Zahra

14: Lady Whistledown

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

Wealth and children are an ornament of the life of the world. But the good deeds which endure are better in thy Lord's sight for reward, and better in respect of hope. (Q:18 V:46)

I was dying of boredom.

Sighing, I leaned back on my chair and tossed the novel I was reading on the table. It was a free period and I was lounging in the library, Adam and Ben were hanging out with some other guys, Kamilah wasn't in school, Hailey had a club meeting, and Zayd was nowhere to be found.

There was still about ninety minutes before my next class, I picked up the novel and stood up to return it, on getting to the shelf I took it from I saw two people making out a few feet away. I rolled my eyes and put the book back in its place.

The couple kissing broke apart and the girl giggled as I turned to leave, my eyes landed on them again and I realized it was a girl.... And another girl with shorter hair.

Holy smokes.

Both girls' heads swiveled to look at me and I gasped softly, crap I said that out loud!

"Um... Sorry", I mumbled and quickly got out of there, I grabbed my bag from the table I was and left the library as fast as I could. My cheeks were still burning from embarrassment, I hadn't meant to say that out loud, I just hope I don't run into them again.

After running for like a minute I staggered to a stop when I saw a door, hoping it was an empty class I flung it open and entered.

I shut the door behind me and looked around, it wasn't a class; it was the volleyball court, and it was empty. I smiled, even better.

I didn't have much time to look around the last time, so I observed it carefully. The court was neat and tidy as there was no one in it, the floor was shiny and there were some balls in a basket nearby, a feeling of excitement coursed through me and I skipped towards it and picked one, as I bounced it on the ground, I felt nostalgic, it had been around four months since I last played, hopefully I hadn't become rusty.

"Nice serve", I muttered to myself as I stood behind the end line, after bouncing the ball twice I tossed it up in front of me, ran towards it and jumped. I smacked the ball as it descended and it sailed over the net, hitting the ground mere inches just before the line.

Crap, I'm definitely out of shape. That serve was too long. I walked back to the basket and picked up another ball, then resumed my position at the end line, I jumped and shot another serve, the ball flew across the net and landed smack in the middle of the other side of the net, a satisfied smile spread across my face. That was better, I chuckled and hopped in excitement, feeling giddy. It felt like it had been ages since I last held a volleyball, skipping over to the basket again, I picked up a third ball and did another serve, then another, and another, till the basket was empty and all the balls were lying around the floor on the other side of the net. My hand was tingling with the stinging sensation and I was working up a sweat, but I had a wide grin on my face.

"That was awesome"

I gasped and jolted as I turned to see the owner of the voice, a dark-haired guy in a volley ball jersey was standing by the door, looking at me awestruck. I recognized him as the guy who was hit in the face from the basketball game, the one they called Hassan. He wasn't wearing glasses this time.

"Sorry if I scared you", he added as he walked towards me, "I came here to practice and saw you making those serves, which by the way were epic", his eyes glimmered and he grinned at me, "I couldn't stop watching, that was so cool, you're really skilled"