THE TRANSITION (completed☑️)

The airport

As she walks on the jet bridge, she shakes a little with nervousness and anxiety, mostly consisting of her thoughts on coming here and how it is going to be one of the biggest mistakes of her life. I think it's pretty clear by now that Zareena is a pessimist.

She walks with the crowd of  anonymous people and follows them. Suddenly, she is stopped by a slight tap on her shoulder. It's that guy again, frustrated, she turns in anger ready to glare at him.

He quickly speaks, "excuse me, are you not going to San Francisco? Because that way is for the transfers and not for the arrivals."

Embarrassed yet again, Zareena's conscience screams, "Zareenaaa great! We just reached the airport and here you are starting to make a fool of yourself already, and uff I hate this guy!"

She finally speaks unable to look at him, "oh sorry I didn't read that, Umm.. Thanks."

She decides to follow the guy, and keeps on walking through hallways filled with noises of trolley bags, heels, and a few kids weeping, that reminded her, "Thank goodness there weren't any babies around my seat," she wonders in relief.

She now has to pass the security check, the lady over there, eyes her suspiciously as she keeps her bag on the machine, she walks through the detector, and nothing beeps. She goes to collect her bag where she is stopped by the same lady who directs her towards a room for security issues.

Zareena, confused by all this follows her towards a small room, the lady then tells her to remove her head scarf (hijab).

Zareena asks her politely, "but why? I just passed the detector and was cleared."

The lady rather rudely says, "remove it now or you won't be allowed to enter."

Zareena, still confused at how removing her cotton made head scarf would clear anything but she follows the instruction and removes it.

The lady examines everything and when she is finally satisfied, she lets her go. Zareena hastily ties her scarf back as she leaves the room, sad by how messy it is now. She was already having a bad day, in addition to all that, she now has a bad hijab day  too. Just great!

As she goes towards the machine to collect her trolley bag, an old man mutters behind her, "look at the way she's dressed."

These mere 6 words hurt her so much, she feels a mixture of anger, pain and agitation.

She hears giggles behind her.

Ignoring it, she frowns, and starts to lift her bag.

The old man behind her speaks again, "what have you gotten inside that bag of yours?"

Frustrated, she sighs and decides to walk away but she can't, as she has to stand in a long queue.

"Jeez! Look at her clothes, it's like she bought it from the circus," the lady beside that old man, his wife, speaks now, probably thinking Zareena doesn't understand English.

Zareena remains silent throughout, and focuses on being patient. Though, as each second passes, she starts losing her temper.

The drunk old man behind her starts once again, "how can you wear that thing in this hot weather, Isn't it too hot in here?" He says, while half touching and half pulling her head scarf.

At this she winces immediately, pushing herself forward and away from that old man, disgusted by the insolent behavior.

She hears footsteps behind her and it's that guy from the plane who suddenly stands beside her and turns around to talk to that man.

"What do you think you're doing?" His voice is loud and clear. Zareena stares at him in shock.

The old man chuckles, "ha! Who are you to ask me? And why are you feeling sympathy for a person like her."

The guy from the plane replies sternly, "just leave her alone! Isn't this place supposed to be a free state, here people can wear whatever they want and nobody should judge them. None the less, get bullied by the likes of you."

The old man smirks, "I'm a trump supporter and I want all these filthy Muslims out of h-"

The old man wanted to say so much more, but he couldn't as few officers interrupted, and stopped the heated argument which was close to becoming a fight.

****************
As they walk to the baggage collection lounge, Zareena stops midway and speaks to him, "listen, thanks a lot for everything, and I'm really sorry, because of me, you ha-"

She's cut by him who lets out an exasperated sigh, "look, I know I'm not related to you and I don't even know your name, but I can't stay quiet when they hurt my people, be it anyone. So really, no need to thank me." He speaks with a stern voice, still angry at that old man.

"Zareena." She says with a small smile that reaches her eyes.

"What?" He responds, looking clueless for a moment.

"My name, it's Zareena, thanks a lot again and umm... good bye." She gives him a genuine smile and walks hurriedly while carrying her luggage on the trolley.

"Bye-," says the guy abruptly, looking completely dumbfound, he clearly wanted to say so much more but Zareena walks past him swiftly, she could feel him looking at her as he was frozen to the spot.

The trolley rushes against the floor and then eventually, she leaves the airport. She looks around to hire a taxi and directs it to the university campus.

All the time spent in the taxi, she can't stop thinking about her long journey to this place and of course,

  She will remember that anonymous guy forever.

****Authors note****

Another short chapter, yay! So, this chapter was focused on the important issues that are going on right now and most of the situations mentioned here are either similar or actual happenings.

It's pretty sad, that some people are getting bullied based on their outward appearance and basically being judged unreasonably. We need more people, like the anonymous guy, who should stand up to these bullies. And this is what my question of the day is about:-

**Question of the day**

>If you were there, close to where Zareena was standing, you would've been a spectator/audience silently disapproving the old man, or, you would've spoken up just like the anonymous guy? (ik, it's a hard question)

I'll be honest, I would've been a spectator at first, but would definitely try to speak up after the scarf incident!

So..Coming up next:-

>The dormitory! [Or, as some people call it, hostel]

>Will she ever meet the anonymous guy again?

Find out in the next few chapters!

Lots of positive thoughts along your way! Spread it :D

We need to overcome the negativity!