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remidrew · 2 months ago

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Whumpril Day 8: Burnout

Read on AO3-> Here

20,365 followers.

April couldn’t believe it. All her hard work was finally paying off. Ever since the whole Superfly scenario, she had been uploading daily to her YouTube channel. Leo had been helping her film after school in the school’s darkroom and had become her unofficial cameraman and editor.

It was nice to see someone as dedicated as she was. Leo had pulled a few all-nighters to finish editing in time for the 3:00 daily upload and he was always down for whatever. If April told him she wanted to film whilst wading through the Hudson or inside the museum of natural history after closing, he would be there. If she said she had a wild conspiracy theory about what was turning the walls in the cafeteria green, he would listen.

April had never been the most popular or the best at making friends and most people found her conspiracy theories or investigations a little too out there.

Of course her mom had always been there for her and been supportive of her ambitions but this was different.

Leo was a friend who was her age and with enough modern pop culture knowledge to understand the references she made. He was an amazing partner and April couldn’t imagine doing her show without him.

She was so lucky to have such a good friend.

Another successful week later and April entered the dark room after classes, carrying a cup of coffee and her notebook. She had been up all night writing down ideas for leads on the whereabouts of TCRI. They just couldn’t completely gone. It just wasn’t feasible. She’d received word back from one of her contacts, a city power washer who mostly worked near the TCRI lab, that he heard from one of his co-workers who heard from her wife’s friend’s uncle that TCRI had fled with Cynthia Utrom to a smaller lab location somewhere in the Northern New York suburbs.

April set down her coffee on a table and began flipping through her notepad. Somewhere she had made a list of possible suburbs to investigate.

“Hey,” Leo mumbled as he entered the dark room, carrying a large binder to his chest. “Did you have Mr. Harris for Algebra I?”

“Hey,” April looked up from her notebook to give him a small smile. “Yeah, it’s an easy A,” she said flippantly. “Just do the homework and you won’t have to study for the tests or quizzes.”

Leo gave a little nod, “Right, thanks.” He set his school bags on the table and then reached inside to pull out a quick snack of pretzels. “So, are we just filming here today?” He asked as he bit into a pretzel stick.

April nodded, her smile spreading wider across her face as she finally found the list of towns. “Yeah, I wrote a quick fluff piece on the new tables the cafeteria is getting.”

Leo gave her a puzzled look, “But I thought you hated fluff pieces?”

“Oh, I do but we need to keep this upload streak going or the algorithm is going to forget about me,” she began to rant, stepping closer and closer to Leo, “and then none of my videos will get any attention and my career as a journalist will be over!”

“Right,” Leo said as he backed away. “But is anyone really gonna care about the new cafeteria tables? I mean we go to school here and I don’t even think we care.”

April let out a sigh, “I know–I know. It’s dumb but we have to post something! Besides–” She held up her notebook, “I’ve got a big lead for a video next week!”

“Do you still think aliens are somehow involved in TCRI?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” she stated bluntly, “But this isn’t about that. I made a list of all the nearby towns with TCRI sightings and I think this could be our big break for April Tonight! Think you could come with me this weekend and film some on the scene investigative journalism?”

Leo blinked, “Us? Alone? On a trip?”

April let out an awkward chuckle, “Well, yeah? Unless you wanna bring one of your brothers?”

“No-no-no,” Leo frantically shook his head, letting the tails of his mask slap him in the face. “I mean—I,” he stumbled, “I think they’re busy and like remember that time Mikey dropped that light and Raph and Donnie’ll get bored and—“

His face was turning bright red the more he rambled. It was kinda cute, how nervous he got. April was never sure quite why he got so nervous but it happened so often she just assumed Leo was an anxious person. She could relate to that. No wonder they got along so well.

“Leonardo,” April said softly as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

That immediately shut him up. He let out a puff of air then forced an awkward smile. “I’d love to, April.”

“Yes!” April cheered, then pulled Leo into a tight embrace. “You’re the best. This is just what the channel needs!”

