*A few months later*
“Come on girls, your first day of high school. Wake up you don’t want to be late.” My mom says shaking us awake.
I jump out of bed and run into the bathroom getting excited to start school. I take a quick shower and rush to my closet letting Tamara shower. I wear my black and white striped blazer, with a neon yellow t-shirt under it and black skinny jeans. By the time Tamara finishes showering I’m ready to go. I have my black and white tribal print backpack that I got from Forever 21 last week, and Tamara got herself a colored tribal print backpack. I braid my wet hair to the side making sure my hair can’t come in contact with my eyes.
Tamara walks out of the bathroom dressed in black and white striped skinny jeans, with a plain white chiffon button up shirt. We both apply a little bit of eye liner and then to each other. “You look so pretty.” We both say at the same time. We hug each other excitedly. “We need a picture.” I say holding out my iPod Touch. We take a picture and I post it on Instagram and Facebook. “You ready?” I ask.
We rush downstairs so we could get our breakfast before we’re late. “Girls relax, we have more than enough time to get to school on time.” Jihad says stuffing a spoon of cereal into his mouth. His 17th birthday was last week, his birthday gift was car, even, he’s not allowed to drive his car to school since he’s not a senior so we still have to either have my mom or dad drive us all, or we have to take the bus. “Mama, are you taking us today?” I ask her.
“Can’t leave the kids alone.” She says and I huff, great now we have to take the bus since my dad left to work already. “The bus comes in ten minutes, you have to walk to the end of the street with the rest of the kids who live on this road.” She says sipping on her coffee. She hands me and Tamara a cup of coffee and I easily drink it in the two next seconds as if I haven’t drank for a year.
“Go Jihad.” My mom says after five minutes we are about to walk out the door and Jihad is still in the kitchen drinking his coffee. “You’ll be late.”
“I want to be late. I don’t even want to go anymore.” He says.
“You have to show the girls around. They’ll get lost easily. You know how big the school is.” My mother says as Tamara and I are waiting at the door.
“Okay, I’m going, I’m going.” I over hear Jihad say. “You ready girls?” We nod our heads and he opens the door. “Then let the party begin.” We walk down the road to the bus stop and I notice there are like six or seven other kids here. They look at Tamara and I like we’re aliens. We’ve been here for the past year and they don’t even know us. “Don’t mind them. They just think they own the school.” Jihad says in our ear. “Not everyone is like them.” I nod my head and we start to talk in Arabic.
“What are you guys saying?” One of the guys say.
“If it was meant for you to listen, don’t you think we would be talking English?” I say back.
“Well I’ll like to know if you guys are talking about us.” One of the girls are saying, the same girl that was looking at me weirdly.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact she was saying what a bitch you were.” Jihad says crossing his arms. “You have something to say?” I look at Tamara and we start to laugh.
“Ugh you guys are such freaks. No wonder why you have no friends Jihad, they’re all scared that you have a bomb on you. Arab’s are such freaks.” She mutters.
“We’re the freaks? Look at your outfit. You’re not going to the beach. Are you trying to be modest?” I ask sarcastically looking over her booty shorts where half her ass is sticking out, she’s wearing a crop top that stops at the same stop her bra stops.
“What are you trying to say?” She asks coming closer.
“I think we both know what I’m trying to say. I’d rather not embarrass you by saying it out loud.” I say. Everyone starts to laugh.
“I will make your life living hell if you ever disrespect me like this again.” She says, her face red from anger.
“But mom, why?” I whine as if I was a five year old. I walk up to her and put my hands on my hips. “Listen here, I am not going to repeat this again, okay. You don’t know me, and if you did you’d know you can’t pull that crap to me. I’ve been through all this before. You think I’m scared? Try me.” I stomp back to Tamara and Jihad and they both look at me like I have two heads. “What?” I say blushing.
“I was wrong about you all along. I think I have to warn all the boys about you being so damn harsh.” He says with a smile. We all high five each other and I start laugh out loud.
