Yuki Webber stepped into her garage with her son behind her. She reflexively pulled out a key from her purse and opened the doors of her car.
Her car. Something sounded funny about that. Yuki Meshida had never driven. Her father - now her ex-father - wouldn't let her. But Yuki Webber had been driving for over a decade.
She let her son climb into the back seat with a toy in his hand. A Transformer action figure. It reminded her of the one her brother Tommy had.
Tommy? Brother? The words vanished from her memory as she started up the car. She gripped the steering wheel. She enjoyed feeling in control for once, instead of letting her father tell her want to do. He was so rigid. No wonder he was named Katashi which meant ... nothing to her anymore. She drove past an anime and manga store. Her son had wanted to go there but she told him no. The kanji and kana on the posters in the window were now alien to her.
She had become an all-American girl, born and bred in the USA, and her features were changing to match those of her son and her new parents who had once been Rachel's parents. With each mile, her tanned skin tone shifted a shade toward pink. Exposure to the morning sun added a few freckles to her narrowing nose over thinning lips and an increasingly prominent chin. Epicanthal folds vanished over brown eyes that were turning hazel. Her hair was still black and straight for now. It looked the same from a distance, but it was finer that it had been less than an hour ago. Julie Webber still looked a lot like Yuki, but she was definitely Caucasian.
Her husband wasn't into Asian girls. He reminded her a lot of her new father. So laid back. Hard to believe he had studied to be a lawyer. He had made the bar look so effortless.
His children were as smart as he was. His son got out of the car, eager to go to kindergarten.
Julie was so proud of him. And her stepdaughter Erika too. If only Julie could figure out a way to be closer to her ...
