Before FOL (The Prequel)

We're The Same

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Ahad Sheikh took a seat at his usual seat, nearly tucking in his chair, and putting his Spiderman pencil box on the table. At almost five, he was a very well behaved little boy, always paying attention to what the teacher was saying.

It helped that he attended one of the best private schools in the city, so all children were very well disciplined.

Miss Tooba, the teacher walked to the front of the class, followed by a very timid little boy. Unlike the rest of the kids in the class, the boy's uniform looked old and a little scruffy. His hair was neatly combed back, but his shirt was too big for him, making him look much smaller. His socks weren't pure white and looked like they had been used for many years, and his shoes were polished, but old. His parents seemed to have gone to a lot of trouble to make sure he fit in with his classmates, but everyone was sneering and laughing quietly at him. They were four, or maximum five, but they seemed to have learnt the art of looking down on others from their upper class parents.

Only a bunch of students weren't laughing, including Ahad and Fariha Ali.

"Good Morning, everyone!" Miss Tooba beamed at the kids.

"Good Morning, Miss." Standing up, everyone repeated in unison.

"Please sit back down." The teacher said. "I would like to introduce you all to your new classmate, Zafar Farukh. He has just moved here from Faislabad. Say hello to Zafar!"

"Hello, Zafar." Everyone repeated due to obedience to the teacher.

"Zafar, please go and have a seat next to Ahad Sheikh." Miss Tooba gestured towards Ahad.

Zafar nodded and made his way towards Ahad. He briefly looked up and Ahad gave him a small smile.

"Hi." Ahad whispered. "I am Ahad. Nice to meet you."

"Zafar." The boy's voice was very quiet.

And so began a great friendship.

****

Ahad quickly came to the realisation that while he had no problem with the way Zafar dressed or anything, his classmates weren't so accepting.

It was a fact known to everyone that Zafar was in this school on a government scholarship, funded for the brightest students in less fortunate backgrounds. Without this, his parents wouldn't have been able to afford sending him here.

One day, Ahad and Zafar sat together for lunch, and while Ahad ate a chicken mayonnaise sandwich, along with a banana, Zafar had bought aloo paratha.

"Ammi made this especially because it's my first day." He said, shyly. "Would you like some?"

"Sure. You can have some of my sandwich." Ahad offered in return.

"Yuck, Ahad! You can't eat that!" One of the other boys from their class said. "It's dirty and full of bugs!"

That made Ahad annoyed. So he tore off a piece of Zafar's paratha and ate it right in front of that boy. "Yum!"

It was true. The aloo paratha was so delicious that Ahad ended up eating half of it. The bully saw that it was pointless to deal with them, so he walked off.

"I like bananas." Zafar said.

"You can have mine." Ahad gave it to him. "Ammi says good kids share."