This is the preface of my story, Locked Up. It's kind of a preview. If this intrigues you, I'll continue. If not...then I won't and this will sit as a one-shot. So, yup...read on. Again, intended as a multi-chapter, will be a one-shot if I don't get positive feedback.

~Locked Up~
~by ChipetteGirl10~
~Preface~

Ever since she was born, the metallic object sat on a silver chain around her neck, resting a few inches below her neck. It was the color violet, spray-painted on over the gold it was supposed to be. For years, she could not understand why this key was supposed to be worn, but those who had given the necklace to her warned her to keep it on at all times. Like she was destined to do something with it.

"It is the key to your future."

"Jean, it's obviously some prank a senile old relative came up with."

"Maybe you'll unlock someone's heart."

"It's a cute accessory, duh."

"Maybe it unlocks a secret diary somewhere in the attic."

"I honestly don't know."

Miss Miller.

Alvin.

Eleanor.

Brittany.

Theodore.

Simon.

Miss Miller had told her it was the key to her future. Then, what on Earth was her future? Why did her future depend on some rusty purple spray-painted key that hung on a silver chain around her neck? Miss Miller was always a little – well, definitely more than a little that was for sure – off of her center. But to say this was the key to her future perplexed the purple-clad, bespectacled chipette immensely.

Alvin's idea seemed to be reasonable. Senile relatives surely do like to play pranks on people, and in her family that was true. But they had sounded so serious years ago. Still, his opinion was in the top three on her list.

Eleanor had thought the key was the key to someone's heart. Jeanette knew her baby sister was a hopeless romantic, but this was a literal key. Jeanette had only shaken off Eleanor's opinion when she told her. She knew it wasn't the key to a boy's heart. Certainly, it couldn't have been.

Brittany. Brittany, Brittany…Brittany. Fashion first. Always. So of course she would come up with the accessory part. "It's not an accessory," Jeanette had argued days ago, "it's some sort of key." Brittany had stuck her nose up in the air, stating back that it obviously was a cute accessory the other relatives made and wanted to flaunt by making Jeanette never take it off. Jeanette had rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, off to the Seville residence to get another three opinions.

Theodore had a very reasonable opinion on the key. It could very well unlock some mysterious diary, tucked away in the deepest, darkest corners of her attic, meant for her to unlock and read, possibly containing some vast life lessons. The green-eyed chipmunk had looked at her wide-eyed as they sat down and examined the key together, with Theodore concluding that there had to be a diary with a large lock on it, in a box she had not yet opened in her attic. This was in the top three.

Simon had one of the most sensible ideas: no idea. Maybe there was no real purpose to the key, and the saying was meant to go to one of her other sisters, or another relative. Or maybe they just told her to wear it because it was pretty. There could be many purposes and nobody knew the exact one.

Which brought her back to the beginning.

Why on Earth would her old, long-dead relatives tell her to wear this key around her neck forever?

This is what she had asked herself for the last fifteen years. Even when she had been small. Now, with her sixteenth birthday approaching, she was desperate to find out.

So that's preface. If you want this to continue, let me know! See ya!