Broken Promises

• O N E •

~ z a y n a ~

Ringgggg Ringgggggg

I shut off my alarm, and sit up in bed. At that very moment, a hear a knock at my door.

"I'm already awake!" I holler, knowing it was Hala at the door.

She barges in the room anyway and jumps on my bed. "Wake up!"

I push her off, and she landed on the floor with a thud. "I just said I was awake."

"Well, you should know by now that it's not going to stop me from barging in. Your lucky I knock." She stood up and crossed her arms.

I roll my eyes, "and you knocking is supposed to do what exactly?"

She opens her mouth to say something when someone interrupts her. "Both of you, hurry up! Yalla (come on), get ready!" Mom commands then continued down the hall to yell at my brothers.

"Hader (okay) mama!" Hala and I shout back.

I jump from bed and shove Hala out of my room. "Bye-bye! I need to get ready." I shut the door and exhale.

I walk into my bathroom and perform ablution so I could pray the Fajr (one of the 5 daily prayers in Islam).

After I finished praying, I made dua, and folded up my praying clothes and praying mat. I walk to the closet, not knowing what to wear for the first day of school.

Wait, the first day of school? My eyes widen. "Today's the first day of school!" I whine out loud.

I hear my older brother laugh from outside the door. He opens the door and walks in. Did I mention without knocking?

"Ya hmar (you donkey/you idiot), I could have been changing," I said throwing a hijab, that was laying on my mirror, at him.

He catches it easily, "now is that the way you speak to your older brother?"

I glare at him. "Mama! Khalid is in my room and he won't leave!"

His eyes widen. "KHALID! Get out of your sister's room!" Mom shouts from the kitchen.

He threw the hijab back at me. I laugh and stick my tongue out at him. He walks out muttering something about stupid sisters.

I close the door after him since he left it wide open.

Typical Khalid, I thought, shaking my head.

I walk to my closet, which needed to be organized. After 10 minutes of digging, I decide on a pair of black jeans and a long blue shirt. Simple, I know.

I change into my clothes and pull my long wavy hair up into a bun. I reach for my black hijab but stop midway. Maybe I should change things up.

I look up to my collection of hijabs and give up after 30 seconds. Black is nice. I wrap my hijab and walk out of my room to the kitchen.

"There's my angel," Dad says in his thick Arab accent. He was sitting in his chair drinking coffee.

"More like the devil," I hear Khalid mutter as he walked in, but dad didn't hear him.

"Good morning, Baba," I say, ignoring Khalid and grabbing the cereal box.

"There are eggs if you want habibti, (dear)" Mom says, pointing to the plate Khalid and Hala were fighting over.

"Nah, I'm good."

"Khalid give the plate to your sister. Stop arguing! Your 20! Act like it." Mom scolds him.