Turtle Trouble (Aiden)

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Todd was not lost, though he appeared to be. He was wandering around the theater in the dark (because he couldn’t find the light switch) with a look of consternation. He was walking up and down the rows one by one looking for Jake, his turtle. He had wandered off in class (Jake, not Todd) and Todd had not been able to find him anywhere. So he thought maybe the theatre would be a good place.

Jake had always liked to hide in dark places and it was pretty dark in here. Todd dearly hoped he wouldn’t step on his beloved pet. That would be soul crushing and he’s have to call his parents and everyone would be crying. It would be a mess. A big mess. Then Mom and Dad would want to sing and he would probably recite some mournful poem. And that would really not be fun. Not at all actually.

“Jake?” Todd called out, into the darkness, sounding marginally concerned. His hands were stuffed in his pockets as he shuffled down a row. “Jake? Buddy? Where did you go?” he called again, as if the turtle would answer. Which would be completely silly. Turtles didn’t talk. But right about now, Todd wished they did.

[Aiden Mumble]

This would be the second time she'd retreated to the theater after classes let out in hopes of performing on stage with only the dim glow that the emergency light cast and her guitar for company. She had this weird theory worked out in her head that, maybe, if she could play enough times on the stage alone that she could somehow work up the gumption to do it in front of people. Her heart leapt into her throat of the very thought, but she swallowed hard and decided to focus on her music instead. She closed her eyes and began to strum, softly singing along, her sweet voice filling the air until her mind drew a blank and she was forced to look down at the sheet music she'd placed on the ground next to the stool she sat upon. She struggled for a moment, but managed to spread it out on the floor with her foot until the page she needed was in sight. C chord, F major, E major, E minor, and ooooh back to C again. She slide of her stool, unslung her guitar from her neck and was just about to make a note in her music when something moved not to far away in the darkness.

She froze. Oh God not again. How many people snoop around in the dark of the theater anyway?! She was really going to have to find somewhere else to sing and dance by herself....lordy that sounded so sad. Her eyes searched the area for the person that had surely caught her attention, but all she could see was darkness until something small and round crawled into her dim pool of light. A turtle. Oh. .....What? Why was there a turtle wandering around the stage? She sigh, this could only happen to her. Finding turtles wandering the theater at eight at night. Well hey there little guy she said softly, setting her instrument down and wandering over to scoop him up. What are you doing here.... she questioned it, giving the animal a curious look.

Not two seconds after she said something was someone calling out for someone named Jake. It suddenly occurred to her that this could be Jake in her hand. She squinted to try to make out who it might be. Honestly, who let there turtle go running around the school....who even had a pet turtle really? Um. she called out the the mysterious someone wandering the theater, naturally. Well there goes her alone time. Jake wouldn't happen to be a turtle would he? she asked as she looked the thing over. He kinda smelled bad. She winkled her nose slightly and turn him so she was looking down at his little face. You need a bath she commented, a certain fondness creeping into her tone. She had a soft spot for animals, no matter how smelly.

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Todd was so wrapped up in looking for Jake that he didn’t notice there was another person in the theatre. Actually the thought never occurred to him. Just like the thought never occurred to him that dragons were cool (and a lot more manlier than unicorns). Todd was just worried about Jake. He tended to get lost because sometimes Todd was a bit scatter brained. Whoever thought letting Todd have a pet was a good idea should have rethought that. On the other hand, it was a good thing Jake wasn’t a goat. Todd would have had so much more problems if he had a pet goat.

He jumped at the sound of the voice and banged a knee on the metal part in between the seats of the row he was shuffling down. That had scared him half to death. But once he got over the scare and properly processed the words he grinned. “Yeah,” he called back. “Yeah, Jake’s a turtle. Did you find him? Man, I was really worried about him. I didn’t want him to get crushed or something while he was lost. That would have been horrible. Hey, where are you anyway? I can’t see a darn thing in here.”

He was rambling again, but he was just so happy that Jake didn’t get crushed under someone or something. He was alive and he hoped okay. Though he would probably need a bath. Jake had a tendency to wander through some pretty nasty stuff when he got loose. Oh well, bathing a turtle was pretty easy anyway. You just filled the tub with water and let them swim around for a while. No big deal.

[Aiden Mumble]

Aiden stared down at the turtle, narrowing her eyes a little as if she might then be able to read its thoughts. What in the world are you doing here she would like it to answer. Alas, just as she expected, it only stared up at her blankly. She almost wondered if she'd induced some kind of stroke from picking it up given it complete a utter lack of movement, but when she move her hand to poke it in the face it shied away and pulled it little head back into it's shell. It was about this time that she heard her call answered from the abyss beyond the stage. He was clearly a boy, noted by the distinguishable timbre of his voice that she hadn't be able to tell earlier when he called out for his turtle for sheer surprise of hearing a voice at all. Soon after he confirmed Aiden's suspicions that he was wandering around the theater, in the dark, looking for his lost turtle, it became apparent that he was also a bit...scattered brained as well.

She stared into the darkness where she guessed it might be with a cocked eyebrow and a little smirk. She couldn't help it, hearing the kid go on about amused her a bit. I'm here she said simply, figuring that the sound of her voice would give him some sort of direction. She was curious to see just what kind of a guy in high school and/or university had a pet turtle and, even more strange. let it roam around the school. She glanced back at her new amphibian friend, who, it would seem, had gathered up the gumption to poke his head back out, now stared at her with glossy black eyes. Yeah I found him... Well she would hope so, unless there were several turtles wandering around that she didn't know about.

She squinted around, really wishing she knew exactly where the light switch was. He might trip on her guitar or something. That was the last thing she needed.

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Todd was really glad that Todd had showed up. If he was lost and he could find him then Todd would have had to tell his parents and his mother would probably be very sad and ramble on about how terrible this was and his father would have to comfort her. Then his father would probably ask if he wanted another turtle and that would make Todd feel worse because he loved Jake and no other turtle would ever replace him. And he would probably get all kinds of mistreatment from the animals at home too. They would hate him and that would be awful. His parents would forgive him, but his mother’s animal friends wouldn’t. Todd would probably be afraid to sleep in his own room by himself and end up camping on the floor in his parents’ room.

So yeah, finding Jake was probably a really really good thing for Todd. He listened for the voive and it sounded like it was coming from the front of the theatre. So he quickly made his way out of the row of seats and into the aisle. He squinted up at the stage and he could kind of see a girl. Maybe. Or maybe it was something else. He couldn’t tell.

“I’m really glad you found Jake,” he said as he made his way up to the stage. “What are you doing here in the dark anyway? I couldn’t find a light switch otherwise I would have turned it on. It’s easier to find turtles in the light, you know? It’s really hard in the dark.” He stopped in front of the stage. There weren’t steps to get on the stage from the front and Todd frowned. He could probably hop up, but he might trip and fall on his face and that was never a good thing. He’d stay right here for the moment.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know where the light switch is, would you? I mean, the dark is cool and all that, if that’s what you like. I just can’t really see you too well. And I’d like to see who my turtle rescuer is, you know?”