Blue Cherry Blossoms || TMNT

Prologue || Hello New York City

"𝓑𝓵𝓾𝓮 𝓱𝓪𝓼 𝓷𝓸 𝓭𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓼, 𝓲𝓽 𝓲𝓼 𝓫𝓮𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓭 𝓭𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓼."

The sun barely peeked over the tall skyscrapers, the red-blue hue reflecting across the impossible amounts of glass as your plane landed on the day that you came to New York. Your stomach bubbled with a subtle but suffocating feeling. This was the first time you'd been so far away from home, and you were here alone.

Your parents had disapproved of you transferring to New York City for a school supplied internship - and for an entire year no less, but you were desperate. Your eyes sparkled so brightly the first time you heard of the opportunity - this was your chance. Your chance to begin your career as a scientist - one that would change the world in ways you'd always imagined. There was no way you were backing down now. Then, finally you'd made your point; finally you could go to New York and begin a life without your parents breathing down your neck. You could finally make a decision for yourself.

The day you arrived you were welcomed at the airport by two people, a married couple who would serve as your host parents while you were in New York. They were a quiet Asian couple who had a humble apartment and a son who was a few years older than you were. You would be starting your sophomore year at Roosevelt High School, and their son was an incoming senior. You'd already seen their profile before you arrived, but meeting them in person for the first time was unnerving. There was something about the two of them that set off a tiny alarm in your mind, but it was so small that you brushed it to the side.

When you first met their son, he was cold towards you. He was as silent as his parents were, and you felt a little out of place - as if he was distancing you on purpose, but you kept quiet about it. You were here to study and begin taking the first steps to your dream, you didn't really need to make many friends here anyway. You simply had to keep your head up and work hard to accomplish your dream, and maybe you could return to New York when you graduated from high school!

Nonetheless, you were making good of your time. As soon as you entered Roosevelt High School, you could tell from the atmosphere alone that it would be easy to climb up the ranks. You kicked the smartest people off the roster to make room for you quite quickly. There was one person who you competed against regularly though. April O'Neil was a bright girl, and despite Irma being quite annoying, she would almost give you a run for your money when it came to physical science. Of course, after talking with her more, you learned April's father was a scientist; no doubt she inherited her father's intelligence to some degree, but even then it was always a friendly competition when it came to academics.

At first you saw her only as a competitor, but when you finally got to meet her, you found she wasn't the worst person to hang around. Irma on the other hand was annoying to no end and you didn't know why but something about her set you off. Nonetheless, you became friends with April, even after you proved your superiority over academics she still kept you close by as a study buddy. You had to admit, it fed into your ego just a little bit when she did.

And then there was the ice rink. You'd always loved to ice skate when you were a kid. Every winter you'd do it as much as possible, and when you found out one was nearby, you used it as much as possible. You bought your own skates and even became friends with a hockey maniac who resided there often, Casey Jones. The two of you would always butt heads, but usually it was nothing more than friendly banter, and if he ever said something too offending, you'd just fry his brain by using words he didn't understand. Of course, you weren't graceful enough to be a figure skater, but after a few rounds of racing with Casey, you'd left him in the dust quite a few times. Then you learned about speed skating. You took to it just as fast as you did with science and were just as passionate about it. As long as you had a good center of balance, you could skate twice as fast as Casey could, and soon enough you left him in the dust during races.

And finally, you had your internship. The first time you entered the offsite laboratory, you nearly lost all of your cool. You were really there, you were really going to be a scientist, and you were starting now. You were researching evolution and mutations in the human genome and DNA, and so far, it was going great. At first it set off a few red flags, considering the strange security, the materials you were handling, and the fashion sense of the company's founder, but you learned to love your work. That was, until a few bumps in the road started to appear. Then you began to wonder...

Was there something bigger going on in New York?