I stomped my way off campus, willing away the tears. I knew from the moment I woke up, today would be a bad day. I asked to stay home but as usual, I wasn't allowed to. I decided to wear the usual sweatpants and baggy shirt today, throwing my hair up into a messy bun.

    So, not only was I late to school because of a traffic jam, but I had a pop quiz in History about shit we haven't even learned yet that I know I failed. Everyone seemed determined to get on my nerves today with insensitive questions and rude remarks and to put the cherry on top I have to work extra hours tonight because Jackson decided to 'call in sick' today. My head was pounding and I wasn't looking forward to pretending to enjoy serving stuck up assholes.

    Trucking on like a true Collins I made my way to The Grey Dog, which is the café I work at. My presence was made known by the soft jingle of bells that hung on the door. "Rachel!" My manager, Ryan, waved me over frantically. "Come on and get changed! We're about to get the work rush and I'm short on waitresses." With a heavy sigh I jog back to the employee work room and get changed into the uniform. Black shoes, grey pants, a white button up, and hair pulled back at all times. I clipped my black nametag on my right breast pocket and walked out. "Table's 4, 6, 7, and 9." I nod and walk over to table 4.

    A young couple sat there, whispering shyly to each other as they waited to receive service. "Hello, I'm Rachel and I will be your waitress today. Is there anything I can start you off on or are y'all ready to order?" I made my voice as welcomingly professional as I could, making sure to hide my southern drawl. I just want to curl up into a ball and cry into Khaleesi's soft fur.

    "Oh. Um." The girl looked over to her boyfriend shyly, "Can I get some sweet tea? With a lemon on the rim?"

    I nod and jot her request down. "And you Sir?" I turn to the male who stared at his girlfriend lovingly.

    "Can I get half unsweet tea and half lemonade?" He asks without taking his eyes off the girl who blushed when she realized he was staring.

    "Of course, will that be all?" They both nod and I can't help but smile, their loving nature towards one another lifting my spirits ever so slightly. "I'll be right back with your orders then." I go back behind the counter and clip the order to the string going across the open window that opens up to the kitchen. Walking over to table 6 I see what looks like business partners in the middle of a heated discussion. "Uh, excuse me? Are y'all ready to order?"

    They cut their conversation off and the brunette in the tux closest to me orders, "Uh, yes. Black coffee for everyone." I nod and jot down the order, about to ask if that was all only to see they were already continuing their discussion. Assholes.

    I repeat the process of clipping the order to the string before going to the next table. There was a lone girl sitting there, she looked depressed as she stared out of the window. Her yellow jacket clashed against the soft red seats obnoxiously. "Hello mam, I'm Rachel and I will be yer waitress for today. Is there anything I can start you off on?"

She seemed to snap out of some daze at the sound of my voice. "Huh? Oh, iced coffee please."

I nod, "Will that be all for now or are you ready to order?"

She frowned, "I guess I'll get a chocolate muffin too."

    "Will that be all?" She nodded and I scribbled down the order. "I'll be right back with your order." I go, hang the order, and make my way to the last table I have to wait on. This table was full of officers who were joking around. "Officers?" They turn to me, amused smiles sill on their faces. "My names Rachel and I'll be your waitress for today." I mentally applaud for not slipping up like last time. "Is there anything I can start y'all off on?"

    "Two sodas, one sweet tea, and one coffee." The black-haired officer in the back corner ordered. I recited the order to make sure I got it right, "Yep, oh, and could I get a chocolate glazed doughnut?"

    I nod and write it down, "Will that be all?" They nodded and I left to hang up their order as well. I grab a silver tray and pile up the prepared drinks onto it. Glancing up at the orders I can tell these drinks are for table 4 and 7. "Hey! Did j'ya skip six or somethin'?" I call out to Terry, our cook.

    "Na! I'm getting to them now! Go do your job and let me do mine kid!" I laughed as he began to mumble about impatient teens and needy customers.

    I walk over to table 4 and gently set the tray down, taking off their drinks. "One sweet tea with a side of lemon." I place the drink in front of her and hand her a straw. "And one half unsweet tea and half lemonade." I place the drink in front of the boy and hand him his straw. "Is there anything else I can get you?"

