Special Someone

Michelangelo sighed before he took another bite of pizza. He somehow had managed to sneak away from his brothers today and lock up in his room. He thought it might cheer him up a bit to be by himself, just eating his favorite pizza. But it didn’t work today. It was very unusual for him to be off color and he had tried everything he knew to make him feel better like throwing water balloons at his brothers, especially Raph which normally ended in being chased by Raph, listening to his favorite songs, doing a bit of breakdance, but nothing had worked so far. So the pizza was his last resource and it didn’t seem to work either. He sighed again.
But why was he so sad in the first place?
He wasn’t sure. He just felt lonely although he didn’t know why. He had his brothers, he had his best human friend April, but still, he felt lonely. He just wished he had more human friends. And he wished he had someone special.
Donnie and Leo had both someone special. Okay, no girlfriends (yet), but still. Leo and Karai had some sort of a ‘thing’, and Donnie had a crush on April which made her special to him. That left him and Raph the only ones without someone special and Raph wasn’t interested in that kind of stuff, so it was just him.
“I wish I had a girlfriend”, Mikey said to himself, “someone who is really special to me and to whom I am special, someone I can talk to about anything, to play video games with and write text messages to, someone to hug who will surely hug back and not punch me like my brothers would do.” He paused for a second. “Like Raph would do.”
But where could someone like him find a girlfriend? People freaked out when they saw a mutant.
Wait, what about the internet? He used it once to find his first human friend besides April which didn’t work out well in the end, but still, it did work somehow. Maybe it could work another time and this time with a happy ending. Mikey smiled. Yes, this time it will definitely be a happy ending.

Moments later he entered Donnie’s workroom.
“Donnie, can I borrow your laptop?”, he asked his older brother.
Donnie looked at him suspiciously. “For what?”
“Geez, what do you need a laptop for?” Mikey pulled a face. “To surf the internet, of course.”
Donnie still looked a bit concerned, but took his laptop and handed it over to Mikey. “Bring it back in one piece.”
Mikey reached for the laptop but Donnie pulled it away.
“In one piece”, he repeated gravely, and then gave Mikey the laptop.
“Sure!”, Mikey affirmed and ran out of the workroom with the laptop under his arm.
He had just left the workroom when he could hear Donnie call after him. “In one piece, remember?!”

Mikey sat on his bed, the laptop in front of him, showing the welcome page of this site where you can make friends.
“Okay, what should she be like?”, he asked himself. He really didn’t care what she’d look like. All she had to be was nice. And of course, she must like pizza. And it wouldn’t hurt if her favorite animal was a turtle.
So he accessed the search-site and typed in his search criteria, “favorite food: pizza, favorite animal: turtle”. Then he pressed the search button and waited. His eyes grew wide when he realized there were thousands of matches.
“This is awesome!”, he burst out and then started to click through the profiles.

Michelangelo spent every free minute he had glued to Donnie’s laptop the next days. After some time he had figured out that he needed more search criteria than the favorite food and favorite animal of his future girlfriend, so he had added New York as her residence. Seriously, he wanted a real girlfriend, not an online girlfriend who lived in Kansas or so.
From all the girls he had contacted only a few accepted his friend request. And from this few only two were chatting online with him. And just one of them was as much into pizza as he was. This girl even planned to open her own pizzeria when she was done with school. And from the photographs he had seen on her profile she looked nice, too. She had shoulder-length blond hair and nice baby-blue eyes. Okay, she wasn’t very tall and a bit chubby, but Mikey thought that she looked cute. Really, like one of these super slim girls would ever open a pizzeria. Oh, and her real name was Anastacia, but her friends – including him, yes, he was her friend! – called her Stacey. But he still liked her nickname best – pizzagirl.
Mikey was really excited when she was online and he had time to chat with her.
His brothers were a bit concerned, though. They didn’t know what Mikey was up to, and seeing him in front of Donnie’s laptop the whole day was unusual for him.
Donnie was a bit mad, too. It was his laptop after all and he hardly ever had the opportunity to use it.
“So, when do you think I can have my laptop back?”, he asked Mikey one day.
“Dunno”, his younger brother answered.
“But it is MY laptop!”, Donnie protested.
“Yeah, but you borrowed it to me. You just said I have to give it back to you in one piece, not when I have to give it back to you”, Mikey said.
“Trying to be smart, huh?” Donnie narrowed his eyes.
“You bet!”, Mikey answered without even turning his eyes away from the screen.
Donnie sighed, finally giving up, and left Mikey alone.

