A New Beginning

Part One

Episode 2

The Sakura Book lay forgotten on the ground as Li held his wife’s lifeless body.  The book glowed and shuddered for a moment, but it went unnoticed by Li.  The book soon returned to normal, at least on the outside.  A few minutes later Li picked up his wife and the book and walked into the night’s mist.

30 YEARS LATER…

The bell rang just as Phoenix slipped into the classroom with her best friend, Holly.  The two chatted as they found their way to their seats.  Several of the other students were already sitting down quietly looking very nervous, waiting for their teacher to appear.

“This is totally awesome!  I can’t believe we’re finally in ninth grade!”  exclaimed Phoenix.

“You’re telling me!  I got up extra early this morning to see if I could make my hair look extra cool.”  Holly replied.

“Too bad the uniforms aren’t red, then you’d really stand out.”  Phoenix said, wishing for the millionth time that she had cool, curly flaming red hair like her best friend instead of straight, black, uninteresting hair.

Just then their teacher walked in.

“Good morning class.”  Their teacher said.  “My name is Mr. Okaida and I will be your Family Sciences teacher this semester.”  He pulled out the class list.  “When I say your name please say ‘here’.”

Phoenix and Holly got busy writing notes back and forth while Mr. Johnson called roll.   Phoenix was writing a note asking Holly to come to her house after school.  After a moment of writing she realized that Mr. Okaida had stopped reading names, When she finally looked up she saw him looming over her with an aggravated look.

“Is there something so urgent that you have to write notes to your friend during my class, Miss…?  What’s your name?”  He asked.

The class had a collective quiet laughter that was quickly stifled by one look from Mr. Okaida.

“Uh… Showron, Phoenix Showron.”  She said hesitantly. 

“Aahh, yes.  Miss Showron.  I do believe I had your brother, Jake, in my class last year.  He was quite a troublemaker.  I hope that you will not be the same.”  He said.

“No.  I won’t.”  She said.

“That’s good to hear.  Just to make you remember this little incident why don’t you and your friend report to me after school for a little extra assignment.”

“Yes Sir.”  Phoenix and Holly said together.

“Well then.  I’ll take this.”  He said taking the note from her hand.

As Phoenix watched him walk back to the front of the room she felt an odd sensation.  It was like a surge of power that lasted for a moment.  During that moment she sensed something, then that feeling vanished.

The rest of the day Phoenix walked around in a sort of a daze, wondering what it was that she had felt.

At the end of the school day she and Holly reported to Mr. Okaida.

“Well,” He said, looking up at them from his papers, “It seems that you have not gotten off to a good start.  Getting into trouble the first class of the day on your first day of ninth grade is certainly not good.”

“No Sir.”  Phoenix and Holly said together.

“Well then.  I’ll tell you what.  You do an extra assignment for me and I’ll forget about giving you detention.”

“That sounds fair.”  Said Phoenix.

“Well… Since you both disrupted my Family Sciences Class, I think that it is only fair that your assignment has something to do with the class.  Don’t you?”  The Girls both nodded.  “Hmm… Well one of the first assignments is to make a family tree that goes back at least 5 generations.  Since I doubt either of you has a great-great-grandparent, why don’t the two of you interview one of your grandparents to find out what their life was like when they were your age.”

Phoenix and Holly exchanged a glance.  This assignment is going to be really easy.

“Then I need you to write a paper comparing and contrasting the different lifestyles with both positive and negative aspects, with at least 3 other book, video, or magazine references to back up your theories.  It needs to be at least one thousand words long and handed in on Monday.  That gives you four days so I don’t want to hear any excuses.”  He looked at the horrified girls faces.  “Welcome to Junior High girls.”  He said with a smile.

On the walk home from school the girls were complaining about the assignment to each other.

“1000 Words!  That’s going to take me all weekend!  At least my grandparents live on the other side of town.  I should be able to get my dad to drive me.  If he’s not busy at work.”  Phoenix said.

“It’s so cool that your dad is an investigative reporter!  My dad is an doctor, there is absolutely nothing interesting about that!  Though, he does make a ton of money.  Well, at least I should have an easy time with the report.  My dad loves to read!  We probably have a copy of every book published in the last 30 years in our Library.  And since my mom used to be a nurse but now stays home to take care of my grandparents, I should have an easy time interviewing them.”

“You’re so lucky!  I don’t even think that my grandparents did anything interesting when they were my age!  They both grew up in middle class society.  They met each other in collage when they were both studying to be engineers and got married as soon as they finished school and that’s it!”  Phoenix moaned.

“Well… What about your grandfather?  You know the one that lives up in that old mansion all by himself.  If he would rather live in that big, cold mansion than down here with normal people, then maybe he had an intresting childhood.”  Holly commented.

“My grandparents got that house from a friend of theirs named… Eli Moon, or something, when they got married.  When my grandmother died in that car crash 30 years ago my grandfather just sort of retreated into that house.  He didn’t even come to my parents wedding.  My dad says that he blamed himself for the crash and never got over it.  He sent my dad and my Aunt Sara to live with my grandmother’s brother Tori after that.  My dad was 5 and aunt Sara was about 8.  He doesn’t like to see anyone anymore.  I think the only time I ever saw him was once when my parents had to go out of town suddenly when I was 10.  He looked at me strangely for a few minutes then sent us up to a room and stayed away from us for the rest of the weekend.  His nurse took care of us for the time we were there.”  Phoenix said as they approached her house.  “I’ll guess you’ll have to come over next weekend.  I’ll call you later tonight.”  She called as Holly walked on towards her own house.

“Ok!  See ya!” Holly called back.

“What do you mean ‘They’re out of town’?!?”  Phoenix exclaimed to her mother over dinner that night.

“I mean ‘They’re out of town’,” said Phoenix’s mother, Kari.  Your Uncle Nicholas collapsed suddenly at work this afternoon and the doctors don’t know what’s wrong.  Your grandparents flew to Hong Kong to see him this evening.”

Phoenix groaned loudly.  “What am I going to do?”  She asked.  My teacher said it had to be in on Monday!  No Exceptions!  Mr. Okaida is going to kill me!”

“Mr. Okaida?”  Phoenix’s brother, Jake, asked looking up from his plate.  “ I had him last year for Family Sciences.  I swear he had it in for me.  He wasn’t nearly as tough on any of the other students.  I think he just liked making my life miserable.”

“Great,” groaned Phoenix.

“I have an idea.  Why don’t you interview my father.  It would be good for both of you.  You could get to know your grandfather and he could get to know you better.”  Phoenix’s dad, Jared, suggested.

“Oh no.”  Phoenix said vehemently.  “I was talking to Holly about that.  You know he hates visitors and to tell you the truth he really creeps me out.  I mean who would want to live in a giant mansion all alone with no one else but a nurse?  Besides, he hates visitors.  Can’t I just call Hong Kong and interview my grandparents over the phone?”

“Not unless you want to pay for it.  If you call my father first and try to convince him to let you interview him and he says no I might consider paying for part of the phone bill.  Or you could just not hand in a report.  That would work too.”  Said Phoenix’s dad, with a smile on his face.

A few minutes later Phoenix hung up the video phone and told her parents that she had an interview set for Saturday afternoon.

“Great.  Just Great,” she mumbled under her breath.

To be continued…

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