Searching for April O'Neal

Chapter 10: Another Search Begins

Another Search Begins

"Hey, Jamie?" Jamie's dad called. Jamie heard him through her earbuds and popped one out of her left ear.

"Yeah?" she yelled.

"Your mother and I are going grocery shopping! Do you want to come?"

Jamie grinned and immediately answered, "No."

"We'll be back in a few hours, then!"

There was a pause, and Jamie almost put her earbud back in her ear, but then her mom screeched, "DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE THE HOUSE!"

She heard her front door close, and stuffed the earbud back in her ear. She stared at the wall, wondering what she should do. There was nothing much to do outside the house..but the roof was cool.

As long as she didn't run into any more weird mutant turtles.

She shook her head and stood up from her bed, slipping on her flipflops. Then she climbed out the window, onto her fire escape, climbed to the top, and sat again on the ledge of the roof.

The city wasn't as beautiful in the morning, because all the lights were off. And it was noisy. Not that Jamie could really hear it. Her earbuds were blasting Coldplay.

Fix You had just started to play when Jamie saw movement in the small alleyway next to her house.

Normally, she would assume it was a homeless person, or her imagination would get the better of her and she would think it was a robber or something, but after seeing Mikey the other day, she wasn't so sure.

Maybe it was the weird-looking turtle.

Deciding that she wanted to figure out who it was creeping down there, she plucked an earbud out of her ear and let it dangle in the air. Then, she slid off the ledge and hopped down the fire escape to the bottom of the alleyway.

She jumped in surprise when she reached the bottom, because Mikey was there waiting for her.

"Sorry," he apologized when he saw her jump.

Jamie shrugged it off and asked, "What in the world are you doing here?"

"I've got nothing better to do."

She raised an eyebrow. "Really? Because I feel like some mutant turtle that the government doesn't know about would be, like, saving the world or something. Like a superhero."

"We're trying," was all he said.

"We're? As in, like, your brothers..and..your Sensei?"

He nodded.

"So who're you saving the world from? Are they trying to destroy it or take over it or..something?"

"Um. I don't think so. They just..want us dead."

"That sucks."

"Yeah." He stared thoughtfully at Jamie, which unnerved her a little. She gulped. What was he doing? Sizing her up? Getting ready to find a weak point and attack or something? I mean, he had nunchucks for crying out loud!

"So..um.." Jamie said, trying to start up a conversation or something. Mikey snapped his gaze from Jamie and looked down at a sewer storm drain.

"Why do you look like April?" Mikey inquired, not looking up at Jamie.

"I-I don't know," Jamie told him truthfully. "I don't know any Aprils."

He looked back up at her. "Do you want to find out? Because I want to know why you look almost identical to my friend."

Jamie did want to know. Even though she didn't know who the heck April was, she was curious to figure out why exactly she looked like her. Sure, there is supposed to be 7 people in the world that look like you..but was it coincidence that she'd moved to the exact place where her doppelganger lived?

"Yeah," Jamie retorted confidently, flashing the turtle a grin.

Then he did something unexpected. He lifted up the sewer entrance and gestured for her to go in.

"You're kidding," Jamie told him. "Why are we going into a sewer? That's disgusting!"

"I live in the sewer," he answered. She wrinkled her nose. "Just breathe out of your mouth when you go down. It's not that bad."

Jamie huffed out a breath. "You know what? Fine. But I need to be home in a few hours, or my mom will kill me."

"Sure thing." He gestured again at the sewer, and pinching her nose shut, Jamie stepped in.