After two weeks of online chatting Stacey finally asked if they could meet. Mikey agreed to without hesitating. After all, her favorite animal was a turtle. She had to like him. He was sure about that.
The next evening he looked down to their meeting point from a nearby building, and there she was! Oh, he was so excited! He simply couldn’t wait to talk to her about pizza in person. So he climbed down the building and sneaked to a side-alley not far away from their meeting point.
“Stacey!”, he quietly called out for her. Yes, he was sure she’d like him but he wasn’t so sure about all that other people around her.
Stacey turned around.
“It’s me, Mikey! Over here!”
Stacey frowned but went over to the side-alley.
Mikey couldn’t resist and hugged her tightly.
Since it was dark in the side-alley, Stacey couldn’t see what Mikey looked like. She was a bit surprised about the hug, but okay with it, so she hugged back. Mikey grinned from ear to ear because of that.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you in person!”, he said cheerfully. “I can’t wait to tell you about my newest pizza recipe.”
“And I can’t wait to hear about it”, Stacey answered, but then, Mikey let go of her and took a step back, so Stacey could finally look at him.
Her face went to pieces. She screamed.
“What is it?”, Mikey asked scratching his head. “Did I do something wrong?”
“You…you are a giant turtle!”, Stacey shouted.
“So? I thought turtles were your favorite animals.”
Stacey drew back. “Stay away from me!”, she yelled and then ran away.
Mikey just stood there watching her running away from him. What the shell had gone wrong?

When he came back to the lair he first got Donnie’s laptop and checked his account. He hoped Stacey was online and could explain what this was all about, but she wasn’t on. Besides, she had even deleted him from her friends-list. Michelangelo sighed. Then he turned off the laptop and brought it to Donnie.
Donnie was in his workroom together with April.
“Here you go, bro”, he said without emotion. “In one piece, as promised.”
“Thanks, Mikey.”
“No, thank you for letting me have it.” Mikey sighed.
April and Donnie looked at each other, then April turned to Mikey.
“Mikey, are you okay?”, she asked.
“Yes, I’m fine”, he said sadly. “Just fine.” And with this he left the workroom.
Donnie and April looked at each other again, after an instant April got up and followed the young turtle.
“Mikey, what’s wrong?”, she asked when she caught up with him in the hallway.
“Nothing, April, I’m fine.”
“Well, you don’t sound fine to me”, the redhead added and placed a hand on Mikey’s shoulder. “Wanna talk about it? Maybe I can help.”
Mikey looked at her, then released a sharp breath. “Okay, but you have to promise you won’t tell the others.”
“I promise”, April said. “Cross my heart.”
Mikey just nodded and then told her everything – how he had decided to find a girlfriend, how he found Stacey and how much fun they had had while chatting on the internet. And how she had reacted today when she first saw him.
“Oh, Mikey, I’m so sorry”, April said caringly. “I think she just got scared. I was scared too when I first met you guys, remember? Maybe you just need to talk to her one more time and explain everything.”
“And then she’ll become my girlfriend?!”, Mikey burst out enthusiastically.
“No”, the teenage girl replied. “Then maybe she wouldn’t freak out the next time you two meet.”
“Uhm, okay, that’s a start, I guess.”
“So, do you know where she lives?”
Mikey shook his head. “But I know that there is this park nearby her school she really likes.”
“Well, then I guess you go there this evening and see if you can talk to her.”
“And what if she doesn’t want to talk to me and just freaks out again?”
April placed both her hands on Mikey’s shoulders and looked the young turtle in the eye. “Then she is not worth the trouble. Seriously, Mikey, you are such a cute guy. If she can’t see that that’s her loss.”
Mikey looked at his human friend and then hugged her tightly. “Thanks, April!” With that he left.

