It was already approaching finals week of the first semester for the first-year students. Since then, Badr and Yousef never went to the forest again nor did they dare to reach the corridor of the haunted staff room, fearing the punishment that they might receive from doing so. However, Badr still had countless detentions in the break because of his noisy behavior in class.

Soon enough, the stressful week was over and the winter holiday finally arrived. Badr and Yousef sat down with the other Rimor boys, taking turns on who will play with the PlayStation controller. After playing for the whole day, Badr and Yousef rested on Badr's bed, feeling accomplished after finishing their finals. Badr sat up and spotted two boys close by.

"Hi!" Badr exclaimed to the boys.

"Hey," one of them replied, waving his hand. His messy ginger hair complemented the freckles on his face, and his bright green eyes showed signs of tiredness. His eyebrows seemed almost transparent, unlike the boy next to him.

"Oh Yahya, you didn't tell us you found someone you get along with!" Badr smiled happily as Yousef saluted.

"Who's Yahya?" the ginger's bright green eyes darted around. "I'm Fred and he's Mustafa."

"What? Aren't you Yahya?"

"No," the other boy finally spoke. His facial features were similar to Yahya: dark hair, somewhat thin lips and extremely pale skin.

"Hi, Mustafa right?" Yousef greeted, smiling.

Mustafa nodded his head upwards. Fred asked curiously, "Wow! Is he your friend?"

"What? No!" Mustafa's dark eyebrows furrowed immediately. Yousef giggled quietly and informed them while moving his hands: "We come from the same school."

"Ohhh," Badr opened his mouth as a sign of understanding. Mustafa frowned.

"So was Mustafa the same as now?" Fred gaped, which highlighted the fats under his chin. "Was he always unapproachable?"

Mustafa's long eyebrows furrowed even more. Yousef shrugged his shoulders, "Dunno, I guess he was."

Badr grinned, "I'm Badr and he's Yousef." Then he turned to Mustafa and apologized, saying: "I'm sorry I thought you were Yahya, you just look like each other so much! That's Yahya by the way."

Badr pointed at Yahya who was standing nearby by his closet.

"What? Stop pointing," Yahya groaned.

"I swear you look so alike!" Badr's eyes widened.

"Yeah," Fred agreed. "Are you clones or something?"

Fred walked over to Yahya and dragged him next to Mustafa. Badr, Yousef, and Fred conducted a visual comparison on both of them. They were similar, apart from their contrasting eyes and slightly different clothes.

"Mustafa has moles," Yousef observed, as he pointed at one of Mustafa's notable moles, which was located on his left cheek.

"Mustafa has brown eyes," Badr nodded in assurance.

"Yeah, but they look like twins!" Fred laughed. 

"Shut up!" Mustafa shouted angrily.

Yahya and Mustafa were shocked as they stared at each other. Mustafa instantly turned his head to the other side as Yahya sighed.

"Are you brothers?" Yousef queried.

Yahya finalized this confusion by saying calmly, "No, he's not my brother. I don't know where you got your information, but I never met him before."

Mustafa rolled his eyes. Fred yawned, "I actually thought something interesting was going on here."

Badr agreed by stating loudly, "Too bad. Maybe it's just a coincidence. That's cool actually."

The first day of the new semester began and the students were required to stay after school because they were getting their results.

While standing in line, Badr noisily complained, "This holiday passed so fast!"

"Yeah," Yousef agreed. "Even though it was a whole month, it barely felt like a day."

"True..." Malak neared them from behind.

Yousef turned around and yelled, "Stop following us you stalker! I wasn't talking to you!"

"Nor me, I was talking to Badr," Malak stated and Yousef ignored her as he took his report. Badr scanned his results and he peered at Malak's paper.

"Wow, you got good results."

"Thanks! Yours are very bad," Malak observed.

"I know..." Badr sighed helplessly.

Malak peeked over at Yousef's results and her face reddened when she saw the total average.

"Why? How did you get a ninety?"

"How much did you get huh?" Yousef asked.

"Ninety! What's this!? I thought you were dumb..."

"What! You stupid? You're the dumb one!"

"No I'm not!" Malak's nose scrunched.

"Yes you are!"

Their arguing continued even when Bilal approached them with a very gloomy Jack behind him, muttering, "Why...I studied so much..."

"How were your results?" Bilal asked Badr, who shook his head and showed him the paper.

