Stars

Chapter 3

"Are you finished packing yet?" Lila called to her best friend whilst stuffing a small toiletries bag into her suitcase.
"Yeah, just packing it into the car. You nearly done?" Came the reply.
"Uh..." Lila slowly looked at her small suitcase and then the mass pile of junk on her duvet. "Almost?" She heard her friend laugh loudly and smiled to herself. "Now, What percentage is almost?" Jess called up to Lila.
"Maybe 20%?" Lila said sheepishly, trying to get as many shirts as possible in her tiny bag. Right, I need another bag. She thought to herself after failing with the zip. She opened her messy cupboard and reached up the very top, eyeing her suitcase and pushing it sideways to help it escape the height. "C'mon, c'mon....." she whispered to the large suitcase. She jumped up to push it and bumped the top of her head on the cupboard door. "Ouch!" She cried, rubbing her head.
"Lila? You ok?" Jess called out with a chuckle.
"Yeah, hit my head on the door," she called back, laughing to herself quietly. She jumped up once more and shoved it a bit to the right, spotting a small black corner peek out behind her purple suitcase. "Wha...?" She started, "Jess?"
"Yeah, be right up!" Was Jess' answer, followed by the soft drum of footsteps running up the few steps to Lila's room.
"Yeah?" She asked, blowing her now messed up caramel coloured hair out of her face. Lila shoved her suitcase a little more, having to jump to reach. "Could you help me get my bigger suitcase down, please?"
"Oh yeah, sure, here," Jess replied, reaching up and easily dragging the suitcase out of the high cupboard using her long arms.
"What's this?" They said in unison, pointing at the now fully visible black box. It had a gold lid on the top and a lock on the side that looked like it had gone through years of weathering.
"Did you put this black box here?" Lila asked her friend cautiously.
"No, must have been from the people before us. We should probably take it back to them," Jess told Lila with confidence. She looked at the box and pulled it down and plopped it on the floor almost straight away. "Gosh, that's heavy."
"How are we going to find the family before us? They moved to Africa, remember?" Lila said sadly.
"So.... should we open it?"
"Yeah, I'd love to see what's so special inside to have a gold lid and a lock."
"Well then, do we have a key?"
"On it!" Lila squealed excitedly, racing off and down the stairs.
"I'll just pack your stuff then.." Jess said, sighing and walking over to fold the clothes into the suitcase.

~#~

A few minutes later, Lila came back with a metal pole and smashed the lock off while her friend stared at her in horror.
"Why didn't you..... what was that....... what........ you could've just....... ugh fine let's just see what's in it already." Jess said grumpily, giving up.
"Yay! Ok, here goes," Lila said slowly as she lifted the golden lid and peered inside.
"Woah..." Jess said and walked over, kneeling and looking into the now open box.
"What is it?" Lila asked curiously with eyes full of wonder.
"Let's just get back to packing, we'll look at it after,ok?"
"Yeah, ok." She put the lid back on and looked at the slightly smaller pile (thanks to Jess) of clothes, toiletries, books and electronics, and wondered how on earth she was ever going to finish this.