Secrets 3:
Confidence

“Looks like the kids really liked your story there, Mikey.” Raphael commented with a big smirk on his face.

“What’s with your guys’ sad faces? Viper’s totally awesome.” The young one commented since he tells her that every chance he can.

“Yeah. She was so cool, but we’re just bunnies.” The black robbed one said with a defeated tone since to him they could not do such things - no matter how hard they tried.

“We’re not like Viper.” A young girl said to the four as she too was feeling blue.

“No. You’re not.” The brainiac one said to them causing them all to turn to him. “And that’s the whole point. Crane wasn’t cool at first, either.” Donatello said to the children before going with his story. “Twenty years ago, the best students from all of China studied at the famed Lee Da Kung Fu Academy. And the best of the best was May Ling. She was a total knock out. Crane was there too. As the…uh…janitor.” The purple protector informed before going into detail of the story:

“Crane!” The ox that ran the school shouted out to the main janitor of the school. “The new student tryouts are next week.” The buff mammal informed the cleaner of the school

“Really?” The flyer questioned with his spirit slowly starting to rise after hearing that news, and even envisioned what he would look like with the graduate armor

“Crane longed to be one of the students.” The big brain of the four informed them, before continuing with his story.

“So this place needs to be ready.” The ox informed - not liking how the janitor’s mind often had a tendency to drift from it’s objectives.

“But he thought he was too skinny.” The book smart brother commented, and knew what it was like to be the under appreciated one.

“Crane, get sweeping.” The leader of the school bellowed again, and this time the bird did what he was told.

“The students at the academy had it tough, but Crane had it tougher.” Donatello said to them before going on to what the bird did to clean up the school while the students slept before moving onto a discussion.

“Crane! You’re amazing.” May Ling said to the janitor since she watched all that he had done, and was amazed over what she witnessed.

“Me?” He questioned to her after looking all over the room and saw that it was only the two of them.

“You should try out for the school.” She suggested to him with a happy smile on her face.

“No, that’s craziness talking. No. No, no, no.” He said back to her since he still believed that this school prided itself on brute strength, and he did not have that kind of frame.

“Well, you’ll never know unless you try.” The cat said back to him before leaving the small room.

“If someone as powerful as May Ling thought so, maybe he should try. So every night after work, Crane trained for the try-outs.” The bo-staff handler informed them and informed them all the things he had done in secret, and they did not seem any different than the things Master Splinter made them do. “The day of the try-outs came. All you had to do to get into the school was grab a little red flag. It was simple…simple, but impossible.” The turtle said to them even though he knew his brothers were thinking the same thing.

‘Impossible except for a turtle.’ Orange, Blue, and Red thought since they knew that they all would have their own methods of dealing with that thing.

“Pathetic. Not one of you can do this?” The leader of the school questioned as the new guys were being hauled away on stretchers. Seeing this caused the bird to second guess himself.

“Wait. There is one.” The best student of the school said while pointing with her teal green gloves to the most unlikely of creatures.

“Hi, everybody.” The flier said to all that were now staring at him since he was the one she was pointing at.

“Crane?” The tough mammal questioned in confusion to her comment before laughing about it - thinking that she was kidding. “Yeah. With those skinny legs.” He added through the laughter causing the new student to become even more out of place.

“My skinny legs. First time that’s ever been mentioned .” The bird said as he showed off the limb in question to try to ease his embarrassment.

“Crane, since you’re here, why don’t you get started cleaning.” The ox said as he rhino handed him a broom which he passed to the janitor. As they all went back to laughing about that claim the one that said it walked over to the bird.

“I am so sorry.” May Ling informed him in a truly sincere tone in her voice.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s totally fine.” He said back to her with a wave of his wing. The flier knew that she was only watching out for him, and he could not fault her for that.

“Crane! Get going! There are teeth everywhere.” The leader shouted out at the janitor since he was shooting the breeze instead of doing his job.

“It’s fine. Really.” He said to her before getting to work. “One word came to mind, it would be ‘fine’. It’s fine.” He said in self pity - not watching where he was going until he heard the leader of the school shout:

“Crane! Stop!” This caused the bird to turn about and block three poles that had swung to his face. It was then he realized that he was in the middle of the obstacle course. “Now, step out slowly.” The headman of the school instructed since he did not want an accidental death at his school.

“But Crane didn’t move.” Donatello said to the children and went on to say how he took a step closer to the flag and blocked again. “And then Crane felt something new. Confidence! He felt it from the bottom of his skinny feet to the tip of his beak! Even his hat was full of confidence.” He carried on and spoke of how he defied all the equipment and was able to get the flag.

‘I couldn’t have done it without your support.’ The bird thought after grabbing the flag and headed to May Ling.

“So, you guys think you’re not cool? You’d be lucky to be not as cool…wait, half as cool as…how uncool Crane was.” Donatello said to them, finding it difficult how to end this tale on a good note. Just like the last time there was a sound that the brothers did not like…or at least was used to.

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TMNT, and the others, are owned by Eastman/Laird and Fox Box.
Kung Fu Panda, and the others, are owned by Dreamworks.