When The Fate Strikes In

- Chapter 8 -

"Get rid of the belief that forgiveness makes us look weak. In fact, weak is he who allows anger, hatred and revenge to dwell in his heart."
- Mufti Ismail Menk -

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The exam week had gone by pretty fast and there were a couple more subjects to be done, then Khaleesah would be free of studies until the new school year began. She couldn't wait for her last paper to be over so she could be free like a bird and read as many books as she can without a care in the world.

Khaleesah loved to read, she was the bookworm in her family. None of her siblings liked reading as much as she did. Whenever anyone couldn't find her after they had been calling her name for the past hour, they would be certain she was reading a very interesting novel which she was so engrossed in, that she was completely oblivious to all that was happening around her. She would often be seen on the sofa, curled into a ball with the thick book in her hands. Her mother would always say: "Even if a bomb were to blast over here, Khaleesah wouldn't know. May Allah protect us all!"

A small smile crept onto her face as she thought of all the books she had piled at home to read after her exams.

"Khaleesah! Who are you smiling at?" She snapped back to reality at the sharp voice of her teacher. She couldn't put the books out of her mind and that silly smile hadn't left her face, yet.

"Khaleesah, I thought I asked you a question!" The sharp voice of her teacher made the smile disappear in a blink of the eye.

Her face tinted pink as she realized nearly all her classmates were looking at her. Some of them had amused smiles on their faces; the ones who had completed their papers and were bored till their wits end and had wanted a distraction, while some others had annoyed expressions at being disturbed while they were doing their paper.

"Um...Muallima. I wasn't smiling at anyone." Khaleesah said softly in a barely audible voice but her teacher's sharp ears caught her words.

"Then why were you smiling, may I know?" Her teacher prodded on. "Or is it a big secret that you cant share with us?"

"Actually.. it's nothing, Muallima." This time her voice was even softer. She felt so embarrassed that she wished the floor would open up and swallow her. Most of the students were now glaring at the teacher discreetly. She should know better than to keep this good-for-nothing conversation going while an examination was taking place. What was Khaleesah going to tell her anyways? She couldn't just tell her she had been daydreaming about the books she would read after her exams. She just couldn't. She would surely tell something to embarrass her further if she did.

After giving Khaleesah an icy glare, the teacher left her alone.

"Alhamdulillah!" She whispered softly, glad the ordeal was over.

She decided to go through her already completed Islam paper in case she had made a careless mistake somewhere; a thing she was famous for. The Islam paper was pretty easy and most of the students were done with it. All they wanted was to leave the suffocating class and relax a bit before going through some last minute studies for their ICT paper which was next. Their backs ached due to sitting stiffly on the wooden chairs for so long and they wanted to stretch their limbs a bit too.

Half an hour later, their Islam papers were collected and the ninth graders were sent for their break. Some students immediately got their Islam books out of their bags, going through them searching the answers of some of the questions they hadn't answered. Some others had made their way to the grounds with their ICT text books, after buying some fruit juice or Milo for themselves from the canteen. They had already had their breakfast before the exams. The remaining students had spread a mat in an empty classroom. They were sitting on it after spreading a dastarkaan (a piece of cloth spread on the mat and placing the utensil on it according to the Sunnah) in front of them; all their lunchboxes were left open on it, they also had their ICT books along with them. One of them would ask questions from the text book while the others answered them. If anyone didn't know something about a particular topic, the one who had understood the point well would explain it to her. While studying in this way, they ate sharing whatever was in their lunchboxes.