Chapter Text
I.. I don't really know where to begin with this one. I feel as though if you knew, you'd understand why. I'll try my best to explain, but please don't feel left out if you don't get it. If I was reading this I wouldn't believe myself either.
Around a week ago, our school had sent out a message over the PA. Right from the get-go, it was off. I'll attempt to recreate what we had all heard:
"Hello, students! This is [not saying my principal's name] speaking. We have some exciting news for you all, especially for those who are into cartoon and video games," This is the part where I cringed internally, as hearing the words over a speaker for the entire school of more than a thousand people to hear was… less than ideal. "Because as of today, we're starting a new program. The government has just given us out of every city in America this chance, so feel special, everybody! More details will be enlisted to those who are selected into the program, and those who are not will be sent a follow-up email in the coming days. That's all!"
Cringe-worthy, I know. You have no idea how much more it was actually being there, hearing it with your own two ears. So, basically, as told to us by our teachers immediately following the broadcast, a new program was set for our city - the reason why we were picked out of the millions of cities in this country is beyond me. Maybe we paid more than the rest of the cities? Maybe we had more kids who were into cartoons or something? Maybe it was just luck, or drawn out of a hat? God, if I knew I'd tell you guys. Anyways, only around a third of the students of the schools in the city got to participate in this. Yeah… Most of the people aren't that into TV or books or whatever.
The base of this program is as follows: every person that is picked is assigned to a character from their favorite fandom. If all the characters are taken, then it goes to their second favorite fandom, and so on. The character that they're assigned to is based on how close their personality is to said character. One of the biggest rules, though, is that it's a same-sex pairing; a female can't be paired with a male character and vice versa. The pairing is mostly referred to as 'partners' (yes, people have made shipping jokes, but that's strictly prohibited between real-life and fictional characters) and the main characters' partners have a vote on whose house they're going to make as their 'base', or whatever. It mostly goes down to whoever's house is bigger, because if your show/book/game has a lot of characters… Oh jeez.
Not every character is included, though. It'd get chaotic pretty quick if they were. It's mostly just the main characters and a few recurring ones. Nothing too major.
The only fandoms that are included, though, are animated TV shows (including the most popular anime, and ONLY the most popular because God knows how hectic this would be if every anime ever was included), books (only book series with fandoms, obviously), and video games (ONLY THE MAJOR ONES). Even I don't know every franchise that was included.
A campground was constructed for us for interaction between every fandom that we all go to every other weekend in the summer, and during breaks, we go to an area of apartments that are assigned to 'eras', or whatever. Like, shows that aired from 2010-15 or whatever. It's weird, yes. I know. Also, if we want to, we can have more than one fandom be at one house. Like, if we want the theme to be 'Ninja-shows from the 2010s', we can. It's actually really interesting.
Alright, I think that's everything. Now let's get to the whole reason behind why I'm freaking out while I type this.
See, I got accepted into the program, but here's the problem:
- I was put into the TMNT 2012 house (the problem there is me being wayyy too much of a dork around the guys).
- I was called down to the office.
- Nobody else in this program was.
"Okay, Allyson, you can come back now." My heart begins to race at a million miles an hour again. What in God's name is going on? Did I do something wrong? No, how could I have done something wrong? This thing came out today! ...Do they know everything I've done concerning this show????
I follow the afternoon secretary into a smaller room in the rear of the office. We have this, like, closed off area for the counselors and whatnot and every counselor has their own room. Why is this so difficult to explain… I sit down in one of the three chairs as the door closes behind me.
"Totally not creepy…" I whisper to the air. I set my backpack down on the floor, cracking my knuckles and looking around the room. It looks like any other counselor's room; not windows, a computer in front of me, shelves of information that doesn't pertain to me, blah blah blah. My attention is drawn towards the desk immediately in front of me. Sitting on top of it is a file with my name on it. The door opens and I jump a little in my seat.
"Oh, sorry!" A woman's voice says behind me. I don't recognize her, as I've never seen any staff at this school with short, ginger hair in the 3 years I've been here. She takes the seat on the other side of the desk, sighs, fixes her glasses, and opens the file as neatly as possible. "Alright, I don't want to make this sound weird or anything, but do you know why you were called down here?" I shake my head, watching her face intently. My curiosity gets the best of me.
"Wh.. Who did I pair up with? April? Ooo, Karai? That'd be neat. Although, I dunno if my personality matches hers… Renet? We look alike, so that'd make sen-"
"No, no. See, that's the problem," My breath stops. "You were paired with a male." She says, quieter than before, clearing her throat before continuing. "Your partner is Donatello." I stare at the woman. What. My jaw drops, the reality of the situation sinking in. My heart starts pounding faster and harder than it was before all this. My mind is racing at a thousand miles an hour. Images of possible future scenarios begin to form in my head, one right after the next.
