Chapter 2
“He did what?! How can anyone get full marks in an essay test?” Grace exclaimed in utter disbelief, eyes popping out of their sockets.
“What? Someone scored full marks? Who’s that monster?” putting down her tray of sizzling clay pot rice, a rosy-cheeked girl joined the table.
“Yeah, his name is Andrew, a friend of a friend of mine. I think we just passed his table,” straining her neck this way and that, a girl with nearly tied hair said rather excitedly, “Ah, there he is, that blue table just in front of the western food stall. Angel, can you see him? The guy in jeans.”
“Erm, Emily, there are three guys at the table and they are all in jeans,” Grace raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, right. I wasn’t looking at the other guys, sorry for that,” Emily chuckled, “He’s the one with the chicken rice, the one who’s raising his fork, dipping his chicken into chili sauce and is now popping it into his mouth. And he is not cutting the cucumber with his-”
“Thank you for that interesting commentary, I’m sure we got the guy, right Angel?” Grace stopped her friend before she could get to the intricacies of the way he is chewing his chicken.
“Yeah, saw him. Guy in jeans with cucumber rice,” Angel said without as much as a look in that direction.
“Actually we usually call it chicken rice, but I guess that’s close enough,” Emily poked fun at her friend.
“Er yeah, that’s what I mean,” Angel said with a hint of a blush.
“He’s rather cute you know. I heard from a very reliable source that he’s still unattached,” Emily grinned mischievously, “Maybe I’ll ask him out sometime.”
Angel and Grace shot their heads up at the comment, one face showed slight horror and the other extreme amusement.
“I was just joking. I’m not stupid you know. A guy like that is totally not my style. Besides, the very reliable source told me that he is single solely because he likes some girl from his junior college class but is too shy to ask her out,” Emily said, not quite believing in the last part of her statement herself.
“Shy? Is that even possible?” Grace snorted. She could always see him swimming his way among the ladies as though he owned them.
“Well, I don’t quite believe it either, but if he says so, I’ll trust that,” Emily shrugged nonchalantly.
“ ‘He’?” Grace was confused, but was soon enlightened, “Oh, your very reliable source is a ‘he’? Odd, I thought only girls gossip- er, discuss matters with their friends.”
“For your information, HE tells me things because we are close friends. But he wouldn’t tell me who the girl is. Maybe he doesn’t know. Or maybe the girl is someone I know,” Emily rubbed her chin in speculation, “Hmmm… Maybe it’s Angel.” Emily couldn’t control her laughter at that absolutely absurd idea.
Angel jumped in her seat, blowing intently at her reddened thumb, which she burnt on the clay pot. “Can you not scare me with your creative crap?” Angel teared slightly as she helplessly watched the wound form into a decent blister.
“Are you alright Angel?” Grace grabbed her friend’s palm to inspect the thumb. It looked so painful she frowned very deeply and cast a disapproving look at Emily. “Speaking of that essay test, Emily, I told you to study the Order Carnivora, but you didn’t listen. See what you’ve got?”
“Oh come on, the Order Primates did come out in the bonus question, although I mistook arboreal lifestyle to be social grooming activities,” Emily shuddered at the thought of her ridiculously out-of-point answer to that question.
Grace sighed through a smile. Although Angel, Emily an herself had been as close as sisters, yet all three of them were as different as the planets. Angel was a sweet sensitive, soft spoken girl, and very, very shy around strangers, especially around guys. She had three sisters and a brother, all of whom were younger than her. She always felt obliged to take care of them. A really caring sister she was, but Grace felt that she does so much for them that she doesnÂ’t really have much time for herself. Emily was exactly the opposite of Angel, always bubbling with the latest gossip she eavesdropped from her unimaginably large circle of friends. She was the only child and being the princess of the family, she never quite developed the correct tactfulness. Never one who minces her words, Grace amused herself with the memories of past glitches Emily was responsible for, due to sheer straight-forwardness. As for herself, she could be quite an ice block at times, as Emily liked to say. But she always dismissed it as a result of her inability to smile when there is absolutely nothing to smile at. She knew how charming her smiles could get, but she saw no point in wasting them on strangers. Besides, an emotionless face coupled with the right proportion of piercing eyes brewed the most effective buaya-warding concoctions known to man.
As Grace ate her dumpling noodles and half-listened to Emily’s enthusiastic sharing of yet another scandal, she took a glance at Andrew, the boy who scored the legendary full-marks for Biodiversity essay test. She didn’t buy that “I’m too shy to ask the girl I like out” nonsense Emily said about him. She had always caught him flirting around with the girls after class, charming them with his good looks and brilliant mind, though she doubted those bimbos cared as much as she did for intelligence in a guy. Just this morning, Cindy had called her at 2 am, b!tching and crying about how she was brutally rejected. He didn’t seem shy at all from the way he rejected a girl. She knew for sure from the way Cindy cursed him to hell. Shy my foot. Grace mentally spat at him and numbered him among the To-Avoid list of people. She was about to roll her eyes away from the table when someone else caught her eye.
The guy from her biodiversity class had just joined the table with his steaming hot what-ever-it-is in the big green bowl. Andrew said something and made him laugh. Although he was not as dazzlingly handsome as Andrew, no one can deny the hypnotic magnetism of his sunshine smile. Not even her. He looked up and their eyes met. She saw the same seductive shine in his eyes as was in AndrewÂ’s. Birds of the same feather, Grace thought to herself, as we went back to concentrate on her lunch, chucking the guy under her mental Maybe-To-Avoid list.