"What's this? You got a sixty-two? I thought we studied well. Explain!" Bilal's voice was stern but calm.

Badr glanced at the paper in Bilal's creamy corn colored hands and screamed, "NINETY-EIGHT!? THAT'S THE HIGHEST GRADE ON EARTH!"

"Shh," Bilal whispered as Jack cried dramatically, "I studied way more than you, Bilal! How? How come? So not fair..."

Jack pouted at Bilal then turned to Badr with a smirk on his face. "You deserve that grade."

"What? Me?"

"Yeah, sleeping after every question. You're abnormal."

Badr was not willing to deal with this any longer, so he grabbed his paper and strolled around. Malak noticed him leave so she followed him.

"Don't cry Badr! You can do better this term," she encouraged. Badr grinned in response but soon glowered at the figure that just passed nearby.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Malak sunk behind Badr when she heard the boy speak. He was taller than Badr and his shoulders were wide, and his plump lips formed a sly expression when he faced Badr.

"I just got my grades, like you?" Badr answered.

"I bet you got sixty just like you did in school back in Rimor," the boy jested. Badr made a sad face because it was the truth.

The boy continued triumphantly: "I knew it. So how much did you get?" His unfamiliar face appeared unfriendly to Malak.

"None of your business! You didn't change either, you're still nosy," Badr sassed back. The dark-skinned boy rolled his eyes in response to Badr's remark. He struted away, leaving Malak with many questions.

"Who is he?"

"He's Majid, from my old school in Rimor," Badr explained. "We are rivals in swimming, not to mention he's nosy and mean."

The week passed by very slowly as classes resumed like normal. Badr yawned his way through all his lessons and slept in most of them. He either disrupted the class or slept if the subject was too boring. Of course, he got sent out and had even more detentions than usual, which shortened his time with Yousef. Yousef didn't mind because he hung out with Yahya and gradually became his best friend. If they weren't walking around with each other, they were usually playing soccer with the other boys in their grade.

Malak was often experiencing very bad social issues, and it started to get worse. Malak thought that it was already awkward enough that she talked mostly to the crazy boys, Badr and Yousef. She enjoyed conversing with Badr but didn't feel that comfortable with talking to Yousef since they were always bickering.

So she tried to search for female friends instead since they would understand her better. There were many friendly girls but they already had best friends. Malak was too late, they were either too attached to each other, or she was just too shy.

There was one girl, though, who befriended Malak and didn't seem to have a best friend yet. Her name was Hunly, the friendly girl that Badr acquainted with in the airport bus.

"Hi Malak," Hunly addressed Malak once in break time, smiling warmly.

"Hi!" Malak replied happily.

"Do you wanna hang out in the cafeteria?"

"Um...sure!"

"Okay, let's go then!" Hunly grabbed Malak by the hand and accompanied her to the cafeteria. When they entered the cafeteria, a group of three girls approached them and one girl, with eye-catching long, fair hair that reached her knees, shouted loudly, "Hunly! We're here!"

Malak and Hunly stood next to the girls, and Yasmin complained, "The line is so long!"

"Yeah!" the third girl agreed. Then she noticed Malak and introduced: "I'm Lana! What's your name?"

Malak eyed the girl shyly. "I'm Malak. Nice to meet you," she said.

"I'm Hala!" the loud girl grinned sassily.

Yasmin exclaimed at Malak with admiration, "Nice name! I'm Yasmin. I'm from Rimor. We are actually all from Rimor."

Malak smiled back as she thought how happy she was about finally making friends.

"Which class are you in?" Yasmin asked quickly.

"7-D, you?" Malak confirmed.

"7-A. It's such a fun class. What are your hobbies by the way?"

"Drawing, art..."

"Cool! I love riding bikes! My dad got me this really cute pink bicycle last year, and I ride it all the time! It even has a front basket!"

"I have one too! It's neon purple! It lights up at night; it's so cool!" Hala immediately interrupted.

"Yeah, we ride together in Rimor. We came from the same school, in case you're wondering," Yasmin said. Then she added excitedly, "Guys, guess what? My parents will be coming here for the summer!"

"Here? In this school?" questioned Hunly.

"Yeah! Even if it's a boarding school, they said they will try to find a house. They wanna live here too, with me of course."

"So they wanna take a tour? Cuute! They'll love it!" Lana asked, eating her fruit puff joyfully.

