It was a suggestion from Elly, one of Cassandra's girl scouts. Her bake sales as Grandma CJ have been booming, and the idea of a Brownie Clan Field Trip was brought up. All the girls were excited for it and Cassandra just couldn't tell them no, plus it's not like they couldn't afford it.

"Okay team," She said, and everyone looked up at her. "For us to have a totally wicked field trip, first we need to figure out where we want to go!" She cried, energy shooting from every word. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and the girls quickly found themselves in a frenzied chatter.

"We should go to the museum!" One yelled.

"We should go to an aquarium!" Another responded.

"WE SHOULD GO TO SPACE!" A third cried, and they all cheered.

"Wait, wait, girls, I don't think we can afford *that* just yet," Cassandra grimaced, and they all booed in unison. Cass smiled. What a unified team she's built.

"Buuut, I do think that the aquarium is a pretty cool idea. I've never been before, but I think it'd be cool to see a real live shark, right?" 

The girls murmured among themselves, seemingly thinking it over. They nodded, concluding that seeing schools of fish working together to kill a shark would be the most team building experience ever. Cassandra didn't correct them.

Cassandra clapped her hands. "Okay scouts, that's time. Go on home, I'll see you next week for the trip! Remember what I taught you!"

"Violence is always the answer?" One of them offered.

"No! Well sometimes. Never rule out violence as an answer! But what I meant was that you're stronger together than you are apart!"

After they were all dismissed, Elly stayed behind. She was beaming. "Thanks for letting us go to the aquarium, CJ."

Cass grinned. "Of course! It sounds like a lot of fun, and I knew you liked that kinda stuff, right?" She asked and Elly nodded vigorously.

"I do!!" She exclaimed, and then took a few deep breaths.

"Sometimes the other kids in my class make fun of me because I don't really pay attention. I read this book I have on marine biology. My parents got it for me for Christmas last year, and it's so big I haven't even finished it!! I can't wait to go and see all of the specimens for real." Elly said.

"Okay kiddo, just wait a week, alright? We'll get to go see your creatures up close. It'll be the best field trip ever, I promise." Cass stated, and Elly squealed. She packed up her things and ran out to go home, thanking 'Grandma CJ' one last time before leaving.

Cassandra sighed, she remembered vividly what that was like. She would never admit it to the girls, because they look to her to be their strong leader, but she knew exactly how lonely it felt to be the outsider among her peers. She had countless experiences in trying to connect with people only for her to be too much of this or not enough that. Eventually, she said *fine, whatever, I don't need your approval. I have me.*

She wanted to make sure none of her scouts felt that way with her. She wanted to give them the space to be themselves that she never got, and she wanted them all to feel good about not fitting in. She was aware that her scouts were some of the 'weird' girls, but that's exactly how she liked it. These kids deserve to be themselves when they were with her. It's what she wanted as a kid, so it's exactly what she's going to pass on to them.

But for now, she had to plan the field trip of a lifetime.

That was the thing about Cassandra that many people loved or hated, was that she always put 110% into everything she did. Some called her too intense, while others, like her scouts, thought it was a fiery passion. She just saw it as being herself.

But before she could continue, she realized something.

She needed another chaperone.

Cassandra scrolled through her contacts, gauging everyone by how likely they would be to help and how good they would be with the girls. Splinter? Maybe, but he'd probably get tired quick. Baron Draxum? Eh, he's too pretentious. She wanted to ask either Foot Liuetenant or Foot Brute, but they were probably going to be busy doing something together. One of the turtles? Raph might help and he *would* be good, but something told her that he wouldn't appreciate her hands on approach to violence or cookie sales.

April.

April O'Neal. (O'Neil? She just had it as 'the cool one' in her phone).

Maybe she *should* ask April. She has experience working with kids, and she's good at keeping her cool around potential accidents. Plus, maybe hanging out at an aquarium for a day would be nice. Especially if she was there too.

She blushed. What was she thinking? When did she get all mushy? And for *April* of all people? She shook her head, dialing the number and forgetting about all of that stuff.

"Hello, April O'Neil speaking!" She picked up on the third ring.

"April! Hi!" Cassandra said, grinning widely. God, she's such a cheeseball. "I need your help with something next week."

April snorted, a bit surprised at her direct request. "Woah, c'mon, take a girl to dinner first."

"Sure!"

"Cass, I was joking." April said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

Cassandra felt her cheeks heat up. "Uh, yeah, of course, so was I," she rolled her eyes, playfully, knowing full well April couldn't see her but still expressing things physically.

Cass could practically *hear* the curious grin on her face. Of course, she had to stop thinking about it, because thinking about O'Neil's smile too hard would make her—

"So, what *did* you want help with?" April said, cutting off Cassandra's embarrassing thought process.

