All through class, Akila daydreamed. She wanted to meet that green skinned boy who saved her again. "Akila?" A voice jolted her out of her thoughts.

Looking around, all eyes were on her, and the teacher gave her a confused look. "Uh, yeah?" She questioned.

"Who was the president of the Confederates during the Civil War?" The teacher repeated.

Akila didn't know. She'd been so lost in thought that she hadn't been paying any attention. Great, now I get to embarrass myself in front of the whole class. But then a different idea popped into her mind. Casey liked my sense of humor… With that final thought, Akila decided to try to answer humorously. "Probably Mr. Tunner in room 112. He seems like the type," she replied uncaringly with a shrug.

The class erupted with a small wave of giggles and snickers, and the teacher raised his eyebrow. "...Very funny," he said monotonously, clearly not amused.

"I mean, he is old enough, right? It could be him," Akila spoke again. Now the class was laughing loudly, and the teacher was baffled. He turned slowly back to the board. "Alright, enough...the correct answer would be Jefferson Davis," he corrected in a stern tone.

Now everyone was laughing, and the teacher only shook his head in disappointment. But Akila didn't care. She never had cared. The only difference now was that she was "not caring" more loudly.

• • •

After class, Casey came up to Akila. "Dude, you're like a completely different person."

Akila cocked her head and asked, "is that a good thing?"

Casey smiled as he went on, "well, you were fine before too, if you ask me. But now you're acting like a big school jokester, which is also pretty cool."

Akila thanked Casey. That was the first compliment she'd gotten since before middle school, not counting Tommy's, since none of them had good intention. Were things finally starting to look up for her?

• • •

Over the next week, people began talking to Akila more often. People even sat with her at lunch now. But she didn't feel like it changed everything. She was still the same person, they all just saw her differently. They didn't feel like real friends. Except for Casey, the only one who seemed to actually care for her. He seemed real to her.

When the last bell for the day rang out, Akila walked to her locker, packed up, and left the school. But as she walked home, she noticed that the streets were oddly less crowded than usual. Then, there was screaming.

Akila ran toward the sounds. As she neared, a fire truck passed by her. She rounded a corner to find a large building on fire. Many people were crowded around, watching in horror as their homes were destroyed by merciless flames.

Akila stood further back behind the crowd, scanning the streets for the one who saved her. Would he show up to save those still trapped in the burning building, too?

• • •

After hearing about the burning building on live news, the turtle brothers decided they needed to take action. It was a major risk to go out during the day, but they couldn't just sit back and do nothing. So now, they were hopping silently from roof to roof, heading toward the thick smoke. Mikey, Raph, and Donnie climbed stealthily into the building, taking extra caution in the day light. But before Leo could follow, he caught a glimpse of a familiar face standing behind the large group of people crowded below...

• • •

Akila stared up at the huge fire. The sky was darkened by smoke, covering the sun and shading the city. She didn't even notice when the crowd of people in front of her spit up and run away, she only stared in horror as the front of the building began to crash down. The metal bones bent and broke, and all Akila could do was watch, frozen in fear.

But just before she was crushed by the collapsing building, someone grabbed her around the waist and pulled her out of the way. Now able to move again, Akila looked down at the rubble that laid next to her. Then her eyes widened. She turned to see who'd saved her.

Sure enough, it was the same person as before. Now getting a better look at him, she could see that he was a giant turtle mutant.

He gazed into her deep ocean blue eyes and stuttered, "d-don't be afraid."

Akila couldn't find her words. In all honesty, she wasn't afraid; she was mesmerized. She took in every detail of him that she'd missed before, like the white wrappings around his three-fingered hands. The color of his eyes that reminded her of oceans. He looked like something out of a fantasy story. 

The turtle's eyes widened as more of the building began to collapse. "Look out!" He shouted, taking Akila under his arm and leading her to safety. Thankfully, the rest of the people were too busy watching the fire to notice a giant turtle running across the streets.

They stopped in a dark alley far away from everyone. "Are you okay?" Leo asked. Akila, still unable to speak, nodded fast. She could just barely see his features in the light-deprived alley. He smiled and sighed, "good." Then, just like before, he disappeared.

"Hey, wait!" Akila shouted, running out to look around, "damn it!" She knew he was already gone.

• • •

That night, Akila sat at her desk with her white desk lamp turn on. The pencil in her hand moved desperately over the paper of her sketch pad, drawing the turtle mutant. She drew his masked face and charming smile from the few memories of it she had.

After that she set her pencil down and admired the picture she drew. But she didn't want to stop. The whole event from earlier gave her an adrenaline rush that wasn't quite over yet. So she quickly sharpened her pencil and turned to the next clean page. She drew pictures of the fire, the rubble that had almost crushed her, and many more of her strange turtle guardian.

Finally, she felt her eyelids begin to droop and she glanced at her clock. 1:24 am. She been drawing for four hours straight. So she sighed and climbed into bed, falling asleep almost immediately.