Shasha at Malory Towers

The midnight feast

That day, Shasha had received a big box in the mail. Everyone crowded around her to see what's in the box. It was full of neatly sealed plastic bags of food. There were strange brown paper and banana leaf packages. Sophia picked it up and asked her what it was.
"This is nasi lemak," said Shasha. "It is rice boiled in coconut milk with chilli-anchovy gravy, fried ground nuts, friend anchovies, sliced cucumber and half of a hard-boiled egg."
"Ohhh. But it will surely be spicy," said Sophia. "Oh look there's a letter."
Shasha picked up and opened and read it aloud.
Dear Shasha,
I've sent you some food so that you can have a party with your classmates. I've sent 30 packs of nasi lemak and sent you some cucumbers separately so that the rice won't go bad. You have to slice that yourselves. I've sent you some homemade Malaysian and Indian  snacks like onde-onde, kuih lapis, laddu, milk candy, jilepi and some vadai. Share them among your classmates. There is also some chicken curry, fish curry and some mutton curry too with rice. I hope you enjoy the food!

                                                                                                                                    Mommy
"Wow!" said everyone at once.
Darrell spoke first. "Can we have a Malaysian midnight feast?" Everyone agreed at once. "But first we have to get some milk to satisfy our burning tongue after eating the spicy food."
So the midnight feast was to be held the night of the following day at their common room.
"The common room is safely far away from the dorms and where the teachers sleep," said Mary-Lou, her eyes shining. "We are going to have lots of fun!"
Shasha and Sophia went to town together and bought a bottle of milk for each girl. Some of the other girls bought some chocolates and sweets for the feast too. They took the large box of food and hid it in one of the cupboards in the common room.
They were waiting for their lessons to be over. It seemed like forever but at last it was over. Shasha set her alarm at exactly midnight. As it came, she jumped up, pulled on her dressing gown and woke everyone else up. They went to their common room and pulled the curtains tight so that no light shown through and set out the food. Each girl was given a bottle of milk and a pack of nasi lemak. They were also given the snacks.
When the girls took a mouthful of the nasi lemak and immediately started sweating and took a sip of milk. Shasha didn't even turn a hair! She was used to eating spicy food.
"Mix the yoke of the egg together with your rice," said Shasha. "It won't be as spicy that way."
So everyone followed and felt better. They ate the rice while chatting and laughing. Belinda had drawn pictures of Mam'zelle Dupont and Mam'zelle Rougier dancing happily and another of them fighting with gladiator suits! She showed them the picture and the girls laughed. Irene gave one of her explosive laughs and choked, forgetting that her mouth was full. They had also eaten the variety of curries that Shasha had brought. They washed their hands and danced around. Then, the sweets and snacks were held out. They ate them. They were tasty, sweet and tasted unique. Gwendoline sulked the whole time. Who was this girl that suddenly appeared in this school and has gained more popularity than me, she thought, she had also embarrassed me by saving that mouse of a Sophia. I must do something about her.
No one took any notice of her. They were busy enjoying the feast. At last, the feast ended. The girls cleaned the common room and they went back to their dorm. The girls found it hard to walk as they were stuffed! But at last they made in and fell asleep. The girls had found it difficult to wake up the next morning as they had slept really late. Surprisingly, the girls hadn't got a stomach ache. They asked Shasha about it.
"It's because the food that my mom had made contained a lot of spice like ginger, garlic and onions," explained Shasha. "That's why you have digested the food quickly."