"No, we're fine. Thank you."

    I nod and pick the tray back up walking over to table 7. "One iced coffee and chocolate chip muffin." I set down the drink and small white plate with a warm muffin on top before handing her, her straw. "Will that be all?" The girl offered me a tight smile and nodded. "Okay, holler if you need anything." I walk back to the counter to see steaming cups of hot coffee lined up. Glancing back at Terry I see he's in the middle of preparing the officers drinks and food. With a sigh I move the coffees onto the tray and walk over to table six. "Black coffee for everyone." I hand out the five cups of coffee to the business partners. "Will that be all?"

"Yes, check please."

~~~

    I sigh, why me? It was late at night and I had no choice but to use the subway. Cause I'm not dumb enough to wander the crime ridden streets at night. Unfortunately I had to use the tip I got from the cute couple today. I paid and passed through the twisty walk-through thingy. I strolled over to the waiting benches in long strides.

    I can't wait for today to be over. I'm so close, I can practically feel my cats soft fur and the cushioning of my big bed. The sound of a machine gun went off and all hell broke loose. You've got to be shitting me. I turned just in time to see some dude with face paint approach me and shove me to the ground, aiming a pistol at my head, "Stay down!"

I'm about to whip somebody's ass. Oh, I'm about to whip somebody's ass.

    The large group of seemingly identical men began placing bombs as a stereotypical looking 'bad ass' Japanese chick walks in the middle of the group, shouting orders. A girl was shoved down in front of me and the man aimed his semi-automatic in warning. "On the ground! Nobody move!"

    The Japanese girl began looking around before calling out. "We know you're out there! If you don't surrender, we start executing hostages!" The girl in front of me pulls out her phone, like a dumbass, which worried the old lady in front of her. Click. Oh my god, the phone wasn't even on silent. I quickly snatch her phone away to try and hide it but the sound alerted the girl leader. "You!" She points her gun at me, "Stand up!" Tossing the girls phone aside I stand, glaring at the woman.

    Oh, if you don't leave me alone. You're gonna have to send me home. Cause I'm about to whip somebody's ass.

"All aboard!" A voice from the tracks calls out as a train flies by. "Whooo-we!"

    With her distracted I quickly sock her in the face. "I've had a hell of a day without you bargin' in and makin' it worse!" The lights shut off as she recovers and she begins shooting at me. The sound of metal unsheathing has her shooting in that direction and seconds later something rammed into her and sent her flying. My eyes met with a pair of green eyes, lights of the train briefly illumination the figure.

    His eyes widened when he realized I saw what he was. All I could really make out was a green face with a red hat of some sort. I grinned, letting him know what he was didn't scare me or upset me in the slightest. Fortunately, that when the train's lights lit up my face. As soon as it went dark again I ducked under him and ran for the tarp covering, blindly latching onto unfinished plumbing poles I hike myself up and out of the subway.

    Once I made it outside I run a block or two before hiking up a fire escape and onto a rooftop. I sighed, happy to be out in the open air once more. I should call ma, she and dad are probably worried. I sat down on a railing casted in the shadows. Just as I was about to take out my phone I heard whoops and shouts of joy. The guy I saw down at the subway was with three others just like him.

"Nice elbow Donnie!"

"Ah, did you see that guys jaw connect with the concrete?"

"Ha! He'll be drinking out of a sippy cup for months!"

    "Oh, that's what I'm talkin' about brothers! Like shadows in the night, completely unseen." The familiar click of the girl's phone sounded, along with a flash. Everyone froze, three of the brothers seconds away from a high five, one in the middle of pacing, and I was swinging my legs so my right leg was out and my left leg was in the middle of going down.

"What was that?" They began whispering.

"It's a camera flash."

"We know it's a camera flash."

    "Who's behind the camera flash?" I slowly looked over a recognized the girl from the subway as the girl from the café.

"By my calculations, it's a girl."

"Are we gonna kill her?"

