Unofficially Mine

Chapter 1

15 years ago, Dubai

"Dad, please can I go with you?! Please!!", I wailed tugging my dad's shirt. He gave me an irritated look and continued on his call with Nora's dad. But little me was adamant and could never be stopped once I put my mind on something.

After another round of kicking and screaming to the point that I was sure that dad would fling me outside, I silenced myself. Well, only because he ended the call and gave me the attention I demanded.

He pinched his nose, let out a sigh and FINALLY looked at me.

"I'll give you 5 minutes, Alisha. If you are not seated in the car by then I'll leave you here."

I whooped and ran to my bedroom. Safe to say, I was seated in the car in 3 minutes, wearing my favourite red dress, with a doll in my hand (or placed in the front seat as the said doll was taller than me).

I was excited to see Nora after a long time. She was taller than me, very good at dancing and had many nice toys and books. We were the 'bestest' of friends whenever we spent time together. But I was sad that we lived far away from each other and only got to see each other when our dads had meetings.

When we got to Nora's place I ran to the elevator and quickly pressed on the button to her floor, almost crushing my dad between the elevator doors. He wasn't too pleased and started lecturing me about something, but I was too excited to care.

I ran out and pressed on the doorbell multiple times and an annoyed Mrs.Sanders, Nora's mom, opened the door. On seeing me her face softened into a smile.

"Alisha sweetie! Come in! Where's dad?"

"I don't know aunty!", I ran inside without further ado. Aunties talk for a long time whenever they see me. I didn't have the time to waste.

"NORA!!" I screamed as soon as I reached the hall and stopped abruptly. I thought I was the only one who would play with Nora today...

There were many other kids my age. And they all stared at me for a second and went back to playing.

I put on my sulky face and looked around when suddenly I was attacked from behind.

"ALIII!"

"NORAA! Who are they? Are they your new friends?"

"They are all dad's friends kids. Come on, You should also be friends with them."

"But I'm scared..."

"They like Power Rangers and Disney too! We can all play together after you become friends!"

"Okay...Is that Allison? I know her!"

"Really?? Yay! Hey Allison, come here!

Allison ran over with her pigtails flying about. She was my friend from Church. I knew she loved Barbie and makeup so I loved spending time with her. But unlike Nora, I didn't see her much since ours dads didn't have many meetings together.

"I made my own lip thing, Ali! See it's pink! Do you want some?", Allison or Ally said, showing me her tin of pink gooey stuff.

"That's so pretty! But mom told me makeup was for older kids..."

"That's okay, don't tell her!"

And the three of us started giggling at our own little secret and applied the shiny oily pink thing on our lips. I looked pretty, for sure.

The three of us decided to say hi to the others. I was the shy one out of us three. New people scared me. I wish Nora and Ally would play with me somewhere else. But they said it was better to have others in the game too.