Smarter Than Me || TMNT 2012 Donatello Fanfiction

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     Ashlee wakes up peacefully. Light streaks through her windows and the buzzing sound of the city below stir her relaxation. She did not think much of her situation, waking up in her room (for she had fallen asleep on the balcony). It was not until she noticed her backpack resting against her desk, and the empty mug and math homework specifically organized on top of the desk.

     She sits down, rummaging through her pages of homework. Some of the problems had been fixed. Her original answers were not erased, only lightly crossed out. Notes ran along the sides, explaining why specific equations were incorrect. On a completely new sheet of paper, there's a letter, of-sorts:
    Now that you understand, try these.

     The list ran through the back of the page. Ashlee frowned. She figured her mother or father had moved her. The fact that they had assumed she would understand their atrocious handwriting, let alone the actual math was frustrating.

     Ashlee grabs the mug and homework, leaving the confines of her room and entering the kitchen.

     "Good morning, Ashlee."

     "Morning, mom." Ashlee sat down as her mother served her breakfast. "Did you correct my homework last night?"

     She shakes her head, focusing on the food before her.

     "Well was it dad?"

     "It couldn't have been," Mom says. "I persuaded him to drop his work and just sleep."

     "That's unusual."

     Mom nods. "I just knew he was tired. There's something about him... he refuses to let anyone believe he's tired."

     "Then who-"

     "Maybe it was you."

     "I don't remember going over the answers... or giving myself more work," Ashlee mumbles.

     "Perhaps you were just too tired. Maybe you're a math genius after all."

     "I doubt it."

     The two hug, mom patting her daughter's shoulders. "I have to run into the office."

     "But it's Saturday."

     "The people I work with are not efficient, untrained." Mom rolls her eyes. "Interns."

     Ashlee's mother's career focus was in finance. She held the CFO position at her husband's business. Not only was mom encased with numbers every day, but experiments as well. The company ran much differently than others. Their system of handling money also varied from other businesses. New hires or interns struggled to adapt to their efficient efforts. The same could be said for those new in the scientific field of the company.

     Ashlee trudged back to her room, breakfast and all. She sat at her desk, eyeing the mysteriously corrected math homework. She ate the cereal cautiously as if something just as mysterious could have happened to the food she now ate.

     But, she looked through all of the problems and understood the mistake. When she finally came across the final page, filled with extra work, she tried a couple. Some of them were suspiciously easy, but perhaps that was the result of becoming a math genius overnight. Others, however, were admittedly harder. She hadn't recognized the equations as anything she had ever seen or practiced in class. Maybe she wasn't a math whiz after all. Of course, nothing could truly explain why her homework had been fixed.

     Ashlee, having finished her homework for the weekend (truly only out of boredom), sat on her bed, staring at the ceiling. It was at times like these where she realized just how incredibly boring her life was.

     She recalled the incident the other night. It was strange, really. The so-called attack had been the only interesting story on the news and now, only a day later, it was completely forgotten. Maybe because it was debunked as a hoax. No one was able to recover any evidence that there was an attack. But Ashlee swore those Kraang were the real deal. She may just be going crazy.

     There were two explanations for her craziness: the first being her loneliness and the second being Nathan. He could be the one driving her insane. It wasn't all that far fetched.

     Ashlee walked onto the balcony and sat in the same chair she had sat in the night before. She glanced up and peered over the edge of the railing. Everything was normal but she still couldn't rest easy.

     She set an alarm for midnight, set her phone on the mini table, and relaxed. Whether or not she was insane, Ashlee knew she at least needed sleep before tonight. And so she drifted off.

     The peaceful rest did not last long, only a couple of hours. Her alarm sounded. She reached for the table but did not find it.

     That is when she noticed the swaying and loud whispers. The alarm silenced itself in turn silencing the whispers.

     Ashlee opened her eyes, in part for realizing she could not be late to the meeting and also in part for the weird alarm incident. She recognized where she was: in her room. But she was not in her bed, rather the center of the room. And someone was carrying her. Whoever it was, froze and when Ashlee found the courage to look up, she did not believe it was a person at all. They were not alone either, there were three other green things as well, aliens most likely.

     Ashlee drew in a sharp breath. It covered her mouth before her screams could escape.