"And here we are!" my uncle announced with an excited smile as he pulled off the road and into the crowded parking lot. "Looks like it's busy, but that just means it's gonna be good."

I tried not to eye-roll too obviously as I replied, "Maybe they're here for the sporting goods show?"

"Maybe," Uncle Bruce chuckled as he started looking for a spot. "If you want to see that too we can try and check it out afterwards. If there's time."

I shook my head and sighed, "Not really my thing."

My uncle gave me a sympathetic look, "I know life hasn't been very good to you lately, but I promise this'll get your mind off the rough stuff for a while."

Somehow I had my doubts. I'd already been stuck with my aunt and uncle for the past eleven days, and I was going to have to endure another three more before I could finally go back home. Not that home was much better. And that was assuming there was even a home to head back to. Which is why I was currently stuck in Toronto visiting Aunt Mary and Uncle Bruce in the first place.

Because unlike my parents, Bruce and Mary weren't in the middle of a messy divorce. And unlike the house I grew up in, my aunt and uncle's place didn't burn to the ground last month.

I honestly had no idea why the universe hated me so much, but I wouldn't be surprised if maybe I pissed off some vengeful god or goddess in a past life or something.

So instead of spending my summer break hiding out in my own room where I could read in peace or play video games and chat with my online friends, I was stuck in Bruce and Mary's guest room. Where I had no TV and no games console. Nothing but my phone, and a couple new changes of clothes I got after the fire.

The worst thing was my aunt and uncle wouldn't leave me alone. They kept trying to find 'fun' things for me to do, or they were always trying to distract me or cheer me up or something. Except neither of them had any clue of how to deal with teens like me. They'd never had kids of their own, and they were both old enough that all their 'fun ideas' were just embarrassing.

Like today's outing. We'd spent a half hour in the car to come visit the big convention centre out by the airport. We weren't there for the sporting goods thing though, we'd come so my uncle could try and impress me with his hobby. As if being a high school history teacher wasn't bad enough, the guy spent his free time collecting old coins.

"This is the biggest coin show in Canada," Bruce announced as we joined the short line for admission.

I tried not to sound too sarcastic as I replied, "Wow."

My uncle didn't bat an eye at the twenty-dollars apiece admission price. Then as soon as we were in the vendor hall he coughed up another fifty dollars for a couple raffle tickets, while I looked around at the crowd. On the one hand I was actually kind of surprised to see how many people had showed up for this stupid show. But on the other hand, I wasn't surprised to see like ninety percent of them were old dudes like Uncle Bruce.

I could probably count on one hand the number of women in the hall, and at least half of them looked as bored as I felt. Like they were only here because they'd been dragged along same as me. Meanwhile I could count on the other hand how many teens my age were here. And same thing, most of them looked like they were only there because of their dads. Or their uncles.

"Here you go!" Bruce announced with a smile as he pushed something into my hands.

"What?" I frowned as I looked at three raffle tickets. "Why are you giving these to me?"

He tried to make it sound exciting as he explained, "The grand prize is a really interesting ancient coin. But there's a bunch of secondary prizes that are really good too. There's a few really good numismatic books, some coin storage supplies, and a half dozen other collectable coins."

I stared at him for another second or two, until he seemed to realize that I still didn't know why he thought I'd want any of that junk.

"I thought a new hobby might help you get your mind off things," he explained. "And coin collecting's huge. There's so many different areas to focus on, so much to learn. Whether it's ancient, medieval, or even modern coins, there's always something new to find."

It took all my self-control not to groan or roll my eyes. Instead I just quietly wished I could be literally anywhere else. The universe still hated me though, so I remained trapped in a big room with my uncle and a hundred other boring old dudes who all wanted to talk about coins.

Fortunately I had my phone with me, so at least I could mentally check out for a while. I quietly slipped it out of my hoodie pocket, and a few taps later I was back at the webnovel I found yesterday.

That was my newest secret obsession. About six months ago I stumbled onto a gender bender story and was instantly hooked. My favourite ones all had the same basic premise, some hapless dude gets turned into a girl for whatever reason then has to figure out how to change himself back. Or better yet, she realizes she actually likes being a girl and ends up staying that way.