Leo hugged her back, practically melting away in her arms. “Yeah, I just need to ask my dad.”

A few days later, April was sitting in the dark room, after school as she always did. She had her laptop in her lap, an iced coffee in one hand, while using the other to scroll her channel analytics page.

Her views were down.

Her subscriber count was stagnant.

Leo had been right about the lunch table fluff piece, no one cared and it was evident in the lack of engagement the video had garnered. She groaned and smashed her face into the keyboard.

What had she done wrong?

She had been sure to upload a video every single day since she started. She was sure to mention the like button and the subscribe button in every video and she even provided links to all her recent uploads on all her other social media as well as each of the turtles’ and Splinter’s.

April’s hands shook as she took a sip of coffee then pressed her thumbs into her temples. Her head was killing her. She knew it was probably the lack of sleep or lack of water or maybe a bit of both but she didn’t have time to worry about frivolous things like sleep and hydration; she needed a good and interesting story.

She needed to go big. She needed to wow people. Fluff pieces weren’t going to cut it. She needed to have breaking news for each and every upload. She needed to have everyone on the edge of their seats. She needed—

Leo

Where the hell was he? It was already well past three and school ended at 2:15. It wasn’t like him to be late. He was supposed to be bringing the edit for that day’s upload. It was another fluff piece this time on new treadmills at the Coexisting Center. It wasn’t anything special but it was important to keep up with the upload schedule so the algorithm didn’t leave her behind.

Just as she was about to text him, he entered the dark room looking a bit disheveled. His school bag was hanging onto one of his shoulders, wide open and spilling out. He clutched his math book to his chest and held his head low.

“Leo!” April said with a big smile across her face. She sprang up from her chair, setting her laptop to the side. “I thought you were flaking on me for a sec.”

“No,” he said in a small voice, his eyes darting downwards. “Of course not.” He hugged the book tighter to his chest. “I just had to stay after class today. Sorry, I’m late.” His eyes stayed fixated on the floor.

“Nah, It’s cool,” April said with a wave of her hand. “Teachers be like that sometimes. You have the new edit?”

Leo pursed his lips then averted his eyes as he curled his arms tighter around the book.

April’s heart skipped a beat.

This couldn’t be happening.

She might as well kiss goodbye all her dreams of being a real journalist.

“Are you serious, Leonardo?” she snipped, “do you know how far back this is gonna set me?”

There was a slight crack in Leo’s voice as he apologized.

“All of the hard work we’ve done these past few months is all gonna go to waste!” It’s gonna take me forever to get picked back up by the stupid algorithm.”

There was a pause then Leo looked up at her with teary eyes, “Is that all you care about!?” He tried to discreetly wipe the tears away, “Can’t you tell I’m trying my best here,” he snapped with a harshness that April had never heard come out of his mouth. “Sorry, I just can’t keep up with it all. I clearly can’t handle homework, editing, filming, and also keeping up with my usual training.” He tried to suppress a sniffle. “Now, I’m failing math, my dad’s disappointed in me, and I probably won’t ever get into a good college and April,” he paused to catch his breath, “I can’t even remember the last time we hung out just as friends and not about the show.”

April’s heart skipped a beat as she stared back at him. He was right. They hung out practically everyday but it was all in regards to April Tonight. She couldn’t remember the last time they hung out to just be silly teens. There had been so many places around the city that she had wanted to introduce Leo and his brothers to but that had all been put on hold in order to focus all her attention on her silly Youtube channel.

April looked back at Leo. His skin was pale and his eyes looked tired and lifeless with too many bags to count underneath them. His blue polo top looked slightly disarrayed and was oddly untucked from his khaki pants.

To put it bluntly, he looked an absolute wreck. The complete opposite of the clean cut teacher’s pet look he usually gave off.

He’d done this for her.

He’d overworked himself to the bone. He had sacrificed his own good grades and sleep schedule all to help her with her silly internet news show and this was how she showed her gratitude? By scolding him for missing her unreasonable deadline one time.

