The Brighter Side of Life

Chapter 3

Ayah Abasi has beautiful hair.

It's different to all the girls in school, anyway. The girls of similar heritage in my school all have these elaborate braids in an array of colours, or have their hair permed, or are wearing clip-ons or weave- ins, or something like that.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Hers was just.. different.

I've been trying very to be politically correct ever since I asked Trisha, a loud, caramel skinned girl in my chemistry class (that is very about black female rights) a question about her hair. I wasn't even trying to be rude, I simply wanted to know how she does her hair in the mornings, and she blew up at me like I had asked her if she was on her period or something.

I didn't even have to experience the backlash to know never to ask a girl about that. I already knew and had learnt from Dante's mistakes.

Anyway, I had tried at many points to apologise during her speech - about how black women can't leave the house without being oppressed by the "white man" and having condescending comments constantly thrown about their appearance - the word sorry having left my mouth too many times that day. After about the 14th apology,  she finally relented and told me not to be so ignorant to the "dilemmas still very much prominent in the 21st century".

Well. Lesson learnt: Don't mess with Trisha.

Despite this, the realisation rooted from a simple observation that I had made when she departed from the coach. I'd been repeatedly glancing for a little while, and noticed that her hair was plaited down her head in neat little rows that ended just past her shoulders. Maybe it wasn't about her hair, but the way it looked on her face.

Maybe.

I already concluded that I found Ayah somewhat attractive - I'd known since I first saw her - but couldn't put my finger on why, exactly.

She looked plain enough, and had dark chocolate skin. She was slim, but not remarkably curvaceous, and her tall frame appeared taller because of her build. She possessed delicate features: a small, button nose and slightly thin lips. Long, thin arms and a long torso to match, but shorter legs in comparison; a rarity among taller people. She was pretty, but not striking, and she had this look about her like she could look into your soul with her dazzling eyes.

So... uh, yeah. She was something.

"Hm, you're gonna have to stop staring sometime. It's borderline creepy. Like the way Kenny stares at Leona." Dante said suddenly, looking back and sticking his tongue out playfully at Kenny, who was wheeling him out of the coach and gritting his teeth in irritation.

Looking around me, I realised that I indeed was the last one on the coach, and that maybe I had been staring at Ayah Abasi for a little too long, as implied. I didn't want to look creepy or anything, especially because it was just initial interest.

Doesn't this always happen when you meet someone that you've never seen before?

I lived in the kind of place where everyone knew everyone, and so new people not only stuck out like a sore thumb, but were heavily scrutinised as the others tried to work out their personality. We were like wolves deliberating whether to accept an Omega into our pack.

Hm, maybe I'm watching a little too much of Teen Wolf.

But that's besides the point, because that's probably why Ayah had interested me so much. She was new, quiet, and refreshing. Who wouldn't want to get a glimpse of some mysterious girl who hasn't spoken a word to anyone except Maggie in less than 17 hours?

Well, this was at least the reasoning my brain used to justify my excessive staring. And I was just about content  with any reason that didn't make me look like a creep.