Vanilla

Thirty Four

Almost at once, there was a chorus of boy-gasps. The general 'ohh' sound they tended to produce at something shocking or in a general bad situation when they knew not what to say.

"That's you guys?"

"There were lanterns all over the awning just yesterday, right?" One of them set his ice box down and I nodded vigorously, glad that there were at least witnesses who could remember what the stall looked like before. "They're gone?"

"Feels bad man." "We honestly just arrived and got a call from our representative about the ingredient pick-up, so..." "But Cox was here late last night, wasn't he? Setting up the deep fryers."

I was all ears at the name, turning to meet the gaze of the student who'd mentioned his presence. "Leroy? He was here? But um, exactly how late did he...?"

"Like, about eleven-thirty-ish, maybe? I don't know. You want me to call him or something?" He was nice enough to offer but the logic in my head had gone several miles ahead as soon as I'd heard his name.

Pure rational reason would have concluded that Leroy was not a witness to any suspicious activity occurring the night before since if he did, he would have texted me right away or warned me about it because one, he knew our class was the only Chinese street food stall in the entire plaza and would have identified that as ours and two, he had no reason to be hiding something like that from myself. Even if he did, he wouldn't have put up with such behaviour occurring right before his eyes and because the school closed at midnight sharp, that would have to mean that the incident occurred between four, the school's opening hour, to five in the morning, when I'd arrived.

The only premise that would destroy my entire claim was my unwavering faith and trust in the subject.

"Um, no it's fine. You don't have to call him," I said to his classmate, thanking the rest of them with a brief nod. "Thanks for your help... I guess I'll just contact the authorities."

"Oh. You sure?" He seemed surprised by my confidence—which was perfectly justified since, well, even I was taken aback by the sheer lack of doubt in my decision not to contact him.

"Yes. I'm sure. Thank you, again."

I gave the time a quick check whilst returning to my booth across the lane. Two hours till the instructors make their rounds for the quality and hygiene check. The festival briefing the other day also mentioned something about giving each booth an electronic machine for coupon scanning, which would be keeping track of the numbers for every class and the total number of customers they'd served. The top were entitled to keep a portion of their earnings and were also said to be given priority in upcoming learning journeys.

There was much at risk, considering the competitive nature of our school's culture.

"Vanilla?" I heard Si Yin's voice from afar and turned, relieved to see her approaching from the far end of the plaza stairs. "Sorry I'm late. The traffic was bad and Sebastian had to make a detour down small roads. What's..." Her voice trailed off as she got closer. Then she stared at me in disbelief.

I shook my head, resisting the urge to avert my gaze. "I... I know what it looks like but—"

"This wasn't how it looked like yesterday, right?" My best friend took one look at the bare, empty mess before returning to me, shaking my shoulders. "My memory can't be that bad, can it? Oh my god Vanilla, do something with your magic hands."

"I-it most certainly did not look like this," was all I managed, silently relieved that the first of her thoughts hadn't jumped to identifying me as the perpetrator, 'caught in the act.' Just as I'd trusted Leroy, she, too, had complete faith in me. "I'll check in on the group. Could I entrust you with getting an instructor here? Or any form of authority. Just, someone from the organizing committee."