5 Chapter 5

Back at the nursery...

"Teacher, me and Maryam finished colouring the pictures," Thasneem said, looking at the teacher with hopeful eyes. "Can we go out and play now?"

Miss. Olivia Woods adjusted her glasses and looked up at her from her table with a smile. "Did you two finished colouring all the three pictures I gave you?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Both sisters said together.

"And did you complete connecting the pictures I gave you with their starting letters?"

"Yes, Ma'am," They said again, showing their exercise books.

"Okay, then bring your exercise books to my table." Miss. Woods said. "I need to see them. You two have finished quickly, I must say."

They brought their books to her table and waited until she corrected them. "Well... You have coloured the house with yellow and the roof with red" Teacher said looking at Maryam. "That's a good choice." Maryam gave her a bright smile.

"Hmm... You've coloured the clouds with purple and pink." She said, smiling at Thasneem. "I think it's quite artistic. It looks good."

"Thank you, Ma'am" Thasneem mumbled with her face turning slightly red because of the compliment.

"I think you two should learn to paint when you go to school." The teacher told them with admiration. "Okay, you can go now and play." They both thanked the teacher and ran outside to sit on the swing set.

They had been laughing and swinging when the other kids started to fill the nursery children's park one by one after a few minutes. And soon they all started to play with something in the park cheerfully.

It was when a tall chubby boy with dark hair and hazel eyes entered the park. He went straightly to the swing set where Thasneem and Maryam were swinging and looked at them with narrowed eyes.

"Get down." He said bossily, looking at Maryam. "This is my swing. I want it."

"But we got here first," Maryam told him.

"But this is mine." He told her.

"How do you say that?" Thasneem asked him. "It belongs to all of us."

"No, I always swing in this one." He said. "So this is mine. Everyone knows that."

"Well, we don't know that," Thasneem said and continued to swing, ignoring him. But Maryam had already stopped.

"I don't care." He said stubbornly. "Get down from my swing, choco head."

"Don't call me that!" Maryam protested.

"Get down now!" He said, getting angry.

"No, I can't!" Maryam said, and he pushed her from the swing, and she fell into the ground with a thud.

The next thing he knew, a fist connecting with his face and he landed on the ground as well. He looked at his attacker with shock. He hadn't expected it. Thasneem continued to throw punches at him angrily. And he pulled her hair, trying to get away from her. But it didn't work. She kicked him hard on the leg and he let go of the hair. And they continued to kick and punch each other until Miss. Rose Harrison, the assistant of the Headteacher, found them and pulled them apart. By that time, both children had bruises and a small crowd of kids had gathered to watch their fight.

"Come along with me." Miss. Harrison ordered them. "To Mrs Miller's office now." Thasneem and the boy with hazel eyes followed her to the Head teacher's office without saying a word. And Maryam watched them going helplessly. She had gotten her sister into trouble again. 'only if I had gotten down from the swing when that boy had asked me.' She thought gloomily.

Miss. Harrison took them to the second floor of the nursery building and knocked on a glassed door.

"Come in." a voice said from inside, and they entered the room. It was painted in grey and white. And it had a wooden table with a flower vase and a telephone at the other end. A bookshelf was fitted to the wall which had some files and books neatly piled. The wind blew from the big glass window, making Thasneem's already messy hair even messier.

Mrs Jane Miller adjusted her round glasses and looked at them from her table. She was in her late sixties and she had wrinkles appearing in her face. She looked kind and wise. And everyone liked her. "Mrs Miller, I found these kids fighting in the park and brought them here." Miss. Harrison told her.

"I see..." Mrs Miller said and nodded her head towards her assistant. "Thank you for bringing them to me, Rose. You can go now."

"Yes, Ma'am." She said and left the room, closing the door behind her.

"Children, come and sit here." She told them, showing them the chairs in front of her desk "Looks like we need to talk." They both sat down on the chairs nervously, facing Mrs Miller, and she eyed them carefully.

"So what is it this time, Bilal Hamdhan?" She asked the boy with hazel eyes. She knew most of the kids in the nursery by their full names, which was one of her specialities. "She hit me first." He told her, pointing a finger at Thasneem.

"But he pushed my sister!" Thasneem protested. "And she fell from the swing!"

"But she was swinging in my swing!"

"It wasn't your swing!"

"Yes, it is mine! I always get there first and sit in that swing."

"But we got there first today!"

"Okay, children stop your argument now." Mrs Miller said, tapping on her table with her hand to get their attention. And they stopped and looked at her.

"You are Thasneem Sulaiman, right?" She asked looking at Thasneem, and she nodded her head.

"Do you have a twin here?" She asked, and Thasneem looked at her with confusion, because she didn't know the word 'twin'.

"I have a sister." She answered after hesitating for a moment.

"What is her name?."