"What?!"

    "With kindness!" The guy whispers something else I can't quite catch when his brother speaks up.

"I got this."

    "Raph. No, no. No! Come on!" 'Raph' chooses not to listen and throws a chain towards the girl, wrapping her up in it before yanking her back up onto the rooftop.

    The girl screams and clutches her wrist. She sits up on her forearms and looks around. The red banded guy known as 'Raph' landing in front of her with a grunt. She whimpers and Raph demands, "Gimme the camera." In a deep voice. Well deeper than the one I heard him using a second ago.

    "Oh look! He's using his 'batman voice'." One of the brother's comments. Mocking his voice when they said 'batman voice'. I take this moment to look him over. He's super tall, green, has a shell, and is wearing a red bandana. I can only assume he's some type of humanoid turtle. He has wrappings all over his body, sunglasses resting on his head, a leather cover-up that kind of reminds me of caveman Spongebob for some reason, and duct tape and spray paint on the back of his shell. He had sai's clenched in both hands and was aggressively chewing on a toothpick. "Oh, she's so hot I can feel my shell tightening!"

    "We can hear you!" Raph barks back at his brother, turning his head to glare at him. The girl scrambles up without looking away from Raph's face. "If you don't give me the camera... I'm gonna-"

    "Enough!" Raph's brother flips off of the water silo behind me and lands on the ledge, his twin katanas out. "Back off Raph!"

Raph holds up his hands and walks away, "I only saw Batman once!"

    The tall, blue banded brother looks down at the girl. He had wrappings and shoulder pads on, along with some kind of bamboo chest plate thing. He too had a cover hanging from his hips, although, it was a different style than Raph's. "Mam? Hello, I apologize. My colleague here forgot to say please." Oooh, ouch. You went from brother to colleague. That must sting. "So, would you please hand over the camera?" He walked forward making her back up in fear.

    A slightly smaller, but still tall to me, turtle hopped down behind her. He had an orange mask on, wrappings and what looked like a jacket wrapped around his waist. The unique thing about him was that he had necklaces hanging from him, his sunglasses hanging from them. He also had some pearls wrapped around his wrist as some kind of bracelet. The girl bumped into him and quickly spun around, flipping out. "No, no! No, no! Woah! Chill, it's just a mask!" He points to his mask and reaches to take it off. "See? Don't freak out." He holds it up for her to see and offers a smile, "Right?"

    The girl falls down, passing out. "Oh, I think that went well." The fourth turtle commented sarcastically. I laughed, unable to help myself and the four quickly spun around, weapons aimed at me.

    I covered my mouth with one hand and held up my other. Sliding down and stepping into the light I try and shake off my laughter. "I'm, haha, I'm sorry." I move my hand away from my mouth and grin up at the brothers. "That was just funny to me." They seemed shocked and I scan over them only to lock eyes with a familiar emerald green.

"You." He growled.

"Me."

"Her?" The orange one asks confused, putting his mask back on.

    "Allow me ta introduce myself. I'm Rachel Collins, I saw y'all in tha subway. Unlike la fille I didn't follow y'all, I was 'ere first." I grinned and pointed to Raph, "I know him cause I saw 'em in tha subway."

"La fille?" The orange one asked.

"'S French." I tell him off handedly.

"Why didn't you tell us you were spotted!" Blue scolded.

    "I thought it was ma mind playin' tricks on meh Leo! She was there one minute and gone the next! What was I supposed ta do?!"

    'Leo' Stepped closer to Raph, in a 'showing dominance' kind of way. "You were supposed to tell me. I'm the leader of this group and I need to know if there's a possible risk of us getting exposed."

    Uncomfortable I scooted closer to the orange masked turtle and glance at the purple one, who was currently fretting over the passed-out chick. He grinned down at me and I grinned up at him, "So uh, what's yall's names?"

    His grin seemed to grow winder and he bounced excitedly. "Oh! I'm Michelangelo, the one in purple is my older bro Donatello, the there's Raphael in red, and Leonardo in blue." He shrugged, "You can just call me Mikey though."

"Well, 's nice ta meet ch'ya Mikey."

