It finally happened, after months of hard work, her project won first place at the annual science fair in SJMS. Meena was ecstatic. The principal and judges were applauding, the students were chanting her name, and her friends, Anne, Sasha and Marcy were running over to congratulate her. She could even hear a weird ringing noise.

'Wait a minute', 'why would this be playing in a science fair', she thought. Then suddenly, she woke up. She wasn't in the gymnasium of SJMS but rather, lying on her bed in her room. The ringing noise turned out to be her alarm clock and the people chanting her name were her parents.

Meena was a 13 year old Indian-American with dark brown skin and black hair that was tied into a braid. She was wearing a red T-shirt and black shorts. Around her neck, she wore a locket decorated with a rudraksha bead. Her room was decorated with posters of movies and kpop bands. In one corner of the room, there was a bookshelf with encyclopedias, textbooks and storybooks like the Cynthia Coven series, Sherlock Holmes, and Theseus Johnson. In another corner, there was a dedicated awards area with trophies stacked on a shelf and medals and certificates hanging from the walls.

Remembering her dream, Meena immediately palmed her face and said to herself "The science fair happened a week ago, Marcy won." She glanced over at her the medal she won in that event. It was a 2nd place medal, just like most of the other awards she won. As she was still processing the events of her dream, a voice saying "Meenakshi" came from downstairs. It was her mother, Andal. Meena said "Coming amma," and went downstairs. Her mother was cooking breakfast while her father was talking to his brother and sister on his phone.

"Good morning Meena", said Andal, before saying. "This is no time to wake up."

"It's 7:00 amma, there's still an hour until school starts," said Meena.

"So what," argued Andal, "Your cousin Natarajan wakes up at 5:30 am every day."

Knowing that it's useless to continue arguing, Meena just said "Okay," before changing the subject of the conversation.

"Its Anne's birthday today amma." said Meena.

"The party is in the evening, right?" asked Andal

"Yes."

"Make sure to come straight home after the party, your grandparents are coming from Madurai and you have to be there to help us".

"Alright amma."

Just as Meena was about to leave, her father Sundaramurthy said to his family "Meena's actually here right now, I'll give the phone to her," and handed her his phone.

Sighing, Meena took the phone.

"Hello Meena,"said her aunt Parvathi, "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine atthai."

"That's good. "By the way, your cousin Raji got into IIT Chennai"

"So that makes...3 people from our family who got in so far." said Pattabiraman

"Yes, we're all very proud of her."

"Congratulations Raji" said Meena.

"Be sure to congratulate Manikandan as well, he got the 1st rank in the SSC Telangana state board exams. The news interviewed him too", said her uncle Pattabiraman.

"Congratulations to him too."

"By the way" asked Parvathi, "what happened with your science fair project?"

Meena knew that they would eventually get to this topic, and was dreading it the entire time. After pausing for a moment, she said "I got 2nd place."

"Oh, said Parvathi, sounding disappointed, "did that Marcy girl get first place again?"

"Yes."

"You have to work harder Meena."

Meena thought 'That's what I've been doing throughout the last 2 years', but said "Okay atthai."

"2nd place is good, but you have to aim higher. People only care about the winners, not the runner-ups," said Pattabiraman.

"Okay chithappa." said Meena, growing increasingly tired of the conversation.

Just when the conversation seemed like it would end, Parvathi asked Meena "By the way, don't you have a math competition next week?"

"I do, but I've studied extra hard this time, so I'll win".

"You keep saying that, but you always come second to Marcy." retorted Andal.

"I know" said Meena with a tinge of resentment in her voice.

"She's a brilliant kid Meena, you should try to be more like her", said Sundaramurthy.

"Okay appa", Meena said dismissively. She had lost count of the times her parents have compared her to Marcy, or anyone else for that matter.

Finally having enough of this conversation, and before anyone else could say anything Meena said "It's getting late, I have to go get ready for school".

Not wanting to make their niece late, Parvathi and Pattabiraman said "Alright then, bye Meena, and remember, always strive to be the best" as Meena handed the phone back to her father.

After Meena got ready, she went into the house's shrine room, applied holy ash on her forehead and prayed: "Meenakshi Amman, Sundaresa Peruman, I'm not really someone who asks for much, but please, give me a chance to prove myself". She then ate breakfast, and left for school.

