The Imperials

Departing

Mymoonah POV:

"Who knew sophomore would be this hard?" I whined, washing my hands in the school washroom sink, staring at Ember through the mirror who was leaning on the wall beside me with her arms crossed. She was waiting for me as I finished off my business. She was clad in high-waisted jeans and an oversized sweater that left one of her shoulders exposed revealing her tank top strap, and her thick red hair flowed down her shoulders through her high ponytail. 

"Stop exaggerating, Mona." Ember rolled her eyes, watching me as I unwrapped my scarf and redid it.  "If you've got problems in math, I'll help you." 

In the isolated washroom, one of the stall doors burst open and my sister walked up to the sink to wash her hands making me jump startled.  "I can help too if that's what you need," She said robotically, washing her hands with soap without making any eye contact. She didn't need to pretend like she cared when she clearly didn't.

I frowned. "No thanks," 

Ember cleared her throat. "Maybe, your bestie Musa can--"

"Excuse me, he's a loser when it comes to school." I scoffed. "Even if he did, I'd rather surrender myself to the jungle than get transformed into a wild animal by him."

"Hey, aren't you--?" Ember started, pointing at Halima.

"Yes, she's my sister Halima." I interrupted, staring at Ember through the mirror as I tried to stuff on the pins in my red hijab. 

"You're so pretty, Halima. I've never really seen you before though," Ember smiled, and that's when I realized Halima wasn't wearing her niqab since she was in the safety zone of the women's washroom. 

"Uh... thanks," Halima said unsurely, staring at herself in the mirror.

"Are you two even sisters, you two don't even look alike." Ember continued, staring at both of us. "Halima's so much paler, red-lipped--"

"Sisters ain't suppose to look alike," I said, giving her the obvious look. 

"You remind me of the celebrity, you know the missing one. I forgot her name..." She ransacked her head with her index finger on her chin as she stared at my sister with squinted eyes. Halima stared at herself in the mirror, did some pulls on her hijab here and there, and at last, adjusted her niqab back on. 

"Well, you can always find your face down the road or on the net often. Remember Mrs. Bashirah? She had Micheal Jackson's face, but just the girl version of it. Remember?" 

Ember nodded with a laugh before holding the door open for me one of her legs. "Yeah, that was so funny, and she was so unaware of it."

"Yeah," I laughed, exiting the washroom with her.

"Bye, Mona's sister." Ember smiled at her, and Halima just simply nodded. 

************

"Hey, my mama asked if you're ever gonna come over? She hears a lot about you--" Ember started, walking with me outside the school zone with her backpack slung over her shoulder as it was time to part ways towards home. 

"Ugh, you know how my mommy is?" I groaned, throwing my head back. "She's so overprotective. I so hate her sometimes. Daddy thinks somehow this era had gotten magically corrupted, but of course, during his teens, it was apparently all 'good'. They even grounded me because of Musa, that idiot cousin of mine, who flirted with me. I mean how the heck is that my fault? And look at him, his parents don't even do anything to that son of a bitch--"

"Ooo, who you calling the son of a bitch?" Musa popped out of nowhere, peeking his head lower at me with one of his eyebrows raised, his hands stuffed in his red jacket pockets.