Zahra

26: The lion, the witch, and the audacity

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

Whoever has hope in the Meeting of God and His reward in the Hereafter, then let him be ready, for indeed, God's term of Judgement is certainly coming. And He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (Q: 29 V: 5)

"I think I'm gonna be sick", Kamilah heaved, she wiped her face with a hand towel, "I'm seriously going to throw up"

"Kamilah it's okay, you're fine"

"I don't feel fine, I feel like I swallowed a frog"

"Just take deep breaths, you'll feel better"

"I can't do this"

"You can", I turned her around so she was facing the mirror, we were in the restroom in school and I was trying to calm Kamilah down. She'd worn a hijab to school just as she said but had grabbed me as soon as she saw me and hauled ass into the restroom, she was panicking and tugging at the ends of her green scarf which matched her eyes perfectly.

I smiled at her, "look at yourself, you're beautiful. You got this"

She looked at my reflection and nodded, "okay", she said breathlessly, "I can do this, I can do this", she chanted, then she froze and turned around, "what if someone says something?", she asked, looking at me with fearful eyes, "when I arrived I think I heard someone ask if there was a new muslim girl"

I rolled my eyes, "ignore them, don't listen to them", I readjusted the pin on her hijab, "besides I'm with you, I'm not as good with comebacks as Hailey but I'll think of something if anyone says something stupid"

Kamilah laughed, "yeah, Hailey's the queen of comebacks"

"Okay", I placed my hands on her shoulders, "are you ready?", I asked.

She blew out a series of breaths, "I think so"

I grinned, "let's get this show on the road"

I took her hand in mine and we walked out of the restroom together, we turned at the corner and entered the hallway with long purposeful strides. Kamilah's hand trembled as people turned to look at us, the confusion in their eyes made me a bit nervous but I pushed the feeling away and gripped her hand tighter, "it's okay", I whispered to her, "don't look at them, just keep walking"

She nodded and I walked with her to her locker, a few eyes followed us as we passed but I stubbornly refused to meet their gazes, maybe if I was like Hailey I would have yelled something like 'nothing to see here assholes! Now keep moving!'

Speaking of which, I hadn't seen Hailey in school today either, did she not come today also? I needed to talk to Ben.

"I can feel their eyes boring into the back of my head", Kamilah murmured as she opened their locker, "seriously, you'd think I had two heads", she looked at me in exasperation, "is it that surprising? I've tied scarfs to school sometimes in the past when I was feeling extra guilty, just not around my neck. What's the difference between this and that?"

"Good question", I nodded, from the corner of my eye I spotted a girl coming towards, looking at Kamilah curiously.

"Hey Kamilah, is that you?"

I stood up straighter, getting into defense mode. She wasn't about to say something stupid was she?

Kamilah jolted and looked at the girl, nervousness flashing in her eyes, "hi Sarah, yeah it's me"

"Wow, I had no idea you were a muslim", Sarah said, "since you didn't wear a scarf"

Kamilah hesitated before shrugging, "well I am", she told Sarah, grabbing a textbook from her locker, "and I wear it now"