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Part I: Ethan
Ethan clung to his mother's hand nervously as they approached the imposing structure. She smiled down at him with reassurance. "Are you scared, baby?"
He barely noticed the hated nickname as he considered her question with a seriousness that most five-year-olds did not know. "A little. Mama, what if they don't like me?" He tugged on his navy slacks, wishing he could have worn jeans like his peers.
"Baby, just be yourself, and you'll find that people will like you. It might not be all of them, but you'll find a friend or two. Look, there's your classroom."
"Don't call me baby," he said, straightening as she opened the door.
The mass chaos inside the room was directly related to first day of school jitters. A lovely young woman stood near the entrance, smiling at the confusion. She greeted the boy cheerfully. "You must be Ethan. My name is Miss Meredith. Would you like to introduce me to your mom?"
Ethan glanced from his mother to his teacher who watched him expectantly. "Why? You met my mom last week," he said, regarding the pair with avid curiosity.
Miss Meredith laughed gently. "You're right, Ethan." Over his head, she addressed his mother, "I see what you meant, Mrs. James - he's precocious. I'll have to find something extra special to challenge him."
Used to adults talking about him as if he were invisible, Ethan surveyed the room, absorbing the colorful decorations, toys, art supplies, and even an Apple computer in the corner. His eyes lit up at the sight of the new technology. "Mom, look, there's a computer," he said excitedly, pointing out the machine.
Mrs. James saw the computer and grinned at her son's obvious joy. "Ethan loves computers, video games, any sort of technology. He's the only person in the house who knows how to work the VCR," she admitted. "Don't let him near it with any sort of tool. He'd take it apart in a second."
Miss Meredith nodded. "Hey, Ethan, why don't you say goodbye to your mom? I'll show you your cubby and your seat."
Tightening his grip, Ethan shook his head firmly. Computer or not, it was still an unfamiliar place with strangers. But his mother knelt next to him with a gentle hug. "Come on, Ethan, we talked about this. Miss Meredith has lots of fun activities planned, and it's only for four hours. I bet you won't even notice that I'm gone, and it'll be time to go before you know it."
He let go of her hand, digging into his reserve of courage. "All right, I'll see you in four hours at twelve o'clock." He stared at the huge clock on the wall, already counting the minutes.
"Have a good day, baby," she said with teary eyes. She watched as Miss Meredith pointed out a cubby with his nametag. When Ethan turned to look back at his mother, she was gone from the room.
"Ethan, this is your seat." His teacher stood next to the table nearest the computer, which made the boy very happy. "And this is Kira."
He felt shy as he noticed the little girl wearing a simple yellow dress and blonde pigtails. He was far more used to dealing with adults than children his own age. She grinned with welcome, revealing a gap between her top teeth. "Hi," she chirped happily.
Satisfied that there would be no problems, Miss Meredith walked away to greet a new arrival. "Hello," Ethan said awkwardly, sitting in the chair and trying not to look directly at the girl.
Kira seemed to sense his reticence, and she worked hard to break the tension. "I like music the best. What do you like?"
Ethan wished even more strongly that he felt more comfortable with other kids. "I enjoy computers and video games."
"Huh?" Her hazel eyes were filled with confusion as she tilted her head curiously.
"Um, I like stuff like Pac-Man and Nintendo," he clarified.
"Cool," she said, beaming at him radiantly.
Miss Meredith appeared at that moment, leading a little boy wearing a red T-shirt, jeans, and a sulky expression. "Conner, this is Kira and Ethan. They're going to be sharing your table for a little while."
Conner was clearly taken aback when Kira said hello in such a happy tone. His scowl intensified as he switched his chair for one he deemed to be superior. "Whatever," he muttered.
Ethan noticed the way Kira's smile drooped slightly, and he tried to welcome the newcomer in the same way that Kira had welcomed him. "Kira and I were talking about what we like best. My favorite things are video games, and Kira likes music."
Conner's eyes brightened visibly with interest though he still looked sullen. "I like video games. Have you ever played the World Cup soccer game?"
"No, I don't really play sports games. I like games like Zelda. I've already beaten it twice," Ethan said proudly.
Kira listened to the conversation quietly before she turned her full attention to Ethan. "I've played Zelda before."
Feeling like he could find friends after all, Ethan spoke eagerly, "Have you beaten it?"
