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.
Some girls had begun to sing along with the music. Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah...I kept repeating in my head. I definitely don't like the warm ups.Not just because of the music but also because we were running with guys as well. Up in front of us was Abdullah and some guy named Edvin. I recognised him as he was in my afternoon classes.
"Switch to sit-ups!" Mr.Tutty called out.
We all immediately fell on the spot where we were and started to do sit-ups. Aww man I'm on my period so my stomach really started hurting. After two minutes we were told to run again. I noticed some girls were already tired and had altered to walking. Hillary, Maryam and I were still running at a steady pace. After a long 10 minute warm-up, Mrs.Jayce told us to stop and we headed to our own gym of just girls.
"Okay not bad for our first warm-up but try harder next time. I noticed that some of you were walking and not doing all the exercises. I mark it out of 10 so if you score a 6-7, that is why. The marks will be posted on the wall right in front of the change room after every class so if you have any concerns come talk to me. Now today we are starting with basketball. Team captains are chosen alphabetically so today Anna and Beatrice are our team captains." Mrs. Jayce said.
It turns out Maryam, Hillary and I were on the same team. Well that was no surprise since Beatrice was nice to us and Anna hated us, specifically Hillary. The class continued with us playing basketball. At one point the game became intense since both teams wre neck in neck and there was only 8 minutes left of class. Hillary had the ball and was dribbling it closer to the opponent's side when Anna bumped into her and yelled,
"Ow! Watch where you're going punk! Gosh some people dont even know how to play a simple game like basketball." She spat. Hillary looked broken and I could have sworn she had a few tears in her eyes that were threatning to come out. I patted her on the back and told her to not get bothered by morons like Anna. By the end of class I was worn out and sweaty, not to mention cramping. We were all dismissed to get change and went to see our marks. I ended up with a 6.5 and so did Maryam and a few while everyone else got an 8 or 9. Maryam and I were confused since Hillary had gotten a 9 and we were all running together! So the three of us decided to go talk to Mrs. Jayce.
"Mrs.Jayce, we're a bit confused with our marks. Maryam and I got a 6.5 while Hillary got a 9 but all three of us were running together...?"
She raised her eyebrows at us.
"No you weren't. Maybe at the beginning but towards the end I noticed you two started walking."
Lies!
"Also I had to deduct a mark for improper gym clothes." She said nonchalantly.
"Umm about that, we talked to Mr.Omar, the principal and he said as long as we wear blue and white its fine and you are not allowed to deduct marks for that since the school's gym wear violates our religious code of dressing. If you want to confirm this with Mr.Omar, you can." Maryam said firmly.
Her face had turned a shade of pink either out of anger or embarrassment.After a minute until she said,
"Oh I'm sorry about that. I'll go change you marks right now."
So at the end we ended with a 8. Good enough.
The rest of the afternoon was chill. In spanish class, Ms.Cunningham started on some verbs and gave us our workbook. It was getting kind of boring until Daniel decided to be a class clown by pulling off various accents. Even Ms.Cunningham had to try hard to suppress her laughter.
In Family studies, Ms.Mac had a lecture on the food groups and how to eat healthy. I thought this class would have been a tad bit awkward because Connor and Hillary were in the same class but thankfully the tables in the class were long consisting of 4 seats so I sat at the very end and next to me sat Hillary, Connor and Abraham. In front sat Abdullah with his new friend Elvin and two other dudes. Despite the history between Abraham and I, I decided to forgive him given the fact that he did apologize and did in fact change for the better. He was no longer the bully I knew but instead a quiet and kind individual. I now have one less enemy and for that I am very grateful. Alhamdulillah.
When the bell rang for dismissal, Hillary and I went to our lockers and waited for Maryam to show up. We always walked home together and thankfully it had stopped raining. When we were just a couple of metres away from school, I heard someone call my name.
"Aisha wait up!" It was Abdullah. "Salam are you walking home?" He asked.
"Yeah..." I answered.
"Okay do you mind if I tag along?" He asked.
"Umm no I guess." I said unsurely. I guess it was fine since i was with my friends.
The whole walk home we talked about how annoying gym class was. It turns out that Mr.Tutty is also strict just like Mrs.Jayce. What's up with these gym teachers?
"She gave us a 8 for the warm-up." I complained.
"What are you whining about? Mr.Tutty gave most of us a 6 because we weren't running and exercising hard enough. He told us to man up! I am manly enough no?" Abdullah asked.
We just rolled our eyes. One thing I learned from my brother was never feed their ego. Dont get me wrong, Suleiman is sweet and is an amazing older brother, but the moment you praise him, his ego goes up and he's a jerk then. Boys are so weird.