A Rose by Any Other Name

The Reminiscent Gala: [9](Rose)

We join Leo and Mikey on the couch in the main room. I sit next to Mikey and he smiles at me. 

"Hey, after this? Wanna cook dinner?" I whisper in his ear.

His eyes light up and he nods vigorously. "I know exactly what we are gonna make for dinner too!! It'll be my specialty." 

I laugh. "Spaghetti?" 

He pretends to be shocked. "How did you know?!"

Leo looks around Mikey at us. "Mikey. You've made it known that your specialty is spaghetti multiple times."

Mikey acts dramatically. "But never! I just love making it and you love eating it!" 

Leo and I laugh.

Donnie comes and walks up to the front of the couch. Putting a projector on top of a coffee table. He turns it on and it projects a white background onto the sheet he put up earlier.

He glances at me but quickly looks away.

My heart breaks a bit. Does he hate me for falling asleep on him? Why is he being so cold?

Raph comes up and stands behind the couch. He rubs me and Mikey's heads as if we had hair.

"Raph!" We both complain grabbing his hands.

He ends up taking his hand and gently grabbing Mikey's face with it. He muffles something as he laughs.

I giggle as well.

Donnie clears his throat and we all watch him.

"Ok guys. Our next mission is gonna happen tomorrow night. And this one is very important ok?" He says looking at Leo, who rolls his eyes

"This is gonna be at Big Mama's Gala she has planned. It's more of a masquerade but I guess she wanted it to be called a Gala." He says trying to finish setting up the projector.

April gasps. "A PARTY?!" 

She grabs my hands and starts bouncing on the couch. 

"Dress shopping!" She yells excited.

"Yes, yes. We will get to that." Donnie says waving her off. 

He finally fixes the projector and shows a picture of the ball room. And some of their outfits.

"So. I've gone through this multiple times in my head for a plan and this is the best one I can come up with." He says switching through the photos. "Everyone has a part in it. And it's important you do your part right otherwise this won't work."

This makes everyone shift in their seats. This must be really important if Donnie doesn't want us to mess anything up.

"Dee! Calm down! There has to be some slack on this mission ok?" Leo says, noticing everyone being uncomfortable.

"Yes there is some, but it's very minimal. And you guys don't need to be so stiff on this either. If we fail it that's fine there is always next time it's just this is the first time that Big Mama will notice Rose." He says gesturing to me.

"Um me?" I ask confused.

"Yes." He says finally making eye contact with me. "This is the first time Big Mama would have met you. Making you the perfect person to go in and grab what we need."

I wring my hands. "Are you sure? April can't do it?" 

"Hey!" April says putting her hands on her hips.

I laugh.

"No. This has to be you. We need more of Big Mama's webbing to catch more oozesquitoes. If we don't get some then I might have to make our own but that could take time we don't have." He switches to a slide with a huge spider and a women on it.

"This is Big Mama if you didn't know." He says flatly.

He seems more emotionless since last night. Is that because of me?

"We need Raph to blend in as a body guard. I have some suits in my closet, I can tailor them to you." He says switching to what the bodyguards look like.

"I GET TO WEAR A SUIT!" Raph says excitedly. "And cool glasses! I'm gonna look super cool."

"Then we need Mikey to make the food for us to serve. Since it will be very hard to get into the kitchen it would be faster to make them here." He switches to the food they serve. 

It looks like small pieces of bread made to look like little animals.

"Ok. I will do my best but I might need a recipe if possible." Mikey says inspecting the food. 

Donnie nods and continues. "Leo will need to serve the food with Mikey. He's gonna walk Rose through making a negotiation with Big Mama through small earplugs I made last night." 

He shows us some earplugs that have a tiny microphone that blends in with it.

Did he get any sleep last night? He has to be tired right? How is he running on no sleep since before the movie yesterday?

"I will be working on the camera's so that the security doesn't suspect anything. I will need to do that from the janitors closet." He says switching to a closet on the projector. "It won't matter since you will be negotiating with her. So there will be no need for the cameras to be altered, but I will be there just in case." He pulls out a computer he's been working on. 

"I will also be wearing a suit like everyone else. If anything goes wrong we can get you out of there." He looks at me for a moment. With sincerity in his eyes.

I return the look with confidence and look at April.

"Dress shopping?" I ask. 

She squeals. I'll take that as a yes.