See It Through Her Eyes *On Hold*

Chapter 3

"Now class, can anyone give me the answer to number four?" Mr. Demore asked. "How about you Aziza?"

Aziza sat at the back of the Chemistry lab. Nick nudged her out of dream land. "Wake up and say B," Nick whispered.

Aziza looked around puzzled. "Huh? The answer for number three is...ahh B?"

"Ms. Al-Zeid, I said number four," Mr. Demore said with a stern voice "maybe if you paid a little more attention, you would have answered correctly."

"She should get that dish rag off her hand, maybe she'll hear what you say!" some guy yelled out.

Everyone started laughing and commenting. Aziza kept her cool, she took a deep breath.

"Can I?" Nick asked her. She knew he wanted permission to stand up for her.

"No." she said, she gave a small sigh and stood up.

"Maybe if you people cared as much about your work and less about the fact that I'm the only modest girl here, you'd be passing Chemistry!" she screamed.

The students, taken aback by her sudden change of attitude.

"Ohhh, look who's so gutsy!" a girl snickered.

Aziza didn't care about the comments, she was so over the idea of how people treated her like a social out cast. They thought her life was so easy.

She rushed out of the class, not bothering to ask for permission for Mr. Demore.

People began to laugh, Mr Demore did nothing, Nick sat there, feeling like crap. He's best friend just got blown off and he did nothing about it.

"Can you people stop troubling her! So what if she is Muslim, so what if she covers her hair. Why don't you think about how she feels. See it through her eyes!" Nick yelled.

Everyone went quiet. Nick was a quiet boy, quite a loner. Maybe that's why Aziza and him get along. No one ever heard him utter a word.

He's brown hair ruffled across his small blue eyes. Nickolas wasn't the toughest boy, he wasn't muscular like a jock neither was he brainy like the nerds.

"Does someone have a little crush on the Muslim chick?" someone laughed.

Nick's pale skin turned red around he's cheeks.

"He's blushing!"

"Sir, I'm leaving." he said as he walked out the class. He ran to Aziza's locker. Aziza sat on the floor of the hallway.

Nick sat down next to her. "I'm sorry. I should have spoken for you."

There was a moment of silence between them.

Aziza gave him a weary smile, "it doesn't matter Nick. Leopards spots never change."

Nick stood up and gave her a hand as the hall began to fill with people rushing to other classes.

"Well we have a free period next, want to go sit by the grass?" Nick asked as he held the door open.

Nick was so sweet but Aziza only thought of him as a good friend. They only met this year when the Rogans moved to the town. She barely knew anything about him but due to the media, he knew exactly what went on in her life.

~OOO~

"Can I ask you something?" Nick said as he rolled over on the grass so that he was now laying on his back.

"Yeah, you have my undivided attention...Plus this math work is boring so go ahead," she gave a cheeky grin as she bit the back of her pen.

"Do you want to hang out after school? Do homework and stuff?"

"I'm not allowed to have boys over when my dad isn't home, and he isn't home most of the time. I'm sorry." she replied as a frown appeared on her face.

"Who said it had to be at your place? You could come to my apartment, my mum would love to meet you," he smiled.

"Umm, that's okay. I don't think I can anyway because I have to look after my sibs."

"Your just looking for excuses, I get it. You don't want to meet my mum, it's cool," Nick said pretending to be upset but Aziza saw right through it.

Aziza sat up, "don't be such a drama queen," she said giggling.

Nick got up and looked into her eyes, "I'm not the drama queen here, I think that's you," he laughed.

"Hey! How come your hanging out with Aziza? You know if you mess with her, she'll bomb your house! Her mum did that, ya know!" some girl said as she walked past us.

Nick turned around and gave her a questioning look.

"Tell him, Aziza. Tell him how your mother killed so many people," she smirked and walked away.

Aziza bit her lip to hold back her tears.

"What is she talking about?" Nick asked as he completely faced Aziza.

That's when Aziza realized, Nick didn't know anything about her and she wanted to keep it that way. Probably 9/11 wasn't so massive in Ireland which was where Nick was from. Aziza couldn't imagine how it wasn't popular and he didn't know considering people always talk about her.

"Aziza...are you still here?"

"Yeah, its nothing" she said as she got up not wanting him to realize that she was lying.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked.

Too late, he knows something's up.

"No, really. Nothing's wrong" she said as she hurried off, leaving Nick with a thousand un-answered questions...

~OOO~

Aadil tugged on Aziza's trousers. "I want foodie," he said looking up at her.

"Wait two more minutes, it's almost done, I just have to cut your sandwich," she replied as she patted him on the back to move away from the counter.

"Yay, sam itch!" he yelled.

"Shhh, you'll wake Hawa up." Aziza said. "Here's your sandwich, don't forget to wash your hands."

Aziza picked up an apple and bit into it as the phone began to ring.

She rushed to hush it from the noise.

"Hello?" Aziza said.

"Aziza...This is your mother...Faridah."