Gonna Be Me (A Turning Red Story)

The Ritual

Xia's POV

It's finally the day. Mei is gonna get her red panda spirit removed from her and sealed away in a talisman. At the same time, it's also the day 4★Town will be having their concert at the SkyDome tonight. Over the past several days, everything has been very quiet. Mei and I rarely even talk, only exchanging glances at each other as our bond as cousins and friends was unfortunately strained due to the fiasco at the Nguyen-Baker house.

Miriam, Priya, Kendra, and Abby were still willing to be friends with me so they asked if I wanted to meet at the park to talk and they also asked if I wanted to go to the concert without Mei. But I decided that it wouldn't be fair to leave her out and I had to help Mei during the ritual so I declined because if my cousin will not be going to that concert, then neither will I.

Also, Tyler has been avoiding me and Mei for some time. He wasn't picking on us but he's not gonna talk to us either, primarily because of what happened at his birthday party.

As for my cheek wound, it's all healed up but it is still visible on my face and it's gonna take a few more weeks for it to disappear completely.

On the evening of the ritual, our family was sitting outside, eating our massive dinner. Red lanterns were hung up for good luck and everyone was chatting. Mei and I were sitting next to each other but we weren't speaking. We were just staring up at the sky, watching the 4-shaped spotlights from the SkyDome sadly.

"What is that?" Auntie Wu asked when she saw the spotlights.

"Um, I think it's coming from the SkyDome, Mother," Auntie Ming answered.

"Four is the worst number," Auntie Wu scoffed.

"You know, Vivian was due on the fourth but I held her in until the fifth," Lily grinned proudly.

"Quiet, Lily!" Auntie Wu hissed, "Hurry up, everyone. It's almost time to start the ritual."

"Nervous, Mei-Mei?" I heard Mr. Gao asked her.

"A little," she giggled nervously.

"Oh well, I've got 50 years' experience as a shaman," he chuckled, "This will be a piece of cake. And mostly painless."

"Thanks, Mr. Gao," Mei sighed calmly before realizing the final sentence, "Wait, 'mostly'?"

Before he could respond, Auntie Wu tapped her spoon on her glass, catching everyone's attention for what she was going to say.

"Long ago, the spirits blessed the women of our family with a great challenge," she said, "Mei-Mei, tonight is your turn. Like all the women around this table except for Xia, who is on your father's side and Ai, who is her beloved husband, you, too, will banish the beast within and finally become your true self. May Sun Yee guide you and keep you safe."

All of us raised our glasses as I plastered a fake smile on my face. I wasn't entirely happy about Auntie Wu's speech because my mom and I felt excluded from the family for not having the same red panda gift as all of the other women. Also, calling Mei's panda spirit a beast seemed rather offensive. My thoughts were interrupted as Mr. Gao tapped me and Mei on the shoulders.

"Uh, it's almost time," he exclaimed, "The red moon is about to begin."

We looked up and saw that the moon was starting to turn a beautiful ruby red color.

"Mei-Mei, go get ready and Xia, stick with her," Auntie Ming instructed and we both nodded.

The two of us plodded over to our room, worriedly. Once we got in there, I helped Mei put her robe over her clothes. It was long, red and white. They chose this robe color because red was known to be a lucky color in our family. Mei needed help because it was rather complex to get correct. When I was done, she clipped back her hair with a pink flower hair clip. I saw her look at me in the mirror and I'm pretty sure flashbacks flew through her mind of what happened back at Tyler's party where she accidentally hurt me and scared him. She started breathing heavily.