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Akila worked on making her dinner in the kitchen. She had spent the last thirty minutes making one of her favorite meals; a cheese and chicken quesadilla. She smiled proudly down at her plate. It looked delicious.

But when she turned away from the counter to take it back to her room, she was stopped by her father. He stared at her meal with hungry eyes. "Is that my dinner?" He asked with a greedy smile.

Something inside of Akila snapped right there. For eight whole years she'd been able to keep herself calm and kind toward her dad. But not anymore. She felt anger boil up inside of her stomach, climbing up and out of her mouth in the form of words. "No," she growled, "I worked hard to make this for me. You can make your own dinner."

Her father frowned. "Well, well, where'd that little bit of fire come from?" He took a step forward with a nasty look in his eyes. "I heard you made a friend, he teach you?"

Akila furrowed her eyebrows and questioned inquisitively, "how do you know about Casey?"

"Facebook," he grumbled, "what do you think I am, stupid? I know all about you being a little nobody at school. Then you sneek out to a party and get all popular. Turnin' into a little slut."

Akila couldn't believe her ears. "What?!" She growled angrily.

"Don't you raise your voice at me!" Her dad yelled in rage. "You go to your room right now!"

Fear filled Akila to the core, but her anger still won her over. She sat down her paper plate and screamed, "no! You can't tell me what to do! You're not even my father anymore; you haven't been ever since mom died!"

Then she felt a hard sting on the side of her face. He'd slapped her. "Don't you mention that bitch in my household!" His voice cracked as if he were holding back tears.

"Shut up you asshole! She's my mother!" Akila cried out, tears brimming her eyes.

"Go!" Her father ordered viciously, "get out! Get outta my home!" Akila screamed in his face and kicked him hard between the legs. Then she grabbed her dinner; there was no way she'd let him have it now. Akila bolted out of the apartment room before anything else could happen.

When she was safely out of the building, Akila slowed to a walk, making her way down the road side. Night was beginning to fall. Ugh, where am I supposed to go now? She asked herself.

She thought of how her father had spoken to her. "He called me a slut? I've never even kissed a boy before! And the way he talked about mom..." she ranted to herself.

Akila continued to walk in silence for a while. Then she stopped, a sudden helpless anger in her heart. "Hey mysterious turtle guy!" She shouted in frustration, "you like to save me? Well, I could really use your help  now!" But Akila knew he wouldn't come. He's just like all those people at school; fake, she told herself.

"You called?" A voice suddenly came from right behind Akila.

She jumped in fright, turned, and punched whoever had snuck up behind her in the face. There was a grunt of pain. Only when she opened her eyes did Akila see that the turtle mutant had actually come. Now, he knelt on the ground, holding his cheek. "Oh, shit," she muttered, walking over to help him up.

"What was that for?" He asked, purely baffled.

Akila felt her face heat up. "Sorry, that's just my first reaction to hearing hearing some stranger sneak up so closely to me."

The turtle laughed awkwardly and complimented, "well, nice reflexes." There was a pause before he continued, "so I, uh...never got your name."

"Akila," she introduced with a smile, eagerly taking in his features.

The turtle retured the smile. "That's a nice name, I'm Leo."

Akila stared at Leo's green skin and shell. "So...you're a turtle," she stated curiously.

Leo laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "...Yeah."

"How did that happen?" Akila asked, raising a single eyebrow at the bizarre situation.

Leo smiled and began telling her about him and his brothers. He looked into Akila's dark eyes as she listened intently, eagerly. "Wow," she huffed in awe as he told stories, "and those robot things that attacked me, they're krang?"

"Yeah," Leo confirmed. He found it hard not to smile at Akila's sparkling eyes. He'd seen her many times from afar, but never with any emotion on her face. Until the first night he saved her; it seemed that after that night, she had opened up without even knowing it.

Akila smiled dreamily and sighed, "your life sounds like something out of a movie; it must be amazing!"

Leo grinned in response. But he couldn't help but ask, now that he could, "Akila, I see you walk around at night a lot. Why do you do it?"

Akila shrugged. "I don't know, it just sorta...helps me think."

"But that's not why you're out tonight," Leo observed with a look of empathy, "are you okay?"

"Well, I just got kicked out of my apartment by my drunk dad, who called my dead mom a bitch, so yeah I'm just dandy," she ranted, smiling sarcastically.

Leo frowned and muttered, "oh, I'm sorry."

"I don't really wanna talk about it," Akila sighed, rolling her eyes.

There was an awkward silence before Leo noticed the cold quesadilla in her hand and smiled. "Why don't you eat?" He asked.

Akila had completely forgotten about her food. "Oh, right," she replied, looking down at her paper plate. She picked up one of the four slices and took a bite. "You want one?" She offered Leo.

Leo eyed it in confusion and asked hesitantly, "um, what is it?"

Akila laughed, "it's a quesadilla. Cheese and chicken on a tortilla shell."

Leo carefully took a slice and tried it. His eyes widened and he took another big bite. After swallowing, he remarked, "this is good!"

Just then, there was another voice. "There you are!" It shouted, "where'd you run off--" it stopped talking upon sight of Akila.

Akila turned to see three more turtle mutants, all staring at her. "Guys," Leo spoke calmingly, "this is Akila."