House of Aunts

Chapter 11

"I found a weird box in the attic," I said, once I met Rui Shan at school.

"What box?" she asked. I felt my whole body relax. Rui Shan always had my back.

"I think it has something to do with where I come from," I said. "You know, I want to know who my father is."

"And you think the box will show you that?" she asked.

"Maybe. I dunno. I have to try. I don't want Jayden to make fun of me anymore." I blurted that out. I had no idea that that bothered me so much.

"Jayden's a butthead," she said.

"Well," I pulled out a sketch from my bag. I'd spent the last night drawing it so that Rui Shan could have a look.

"Oooh." She studied the diagram, and then the lock.

"There must be a key to opening it, right?"

"But I wouldn't know where it is," I sighed. " I guess I could look around the house," I said.

"Oh, and there's good news, too. My aunts said that I can have a birthday party."

"Wow! Who are you going to invite?" Rui Shan squealed I kept quiet. Rui Shan was my only friend in this class. In fact, she was my only friend. What good was having a birthday party if you didn't have any friends? I had my aunts, and they were enough, weren't they?

"Well, I don't have friends except you. So wouldn't it be weird?"

"Maybe you can make friends," Rui Shan said. At this point, someone walked past her and she waved at the person. It turned out that it was our classmate, Lauren.

"You can make friends. Why don't we ask Lauren to join us?"

Before I could do anything, Rui Shan had waved us over.

"Lauren! Ruyi is having a birthday party. Would you come?"

"Sure!" Lauren said, dropping her bag and running over.

"What about games? I know some games! I can help!" Lauren was very excited about this party, and soon, both Rui Shan and I were, too. I found out that she and I read the same books and played the same games. I smiled at Rui Shan. It felt good to make another friend. Then, the principal took the microphone and morning assembly started. Well, at least I knew what to do now.

*

I knew that my aunts didn't want me snooping, so I had to look for the key subtly. When I did my homework in the living room, I would search under the couch cushions when my aunts weren't looking, or even under the rug. Nothing. Where could it be? Sometimes, when I was home alone, I would go into the study and look everywhere, but nothing. I even flipped through the boring books about herbs! Nothing. Again

What about the bedrooms? Oh, that was difficult. I crept into Aunty Qin's bedroom, but underneath all of it was some gym equipment and weapons that she used to train me. There was nothing under Aunty Blossom's bed, just some roses that she was growing to brighten her room, and a vase that had sunflowers bigger than my face. Aunty Jinx's room was messy–she was the one who told me not to make my bed, after all, and actually, all of my aunts had told me not to go into her room.

The last time I'd gone into any room, I was three years old.

I'd kept out until now.

Aunty Jinx's room smelled like a trillion perfumes, and there was more make-up–she had more than Aunty Seven! There were at least like, a million clothes strewn on the floor, and lots of interesting books on a bookshelf about this thing called phil-o-sophy. There were also a million lipsticks on her vanity. OK, now that I thought of it, I was in her room once, smearing all of the lipstick on my face. I remember her coming in and screaming, "Ruyi! What are you–"

And then she stopped. She blinked for a moment, and then howled with laughter. For a moment, she sounded like a wolf, which made me giggle, too.

"Come here, you cheeky girl!" she lunged towards me, and I'd dived beneath the robes. Immediately, she pounced on me and for a second, she smelt like fur. She tossed the clothes away to reveal me.

"You silly silly girl! Look at what you did to your face" Aunty Jinx laughed. Tears lined her eyes because she was so amused. She started tickling me and I giggled.

"Oh my dear, I'll teach you how to do your make-up. Come on. Let's get that nonsense off your face." She lifted me from the pool that was her clothes and I got up. Opening a box full of cotton squares, she spritzed some,thing on it and wiped it off my face.

Then, she turned to her make-up box.

"All right. I'll teach you the easy bits, OK? You gotta be brave because you can't be afraid of the eyeliner pencil touching your eyes."

"OK!" I said.

She then sashayed over to her vanity, and opened one of its drawers. Amidst the dark-coloured pencils was something gleaming. I had noticed it back then, but I didn't think so much about it. Aunty Jinx was going to teach me how to do my make-up!

But what if–?

I scrambled to my feet and opened the vanity. On it was a golden key. I tried fitting it in all the other drawers of her room, and it didn't work.

So that meant that I could take it upstairs and test it on that chest, right?

I had to wait until everyone was asleep to find out.