"No, my mom said that I have to be a little older to understand it, but I like the song of the fairies when they heal you," she said.
Frustrated that he was being ignored, Conner snorted. "That's cause video games are for boys, dummy."
Hurt by the name-calling, Kira rallied her spirits admirably. "I'm not a dummy, you are," she said with a glare. "And sports are dumb, too."
"Shut up. Soccer is the only thing that matters and only if you win," Conner announced, jumping off his chair. "I'm gonna go find cool kids. But, dude, you shouldn't hang out with her. My brother says that girls have cooties."
As Conner strode off, Kira's lip trembled slightly. "I don't have cooties, you know.""
Ethan stared at the suddenly sad girl. "Sure, I know that. I saw a TV show about cooties, and the only people who have them live in a whole other country."
Her quicksilver mood changed instantly, and she sparkled with joy again. Mystified by the strange girl, he had no time to wonder because Miss Meredith clapped her hands together several times. "All right, everyone, please find your seats so we can get to know each other better."
Conner slunk back to his seat with an annoyed expression, and Kira stuck her tongue out at him. "I don't like you. You're mean."
"I didn't ask you to like me, cootie-girl," he retorted, returning the gesture.
Ethan just wondered if his classmates would hate him as much as his tablemates seemed to hate each other.
Part II: Kira
Kira Ford was a lot like other little girls her age. She liked Barbies and dress-up, and she loved to wear lacy, frilly dresses that made her feel like a princess. In fact, she was proud to be a girl. In her vast experience, boys were horrid creatures who always acted like the mean boy sitting across from her. He had spent the morning fidgeting in his chair and muttering under his breath about how much girls sucked especially girl teachers. He had even kicked her a couple of times, bruising her ankle. But that was nothing compared to the nasty purple spot he was sporting on his shin from her pointy little shoe.
She liked Ethan even if he was a boy and he knew nothing about music and dancing. At least he knew she didn't have cooties, but she wished he talked more like her. Sometimes she had no idea what he was talking about and that made her feel stupid. Kira was pretty happy that she had the chance to explain the proper way to finger paint even if Conner had laughed and hogged the red paint.
The trio had been working in peaceful silence when Kira started to hum the melody running through her head. Accustomed to expressing herself through music, she found that the melodies usually helped her artistic endeavors and never even noticed when the silence changed.
Conner was the first to hear the music, and he clapped his hands over his ears. "What's that bad noise?"
Puzzled, she glanced at Ethan who shrugged his shoulders. She hadn't heard anything unusual but she giggled silently when she saw the dab of red paint on his ear. "I didn't hear nothing."
"It was you, stupid. You were making a weird noise," he accused, pointing a red-tipped finger in her direction.
Her expression cleared as she finally understood him. "Oh, you mean my humming," she said, demonstrating the soft melody.
Ethan was pretty impressed by the sweet sounding noise, but Conner looked even more annoyed. "Stop it," he said loudly.
Miss Meredith walked over to their table with an alarmed expression. "Is there something wrong, Conner?"
"No, Miz Meredith," Kira said with an angelic smile. "Conner was just bein' melodramatic. He didn't mean it." Her pride as she carefully pronounced the multi-syllable word was evident as she used the phrase her mother often said when she was throwing a fit. Neither Conner nor Ethan knew what the word meant, and she felt a thrill that she could confound them.
"All right. If you need any help, just let me know, okay?" It was apparent that Conner and Ethan were not going to contradict the girl so she moved to another table.
Ethan leaned over to Kira. "What does me-lo-dram-atic mean?"
Kira smiled with pride. "My mom always says for me to quit bein' so melodramatic when I start whining too much."
"I wasn't whining," Conner replied, narrowing his eyes angrily.
"Whatever," she said dismissively and returned to her picture without humming.
"What was the song, Kira?" Ethan asked.
"Oh, it was something I made up in my head."
"Awesome, the only song I know is the alphabet song, but I didn't make it up."
"You're lying, cootie-girl. There's no way you made up that song!" Conner sounded mad although the other two had no idea why he would be mad.
She made a face at him in response as she peeked at his picture. He had drawn a boy with a soccer ball in his hands standing next to a racecar. Boys were so stupid - even Ethan had drawn a messy looking box that looked like a computer. She carefully painted black lines down her guitar to represent strings. She was so focused on her picture that she completely missed Conner reaching across the table to grab the yellow paint. He knocked the cup over, and the bright yellow paint pooled across her hard work. "Oops," Conner said with a smirk like he was trying not to laugh.
