Little Miss Different [in editing]

28: Am I Or Am I Not?

"I see," squints the man cautiously. "A classic case of confusion, most likely. And why are you wearing that fabric on your head?"

Aasma tries not to scream at him. "I am Muslim, and as a part of my beliefs, I follow the Qu'ran, which instructs me to dress modestly when in the presence of men not of my immediate family, so I choose to wear the hijab. Some Muslims do not, and that is their choice."

"I see," the man says again. "Well, you'd need to take off your hijab when working, can't you do that?"

"No, sir. I do not want to and that contradicts my beliefs and choices greatly," they reply stiffly. "May we proceed with the interview?"

"I suppose...," says the man. "It says here you don't drive."

"No, my sister drives me," Aasma replies. A worrying instinctual feeling in their stomach warns of them of where the conversation may be turning. "And no, it has nothing to do with my religion, I just don't have a license."

The man looks momentarily surprised before sighing slightly. "I see," he says yet again. 

He pauses.

"As you aren't, um, 'of a gender', what would you wear to work here then?"

That's it. Aasma has had enough. Clothes don't have a gender. They are tired of this man's discriminatory attitude. They stand up.

"Excuse me, but I am leaving now. I am not prepared to have this interview when your attitude is clearly opposing my choices," they say tensely. With that, Aasma walks out, leaves the room and hopes there's another shop that will be willing to take them on with no prior work experience and a GCSE in Art - they got a seven.

Summary: Aasma went to an interview for a job where they were met with discrimination, particularly from the man who would be their boss. He said discriminatory things about their gender identity and religion and implied discriminatory things as well. 

On the way home

"Argh!" grunts Aasma.

"Turn right," bings the phone.

"Shut up," Ellie tells the phone.

* WARNING: The following scene contains depictions of the run-up to a car crash and a non-fatal car crash. As stated in the warning above, there will be a brief summary in bold at the end of this scene that you can skip to if you need to.

"Sorry, Aasma, but could you just silence my phone? I know the way back, I'm listening," says Ellie.

"Sure," they reply. "Ugh! What a horrible guy! I'm so glad I walked out of there, sheesh."

"You sure did the right- OH-" screamed Ellie, swerving out a little. "That driver was not concentrating!"

Aasma grips the edges of their seat tightly, their dark green eyes concentrating on the road in front. "Ellie-"

"Honestly, some drivers-"

"Ellie-"

"It's ridi-"

"ELLIE!" yells Aasma.

"What?" snaps Ellie.

"There's a blackbird in the road!"

Ellie is seconds from hitting the bird. There's no cars behind her, so she slams on the brakes and waits for the bird to pass. But just as she sets off, an angry driver beeps at her from their driveway. But they're not angry. They point behind the pair's car in panic. Aasma turns and screams as they see a driver from behind come speeding up and Ellie peers over before shrieking. She starts to pull up the road but-

The car crunches and Ellie flies forward. Her head smacks onto the steering wheel as her airbag blows into action, flinging her back to safety. But Aasma can't check if their sister is okay because they fly into their airbag too, and their seatbelt snaps and something pops the airbag and talcum powder floats through the air as Aasma slides off their seat into the footwell. They watch the powder fly and the world dims away.

* SUMMARY: Aasma and Ellie's car was hit from behind. Aasma was knocked unconscious and Ellie was non-fatally injured. The other driver suffered no injuries. (Please note the next scenes contain the first-aid and ambulance response to the crash. No specific details of the crash are mentioned.).

At the roadside

Ambulance sirens blare as the vehicle bounds down the road. Doors are prised open. Aasma is put on a stretcher and Ellie is sent inside the vehicle.

In the ambulance

Ellie doesn't feel sick or dizzy, despite being a little injured. She sits calmly on the side, watching her sibling as paramedics respond. 

"She doesn't have any ID!"

Ellie takes a deep breath. "I can identify them. Their name is Aasma Alvi, they are seventeen and are non-binary."

"Thank you."

Text conversation - WINTER and ELLIE

Winter:- Ellie, where are you? There was a crash near you guys, are you okay?

Ellie:- I'm fine, but Aasma's seatbelt snapped and their airbag snapped, so we're just being checked out.

Winter:- Oh my God! Are you sure you're okay?

Ellie:- Yeah, we're fine. I banged my head but they said I'm okay because I don't feel sick or dizzy or anything. Aasma came round about five minutes ago.