My Battle For Equality

Chapter 10

This is a picture of Samantha.

Ned: It's the first day of school, and it can be totally frightening. But the key to surviving is whether you're ready ...
or not.
(A boy falls down to the floor with an overloaded backpack.)

- Ned in Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide
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It was a big school with a lot of steps in the front.

Great.

Of course my brothers had to help me a little bit.

I'm a reader, I don't do sports but they do. So they pulled and pushed me up the stairs. I already was breathing heavily because we almost ran to the school.

When we entered the school everyone stared at us, the conversations stopped. Some people looked surprised at us others with a disgusted look. And there were even a few people already thinking of insults with a smirk on there face.

But we were used to it so we just walked with our heads up. I saw the registration office at the end of the hallway and pointed at it to my brothers.

The secretary was solving a crossword puzzle. She was an old lady with gray hair, glasses and a flowery dress.

"What is the last name of Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice? Come on you know this. Just think." I heard her whispering to herself.

She hadn't even noticed that 3 people were standing right in front of her. I don't think this school gets a lot of new students.

But the question was very easy. I mean everybody knows the answer.

"It is Bennet, Elizabeth Bennet." I said.

She looked at me and tried to fill it in.

"Thank you, dear. You're my new puzzle buddy. Are you guys the Salehs?" She said with a smile at me.

"Yes, ma'am." Ayoub said.

"Good, principal Brown is waiting for you. You can enter his office." She said.

She opened the door for us and we saw a 45-50 year old man filling in some papers. He had some gray hairs and was wearing a black suit. Next to him were 2 other men fighting over something.

"Youssef, Dounia and Ayoub, right? Sit down I want to talk to you. First of all welcome to our school. We're very happy to have you guys as our students." The principal said.

"Thank you, sir." Souf said.

The other two men stopped fighting and looked very happy when they saw us.

"I heard a lot of good things about you. Soufiane we played once against your football team and you were amazing. This is coach Wilkins he will show you around." He pointed at the coach and gave him his schedule.

He looked at me and I nodded. He followed coach Wilkins out of the office.

"And Ayoub you are one of the fastest basketball players of the state. Coach Johnson wants to talk with you. Here is your schedule." And Ayoub walked out of the office too with coach Johnson.

Now it's my turn.

"So Dounia, now that we are alone. I want to inform you that you are the only person in this school that is wearing a scarf. I understand that it is a sign of your religion but we had some difficulties with it before in this school." He said to me. His smile from before was gone.