Shisha Girl

CHAPTER TWO - Nhi and Nga

Shanie stomped along the street towards the bus stop where the schoolbus would pick her up. She looked at her watch – 6:15. Not bad. Shehad thought she was late but at this rate she would make it to schoolon time today.

She arrived at the stop. Two boys she didn't know very well werewaiting there. She ignored them and plonked herself down on theplastic seat provided under the shelter. She needed to get her breathback after her sudden exchange with her dad. She looked around at thescenery – a nice, tree-lined, yet narrow boulevard in District 7,punctuated by a central reservation of grass and flowerbeds. On bothsides were a long series of branded, upmarket coffee shops, chainrestaurants and other retail places, plus a spattering of healthclinics, dentists and massage therapy/spa joints. All very des res,thought Shanie. She liked it – it was a great place to live –everything a teenage girl could want, plus a huge, chrome-ladenshopping mall just up the road. It was a typical street in SaigonSouth – anything the developers could think of to make sure that itdidn't look like a traditional Vietnamese street, with its cyclodrivers, "pho" noodle shops and heavy motorbike traffic –anything to stop the upwardly mobile Vietnamese middle class fromhaving to come face-to-face with the reality of the poverty in anormal street beyond the gated residences of her area.

Shanie shrugged off her thoughts as she looked up to see the schoolbus approach. A sixteen-seater, it heaved into view and noisilypulled up beside her. The pneumatic doors opened and she climbed onwith the two boys.

Finding a seat, she immersed herself in the hubbub of the gossipyteens onboard, listening to their goofy chatter as the bus roaredoff.

"Super Junior are super-senior these days," said one girl.

Her friend laughed. "Yeah, they are – Big Bang just as bad."

One boy poked his head over her seat from behind. "Hey, BB aregreat – Taeyang is the best."

A boy across the aisle butted in. "No, way – Rap Monster'sbetter."

A third boy cried, "Rap Monster's in BTS, idiot!"

"Oh, yeah – who's the guy in Big Bang who raps?"

"T.O.P.!"

"Right – T.O.P. raps better than Monster."

"Shut up!"

Shanie closed her eyes, wishing she could close her ears, too, toall the discussion of K-Pop going on around her. She liked K-Pop butas a high school senior, she was already getting too old for it. Notfor her the endless debate of whether the new generation of artistsor the previous one was better. As a Grade 12 student, she belongedto the last gasp of the Big Bang/SuJu/Girls' Generation/2NE1 era, yeteven she could agree that Super Junior were an embarrassmentnowadays. Big Bang were still cool but aging, some members marriedalready. 2NE1 had split up. GG spent more time doing brandendorsement and making kooky movies than actually singing these days,and lead singer Jessica, her favourite, had long since gone solo andthe band wasn't the same without her. Nowadays it was all EXO/BTS/RedVelvet and all that jazz. Grades 7 and 8 wouldn't stop talking aboutthem. Shanie thought they all sounded the same. Wow, she thought –she sounded just like her parents. That what they said when she usedto rave about T-Ara to her mum and dad. Ha! Shanie smiled as sheremembered her days in Grade 8, when they would sing "NEGACHECHALAGA!" at the tops of their voices, forcing the classroomteacher to tell them all to shut up at breaktime. Then she and herfriends would spend hours practising "I Am the Best" dance movesand performing at the school's liveshow events at the end of thesemester. It was exhilarating, happy and fun and – above all –exciting! Darn, reminiscing already – yet, why not? Nothing to lookforward to but homework, exams, homework, exams, HOMEWORK, EXAMS!Boring! Grade 12 sucked, and pressure from her dad wasn't helping.