A Turtle That Was Hidden (TMNT Book 2)

Nightly Issues Part 2

I wondered what was wrong with Naomi as I showed Sophie where I slept. She jumped on the bed and looked around. I didn’t really have anything, but she sat down, crossed her legs and smiled.

“Thanks, Mikito.” she beamed.

I smiled back. “No problem, Sophie. Good night.”

“Tell Naomi I said night.” she said, laying down on the bed, facing the door. Her eyes closed and I walked out. Leo was passing. He looked inside Sophie’s room and I looked at the one laying in bed.

She was looking at us before flipping over and staring at the wall. I looked back at Leo and he smiled and walked off. Without much question, I walked in Naomi’s room who was already in bed, staring at the wall.

Something was troubling her. I can tell. She was strangely still. Not that she wasn’t still, but she didn’t even acknowledge my entrance. When I knocked on the wall did she turn over and face me.

“Sophia took your bed and you wanna sleep with me.” She said, looking at me with a blank look. “You may.”

I grinned and jumped on up on the bed. Suddenly, I was on the ground. “Ow!”

“Calmly.” Naomi said, rolling over to face the wall. I could that whatever was bugging her, she wanted to deal with on her own.

I climbed back on the bed, softly, and she allowed me to stay. It was silent. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but I dare not press it. If she was reading my mind, she would tell me the answer, or she really didn’t want to talk about it. She twitched as I thought about the mind reading gig.

Laying down, I was facing the entrance. We were shell to shell, and the tension in the room was slightly intense.

Raph walked in, “You haven’t seen Spike, have you?”

“No.” both Naomi and I said simultaneously. Raph sighed and back out again.

I flipped over to look at Naomi’s shell. “What do you think that was about?”

“Don’t know.” Naomi shrugged. “Maybe Spike’s like a teddy bear, and it helps him sleep.”

“So if Raph doesn’t have Spike, he might weep?” I rhymed.

This made Naomi flip to face me. “So the rhyming has started.”

I knew what she meant by this. When we were really young, we got bored when Sensei was away, so we decided to practice talking by rhyming or using a bunch of adjectives in a single sentence. Mostly, though, it was rhyming because we made the funniest of combinations. We’d be talking about mountains, then we’d be talking about earth worms, weaponry, and other weird things.

“Ah,” I sighed, “but at least I can dart.”

“That didn’t really rhyme.” Naomi blinked. “But my question is this: Don’t sour Skittles taste slightly tart?”

“Why must we even start?”

“That don’t count.” Naomi snapped. “I used that.”

“Can we have a cat?” I continued.

Naomi sighed, “No because we have a bat.”

I laughed. “Which kind? The one you’re afraid of, or the flying one?”

With a glare, Naomi raised a foot and pushed me off again. I collapsed on the ground. Then, silently, she said, “I sometimes wonder.”

“That wasn’t a rhyme.” I pointed out, climbing back on. “But I think someone’s afraid of thunder.”

“Then the thunder must be like prey and hunter.” Naomi tried. She was never really good at this.

“We live underground so we don’t need a bunker.” I smiled. I was never really good either. We just took the last one or two letters and rhymed them. Nothing else really mattered.

Naomi looked thoughtful as she tried to get another rhyme going. She sighed, “You win.”

“Do I get a prize bin?” I asked.

“If you do, I get to kick you in the shin.” Naomi growled, turning over again.

“Then Raph would have a grin.” I muttered.

“You’re being too din.”

I blinked. Was that even a word? I’ll ask Donnie later.

“Pause the game. ‘Din’ means a loud, persistent noise.” Naomi turned back over. “Does that answer you question?”

“Yeah, thanks.” I nodded. “Who wants a fin?”

“Fishface.” Naomi said instantly.

“Who?” I asked.

She shook her head. She sat up and raised a finger, quoting someone, “‘It was either that or Robocarp.’”

“What are you talking about?”

“The near future.” She replied, laying back down. “For both good and bad…” she trailed off.

“Is that what’s bugging you?” I asked.

Naomi nodded slowly. “Most involves me, a shadow, and us individually. Most are good, but the worst is yet to come.”

“What do you mean? What’s going to happen?”

She looked at me with an expression I don’t really see on her face: scared and worry mixed. “You’ll know when the time comes. She pointed to the ceiling as if something was interesting climbing on it. “There will be two important times that will happen to me. You’ll know when they come. To Sophie, also two. You, pretty much none at the moment. Raph has one coming to him, April a few, Mikey one, and Donnie a few and Splinter one.”

“Splinter and April even have one?” I asked.

Naomi nodded. “But, fair warning.” she looked at me again. “I’m not going to fight in any Kraang fights.”

“Why?”

With a deep sigh, she pushed me off the bed again. “Don’t worry about it. If I continue with the way I am now, nothing will come.”

“So,” I grunted, resting only my arms on the bed and looking at her expectantly. “You avoided that one for a reason?”

“Two.” Naomi corrected me. “I avoided two. The first time was a perimeter check to make sure that no other being would interfere. And the second, I wanted to check on Sophie. Both times I didn’t know what I know now.”

“You are something else entirely.” I whispered, getting back on fully.

She side glanced at me and smirked. “So are you.” then she pushed me off again. “Now, I’m tired. Night.”

“Let’s not continue to fight…” I groaned on the floor.