Never Lose Hope

Chapter Four

*A few months later*

            “Come on girls, your first day of high school. Wake up you don’t want to be late.” My mom says shaking us awake.

            I jump out of bed and run into the bathroom getting excited to start school. I take a quick shower and rush to my closet letting Tamara shower. I wear my black and white striped blazer, with a neon yellow t-shirt under it and black skinny jeans. By the time Tamara finishes showering I’m ready to go. I have my black and white tribal print backpack that I got from Forever 21 last week, and Tamara got herself a colored tribal print backpack. I braid my wet hair to the side making sure my hair can’t come in contact with my eyes.

            Tamara walks out of the bathroom dressed in black and white striped skinny jeans, with a plain white chiffon button up shirt. We both apply a little bit of eye liner and then to each other. “You look so pretty.” We both say at the same time. We hug each other excitedly. “We need a picture.” I say holding out my iPod Touch. We take a picture and I post it on Instagram and Facebook. “You ready?” I ask.

            We rush downstairs so we could get our breakfast before we’re late. “Girls relax, we have more than enough time to get to school on time.” Jihad says stuffing a spoon of cereal into his mouth. His 17th birthday was last week, his birthday gift was car, even, he’s not allowed to drive his car to school since he’s not a senior so we still have to either have my mom or dad drive us all, or we have to take the bus. “Mama, are you taking us today?” I ask her.

            “Can’t leave the kids alone.” She says and I huff, great now we have to take the bus since my dad left to work already. “The bus comes in ten minutes, you have to walk to the end of the street with the rest of the kids who live on this road.” She says sipping on her coffee. She hands me and Tamara a cup of coffee and I easily drink it in the two next seconds as if I haven’t drank for a year.

            “Go Jihad.” My mom says after five minutes we are about to walk out the door and Jihad is still in the kitchen drinking his coffee. “You’ll be late.”

            “I want to be late. I don’t even want to go anymore.” He says.

            “You have to show the girls around. They’ll get lost easily. You know how big the school is.” My mother says as Tamara and I are waiting at the door.

            “Okay, I’m going, I’m going.” I over hear Jihad say. “You ready girls?” We nod our heads and he opens the door. “Then let the party begin.” We walk down the road to the bus stop and I notice there are like six or seven other kids here. They look at Tamara and I like we’re aliens. We’ve been here for the past year and they don’t even know us. “Don’t mind them. They just think they own the school.” Jihad says in our ear. “Not everyone is like them.” I nod my head and we start to talk in Arabic.

            “What are you guys saying?” One of the guys say.

            “If it was meant for you to listen, don’t you think we would be talking English?” I say back.

            “Well I’ll like to know if you guys are talking about us.” One of the girls are saying, the same girl that was looking at me weirdly.

            “Yeah, as a matter of fact she was saying what a bitch you were.” Jihad says crossing his arms. “You have something to say?” I look at Tamara and we start to laugh.

            “Ugh you guys are such freaks. No wonder why you have no friends Jihad, they’re all scared that you have a bomb on you. Arab’s are such freaks.” She mutters.