"Right! Yeah, so, my girl scouts have been making record sales recently, and they wanted to go on a field trip," Cassandra explained, "and I realized that it would be best if they had a secondary chaperone, because I know some of them like to run off and that's fine with me but I wanna at least stay back and listen to Elly talk about her favourites—she was the one that suggested it and she *loves* this stuff—so I just thought maybe you could help me?"

There was about 6 seconds of dead air. In that time, her anxiety skyrocketed exponentially with each passing tick of the clock. Cass was about to backtrack but then April spoke up.

"Okay! Just cleared my schedule for today next week, so I'll be good! See you then, 'Grandma CJ'," she teased.

Cassandra grinned, her blush reaching her ears. God, she was so glad April couldn't see this. "Can't wait, O'Neil."

+++

When they arrived at the aquarium, Cassandra gasped. It was so vibrant and colourful. Elly was practically vibrating, her excitement was tangible. "Okay gang, now we just wait for O'Neil." Cass said.

They didn't have to wait long, of course, as April came rushing to them. She had a little shark hat on and a grin. "Hey!" She called, and Cassandra waved her over.

"Nice hat, dork."

"Oh, you're just jealous I checked out the gift shop first." She countered, sticking her tongue out. "I got here a bit early and I didn't wanna look around without you guys, so gift shop exploration it was."

As they started walking through the aquarium, the scouts were enraptured by the large tube that they could walk through and look at fish swim overhead. Cassandra was also enraptured by this, much to April's delight.

"Have you never seen this before?" She asked, and Cass shook her head without tearing her gaze from a particularly large octopus.

"Never got to go to an aquarium as a kid, and I never really thought to go myself. I don't know why, this is incredible. They just live like this? In here? I'm almost jealous." She stated, smiling a little as April giggled. "Look at that guy. 8 arms, no problems, and all the fish in the world to eat. That's the dream, right?"

"Well, if you wanna dive in the tank, I'm sure you'd be able to fight off whoever tries to stop you."

"Don't tempt me, I might."

That got a loud, genuine laugh out of April, and Cassandra beamed. She looked around to make sure all her scouts were here, her attention quickly moving back to the tank as she confirmed they were. April had lots of experience wrangling rambunctious children and keeping track of them. Plus, since Cassandra got them all wearing their uniforms, it would be easy to spot one of them in a crowd.

"So, how do you wanna do this? We split up, I take some of your girls and you take the rest?" April suggested, and Cass frowned. She was more hoping to actually spend the day with April, rather than them just splitting up.

"We don't have to, of course," she added, noticing Cassandra's expression, "honestly, I'd prefer if we got to see all this together. Seeing you excited over just *this* was cute, I'd love to see your face when we got to the rest of the critters."

Cassandra felt herself blush, "yeah? What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, and April's eyes widened as she realized what she said, but she was saved.

"Oh look! Sarah and Elly ran off! I should probably go find her okay bye!" She half yelled, running away.

Cassandra fought the smile forming on her face as she rounded up her other scouts, quickly following them down another corridor.

When she eventually caught up to them, they were in the shark exhibit. Were they called exhibits? She didn't really know, she doesn't frequent museums much either. Maybe April wanted to go to one though, she seems like an artsy kid. Maybe they could bring Mikey along. To make sure that it's not a date.

Cassandra rolled her eyes at her own thoughts, why was she even thinking about that? What kind of sap was she turning into? Maybe this was a Hamato Clan thing. Turning your brain to mush with the power of friendship or something.

Although, when she thought of her scouts, the power of friendship seemed like a pretty sweet deal. They all seemed to bond with each other pretty quickly, and Grandma CJ liked to think she played a part in that. Giving them a space to truly be and act like themselves without judgment was something she actively worked to achieve, and if she knew herself she knew that it was something she would put every ounce of effort into.

She pulled herself out of her thoughts when the girls dispersed to look around, and quickly found April and Sarah were listening to Elly talk about sharks rather intently.

"Did you know that shark skin is really rough, like sandpaper? It's like a cat licking you if you pet it! This is because their scales evolved to be more resilient to predators, because at their size with aggressive tendencies they needed stronger armour. Also, they live in every ocean on the planet! And—"

"Woah, hey, I thought you promised you'd save some shark facts for me too," Cass said.

Elly turned around, beaming. She flapped her hands, and April gave her an amused grin. "Yeah, Cassie missed the fact about the—what was it again?"

"Thresher Sharks!" Sarah supplied.

"Right, those ones. You wanted her to hear that one specifically, right?"

Cassandra was no longer processing words. *Cassie?* Since when does April call her that? She doesn't *dislike* the nickname, honestly it's kinda cute, but she can feel her ears burning. Does April have to have a nickname now too? Aprie? No, that's dumb. Shit, they're staring at her. Is she supposed to say something? Now?

