Lifting 40lb weights in my room, Frankie turned on some Taylor Swift while she cleaned our window. It had been a bad day and I needed some down time. Aaron took over to give me a day to myself. My throbbing head wasn't getting any better. I heard Frankie stop cleaning and ask. "Angie, there's a mutant boy walking to the front door. Do you recognize him?" My weights dropped with a thud and I walked over to the window. Peering down to the ground, I gasped. "That is Donatello. I met him two days ago and I have been so stressed that I forgot all about inviting him over. I'll go down and let him in." I turned and headed downstairs, Frankie behind me the whole way whispering. "How could you forget such a handsome glass of water, Ange?"
Aaron was at the door, saying; "A pretty girl with angel wings? You mean Angel?" I halted and the word echoed in my head. Pretty. I felt butterflies in my stomach. I forced a giggle down and rounded the corner.
"Donatello! Come on in! I see you have met Aaron." I gestured to the visibly stressed, ruffled haired leader. The two boys nodded to each other. The turtle smiled at me and my head spun. "You didn't bring your brothers." I observed. Rude. His face got all sheepish and adorable.
"Y-yeah. They... I haven't exactly told them about you yet... Last night was, well, interesting and difficult." He held his hand out to Frankie. "You must be Francis. Angel told me about you... It's nice to meet you." She shook his hand, rather pathetically, and her face got all flirty as she replied.
"Oh, call me Frankie. It is very nice to meet you, Donatello." She purred his name and batted her eyes, while I rolled mine.
"Follow me. I'll show you the pool."
-
About an hour later, the three of us were in my room. I sat on my bed and Frankie sat on hers. Donnie sat between us as him and I talked and talked about psychology, genetics, and everything else Frankie was uninterested in. She would keep trying to change the subject with no luck.
It was refreshing to have someone to geek out with. Since Susan had died, I hadn't been reading much or been fascinated by new ideas and thoughts. In fact, I had not thought on much else other than the hotel. Donnie gasped. "Seriously? You haven't read 'Quantum Mechanics'? I have a copy and you can totally borrow it... I think you would like the opinionated insight."
"Ohhh for the love of all the world!" Frankie droned, probably bored out of her mind. "Can we please talk about something else?!"
We both chuckled at ourselves and let her fangirl about something or other. I tried paying attention, but it was hard when I felt Donnie's gaze on me from time to time. Resisting the urge to glance back at him, I played with my shoelaces. Frankie must have noticed that we weren't really all that interested in her squabble, because she grunted her irritation and left the room. "Fine, go back to your boring conversation. I'm done with you nerds."
I forced a giggle down and looked back at my fellow Brainiac. He was fiddling with the wraps on his wrist. He caught my eye and said; "I have my own lab in the sewers... You could come over sometime and we could, um, do projects together. Would you like that?" I nodded.
"You seem to know your way around chemistry and physics... I would like to learn medicine. Maybe you could help me." I suggested.
"Yeah..." He looked tired all of a sudden. "Right now I'm trying to find a cure for mutation... It's not doing so well."
-
Later on, outside, he was saying goodbye. I waved and then watched him disappear into the dark, like a ninja. 'Right now I'm trying to find a cure for mutation'? Why would you want to do that, Donnie?
Walking back into the room, Frankie lay on her bed. She still looked irritated. "You and your new boyfriend get along pretty well, don't you." She pouted, sarcasm oozing out of every syllable.
Scoffing, I spat. "You know me better than that!" I took my tone down a few notches when I heard my harsh words. I tried to joke with her. "Why the long face? You don't like discussing theories on modern medicine?"
She rolled away and groaned. "Absolutely not. I wouldn't mind if you had just one conversation, but you two were talking the Pythagorean Theorem the whole time! It makes me feel stupid when you do that. You were leaving me out."
She was acting like a child, but so was I. Forcing my carefully chosen words to sound gentle, I apologized. "I'm sorry, Frankie. I did get carried away. It was nice to have someone to understand my brainy fangirling, but next time, I'll share him with you... Forgive me?" She nodded, so I took a shower and went to bed.
