Strings Attached

~Chapter 1~

Hey guys, I'm super excited to begin this story!!! Do leave your votes n comments so that I know if I should proceed or not...

Dedicated to Sadaf_shaukat my super awesome friend :)

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New Delhi, India

(Hidayah Ali)

The alarm clock at my bedside table makes me wake up hastily out of my sleepy state. God! That thing rings as if it's trying to wake the dead! I'm so going to throw it away as soon as I'm sure that nobody's watching, else my mom will lecture me for hours on punctuality. 

Like I've ever been anything opposite of punctual in my seventeen years of existence, humph! *A loud noise of background clapping and cheering is heard* Thank you, thank you, no more applauds please. I know, I'm the best!

I check the corners of my lips for drool, throwing my sister's heavy leg from my tummy in the process. The fat goose! Only, she isn't fat. But the idiot is a total mess when she sleeps, and I have to fight my way out of the bed in the mornings. She has her hands dangling from the bed, and her hair is sticking out from all sides. Chuckling to myself, I pick up my phone and snap a picture for blackmailing purposes. They come in really handy, believe me.

And then, when I take a look at the confounded clock, all thoughts leave me. Only thirty minutes left till the school starts. Gosh! How come mum's not banging my door right now? I feel weird when I think of my mother sleeping in. She doesn't do that, except when she isn't well. This means I'll have to fix something to eat by myself?! I'm totally skipping breakfast today.

I come out of the bath in record fifteen minutes, shocking myself and my sister too. "Somebody was fast!" she comments. She is fully awake now and sitting with her back stuck to the headboard of the bed, her phone cradled in her hands. "How do you know when I got in?" 

"Oh, I saw you go in with your innerwear in your hands. You still wear the flowery ones, do you? I thought I heard you say you were a grown-up some days ago, if I remember correctly."

"Oh really! And who was licking the near empty bottle of jelly with their tongue yesterday. And here I thought you came earlier in this world than me. What a disappointment to the blood relations!" I chide her mockingly, rolling my eyes at her childishness, as I fix my hijab (headscarf) in the mirror. Afterwards, I proceed to pick my abaya from the hanger in my wardrobe and pull it over my head.

"At least, unlike you, I don't claim to be an adult, alright," she retorts in her signature huffing-style. "Who wants to get rid of their childhood memories? Only you, the queen of weirdoes, I guess. I'm not the one to blame if your childhood wasn't awesome, and you kept embarrassing yourself in front of all our cousins. I don't pretend to be all goody two-shoes in front of everyone, hunh," she says, as if disgusted. This woman can't stop ranting!

"One more word Raafiah, and I am gonna tell mom all about your antics at gran's house, starting with the one when you broke her precious tea-set," I warn her, glaring with all my might. But the thing is, I'm not really scary. And my sis knows that I won't tell on her, since she made me promise that I won't repeat anything to a soul of what actually happened. "Oh no...... you wo-on't," she sings, all the while smirking devilishly.

The argument begins to get heated. I'm about to plant a smack or two upside my 'sweet' sister's head, when suddenly, my mum calls me to come downstairs. I stop immediately, my hand hanging in mid-air. "I thought mum wasn't awake!" I wonder aloud.