Chapter 1

In the music suite all of the students were talking, laughing, and having a good time. They always lounged around until it was time to rehearse. Every section usually stuck with each other, like a school cliché. Their music conductor came out of his office and tapped his baton loudly on his music stand.

"Alright everyone, settle down. I know you are all excited about us playing for the re-opening of the Museum of Natural History, but we have to practice so we don't look like complete asses out there," said Mr. Robinson. "And I expect all of you to be on your best behavior!" He said as he looked at certain students.

Mr. Robinson raised his hands with a batton in one of them, as all the students brought their instrunmets to ready position. He waved his arms three times and the music began.

After the bell had rung for all the students to go home, they gathered their belongings. On their way out the door, Mr. Robinson said, "Remember that all of you have to show up! This is a part of your grade, more like forty percent! I will, and I mean I WILL be taking role call there. Be sure to wear a white top and black skirt or pants. Sorry guys but you can not wear skirts."All of the students giggled at his comment. "I'll see all of you at eight p.m. sharp tonight! Also don't forget that we will be spending the night, courtesy of the museum. So that means to bring sleeping bags and the essentials."

"Hey Kari wait up!" Yelled Yina.

Kari turned around to see her best friend running to her out of breath. Yina had brown shoulder blade length hair with dark green highlight, to match her dark green eyes.

"What's up Yina?" Kari asked.

"Are you excited about the trip? I mean we hardly go anywhere with the concert band. Usually it's to marching band that's always going places," Yina started, "I am excited, I haven't been there since elementary school. Remember?"

"Yeah, I remember. Good times, good times. Are your parents going to show? I mean of course they're going to come, they love you to death," joked Kari.

"Yeah, their coming, they're driving me there after all. Are yours going to come?"

"Nah, I don't think they will. They never have before, so why start now? Just because I'm adopted and all, I just don't understand why they don't want to spend time with me."

As they walked home, Kari trailed off into her thoughts. She thought about her so called parents, they never treated her right for some reason, Kari never understood why. Kari was orphaned when she was five years old, but she has no memory of anything until she was adopted. Kari always went to Katrina's house; she lived down the road and acted more of a mother than Kari's adopted mother ever had.

"Kari? Hey Kari are you even in there?" Yina asked concerned.

"Huh? Yeah, sorry about that, I was lost in my thoughts," said Kari with a grin plastered on her lips.

"Well, we're at you house if you haven't noticed," Yina said gently pushing her friend. Kari's black shoulder length hair swayed with the movement.

"I'll see you tonight, and we'll have tons of fun," called Yina as she walked to her own home.

As Kari walked into her home, her adoptive parents were there waiting for her, with irritated looks plastered on their faces.

"Um, hello. What's wrong? Did I do anything bad that I should know about?" She asked her parents.

"Yes, how come you didn't tell us that you preform at the museum tonight?" Her mother asked.

"I thought you guys would be too busy with work to come, sorry I didn't tell you, but usually when I have concerts at the school you guys never came," replied Kari.

"Well you are correct that we will be busy tonight young lady, but we will drive you to the museum to drop you off, but you will have to find your own way home tomorrow," said her father.

"Okay, thanks. I'll be up in my room getting ready. I usually can't eat before the preform, because I get nervous. So you two can have a romantic dinner tonight if you want to," Kari said with a smile on her face.

"That's thoughful of you child. I think we will do that, but keep the noise level down to a minimum," said her mother.

"Alright, will do," said Kari as she went to her room to pack and get ready.

Several hours later. . .

Kari stepped out of her parents' car; she wore a lovely white silk blouse, along with a knee high skirt. Kari felt silly wearing the outfit, but she knew it'd only be for a few hours until she could change into her normal clothing. Kari waved good-bye to her parents as they drove away rather vigorously, she felt a little hurt by that action, but she just shrugged the feeling off. She walked into the museum being greated by her flute section. Kari felt a lot better now, since her friends surrounded her.

"Wow! Kari you look amazing," exclaimed Tara. By that comment Kari blushed a bit.

"Thanks you guys, I feel silly wearing this. Do you think we can look around before we start?" Kari asked her friends.

"It's probably not a good idea to do that. Robinson might get mad at us if we're late to warm-up," replied Kassi.

*Kari's POV*

I nodded in agreement; and looked around the lobby in amazement. Mostly the lit up globe caught my attention, I always got distracted my moving objects, epically if they have light coming from them. Mr. Robinson came out of nowhere, he called us together so that we could tune. After that it was time for use to preform. A whole lot of us were really nervous; this was completely different than our concerts at the school.

We started off with "Dance to a secert garden" by Robert W. Smith, then we played "Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Portrait for Band" by Sergei Rachmanoff, and finished with "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin. I despised Rhapsody, along with many others in the band, the song was really hard for a high school band, but Mr. Robinson believed that we could play it. He always had a lot of faith in us, but he has a short temper. When we finished the song there was thunderous applause, I looked around and saw so many people.

I nudged Yina and whispered, "Wow, I didn't expect there to be so many people here."

"Yeah, but I'm glad that it's over now," she said in relief.

Mr. Robinson looked at us in approval, he was proud of our performance. "Alright you guys can pack up your instruments and get changed if you'd like. Then you have free time, so go explore the museum, but don't touch or break a thing!"

I went into the ladies room to change; I pulled out my Transformers T-Shirt that had Optimus Prime holding a guitar on it, which said "You've got the Touch", with a pair of dark blue jeans. I tied my hair back in a pony tail, with two longer strands of hair on each side of my cheeks dangled down. After I got changed I met up with my friends in the lobby, I was truly excited to explore the museum, and especially since it was just us there.

"I really want to check out the Egyptian part. Who wants to come with me?" Asked Yina. She loved Egyptian history, and so did I.

"I'll go with you," I said.

"Okay, the rest of us are going to check out the Hall of African Mammals," replied Tara.

Everyone else split up to explore, it was a pretty big place. Yina and I ran up the stairs with me almost tripping over my feet. She laughed at me, since I was always a clutz. We made our way through the museum until we reached the Egyptian exhibit.

"Wow, this is amazing! Look at all of this Kari." Yina exclaimed in amazement. She looked at all of the artifacts, then the hieroglyphics on the walls.

"I know, hey look a tomb! Aren't you sacred that the mummy will come alive and eat your brain?" I nudged her jokingly.

"Haha, very funny," she said as we walked deeper into the tomb.

We looked at the jackal statues; those freaked me out a bit. I was pretty awe strucked by eveything.

"Hey, look at that," Yina said pointing at a gold tablet on the wall.

"Wow, that sure is shiny," I said jokingly. "Huh, that's strange."

"What is Kari?"

"All of the little squares are flat, except for the middle one. I don't think it's supposed to be like that. You want to help me fix it?"

"Kari, it's not broken! But I guess we could, its just bothering me because of my OCD."

Yina knelt down for me to climb on her shoulders; she stood up with me swaying back and forth.

"Be careful Ka, I don't want you to fall."

"I'm trying, I'm trying." I said as I kept swaying around. I grabbed hold of the wall to stable myself. I finally got my balance, then I reached up to touch the tablet, but I was a few inches short. "Yina, can you stand a few inches taller?"

"I can try," she replied. As she stood on her tiptoes, I could finally reach the piece. I flipped the middle piece, and the plate began to glow.

Tell me what you guys think of it so far! I'd love you hear your thoughts.