"Maryam."

"Ah, yes." Mrs Miller said with a smile as she remembered. "So tell me what happened."

"I and Maryam finished our works first and went to play with the swings," Thasneem told her. "And then this boy came and told Maryam to get down. And when she didn't, he called her 'choco head' and pushed her from the swing."

"Bilal, you can tell me now." She told him, wanting to hear his side.

"Ma'am, I always get to the children park first, and play in that swing." He told her. "But today it took me a little bit more time to finish my colouring, and when I went to the park, that girl was swinging in my swing. So, I told her to give me my swing, but she didn't. So I got angry."

"So did you push her from the swing?" Mrs Miller asked him, and he nodded looking down. "And did you hit him?" Thasneem nodded her head feeling guilty.

"Okay, now my dears, both of you have to understand a few things." She said looking at them kindly and smiling. "Bilal, I can see that you prefer to play with that swing. But you know that everything in this nursery is for all the students studying here, don't you?" Bilal nodded his head, looking down.

"Good." Mrs Miller continued, "So if someone is playing with something in the park then you should wait till they've finished playing with it, even if it is your favourite. Or you can ask them kindly to switch turns with you if they'd like. And if you can't do so, then you should just go and play with other kinds of stuff in the park. You can slide or climb or play seesaw with a friend, right?"

Bilal just nodded his head again. "So you shouldn't get angry again if someone is playing with that swing, okay?" She asked him, "Because now you know that it is for everyone. You should learn to share."

"Okay," Bilal said with a small voice. He's not going to be happy to share his favourite swing with others, but he didn't have a choice now.

"And you shouldn't call names to other kids." Mrs Miller told him. "It is a bad manner. You wouldn't like it if someone else called you names, would you?" Bilal shook his head and she raised her brows. "I'd like to hear it in words, Bilal." She told him.

"I wouldn't like it, Ma'am." He said, blushing slightly, and she smiled at him.

"I know that you wouldn't do it again." Mrs Miller said, without that kind smile changing from her face. "Because I know that you are a good boy and I trust you."

Bilal looked up at her now with a beam in his pink shaded face.

"And Thasneem, my dear, you should know that if someone had done something wrong to you or to anyone you care about, then you shouldn't treat them the same way they treated you." She said looking at Thasneem. "You shouldn't become angry with them for doing that and do the same to them. Then you would have no difference from them. If you see someone doing something that isn't right, then you should tell that to an adult person instead of fighting with them. You can talk about that to your teacher or your parents. And they would know what to do about it. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Thasneem said with a blushed face.

"Okay." Mrs Miller said, putting her hands together on the table. "Mistakes can happen to anyone. But we should correct them as soon as we realize it to become a better person. I hope you wouldn't make these same mistakes in the future. I want both of you to apologize to each other now."

Both children looked at each other awkwardly. "I'm sorry," Bilal stated first. "I'm sorry too," Thasneem said with a small smile.

"Good." Mrs Miller said, looking at them with an approving smile. "But I think I'd have to inform your parents about your little fight. Because both of you have bruised your faces and hands and legs. So they'd be concerned if they didn't know what happened." She paused for a moment, seeing both children's gloomy expressions. "I'll tell them that you have realized your mistakes and apologized to each other. So you don't have to worry about it."

"Okay," Bilal said in a small voice, looking tired now. "Alright, it's almost 1 o'clock now." Mrs Miller said, glancing at her watch. It's time for you to go home. You may leave."

They both left her office, closing the door behind them. Thasneem looked at the corridors in front of her and got confused. Three corridors were starting from the Head teacher's office, one in the middle, one in the left side and another on the right side. She couldn't figure out which one they had taken to come here.

"Do you know which way we should go to get downstairs?" She asked Bilal. He looked at each of the corridors carefully. "This is the way we came." He said, pointing at the left side corridor.  "We passed that room with a blue colour door on our way."

"Okay, let's see who gets downstairs first!" Thasneem said with a twinkle in her eyes and started running. "Okay!" Bilal said with a grin and rushed after her.

Miss. Rose Harrison saw two of them racing downstairs from the other end of the corridor, and watched them with amazement.

"Aren't kids are amazing, Mrs Miller?" She said as she entered the Head teacher's office after a while, and the old lady smiled at her pleasantly. "What makes you say that, Rose?" She asked her assistant.

"Well, those two kids were fighting like some war enemies just half an hour ago." She explained. "But now they are talking and playing together as nothing happened."

"That is how kids are, Rose." Mrs Miller said, still smiling at her. "They don't hold a grudge for too long."

"I think, this world would become a better place if adults could be like them too." Her young assistant expressed with wonderment.

"Of course, Rose." Mrs Miller agreed with her. "Sometimes I wish that people wouldn't outgrow their innocence as they grow up."