"Yeah, I think they will love it. You know, they just wanna see the teachers and all that stuff," Yasmin continued, while simultaneously taking the muffin after paying.

"I wish my parents would come too," Hala hoped, taking a bite of her sandwich.

Malak explored as the girls continued chatting. She decided to fit in and buy something like the other girls too, so she quickly bought an orange juice with her points. After paying, she lost sight of the four girls. Malak rushed between the others, anxiously scouting for them. She finally caught sight of them again, so she dashed towards them, and paced next to Yasmin.

"Hunly! Did you finish practicing the nutcracker piece?" Lana questioned curiously. "I think Hunly will look sooo adorable in the pink costume!"

"No," Hunly replied, whilst eating her croissant. "Thank you! I can't wait to wear it!"

"Yasmin," Hala noisily questioned Yasmin as she poked her shoulder. "Did you learn how to do more than three pirouettes after all?"

"My highest was four," Yasmin answered. Then Hala instantly smirked in triumph.

"I can do twelve, you know! Twelve is my lucky number!"

"Amazing," Yasmin praised, while Hala skipped energetically.

Malak felt left out because she didn't take ballet classes; she was not part of the ballet club after all. She looked for a trash can to throw her empty juice bottle in. Once she found one, she hurried to throw her trash and cast around. The girls were suddenly out of sight.

She strode quickly, seeking everywhere for her newly made 'friends'. When she finally found them in the playground, she realized that they didn't even notice she was missing. Behind the smile she wore on her face, her heart was filled with worry and confusion. She anxiously looked in all directions unsure what to do. Should she hasten desperately after them? Or just leave them together and not try to ruin their friendship? Suddenly, she a huge weight sat on her shoulders as she feared the terrible memory will come back and play on her mind over and over again like a repeated tape.

*****

"Hey! You're the new girl, right?"

Malak blinked to see two girls in front of her. She nodded.

The two introduced themselves as Zahina and Perlah. When they invited Malak to become their friend, she was overjoyed.

A few days later, another girl named Ikram joined their group, and within two weeks, they became close.

One day while they were ambling together in the empty corridor, Zahina handed three bracelets to her friends.

"My mother bought them, so here you go! The pink one is for Perlah and me. You guys take the purple ones."

Malak thanked her, eyed Ikram and knew she was jealous; Ikram wanted a pink bracelet to match with Perlah's.

The next day, in break, Malak packed her books and explored the class. She happened to spot Zahina's diary in her bag. No one was in the class so Malak decided to take a peek since Zahina was in the bathroom. Malak was also curious because Zahina never showed her what she wrote.

She opened the diary and stopped on a certain page.

'I don't like Ikram. She's trying to steal my best friend, Perlah, away from me. She's so annoying and mean. I hate her!'

Malak quickly closed the diary and returned it before someone caught her. She decided to tell Ikram what Zahina wrote. Later that day Malak approached Ikram and greeted her.

"I just wanted to tell you something. I saw Zahina's diary and she wrote that she doesn't really like you."

"What? Why?" Ikram asked.

"I don't know. She said she thinks that you're annoying and mean. Have you upset her?"

"Not really, but how dare she? I though we were friends!"

"I know, I don't know how she could write something as mean as that..."

But the day after that, when Malak shambled up to them, Zahina looked angry.

"What's wrong?" inquired Malak.

"What's wrong!? What's wrong with you, spilling my secrets like that! How DARE you open my diary? I'm so mad at you!"

"I was just um..cur-"

"Stop talking! Give me that bracelet, you're not our friend anymore!" Zahina shouted, snatching the bracelet from Malak's wrist.

They all became friends after that and Malak was left alone, hated by mostly everyone because of the rumors they spread about her.

*****

Malak gulped and proceeded to walk the opposite direction of them as the bell rang, dreading that something similar would eventually happen to her again.

Author's Note: This is the new chapter, finally! I hope I can keep up the schedule of updating every week even though finals are coming up at the end of March. The next chapter is where the real plot begins, so make sure to check it out once it comes up! Have fun reading; feel free to vote and comment if you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!

P.s: About what happened to Malak in the end, did you ever feel the same way? Which two best guy friends do you like most? Badr and Yousef, Yousef and Yahya, Bilal and Jack or is it Fred and Mustafa?

P.s: ***** means flashback, if you're confused. We added Malak's flashback of why she has no friends.