Once Upon A Muslim

Semi-Chapter 12 | Zahra | Life's Not Normal

"Nobody makes you angry; you decide to use anger as a response." - Unknown

***

"I'm going to miss you so much," Tanya says with a sad smile.

"Me too," Daniel mutters.

"Huh?" I question, a little creeped out and bewildered.

"I meant to say your brothers. I know you're desperately in love with me, but I'm afraid to say that I can't return your feelings," he says mockingly.

I roll my eyes while Tanya claws at her throat and gags. "As if."

We're all sitting outside on the steps of the school, Tanya sitting between the two of us. We're not allowed to be out here or the teachers will count that as "skipping", although it's just lunch time. Daniel throws small pebbles towards the parking lot, occasionally hitting a car. He resumes, knowing that not even a scratch has been made.

Tanya, meanwhile, suggests that we all have a last-minute outing together. She senses my hesitation to agree with her since I'm still keeping my distance from Daniel. "Besides, my parents will freak if they found out that I was out with a boy," I explain.

"I think they particularly like me," Daniel proclaims cockily.

I snort as I play with the tassels at the end of my hijab. "Mmhmm."

"Fine. Since you don't want Daniel around, let's have a girl's night out while he can sulk at home," Tanya suggests. I nod while Daniel scowls in her direction. "Or you can put on a wig, makeup, and a pair of booty shorts."

"No thank you," he says dryly while I chuckle at the image that forms in my mind of him in the things Tanya just listed. "Is your brother okay?" Daniel inquires, now adressing me.

"Yeah," I say quietly. "He'll be discharged from the hospital a few days before we leave. But he'll have to be in a wheelchair for a long time." I refrain myself from saying "permanently". By the way the doctors told us that Zayd would need to depend on a wheelchair, it was implied that he'd be handicapped for a while. They never clarified if temporarily or permanently; I obviously fear the latter.

Unlike winter in Minnesota, where the weather is below twenty degrees and the streets are coated with blankets of snow, Florida still keeps its hot, tropical weather, which is quite the advantage. However, everyone in the halls at school kept shooting me weird glances, as if saying: "What the heck? Who wears a scarf when it's so hot and humid?" Nonetheless, I kept walking, ignoring them to be dumbfounded.

I fan myself as Tanya raises an eyebrow. "You okay?"

I shrug my shoulders. While everyone else is wearing T-shirts and shorts, I'm stuck wearing my blouse and skirt. I don't complain, since I'm used to being this hot. Besides, I'm wearing a hijab for my Lord, not for anyone else. "A drink of cold water will do." Tanya offers to get me some, and before I can protest, she leaves me and Daniel on the concrete steps, the sun glaring down at us.

"So," he says.

"So."

"You're really going, huh?" He stops throwing the pebbles. He then gazes at me with a look which I can't decipher.

"Yeah. It won't be for another few weeks, but it already feels like the end." I pause, look at the ground, and mutter, "I don't know when I'll see you or Tanya again. It's unlikely that I'm coming back here."

Before Daniel can even say a word, I hear the last voice I want to hear. "I'm so glad that bitch is leaving. She thinks she's all that with that stupid scarf. She looks like a lunatic and a weirdo. I'm surprised she hasn't killed herself just yet."