After riding her bike for a while, she arrived at SJMS, where she parked her bike and went off to find her friends. Entering the school, she found the trophy case, proudly displayed in the center of the room. Immediately knowing whose trophies and medals would be inside, she tried to ignore it and kept on walking. Unable to find any of her friends inside the school, she went outside and saw a certain brown haired Thai-American girl .

Meena yelled "Hey Anne, Happy birthday!" and she went over to hug her friend.

"Thanks Meena," Anne said.

The two of them talk about the evening's party before Maggie, a red haired girl, came behind them.

"Hey Boobchuy, whatcha eating there, a puke bun?" said Maggie before laughing at her own joke.

"Oh wow, very funny, truly one of the best jokes I've heard" said Meena sarcastically under her breath.

"What was that?" asked Maggie angrily

"Oh nothing, just that you're so pathetic that you have to laugh at your own jokes because no one finds them funny." Meena replied.

Maggie snarled and clenched her hand into a fist, but before anything else could happen, Anne broke the tension and said "It's a khao-niew bing, a traditional thai snack made up of rice and coconut milk. My mom made this for me because it's my birthday". A moment passed before Maggie said "Oh, well happy birthday," then, she tried to grab the snack.

"Hey!," cried Anne while pulling her hands away, "get your own thai mom!"

Meena tried to pull Maggie's arms away and what would have been a pretty interesting fight was stopped when their friend Sasha, a blonde haired cheerleader stepped onto the scene.

"Hey Sash," Meena waved before continuing to try and pull Maggie's arms away from Anne's hands.

"Leave them alone!" ordered Sasha.

"Or else what?" replied Maggie

"Or else you can forget about coming to my awesome house party next week" said Sasha.

Maggie heard this, and there's no way she'd miss that party, so she reluctantly left Anne and Meena alone.

Sasha turns to Anne and wishes her a happy birthday, and the three celebrate until Sasha asks Meena "So, you coming to my party next week?, there's a jug of lemonade with your name on it."

"I'd love to, but I can't, the competition's next week. " replied Meena.

"Come on girl", said Sasha, "would it kill you to relax every once in a while?"

Meena said ""Sorry, but no," but was thinking: 'Sorry Sash, but I need to finally show my family that I'm not just the runner-up'.

Meena was so lost in thought that she didn't notice that Marcy, a Taiwanese-American girl with short hair, came to join her, Anne, and Sasha.

"Hey Meena!" said Marcy, and Meena took a second to snap back to reality before saying "Oh, hello Marcy."

"So, are you preparing for next week's competition?" asked Marcy.

"Yeah" replied Meena.

"Well, I've just been doing some light reviewing, so you might actually beat me this time," said Marcy.

"Really?" said Meena sarcastically, knowing all too well that no matter how lightly Marcy reviewed, it would still somehow always be enough to win.

The two would have been talking for longer, but the bell signaling the start of the school day rang. "Guess it's time to head to class," said Anne. The school day was pretty boring, until biology, where the group had to dissect frogs.

Meena was obviously disgusted, but she tried to avoid throwing up and made an incision into the frog's body. Before she could do anything else, Sasha suddenly pretended that she was going to be sick, which caused the teacher to tell Anne to take Sasha to the sick room. Meena watched them leave and sighed, because she knew they wouldn't be back for the rest of the day. Later in class, a student named Carlos thought that it would be funny if he ate one of his frog's legs, which, to the shock and surprise of absolutely no one, caused him to throw up all over the table, causing a very disappointed science teacher to send him to the nurse. The students then waited in the hallway for the janitor to clean up the mess.

After the incident in biology, the rest of the school day went smoothly and before long, the day ended and Meena was biking home when she saw Marcy running with tears streaming down her face. Worried, she turned around and followed Marcy and said "Hey Marcy, what's wrong?" but Marcy didn't reply and kept on running. Meena followed Marcy until she reached a thrift store. Meena got off her bike and was about to run toward Marcy when Marcy took a picture of a strange looking music box, and sent it to the girls.

"Now that you've stopped, can you please tell me why you were crying?" Meena asked

"It's nothing," said Marcy.

"People don't cry for no reason, Mar Mar".

"I'm telling you, it's nothing!"