I couldn't even say why those stories appealed to me. It's not like I wanted to be a girl or anything, and I definitely wasn't trans. Not that I had anything against trans people. Honestly I almost envied them in a way, because they knew who and what they wanted to be. And they were brave enough to actually admit it and do something about it.

Anyways my latest find was an excellent distraction from my boring uncle and his boring hobby. I followed him around on auto-pilot, nodding absently as Bruce talked about metals and die strikes and stuff. It was mostly just background noise though, while I followed the adventures of some relatably shy quiet teen my age who accidentally got turned into a cute pink magical girl. Thanks to some help from her friends the protag figured out she was trans, and I'd just got to the part where she learned the big bad guy was actually her grandmother when my uncle interrupted.

"You're really not interested in this, huh?" he asked. "Or is that just a really good game you're playing? You've been at it practically the whole time we've been here."

I shrugged, "It's a book, not a game. I started reading it last night."

His eyebrows crept up a bit like that surprised him. Then he tried to act interested, "Oh yeah? What's it about? What kind of stories are kids like you into these days?"

"Oh uh," I mumbled as my cheeks started warming up.

For some reason I felt really awkward talking about it. I knew folks would either look down on the genre like it was weird, or maybe they'd read too much into it and start thinking I was trans or something.

"It's just some silly fantasy thing," I finally said. Then I quickly tried to change the subject, "Sorry for not paying attention to your coin stuff. It's not really my thing though, Uncle Bruce."

He watched me for another couple seconds, before giving me an apologetic smile. "I'm guessing you'll be more comfortable sitting down with your book, rather than wandering around the vendor hall with me. There's a snack bar near where we came in, why don't you go grab a soda or something, and find somewhere to sit down out there? I'll come get you when I'm done."

Even though that sounded perfect I suddenly felt bad about ignoring the guy for so long. Like he really was trying to help and stuff, and maybe if I'd said up front I wasn't interested he could have saved himself the extra admission. And all the money he wasted on the stupid raffle tickets.

After a second or two I turned off my phone and shoved it back into my hoodie pocket then shook my head, "Nah it's ok. I'll give this coin stuff another shot."

"Alright," he grinned. "We've got one more aisle to cover, then there's a few vendors I want to go back to. I spotted some gems I'd love to add to my collection, assuming I can get them for the right price."

Unfortunately it was just as boring as I'd imagined, and within ten minutes I was quietly kicking myself for not taking him up on his offer.

The ordeal lasted another hour and fifteen minutes, before my uncle finally decided I'd endured enough. He seemed happy though, after blowing a few hundred dollars on a couple tarnished old bits of metal. We were finally heading towards the exit when a PA sputtered to life and they announced they were doing the raffle.

"Woah! We can't leave now!" Bruce exclaimed. "C'mon, let's go watch! Who knows, you might even win something!"

My shoulders slumped and I gave the exit one last sorrowful look before turning away to shuffle off after my terminally boring uncle. Then we stood around and watched as one old dude after another pretended to be happy about winning a book or some rusty old coin or whatever.

"That's the last of the runner-up prizes," Bruce finally said. "One more draw for the grand prize, then we can go."

"Finally," I mumbled, while my thoughts briefly drifted back to that magical girl story. Except only a few seconds later I realized my uncle was giving me a funny look.

"What?" I asked, "Whats wrong?"

He laughed, "You won! Come on, show them your ticket!"

Next thing I knew he was hauling me up to the little stage, and I had to check my pockets for those tickets he gave me earlier. Sure enough they'd pulled my name out of the bin, and one of my tickets had the matching number.

Once again I wished I could be literally anywhere else, but instead I had to stand there while one of the organizers gave a little speech. Then a bunch of old dudes applauded, and another old dude placed a round plastic box thing in my hand like it was the crown jewels or something. I mumbled a quiet thank you then at long last I made my escape.

As soon as we were outside in the parking lot I offered the prize to Bruce, "Here. You should have this, since you paid for it and everything."

He shook his head, "I'd rather you kept it. It's a fantastic piece to start a collection around. You heard what they said, it's thought to be a rare uncatalogued tetradrachm, possibly from the early classical period. And it's in great condition."

