Melody Yuen(DC Universe)

3

Flashback

I am sitting in the back of my parents' car, listening to soft piano music and staring out the window. I see endless rolling hills and I picture myself dancing on them. I imagine myself wearing a long, light yellow dress that's fitted at the waste. As I do pirouettes and arabesques, I feel myself moving with the breeze. Whenever my toes come in contact with the earth, purple lilies sprout out of the ground around me.

"Melody, wanna play Road Alphabet?," says a young boy.

Ugh. Leave it up to Wes to ruin my daydreams. I could never be mad at him though. Wes is my adorable, yet sometimes annoying 10 year old brother. Unlike other siblings, we get along most of the time. We rarely get tired of each others company. Wes knows how to make me laugh, usually by making a silly face or saying something absolutely adorable.

I adore Wes' innocence. He knows how to bring out my youthfulness too.

Road Alphabet is a classic road trip game for Wes and I. We try to spot every letter in the alphabet on highway signs. The only rules are to go in the order of the alphabet and to not use the same sign as your opponent.

Like usual, we get stuck on the letter Q. This is normally my cue to give up, but Wes is bound and determined to find that letter Q. However, I go back to daydreaming. But I'm interrupted once more.

"Melody, honey, I guess I should give you your birthday present now since it'll have to do with something tonight. Is this alright, Susan?" my dad says as he turns to my mom.

"Of course," my mom says as she quickly flashes an excited smile at my dad, taking her eyes off the road for a second.

"Alright, here you go, dear," my dad says as he hands me a white envelope." I can see in his eyes he's excited to see me open the gift.

It's no mystery where Wes and I get our looks. We are spitting images of our parents. My mom is Chinese and my dad is European. I like to say I'm my parents morphed together. While kids have their mom's nose and dad's chin, every feature I have is a blended version of my parents. My lips are full due to my mom's side, but they are short, length wise due to my dad's, making an almost circular shape. My mom always said my lips are like soft rose petals. My eyes are big and hooded and my brows are full and straight. My nose is small but round at the tip and it's my favorite part of my face. My cheeks are full and my bone structure isn't all that prominent, but I've learned to love my subtle "asian baby cheeks". My hair is a dark brown and my eyes are light brown. My eyelashes are long and full, thanks to my dad's side. I have a light amount of freckles on my face along with my body. My body is toned and athletic due to martial arts and dance. I'm not extremely bulky and buff, but I'm definitely more athletic and in shape than any other girl at my school besides my best friend, Marley (MJ for short).

Without hesitation, I rip the envelope open and discover two tickets to a rivalry boxing match. I gasp. Immediately I hi-five my dad and tell him I can't wait to go with him. I made a mental note to hug him at our next road stop.

Ever since I started elementary school, my parents put Wes and I in martial arts. Originally, it was to teach us discipline and stranger safety, but we soon grew fascinated with the world of fighting. Wes and I would practice our punches and throws at home and in public. We learned properly to block and land right whenever we attacked each other so it wouldn't hurt. Imagine seeing two innocent little kids laughing as they threw each other and tackled each other in the grocery store. Not an every day sight. We not only did karate, but we did taekwondo, BJJ (Brazilian jujutsu), judo, kuk sool, kendo, wing chun, and my favorite, capoeira.

Capoeira is a Brazilian style of martial arts that involves dancing. It's basically sparring to music, but there's so much more. Unlike regular dance, there's a sense of danger and risk. However, this doesn't mean I despise dance.

In fact, capoeira introduced me to the world of dance without fighting. When I was 9, I watched videos on Youtube of ballet, contemporary, and lyrical jazz. I told my mother I wanted to be a dancer. This was surprising because I've basically been a tomboy since birth.

For years, I've been doing martial arts and dance everyday up to now. Inspired by me, Wes also takes dance, but we don't have any classes together. I do ballet and contemporary; he taps. And boy, is he a mean tap dancer. The both of us won numbers of competitions and qualified for national ranking teams, but we decided not to join a national team. That meant a full commitment to dance and we loved martial arts too much to give it up.

In dance, I met kids who were in musical theatre. One day they were singing "The Sound of Music", which my mom has been playing for Wes and I since birth, so I knew all the songs. As soon as I opened my mouth to sing, jaws dropped. Since, then I've been known for my voice.

I also have a love for piano. I started playing the piano around the same time I began to talk. Music, to me, is the easiest, yet most complex universal language. Whenever I play the piano, I lose myself. My mind takes me to another place, just like it does when I'm dancing. Music has always been a huge part of me like it is to my mother. She named me Melody because I remind her of the happy things in life like happy songs make her feel. However songs aren't supposed to always make a person feel happy. But at this moment, happiness is the only feeling I feel.

I am knocked out of my daze when Wes gasps and shouts, "Mommy, Mommy. Look out!"