I Can Wear My Hijab

Chapter 14

I climbed onto the buss and sat next to Jedayel who was already waiting for me.

"Hey - about yesterday , thanks for listening to my outburst," He grinned.

"It's cool," 

"Ugh, Business Studies first thing in the morning," Megan groaned.

"Are you kidding me, I love Business Studies," I piped up cheerfully.

"That's coz you're smart," She sighed.

"Yup, and your the opposite of smart," Jedayel told Megan.

"Shut the-"

"Ok, let's go to class," I cut in.

"Today," Mr Botha, our Business teacher began, "I will separate into groups for your end of semester assignments. Your project will be to prepare a presentation to persuade a bank to give you a loan for starting up a new business. You will have to describe the type of business you are opening and you have to state how much money you want to borrow."

He began calling out the groups.

"Group three, Ameerah, Jedayel, Megan and Rob," He said

My heart nearly skipped a beat, of all the people he had to put Rob with us?

"Great." I muttered.

"Gonna be weird hanging out with your ex again eh Meg?" Jedeayel grinned, he was looking for trouble.

"I swear I'm going to kill you, you bastard!" She shrieked, her face turning as red as her.

"I'm just saying.."

"Well don't say!" She scowled.

"You ok Meerkat?" Jedayel asked noticing I'd gone silent.

"Yup, perfect, no problem," I said pulling myself out of thought.

"You worried about Rob?" Megan asked.

"No, not at all.. I was just wondering, could we do the project at your place?"

"Umm, sure," Megan said confused.

 "What's up with your place?" Jedayel asked.

"My dad," I said,

That day after school we were all at Megan's house thinking about a topic for the assignment.

"We could make it a car company, every one buys cars," Jedayel said.

"That's stupid, there are enough car companies in the world." Megan huffed.

"Yeah, like you would know, you don't even own a car," Rob sneered.

"How about we make it a supermarket?" I suggested.

"What's so good about a supermarket? Apart from the fact that you could blow it up." Rob chaffed.

"You better shut the hell up or we'll blow you up, gottit?" Jedayel said clenching his fists.

"Woah, woah, why with the harsh words?" Rob mocked.

"Guys," Megan said, "Can we get back to project?"

Both of them kept quiet.

"So you were saying Ameerah?" She asked.

"We could make it a self service supermarket," I explained, "Because you know, every one hates waiting in line to check out their items so maybe they could check out their items themselves."

"That works," Rob nodded.

Wait a second, was I dreaming, or did Rob just agree with me?

"What?" I blurted,

"That works," Rob said again slowly.

"All in favour of the idea say 'I'," Jedayel said.

"Quit goofing Jedayel," Megan snapped at him.

We left Megan's house in the evening, it was November and I was already getting the chills, I pulled my coat tighter around me. To be honest the afternoon hadn't gone too bad, Rob lay low on his racist jokes and we got almost half of the project done.

"I've been thinking about what you said," Jedayel began as we sat on the buss.

"Huh?"

"You know, about talking to my brother.."

"Oh," I realised, "You should,"

"I know," He sighed.

The buss stopped at the normal buss stop, Jedayel and I climbed off the buss.

"Wish me luck," Jedayel said reaching his house.

"Good luck.. Tell me how it goes,"