Until next time, Aaliyah

Chapter 1

Dear Diary... (sorry! I'm a bit cliché).

This is gonna be the story of my life (literally!).

I bought this notebook from Typo a few months ago as a just-in-case-you-never-know-you-might-need-it book. But the school year is coming to a close (well, in New Zealand it is anyway) and I hadn't even touched it, or looked at it for that matter, probably because it was stuffed under my bed in a small blue polka-dotted box which I couldn't be bothered opening, until recently. Plus, I wanted to start a new hobby (aaand make use of the $4.99 I had spent/maybe wasted?!), so I thought why not??? Hence, as of today, I am now officially a part of the diary writing club. Yay me!

Some basic info about me:

Name- Aaliyah Bashir
Age- 17
Birthday- 2 May
Occupation- High school student
Best friend- let's just leave that blank (for now)
Dream job- YouTuber and a world changing influencer (It even rhymes!)

Anyways...

Last Thursday I came home after finishing my Physics mock exam. How well did I think I did in that exam? Erm, well...Let's just not go there. Okay fine! I left half my paper empty. In my defense, I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that "gravity is not a force, but a consequence of the curvature of spacetime caused by the uneven distribution of mass" , can you blame me?? Curse you Isaac Newton. Or was it Albert Einstein? I dunno, but it was some sciency (is that even a word?) guy getting bonked on the head with an apple. Or was it a pear? Uggghhhh!

I walked, actually tiptoed, through the front door of my cream colored brick house and saw my parents sitting on couch waving their hands around frantically (which was kinda funny) and deep in quiet conversation (is it even possible to have a quiet conversation?), the point is I couldn't hear what they were saying. I thought of this as my big chance to, you know, run away to my room before I get ambushed with unanswerable questions about how my physics exam went, which hopefully by now you've realized isn't something I want to share with my parents.

No. Such. Luck.

Just as I had creeped past, okay, almost creeped past they turned to look at me and my father raised his left eyebrow sky-high (I don't get how people do that, I've always tried in front of the mirror, but I end up looking like Mr. Bean, A.K.A my face looks like it's having a seizure) at my ninja-like stance. I thought I was nailing it , to be completely honest.

I quickly changed my posture to one that was less weird and plastered on my innocent face and greeted them with "As-Salaam-Alaikum", which essentially means "Peace be upon you" and is an Arabic/Islamic way of saying "Hello". I am Arab-Indian by the way. My mummy is full Arab and my daddy is completely Indian, so I kind of have the best of both the Middle Eastern and Indian worlds, which is pretty cool in my opinion.

They both smile and say the same.

I took another step towards the carpeted stairs, when I heard my father's nervous voice call out.

"Aaliyah....We, ah, need to talk to you. Its urgent. Please?"

Woah. He even said "please". It must be very important, to have him say that.

I took a seat opposite my parents. They were both exchanging strange glances at one another. Maybe they're telepathetic?? After another thousand looong minutes, okay, I'm exaggerating, it was more like two looong minutes really, of watching this I cleared my thoat accidently-on-purpose to grab their attention. And guess what? It worked!

My mother gave one last glance to my father and began saying, "Aaliyah we, umm, err..."

"Get to the point....please", I really don't like suspense, especially if it has something to do with me.

"We're moving to America", she finally blurted out.

This was the best news EVER!!! I'm not even joking. My heart had started to thump a thousand times faster because of the adrenaline and excitement I was feeling. SQUEEEEE!

"OMG!", I squealed instantly, in the most high pitched voice I could muster and clapped my hands together.

I jumped up from the seat and hugged my parents tightly.

In an astonished voice my father slowly asked, "So you're okay with this, Aaliyah?"

I did a fist pump and replied with, "Hell yeah!", which earned me two disapproving looks from my parents.

This was it. The major breakthrough I was looking for. My chance of becoming a famous YouTuber and blogger, being a role model for all hijab wearing girls around the world was soon going to be a reality. Well, they do say that America is the country of dream-come-trues, right?

Along with moving to a new country, I will be a semi-new Aaliyah Bashir. A high schooling, YouTubing, diary writing Aaliyah Bashir.

This is my chance to shine and I'm not gonna waste it.

Oh, I'm on the plane right now by-the-way and the sleek air hostess lady is coming our way to give us dinner. Oooh! I think their going to be serving chocolate lava cakes for dessert, my favourite.

Ahhhh, my stomach just growled and everyone in the row in front of mine are looking backwards, staring at me (talk about embarrassing).

So I GTG now, sorry.

Until next time,

Aaliyah xo