Mutant Freaks

Chapter 5: Birthday

"Cassandra, wake up!" Cassandra eyes drift open. She loved the new ability to sleep when and however long she wanted to. "Come on, you need to eat. You and Ralph are taking a trip outside." She hears Leo's voice.

"Why me?" Ralph ask grumpily

"Because, you have no... job... to do. So you get to take her on an adventure!" Donnie answers.

"Whatever," Ralph says back, "When do we have to leave?"

"After breakfast," April comes in, "Also, Casey's coming to. He wants to meet the new girl."

"Alright, hurry up and eat Cassandra, I wanna get this day over with," Ralph sulks out of the living room to the kitchen.

Cassandra stretches, and gets up.

"Before you go though, I have something for you," April pulls fabric out of her bag and hands it to Cassandra, "Try it on,"

It was a new outfit. The pants where pink, the jacket a royal blue. the tennis shows where black and the shirt was a white blouse. It was beautiful. Finally she was out of that foot clan uniform!

She tries it on, and shows everyone. She loved it, and everyone loved it too.

"Wow." They all say in surprise.

"you actually look... adorable Cassandra," Leo comments.

"Are we ready yet...?" Ralph comes out the kitchen, then drops his jaw, "uh..."

"Doesn't she look awesome?" Mikey asks Ralph, who looks down with no answer.

"Alright, go eat and Ralph will take you out to explore," Donnie guides her to the kitchen.

***

Outside the layer, it was bright, and sounded busy in the distance. Ralph traveled by roof top and ally way. Cassandra stopped every few times to look at new and strange things.

"Cat!" she pets a stray.

"Don't touch that, it might have a disease," Ralph moves her hands away.

"Dog!" She pets a dog tied to a sign.

"Hey, that dog belongs to someone!" Ralph looks around to make sure no one was near, then grabs her and leads her away, "I'll take you to a place you can't get into any trouble at."

Ralph lead her to a restaurant, a Japanese one.

The man who ran it was blind, and he gave her a special dish. She ate, and she loved it all. Ralph just sat their, not really talking. He seemed a bit uncomfortable.

"How are you feeling?" He finally asked.

"Good! Happy!" She says happily.

By the time they left, the sun was starting to go down. Cassandra couldn't help but stop and look at the changing colors in the sky. "Beautiful..." she breathed.

"Yeah, sure is," Ralph smiles at her. His usually aggressive demeanor melting away into a calming relaxed one. He looked at her with genuen kindness, and something mixed in. She didn't understand what it was.

"We should get going," Ralph coughs, then guides her to the hole in the ground.

They walk down the tunnels in silence, and when they reach the cave, its even quieter. Cassandra gives Ralph a questioning look.

"It's May 4th," He answers, smirking.

She still didn't understand.

"Happy Birthday, Cassandra!" She jumps as everyone jumps up at her.