"Yeah?" She said hesitantly.

Sarah sighed. "Elly asked if you wanted to hear the coolest thing about Thresher Sharks. You do, right?"

"Oh, yeah! Of course I do! Hit me with it, kid." Cassandra said, grinning at Elly who looked like she was going to burst if she couldn't keep talking.

"Well, most sharks are scary 'cause they have huge mouths that can take people out in one bite, which is why it's so cool that there's a shark out there that doesn't do that. The Thresher Shark has a huge tail, like *really* big, that it uses as a weapon!" "They go up to their prey and swing their giant body at it, basically slapping their prey, until it dies!"

Cassandra was floored. Imagine having a body like that.  "Oh my god. I need a Thresher Shark." Cassandra stated, turning to her co-chaperone. "April, you have to help me get one. We need it. As a team. As a clan."

"We literally do not."

"You don't understand my vision!"

"Anyway, I'm sure what Cassie meant to say is 'thank you for sharing these facts, which I will not be using in my day to day life, because they're the coolest'." April said to Elly, who was already busying herself talking to Sarah about sand sharks.

As they looked around the shark exhibit, April couldn't take her eyes off Cassandra. Her enthusiasm was evident on her face, her eyes lighting up with every passing exhibit and her smile widening just seeing them move. It made her heart flutter every time Cass would grab her hand to pull her over to ones she deemed better than the rest, reading off the little explanatory plaque what the specifics were.

They found themselves in front of a tank with hammerhead sharks, and one floated up close to them. It almost seemed like it was staring at them both, before it presumably remembered it had other, more shark-like things to do than observe tourists and swam away.

"Weird," April said, looking at the hammerhead.

"What, is this guy bothering you?" Cass asked, immediately jumping to her side. "Do you want me to go in and get it? I'll beat the shark up! You know I could!" Cassandra grinned, a wild look in her eye.

April laughed, "oh my god, *no*, don't do that. I just think this one's a little weird. Evolution made his eyes go out on two sides of his head. Can you imagine that?"

Cass thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, I guess it's weird. But I mean, it's still alive today, so it worked? Adapted to his environment, became an apex predator even with the weird eyes. What do you think he looks at?"

"Prey, probably. Or bigger predators. Why?"

"Well, I know what I'd look at if I could," Cassandra said, smile evident in her voice.

April looked over to her, blushing slightly, "mhm? And what's that?"

Cass giggled nervously, looking away. "Well, I think you know what I was gonna say, so I think I'll leave it at that."

"I think I know too, but it'd be cute to hear you say it." April said, boldly throwing the compliment in there. Her heart was racing and she was sure her knees were wobbly, and her face was definitely hot. But something about seeing a hammerhead shark with a girl like Cassie made it all worth it.

"Youuu." Cass drawled, really stretching out the syllable. April laughed, and buried her face in her hands. She didn't know what to say, she was too flustered and Cassandra felt the same, but both of them were just content standing there, looking at each other, grinning like it was the only thing they knew how to do.

Like two hammerhead sharks.

When they got to the gift shop, Cassandra let the girls each pick one thing. Somehow she managed to talk Elly out of a life size replica of a great white, down to a much more reasonable Blåhaj from IKEA. Sarah promised to buy her the whole aquarium one day, which Elly seemed content with.

She felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to see April holding an octopus hat. "I, uh, thought it'd be nice. To remember your first time at the aquarium." She said sheepishly, pushing it into Cassandra's hands.

Cassandra blushed, staring at the cute little thing. She would never usually wear something like this, but in the moment it was the most highly revered item she could ever have. "I love it. It's my new best friend. You're gonna help me name it." She stated, and April grinned.

"Good, because I already paid for it. You can put it on," She said, and helped Cassandra fasten it to her head.

When they exited the gift shop, the scouts exclaimed that they all should have gotten matching hats, and April promised them that she would teach them how to make friendship bracelets soon.

They got to talk for a bit as the girls gradually got picked up, and when the last one left April smiled.

"Alright, I guess chaperone duty is over. But I was serious about the friendship bracelet thing, so you better let me come back." April said.

"Yeah? You're gonna hang out with the girls again?" Cassandra smirked. "You wanna see me again that bad, huh?"

"You wish. I'm just here for Elly's shark facts." April teased, and they giggled. "But, uh, yeah, if you ever need help again, you can always count on April O'Neil." She smiled softly. She had to be bold, and be brave, because this next move was probably the most risky thing she would ever do in her entire life.

"Oh, and one more thing," April said. She leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek, and they felt their hats bump against each other. Like a secondary, shark-octo kiss. She stepped back and Cassandra had a wide grin on her red face, and April was sure she looked the same.

Best field trip ever.