, she threw her arms around his neck.
"I'm so sick of hotdogs, I could scream!"
"Well, Ok then!" He laughed, a little taken aback by her excitement.
"I can make bansilog! Here, come just put them in the sink!"
She rushed back to the tiny stove & lifted a plate off of a steaming pot. The smell of garlic overtook the air as he ducked into the candle lit room & followed her to the kitchen.
"I brought veggies, noodles, the fish, guava, mango, papaya. Well the mangos are still green, do you have fish sauce?"
"Yep, I can make salad!"
"Awesome, I didn't know if you cooked more Asian food or Latin food. I really didn't know what to get. I brought a whole bunch of cilantro & limes.
"Cilantro! Oh you wonderful, wonderful ....I could eat it whole!"
Donnie eyed her in amusement.
"I just like cilantro, ok!" She pulled it from the bag in his hand & smelled it.
"And you think I'm weird. Here take your cilantro."
She was giggling as she handed him a cheap flower vase, like the kind you get from a gas station when you forgot someone's birthday.
"Here Donnie, put it in water. I'll get coriander from whatever I don't use. It'll make the place smell better."
"It's not so bad, just smells like garlic."
"Hey do you like eggs?"
"Um, sure." He turned on the faucet & began cleaning the fish.
It wasn't long before they were full of rice & fish & fried eggs; all with way too much garlic.
He unpacked his bag & got to work on the wiring in the house while she put the kitchen away & scrubbed the "slime" off the living room floor, careful not to disturb her sleeping brother, too much. By the time is was nightfall, the little home was full of warm light.
Donatello was looking at the picture on the one big wall. He knew it was her but he asked anyways. He wanted her to tell him the story behind it. How could he have known he was already a part of it.
"Is this your family?"
"Yeah."
He waited but she didn't say anything else. She was leaning against the counter, her bleached hair pulled up under a bandana. It looked white against her pale blue-green skin.She was staring off into space. The family portrait was of a dark skinned Asian family. A mother, a father, a young man about his own age, & a little boy with full cheeks & messy dark hair; who looked like he probably had a frog in his pocket. Noni; she was a beautiful human girl standing in front of a huge birthday cake. She was slouched back as if feigning disapproval of her picture being taken. Donnie glanced over at the giant snail shell on the chair.
"So that's what Jojo looked like?"
"Yeah."
"Cute kid." He smiled over at her gently.
"What about me? Was I a cute kid?"
He wasn't sure what she was looking for so he answered honestly. "You were beautiful. You still are."
She smiled & came close beside him. Her tough girl attitude faded away as she reached up to touch the frame. "It was my eighteenth birthday. It was supposed to be the day where everything magically changes." She moved away to the tiny couch & leaned on the side. "Everything changed alright. That was the day this whole situation happened." She ran her hands along the outline of her body.
"Hey, it's ok. You don't have to talk about it."
"I think about taking it down almost everyday, but it's all I have left of them. That's my moms, pop, my older brother Mason, & Jojo."
"You have Jojo, & you're doing more than most people your age would be able to. I know that doesn't change whatever happened."
"It was the attack last year in the Bronx. The apartment building that blew up & all the people turned into muties."
"On your birthday?"
"Happy Birthday to me."
"I remember that, I was...not too far from there, when it happened." He knew it had nothing to do with him, but still they were there. He & his brothers were trying to track down Baxter Stockman, but they realized what he had in mind, to little too late. One more reason why he felt he had to help the people down here in the dark.
"I was supposed to have a big party in the apartment garden. Me & Jojo were setting up outside. My parents & my older brother didn't make it out, they probably never knew what happened. Sometimes I wonder which is worse. Getting blown up & being dead, or being like this."
Donatello respected her questioning, but he wondered if anyone had ever broached to her that her new life wasn't just something she had to accept. She had an incredibly strong will & it was something she could definitely rely on to find her way.
"My mom had this thing she did every year with each of us, on our birthday. She'd make the cake & then before the party, she'd take a family picture. She did it every year for me & my brothers. I don't know how, but it survived. The picture. Mason had just printed it out & put it in the frame."
Donatello didn't want to see her so sad. He had meant only to find an excuse to tell her she was pretty as a mutant. He had thought maybe he could bring up the picture of her as a human & then somehow compare it to her new self. But in a charming way. He had never figured out how to talk to girls. He was just honest, & sometimes it came out all wrong. Sometimes it seemed insensitive & other times, just awkward. She held her hands out together on her knees; perched on the arm of the little love seat, looking at the picture.
"You're not lactose intolerant or anything, are you?"
"Hwut the fuhhhhh?" Noni was looking at him sideways.
"This whole situation, as you call it; it's not going to change."
"That's a shit thing to s.."
"Phyisicaly. But you took what you have inside & you made a home out of a hole in the wall."
"You are hella strange." She was tucking her hair back into her bandana, rolling her eyes.
"I'll come back tomorrow & we'll start finishing that wall. Do you have any kind of electric mixer?"
"You don't have any friends, do you?"
"Most of my friends are girls."
"It must only be because you're cute." She stood & stretched, not knowing what to make of him. "Yes I have an electric whisk & no I'm not lactose intolerant. Why?"
"I'll be back tomorrow morning."
"Uh, ok. Thank you for the food. Thank you for fixing the lights. I'm glad I don't have to unplug the lamps to flush the toilet."
"Yeah...I've never seen anything like that...ever."
"Door."
"What?"
He was pulling the handle to open the front door when he realized it was still broken & he clumsily fell against it.
