Inside the farmhouse, everybody gathers at the front entrance and stands in formation. Buckets of water sit at their feet, mops and feather dusters in hand, and determined glares on every face.
"Everyone ready?" April asks.
"Casey Jones was born ready," Casey says, flipping his mask down as he takes a confident step forwards.
"Let's do this." Raphael swings his rainbow-coloured dusters the way he would his sais.
Everyone poses briefly. April grips her sponge, Donatello flips his mop upwards, Michelangelo thrusts his duster into the air like a sword, Leonardo wields his spray bottle, Destiny holds a broom at the ready, and Diaval holds a vacuum cleaner, a nozzle in one hand and the dust collector in the other. They let out battle cries and race off in many different directions, ready to make the house look as good as new.
Raphael attacks the book shelves in the living room, leaping upwards and sending clouds of dust into the air. He lands before the fireplace and narrows his eyes, letting out a grunt as he leaps into the chimney, sweeping out the soot and ash.
Michelangelo chucks a bucket of water to Donatello, who catches it on the edge of his mop without spilling a drop, then proceeds to lunge down the hallway cleaning every inch of floor and even some of the walls. Michelangelo flings his kusarigama chain across the open space between the upper level and the lower level in the main entrance hall, hooking it on the far railing. He swings across on the chain, upside down, and comes to a stop next to the chandelier. He dusts the light fixture and hums a happy song.
"Window cleaner on," Leonardo whispers, spraying one of the upstairs windows. He wipes it off and narrows his eyes. "Window cleaner off." He repeats the action for every pane of glass, still muttering, "Window cleaner on, window cleaner off. Window cleaner on...window cleaner off."
"Calm down, Sensei. Those windows will get too clean at this rate," Destiny teases as she nearly dances past him with a broom in hand.
Leonardo rolls his eyes, although a light smirk lifts his lips. She laughs, continuing to sweep with the broom as if the object is her dance partner, spinning and twisting and dipping while flicking her dustpan down to catch the piles of dust.
Diaval shuffles around in the living room, vacuuming the carpets as carefully as he can. The turtles have already moved every breakable item off the rug, leaving him with a defined square to remain inside. Diaval keeps going, even when Raphael sends even more soot from the fireplace back onto the carpet: accidentally or purposely, Diaval doesn't know. He just keeps vacuuming, zoning out amongst the constant drone and the rattling of debris in the cleaner's tubes.
Donatello sees April coming up the stairs and instantly lights up. He swings his mop around like he does with his bō staff, then flicks the end under the handle of the bucket of water and holds it up, flashing a grin.
"Hey, check me out, April!" he calls.
When April walks past and enters the bathroom, ignoring him, he frowns and drops the bucket, spilling the leftover water onto the floor. He starts to mop it up with a lot less exuberance than before.
April scrubs the bathroom walls, a bucket at her feet. She kneels down and plunges the sponge into the warm, sudsy water and wringing it out before reaching back up to the wall and wiping away the stains and spots.
YOU ARE READING
Forest Mutation (Book Two)
Fanfiction"In Saskatchewan, when I couldn't fall asleep, I'd watch the moon and think about how across the country and over the border, you were probably out on a rooftop beneath the same moon. You were the first person I enjoyed the moon with. Every other ti...
