An American Muslimah

Chapter 12

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Assalamualeykum giys, plz pray for this ummah and May Allah swt help those in Pakistan have patience right now. Ameen.

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Today is the first day of second semester and I'm nervous and excited at the same time. As I wear my abaya and wrap a beige hijab on, I just can't stop wondering who will be in my classes this semester? I hope Maryam and Hillary will share at least one class with me. Haniah is also getting ready for school. To say she is nervous is an understatement. She's been biting her lips ever since she woke up and can't stop fidgeting.

"Haniah it will be all right inshallah. I'm sure you will meet new friends and everyone is going to be super sweet." I try convincing her.

"Easy for you to say? Do you know how hard it is to start a new school during middle of the school year!?" Haniah says panicking.

Walking to school wasn't as blissful as it had started to snow. I would have asked Suleiman for a ride but Suleiman had already left to college and dad had already left for work. Aunty Zaynah and her family had moved to their own new home last week.

As I was fighting against the snowflakes as they were pelting against my face i felt something hard hit my back. I turned around to see an amused Maryam. Of course it was my oh so lovely friend!

"Assalamualaikum Aisha. Cheer up, it was just a snowball for crying out loud!"

I rolled my eyes at her. She was always way too energetic for the morning.

"Wa alaikussalam and why are you always so hyper? Is it what you eat for breakfast or something...?" I asked in pure interest.

She just giggled, "No silly, err I guess its just my nature!".

"Fascinating." I commented.

When we arrived to school we saw Hillary and Connor talking. I guess they were a couple now but they were very quiet about it. They rarely showed a PDA which i was grateful for. Hillary told me that it was so that not everyone would now, especially girls like Anna. When she saw us she ran to us and greeted with a great bear hug.

"Oh my God! I missed you guys like crazy!" she exclaimed.

"Same" Maryam and I said together.

Just then I saw a lost looking Abdullah. Poor guy. I guess I should help him especially since today is his first day.

"Assalamualeykum" I quietly said.

"Wa alaikussalam Aisha. What a relief! Do you know where room 214 is?"

"Yeah follow me." I said.

"Oh and do you now where room 306 is?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes. I did have a couple of minutes till the bell rang so might as well show him where his classes are.

When I was done helping Abdullah the bell rang and I headed to science. I had science first period followed by Gym. Then spanish and family studies in the afternoon.

Science was interesting. The teacher's name was Ms.Foster and she seemed nice but strict. I took a seat near the front because I focus best there. At the back the only two that I knew were Anna and some mean girl named Iva and a bunch of obnoxious kids. Ms.Foster ordered the class to be quiet and she handed us all our science textbooks and gave us an outline of how the course will be. The part that caught my attention the most was we were going to learn about space! I loved learning about the solar system. Subhanallah there's so much we still haven't even discovered yet since its massive. I think I'm going to like this class. The only sad part is none of my friends are in this class. Oh well...

I was off to gym class next. As I made my way to the gym hallway, I was hit by a strong smell of sweat! Ugh. Right on cue a bunch of sweaty guys exited from the men's change room and were throwing their gym bags into their locker and spraying themselves with body spray. One guy even had the audacity to change his pants right there in front of his locker. MY POOR EYES! I mean isn't that what the change room is for? I scurried into the girls change room. The girls change room smelled much better than the hallway. Thank God. Some girls were already in there waiting for our gym teacher to walk in. I took a seat on one of the benches. Soon Maryam and Hillary came walking in. Yay we have gym together.

After the final bell had rung which signalled us that class has started, our gym teacher finally entered. She was a blonde and looked like she was in her 30's. I noticed that she was also expecting since she had a bulging tummy.

"Good morning everyone, I'm Mrs.Jayce and I will be your phys.Ed teacher for the semester. Since today is our first class you are not required to change but starting from tomorrow you will be required to come in your gym clothes which is a white short sleeved short and navy blue shorts. You can purchase these from the school or get your own but whichever way you must come in uniform or I will deduct marks. Now our gym class is divided into gender. So this class is only for girls but in the next gym is the class just for guys. When we have our warm ups we will all be meeting; that is the boys and girls class in Gym C and then afterwards we will split up and go to our own gym just for girls. Understood?"

Uh-oh. There was no way I was going to dress like that. I just gave Maryam a look and it was evident that she was thinking the same thing.

"Yes!" we all replied in unison.

"Good so lets just do attendance and I will give e brief outline of what we will do this semester."

After Mrs.Jayce was done talking she let us talk among ourselves. Maryam and I took this as the best time to speak with her.

"Hi Mrs.Jayce, I'm Aisha and this is Maryam. We have an inquiry about the dress code for this class. Since we're muslim we cannot wear short sleeves or shorts so is it alright if we wear long sleeved white shirt and navy long yoga pants instead?" I asked her.

She gave us a hard look and eying our clothes up and down. What was her problem? After some time she finally responded,

" Well this is the school rule and I cannot change that. If you decide to go against it I will have to take off marks" she coldly said.

I didn't know if it was because of her pregnancy but she was very cold and mean. Maryam and I looked at her in shock. We were speechless so we didn't press on and left. when class was over and it was lunch time Maryam asked me,

"What are we going to do?"

"Don't worry we will go talk to the principle." And with that we went to his office.

We were very fortunate this year as our previous principal retired so now our Principal was Mr. Omar who was a Muslim.

When we entered his office we were both greeted with,

"Assalamualeykum ladies. How may I help you?"

"Wa alaikussalam umm we had a discussion with our teacher Ms.Jayce and we asked her if we can wear long sleeves and long pants instead for our gym wear and she said no. If we don't wear the school uniform then we will lose marks."

"I see..." said Mr.Omar thinking. "Dont worry about her, just tell her that I allow you guys to wear your long sleeved shirt and pants."

We both let out a sigh and an Alhamdulillah.

"Jazakallah khair Mr.Omar. This means so much to us." Maryam said smiling. And with that we headed off to lunch happily.

The afternoon was fine.The spanish teacher was Ms.Cunningham and Ms.Mac for family studies. It turns out Hillary, Abdullah, Abraham and Connor we're in my family class.

After an interesting day the bell finally rang and we went home.