7.1.23

"hey tals" Hana smiles answering the phone as she sat on the train to her home town of liverpool, where she had been invited to a family dinner by her parents

Talia has been Hana's best friend ever since she transfered schools when they were in year 9

despite talia being born and raised in Liverpool, her grandparents are orignally sudanese, however, her best friend Hana is a little bit more complicated

Hana's Mum's side is entirely Palestinian, they were one of the first in their city to be affected by the Genocide. The Israeli's came in around 1960 and took her Grandparent's orchard in Yaffa by force, they fled to neighbouring Egypt first, but didn't stay for long, as her great Uncle worked as cargo ship captian, who snuck them onto a cargo ship with their 3 young Kids, Hana's Mum and her 2 uncles. And after weeks of sailing, they found themselves in London

However Hana's dad's side of the family is completely Moroccan, her great-grandfather was a General of the Moroccan resistance army that tried to get rid of the french colonisers after world war 2, but they got caught in their planning stages, and they were going to be jailed, but he fled with his family to Portugal before they were caught. However rumours of him being in Portugal made their way back to Morocco, and the authorities knew, but just in time, he managed to find a ship to England

her parents stayed quite true to their cultures, in fact her dad made sure he taught her arabic, and though its not amazing, she could probably say she's fluent. its weird since she speaks a mixture of the moroccan dialect mixed with a bunch of palestinian too, so when Hana and Talia -who is sudanese- first met in year 9, you can imagine her confusion when Hana tried to speak to her in a version of mixed dialects and very broken arabic

sure she loves her culture and where she's from, but it does mean that her parents do in fact have that old-fashioned arab brain, and even though they've lived in England their whole lives, and adapted to it and tried to modernise, they still even if they don't know their doing it, pressure her into doing things

for instance when she was doing her GCSE's, they told Hana to pick whatever she liked, but everytime she discussed the possibilty of doing something like Art or DT with her parents, they told her that it wouldn't make her very much money if she got a job to do with that, or that those subjects wouldn't get her into a good university, so they would make it feel like certain subjects like science are more acceptable than others, and she felt like she would be a dissapointment if she didn't take them

and so when it came into getting into University, Hana had gotten very good grades so she had options. She could go to medical school, or she could go into Journalism and presenting, something she was way more passionate about

and of course when it came to that as well, they told her to pick whatever she liked, but also pressured her towards medical school. 

and when she picked Journalism and presenting, they said that they were proud, but deep inside she knew they would have wanted her to go to medical school

of course she's done well for herself since, she's managed to get myself a job at sky sports as a runner not long after she started university, and after graduating nearly 2 years ago, Hana managed to earn herself a spot on the evening football show, and now she's a regular

its obvious she still thinks about what would have happened if she went to medical school, possibly her parents would be even more proud that she became a nurse or a doctor, as to her it feels like she needed to make them proud, they had raised her so well for 18 years and she knew she owed it to them to make them proud of her

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"Hanaaa, hbibti, your heere" her mother says as she pulls her into a warm hug as she arrives at her childhood home

"hala Mum, hi dad"

"ahlen, how was your trip down?" her father asks from the sofa where he watches liverpool play on the TV

"oh it was just the train, it was fine"

"can you go call your brother from upstairs? were all hungry"

"sure" i smile to her mum, as she walks up the stairs to her brothers' room

Hana's brother, Haris is only 17, currently he's an intern at liverpool, playing for the u21's. The whole family knew how much talent the young boy has. the football ran through their blood, looking into the eyes of any of the members of the Bencharki family and plenty of their relatives, you could see the passion that ran through them, whether its through playing or simply speaking about it, its what made Hana so good at her job, and Haris so talented

"HARIS YA ZIFT" she shouts -calling him a piece of shit jokingly- as she walks into his liverpool decorated room

he doesn't take notice of his sister and continues to stare at his game of fifa

Hana rips off his headphones and he finally realises that his sister is there

"rude of you not to reply to me yeah"

"oh hey Hana" he says as he pauses the game

"come on, dinner's ready" she says helping him up despite him being much much taller than his sister

they walk downstairs and sit on the dinner table

Hana was born in London despite both sides of her family being from Liverpool

after her parents got married, they had moved to London for about 5 years, where Hana was born and lived until she was about 4, after which they all moved back to Liverpool, its why she doesn't have much of a scouse accent, especially compared to her dad and her brother who have relatively thick scouse accents

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they sit down on the dining table as her mum brings the food out

her mother had made her famous recipe of Palestinian msakhan, which is chicken battered with delicious spices, layed on a pile of delicious homemade bread

Hana would be lying if she didn't say she loved it, in fact its definitely one of her favourite dishes

"so, how's life in manchester?" her mum asks

"good i guess, we just don't have a TV yet since T's Ex smashed it"

"white men are idiots"

"mum thats a bit racist"

"fine, most, white men are idiots"

"some"

"alright then" she reluctantly agrees just so that her daughter would shut up

.

"so, you still single?" mum asks

Tala Bencharki had a tendancy of intruding on her kids' love life sometimes, Hana and Haris didn't really mind it as they just found it funny, and usually their mum knew where to stop

"yep"

"no plans on getting a boyfriend or getting married soon" her mother asks jokingly

"mother i am 22"

"alright alright then"

as she said that she seems to remember something, and so she continues to speak

"oh, oh yeah, umm so there's this boy..."

Hana sighs and drags her hands down her face

"he's your age, and like... honestly just one date -he's from manchester too- and if it doesn't work out then it doesnt" Her mother begins to describe the boy

"fine mum, just like send me his number or something and tell him to decide on a place" Hana says agreeing

Hana knew that the only reason she agreed is because she still constantly gets that guilt from university, looking at their faces when she had made the decision knowing that they were smiling to try and be supportive to their daughter, but on the inside she knew they would have wanted her to go to medical school

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INSTAGRAM

hana.bencharki

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"YA ZIFTA (you piece of shit) your letting your mum set you up!" talia shouts at her best friend as they facetime while she's still on the train back to manchester

"tals i have no choice, you know she'll keep nagging me"she says adjusting her airpods

"but like, the guy i bet he's one of those 'nice guys' " she says making speech marks with her fingers as she speaks

"hbibti, ill do the bare minimum, its not like i want to be with the guy"

"alright but if he lays a hand on you, the man is at knifepoint, and thats any guy for your information" she says as she sips her cup of tea

"tals, i can take care of myself, don't worry"

...

—notes

ooh backstory chapter 

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