“Oh Jihad, you don’t need to do no such thing. I could take care of myself.” I say through my laughs. “Thanks for the try though.” The bus stops in front of us and opens the door. I wrap my arms around through Tamara’s and Jihad’s. We walk to the bus and Jihad walks us over to the back of the bus.
“Aye yo Jihad, what’s with the girls wrapped around your arm?” I hear someone say. Everyone starts saying hi to him.
“These, young men, are my sisters’.” He says making us sit down in the back. “So you better keep your hands to yourself Kevin.” I look at Jihad’s group of friends and then I see the she devil walking closer to us.
“So Kevin, you saw two freaks of the century? Aren’t they a bit much for the school?” She says trying to act all flirty, she just sounds like a five year old whiney baby if you ask me.
“What two freaks? You mean the two girls that walked in with Jihad? They aren’t freaks, if anything you’re the freak.” He says back and everyone starts to laugh. “They are pretty damn beautiful if you ask me.” Kevin says back and I look at Tamara and see her blushing like crazy.
“Hey, I just warned you not to go there.” Jihad screams at him.
“I know, I’m not going to try anything on them. Promise. I’m just stating a fact so that bitch can back away from us.” Kevin says and Jihad laughs.
“Okay, I trust you. Just make sure to keep an eye out for both of them, you hear?” Jihad asks.
“He’s pretty cute.” Tamara whispers to me in Arabic. A second later she realizes what she said so looks at me and shakes her head. “And you better not repeat that I said that.”
“Said what?” I ask confused. I smile at her and she smiles back.
“Good, keep it that way.” Half an hour later we’re at the last stop, I notice this because the bus has like no empty seats anymore. Two seconds later someone taps on my shoulder and I look up to see the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my life.
“You’re in my seat.” He states, no hesitation in his voice.
“Says who?” I raise my eyebrows at him.
“Says me.” He states getting a little angry.
“Doesn’t have your name on it.” I look around to see if there are any empty seats. “Oh look today is your lucky day, you could sit right there.” I say raising my hand and pointing to the seat right next to us.
“You could sit there, now get out of my seat.” He says beginning to get loud. “This is my seat and I’m not giving it up to some new freshmen.” He says.
“Who are you Rosa Parks?”
He starts to chuckle and smirk. “You got me there. But tomorrow it’s mine.” He points to his chest and sits on the empty seat.
“First come first serve.”
~*~
After we get our schedule’s from homeroom, we head down to the auditorium for the freshmen assembly. “I’d like to welcome all the freshmen to Paterson Academy High School. A place where you could be yourself and find others who are the same. We have dozens of extra-curricular activities for yourself to join if you’re up for it.” Principle Tobin says through the microphone.
An hour and a half later, after his speech about school rules and such, he dismisses us telling us to go straight to our third period class, which for me and Tamara is English. It takes us ten minutes to find the class room because it’s on the opposite side of the school and for the first five minutes we realized we were going in circle. We’re two minutes late and the teacher smiles at us and hands us a book. We sit down next to each other, and look at the book. “We will be start reading Of Mice and Men in a week. So keep those in your lockers and bring them in on Monday. I will not be handing out extras so make sure you don’t lose them.” She says once everyone is settled in their seats. “Now, where the fun part comes we will be playing a game to introduce yourself.” She says handing out a piece of paper. “It’s called, two truths and a lie. Anyone heard of it?” Everyone raises there hand except for Tamara and I. “You never heard of the game Sara and Tamara.”
“No.” I say.
“It’s easy really. On the piece of paper, you will write two truths and a lie, we will go around the room, each one will read their papers and see who the best liar is.” She explains the game. I look at Tamara the same time she looks at me. I give her a scared look. “Don’t worry girls, we’re not here to judge you. You could write whatever you want.” I look down at the paper and frown. What am I going say? I honestly don’t want anyone to know anything about me. I know they’ll all judge me. “You could start now.” She says. I look around the room to see everyone begin to write. Even Tamara is writing on her paper. I just stare at my paper for 2 or 3 minutes and I see the teacher’s hand on my paper. “Sara what’s wrong?” She asks concerned.
“Nothing.” I say still looking at the paper.