"You shouldn't have done that," Ethan scolded, almost afraid of the young girl's mood.
"Why do you care? She's just a stupid little girl," Conner said flippantly.
Kira stared at the ruined picture, trying to suppress the tears she felt filling her eyes. She wasn't a just a stupid little girl.
"You made her cry," Ethan murmured.
Conner looked uneasy at the revelation. "That's what girls do," he insisted. "They're too weak to do anything else."
The subject of their discussion managed to stop the tears from falling. She would not be weak in front of the terrible boy, and she would not let him make her cry. With a philosophical shrug, she stuck her finger in the pool of yellow and started to spread the paint across the paper with a sense of purpose. Intent on her activity, Kira missed the strange looks exchanged between her tablemates.
By the time Miss Meredith announced that it was time for show and tell, Kira had sufficiently adjusted the picture to suit the extra paint. The teacher selected their table to start, and Conner chose to go first. Displaying his picture proudly, he said, "I drew a soccer ball and a racecar because soccer is the bestest thing in the whole world and I really like it when my dad goes super fast in his Mustang."
Ethan barely held his picture out as he mumbled, "This is the computer that my dad gave me for my birthday. I like to play games on it." Miss Meredith asked him to repeat it a little louder, and he did in a very fast string of words.
Kira stood imperiously, waiting until all eyes were on her. "This is my picture. It was a guitar at first with strings and everything because I love to sing and dance, and my mom is going to teach me how to play a guitar real soon. But it was ruined when he spilled the yellow paint," she said pointedly, fixing her eyes on Conner as she nailed the culprit. "So I made it into a sun instead because I love the feeling of the sun on my face."
"You are all very creative and resourceful, too." The class clapped politely, and Miss Meredith moved the focus to the next table.
"Nice save," Conner complimented in a whisper.
The sports terminology went over the pair's head, but Kira refused to grant any attention to the boy. "I really like your sun, Kira," Ethan ventured timidly.
"Thanks, but I liked my guitar better," she said obnoxiously.
"Look, I'm sorry, coo - Kira." Conner's tone was impatient because he expected her to accept his attempt to make peace.
Turning the full force of her piercing gaze on Conner, she hissed, "And I am not weak!"
Startled by her words, he tried again to make amends with a smile, the first genuine one to cross his face since he had arrived at school, but she turned her head away and concentrated on the blonde girl who was explaining about her dream to be on TV.
Part III: Conner
Conner already hated school, and all he wanted was to be outside under the sun. His mom had told him that he would like school, but school meant sitting still for long periods of time, something he didn't know how to do. To make matters worse, his dumb teacher had stuck him at a table with a stupid blonde cootie-girl and a geeky boy who probably had cooties, too. He thought the boy was okay, but he definitely wasn't as cool as his friends from the soccer team. Ethan did seem to like Kira (what a stupid name!) and had sounded almost like a teacher when Conner made her cry. He hadn't tried to make her cry, but his brother said that's all they did anyway. He still couldn't believe that she wouldn't let him say that he was sorry. She had spent all the time between art and break only talking to Ethan and ignoring him completely even though he had tried to give her his favorite racecar pencil.
When break came, Conner was the first out the door, eager to escape the tiny classroom and girls too dumb to know when they should accept a gesture of friendship. He lifted his face toward the sun before remembering what cootie-girl had said about the feeling. Conner decided that they weren't like each other at all and looked around the playground. He spotted Ethan and Kira talking near the grass and strolled toward them just in time to hear Ethan suggest, "Let's play Ninja Turtles."
"Okay," Conner agreed, surprising the pair. "I get to be Raphael though."
Ethan smiled. "I like Leonardo best."
"That leaves Michelangelo or Donatello." Kira bit her lip and weighed her choices carefully.
"Don't be silly. None of the Ninja Turtles are girls," Conner stated belligerently. "You can be April though," he added with condescension.
"But April doesn't get to fight. She's the one who has to be rescued all the time," Kira argued.
"That's the way Ninja Turtles are. Anyway, you're wearing yellow just like April does."
"Ethan, don't you think I should be a Ninja Turtle?" Kira turned imploring eyes to her ally.
