Gonna Be Me (A Turning Red Story)

Party Time

Xia's POV

Okay, we were definitely running late. The party was at 7:30pm but it was already 7:42.

Inside, Helen, Lily, and aunties Chen and Ping were stuffing plums in Mei's mouth, talking with me, and passing us many gifts.

"Eat, Mei, you need your strength for the ritual." Auntie Chen said.

"Your hair is so shiny, Xia," Helen complimented. "Have you been using a brand new shampoo lately?"

"Have this gift!" Auntie Ping gave Mei one more present.

"What a surprise that you all came so early!" Auntie Ming smiled as she poured tea in Auntie Wu's cup.

"You need all the help you can get, Ming," Auntie Wu told her, "So, Mei-Mei, you've been managing to keep the panda in?"

"Yep! Totally!" Mei also lied.

"Really?" Lily scoffed.

"What's that, Lily?" Auntie Ming asked.

"Well, it's a little hard to believe that Mei-Mei could control such a beast," Lily replied, "She's just a child."

Me and Mei started to get nervous.

"It's true," Auntie Ping agreed, "And if Mei-Mei's panda is anything like Ming's?"

They all shuddered, causing me and Mei to become confused. The only thing Auntie Ming had told us about her panda is that she had it, she never told us what it was like. It must've been bad due to their reactions. But I decided not to ask questions about it.

"Mei-Mei's better at any of us at controlling the panda," Auntie Ming smiled, quickly changing the subject, "She passed every trigger test. Even the kitten box."

"It's true," Mom replied. "Chiang, Jin, Xia, and I were there to witness it and we've never been more proud of all the effort Mei-Mei did."

All the aunts and cousins seemed impressed.

"And Xia here is also very good at comforting her," Auntie Ming smiled.

That wasn't exactly true but I smiled because at least I was complimented. They smiled in approval of me.

"Mei-Mei just thinks of our love for her and it gives her the strength to stay calm," Auntie Ming explained happily.

"Exactly," Mei lied while smiling. I checked the clock, it was 7:45. We were fifteen minutes late! I swiftly nudged her and looked up at the clock to show her we were very late.

She gave me an "I know" look and then started fake-yawning.

"Anyway, thanks for all the gifts," she told them, "But I think I'll go to bed early. Keeping that animal locked down sure takes a lot of energy."

"I'm feeling quite tired as well so I might go to bed as well," I lied.

"Okay, you two, get some rest," Auntie Ming smiled at us.

"Goodnight!" we both said to them then swiftly walked to our room.

We were running very late and if we were much later, we knew that Tyler wouldn't be very impressed.

Mei and I both shoved our gifts in our drawers then we grabbed a bunch of our stuffed toys and shoved them on our beds and put the blankets over, just in case anyone checked on us. We grabbed our shoes and threw them out the window since we'd put them on when we got outside. Just as we were about to hop out the window, we remembered to bring our tram passes so that we could take the tram to Tyler's house. While we were getting our tram passes off the desk next to our bunk bed, we accidentally knocked a photo of Mei and Auntie Ming off the desk.