"Is it worth anything?" I asked.

Bruce gave me another look, "You really weren't paying attention, were you?"

"They estimated its value at around eight hundred to a thousand dollars," he continued. "And that's based on not knowing much about it. If you could narrow down exactly where and when it was struck there's a good chance that number could easily double. And in that kind of condition, if it turns out to be something really special it could be worth even more than that."

That got my attention, and I finally looked closer at my prize. The enclosure was hard see-through plastic, almost two inches across and more than a quarter-inch thick. The shiny silver coin inside was surrounded by some dense white foam, to keep it protected and centred in the case.

The first thing I noticed about the coin is it was nothing like modern money, it wasn't even round. It was more like someone took a funky-shaped blob of silver then pounded it a few times with a hammer, so it ended up as a sort of misshaped uneven circle that was about an inch across. It looked a lot chunkier than modern coins, but it wasn't the same thickness all the way across. Basically it was pretty obvious the thing was hand-made, instead of coming out of a machine.

The front had a side-view portrait of a pretty young woman who was looking to the right, with her hair drawn up into a bun at the back of her head. And the back of the coin had a deep square punched into it, and in the middle of that was a bunny in mid-binky. There wasn't any writing though, on either side of the coin. No words, no numbers, nothing to indicate where it was from or when it was made.

"Who's the girl?" I asked. "And is this plastic thing sealed, or can I take it out? Like is it ok to touch it, or will that ruin its value?"

My uncle smiled, "That's one of the cool things about ancient coins, it's ok to touch them. As long as your hands are clean and you're careful, that is. Just don't drop it."

"Right," I nodded as I popped open the round case then tipped the coin out into my hand.

The first thing that struck me was how heavy it felt. It was nothing like our modern money, which suddenly seemed almost fake in comparison. I slowly turned it over in my hand, while the bright summer sun caught some of the delicate lines in the girl's hair.

Meanwhile my uncle explained, "They think the woman might be the goddess Artemis, but I have my doubts. Mind you I'm no expert on the subject, but you see a lot of bees on coins that are attributed to her, especially from Ephesus? And sometimes you get stags attributed to her as well. I haven't heard of rabbits on her coins though. And I don't know of any of the old city-states that used them as a symbol either. That's why it's so unusual."

"There's loads of coins from that era with Athena on them," he continued babbling, "But she's usually depicted in a helmet. Obviously that girl's not wearing a helmet, or a diadem, or a laurel wreath. She must be a goddess though, I don't think you'd get mortal women on coins back then. You sometimes got kings or mythical heroes, but mostly it was gods and goddesses, or symbols important to the city-states who minted the coins."

I spoke up before he could continue the lecture, "Is this real silver?"

Bruce grinned, "It sure is, almost eighteen grams of solid silver."

"So what do you think?" He gave me a hopeful look, "Do I detect a spark of curiosity? You want to learn more about it, don't you?"

I frowned as I looked at the coin again, and the pretty face on the front of it.

He was right, I was kind of curious to learn more about it. Like who was the girl, and what was the deal with the bunny? I hadn't forgotten what Bruce said about the value going up if I could answer those questions. On the other hand getting a thousand dollars for it right now was pretty tempting.

After another couple seconds I shrugged, "Heads I sell it, tails I hang onto it and do some research."

My uncle's eyes widened as I balanced the heavy silver coin on my thumb, "Hold on you can't do a coin toss with that! It's more than two thousand years old!"

It was already sailing skyward by that point, tumbling end over end. I wasn't going to drop it though, I watched closely as it spun in the air a meter above my head. That's when I was momentarily dazzled by bright sunlight as it reflected off the shiny coin and straight into my eyes. And in that moment the entire world changed.

My gut lurched and I felt a wave of dizziness pass over me as the coin dropped back into my outstretched hand with the bunny side up. I barely noticed it though, as my attention was on the angry looking dude who was suddenly standing where my uncle had been a moment ago.

"You think a single piece of silver is offering enough?" he scowled at the coin in my hand. "That is but another insult, foolish girl."

PurpleCatGirl

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