Gonna Be Me (A Turning Red Story)

Stress Test

General POV

Ming took her daughter and niece to the kitchen table. She, Jin, Ai, Chiang, Xia were going to do a trigger test to see if Mei really could keep her panda in. Xia can tell that Mei is nervous since the adults all seemed really serious and this test was clearly not going to be easy.

"Ready," Mei told them.

Jin held up a photo of cut-down trees.

"Deforestation."

Xia gripped onto Mei's hand as the latter tried to resist being sad. Ai held up another photo

"Sad orangutan."

Mei looked sad for a split second  but then stayed normal. Chiang held up the third photo.

"Garbage island."

Mei tightened her grip on her cousin's hand and Xia flinched a little. Still, Mei remained normal. Jin then showed the last photo.

"Your second place spelling bee trophy!"

Xia knew that would be hard for Mei. She was amazing at spelling. She tried her very best that time and got extremely angry when she came second. Mei's face started to turn red with pure anger. But once again, she stayed calm. 

"What a shame," Mei calmly told them.

The adults looked shocked as well before exchanging determined looks. Jin left the room then came back with a box. Inside the box was the hardest trigger. He slowly opened it to reveal...It was full of extremely cute kittens!

Mei's eyes widened and she smiled.

"So cute! No, so fuzzy!" she muttered. She was clearly trying her hardest to stay calm but was really struggling.

The kittens started climbing on her and me. They were adorable!

"Must resist..." she mumbled.

'Come on, Mei, you can do this...' I thought to myself.

Mei breathed in and out. She got a calm look on her face.

"So adorable," Mei calmly remarked.

Ai, Chiang, Ming, Jin gasped in shock.

"I can't believe it," Ai was perplexed on Mei succeeding.

"Mei-Mei, you resisted the red panda from coming out," Chiang added, equally surprised.

"How is this possible? What happened to your panda?" Ming exclaimed.

"It's easy, when I start to get emotional, all I do is imagine the people I love most in the whole world," Mei explained, "Which is you guys."

Ming embraced Mei into a hug while smiling.

"So, now that that's settled," Mei told her, "Xia and I just have one teeny-tiny favor to ask."

•°•°•○•°•°•

Xia's POV

Mei and I decided to make a "Why we should go to see 4★Town" presentation to our respective parents. We both researched many facts on the band, the members and why it would be amazing for us to go. We used evidence and we even used sparklers at the end! But Auntie Ming's answer: "For my niece, you can go. But for my daughter, no! Absolutely not!"

Me and Mei threw down our sparklers that we had been holding at the end of the presentation.

"What?" Mei exclaimed, "But this is once in a lifetime! I don't Xia to enjoy this moment without me!"

"Mei-Mei, it's one thing to stay calm at home or school," Auntie Ming sighed, "But a concert? You'll get whipped up into a frenzy and panda all over the place!"

"She won't, she won't! We promise!" I told her, "You saw her keep it in!"

"Ming, maybe we should trust them," Uncle Jin suggested.

"It's them I don't trust!" Auntie Ming told him while pointing to the 4★Town picture on our presentation, "Look at those glittery delinquents with their gyrations!"

She shuddered.

"Why on earth do you two want to go so badly?" she asked us.

Mei and I looked at each other. We knew exactly why we wanted to go: soda, excitement, with a tiny chance but still having a chance of meeting our favorite members. We left our small internal fantasy and came up with an answer.

"Like we said, we just want to broaden our musical horizons!" Mei lied. It was a good answer though.

"This isn't music, this is filth," Auntie Ming sighed, "And it's not worth jeopardizing your lives over. Isn't that right?"

Jin: "Uh-"

Chiang: "You see,-"

Ai: "Well-"

"See? Even they agree," she interrupted before he could answer, "So, no concert for you, Mei-Mei, and that's final."

We both plastered fake grins on our faces.

"Okay, well, thanks for listening, goodnight," I fake-grinned.

The two of us angrily grabbed all of our stuff and we rolled our eyes and scoffed as we passed Auntie Ming. We stormed into our room and slammed the door shut before going to bed. Neither of us understood why she said 'yes' to me and 'no' to Mei . Mei did everything perfectly over the years so she deserved this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! It seemed like we had to come up with a Plan B if we were gonna go to that concert...