Chapter 2

Saturday

 

As the turtles prepared to go see Marvel and Cato, someone else was having a pretty boring day at home.

 

Six-year-old Shireen Baris was sitting in her room while her babysitter, Gieve, was too busy to pay attention to her while flirting with a girl over her parents’ phone. The little girl groaned in annoyance, wondering when Gieve would get off the phone and play with her, while at the same time wishing her brother wasn’t busy helping his friends with a school project. Out of boredom, she went into her brother’s room and logged onto his computer, knowing he wouldn’t mind if she went on the Internet for a little bit. While she was surfing, Shireen found an ad for Cato and Marvel’s show that very day!

 

“Marvel and Cato are back?!” she exclaimed happily, grinning from ear to ear, her blue eyes alight with excitement. “Awesome! I’ve so gotta see them!” She logged off the computer and went into the kitchen to ask Gieve to take her to see the show. Much to her dismay, the idiot was still flirting on the phone.

 

“Great,” she muttered. Shireen shrugged and said, “I’ll just borrow some cab money and go myself. My parents aren’t gonna notice.” She went to one of the kitchen drawers and took some emergency money her parents had left for while they were away, got her sneakers on, and walked out the front door, leaving the oblivious Gieve to his flirting.

 

Minutes later, Shireen waited at the curb outside her building and hailed a cab, which stopped for her and let her in.

 

“Where to, little lady?” the driver asked.

 

“Madison Square Garden,” she answered.

 

“Okay,” said the driver. He started the cab again and drove Shireen to Madison Square Garden.

 

Once she arrived, Shireen realized she didn’t actually have a ticket for the show. She was about to just go back home, when someone tapped her shoulder and said, “If you’d like to get in, I’ll sell this ticket to you.”

 

“How much?” Shireen asked eagerly, digging through her jumper pockets.

 

“How much ya got?” asked the guy.

 

Shireen counted her money and replied, “I’ve got, um, fifty bucks.”

 

“Sold,” the guy said. He took the money from her and gave her the ticket.

 

“Thank you very much, Mister!” Shireen said and grinned, her smile showing she had recently lost a front tooth.

 

“You’re welcome, kid,” said the guy. He walked away and added, “Enjoy the show!”

 

“Hell yeah, I will!” Shireen replied ecstatically. She skipped to the entrance of Madison Square Garden, and handed her ticket to the ticket taker.

 

At the same time, the turtles found a back entrance to sneak into and found a place above the seats to watch the show.

 

“Oh, man,” Mikey whined. “I can’t see well from up here.”

 

“Here you go,” Donnie said, smiling as he pulled out four pairs of binoculars from the backpack he brought with him.

 

“Wow, Donnie, you’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?” Leo said as he and his brothers took their binoculars.

 

“Yup,” Donnie replied.

 

“Thanks, Bro!” Mikey exclaimed and put his binoculars up to his eyes in order to see Marvel and Cato.

 

“You know, sometimes you can be spooky,” Raph said to Donnie as he, Donnie, and Leo held their binoculars up to see the show.

 

“I prefer to think of myself as prepared,” Donnie replied, still keeping his eyes on the duo on stage.