Chapter 3

“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 high school 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 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, bitching 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 Andrew’s. Birds of the same feather, Grace thought to herself, as she chucked the guy under her mental Maybe-To-Avoid list.

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 and zoomed off without even saying goodbye.

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. Why?”

“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.

Angel shrugged.

The two girls finished the rest of their lunch in silence as Grace wondered who exactly Emily was rushing to meet. Then they made their way to the ir next lecture venue. 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.

The poem read:

In a bell jar a sea sponge’s on display

“Do not touch” a sign on it says

To Mr. Sea Sponge’s absolute dismay

That didn’t keep a boy’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. Slug’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 guy’s sheepish and apologetic smile while holding the decapitated starfish 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. Urgh! And he has this really creepy friend. How did he know my name when I barely even noticed his existence? And I certainly don’t like the way he looked at me on the bus this morning. 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 I’d probably not want to find out. Any friend if Andrew’s not going to be a good friend of mine, I’m sure. No matter, I still prefer a cat to a guy any time. Which reminds me, Nini didn’t seem well the last time I saw her. Maybe she’s going to give birth soon. I hope the babies are alright. I’ll have to start thinking of new names! Oh I wonder how many kittens she’ll be having this time.]

Grace closed her diary and went on her daily business, all the while trying not to think about that perplexing guy.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*