“Are you sure you’re okay? I already told you, nobody here is going to judge you. We’re all doing it. Even I’m going to do it.” She says smiling at me.
“I just have nothing to say that I feel like sharing.” I tell her honestly.
“It can’t be that bad.” She says kindly. I look at her and smile. “I’m sure you’ll think of something, we have two more minutes to write, so get something on the page.” She says and walks back to her desk.
After the two minutes I decide that I should have people know about my past. I’m done writing and the teacher claps her hands catching everyone’s attention. “Okay, the five minutes are up, I’ll go first, then we’ll go around the class depending on who wants to go.” For the rest of the class we go around the class everyone reading off their papers. Some are funny, some are sad, other are whatever. After everyone has gone the teacher looks at Tamara and I. “Who wants to go first, Sara, or Tamara?” Tamara raises her hand and reads off her paper.
1. I am adopted
2. Sara is my biological sister
3. My family was killed 6 years ago in my homeland and I was the only one that survived.
Everyone is the class thought it was either one or two. “So which one is the lie, Tamara?” The teachers asks and she lifts up two fingers. “So you guys aren’t sisters?” We shake our heads, I grab my paper about to start. “Okay Sara, you could go now.” I sit back in the chair feeling self-conscious. I take a deep breath and read off my paper.
1. I was raised in a refugee camp in Palestine
2. My parents’ never found me so I ended getting adopted by my aunt, that’s how I got here
3. My house collapsed on me as a kid
“So, which one is the lie?” People start asking me around the class. I point out two fingers and they gasp. “So your parents’ never found you?” Someone asks.
“No, they found me, they were here already so I got a green card. I was four when I lost them so I was twelve when I came. They adopted Tamara because she was my best friend back home so they felt it was best for both of us to come back so I could still have Tamara around.” I say. It actually felt good for people to know some of my story.
“So you actually grew up in a refugee camp? How was it there, I always hear stories that it’s really bad there. Is really as bad as they say?”
“Well there are camps out there that are terrible, but the people that took me in owned the place. He was a father to everyone there. He was the one that always bought the food or took the kids to the doctors. It wasn’t that bad except for the times where we had no running water because the Jews thought it would be funny to cut off all the water supply.” I say. Everyone seems really interested in the story so for the rest of class the teachers let us talk about whatever.
“What was it like when your parents’ found you?” Another person asks me. They’re all looking at me now and Tamara is smiling at me.
“Well, it was awkward, I didn’t remember them at all I was four when I left. A little before they found me I thought I would have to stay there all my life. Ask Tamara, I cried every night wondering if they are out there somewhere. The owner of the camp came in one night and told me they called and are looking for me.”
“So how did you get here?” The same girl asks.
“Well, after talking for a week, my parents’ told me they wanted me here with them, I told them I wasn’t leaving Tamara so they signed papers to legally adopt her so I waited for her to get her papers to come. I could have come a while before her but I didn’t want to leave her behind. The girls at the camp sometimes were worse than the Jews sometimes. We got harassed all the time because of the Jews and the girls there.”
The bell rings and everyone starts packing their bags. “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m really glad you’re here. I mean I barely know you but I could tell we’d be good friends.” One of the girls says. “I’m Rachael by the way.” She says sticking her hand out. I shake it and smile at her. “We should talk more tomorrow.” She says.
“Yeah, we’d like that.” I say speaking for Tamara and me.
“Well I have to get to my next lesson, see you tomorrow, or later on if we have another class together.” She says. I nod my head watching her walk down the hallway. I look at my schedule. We have gym together, my parents’ made sure Tamara and I had the same schedule before we came, so that’s a plus.
“We have a gym.” I say out loud. “Which should be by the cafeteria. So let’s start walking.” I say grabbing her hand. Five minutes later we find the gym and walk in. The bleachers are down and everyone is going to sit on them so Tamara and I run to the top.
“Hello, my name is Mr. Levi, this is freshmen gym. If you are not a freshman than you are in the wrong section.” He shouts from the bottom. He’s sitting at a desk opening up a binder. “Okay, I’m taking attendance now you know what to do. No talking.” He says starting to take attendance. The door opens really loud making everyone look at the door. The same kid from the bus walks in, the one I called Rosa Parks. “Ah, Mr. Ryder so nice of you to join us.” Mr. Levi says staring down the Ryder kid.
