The Family Way

24: Mona Lisa

(4503 Words)

"So wait, what are we doing again?" The Hamato boys were walking down the street, a pumpkin in each of their arms. Mikey shrugs and shifts his pumpkin. "IDK dude, Dad didn't tell us anything either. I mean... He told Donnie..." They both glance at the long haired boy who had headphones plugged in and something playing just loud enough for the rest of them to hear a whisper.

"He's not telling us though." Leo says out of the blue. "The headphones are in for a reason." He says with a sly smile. Mikey chuckles and nudges Raph. "Heh heh, it's because he sucks at lying about almost anything." Raph looks at Donnie and nods. "Yeah, that makes sense." As they walk they wonder where they were going while Donnie points in different directions for them to turn.

It was Halloween finally and there was fake gravestones and blood splattered windows abound, the fake decorations making the whole city feel in the spirit.

Suddenly Donnie stops, holding up a hand to show the rest of them to stop as well. He takes out his headphones and folds them carefully into his pocket. "We're here." He says, opening the doors of a building none of them had seen before with a stripped sign above the doors. Once inside the boys realize what was happening.

They were standing inside a decent sized dojo, mats and punching bags were all set up already. Donnie's hand shakes against the side of his leg and a smile grows on his face. "Welcome to the new dojo guys!" He says excitedly. Mikey jumps around the room, touching everything. "You guys haven't even seen the best part!"

Donnie opens what looks like a closet door, revealing a staircase. Mikey sprints to the door, barely holding onto his pumpkin. They climb the stairs as a group, Mikey sprinting three stairs ahead of the rest of them into a mostly empty living-room connected to a kitchen. "This is nice..." Raph mumbles, looking around. They all end up setting their pumpkins in the living-room.

A short hallway on the left side of the room leads to four doors. The boys quickly move to explore. Leo opens the first door and looks inside to find the bathroom, a small one, but nice. He closes the door and walks to the next where Mikey was already barged in. "Yo dude! This room has a literal window seat!" Leo smiles and walks in. "It is pretty cool." He says, walking straight across the room to sit and look out the window.

Back in the hall Raph goes to the second to last door and tentatively opens it. It was an empty room with two large windows, one of them leading to the fire escape. He opens the window and climbs out, looking towards the street and feeling the cold fall wind hitting his face. It was nice, he felt like never leaving. "We'll have to share because I already chose this room before." Raph looks behind him, being dragged from his small portal of bliss.

Donnie was standing, inspecting the walls for imperfections and cracks. "We should decide where we should put what because I don't want to be putting things in here and not knowing where they're going or miscalculating the distance between things and stuff, you know?"

Raph shrugs. "Yeah, I guess." He says, looking around the room. "You know what? How about you just decide where everything'll go. I don't really care and you'll probably do it better without me anyways." Donnie tries to hold back a smile as Raph walks out of the room. He goes down the hall and back into the living-room where the pumpkins were just in time to see the door to the stairs swing open.

"Ah, my son, I'm glad you made it safely." Yoshi says as he enters with an armful of paper shopping bags. "Do you want me to take a couple bags or something?" Raph asks tentatively. Yoshi laughs. "Yes please." Raph takes two heavy bags and takes them over to the counter, setting them down and taking a peek inside.

"Wow... That's uh- That's a lot of newspaper... Planning on catching up on current events?" Raph says, tensing up at his own joke. "No, these are for the pumpkins. We're pumpkin carving!" Yoshi says in an uncharacteristically excited voice. Suddenly it clicks and Raph rolls his eyes at himself. "Ohhh..." He says, grabbing the back of his neck.