In the evening Mikey was on his way to the park. He knew how to get there without being seen by anyone. He had checked all the secret paths before. He managed to get to his hiding place unseen. He searched the neighborhood for any sign of Stacey, and really, there she was, walking down the parkway. But she wasn’t alone. Three boys followed her. And from what Mikey could see they were up to no good. They pointed their finger at Stacey, laughed at her and when they got within earshot Mikey could hear what they were saying to the blond girl.
“Pizzagirl!”, one of the boys laughed. “Isn’t that the stupidest nickname you’ve ever heard?”
“Yeah!”, another boy answered. “It sure is!”
“Want to be a pizza one day, Stacey?”, the third boy laughed. “That sure would be an improvement!”
Stacey just quickened her pace, but when she passed Mikey’s hiding place he could see the tears in her eyes.
One of the boys grabbed Stacey by the shoulder. “You know where pizzas belong to?”, he asked and pushed her to the ground. “Right there!”
“That’s it!”, Mikey shouted, left his hiding place, ran over to Stacey and stood in front of her protectively.
“Leave her alone!”, he told the three boys.
They just looked at him surprised. And then they laughed again.
“Who is this, Stacey, your boyfriend?”
“Yeah, he’s into cosplay, isn’t he? Couldn’t you find a normal guy?”
“Hey, we’re talking about Stacey. Of course she couldn’t.”
“I said you should leave her alone”, Mikey repeated. “I think you should apologize and then go.”
“Or else what? You’ll bash us with that papier mâché nun chucks of yours?“
“Maybe”, the young turtle answered. “But for you three I don’t think I’d need them.”
“Hey, freak, it’s three of us and one of you”, one of the boys said, tapping Mikey on the chest with one finger.
“Yeah, I know”, Mikey laughed. “It’s a bit unfair of me.”
The next second he grabbed the boy’s arm and threw him over his shoulder, then he kicked the second one in the stomach and swept the leg of the third one. Before they even realized what was going on all three of them were on the ground. They looked at Mikey in horror as he stamped his foot.
“Well?”, he said with an very angry look in his eyes.
“We’re sorry, Stacey!”, all three of them shouted before they got up and ran for their lives.
Mikey waited till they were out of sight, then turned around and reached out to help her up.
“Thanks”, the young girl managed to say. “That was pretty brave of you.”
“Thank you!” Mikey smiled. “Now, let’s get out of here. You should go home now.”
Stacey looked around anxiously. “But what if they come back? Maybe they’re just waiting till you leave and then get back to me.”
“Don’t you worry!”, Mikey said. “I’ll stick around.”

And that was what he did. He followed Stacey, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, never losing sight of her. Finally, she reached the apartment block where she lived. She scanned the neighborhood, looking for him, but since she couldn’t see him she went inside. Mikey stood on the rooftop of a nearby building, happy that Stacey had made it home safe.
Minutes later a window on the left side of the building, where the fire escape was opened and Stacey leaned out of that window.
“Mikey, are you there?”, she asked in a whisper. “If you can hear me, please come here.”
The young turtle jumped over to the fire escape and climbed down to Stacey’s window.
“What is it, Stacey?”, he asked. “Is something wrong?”
“Yes”, Stacey said.
“What is it?”
“Me”, the teenage girl answered. “I was wrong. Sorry I freaked out the other day.”
“Nah, that’s okay.” Mikey waved aside.“ I guess you don’t see mutant turtles every day.”
Stacey giggled. “True.” She paused for a second. “But still, that wasn’t okay. I’m sorry. And thank you.”
“For what?”
“Defending me against those bullies, seeing me home.”
“Ah, yeah, that.” Mikey smiled. “Don’t mention it.”
“Uhm, do you think you could do that again for me tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
“And the day after tomorrow?”
“Of course.”
“And the day after the day after tomorrow?”
“Every day if you want me to.”
Stacey looked at him smiling. “Thank you so much!”
“As I said before, don’t mention it.” He waved to her and wanted to turn to take his leave, but was interrupted by Stacey.
“Wait!”, Stacey called out.
The second he turned around Stacey gave him a peck on the cheek. Mikey just looked at her wide-eyed.
“See you tomorrow”, the blonde girl said, waved at him and closed the window.
Mikey stood there frozen for a few moments, he touched his cheek, a grin from ear to ear appearing on his face. Then he turned around and took his leave.

Later that evening he rushed into the lair.
“Guys, guys, you won’t believe it!”, he called out joyfully. “Guess who has a girlfriend!!!”