"B.. But that's impossible! I thought the rules... I…"
"Yes, those are the rule. Participants aren't supposed to match with characters of the opposite gender," She says, looking me dead in the eye. "So something must have gone wrong in the sorting system, or, for some reason, this was just the character you matched closest to." She shrugs. "It's especially strange since the other three were partnered with males. Does the choice bother you in any way?"
"No." I immediately reply, which makes her eyes widen. shitshitshitshit "I-I mean, he's.. uh… Why would I be upset with being paired with.. my.. favorite character..?" Her eyes move around a bit.
"I guess that wouldn't make it all that weird, the," She breathes out, giving me a stern look with her next words. "Just make sure you don't go overboard."
"'Overboard'?"
"Do not , under any circumstances, let him know you feel that way towards him." If I had been drinking anything, I would have spat it out at this moment.
"Wh- What? "
"Your face is as red as a tomato ever since I said his name, Allyson." She sighs again. "How did you develop-"
"LET'S NOT GO THERE PLEASe i'd rather not talk about it and embarrass myself." I hurriedly say, sheepishly chuckling at the end of my words.
"Fair enough." She replies, closing the document after going over it one more time. "You are free to leave. Head to Gym A. I'm sure you'll see your group when you enter." I nod, quickly grabbing my things and leaving the room.
Me. Me, of all people, paired with him. First of all, what the hell went wrong with the machine? Had I known prior or right away, I probably would have lost my shit and asked to be excused for the rest of eternity. I couldn’t have said that right to a staff’s face, though. My pace slows the closer I get to the gymnasium doors, realizing that in that room is chock full of fictional characters. I can hear loud conversations even from a rough 5 feet away from the door. Other schools in the area were going through the same procedure, and I’m really grateful we didn’t all gather in one place. I’m about to reach for the door handle after mustering all my strength and courage when a voice calls out.
“Hey, wait for me, please!” I turn around and spot a teenager who looks like he’s 12 sprinting towards me. He heaves over once he reaches the doors and takes a breather before gaining his footing and looks at me. “Whew, I so did not want to go in there by myself, y’know? Awkward.” Now that I think about it, I have no idea where the idea even popped into my head to go in there alone and have hundreds of eyes stare at me, judging me and wondering who I was and who I was paired with and what my fandom is and- “Let’s go! I can’t wait to meet them!” The guy practically swings the door open and signals for me to follow, which I hesitantly do.
“Where are you headed?” He asks me.
“Um… Where are you?” I ask back. He only laughs.
“Playing that game, huh? Well, whatever. I got put in with the 2012 turtles!” Well. Convenience at its finest. Although, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little bit relieved at the fact I wasn’t headed to the group by myself.
“If I told you I was too, would you believe m-”
“NO WAY! YOU’RE TOTALLY JOKING WITH ME!” I wince at his volume, looking around to see if anyone started staring at us. To our (well, mostly my) luck, his volume actually wasn’t that much louder than the rest of the gym put together. “That is so cool!” This might be a shot in the dark, but…
“Let me guess: is your partner Mikey?”
“Psychic. You’ve gotta be April’s partner. There’s no other way you’d be able to guess that easily otherwise.” I scoff.
“It was just how loud you said that.. And how enthusiastic you are about this whole thing.” He frowns at my response.
“Are you not excited? I mean, we’re going to be able to hang out with the coolest characters in the universe !” I know at least the entirety of the internet that doesn’t like TMNT 2012 would be at a disagreement with him.
“Y.. Yeah, I guess…” I squeeze my backpack straps, peering around and seeing if my anxiety can spot the turtles before I can. There’s a part of me that just wants to get this over with, and a bigger part of me that’s scared out of my damn mind.
“Are you nervous?” He asks, a smile on his face. “How big of a fan are you?” I stop slouching and look him dead in the eyes.
“I can legit quote any line from the first and second seasons and I’ve seen every single episode twice. Test me.”
“Whoa, okay, back down there. I was just joking!” He laughs, holding out his hand.” I’m Kaden, by the way. Sophomore. I was held back a grade.”
“Allyson, junior. High school gives me anxiety.” We both laugh after briefly shaking hands, heading closer to the bleachers to avoid the crowd.
“So.. Do you see them anywhere? You’d think they’d stand out more.”
“Well, to be fair, the guys have lived their entire lives in secrecy. I’d be surprised if the only turtle we see right away is Mikey.”
“Y’know, I’m starting to think your partner might not be April and might be more of the other side of that ship.”
“You’re not wrong…”
“WHAT?” He shouts in my ear, making me wince again. “But I thought-”
“Yeah, well, I was called down to the office because of it. Turns out that when you get paired with your favorite character it’s a flaw in the machine or whatever.” He stops and I turn to look at him.
