CHAPTER | THREE | UMAYMAH | POV

Speeding down the hallway faster than I imagined I have ever done before, I came closer to the fields where Shoaib had told Thomas to meet him. To be fair, I didn't know what to expect and whether or not I was going to like it, but I still had to save this boy before his 'pretty' face got ruined.

I was now on the fields and even though it was a beautiful day, it certainly didn't feel like it. Looking around, I noticed I was the only person out here; could he have hurt him so quickly? Or was I simply too early too watch this fight?

"Ya Allah, can this boy hurry? I have lunch too eat!" I did mentally scowl at myself after saying that though. One because I had so stupidly said it out loud and also because food happened to be on my mind at this point.

Nevertheless a familiar voice who I knew belonged to Shoaib rang in my ears.

"Don't you worry, I just have something to sort out and I'll be there ten minutes tops. Need to teach someone a lesson." I didn't have to see his face to know that he had a smirk on his face while saying that last part.

This was now or never though. Either I go to him before Thomas gets here or try to stop him once he's here. Lets face it though, I doubt I could even stop him while he used the boy as a punching bag.

"Salaam Akh." I cautiously stepped away from the shadows that I had no idea I'd even gone near and faced a rather surprised Shoaib who towered over me.

He didn't reply at first but eventually something came out of his mouth. "What are you doing here?" was all I seemed to have gotten from him.

It didn't help that I wanted to scold him for being so rude and not reply to my 'salaam' but I went against doing that as I knew the outcome would probably consist of me embarrassing myself.

"Oh, er I'm here to say that whatever you have planned to do to Thomas isn't necessary. So yeah, if you would kindly just go now." Awkwardly I cleared my throat thinking that was the lamest thing that has ever come out my mouth.

He looked at me & a bellowing laugh was the next thing I heard coming from him. "That was sweet, but if you don't mind, this has nothing to do with you. It's MY business to take care of." The emphasis on 'my' certainly did not go unnoticed by me.

"Well it now is my business because I made the effort to come out here and stop you from doing something you will regret. That is, if you had common sense to see that violence isn't the way to solve things!" It had come out my mouth without me thinking and now that I thought about it, I regretted very much saying it.

My patience wasn't one to last long and because of that I had a scary boy glaring at me as if he could hurt me on the spot. Though he could, I doubt he would.

"Listen Umaymah, I don't need your approval of what I do. Just stay out of this." His teeth was clenched and all thoughts of having a nice conversation to stop him from being violent flew away. What ever happened to acting mature and using words than fists?

"But-" I didn't even get the chance to finish my sentence as I saw him walking away from the fields and to the parking lot. I knew I had no right to be talking to him without a third person but violence wasn't something tolerated in Islam either; in fact, I would be doing him a huge favour if he just heard me out rather than being childish and walking away.

As stupid as I was, and trust me there was no limit to it, I ran after the boy making sure not to trip. This day definitely not been successful to far. I hadn't even run this much in PE in my entire years of education that I had today, and that was saying something.

He wasn't very far to my surprise. Once I had reached the parking lot, I saw him standing by the door of his car texting someone and by the looks of it, he was definitely frustrated as he aggressively pushed back his hair from his face.

"It's rude to walk away when someone is talking you know." I was now standing a few feet away from him, leaning onto someone else's car praying that the alarm didn't go off thinking that car was trying to be stolen. As I had experienced that before, I most certainly didn't want it to happen again.

"I'm serious now, leave. I won't hurt your little friend for now but I have to be somewhere so save your lectures. I'll even beg if you want." Though I could tell he was being sarcastic at the end, my feelings was somehow hurt that he wanted me gone. I wasn't going to stay anyway, but he didn't have to be so blunt about it. Gosh.

"Don't have to be told twice. Just consider what you're doing; please." It was more of a plead than anything else but knowing him, it's not like he was going to listen anyway. Infact, as soon as I turned around I'm pretty sure he would have rolled his eyes and dismissed everything I said to him.

I walked back inside the building thinking that even though I had little impact with what I had said, talking to him wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. Still, I made a mental note to take one of my brothers with me next time there was a chance to sprinkle was wiseness on him. Though I'm sure I would be questioned by whoever I asked for help, my decision was already made to help this boy and that was what my goal was to be for however long it took to achieve it.

Not realising there was a crowd of jocks in front of me, I accidentally bumped into one of them. A gasp left my mouth but I was glad to see Abdullah, my little brother amongst them and without saying sorry to who I bumped into, I dragged my little brother with me, much to his protest.

"Be quiet or I'll tell mom about you sneaking out last night." I hissed at him and he got the message and without a word he let me drag him to the end of the lockers.

"Geez man, you could've asked nicely. Didn't need to drag me here." He whined as I rolled my eyes at him. Abdullah was annoying to say the least but he was still my brother, no matter how many times I had tried to lock him out the house, put extra chillies in his food or even sent him fake love notes to see his reaction. I could've smiled if this wasn't so serious.