This.

This had to be the reason why she hadn’t had many friends before the turtles. She was too driven, too focused, too obsessed that she lost track of being a good friend in the first place.

She was cruel.

She was heartless.

But most of all, she was a bad friend.

“I’m sorry, April,” Leo let out a sad sigh, “I really wanted to help out but I’m—-“

“Stop, stop,” April cut him off, “I’m the one who should be sorry.”

Leo stared back at her blankly, blinking away the tears that were still forming in his eyes.

April averted her own teary eyes, “I’ve been a terrible friend to you,” she finally admitted in a small voice.

Leo opened his mouth to correct her that no, she was an amazing friend. She was his best friend but he just couldn’t get his mouth to say it.

“I guess I just wanted this so badly.” April admitted, a slight waiver to her voice. “And when our views and follower count started going up I thought I was really gonna achieve it. I never knew numbers could make you feel so good. ” She let out a deep breath, wiped away her tears then adjusted the beanie on her head before finally looking Leo in the eyes. “But that doesn’t excuse the fact that I’ve been a shit friend to you.”

“It’s okay—“ Leo started to say but then April cut him off.

“No, you’ve been sacrificing so much just to help me. That’s not fair and I’m sorry.”

Leo didn’t reply, he just hugged his math book closer to his chest and stared at the ground.

“Let me tutor you,” April said abruptly.

“What?” Leo shot his head up to look at her. “But then when are you gonna have time to–”

“We’ll take a break.”

“A break? But April–what about that big story you were working on? The one with TCRI and–”

“I’ll still keep working on it,” she said. “I just,” she let out a sigh. “I think I’ve hated just about every single video we’ve posted this last week and I think our audience agrees.” It felt simultaneously good and shameful to admit but it was the truth.

The past few videos they had uploaded were rushed, boring fluff pieces and April had hated them. She hadn’t wanted to admit it before but deep down she had known it was the reason for the low views.

“But what about the algorithm? The next time we upload it’s not going to do well, right?”

April shrugged, “Maybe.” If she was being honest, she wasn’t even quite sure she understood exactly how the algorithm worked. All her knowledge came from what she saw other people online saying and maybe that wasn’t exactly the most trustworthy source. “But when people hear about the exclusive tea we have on TCRI, they’ll have no choice but to come flocking back to our channel!”

A big grin spread across Leo’s face but quickly faded, “Will you still want to hang out with me if we’re not filming everyday?”

“Of course,” April replied immediately, “I’ll be your math tutor afterall. Did I mention I got a 98 in Mr. Harris’ class?”

Leo’s cheeks reddened slightly and he couldn’t hide the smile that spread across his face. “Right, yeah! That sounds amaz–,” he faked a cough to cover his overexcitement. “I mean that sounds cool.”

April couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “Why don’t we grab some froyo and I can help you with your homework?”

Leo gave a double thumbs-up, “Yeah, sounds cool!” He said awkwardly.

“But you know, Leo,” April said, her voice a bit serious.

Leo’s heart skipped a beat, “What?”

“I would want to hang out with you even if I wasn’t gonna help you with math.” She elbowed him in the side playfully, “You’re fun to be around, you know?”

“Oh,” Leo said in a small voice, cheeks reddening. “Well, you’re fun to be around as well.”

April’s smile fell ever so slightly. A part of her didn’t believe him. She had been so awful to him. She had been a terrible friend. It was difficult to fathom that he didn’t hold at least a little bit of malice toward her.

She needed to make it up to him. To prove that she was a good friend.

“And I-uhh,” Leo stuttered. “I noticed you changed your lipstick shade and I just wanted to tell you I think it looks really really nice,” Leo blathered.

April blinked

That.

That was not what she had been expecting him to say.

One thing was sure, Leo held no malice toward her. He was just sweet like that. He always looked for the good in people. She felt so lucky to have met him.

#my writing #mutant mayhem #tottmnt #mm leonardo #mm april

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