My Introduction To You

Would you believe it if I told you I was all of the zodiacs in one person? Would you believe it if I said I could turn into all of the twelve zodiacs? Do you even know what the zodiacs are? Well, I guess it would be easier if I just told you the story, hey! Who knows, it may jog some memories.

Long ago, in China, the Jade Emperor decided there should be a way of measuring time so he told the animals that there was to be a race, and as they crossed the river they'd be given a year. The animals lined up and the Rat and the Cat cleverly asked the Ox if he could take them across, the kind hearted Ox obliged. The rat was sneaky and pushed the cat into the river and the rat took first place leaving the Ox with second. Then the Tiger came, and then the Rabbit and then the dragon that flew! A snake soon followed snatching sixth place from the horse's hooves, and the poor horse came seventh. Not long afterwards a raft arrived carrying the goat, the monkey and the rooster. The next animal to finish was the dog. Finally the Boar came to conclude the race. The poor cat was too late, and he was not given a year! Ever since that race, the cat and rat had been rivals even though they were once dear friends.

Now, there's another story explaining the zodiacs and how the poor cat if not one of them, but this is my favourite, because it's the most common (and easy to remember)!

Anyway, there's the curse of the Chinese zodiac which plagues the members of the Sohma family causes a child with one of the zodiacs to be born now and again. I just happened to have all twelve of the zodiacs apart from the poor cat – which makes me respect the cat more as a person.

I don't see much of the other zodiacs, or any of the other Sohma, even though they're my family in a way. Although, unlike the others, I don't even have a drop of the Sohma blood in my body – which confused a doctor (who happened to be a zodiac) as my father took me in his arms and I kept changing into different Zodiac animals. It confused the poor doctor a lot.

Now, sometimes when a parent produces a zodiac child they either reject it or wish to protect it with all their might. Father rejected me, Mother, she wanted to protect me. So the doctor wiped all of my father's memories so he didn't even remember falling in love with mother, and mother protected me with all her might and took me back to England where I was Christened: Tia Marie Bailey. My name means Princess, I don't know about the rest of it but Marie was my grandma's name when she'd look after me as mother worked, unfortunately she passed away along with mother in a tragic car crash. I guess it was like the saying: hit two birds with one stone, because it only took one very stupid lorry driver – who had a drink problem unaware to his colleagues at the time – to hit them.

It was in mother's will that if anything happened to her, and grandma was still not around, I'd have to go to Japan and live with the Sohma family. Since I was four I had been learning japans and after twelve years I was extremely punctual in the language.

Thing was, the Sohma's knew there was a special zodiac that wasn't a Sohma, but they didn't know who, what gender, or which country they came from apart from the doctor that assisted my mother and wiped my father's memories. It would have made more sense if I had gone to him first, but I didn't know who he was apart from what mother told me and I didn't have the vaguest idea of what he looked like. So, I just walked around until someone took notice...

"Are you lost? I can help you if you're lost," I turned to see a small boy with blonde hair and big brown eyes that reminded me of a boy Lolita.

"Hey, I've just came from England, I was looking for a doctor, he's definitely a Sohma," I replied in Japanese, "At least that's what mamma said."

"You must mean Hatori!" He said, "I'll show you to him straight the way!"

The boy grabbed my hand and pulled me along telling me all about 'Hatori' and how he's a doctor.

"And after you introduce yourself, you must meet Yuki and Kyo and Tohru!" He said, "You'll love them! I'm Momiji by the way, what's your name?"

"Tia," I said, "You pronounce it tee-ya, some people say tea and it bugs me."

"Ha, kay," he said before halting to the door. "Well he's in here, just knock and you'll be let in."

I couldn't bring myself to knock on the door, I felt like a naughty student being sent to the head teachers office, which had happened a number of times as I had a habit of fighting with the other kids because they picked on me because I had weird eyes and dodgy hair. I should explain.

My hair is a deep shade of indigo with natural black and white streaks and my eyes are also indigo with specks of orange, brown, white and green. I guess it comes with being all twelve of the zodiacs because apart from that I look like my mother. My hairs naturally straight and my eyes are very big and framed with dark lashes. My head is slightly triangular but my fringe and mass of hair disguises that fact slightly, and my nose is small but straight and my lips are shaped nicely and femininely. Although I was pretty I couldn't hide the fact that I was different. Getting picked on made me angry so I'd just beat the persecutor to near death.

Anyway, I bit my lip and tapped my knuckles on the door before quickly putting it down to the side and pulling down my indigo skirt and adjusting my turtle neck jumper.

The door creaked open and a man that looked near to thirty, appeared.

"Oh hello," he said, "and you must be?"

"I'm Mia, you met my mother once and erased my father's memories, I have all twelve zodiacs..."

His moment of confusion cooled down and he smiled, "That was my father, I'm his son."

"Oh, well, I'm here because mamma put in her will she wanted me to live with the Sohma family if she ever passed away," I replied, "and the only person I knew mamma knew was the doctor because she'd tell me about my birth and how I'm very special, not that I feel like it, and I'm just blabbing on now because I really don't know what to say and..."

"You're the special one?" He asked.

"Well yeah, pretty much, not that I feel like it, but all twelve zodiacs must mean something, right?"

"It means you're much higher ranked than the head of the family, Akito," he said. "But you said twelve, so I take it you don't have the cat zodiac?"

"No, but I wish I did, I love cats more than any other animal, I just think they're totally epic with their sharp claws and fangs," I said, "although some people find it scary..." I then said, "Anyway, that's beside the point, it's just, do you have anywhere for me to stay? The solicitors won't be here until a week's time and I don't want to stay on the streets."

"Where would you like to stay?" He asked.

"Somewhere with a cat," I replied.

"I know just the place..."