An American Muslimah

Chapter 13

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Assalamualeykum/heyy everyone :) I hope you all are in good health and having a nice break.

*****

I woke to the sound of pelting raindrops. Rain in mid winter!? It's suppose to be snowing! Talk about global warming. I quickly got out of bed and popped on a navy blue abaya with a patterned white and blue hijab. I wasn't praying this week so I went downstairs and made myself a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Mamma packed me my lunch and I stormed outside quickly wearing my winter jacket. The thing I like about winter is there's no need for an umbrella since can use the hood of my jacket instead.

Science class was boring. Ms. Foster started the unit electrons and we basically had a lecture followed by reading the textbook and do some worksheets. I made a new buddy in class. Her name was Avalon. Ms.Foster made us get to know who we were sitting beside since that person will be our lab partner for the rest of the semester. Next was gym class. To be honest I really wasn't looking forward to it, given the act that Ms.Jayce was so mean to Maryam and I. When I arrived at the gym hallway I peeked in to see if there were any weird guys there. I know I'm weird right? But I'm still scarred from yesterday! Coast clear. I went into one of the stalls in the changeroom and started changing into my gym clothes. Most girls are comfortable in changing in front of other girls, but because of my low self-esteem and my nightmare of "girls talk" I like to avoid any possible embarrassment and simply change in the stall.

When I came out, I noticed Maryam and Hillary were also done. We headed out to the gym C where we were all told to meet for our morning warm-ups. We sat with a bunch of other girls waiting for Mrs.Jayce. The males' instructor had already arrived and he was doing attendance and boy did he have a booming voice.

"Jack!"

"Edvin!"

"Abdullah!"

"Connor!"

"Abraham!"

"Daniel!"

He kept calling out their names until Mrs.Jayce finally decided to make an appearance.

"Good morning class. I will start by doing attendance and I will also be checking if you are in PROPER uniform".

"Jen"

"Hillary"

"Anna"

"Beatrice"

Uh-oh. Anna was in our class! I saw Hillary wasn't too happy either.

"Maryam"

"Aisha"

When she looked at us she just rolled her eyes. If she wants to have a fight...My thoughts were interrupted when Laila walked in. She of course was wearing a short navy blue short and she somehow found a way to make her white shirt tighter by collecting the loose oart of the shirt and tying it up with a scrunchie. (Not that I'm judging...)

So both Anna and Laila are in this class. Wonderful!

Mrs.Jayce started speaking,

"Okay class both my class and Mr.Tutty's class listen up! I'm sure both Mr.Tutty and I have already announced this but every morning you will be required to do a warm-up which consists of running in circles around the gym until we tell you to switch exercise. Just follow our instructions and you will know what to do. You are also being marked for this. Is that clear?"

The entire gym erupted with a "yes!"

"Good. now start running!" Mrs.Jayce ordered.

Music started playing in the background and I mentally rolled my eyes. I had only stopped listening to music a couple of months ago as I had learned it was haram from my islamic class. No wonder it was haram as music stirs the heart and motivates you to get up and move; which is why most people work out listening to music. As a muslim our hearts cannot be attached to anything other than Allah and anything that deviates us from the right path and music does just that.