“We both got partnered up with our favorite characters, which is sweet, but.. I hope everyone else is as lucky…” I nod, walking with him as we continue our search. I take the time to look around and mentally try to remember every franchise I see here. Voltron (of course), Danny Phantom, Star VS, Trollhunters (SWEET!!), Ninjago (DOUBLE SWEET!!!), One Piece (I spot one of my friends with the group), Harry Potter (I think), FMA, Final Fantasy (another friend is there), Fire Emblem, Fairy Tail, BNHA, Naruto, Zelda… Wow, I didn’t expect to see my oldest fandom here… Oh, is that- “THERE!” Kaden suddenly half-shouts, grabbing my arm. “There there there there therethere-” I nudge him and look in the direction he is. My heart stops and I drop dead. Oh no.
There’s another teenager who looks like Kaden, standing next to Leo, laughing after something a girl said. At least I won’t be the only girl in the group. I don’t see anyone else in the entire gym after I finally see him. Almost 6 years later, after first seeing the character in question in a trailer, he’s here, in the real world. I reeeeaaally wish I could douse my head with water to stop the blood that I know is rushing to my face right now. His arms are folded slightly, putting his weight on one leg. Kaden’s tugging at my arm, but I have turned into a statue.
“i changed my mind i cannot do this,” I whisper, my heart jumping 20 feet into the air as he turns a little bit, but not enough to see the two of us.
“Allyson, what’s wrong? Why is your face all red?” He really is Mikey … I think, kind of relieved he hasn’t put two and two together. “Let’s go and introduce ourselves, or I’ll scream and they’ll have to notice us.”
“Why are you acting like you know me?” I say as he starts to walk away, and I hurriedly follow behind him. The teenager I noticed before locks eyes with me and then presumably Kaden’s, and he mouths a ‘hey’ as Kaden waves. I’m practically clinging onto Kaden at this point. How humiliating.
“How’s it going, guys?” Kaden asks with the confidence of like, Jesus Christ himself. “My name’s Kaden, and I’m super happy to be with you guys!”
“Heh, not bad,” The other teenager replies, eyeing me curiously. “My name is Sam, and well, if it wasn’t obvious I got paired up with Leo.” The turtle in question smiles at the two of us. Good GOD he really is short. Oh yeah, I’m taller than Kaden. Did I mention that yet? I’m like almost a head taller than him. He’s a shield that doesn’t block my face. Damn.
“That’s him! You! We’re-”
“Partners!” Mikey and Kaden say at the same time, the boy leaving me to fend for myself as he takes a couple steps closer to the youngest turtle. I stand there with… I’m guessing 4 pairs of eyes on me.
“Um.. Hi, uh.. I’m Allyson, and, well, the system choked on itself because I…” oh no oh no oh nO- “I am… I got paired up with Donnie!” I throw up my hands and dare to look at the character partnered with me, who looks as stunned as I was initially. “I don’t know either, and believe me when I say I’ve seen every episode twice so it’s not like I’m completely foreign with you guys or anything. I’m basically how Leo is with Space Heroes.”
“Just don’t go quotin’ us around everywhere and you’ll be better than Fearless,” Raph mutters, a smile cracking at the corners of his mouth. Leo shoots a glare at Raph before stepping forward a bit.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, regardless of the situation,” Leo says, outstretching an arm in my direction. My heart is racing just even thinking of physically coming into contact with characters I once thought were only fictional.
“You too, uh, even if I’ve technically known you for almost 6 years now.” I laugh and thankfully the entire group chuckles, which eases a small fear in the back of my mind. I take his hand, actually kind of surprised of how much larger their hands are. After we both let go, I hastily shove my hands into the pockets of my sweatshirt, clear my throat a bit (mostly to try and clear my head ) and face him.
“So.. The height difference is weird.”
“Huh?” He mutters, now directing his full attention to me. I literally take one glance at his eyes and my heart flutters. goddammit donnie why are you so perfect . I laugh a little bit as I speak.
“It’s just, the fandom, myself included, always saw you as around 6 feet tall, and I’m 5’7”, and since you’re like, only an inch taller than me, I’m still trying to wrap my head around that.” His face immediately shifts from neutral to amused in a split second, airily chuckling. My chest and lungs backflip.
“If I stand on my toes, would that make you feel better?” He asks jokingly, and I join in with his laughter.
“Allyson!! C’mon, you gotta meet the girls of the group! We won’t see them as often, so best to meet them now!” Kaden’s voice calls from father back. but what if i want to stay,
“I should… Uh.. He has a point.. godimsorry…” He just chuckles again. God, he’s in such a happy mood. That makes me happy. Yeah.
“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’m sure you wanted to be paired up with one of the girls anyway.” I stop mid-turn and look at him. He looks at me.
“If I’m honest, Donnie, I say screw the rules with the whole gender thing, because I really wanted to pair up with you. ”