Undecided, he pondered the dilemma carefully. "Well, Conner's right, and you're not really wearing the right clothes to fight in." Kira looked so upset that he hurriedly said, "And what if you get hurt or something?"
Only the smallest part of him felt bad when he glimpsed Kira's deeply wounded look. "So you think I'm weak, too?" Her voice was soft and sad. She turned away and started walking slowly toward the middle of the grass.
Conner grinned with satisfaction. He was surprised that Ethan had sided with him, but he also thought it served Kira right. "Awesome." Ethan looked far less pleased and seemed torn between following Kira and staying with Conner. "Who are we going to fight?"
Ethan snapped back to the conversation. "We could just spar. Sometimes Splinter has them train together that way," he remarked.
"That's no fun," Conner contradicted. "Let's ask that kid to be Shredder."
"His name is Devin."
But Conner bellowed over Ethan's words. "Dude, want to play Ninja Turtles with us?"
The gawky little kid looked happy to be included. "Yeah."
"You have to be Shredder," Conner said in a bossy voice.
"Okay," he agreed easily.
"Devin!"
"Sorry." A wail changed his mind, and he shrugged at the pair before walking toward the girl who wanted to be a TV star.
Conner watched in disgust. "I guess we'll have to spar instead," Ethan said logically. "Leo is the leader of the team after all.
"What? No way. He's just a geek." Conner was appalled by his analysis. "Besides, Raph is a better fighter so he should be leader."
"Being a leader means more than the best fighter. Leo's smart which means he can think through any fight." Ethan sounded stubborn now.
"He's a wimp. At least Raph is brave."
"Leo is brave, and Raph is too dumb to lead right."
Conner saw two kids from his soccer team approaching. Ian carried a soccer ball in his hands. He half-shoved, half-pushed Ethan with a superior expression. "This is a stupid game! I'm gonna go play soccer." He walked toward the pair, glancing over his shoulder to see the confusion on the other boy's face.
"You weren't playing with that guy?" Ian looked at Ethan with disdain.
In his most arrogant tone, Conner announced loudly, "No, he's a geek. He doesn't even know how to play soccer."
Pained but not mortally wounded by the betrayal, Ethan wandered over to a boy playing Dr. Mario on his Game Boy. When Conner glanced at him again, the pair was engaged in an intense conversation. He was mildly annoyed that Ethan had found someone else so quickly, but at least he hadn't gone back to that stupid Kira. He was even more surprised to discover that the little girl was dancing and twirling on the grass, performing for the whole world to see (or several other little girls anyway). His disgruntlement grew - how dare they both act like nothing had happened? After all, Conner McKnight had rejected them.
"I'll block the goal, Conner," Michael volunteered.
Focusing on the ball, Conner put all his anger, irritation, and power into the kick. Michael never had a chance to stop it which made Conner remember that soccer was the only thing that mattered, not boys who didn't know the true leader of the Ninja Turtles, not girls who were too happy and creative to be bore, and especially not friends who might have been.
After break, Miss Meredith allowed them to choose their own groups. Without a backward glance, Kira sat with several of the little girls who had participated in her impromptu dance recital. Ethan sat at their original table with the owner of the Game Boy and proceeded to discuss the computer. Conner chose a seat that faced away from them and talked in a loud voice about freaks and nerds, making Michael and Ian laugh with his cutting words.
Part IV: Blue, Yellow, Red
Later that night, Ethan sat at his dinner table with his parents and listened to them discuss his dad's job at a computer software company. His dad smiled at him and asked, "How was your first day of school, Ethan?"
The young boy thought about the events of the day. "It was okay. My teacher has a computer in her classroom."
"Did you make any new friends, baby?" His mother watched him with love, knowing how worried he had been about the issue.
"Yeah, this boy named Tim. He has a Game Boy, and his favorite game is Zelda, too," Ethan revealed excitedly.
"That sounds great, kiddo," his dad laughed. "No one else, huh?"
A vision of a cute blonde and a cocky boy danced across his memory, but he remembered the cold shoulder she gave him after break and the terrible names he called him with mocking laughter. "No one else," Ethan said firmly, resolving to ignore them in the future.
A few streets away, the girl was looking at an empty seat with disappointment. "I can't believe Daddy isn't here."
"Kira, honey, he had to go on that business trip, remember? But I'm here, and you still haven't told me about your day." Her mother waited patiently, watching her daughter twist blonde hair around her fingers.
