Converting the Bad Boy ✔

Chapter 12

First of all, Salam 

I finally know where I want to go with this story, as I've had a bit of a writer's block, but alhamdulillah, I have a clear view of what will happen. Thank you for your lovely comments (you know who you are you beautiful people) they inspire me to write and continue with the story. No matter how hard it gets, I won't give up on this, so the fact that you guys are enjoying it makes me smile

So to return the favour, I'll make you guys smile with this (Edited) chapter update. Enjoy!

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The rest of the week was just filled with homework, heat and hate. February was known for being the hottest month of the year, and it wasn't made easier with the amount of homework and studying I had to do, because who said year twelve was easy? Yasmine's new decision had caused a stir of gossip amongst Damian's circle of friends, which spanned out to about half the year level. Girls like Samantha, Carrie and Annabelle were spreading rumours about Yasmine and what went down at Aidan's party, and though I didn't care for all that gossip, the things I did hear were quite ridiculous, but more importantly, false. Yasmine hadn't joined a terrorist group, nor had she been forced to wear the hijab as a punishment from her parents. Though she had many supportive and understanding friends, there was still a lot of hate around. Yasmine had been known as a party girl, and the fact that she was off-limits now to the guys made many of them a little pissed, but they soon forgot about her, moving onto the next pair of boobs on legs.

Aidan didn't try pursuing Yasmine further, and Yasmine seemed fine with that, for she too ignored him as best as she could. I knew she had maths with him, but she had other friends to sit with, and Aidan didn't bother her anymore.

Friday finally came around, and though I was excited for it as it was the last day of the week, I dreaded the presentation with Damian. But I didn't see Damian on the bus that morning, nor did I see him at the lockers, or during recess. It finally came to the double period of physics after recess when it registered – Damian wasn't here.

"I can't believe he ditched me!" I cried indignantly to Denise, who was preparing her cue cards for her presentation. Florence sat on our table, along with Aidan and Russell since they were working together. I, however, was alone, which sucked, and it sucked even more because Aidan was shooting me loaded looks. Was he seriously still hung up on Yaz?

"Well, what can you expect from a guy like him?" Denise said, as if she'd seen it all. "They're all ditchers."

"Whatever, I don't need him. I can do this presentation myself, and still ace it," I muttered confidently, adding silently In Sha Allah.

"We'll be doing the presentations in roll order," Mr Newton said, grinning at all of us. "So, first off, we have Mariam Barakat!"

"Lucky me," I murmured sarcastically, getting up from my seat. Denise shot me the thumbs up sign as I made my way to the front of the class, my heart throbbing at an alarming rate. Since when did I get nervous? I never got nervous for presentations – call me strange, but I enjoyed the spotlight. It made me feel like an influential speaker at some conference, like a world leader with an inspirational speech. And it didn't matter what topic I presented on, I almost always managed to add my own inspiring words to conclude, and this almost always guaranteed an A+.

"Bismillah tawakaltu a'lallah, la howla wala quwata illa billah," I read the du'aa in my head, the du'aa that reminded me that I should put my trust in Allah, no matter what I was doing. Doing this had become a ritual for me, and 99% of the time it earned me an A. The other one percent was my fault.

"Damian and I researched the formation of stars. Unfortunately, Damian couldn't be here today, so I will be presenting his and my work alone," I intro, nodding at Mr Newton, who was writing down comments on the rubric. I was not just representing myself, I was representing Damian too, minus the cocky attitude and crave for attention.