My name is Elsie. Today is my 12th birthday. 12 is as good a time as any to start a diary. 'I'm lucky to be alive', is the first thought that comes to mind. Right now, I'm sitting-really I'm leaning-on the big tree in the dojo. This thing is probably 30 or 35 years old! My Dad, Donnatello, planted it with his brothers (my uncles) and his Sense, Master Splinter. I say brothers. They're all kin d of adopted, but they're brothers. It's hard to explain. There's the bell. Time for training. Uncle-I mean Sensei Leo, is the one who teaches and trains us. Here he is. Signing off for the day. Just because it's my birthday, doesn't mean I get a day off. That stops when we are 1-when we begin our training. 

                                                                                                                   Love, Elsie

            I groaned. Picking up my staff (bo), and walkina way from my journal, I went to where the others were, and started to stretch. As I was doing my push-ups, I watched what was going on around me. Sometimes, Leo gave us a pop quiz over our surroundings, or attack us out of the blue. 

           Yoshi was doing lunges. He was the oldesst, and the bossiest, although we did have to admit, he was a natural leader. Just like his Dad, he wore a blue mask. Like his mother, he had 2 fangs. Leo was his father, Karai his mother. Yoshi was really named Picasso Yoshi, after a painter, and Master Splinter. Leo and Karai wanted to honour Leo's adopted father, who was Karai's real father. Her mother had been killed by the Shredder, who had raised Karai to be a kunoichi for the Foot Clan. After Leo killed the Shredder, Karai rebuilt the Foot clan, to be honorable and strong. Now the Foot Clan was led under the guidance of Karai and her Best Friend Shinigami. Shinigami was a little strange, but that was only due to her background. Now, Yoshi was constantly visiting the Foot Clan, earning their respect. He would one day be their leader. Yosi carried a weapon, like the rest of us. His weapon was the Twin Katanas, like his father. Yoshi's skin was a regular green, like his Father.

             Next to Yoshi was Pluto. The loud, and crazy one. Pluto had the same color turtle skin as his twin brother, Mars: light, bright green. His weapons were the nun-chucks, like his father, Mikey. Mikey was "one of a kind" (Listen to TMNT theme song:), you could say. And so was Pluto. Pluto was supposed to have been quiet and calm, while his twin, Mars, was loud and demanding. Now 12 years later, it was the complete opposite, and had always been for me. The only differences between Mars and Pluto, was that they had different weapons, attitudes, and color eyes. Mars had the Tachi (Not the food), which fit his personality perfectly. Pluto was always angry, while Mars was quiet and could meditate in anything. In fact, at that moment, he was meditating while doing a pushup/handstand. Pluto was doing what Aunt Hannah called,"Burpies". They were TERRIBLE! They must have been designed for torture. You jump up in the air, hands up, then fall to the gorund, do a pushup, then jump up and repeat. But Pluto was smiling. It was really scary. He was probably imagining the head of the person who created burpies blowing up. He scared me. Pluto had green eyes, while Mars had brown eyes. And these were the only differences they had. They shared a room, looked the same, and liked the same food. They were like looking at a mirror. After we did a gazillion stretches, Leo yelled out the starting sound. 

"Yameh!"

"Hai, Sensei.", we all said in unision, bowing on one knee. 

"Today, we will learn the art of the mind. A way to know your enemy's moves, is to know their thoughts." Flicking his orange mask, Pluto said, "Sensei, how can we read their thoughts?"

"You don't. Unless you have April's powers of the mind (Remember this for later children! This is very important for one of the members of the team!), which you don't." My mom, April, had a mind that was uniquelly in tune to the universe. The Kraang had been after her, until they had been defeated. "I am talking about prediction, instinct and heart. There is a way of knowing your enemy's next move, and if you are patient, I will teach it to you. But first, I have a surprise."

Hello, again! Don't worry, the chapter isn't done yet. I just need to take a break. These things take a LONG time to write. I write very long, detailed chapters, so that makes it extra time. Soon, I will finish the chapter, and that's a good thing, becuas here is where it starts to get interesting! So stay tuned! And have a good day! And please pray for God to give me inspiration for this story, and all my others. I have written almost 60 pages for this story, but I dont know how I want to add alot of stuff in. I know the main plot, but fillers are important too. So...yah. That's it for now. Stay tuned, and you WILL get an update soon! I promise!

-Hannah (Yes, that's my real name.)/Elsie (she is my mutant character)