A Muslim Girl's Smile (ON HOLD)

First Day of Work

~CHAPTER 5~

"Jabir! Did you finish your breakfast?" I yelled from my room. We were running very late today. God, Jameelah would kill me if I came even one minute late at work. I hurriedly put on a black Jilbab with black sparkles, and a white Hijab. I added a white rose on the side to give a more unique effect. Mr Jordan Smith, your sense of fashion is worst than Jabir's, I thought.

Jabir had already taken his morning bath, and was fully dressed up. I grabbed his small schoolbag and put a bowl of wholegrain chocolate cereals inside. His paediatrician had advised me on his meals. I took out the green salad I had bought yesterday and put it on a piece of bread. I added some grilled chicken and a  few tomatoes. Jabir and I ate sandwiches only in emergency cases, such as today. He liked them, as they were easy to eat.

"Mee-Mee, I am ready. We can go now,"he said, tugging on my Jilbab. I quickly packed both our lunches and snacks, and headed outside. We were at his school ten minutes later... And Ameerah's Williams just established a new record from home to preschool. I kissed my brother's forehead and quickly drove away to Jameelah's house. She was standing outside. I grinned, knowing that she had glanced at her watch for about fifty times already.

"There you finally are!"she scoffed."I thought you'd never come!"

"Assalamu Alaikum Meelah. Yes I am glad I could make it on time too. Oh and yeah I am very fine, Alhamdulillah." I casually replied. Jameelah rolled her eyes at me.

"Wa Alaikum Salam. Sorry, I thought you'd given up on the idea. Now let's hurry up or we're gonna be late," she replied. We both immediately walked towards Tokyo Cafe.

We were both silent on the way, lost in our own thoughts.I suddenly looked up at Meelah and gasped. We were dressed in exactly the same way. Even our Hijab style was identical. I burst out laughing, and Meelah stared at me like I had lost it.

"Umm Amee, are you alright?" she asked me. Her eyes suddenly widened as realisation hit home.

"Oh my Allah,"she said, grinning back at me. "This is really called a uniform now."

"Yeah, I guess you're right Meelah,"I answered her, as I pushed the back door to the Cafe open.

***

"Ah there you are,"Mr Jordan said."Seven minutes early...Great!"

He was wearing a navy blue suit today, and a pink tie. Yup, it's been confirmed. He is in the red zone of the fashion industry. He didn't know Jameelah and I had intended to come fifteen minutes earlier so we could have a look at our surroundings. He looked us up and down, probably expecting to see we had worn yellow bracelets or something like that. Actually, I would gladly have worn another colour to break the monotony, but Meelah and I had decided against it. We were going to work and needed to be as comfortable as possible. Besides, we didn't want to give Mr Jordan a chance to complain.

He beckoned us to follow him, and we reached the girl's rest room. There were two waitresses there, both looking about 23 years old. They were both wearing black mini—no, micro—skirts and thin white shirts on top. Ugh... I could see what was inside. They looked up at us, before glancing at each other and rolling their eyes in disgust. Ha! I should have acted like I was offended by the sight of them. I had a feeling these girls wouldn't be buddy-buddy with us, not that I cared. Meelah was worth thousand—no, billion is more appropriate — times more than them.

I hate to be prejudiced, but I hated it even more when people judged me or my loved ones just because we are Muslims. And the stares I would get too! When I was fifteen, Jameelah and I used to spend Sunday afternoons in the park just beside my old house. One day, we were sitting together, enjoying the peace and tranquillity of the park, when that woman walked past us. I guess she had never seen Muslims before, because she kept staring at us until she actually hit a tree. And even then, she wouldn't stop staring at us. Maybe she expected us to suddenly stand up and say "Hey everyone. Get ready to run coz we're gonna kill you in a second." No seriously, why did people act so strange when it came to Islam? There are some times when I wanted to scream to the world "Just shut up you silly people. Start by really understanding Islam before criticising it. We're humans too."