Light Upon Light

#27 The First Ship

Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!

I hope you're all ready for this next chapter. I really enjoyed writing it. Have fun reading.

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#27 The First Ship

For all the big talks by people from Jade and Coral, you'd think at least one of them would have taken the top spot. But little unassuming Sapphire came through and maintained its place on the scoreboard throughout.

Jade and Coral were funnily enough, tied at second place.

There were a few hours when Jade did claim the first place. When the events for our category was going on, Najwa made quite a difference on the scoreboard and so did I. Sapphire put us back down soon enough.

The highlight of the day for me, was when I heard Zaid's qiraat. The Qur'an recitation for boys was going on in stage 3 when I had finally managed to grab a break in between all the hassle. So I took a seat there and tried to blend in before Najwa found me again.

If yesterday's results had calmed her down, she was back with double the force today.

And by Allah so mesmerizing it was to sit there and listen to him recite Surah Ar Rahman. It was just perfect. The words of the Qur'an flowed from him so effortlessly. He looked so focused and at peace, it was like he was lit up from within. There was so much devotion and love on his face, it was beautiful.

And the smile he had once he was done, Subhan Allah it did weird things to me. Like a little tingling here and a race of heartbeats there. Completely normal weird reaction.

If only I could have recorded his recitation…

At the end of the day we were all happy. The results weren't bad and Jade and Coral stood as equals.

'We'll fix it on sports day,' Haseeb stated.

'We will,' Najwa agreed.

'Oh God no! Again?' I groaned.

The two of them just gave me smug little smiles.

'Don't you just love all the drama?' Najwa teased.

'And all that tension, uff!' Haseeb added.

'Yeah, next time you get to share it with me at Ashiana,' I retorted lifting an eyebrow and crossing my arms.

Haseeb looked a little pale. Najwa's eyes were widened.

'Really?' They're chorused.

'Yeah why not? It will be fun. We can have nice cold wars and hot exchange of words with Samar and maybe Zaid too, what say?' I pressed further, enjoying their discomfort a little too much.

They don't call me the drama queen for nothing. And all queens need entertainment, that's basic knowledge.

'Okay. We get it. Tone down the competition.' Haseeb said.

'It's just school. No biggie. Maybe I was being a little too crazy?' Najwa said meekly, peering at me through her lashes as she kept her head bent.

'That's just about right. Now who's up for some ice cream? Lia's treat. Sapphire has won above all odds!'

And so the school canteen was filled with people from all teams celebrating the unlikely victory of team Sapphire. Hey, they offered to pay. Isn't it good we didn't win the title after all?

The good thing about this whole month was that I got to make a new friend. She may be somewhat of an over achiever and unnecessarily competitive, but she was also fun to hang out with. I can't believe I stayed away from this girl just because of a guy.