He grinned, "I like the accent! Raph's got one too. Where's it from?"

I grinned back, already liking Michelangelo. "'S called a southern drawl."

"Cool!"

    Raph and Leo seemed to be done arguing because when I turned back Leo was approaching me. He leaned down and pointed at me with the butt of his sword. "You cannot say a word about this to anyone." He warned in a low voice.

I shrugged his warning off, "Hey, I ain't no snitch Leo. You got nothin' ta fear."

Leo shot Mikey a look, "Did you tell her our names?" He gave a sheepish grin causing Leo to sigh.

    "Hey guys! I think she's waking up!" We all look over to Donatello, the brothers going over to check on la fille. "Ok, her blood pressure is stabilizing."

Raph growled in annoyance, "Why are we still here playing doctor?"

"She may have a head injury."

    "Correction: She's a hot chick who may have a head injury." Mikey butts in causing me to giggle. "Which makes it our civic duty to-"

    "Mam? Mam?" Donatello snaps his fingers in front of the girl's face. "Can you hear me? Do you know what city you're in? Do you know where you are?"

    Mikey leans down, "Have you seen that video where the cat plays Chopsticks with the chopsticks?" Leo shoves him away, making him spin and face me.

"I have!"

"Haha, ya!" We high five but Leo butts in.

"Can we focus here?"

"Guys, please. Come on, give her some air."

Finally awake the girl asks, "What are you?"

    Mikey and Leo exchange a smile before Leo faces the girl again, "Well miss, uh, we're ninja's." He does a mini bow before Raph butts in.

"We're mutants."

"We'll technically we're turtles."

    "Oh, and we're teenagers. But we can still have," Mikey waves his hand in front of him, "Adult conversations."

I snicker and nod, "Amen ta that." Raph grunts from beside me.

    "Wait, wait, wait. So..." She quickly stands up and looks at them wearily. "You're ninja, mutant, turtle, teenagers?" Oh my god, am I the only one annoyed with how breathless she sounds? I mean, I know you just woke up from passing out but damn la fille!

"Well when you put it like that it sounds ridiculous!"

    "See, she's lookin' at us like we're freaks!" Raph gestures. I watch as Mikey hops up beside me before sitting where I was when I first came here. Looking back, I make eye contact with the girl. I wave carelessly at her. "I bet that's why you took our picture wasn't it?" Her eyes snap back to Raph, "Show your friends." He got up and hopped down in front of her.

"Bro, that's a good thing! Maybe she has hot friends!"

"Lookin' for this?" Raph waves her phone teasingly in front of her.

"Don't break it." She shakes her head, "No, no, no, no, no. Please."

    Leo comes up from behind and snatches the phone, "How many times do I have to tell you? We don't break things, we fix them. Donnie already wiped the phone genius. Problem solved, moving on."

Raph shoved Leo's shoulder, "And who put you in charge?"

"You know who did."

    Mikey got up and walked beside where I was sitting, "Ooo, tension! It's been like, thirty whole minutes since you guys have had this argument."

    Donnie, was typing away at his gadgets before looking at a hologram screen. "Leonardo," He swiped the screen away to look at his brother. "If we wanna make it home before Master we have to hustle."

    Leo walked up to the girl and used the same scare tactic on her. "Do not say a word about this to anyone. If you do, we will find you. April O'Niel." Now I have a name to the face. Leo turned to Raph, "We're on the move, Raphael."

    Raph shook his head and hopped up beside me with a grunt. He twirled his sai's threateningly at April, sheathing them before growling in warning at her while he bit down on his toothpick.

    "Ya, we'll find you. O'Niel." Mikey pitched in, beginning to walk off. He quickly came back and offered her a smile, "I'm sorry, that came across super creepy ok? Ha, we will find you though!" He pointed and winked. Before walking away again, to join his brothers.

    Leo gave me a warning look and I nodded. Seeming satisfied he turned and they began their track home. (I assume.) All of them shouting to each other as April raced over and pulled out her phone, snapping another picture.

    I rolled my eyes and stood up leaving the rooftop. Once I was back on the ground I started jogging home. Only just remembering about the bags on my back as they lightly pushed on me as I ran. Pulling out my phone I see multiple missed calls from my parents and text messages. Oh boy.