Falling For Red

Chapter 7

Darby's POV

School on Monday was definitely interesting, considering I was starting a whole new week with a brand new secret. April and I had made plans to go to the lair every day after school, and I told my parents and Delaney that I was going to the library. Lucky for me, they believed me. The day thankfully went by pretty fast and before I knew it, April and I were heading down the ladder into the sewer. My feet hit the ground with a disgusting squish sound, and I grimaced. April saw my face and laughed.

"Still not used to it, huh?" she asked and I shook my head. 

"I'm considering bringing a thousand Febreze cans down here, but even then, it wouldn't be enough." I said as I covered my nose. April laughed as we kept walking.

"How are you not disgusted by it?" I asked, and April stopped walking and turned to look at me, a smile playing on her lips.

"Oh, I'm disgusted by it, but after a while, you get used to it." she said and I gave her a look that says, 'Really?' and put my hand on my hip.

"I'm serious, it's not that bad once you've been down here enough." she said and I gave the sewers a doubtful look.

"If you say so, Neilly." I told her and started following her down the sewer tunnels again. We walked for about five more minutes before we reached the familiar turnstiles that lead into the lair. April and I jumped over them and walked into the living room of the lair. The turtles were all doing different things in different parts of the living room and I looked to see what each of them was doing. Mikey's playing video games, Leo is punching a training dummy, Donnie is tinkering with some device, and Raph is feeding a turtle a piece of lettuce.

Wait.

Raph, a mutant turtle, is feeding a non-mutant turtle? I leaned towards April to whisper in her ear.

"Is Raph, a turtle, feeding a turtle?" I asked and April laughed.

"Raph, introduce Darby to Spike." April called to Raph, who looked up at us then motioned for me to come over to him. I walked over and sat down next to him on the floor. 

"This is Spike. My pet turtle." Raph said as he fed Spike another piece of lettuce.

"Wait, you're a turtle...who owns a turtle?" I asked and Raph chuckled.

"Yeah. Sounds weird, I know." Raph said and I laughed and nodded. 

"Can I feed him?" I asked and Raph nodded and handed me a piece of lettuce. Spike looked at me expectantly and I lifted the leaf to his mouth. He bit into it, then nuzzled his head against my thumb. I smiled and looked at Raph.

"He likes you." he said and I rubbed Spike's head gently with my pointer finger. 

"Hey, Darby! Come here for a second!" April called and I stood up and walked over to her.

"What's up?" I asked. April was standing next to Donnie, who's holding the same device I saw him with earlier. It looks like some kind of MP3 player. It's a silver circular item, with a blue light radiating from the center. There's also five buttons in the middle: two lines, probably the pause button; two triangles pointing to the left and the right, probably the rewind and fast forward buttons; a square button, probably the stop button; and lastly, a circle, which I'm not sure about.

"We need your opinion on Donnie's new invention." April said and gestured to the invention Donnie was holding. I took the device from him and took my earbuds out of my jeans pocket. I plugged them into the MP3 player and then put them in my ears.

"What do you call this thing, Donnie?" I asked and he smiled proudly.

"The Tpod." he said with confidence and pride in his voice.