Safiya is your average girl from London . West London to be specific . Strives to be a close to perfect desi daughter , sweet as sugar but you'd be glad to have her as a friend rather than an enemy . Not that she has many friends or enemies for that...
Holidays finished . Torture I mean school has started again . Most kids would just let examinations happen and accept the results . But I need to already assure myself when I open that letter I've got the best grades possible. That letter will be my golden ticket out of here and in turn be my pay check and one day will be the thing I look back at and say I've made it .
The plans simple . Hustle harder , grid till it's mine . But everything's easier when it's on paper.
"I bet Saffie is still finding the nth term or something" laughed Zahra nudging my other mates Coco and Tia .
Zahra a tall, elegant and outspoken Egyptian queen whose as sweet as sugar but say something out of line you'll essentially well ... feel her wrath . Which is why she is getting my vote when she becomes priminister one day .
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Coco is morrre uh well she's here for the vibes and good food . A bubbly girl who once said sorry to a lampost she walked into . She's a beautiful blend of her Asian parents . A Chinese mother and Pakistani father who met in their universities Islamic society and fell in love. Which is how I too want to meet my soul mate if Allah wills of course .
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Tia is a gorgeous blend of Jamaican Irish. She's insanely athletic and aspires to be an Olympic gold medalist . She's not Muslim but I swear she knows more about islam than us . She's like the mum of the group, stopping in the middle of the pavement to fix our hijab if there's a stray strand of hair showing and started buying only halal haribos when we all first became friends . Honestly she's the sweetest.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
My closest friends . My best friends. I'm so glad I've ended up in a friendship group filled with kind and cultured girls who i can relate to in all problems life throws at us and stick by me through high school shenanigans
I met Z (Zahra) at the beginning of year 7 when Zahra walks up to my tiny self and proceeds to tell me " You look like a deer in headlights " which is followed by a gasp from Coco who was commentating on the fastest rain drop on a window .
Later we met Tia when she defends us when someone calls us the "towel head trio "as a joke "
We like to think that we're the the Derry Girls ( minus James ) of West London . We all go to our local Catholic all girls school which is the best and safest school in our ends .
"Can we pleeeease take the long way through the park today . The english weathers being nice to us for once . Sunny but not that humid . Breezy but the winds not gonna whip my hijab off . See perfect " begged Coco
"AO5 20 marks , AO6 20 marks . Great description coacs ." Giggled Tia
We're walking home together after school . Our bags heavy on our backs and our blazers tied around our waist or just sitting on our shoulders but nonetheless decide to all head to the park walking arm in arm around the flower beds and football pitch area to the opposite exit .
We're almost there when we see a group of what can only be described as roadmen or trap boys whatever the terminology nowadays is sitting around the brick wall.
"Seriously I'm starting to think they're Invincible to the heat with their choice of year round fashion ." Whispered Z as we were approaching the boys all dressed in black mainly trapstar tracksuits and canada goose jackets .
For girls living in greater London atleast one of their biggest inevitable nightmares is walking past a group of guys alone when its dark . It doesn't matter whether their dressed like trap boys , in suits or telly tubby costumes the thought of having to walk past them alone in the dark is just intimidating.
Anyway we're walking past them extra immersed in our super interesting conversation on global warming when a few boys call out for T , her brothers are probably friends with them .
Thats when I meet a familiar pair of hooded green- hazel eyes .
My own eyes widen a little before we continue walking towards the exit . Khalil .I haven't seen him since the whole saving his bother fiasco. And I certainly haven't told my friends about it or him .
When we've reached the gate I turn my head hoping to steal a quick glance again.
And he's fully turned around faced towards me and ... smiling . His hands in his pockets walking backwards,his brown curls shining in the sun ... I'm doing the whole admiring thing again aren't I ?
Thanks for reading :) Excuse grammar errors . Please vote and save if you like the book
