The Boy And The Red Panda (Turning Red)

Toronto Bound

My name's Edwin. I'm 14 years old. This is the story of a red panda, who is also a girl. That girl is actually my cousin, Meilin Lee. Mei and I have never always seen eye to eye. But her transformation is what brought us closer together.

Things have been pretty smooth sailing since I moved to Toronto with my aunt and uncle. I've been getting straight A's, and discovered my passion for robotics. I guess you could call me a brainiac. But there's one person that almost always frustrates me whenever Aunt Ming isn't over her shoulder. Meilin Lee. My cousin. Mei has always been perfect in her mother's eyes. Whether it's getting exceptional grades, or getting home on time to clean the temple. Which reminds me. Even though Uncle Jin is my biological uncle, I still find the story of Aunt Ming's ancestors pretty interesting. Her side of the family has had a temple for generations, starting all the way back to The Great Sun Yee.

After school today, I started a new robotics project. If I could, this robot would do my homework, but since that's impossible right now, I just decided to stick with a robo panda. After a few minutes of coding, Mei came into the temple and was cleaning my area. "Meilin." I greeted. "Edwin." Mei scolded, continuing her cleaning duty. I rolled my eyes and put on my headphones as I plugged them into my MP3 player and continued working.

I helped Uncle Jin with dinner that night while the girls were watching tv. "Ooh, these dumplings must've been boiled to perfection." I complimented. "Thank you, Edwin." He replied as I overheard the girls. "He should've listened to his mother and married Ling-Yi." Aunt Ming said. "Totally. Siu-Jyu is so two faced." Mei replied, handing me the raw dumplings. "She's just using him to get to the throne." Aunt Ming continued. "She'll probably stab him on their wedding night." "Looks good, Mei." I commented, looking at the dumpling. "Good? It's supposed to be perfect!" Mei complained. "Fine, they're perfect!" I groaned. "Happy now?" All of a sudden, Mei looked back at the tv to see a commercial for the hottest boy band, 4-town. "Aunt Ming's relationship with Mei makes me gag sometimes." I whispered to Uncle Jin. "You'd think she'd be arguing with her by now." "Oh my gosh!" Mei gasped. "Who are these hip-hoppers? And why are they called 4-town if there are 5 of them?" Aunt Ming asked. "Uh, I don't know." Mei replied. "Some of the kids at school like them." "You mean Miriam? That girl is odd." Aunt Ming said. "Dinner's ready." Uncle Jin announced. "Man, I'm starving."

After I finished the dishes, I heard yelling from Mei's room. Next thing I knew, Aunt Ming was dragging her out to the car. "This family is messed up." I said to myself. "Uncle Jin! The dishes are done!" I went to turn on the tv. Then I remembered that my robot was still unstable.