"Alright, alright," said Meena, not wanting to make her friend any more upset than she already was. "Tell me when you feel ready".

Immediately after, Anne and Sasha showed up. Marcy wiped away her tears and waited outside alongside Sasha and Meena while Anne entered the thrift store and picked up the music box.

"That looks nice," said Meena, "how much does it cost?"

"Anne's getting it for free", replied Sasha

It took a second for Meena to realize what Sasha meant, but when she did, she knew that they had crossed the line.

"Wait," she said as her pupils grew smaller, "You're stealing this?!"

"Don't yell Meena." whispered Sasha while trying to cover Meena's mouth.

"How can I not yell when you are breaking the law! Why don't you talk some sense into her, Marcy!", said Meena while she was trying to wrestle Sasha's hand away from her mouth.

Meena looked at Marcy, hopeful that she might stop them, but Marcy said nothing, instead, she just stared at Anne.

"Et tu Marcy?" said Meena, but Sasha pulled Meena to a side and said "You're freaking out way too much over this. If anyone realizes that the music box is stolen, they won't have any proof that it was us who stole it, and even if they do, I'll just talk to my parents and have them pull some strings."

"But-."

"End. Of. Discussion."

Meena felt conflicted. On one hand, she knew that what they were doing was wrong and that if her parents found out, they'd ground her for life, but on the other hand, Sasha's logic was hard to argue against. Finally making a decision, she said "Okay, but let's hurry."

Then, Anne came out with the music box, a beautiful-looking wooden box decorated with images of frogs, trees and lilypads. On the lid of the box, there were 4 gems that were blue, pink, green and red in color. The group then went to a nearby playground and examined the box.

"Come on Anne," said Marcy, "open it".

"I'm trying" said Anne. Just as Anne finished saying that, the box popped open and a bright, multicolored light and lightning started coming out of the box.

"OH MY GOSH!" screamed Marcy.

"What the heck is happening?" said Sasha.

"I don't know, but it can't be good" said Meena.

The light grew in intensity, getting bigger and brighter. Before Anne, Sasha, Marcy and Meena could do anything, they disappeared.

AN: So there you have it, the first chapter of my first fanfiction. I had this idea for this OC fanfic for quite a while now, but only got the time to start writing last week. I have to say, coming up with plot points, writing the chapter, editing it, and watching everything come together in the end is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world.

When it comes to my OC Meenakshi, she's a Tamil speaking Indian American. I chose this because I come from Southern India and I felt that there was very little good representation for Tamil people(or indians in general) when it comes to western media. I came up with the idea of her main internal conflict being trying to live up to her family's expectations because that is a conflict that many people can relate to. This idea flowed naturally into her being Marcy's rival, which is also highlighted by the gem color I chose for Meena(red is the opposite of green on the color wheel). With this OC, I aim to escape the traps a lot of other OCs fall into(stealing the spotlight from other characters and such) while also trying to tell a good story.

Here are some explanations and translations of Tamil words used in the chapter:

Amma : Mother

Atthai: Paternal aunt

Chithappa: Paternal uncle(used for a father's younger brother)

Appa: Father

The names of everyone related to Meena in this chapter may seem weird and made up, but they're all traditional Tamil names that are still used today.

Madurai is a city in Tamil Nadu, India.

You might think the whole "You woke up too late, X wakes up at *insert time* am" is unrealistic, but it's actually based on real conversations that I and many of my friends have had with our parents.

IIT Chennai is a university in Chennai, India and is EXTREMELY hard to get into.

The SSC Telangana State Board Exam is an examination given to all 10th graders in the state of Telangana, India. The higher the marks you get on it, the lower your rank is, with 1st rank being the lowest.

A shrine room is any room in a Hindu household which is dedicated to worship.

Meenakshi Amman and Sundaresa Peruman are forms of the Hindu gods Parvathi and Shiva. They are primarily worshipped in Madurai, which is where Meena's family is from.

As you can guess from the last two explanations, Meena's family is Hindu, particularly, a part of the Iyer community of Tamil Nadu, which is why she follows practices like wearing a rudraksha bead and applying holy ash on her forehead.

If you have made it this far, thank you for reading this chapter. If you have the time to, please review and let me know what you liked and what I can improve on. See y'all next time.