Get Up Again

-three-

Everyone was taking their seats in the cafeteria, where we were having our Welcome Back Banquet. My mom, who's the head chef of the school, spend days preparing for this. 

It has been a week since I met Hiro Namikaze. We found out that we both love the anime Boruto. I started calling him Shikadai, who is one of the characters of the show. Hiro and Shikadai are both sassy. It's so adorable and they remind me of each other. Hence the nickname. 

He calls me Kayandi, which is the Japanese word for candy. Since he found out that I'm the walking(Even though I need a walker to walk around), talking(even though I usually talk to him in gestures), breathing candy store, he thought it was the perfect name. 

I remember my brother's face when he saw us calling each other that. 

He rolled his eyes at me and pulled me aside to remind not to get too close, because it could lead to zina(adultery). Which was a good thing, because I needed a reason to get away from him. 

I was sitting with my brother and his wife, who were playing with their son, when I saw a leather jacket come up next to me and a very familiar voice say, "Is this seat taken?"

My older brother looked up, and smiled at him. "It's all yours bro." 

We must be the leather jacket squad. I looked at my jacket, which was a navy blue leather jacket. My brother was wearing a white one, and Hiro was wearing a black one. He looked good in it too, but I made sure that no one knew that.  

"So Kayandi, where's the candy bag today?" He took a seat next to me. His legs banged against my walker. 

"You're not getting any candy today." I answered. I gave him a side look before smiling at Taher, who was staring at Hiro like he was the cutest thing he's ever seen. I know that feeling Taher. He's the most interesting person I've met in a while. "My mom didn't cook all that food for you to eat candy that I brought from people you don't even know." 

"Did I catch you at the wrong moment?" Me and Taif gawked at him. He shrugged. "You don't sass me like that so..." 

"You, my friend, caught her in one of the best moments," Laila answered. "She isn't sassy, she's mean." 

"Only to people I don't like." I answered. 

Laila rolled her eyes. "You don't most people Neya. Most people piss you off." 

"That's true." I admitted. "I don't like most people." 

"Why?" Hiro asked. He lended back on his seat. Oh my Allah, he looks too good. "People aren't all that bad." 

"They ask too many questions." I started ticking the most common asked questions off on my fingers. "Why do you use a walker? Why do you have three scars running down your cheek? You're Muslim? Aren't you oppressed by men from your religion?"

"Damn." He blinked. "Sorry you have to go through that nonsense." 

"It's okay.. actually, no its not okay, but there's nothing that I can do about it." I shrugged. "That's why I only talk to small amount of people, most of them being adults." 

Laila was about to point something out when our principal, Mr. Steve. He was a tall man, who usually wore the coolest clothes out of all the teachers, but today he wore a black suit. There used to be a jolly vide around him, but now, there was a evil and scary one. 

The dude changed. I couldn't help but notice. What happened to him? 

Everyone quiet down as they watched him walk up to the mic at front. As he passed us, he gave me a long look. Goosebumps and chills run up my spine. 

I don't like the way he looked at me. Like he was waiting for something to happen to me. It scared me. 

He tapped the mic three times before he started speaking. But I wasn't listening to his words. His voice sounded different. It was a very bone chilling voice. Before, his voice was like Santa. But now, it was like a voice of a ghost. 

"He's a Satanist." Hiro's whisper was soft, but loud in my ear. I looked at him dead in the eye. 

"What? You mean, he worships Satan?" How could someone do that?  That's just downright disturbing. 

"Yep." He gave the dude a long look. "I'm pretty sure about that." 

I remember that in Islam, you shouldn't talk about someone without knowing for sure about the issue you don't know much about. It's considered backbiting. That's haram in Islam, it's like eating your own brother's flesh. 

I decided to drop it. 

But now I regret it. Because I could have prepared myself for the hell-like thing that Allah was about to test me with in the next coming days.