The Shadowhunters

Another Side

"Wo shi yi ge xi gua," Tessa said.

"You realize you just said that you were a watermelon right?" Jem laughed. Tessa shoved Jem playfully.

"It's not my fault I was born in America and not in China, alright?" Tessa huffed.

Jem raised his hands, as if he were surrendering. "But don't they have Chinese classes in America?" Sophie asked.

They were sitting around a wooden, circular table in the library, laughing at Tessa's horrible use of Mandarin, not that Sophie was any better though. It was mandatory to take a

language for university – so Jem was tutoring them on Mandarin.

"Sophie shi yi ge xi gua," Tessa smirked.

Sophie frowned. "Wait… Did you just…" Jem nodded, confirming Sophie's suspicions. "You can't call your best friend a watermelon, Tessa!" Sophie shouted.

"Miss Collins!" Mrs. Bird said, appearing out of nowhere. "You are in a library! Please be quiet!" Mrs. Bird was the school's librarian – thin and almost gray­skinned. Mrs. Bird

actually did look like a bird, which had made Tessa laugh when Jem pointed it out.

"It was Jem, Mrs. Bird," Sophie blamed. Jem scoffed but then put on a charming smile.

"Mrs. Bird, please. I hope you can forgive us, as you are the most forgiving teacher in the Institute. It is no wonder you have been working here for so long. In all your thirty years

you truly were amazing," Jem said earnestly. Mrs. Bird blushed a fiery red.

"Yes, well, Mr. Carstairs," Mrs. Bird said, straightening and pushing up her glasses. "You all are forgiven." She turned on her heel and disappeared behind a bookshelf.

And then all three students bursted into laughter again. "Thirty years? She looked like she was sixty!" Tessa gasped out in laughter.

"That was laying it on so thick! I can't believe she didn't see through that, you suck up!" Sophie said, slapping her knee. Jem grinned.

"I learned it all from you," Jem winked.

It had taken some time for Sophie to warm up to Jem, but now they were going strong with their friendship. But truthfully, it was Tessa who put them together and now they were a

trio of friends.

"Halloween is coming up," Sophie stated, looking up from her Biology homework. Sophie laced her fingers together as she stared at her two friends expectantly.

But neither Jem nor Tessa looked up from their Mandarin homework. Sophie snapped her fingers. "Hello?" she asked.

Tessa kept her head down but Jem looked up. "I don't do Halloween," Jem said stiffly.

"Why not? It's the day to scare people," Sophie protested.

"Personal reasons," Jem said, with the same distant tone.

Sophie immediately backed out of the uncharted territory immediately. "Tessa?" Sophie asked.

"I've never been trick­or­treating, or went to a Halloween dance… I've never even dressed up," Tessa admitted, slightly ashamed. Jem and Sophie's mouths dropped open.

"That's it!" Sophie decided. "We're going trick­or­treating."

"But isn't that for little kids?" Jem asked.

"I have some friends in my neighbourhood. Every year we would dress up, go trick­or­treating with some family friends to the houses we know of course, in our neighbourhood,