Ali thinks Khalifa is being an idiot.
They're walking through the halls to get to their first class of the day, and all Ali can think of is the eggs he's had for breakfast (three, and not nearly enough to fill up his appetite), and the movie he watched last night starring Tom Cruise sometime in the 90's. He thinks Tom Cruise is great, but Johnny Depp's his favorite. No one can beat that role he played in Nightmare of Elm's street, and it has nothing to do with how young he looked or how his costume seemed to be handcrafted specifically for him in every shot.
Not at all.
Khalifa, on the other hand, is saying that Tom Hanks is better. Tom. Hanks.
"Who even watches Tom Hanks?" he argues. "Tom Hanks is my mom's favorite actor."
"That's sexist, Ali," Khalifa says. "And it's obvious you haven't seen Forrest Gump. Which, by the way, is the best movie of all time and you can't even deny it."
"I haven't seen it, so yeah, can't deny it, but I can tell that you haven't seen Edward Scissorhands. And that's really fucked up, bro."
"Don't say that."
"Bro? Bro, bro, bro," and the letter "r" scrambles somewhere on his tongue and his accent peaks through. He brushes his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
Khalifa bumps shoulders with him hard, and his other side grazes against one of the steel lockers that line the halls. They're late as per usual, since Khalifa decided he needed karak and paratha and he would die if he couldn't have either or the both combined.
"Fuck, that hurt."
"Good," Khalifa says, sounding too pleased for himself for Ali's liking. He wants to punch the grin off his face, but he's punched Khalifa before and it didn't end well. Plus, that was a long time ago, when they both hated each other, and he didn't want to relive that time.
"We're so dead," Ali whines. They have Physics first and Mrs. Maya is a fucking dragon, probably already has a speech prepared to last at least the first ten minutes of class.
Khalifa tsks, dismissing him. "We have that quiz so she probably won't have time to humiliate us as bad as last time. That was fucking brutal."
"We have a quiz? Fuck."
"You're such an idiot. I texted you, remember?"
"Fuck, fuck, fuck."
"Look, remember that code I told you about?" Khalifa asks. They're almost near the classroom now, and they can already hear Mrs. Maya's voice ringing down the hall. Dread pools in Ali's stomach. "One tap for A, two taps for B, three taps for C..."
"Yeah," Ali says, refocusing on Khalifa. "Yeah, I remember."
"Good, the class is probably already filled up so we can sit next to each other."
There's a small rectangular glass window on the door that shows the inside of the lab. Ali fucking hates school, but not as much as he does when he has Physics at 8AM on Sundays.
Khalifa doesn't even ask if he's ready, he just grabs the door handle and pushes the heavy lab door open enough for the two of them to slip in. Noticed, of course, as everyone's eyes zero in on them. Ali can tell that some of his classmates are already gearing up for a ten-minute lecture just to waste time.
They go through the hassle of having to stand in front of the class as Mrs. Maya's voice booms even louder than before as she addresses their tardiness.
"I'll start taking marks from you," she says, accent ringing sharp and clear, eyes moving quickly from boy to boy like her eyes are made out of marbles. Ali winces. "Go take a seat. You're taking your quiz now."
