Hijabi Style: The Surprisingly Average Life Of A Teenage Muslim Girl

Color Me Surprised

Sometimes in bad situations, we tell ourselves everything will turn out okay as a way to calm ourselves down. Other times, we tell ourselves this because it's actually true. The imam had stressed this point in his khutbah.

I keep the wise words of today's
khutbah from Jum'ah prayer on my mind as I walk down the halls of Caldwell. Telling myself that everything will be totally fine today, I can't help but wonder if it really will be.

"You look a little blue," a voice says behind me. I tense and begin to turn around. "No, wait, that was yesterday. And if I recall, you were also sporting some orange. Paint, was it?" The voice bursts out into laughter.

"Kennedy! Leave her alone!" Tessa pokes him and looks at me with eyes full of concern. "Are you okay?"

"Honestly? I'm actually pretty okay. I was kinda freaking out this morning, but I've calmed since then."

"Heh. Gotta love Fridays." Tessa says in relief. You can say that again!

"Can we get some lunch already? I'm practically starving, after that world class paint joke." Kennedy starts walking, and we follow.

"Oh, Kennedy. Don't try to act like you're a mean person. We know the truth." Tessa mocks playfully.

"Yeah. I know you only said those things to me so that the worst could be over and that all the other comments people make wouldn't get to me."

"You make me sound like such a wuss. I'm the guy of the group. It's my job to make sure you guys are okay. That's all I was trying to do." Kennedy shrugs.

"Okay, as sexist as that was, I really appreciate that you did that for me. Thanks, Ken."

"No worries."

"Enough lovey dovey. Let's eat!" Tessa chimes in.

We grab trays at the entrance of the cafeteria and get into line at the service stations. After we get our food, we sit at our table, the one we always sit at, right by a window.

As I unwrap my turkey and cheese panini, I can't help but ask. "So how long did it take for everyone to find out what happened in art class yesterday? I know Rochelle never wastes time with her gossip."

"Uh, actually, Rochelle didn't tell us." Tessa answers, and Kennedy nods.

"Wow. So she really didn't waste time. Other people were spreading the gossip for her?" I ask, open mouthed.

"Er, what we mean is that Rochelle had no part of it. Major told us." Ken says, mouth full of mac and cheese.

"Major? Major is telling everyone about my embarrassing fall in art class?!" I practically yell at the top of my lungs. People at the tables closest to us turn to look at me with amusement.

"Look, calm down. Major isn't spreading any rumors. There aren't any, so chill out!" Tessa hisses.

"What are you talking about?"

"Major only told us what happened because he wanted to know if you were doing alright. He found us this morning and asked, but since we had no idea what he was talking about, he had to explain." Kennedy tells me.

"He was really concerned, and he wanted us to let you know that he told Rochelle to keep the incident out of her gossip cache. So, there haven't been any rumors. And I doubt there will be." Tessa adds.

Wow! I had no idea Major even knew who my friends were. And he was concerned? Did he only feel bad for me or did he really care? I didn't really know how I felt about any of it. The whole thing surprised the hell out of me.

"Oh... Well, that was really sweet of him." I say to both of them, shrugging.

"Wait, that's it? I just told you that Major Lucas knows who you are. That's like, TMZ-worthy information!" Tessa says with widened eyes.

"I know... I guess I'm just in between feelings at the moment."

Tessa rolls her eyes and takes a bite of her burger. "Right."

I know my friends expected me to be overjoyed at the news. But deep down, I had to know one thing. If Major knew who I was, why had he been pretending as if he hadn't? Something was going on with Major Lucas.

And I was going to find out what.