"It was lots of fun," Kira decided brightly. "I really liked finger painting. I made a sun!"
"We'll have to hang it on the fridge when you bring it home, okay? And did you find people to talk to?"
"Yeah, lots! The girls in my class are really nice, and a couple of them are taking ballet class with me." Her joyful smile faded briefly. "The boys in my class are mean though. One of them called me a freak." She brightened in a flash. "But he was stupid anyway."
"Kira, you shouldn't call other people stupid," her mother scolded gently.
The young girl had already moved on to the next topic. "Mom, I don't want to wear dresses to school anymore. They're too hard to play in, and they'll get dirty."
Unsurprised by her daughter's sudden shift into serious, Mrs. Ford gazed at her special daughter. "All right, honey, we can go shopping for some jeans and T-shirts this weekend, okay?"
"Good," Kira said vehemently. She tried hard to not think about the smart boy who had betrayed her and the stupid boy who had rejected her friendship because she had cooties. She would just talk to girls from now on, she decided suddenly.
Across town, Conner's family sat down for family pizza night. His brother kicked him under the table. "Hey lame-brain, was school awful today?"
"Eric, he is not a lame-brain. Apologize," their mother demanded.
"Sorry," he said insincerely, sticking his tongue out at Conner when Mrs. McKnight had turned away.
"How was school, Conner?" his dad asked, watching the byplay indulgently.
The boy made a hideous face at Eric, but he replied honestly, "It was stupid except for break. That was fun."
Mr. McKnight laughed cheerfully. "He's a chip off the old block. I hated to be cooped up in the classroom."
His mother frowned. "But he has to have an education, John, so he needs to learn to live with it. Did you make new friends, sweetheart?"
"Not really. The kids were lame, freaks and nerds."
"The girls all had cooties, right?" Eric wanted to make fun of his brother for talking to a girl so he carefully laid the trap.
Conner shot him an incredulous look. "Why would I talk to any girls? They're stupid, weak, and all they do is cry."
Sensing the coming fight, his mother intervened easily. "What was fun about break, Conner?"
"Michael and Ian are in my class, and we spent break practicing for the game against Blue Bay Harbor." He crammed a slice of pepperoni in his mouth.
He missed the tightening of his dad's jaw at his news. "Just don't let me catch you picking up any of Ian's bad habits on the field, Conner," he warned. "I want you in top form for that game."
"John, Ian's a good kid," his wife protested with a half-laugh.
"Ian might be a good kid, but he's a terrible soccer player. I don't know why he's even playing soccer. He's more suited for football or baseball."
"Honey, he's still a child." His mother glanced at her two sons who were listening with avid interest.
"So? I just don't want my son picking up a habit that could ruin his chance to go pro. Conner's talented enough to make a career out of soccer, and I don't want some snot-nosed brat ruining it for him.
"He's only five years old," she argued helplessly, knowing that it was impossible to put a dent in John McKnight's ambitions for his youngest son.
"But now is the time to get it right. In other countries, their soccer players are raised from birth to eat, sleep, and breathe the game. I don't want Conner at a disadvantage. Remember, Conner, don't let anything distract you from the game."
"I know, Dad," Conner replied seriously, pushing away the images of a girl who paid too much attention to a geek and a guy who liked Ninja Turtles. They were distractions just like his dad said, and he tried hard to forget the shiny girl and the smart boy.
Epilogue:
And they succeeded in ignoring each other so thoroughly that they forgot that they had ever spent a morning together at all. Twelve years later, all that remained were hazy memories that niggled at the back of their minds. A boy whose love of computers and video games had made him too logical for his own good. A girl whose bright smile had only dimmed because they had discounted her as a girl. A boy whose passionate love for soccer surpassed even the need for friends. And though they remembered almost nothing, it colored their interactions with each other. Ethan and Kira were quick to reassure Conner that they would be friends whether he was a Ranger or a soccer player. And Conner and Ethan worked hard to make Kira smile when she was most unhappy because they hated to see her sad. For Ethan, the others provoked and teased until he gave into the feelings he so often repressed.
In spite of the differences that had separated them in kindergarten, it was their similarities, the passion, courage, compassion, intellect, loyalty that bonded them together as teammates and friends. Yet it was those very same differences that made them a force to be reckoned with and helped them to defeat Mesogog in the end.