The Girl Who Saw Through Jem

Jem: Moments of Stars [EDITED]

She sighed, turning from the revolting sight of me begging. "Your money to waste."

I cheerfully dragged Ellis to join the queue behind the Australians, a cheery bunch who were indeed on a before-college trip together. They made fantastic conversations too.

"You lot still in high school?" The blonde one, who finished his grasshopper, asked, not unkindly.

"Yeah," answered Ellis.

"Are you two a couple?"

"No," we both replied instantly and the boy scrunched up his forehead, blue eyes flicking both of eyes like he was perceiving a tennis match.

"Alrighty then," he chuckled, toasting his empty grasshopper stick to us. We both smiled at the same time. "Best be off, mate. I'm Toby, by the way. And this is my sister- Leighton," he gestured to a girl with sandy hair, the same as his, "And a friend of ours- Kristen-" A redhead with green eyes smiled at them, "And this dick over here," he smacked a guy in the arm, a burly guy with curly hair, who appeared terrifying but for the five minutes, we've been standing in line all he could talk about was his cute girlfriend in Brisbane, "is Derrick. Nice to meet you," he shook my hand, his grip was rough but warm and friendly, his callouses rubbing against mine. "and Ellis." He nodded his head at her. She returned a smile.

The four of them stalked off, leaving both of us to move up the front to the sweaty guy operating the vendor. He barked at us in heavily accented English, noting my Caucasian features as an immediate sign of a language change. "Grasshoppa fa two yuan," he bellowed, right in my face, busy as he dealt with exchanging a change of notes with another Taiwanese tourist, "Grasshoppa fa two yuan."

I whipped up a five yuan note and handed it to him. He plucked one of the grasshopper sticks attached to the styrofoam box advertising the display of crispy grasshoppers and gave me back my change. We quickly skedaddled out of the line to the side and Ellis crossed her arms as I eagerly brought the grasshopper up to my nose, inhaling its salty oily scent.

"Moment of truth," I said dramatically and she rolled her eyes. I took a bite into its head, expecting it to be gross, but it was actually not that bad. A little salty, crunchy. Kind of like fries, to be honest. Crispy fries. "It's good." I choked, "Really good." I held it up to her face. "Want some?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Um, ew. No. I want actual food."

"Prissy rich girl."

She elbowed me hard in the stomach, almost making me drop my grasshopper but because of my fast football reflexes, I didn't. "Oi," I said indignantly, "You nearly made me drop my grasshopper!"

"And what a tragedy that would make," she drawled but kissed me on the cheek, a token of affection I totally didn't expect. I recoiled and she raised her eyebrows. "What?" Her tone sounded accusing.

"I just didn't...expect that..."

"I was kissing your cheek to make you feel better," she pointed to my stomach, where she elbowed me. "God knows how you Leightons are so delicate."

"Hey!"

My only response was her twinkling laughter.

-

So according to Ellis, also known as 'Little Miss Priss', crunchy grasshopper weren't 'real' food so we escaped to this cosy outdoorsy corner shop, tucked in the end of Wangfujing Street, where they sold noodles in tiny but 'ohmygodsocute' (Ellis's words, not mine) clay bowls with soy sauce and chopped chilli, cilantro and white pepper. But before we did that, I somehow convinced Ellis to barter for alcohol down the street.