Chapter 1

I'm currently on the phone with my best friend Noor. We've been friends since the first grade and after that we've gotten along so well.

"Should I invite Ameera to the call?" she says to me.

"Yeah sure" I reply.

Here's the thing; me, Ameera and Noor are in a friend group with 2 other guys. I know, I know guys. But really we are all just friends. We're all from the same place in Palestine. Let me introduce you to everyone. First is me, Eman, and then of course Ameera and Noor. Then there's Hussan, and Omar. We all go to the same school together, oh and we live in Chicago. I was born and raised here. Some arabs I know say they hate it here because they can't go anywhere without seeing someone they know. But to be honest I kind of like it sometimes. We text Ameera and she says she's free to talk. So we add her into the call. Tomorrow is the first day of junior year in high school. It's sad knowing that we all just have 2 more years of being in this school all together. Of course we'll still be friends after but it won't be the same. All 3 of us talk and pick out what we're going to wear for tomorrow.

"Oh btw my cousins that moved here are in our grade. The twins? Remember them?" Noor asks us.

"Oh yeahhh them, I remember" I say.

"Yeah I invited them to eat lunch with us if that's okay" she replies.

"Of course" me and Ameera say.

We hang up because we need to wake up early for school tomorrow. The next day I wake up kinda early, Noor offered to take me to school for the first day because I was going to go home with her anyway. I get ready, by the time she honks her car. I say bye to my mom and dad then head straight out.

"Heyyy" I say getting into her car.

"Hiii" she says back.

I notice that there's a hijabi in the back and a guy on his phone.

"Oh yeah remember I told you about my cousins? This is Dina and Abdallah." she says.

"Hello" Dina says to me.

Then we start to drive. I start to ask Dina some questions to get to know her. She talked about her old city, her school and things like that. I was going to ask Abdallah somethings but he was on his phone probably not even paying attention to us talking. When we get to school we all get out of the car and start to walk in.

"I'm kind of nervous" Dina says.

"It's okay, it's my third year at this school and I'm still nervous" I say laughing a little.

We get inside and the school is packed. Well I'm not really surprised because lots of people come to our school because it has lots of culture. The principle is Jordanian, can you believe that? I asked Dina what homeroom class she has but we don't have the same.

"I have Ms. Plani" Abdallah says.

Wow he finally spoke.

"Okay just follow me, I had her for homeroom last year too." I reply.

We walk to Ms. Plani's class we didn't say one word to each other, just kept quiet. When we walk into the classroom I found my seat and I'm guessing Abdallah decided to sit next to me, I didn't mind it though. This is homeroom/1st period which is biology. I never really liked biology but I also never hated it. I just realized that Hussan is in this class. He's my cousin and in my friend group, we're close I guess you can say. He's the person I go to when we have family reunions because there's nobody else our age when we go. I wave at him and he smiles at me. And don't think like that, I know arabs get married to their cousins but that isn't me or him. He already has someone in mind for him to marry anyways. I was daydreaming until Ms. Plani says my name.

"So I wonder what Eman is daydreaming about" she says.

I look up at her and realize she has a serious look on her face. Great it's the first day of school and one teacher is already mad at me. The day goes by kind of quick, it's lunch and I go into the lunch room looking for the group at our table. Since freshman year we've been sitting at this one table, nobody really sits there because most people sit near the middle of the lunch room. When I get to the table I see everyone sitting down, I guess I'm the last one to get here.

"Where have you been?" Hussan asks me.

"Sorry sorry there was too much people in the hallway pushing" I reply.

I sit down next to Dina.

"So how do you like the school so far?" I ask her.

"It's alright, but I've never been in a school with this much arabs before. At my last school it was just me, Abdallah and two other arabs in my grade." she says.

"Yeah well hopefully you enjoy your day" I smile

We all talk about the teachers we like and dislike so far. My teachers gave me homework, it's the first day and they're already giving us homework? Well it's not much but still. When school was over I went home with Noor because we have the same homework for the same teacher so it would be easier instead of face time. I text my mom saying if I can and she says yes but have to be back before Isha (the last prayer of the day at night)