chapter 9

Ghost

AFTER THE LICE incident, Kamelia and Divya's reign of terror seemed

to lose steam. They didn't exactly stop being their mean, bullying

selves, but they seemed to shrink slightly, as if losing their hair

meant losing some of their power.

For Suraya, this meant happier, lighter times. She could often

make it through entire school days with nothing worse happening to

her than a tug of her braid or a small shove in the chaos before

assembly. It didn't mean making friends became any easier—

unpopularity is a leech that's hard to shake off once it sinks its teeth

into you—but she accepted this as she always had, and was

content. She put her head down in class and concentrated on her

work; she spent every recess with Pink in the secret spot they'd

found on the first day of school, in the dappled sunshine that filtered

through the frangipani leaves. Slowly, Pink could feel her

unclenching, settling in, settling down, and he was glad.

In fact, Suraya and Pink could quite happily have gone on this

way forever, if not for the new girl.

She appeared one day about a month into the school year,

standing quietly next to their teacher Puan Rosnah as she made the

introductions. "Class!" Puan Rosnah clapped her plump hands hard, and the sharp cracks brought an abrupt stop to their chatter. "Class!

We have a new student. Her name is Jing Wei, and I'm sure you'll

make her feel very welcome." There was an obvious emphasis on

the last two words, and the class snickered. Suraya looked with

interest at this new girl, who was gazing back at her new classmates

in a way that seemed entirely unconcerned. She was small, this Jing

Wei, with black-rimmed glasses that seemed to take up half of her

face, a sunburned nose, and hair cropped short like a boy's—a rare

sight in this school, where hair served as a sort of status symbol, and

the longer and shinier it was, the better.

Introductions over, Jing Wei slipped into a seat in the middle of

the class and took out her history book. If she was aware of the

curious stares and hushed whispers of the other girls, she didn't

show it.

It was pouring with rain when the bell rang for recess, and the

girls raced for the best spots in the canteen and the school hall.

Suraya followed slowly, her hands clutching her plastic lunch

container, her eyes on the new girl. Jing Wei walked serenely among

the boisterous crowd, carefully staking out a spot for herself in a

stairwell just off the hall, away from the noise and the damp. She had

a book in one hand and her own lunch box in the other.

Pink could feel Suraya hesitate. Go and talk to her, he said. Go

on. Why not? We've got nothing to lose.

(Later, Pink would think back and wonder why he'd said this; why

he hadn't just said Come, let's go sit over in that corner, just you and

me, like we always do. But big moments don't come with price tags,

and Pink would have no idea how much this moment cost him until

much later.)

Her chest heaved as she took a deep breath, and Pink almost

lost his balance in her swaying pocket.

"Okay," she muttered under her breath. "Okay. Let's do this."

She walked over and stood awkwardly in front of the new girl,

who looked up from her book. "Hullo," Jing Wei said cheerily. "I'm

Jing Wei, who're you?"

"I'm Suraya." She shuffled her feet. "Is it okay if I sit with you?"

"Ya, of course." Jing Wei slid over to make room for her on the

step, and Suraya sat down, smiling shyly. "I got pork in my lunch though. Is that okay?"

"Ya, it's okay, I don't mind."

"I know some Malay girls don't like when I eat pork near them."

Jing Wei shrugged, spooning another heap of rice into her mouth.

"But I dunno why. Not like I force you to eat it also, right?"

"Right." Suraya took a small bite of the kaya and butter sandwich

she'd made for herself that morning and glanced down at the other

girl's book. "What are you reading?"

Jing Wei's small face lit up. When she smiled, her eyes crinkled

up until they almost disappeared. "It's a great book! It's called A

Wrinkle in Time. You know it?"

"Know it! I've read it like four times!" Suraya's smile was so wide

it nearly cracked her face in two. "It's one of my favorite books."

"Wah, four times! It's only my first time, but I'm almost halfway

through already. I like that Charles Wallace, he's damn smart."

Suraya nodded, wiping a spot of kaya from the side of her mouth.

"You like to read?"

"Oh ya." Jing Wei scraped the last of her rice out of her container,

which was black and shaped like Darth Vader's helmet. "My mother

said that's how I ruined my eyes, because I read all the time. As if

that's a bad thing. You read a lot too?"

"Yes. I . . . don't have many friends, so I have a lot of time to

read."

"Hah? No friends? Why ah?" Jing Wei regarded her with frank

curiosity, pushing her glasses back up her nose, and Suraya

shrugged.

"I don't know," she said. "I'm new to this school, and I live pretty

far away. But even back home I don't have many friends. I guess

other girls just . . . don't like me."

"You seem okay to me." Her smile was wide and friendly. "And

you like to read too! If you like Star Wars then we're definitely going

to be friends."

"I've never seen Star Wars," Suraya confessed, and then began

to laugh at Jing Wei's expression of open-mouthed dismay.

"Ohmygoooooood, never seen Star Wars? You serious? You

have to come to my house and watch it, I've got all of them, on Blu-

Ray somemore."

It was the first time Suraya'd ever been invited back to

someone's home, and Pink thought his nonexistent heart might burst

with happiness and pride.

"Okay," Suraya said happily. "Okay, I will. And you can come to

my house and look at my books."

"Cool!"

"Hey, are you done?" Pink frowned; Suraya's own container was

still half full of the soggy sandwiches she'd put together that morning.

"Ya, why?" Bits of rice flew out as Jing replied through her last

mouthful.

"I want to show you this secret spot I like to go to during recess,

before the bell rings. You know. To get away from people."

Their secret place? Pink felt his heart sink. Their own special

spot, the one place they went to for a little peace during the chaos of

the school day?

She was taking this strange new girl to their secret place?

Pink felt it then: a shimmer in the air, a ripple that told him change

was coming, a hot flame of anger licking delicately at his insides. We

have nothing to lose, he'd told Suraya, but suddenly he wondered:

She has nothing to lose. Do I?

But Suraya and Jing Wei noticed nothing. They raced happily

toward the frangipani trees, secure in the knowledge that they'd each

found a friend.