Secret in the Sewers

Chapter 4: Growing Closer

"What?! No!" Willow exclaimed. "How are you doing this?"

Leo grinned, his hands flying across the controls expertly. "Pin ball is a simple game, Willow. But I've been practicing my awesomeness for years. No one can beat me."

He paused. "Actually, Raph and Mikey can beat me, but thats less than half of the people I've played against."

Leo's final ball finished and he leaned back victoriously.

"You only know six people." Willow stated. "⅓ of them can beat you."

Leo glared. "If I was a human, I'd beat every other human out there. Except April."

Willow laughed. "April beat you too!?"

"Let's no forget who won this game." Leo pointed out. "You lost terribly."

"It's my first time." Willow crossed her arms. "That's unfair."

"Oh please." Leo rolled his eyes. "If you can do it, I can do it."

"I can walk into a New York street full of people and no one will notice me."

Leo crossed his arms. "Well, I can walk into the middle of a New York street full of people and everyone will start screaming. I bet you can't do that."

Willow crossed her arms. "I can if I have a gun."

His eyes widened. "What?!"

Willow laughed. "I can also speak Spanish, Chinese, and Papimendo. Can you do that?"

"¿Hola?" Leo asked. "But seriously, how do you know that and what was that last word?"

"My mom was an explorer. She knew a lot." Willow explained. "And Papimendo is my dad's native tongue. He was born on an island that hadn't been discovered until my grandma came around."

"Wow, your family is interesting." Leo said.

Willow beamed. "Thanks! You know, you fall on the interesting side too, being a turtle and all."

Leo chuckled. "I wouldn't call us interesting, so much as I would say lucky."

"Really? You guys are ninjas!" Willow punched his shoulder lightly. "That's skill."

"First of all, it's ninja. There's no 's' at the end." Leo informed her. "And second, yes, we're awesome, but we also have an evil dude trying to kill us."

Willow blinked. "What?"

"Raph mentioned him yesterday." Leo pointed out. "The Shredder. He grew up with Splinter, like a brother, until they grew apart and fell in love with the same woman. She chose Splinter and they had a baby. Shredder ended up killing the woman and taking the child."

Willow's eyes widened in horror. "What happened to Splinter's kid?"

"Shredder raised her and told her that Splinter is the one who killed her mother. He calls her Karai, but her real name is Miwa." Leo explained. "She's trying to kill us too."

"That's terrible." Willow whispered. "She doesn't even know the truth."

Leo smiled sadly. "We're trying to convince her."

Willow stood next to the pinball machine in silence for a moment before pulling out her phone and checking the time. "I should probably head to school now."

"On a Saturday?"

Willow nodded. "I've got to come in and write next week's paper."

"We won't be in it, right?" Leo asked nervously.