That Melody

Chapter 16

So thankfully, I didn't have a dream about the flat burning down and I slept pretty deeply last night. Dad knocked on the door in the morning to wake me up, "Bunga, it's time to get up."

He doesn't come into my room unless the door is open, then again, I'm not allowed to close the door unless I'm changing or sleeping. 

"Open the windows and curtains," Dad calls out. "I'm leaving in five minutes, make sure the door closes properly."

"I know," I say still half asleep. "What are we having for dinner?"

"I'm buying fish and chips."

"Nice," I say sitting up. 

"You definitely up?" 

I roll my eyes, "Yes."
"Good," he says. "There's rice in the rice cooker, Kas (short for Kasemchai (Chai's dad)) said Chai's mum said she's sending some Tom Yum with him for lunch."
 

That's a bit of a gamble, last time Aunty Phueng gave Chai some soup to take with us, he 'accidentally' spilt it over some boy named Jake who pushed me over. "Alright."

I get up and start getting ready for the day and I hear dad say "see you later" just before the front door shuts and the electronic lock sings it's little locking melody. (I went back and changed chapter 14 a bit, it now says they have electronic locks and Chai's family take Bunga to Thailand with them because Phueng ships Chai and Bunga pretty hard.) I pick up my phone and ring Chai, "Do I owe you a coffee?" he asks as he picks up.

"No," I laugh. "I heard I'm having Tom Yum for lunch?"

"That is the plan."
"Do you have any plans on pouring the soup on anyone?"

"Not at the moment."

"Keep it that way," I say as I slip on my dark blue blazer. "How's the tie tying Chai?"

Chai struggles to tie his tie a lot, he groans, "I want to petition to let non-muslim kids wear the jubbah uniforms, it's not fair that they don't have to wear ties."

"That's because they put the tie pattern on the collars of the jubbahs and down the button part so it looks like a tie anyway." There were a lot of adaptations for the Islamic uniforms, oddly enough, though the boys don't have to wear it, the girls do but the top half is hidden underneath their scarves so you can only see the bottom of it.

"I'm sure Uncle Vusumuzi would prefer it if you wore the jilbabs as well," 

I look down at the grey Ali Baba trousers that I'm about to put on to go under my skirt, "Nah, he's fine with the Ali Babas," I say shaking my head. "Alright, cut the phone off, I've got to get ready."

"You're the one who rang me?" he laughs.

"And I'm the one who has more items to put on to make my uniform," I retort. "Later Chai."

"Alright, Jumpa lagi," he says in Malay. 

The phone cuts off and I say "I might have to start taking Malay lessons from him."