Tragedy Ever After

A Band of Well-Dressed Crooks

        ~Normal POV~

     "All right. I'll be back later," I called out to the two turtles who were doing their own thing in the apartment. I was more than exhausted. I had stayed up all night watching Don work on something. The only bad thing, my schedule was upset, so I could snap pretty easily.

     "C'mon, Shell," the drone flew out the door before I shut it behind us. I should have made myself a coffee, but I knew it wasn't good to always rely on caffeine. Plus, I promised Don I would stop overdoing it on the coffee.

     The walk to school was average, I didn't get there late or early. A new semester meant a new teacher and a new class. I was glad to be done with Mr. Ward. One more test with him may have been my breaking point.

     I entered the computer lab, eyes shifting to look over the new students I would have to put up with. I focused on one girl in particular; she was dark-skinned and her hair was cut in a bob and her bangs were held back with a burgundy headband.

     Was that who I thought it was? Oh no: Sunita. My eyes looked at the brooch the girl wore. April's girlfriend. . . well, ex now, she's dead. Gods, I still can't believe I did that.

     I took my eyes off her, choosing to sit in the front, not something I would ever normally do. I just didn't want Sunita to try and talk to me about April. "Down, Shell," I muttered to the drone as I felt eyes land on me.

     "Y/n, that's your name, right?" they just had to notice Shelldon. My eyes flicked up to see Kendra leaning against the desk with a smirk on her face. "Who's this little guy?" Shelldon seemed to go into this defense mode, ready to protect me in case the girl was a threat.

     "Shelldon," I told her simply. "She's not a threat," I informed the drone, who reverted to his passive mode. The drone raised, allowing the girl to inspect him while he did the same to her, assessing her.

     "All right, let's settle down," the new teacher walked in, a smile on her lips. Hopefully, she would be nicer than Mr. Ward was. "Today, let's just get to know each other. Please, feel free to converse with your classmates and we'll have our first real class tomorrow."

     "Mm, seems we have plenty of time to talk," the lavender-haired girl smiled. "How did you make such an advanced piece of tech? Isn't this, like, your first year in tech classes?"

     "My boyfriend made it," I didn't mention Don by name to the girl. "And yeah, so what if it is?" I knew about Kendra. . . a bit. April had told me about the Purple Dragons.

     According to her, they weren't good people. Did she have something against the color purple? Nonetheless, I was cautious with what I said around the girl.

     "It has amazing upkeep," Kendra commented. "Say, we were gonna hit the drone races later if you wanna come," she informed me while she scratched under Shelldon's chin.

     Could I trust her? I mean, it couldn't hurt to try and befriend her. Maybe I had a thing for purple-themed characters. Don was a phone call away, plus Shelldon would be with me.

     "Okay," I replied quietly, not fully sure if this was a good idea.

     "Cool," she hummed, turning on a heel to head back to her little clique. I took a deep breath to calm myself from the interaction. Gods, I sucked at talking to people.

     "Are you all right?" Shelldon spoke up, head nudging against my hand and I looked down at him. The drone had taken to hiding himself again after the 'threat' had gone away.

     "Yeah," I breathed out with a nod. "Just nervous," I pulled a knee to my chest in an attempt to bring myself a form of comfort. "I don't know Kendra that well, and April always told me that she was a big bully who thinks she's better because she's smart."