Anaxiphilia (A Muslim Teen's Story)

Chapter One

One month. It was only one month into the first school term and Amal was already fed up.

But it was really unfair. Why would she be forced to come to this horrible place?

She hated the school.

Even the building made her want to dedicate her life to being a hermit in the mountains.

The teachers spoke horrible English, and all they did was teach and never really explained well.

At least she had her friends.

Laura, Fatimah and Rukayyah. They were all in Js1 A together, but Laura and Fatimah hadn't come the first week. Then it had just been Amal and Rukayyah.

Even so, she felt closer to Fatimah. Why? Just because.

But at the moment, Amal was all alone. Not really, but there was no one that could help her.

How was it possible for a thirteen year old to already start feeling this way towards a boy?

Well, admittedly she knew it was bound to happen, but wasn't it supposed to be in her twenties?

Now Amal was on her own, trying to figure out why she was thinking of Amin, a boy from her class, more and more each day. Well, she knew, but she wouldn't admit it to herself.

Who falls in love in a month? Apparently, Amal Uthman.

Amal stared at the paper in front of her. Somehow, she had convinced her cousin to explain things to her, especially since there was a huge test.

And the huge test was right in front of her. It determined part of her final grades.

She could not bear to fail.

Well, this was English, so she was sure she'd scape through, but she honestly couldn't remember when they had been taught vowel and consonant sounds, and not the elementary stuff.

She could read and write just fine, even having a little accent to go with it, and had great handwriting.

She didn't think something like this would come out.

Looking around, she noted that most kids were focused on their work, far away from each other. About three of them were done.

With a sigh, she faced her work. It couldn't be hard, right?

Thirty minutes later, Amal sat with her friends in class, her lunch box open in front of her.

She couldn't believe the nerve of this school, not even having a cafeteria. Or an assembly hall even. They had to stand all through the stuff.

"Amal, why the face?" Laura asked, drifting from the conversation at hand.

Amal debated whether she should tell the whole truth, that she was trying really hard not to stare at Amin who was sitting right behind her, or just half of it, that she was worried about her grades.

"That stupid English test," she resolved. After all, saying 'Amin and his cute face' didn't sound all right, and Islamic for the matter.

Laura agreed immediately. "I barely understood anything."

Of course Fatimah would understand it. "What was so hard about it? Wasn't it just vowel sounds? We treated them in class, but Amal was absent."

Oh, yes. Thanks to her mad acting skills, Amal had skipped a whole week of school. It wouldn't matter if she scraped up good grades in the end anyway.

"Why are you guys discussing that? You should hear what Maimuna did yesterday..." The ever so ready to gossip Rukayyah said, waving her hand around.

Amal zoned out once again, aware that Amin was talking. She had no idea what he was saying, but his voice was the only one she heard.

Much later, when it was time to close and she was sitting in the bus with Fatimah, she wondered if she could tell her, because it was slowly eating Amal inside.

"You're so weird sometimes," Fatimah stated out of nowhere. "I told you to copy my note, but you didn't. Why are you so worried about grades all of a sudden anyway?"

Amal rolled her eyes. "I'm just too awesome for your senses to comprehend, Fatimah. Just... Whatever. I don't think I'm coming tomorrow."

"We have Qur'an, IRS and Social Studies. You better do come, and you can skip all you want until exams," Fatimah said.

Amal groaned. "I forgot my books."

It was all Amin's fault, she concluded, that her grades were about to slip and she was becoming so unorganized.

"Just kill me now!"

"If it wasn't haraam, I'd totally do it," Fatimah said sympathetically as she patted Amal's back.