“Grace, you free after the lecture later right? Help me choose a present for Annie? Her birthday’s this Friday,” Angel always asked Grace for gift ideas for her siblings.
“Erm, today’s Monday, remember?” Grace reminded Angel of her uncompromising routine. She wouldn’t give in about that unless it was dead important.
“Oh right, the cats,” Angel smiled apologetically for forgetting how Grace always spent Monday and Thursday evenings with the cats at her void deck.
“How about Wednesday? We can meet for dinner then go shopping for it. I saw this wallet at Far East, I’m sure Annie will love it,” Grace proposed another date seeing the disappointment in her friend’s eyes.
“Yeah, that’ll be great,” Angel winked at Grace with a really sweet smile and Grace returned it with one of her rare charming ones.
Grace noticed how Emily has just erupted into a brisk-eating worthy of a Guinness World record. “Emily, why are you gorging yourself? You don’t have any more lessons for the day right?” Grace stared in disbelief and horror as Emily successfully engulfed the last of her laksa.
“’M meet’n fwen fer ‘tardyin’ ‘n ‘m ‘ate,” Emily spoke through that mouthful of food and made a massive gulp, swallowing that lump of partially chewed bean curd, “you girls enjoy your psychology lecture later and tell me why girls organize toilet excursions okay?” Emily zoomed off before either of them could reply.
Grace looked at her watch, which said a quarter to one, “didn’t Emily say she is meeting a friend at one?” Grace double-checked with Angel.
“Yeah she did. Is anything wrong?” Angel said while still working on her clay pot rice. It was awfully difficult to manoeuvre the spoon when you have a blister planted right at the joint of the thumb.
“It’s only a quarter to one and she said she’s late. Did I hear that wrong? Since when has Emily been even on time when she meets us?” Grace exclaimed in slight indignation, “I think you should carry a plaster, in case that blister bursts.” She continued, handing over a plaster to Angel. She continued to finish her lunch after a moment’s contemplation over who Emily’s rushing to meet.
The two girls finished the rest of their lunch in silence and made their way to the bus stop. There was a dense crowd waiting for the shuttle bus which would take them to the Faculty of Arts. Grace sighed lamentedly at the prospect of another squeeze.
“Angel, you don’t supposed we could walk to Arts, do you?” Grace asked hopelessly.
“But it’s noon! I’ll melt, and then stink up the while lecture hall when we get there,” Angel looked at her with the you-must-be-joking look.
“Yeah, I was just kidding. Anyway, the bus is here, let’s squeeze up.” Grace sighed.
The bus took them to the Faculty of Arts in seven minutes. The two girls occupied their usual study table just outside the lecture room where their lecture would take place in an hour. Grace took out her diary to continue writing where she left off on the bus that morning. She flipped open the diary and the pages opened up to where she had slipped the poem paper that guy on the bus returned to her. She read the poem again and was utterly amused by it. She wrote that during lab last Friday, when the professor was going through answers to the essay test.
The poem read:
In a bell jar a sea spongeÂ’s on display
“Do not touch” a sign on it says
To Mr. Sea SpongeÂ’s absolute dismay
That didnÂ’t keep a boyÂ’s curious hands away
Another black invertebrate slug
Had the honour of his fingerly hug
Then his friend came and gave it a tug
Poor Mr. SlugÂ’s dented where their fingers had dug
A cute little starfish with five tentacles in sum
Lay in a basin, dignified and calm
That boy gave it a handshake and did it great harm
Now poor Ms Starfish is left with four arms
Grace smiled at the last stanza. She remembered having nearly bursting out in giggles in the laboratory when she wrote it. The vivid memories of the guyÂ’s sheepish and apologetic smile while holding the decapitated startfish has made her laugh to herself the whole of that day. Putting the poem aside and picking up her favorite purple pen, she continued with her diary entry:
[I’ll have him enrolled in a class to learn how to treat a lady right. To think a handsome, intelligent guy like him would have manners to complete the package. Urge! Alright, disgusting male chauvinistic piglets aside, my lost poem found its way to mama today by way of a guy. The guy –what’s his name?- was surprisingly Andrew’s friend. Why haven’t I noticed that before? Never mind that questions, I don’t usually notice strangers anyway. But there is something…….. not quite the same about this guy. I don’t really like the way he looked at me on the bus. It was very…….. invading.]
Grace frowned at this thought. She remembered feeling watched during biodiversity practical last Friday and wondered if he was the one who was looking at her. How else would he have noticed her dropping the poem? Shaking away that disturbing speculation, she continued writing:
[I wonder what kind of guy he is like, although IÂ’d probably not want to find out. Any friend if AndrewÂ’s not going to be a good friend of mine, IÂ’m sure. No matter, I still prefer a cat to a guy any time. Which reminds me, Nini didnÂ’t seem well the last time I saw her. Maybe sheÂ’s going to give birth soon. I hope the babies are alright. IÂ’ll have to start thinking of new names! Oh I wonder how many kittens sheÂ’ll be having this time.]
Grace couldnÂ’t wait to see the new kittens when they were born. She secretly hoped Nini would have more orange kittens; they were just so much cuter and tamer. Her thoughts were interrupted by Angel.
“Grace, can I borrow your psych notes for last lecture? I fell asleep at the end and kept forgetting to borrow them from you.”
“Hang on,” Grace nodded and flipped through her purple file for the notes, “here, you can return them tomorrow if you want.”
“Thanks,” Angel smiled gratefully and went back to her work. Grace kept her diary and pulled out her psychology tutorial to busy herself with while waiting for lecture to start. The day’s lecture would be on cognitive learning, her favorite aspect of psychology. She was looking forward to the lecture already.
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