I ignored the rest of the news; after all, I had never really watched it before. I liked MTV more; they played songs by the Buffs and The Sink heads, two bands that arose during the year 2001. Besides, anyone could see that I wasn’t a news-oriented person.

I pushed the noise of the talking and the buzz of the television out of my head; I didn’t want any distractions. I began to put the many puzzle pieces that made up my mind together.

Maybe I was born and raised in Texas and maybe my parents died when I was young… so I had lived with my aunt in… another part of Texas… maybe Spring? Yeah, that all seemed somehow correct.

I guess living in Texas accounted to my "southern accent" which Leo had often pointed out.

"You must be from the South, Ave," he had said to me a few days ago.

"Oh," I had replied, "and why do you say that, Leo?"

"You’ve got a Southern accent!" he answered quickly.

"Well, good for me. I think that accents give a person more personality, which is something you don’t have."

"What is that supposed to mean? That I don’t have personality or that I don’t have an accent?"

"Both!" I had replied; this got a laugh out of everyone, except Leo of course.

‘What of Dianne and Morgan?’ I asked myself. ‘What could have happened to them? What was their history?’

Well, Morgan moved to Texas during the last semester of our freshman year. Her father and her had moved there from San Francisco, California, to Texas because of his job. Mr. Daily, as he liked for Dianne and me to call him, had been promoted to one of the C.E.O.s of an oil company he worked for. Morgan’s mother died while giving birth to her, but she somehow stayed ladylike.

Dianne Rose was the smart one of the group. She, too, had lived in Texas all her life. She and I had been friends ever since third grade. Dianne was also an only child, but unlike Morgan and me she had relatives who lived with her. When she and I were in seventh grade, her parents split up, and she stayed with her mother while her father moved to Tennessee and her mother’s parents moved in.

I was slightly pulled out of my thoughts to notice Raph sitting down next to me with a bowl full of popcorn. I groaned as I glanced at the T.V.; they had changed it to W.W.F. 2000.

I took a quick survey of the room to see who was up before I went back to my dream world. Mikey was on the phone, which was on the table next to me, ordering a late night snack of pizza, although we had eaten just an hour ago.

I chuckled a bit as he argued with kid on the phone. "Yeah, you heard right. I want two large pizzas with pickles, licorice sticks and whipped cream, and don’t be a minute late! I’m timing you!" He put down the phone and looked at me. "People today, they get too confused for their own good!"

He then walked to the ladder to go pick up the pizza. ‘From hand to sewer delivery,’ I thought to myself, as I drifted back to daydream land. Mikey came back a little while later with the pizza, and everyone save for Splinter and me were eating. I had other things to consider than weirdly topped pizza.

"BRING! BRING! BRING!" A loud unfamiliar noise screamed into my right ear.

"YIPES!" I cried as I literally leaped out of my seat and landed into someone’s lap. I couldn’t tell who it was at first; my head was in my shell. Finally, despite the laughter that filled the subway, I peeked out to stare face-to-face at Raph. "Uhm…" I stammered as I looked for the right words to say. "Is this seat taken?" I asked sheepishly. He scowled at me until a snarl appeared on his face.

‘Bad choice of words, Ave,’ I thought as I cautiously slipped off the furious turtle’s lap.

I decided to leave the laughter-filled room and sit in what was now my bedroom, yet I still listened in as Donnie attempted to ask who the caller was in mid laughter. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Hello? Who… who is this?" There was a pause, and then Donnie yelled aloud, "April!"

I heard running and struggling and indistinct voices cry, "Gimme the phone!"

‘April?’ I thought to myself. ‘Who do they know that’s named April?’

A knock came to my door. "Who is it?" I asked blandly. I was not really in the mood to talk to anyone.

"It is I, Venus. May I come in?"

"Sure…"

She quietly came in, closing the door behind her. She and I didn’t really talk much, but when we did, it was in private.

"How may I help you?" I asked in a false voice.

"I do not require help at the moment," she replied. "You left rather quickly. Did you not want to know who had called?"

I stared at her, perplexed. Yes, I wanted to know who the caller was, but I don’t think that was what she meant. "Well, who was it?" I asked, playing her game. "Was it Donnie’s girlfriend?" I asked sarcastically.

"No!" she answered, quite surprised at my question. "It is a girl and she is Donatello’s friend, but I do not believe that they are…"

"I get the idea. What was the girl’s name?"

"April, April O’Neil."

"The news reporter," I inform myself.

Venus, believing I was speaking to her, replied, "Why yes, she was on the television an hour ago!" She paused as she thought of what to say. "You leaped pretty high when the phone rang, Aeval."

"Yeah, well, I was practicing for the Olympics."

This comment obviously confused her. "But you are not human. I do not believe they will accept you."

I laughed at her reply. Suddenly, there was another knock at the door.

"What now?" I asked a bit annoyed at the second knock.

"April’s com’n! She wants to meet you two! Plus she’s bring’n Casey!"

I looked at Venus and asked, "Uhm, who’s Casey?"

Venus shrugged. "I do not know. Like you, they have not told me much information about their allies."

"Oh well us gals are left outta everything, ain’t we?"

"Quite true!"