Alina Kanaan

Chapter 5

If someone could help me make a better cover for this book and my other book, that would be very helpful :) Also, I've been writing this book over and over again since I was 12, but I've recently started it  over and making it better :) Hope you like it and assalamu alykoum everyone :)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"O Mankind, We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous of you" (Quran 49:13)

        I go to the first floor of the mansion to meet the rest of the contestants. We're going to practice onstage before we have to sing live tomorrow.

        I'm excited because starting next week, if I make it to the next round in sha Allah, celebrities will start to mentor us. Rumor has it that Farrah Darell will mentor us.

        We get onstage. The crew talks to us, telling us what order we're going in and exactly what we're going to do. I'm going eleventh, which is about the middle.

        This week is top forty week, which means we must pick a song that is or was in the top forty at one point. I'm singing "Mirrors" by Justin Timberlake. I chose it because I really like the message that Justin spreads throughout the song. Since I heard the song last year, I told myself that I would marry a man that would love me the way Justin loves the person he's talking about.

        I sit backstage by myself since Audrey and Tatiana are first and second. I've talked with the other contestants before, but I'm not as close to them as I am with Audrey and Tatiana.

        "Hello there" Mason, one of the contestants, sits next to me.

        "Hi, Mason. How are you?" I notice that his eyes are very blue and his hair is a sandy-blond color.

        "I'm good, and you?" I love his Southern accent. It's amazing how his accent sounds so much different than my Palestinian accent.

        "So am I". We smile.

        "I'm getting homesick myself. I miss my little Alabama town". 

        "Which town are you from again?"

        "I'm from Dothan. You're from California, right?"

        "Yes, from Santa Rosa. I've been living there for a few years".

        "I know you came here from Egypt. Was it hard coming to America and learning a whole new language? What was it like for you?"

        "Honestly, it was so hard to do. I struggled learning English, but I managed to learn it. Coming to America was exciting and also scary. Back in Palestine and Egypt, I heard some good and bad things about here. There was a rumor that everyone was rich over here and I believed it because I never came here. But when I eventually did come here, I saw how wrong that rumor was. The American dream is real, but you have to work so hard for it. Thank God I had family over here already because they helped us get on our feet while we were so poor. We barely had enough money to come here. Walking the streets, I saw people who were worse off than us. I remember thanking God for helping us live here. Don't get me wrong, I love the Middle East, but I think there are more opportunities for people here. Plus, there are no wars in the country. Living in Palestine and sometimes in Egypt was basically living in a war zone. My family did make the best out of it. I had many good times over there".

        "You know, it's funny that a lot of people here complain about everything. You find teens crying and sad because the boy they had a crush on broke their hearts. Yes, it's sad, but it's not sad to the point where they should hate everything. You didn't even complain about anything. You lived in war zones and still made the best out of everything. That's true gratefulness right there. Even coming here with almost nothing, you made the best out of it. A lot of Americans can learn from you. I'm glad you're here so your story can be heard". I'm totally moved. I feel like crying, but I hold my tears back partly because I don't want to cry in front of him and partly because I don't want to ruin my makeup.