"My bad, but this is tres important. More than the time you almost broke both your legs and I made it worse by dropping tea on them," he looked mortified when I brought back the memory of me nearly permanently damaging his legs, but atleast it had been okay in the end, "I need your help and if you do help me out, I'm ready to give up my bathroom time for you." This was a definite win for me as he always complains about me spending too much time in there.

Without hesitation, his face lit up in a smile and began to nod madly like a hyper dog; this I had to make a face at. What exactly did he thought he looked like while doing that? A model was definitely an option for that.

"But wait, what do you need help with? You know I'm just as bad when it comes to school work." I had wanted to slap him for even comparing my work to his. There was no denying the effort I put towards my education but seeing as this was irrelevant, I brushed it off.

"Less to do with school and more to do with Shoaib." His reaction was unbelievable that I had to just close his mouth for him. Unfortunately I had done it with too much force that I heard his teeth crash against each other. "Hear me out! You see the way he behaves and how he just distanced himself from the Deen. It would be such a reward to help him come back to it. I'm not asking you to talk to him, just accompany me when I need to speak with him."

At my words, he began to take in what I had just said. A few minutes went by before he said anything.

"Alright I'll do it. Not gonna lie but I'm proud of you for wanting to help him, and for that you don't have to give up your bathroom time for me." I beamed at him so hard that he had to back away from me. He chuckled before retrieving back to the group of jocks that he was part of.

In all honesty, since I hadn't told anyone about my plans for helping this boy, I didn't consider what people's reactions would be if I had told them. Luckily the one person I told was happy enough to hear me out and even agree to help me. Alhamdulilah, what helpful people I had in my life.

I must admit, talking to Shoaib made me realise just how much he has truly changed. The old him would never speak to a girl unless there was someone else present. Glaring was probably something I had never seen do either, especially to me. Granted we've never actually talked before today but knowing how he used to be, considering he's my neighbour, I have to say he's changed a lot.

Looking at the time on my watch I realised there was about half an hour left for lunch and two more hours of school. This was just too much for my first day though and as much as I hated to do this, I found myself walking to the nurses office around the hallway.

"Can I come in?" I asked after knocking softly on her door. I even made sure to make my voice sound softer than usual for her to believe me. Once I had gotten an approval, I opened the door and walked in. The first thing I heard was the nurse gasping.

"Honey, you're completely red in the face. Sit down!" I had no idea what she was talking about because I was sure I didn't go through any measurements to show a physical symptom. After looking at my reflection from the mirror on her desk, I couldn't help but scream.

How did this happen?!

"I don't understand. Why does my face look like a tomato?!" I demanded to the nurse not knowing what had happened to me. I was fine when talking to Abdullah a few minutes ago, so how did this happen?

"Dear calm down. You must be boiling from the heat inside the building and especially since you have a jacket on. I think that's caused some kind of bug in your system." As she finished her explanation, I couldn't help but think she was right. I did feel a little suffocated whilst walking to her office. Damn this school and no air conditioning.

"Do you think I'll be able to go home?" I wondered out loud to the nurse who I didn't realise was already on the phone and judging by the screams from the other end, I knew it was my mother. I mentally laughed at what she had to hear right now.

Placing the phone down after another five minutes, she looked at sighing, "Your mother will be here shortly so you can wait for her outside." I didn't bother saying anything, instead I collected my bag and walked back outside.

My face, now that I had come to realise, was burning and no doubt that it was still red. I didn't make no move to try and hide my face; if I happened to look like a tomato then so be it. No shame in being ill.

"Habibti!" There was a screech and I saw my mother panicking towards me. "Oh look at what's happened to you! We must get you to the doctor right away-" I cut my mother off with a whining sound that I knew would irritate her and she smacked my arm.

"I'm fine. Lets just go home & Insha'Allah I'll get well soon." It wasn't much of an argument but somehow I had no energy left in me to talk. It was obvious she wanted to disagree but I started walking with her hand in mine towards the gate.

While walking and listening to my mother rant beside me of how I was an irresponsible child to have gotten sick on the first day of school, a car had caught my attention. It wasn't just any car though to my dismay, it was Shoaibs'. If I had known better, I would have sworn he was staring at me and mother walk home.

"Mama, I think we should invite Aunty Aliza from next door to dinner this week. Along with the rest of her family." My request my sudden and shocked mama, but nonetheless after a few seconds she agreed.

This would be perfect to try and get some sense into the boy, though there was a problem. I knew for sure Shoaib wasn't going to come so easily and that's what made me determine to get better over night. I had to go school tomorrow to plead him to come. Heck I'll even make his favourite food if it came down to it.

Right now though I needed guidance on how I was supposed to approach him. I barely listened to my mother once home and rushed to my room. Sleep was also a necessity right now and it was about the only thing I could do at the moment.

Today had been far from successful though I smiled a little knowing that I had saved someone from being mince meat. Getting sick on the other hand was unexpected and if I didn't get better soon, there was no way I could beg for Shoaib to come over for dinner. Sighing, I laid down on my bed after getting changed into some sweatpants and closed my eyes. Sleep was most definitely needed.

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A/N - I feel really bad taking so long to update, but I also feel like I've lost my touch at writing but nonetheless I'm going to be carrying on writing :)