In The Spotlights
He was invisible.
His brother was smart- between the A+, teachers praises, the academy reward as 'the most intelligent teenage in the last decade', and the skyrocket IQ of his, everyone knew Donatello's name. If it was as a class fellow that pleaded for homework, or a girl that had a thing for genius people, Donnie was known. Not popular among their own age, but known.
His other brother was strong- with sport and wrestling since youth as his main interest, his brother pulled attention to himself. With abs and biceps that he didn't even had to flex so they'll show and a bad-boy attitude that girls seemed to die for, Raphael was popular among the girls, but not so much among the boys of their age. He was known as a challenge, and must didn't put themselves in the trouble of dealing with his short temper. Still, his membership in the baseball team as quarterback gave him plenty of friends, and a fan club made out of cheerleaders, not to mention a lot of signs carrying his name in bold red letters.
His baby brother was cute- there wasn't much to say about that. He was the must goofiest goof ball in the whole content, maybe the whole world. With blond hair, perfect white teeth, and knowledge of how attractive he was, Michelangelo started his 'love life' when he was in third grade, and dated a girl named April O'nile. They broke up about week and a half, when they both understood they have no idea what boyfriend and girlfriend supposed to do, but all four of them earned April as friend. Most of school knew Mikey, if as friends, foes, or teachers that tried to hide their laughter every time he opened his mouth.
...and then there was Leonardo. He was invisible. His brothers draw most of the attention of... Well, everybody, to themselves, and left him with not that much for himself.
Not that he really cared. He doesn't like attention anyway. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't shy. Not at all, but he just hated attention, when it was directed towards him. He had friends- Usagi always had a connection with him, Karai and him were in good terms, April was close friend, he hanged out with Casey from a time to time- although he was more Raph's friend then Leo's- and he was close enough to Angle to be considered her friend. That was pretty much all he needed.
People just didn't interest him enough. Sure, at the first hour with them he was fascinated like Donnie with a sample of animal's DNA and an open and free lab, but then... They got boring. The same thing, but different words and names. Someone had to have a very extreme personally- enough to be able to change Leo's opinion about something- or a very mild one- enough to change his opinions quickly- to keep Leo's interest for more than an hour and a half.
His lack of need in friendships was- according to Usagi- a combination of his lack of ability to have someone's attention on himself behind his 'pretty face', because of his brother's uniqueness, his ability to see patterns more easily than other people, and his silent nature, that rejected attention in the first place. Leo doesn't know if he is right. Frankly, he really doesn't care that much.
When he got lost on his way for his martial arts class (the only hobby he seemed to hold more than a year) and was missing for more than eight hours without anyone noticing, he decided that if he was going to be ignored and dismissed, it will be in his condition. It will be his choice. And so, he learned to be invisible. The rules were simple; wear dim clothes, don't do sharps movements, answer when you have to, give short answers when you do, and hide behind Raph's, Mikey's, and Donnie's shadow. It didn't matter to anyone that if he loses his slightly slouched stand he was in Raph's height, it didn't matter to anyone that he never got less then B+ in any of his tests, it didn't matter to anyone that if he wanted, he could, in fact, do big-blue-puppy eyes. So why would it matter to him?
He stopped counting how many times his teacher thought he didn't attend the class, when he was right there, voice only slightly above whisper. How many times his father missed him in the morning and claimed from one of his brothers to call him into the car when he was already in the back sit. How many times he made Raph, Mikey or Donnie to jump to the air in surprise.
His father, sometimes, told him it's not healthy to be this quiet and antisocial to others, and wandered why all he did all day was to go from home to school to his martial arts lessons for most of the day and then back home. He voiced his concern about Leo's mental health. And Leo knew he meant good, really. He loved his father. But he couldn't make the voice inside him that told him that it was his father's fault that he was so dim and quiet to shut up. Every Time that happened, he would invite Usagi to his home, or went to a move with the rest of their small gang to a movie or to the park, until Yoshi was off his back. Funny. When thinking about it like that, it sounds like something Raph would say.
Until ninth grade, it was easy to slip away from people's sight, back to the shadows. In ninth grade, his appearance started to draw attention. He knew, that if he wanted he could have a girlfriend, but he wasn't sure why would he want it. For what? So, they can go to watch a movie together? He could do it alone. So, they could go eat ice cream together? He could do it alone too.
So, he upgraded his tricked.
He never thought of his ability to be invisible would bring him to the place it did.
Never.