She and a few others got jobs at a construction site by the simple expedient of lying about their ages. The supervisor didn’t care, as long as they got the job done. It was shockingly simple—no thought at all required, just do as you’re told, move the bricks from this pile over there, mix this batch of mortar quickly and get it to the bricklayers before it starts to set. The girls were expected to work as hard as the boys, which Siew Li approved of, even if by the end of the first day she felt like her arms would never stop hurting. And what glory there was in good, honest work. She came home each day exhausted and sunburnt, her mother hovering anxiously and offering to just give her the money. But of course the wages were hardly the point—in fact, they came to almost nothing, just a few coins at the end of each shift. The iced drink vendors at the end of the lane were irresistible after so much thirsty work, and Siew Li ended up handing over her hard-earned cash for a clear plastic bag of Pepsi-Cola, invigorated and refreshed by the cool, dark fluid. Instant relief. You’re spoilt, she told herself sternly—if the real workers could see how frivolously she threw around her day’s earnings, what would they think? Yet by the time school started again, she had to guiltily admit that she’d spent every cent she’d earned, and there was nothing left at all.

•

Her first meeting with Jason was like something from a play—though not one of their educational plays, which would have had her falling for him only to be thoroughly betrayed. Real life was more complex, and she trusted her own senses that the boy she was spending time with was funny and clever, and she felt good when she was with him. Not false-consciousness good, actually comfortable and happy. He just clicked into place next to her, and even when they argued—which was often, seeing as each hated the other’s friends—it still felt like they were on the same side.

Even after she’d been forced to abandon him, she clung tight to the memory of that first instant. The scene was dramatic enough, scores of students in uniform alongside the workers, at the gates of the Hock Lee Company—which had refused to allow its employees to join the Bus Drivers Union. When they barricaded the bus routes in protest, the company had called in the police to disperse them. She’d been one of the main student organisers, working fast to pull together support and reinforcements. It was crucial to let the bosses know they wouldn’t get away with this, and to force the government to come down on one side or the other, so people could see exactly what they stood for.