Chapter One-Becoming

Kia sighed as the rest of the customers filed out of the antique store. She yawned and locked the door as the last one went to his car. Now all she had to was set up the new booth. Kia glanced at the clock and figured she could make it home by ten if she hurried.

Kia picked up her black sweater and book-bag. She flicked off the 'Open' sign as she slipped on her flip-flops, then she padded off to where the new booth was going to be. Her flip-slops making the only sound in the now quiet store.

When she reached the booth she dropped her book-bag in the floor, gaping at the already half setup corner. A extravagant red kimono with a red phoenix outlined in gold hung on the back wall. She tentatively reached out to touch it.

"Beautiful..," she muttered to herself, instantly feeling stupid for gawking, "Alright. Let's get this done so I can get out of here!"

Kia sat on the floor and opened the first box, seeing that it was kimono's and a few summer yukata's , she folded them quickly. Kia glanced around for something in the booth to put them in, she chose an old trunk that was going to be sold also, and tucked them in so they all showed a hint of their color. She then opened the second box, which was full of old textbooks, comics, and an old box wrapped in cloth.

Kia grumbled, "Why do people want to keep or buy textbooks? Oh well, they will sell…Eventually."

She stacked four textbooks on top of each other and sneezed as dust flew.

"Ugh! NO! My uniform…" Kia mentally kicked herself. Her white, quarter-length sleeved button down now had a pale brown look and her black pleated skirt had a dusty spot where she had laid one of the books.

"Crap..," Kia muttered and unbuttoned the only two buttons she had buttoned on her shirt and slipped it off to shake off the dust, "Good thing I bend the uniform rules and wear a white tank underneath my shirt. Mrs. Torihama says I should be punished for the way I wear my uniform. Ha.."

Kia shook her shirt then slipped it back on. She then stood and dusted off her skirt.

"That's better…Still kind of dusty but it'll do."

Kia sat back down and finished putting the books on the selves. She then reached in to pull on the cord that was wrapped around the box. It snapped, causing her to nearly drop it.

"Eep! Ugh..This is heavier than it looks. What's the old lady have in here? Better not be textbooks…," Kia lifted the box out and unwrapped it, expecting an old crummy looking box, but instead she found a beautifully decorated wooden box engraved with the phoenix and outlined in gold, just like the kimono. "Oh wow. This lady must have been very into ancient Chinese legends or something."

Kia sat the box down in front of her then sat on her knees, she studied the writing for a moment then grumbled, "I can't read that. Dang, I knew I should have studied more on my Chinese.."

She shrugged and popped the latch, peeking inside she found that it wasn't textbooks but a kind of memory box, "Why would she want to get rid of this?! It's full of old memories…"

Kia held up an old brown uniform and tilted her head to the side, "I know this uniform! It looks like the one my mom wore in her old pictures! Boy, I'm glad they decided to change it to black and white."

Kia folded the uniform and put it in a glass viewing case along with the jacket and shirt. She looked back into the box to find a bunch of old comics, she shook her head and lifted them out. A picture fell into her lap, she glanced at it, then raised her eyebrow to find the picture mysteriously blank, "Um, weird.."

She put the comics on the shelf next to the others then sat back in front of the box, pulling out another old book, "Wow, its nearly falling apart! I bet if she read it a lot for it to be in this kind of shape. I'll page through it after I'm done."

As Kia set the book aside and continued to go through the box, she didn't notice the faint red glow of the characters on the front or the flash of red from the pages.

Muhahaha! How did you guys like it? Does it need more detail or anything like that? Review!! Flames will make me s'mores! But seriously, Tell me how you guys liked it!