~1~

Once Upon A Time

I tucked my hair behind my ear as I continued to read Romeo and Juliet. I sighed and glared at my watch; we weren't due to land in Tokyo for another two and a half hours. I struggled to remember why I had chosen to bring this play out of all of Shakespeare's works. I had read through this one already, and there were half a dozen other plays that I absolutely loved. Romeo and Juliet just made me mad.

The general idea of "love at first sight" has always seemed a bit bogus to me. The whole "don't judge a book by its cover" thing is true in most cases, so how are you supposed to know that you're in love with someone if you really don't know anything at all about them?

Another thing that always bugged me was how readily they killed themselves to be together. They hadn't known each other for a full week, and yet they were so sure that they couldn't live without the other! Juliet fakes a death, Romeo poisons himself, and then Juliet stabs herself for real. The best part: Juliet was thirteen and Romeo was sixteen!

I slammed the book closed and shoved it into my carry-on. I cranked up the volume on my iPod and laid my head back in hopes of getting some sleep. I was just going to get angrier and angrier if I kept reading that. I wanted to be calm and relaxed when I landed in Tokyo.

Tokyo.

I couldn't believe that I was actually on a plane to Tokyo, Japan!

Despite my father being from a very prominent and wealthy family in Japan, I had never been to the country. The closest I had ever been was Okinawa and that was only for a few days for a family reunion. I met a large number of aunts, uncles, and cousins that I didn't know I had for the first, and probably the last time. I'm obviously so broken up about it.

Still, I will never forget meeting them. They laughed at me for not being very good with Japanese (I was eight, and I'd only spoken it for a few years. Heaven forbid I should get words that sound IDENTICLE mixed up*). They were mean. No, the word "mean" doesn't do them justice. They were downright cruel! But, a letter from my Aunt Yuzuha says that they've changed recently. That remains to be seen

Thinking of them reminded me of the lovely fact that I'm still not entirely fluent in the language that I'll be speaking for the next year or so. I reviewed everything that I would say in my head. I went over every different kind of greeting, the suffixes, and proper sentence structure.** The last thing I needed was to sound like some dorky American tourist. People would definitely be able to tell that I was American, or at least that I wasn't completely Japanese from my accent, but I wanted to fit in at my new school. As much as a foreign exchange student could fit in any way.

The thing that made me the most nervous was the fact that I would be attending a high end private school. It was a freaking academy attended by the children of the richest, and most powerful families in Japan. As if that's not bad enough, my two darling cousins, who I haven't seen in ten years, go to the very school I dread. At least I'm older than them both so I won't have to be in the same class as them. I shudder at the idea of having to spend every class with them.

I glanced over at my brother who sat playing his Nintendo DS in the seat next to me. The lucky duck was going into the ninth grade which was still Middle School in Japan. He wouldn't have to put up with thing one and thing two every day even outside of classes. Maybe if I got myself involved in a club or something, I could use that to fill up my spare time…

I was instantly distracted from my scheming when a stewardess arrived with a cart of snacks. One bonus of coming from a well-off family was riding first class. No super squished seats, no smelly, overcrowded cabin, and, best of all, no mini bag of too-salty, thoroughly-crushed airplane peanuts for me! I was going to feast upon some quality snackage!

I returned my earbuds to their proper places and pushed play before starting in on my sugar/caffeine soaked banquet. If there was one thing that I was looking forward to even less than school, it was adjusting to the time difference. My sleep schedule had been screwed up three weeks before our flight and was never fixed, so I hoped that my sleep-deprived state would let me fall asleep quickly and easily when we reached our cousins' house at l am (Tokyo time). Not being fluent in Japanese isn't a huge problem when I'm awake. If I fall asleep in class, though, I would be lost in Wonderland clueless, hopeless and helpless.

I clamped my lips shut to keep from laughing at myself. My family had beaten Alice in Wonderland jokes to death, and I hated it with a passion. Now that I had come as far away from them as I could get before going back, I was making those jokes.

Mental Note: do NOT let one of those jokes slip! I'm sure Tweedledum and Tweedledee will have enough in their arsenal without-

………

I slapped my head.

There, in the middle of the plane, I slapped myself.

It wasn't a mental slap, either. No, I facepalmed right there in front of every other passenger for my own stupidity.

If I called them Tweedledum and Tweedledee to their faces, they would more than live up to the names. An elbow in my side brought my attention to my brother. I pulled out an earphone and turned to him.

"What?"

"You alright?" He looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just trying to remind myself of what not to say around them. Speaking of which, I will most definitely skin you alive if you make a single Alice in Wonderland joke while you are within twenty kilometers of them."

"Come on, they can't really be that bad. I'm sure your scarred, eight-year-old mind remembers it worse than it really was."

"They threw frogs at people and called them every kind of name imaginable. They were five."

"Huh."

"Well, that's what they were like, anyway. Auntie says that they've changed for the better, but that they're still pranksters. Either way, I'm not about to take any chances."

"You know, if they do find out, then you can just act like it doesn't bother you at all and they won't think to make jokes."

"They're not fifth grade bullies, they're the evil kind of pranksters. They won't fall for something like that. But you know what? I actually pulled two just a second ago when I was thinking."

"See? You've gotten used to them. I bet you couldn't last a week without one of those jokes."

"I think I might just take you up on that bet. Of course, knowing my luck, I'd have a mental break down from the lack of jokes and end up thinking that I was actually in wonderland."

"You would be the one to start talking to the Cheshire Cat." I was about to respond when a huge yawn interfered.

"Let's get some rest. It's late, and I'm sure we'll need all our energy when we land just to deal with Auntie, regardless of how they are."

"Alright, wake me when we land."

"I'll be asleep too, Einstein. The stewardesses will wake us up, that's their job."

"Just shut up and go to sleep, will you?" He turned out his light, rolled over, and dozed off. I situated my pillow against the window and gazed out at the thick puffy clouds below me. Somewhere below them Japan, and my new home for the next year were waiting for us.

I couldn't even begin to guess what I should expect over the coming year, so I resigned myself to a year of surprise and adventure. All I could do was hope that my dream would have a "Happily Ever After".

* lots of different words sound the same in Japanese e.g. Kami: god/spirit or paper; Kiri: pretty or crazy/psychi/insane

** e.g. "the book is on the table" - "hon wa teberu no ueni arimas" - "book table on is"