“Sorry I’m late Mr. Brown. I had to go to my locker and it’s on the other side of the school.” He says easily. He looks up to see if there is anyone he wants to sit next to and we catch each other’s eye before I look away. He runs up and stands in front of me.
“Oh, don’t tell me I’m sitting in your seat?” I ask sarcastically. He shakes his head and smiles at me. “Than what could you possibly want?” I ask.
“I just wanted to know if I could sit here.” He says and I shrug my shoulders. “Okay than…” he says waiting for me to say my name. After he realizes I’m not going to say anything he starts to talk. “I’m Troy Ryder by the way.” He says trying to start a conversation. “What’s yours?”
“Sara Assaf?” The gym teacher yells out and I shout that I’m here. “Tamara Assaf?” He yells out making Tamara shout.
“Now you know.” I say. He smiles at me. “Hey, why do the teachers know you if you’re a freshman?” I ask curiously.
“I’m only the best football player they have.” He gloats and I shake my head.
“American’s all the same.” I mutter.
“Aren’t you American, that makes you just like the rest of us.” Troy says with a smirk on his face.
“You may want to know, I’m new to the country.” I say rolling my eyes. “Is my accent not enough to prove?”
“Well for being new to American, you sure fit in. I would have never guess you weren’t born here. Where were you born?” He asks.
“We were born in Palestine.” I say.
“Wait, so you’re the girls that everyone was talking about a few minutes ago? The ones that were raised in a refugee camp?” He says shocked.
“What, people are actually spreading that around?” I ask surprised. “It hasn’t even been five minutes.” I whisper.
“Well, you sure have a story to tell.” He says about to touch my knee. I move my knee so he can’t touch it.
“I’d rather not talk about it.” I say in a rush and run down the bleachers in a hurry.
“Where do you think you’re going Sara.” Mr. Brown says.
“Bathroom.” I say before speed walking out of there. I rush out of there and in a heartbeat someone runs out after me.
“Hey, what happened?” I hear someone say behind me and turn around to see that it’s Troy.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I whisper wanting him to leave me alone. “Please just go.”
“I’m sorry if I said the wrong thing.” He says and I look into his eyes.
“It’s not you, it’s this whole school.” I whisper sliding down the wall and wrapping my arms around my knees. “I was stupid for moving here. I knew everyone would judge me.”
“Nobody is judging you. I’m not judging you. For what it’s worth I think you’re a strong person. I know I wouldn’t be able to handle all of this.”
“I can’t handle it. For the past year I’ve been trying to forget my life before I moved here but everywhere I go all I seem to hear is my past life.” I wipe my eyes after a tear falls. “It just brings back the one memory I don’t want to remember.”
“I’m not going to say that everyone is going to drop it tomorrow, because it’s the first they hear of it. They’re not used to having someone like you come here. It’s different for them.” He says.
“It’s none of their business. I don’t see the point in talking about other peoples’ live as if it’s their lives.”
“It’s not worth crying over either.” He says touching my knee. I move my knee away from him. “Sorry.” He says moving away from me.
“Look, I appreciate what you’re doing for me, but if my brother sees us talking I’m in trouble. My family is protective of me. I’m sure you’ve heard of Muslim families in America.” I say standing up. He nods his head in understanding and I smile at him. “Thanks Troy.” I say.
“Don’t let this get to you. It’s not worth getting upset over.” He says kindly. I nod my head and walk back into the gym to see the bleacher all empty. “They’re outside on the track.” Troy says leading the way. We get outside and sure enough everyone is walking the track. Some sitting on the bleachers, other playing football. I walk to sit next to Tamara.
“What was that about?” She asks in Arabic.
“Nothing, I guess he just wanted to explain what we should be expecting all day.” I tell her honestly.
“What did he say?” She asks.
“That most people already know the story of us.” I guess the people in our English class told all their friends about our story. After all our stories were the only ones that were deep I guess.” I tell her.