#FewWords
Keep going. Not all days will be smooth sailing. Some days are tough, really tough and things will seem uncertain. But always move ahead with hope. Hope that things will get better because after hardship, there’ll always be ease. So don’t despair!

Recap
I didn't, I just warned him and told him I needed a change in things in less than 2 months, if there were no changes, his job will suffer, you know that his family..." He went on telling me he won't be employed early cos of his age and his family will suffer for his mistake.

"Well, I'm going, have a nice day bro" I stood up and walked to the door.

I turned to Stephanie and said "don't forget to call the laundry man please"

"Ok son" she said with a smile on her lips.

Chapter Eleven
Nasir's POV
The next day was just good, I wonder how everything went back to normal, Jax didn't say anything to me, his father must have talked to him, well...I don't know.

We had a revision of Organic Chemistry for more than the usual hours, Mr Bassey and Mrs Williams, our Chemistry teachers took turns in teaching us. We had fun in Mr Bassey's class. Later on, we had a meeting with the school's football coach, Hammad is the Sport Prefect while Jackson is the Assistant. It wasn't that hard for me to get into the team, the coach watched me play and I became a member immediately, after few formalities. I replaced a guy whose parents wanted him to quit football for the mean time, so he'd focus on exams, that's amazing. I'm so happy I was recruited, the coach had to check my entrance exam's result before he considered me.

I got to know that the senior students will have their last match as the school's players, based on what the coach said, I'm sure it'd be competitive.

"Isn't it time for your Salahs?" Jackson asked us.

I was shocked, he's a Christian. Jackson noticed my shock and he said "ohh please, almost 5 years around the Hassan's Family taught me a lot about Islam" he said while rolling his eyes.

Hammad just laughed and said "it's almost time" I'll drive us there, Hammad said looking at Jackson if he'd agree.

"Ohh noooo, don't give me that look please, I don't want to let you drive my car" he said while chuckling and handing him the car keys.

"Where's your car by the way?" I asked Hammad, I haven't seen his car yet.

They both laughed and Hammad said "I decided to play a game with my dad, I won't drive my car till after results are out, if the results are excellent, I get to choose any car of my choice and he'd buy it"

"That's ridiculous" I laughed
"What if he ends up not buying..." And he cut me saying

"Nahhhh, Aryan and Arianna gave me the idea of him signing a contract, no backing out" he burst out laughing.

I think he finds it funny too, it's actually funny. We all laughed while we walked to our lockers to pick up some books, I bumped into Salma, she was about leaving, we exchanged greetings.

"How are you all?" She asked while we were all leaving the school.

I think she's forcing herself to talk, didn't want to seem rude to us.

"We are good, aren't we? Jackson asked and the four of us laughed.

We chatted for a while, we were actually outside, near the car but I guess Jackson and Hammad don't want to allow Salma leave, immediately the conversation is about to end, they'd ask questions about our previous Classes or make jokes.

I noticed Salma is a very shy girl, she was fidgety through out our chat, but immediately she was asked a question regarding school work, she'll immediately start explaining as if she wasn't an introverted introvert, that's funny.

Jackson and Hammad noticed that too, that's why they keep asking her questions to keep the conversation going.

"Salma, you'll go to Friday prayer, right?" I asked her.

"Well, yeah... probably...b...butt..."she stammered.

I gave her a go on look.

"I'm waiting for my dad, it's a tradition, we all go to Friday Prayers together anytime he's in town, he picks me up from school after he picks my mum and sis" she said and her phone rang.

She smiled widely, she picked up the call and turned back. Who's she talking to? Well, the call made her smile.

"As-salamu alaikum Abba" I heard her say through the phone.

I didn't even realize the expression on my face was embarrassing when she smiled till Jackson and Hammad burst out laughing.

I looked at them, Rolling my eyes.

"Ooohhh, alright, it's okay Abba, I'll go home then" she said while turning back to face us.

"I shouldn't waste your time please, you should start going to the Mosque"
She said while giving us a tight smile.

"...and you?" I asked

That was when she told me her dad was a little busy, he'd just pray at the mosque near his work place while she goes home to pray. Hammad offered her a ride to and fro the mosque, she was hesitant but we all insisted and she later on agreed.

Hammad and I walked to the males'  ablution centre while Salma went to Females' ablution centre. Jackson waited for us in the car, I'm sure he's listening to music.

We prayed and after that we took Salma to her house, it was a nice looking small house, compared to my father's house. It had a healthy tree in the front.

She thanked us and went inside while Jackson and Hammad started telling me few things about their football team, the games they've won and some they've lost. How everything was taken care of in the team.

"I'm actually feeling nervous about this last match, I'm worried about us losing,  most student aren't into training like that, they are all preparing for finals" Hammad said.

"That's true and it won't be nice if we don't win this last game" Jackson said.

"Is Jax also part of the team?" I randomly asked.

"Yeahhhhh, he is, sadly" Hammad said.

Wow was all I said, we got to Hammad's house, he quickly went inside and in less than 5 minutes he came out and he drove us to my house, today was my own turn, we'd study at my house. I've told mum and I even told her to prepare us food if she wasn't busy and she was happy when I told her, this is the first time I'm taking my friends to my house, I'm a boarder so....

We got home, I freshened up and Jackson was very sleepy when we were reading so I forced him to freshen up, I took him to the guest room.

"Ham..."

"Nahhh, I've taken a shower, when I went inside..."he paused when he noticed me glaring at him.

I immediately pursued him and he was laughing "we were waiting in the car while you took a shower?" I shouted

"I wanted to ask you when you changed your clothes but..." I said while sitting on the couch, he picked the remote to change the channel while we were waiting for Jackson.

"Change that Hammad, pplllleeeeaaasssseee" I whined and he laughed

"I hate the system of our government, I don't like watching the News" I said while chuckling a bit.

"I watch News, it's very good, you get to know..." He was talking when I said

"I can get heart attack cos of the news and you are the son of a Judge and a lawyer, what does one expect?"

"Oohh please" he said

Few hours and we covered a lot, after Maghrib prayer, Hammad and Jackson started watching a football match while I was reading about the football match my team was invited. I wanted to know more about the teams that were invited too.

We had dinner, my mum was so happy, she chatted a lot with us while my dad didn't talk much.

"Well, Hammad and Jackson, who are your parents?" My dad asked

"I'm Mr Hassan's son, the judge..." Hammad said

"Ohh, wow, amazing!" My dad said.

Jackson looked down, I know how he feels, both his parents weren't with him.

He looked up and said "I am Jackson Smith and I have a brother, Alex Smith, the CEO of..."

"Alex is your brother, wow, I know Alex, he's such a hard-working young man, he has done a lot after..." He paused and took a sip, I know he wasn't that cruel to continue what he wanted to say.

"Nice friends Nasir" my dad said while leaving us

They got to know my mum was a journalist, she stopped working after she got married.

Hammad gave me a look when my mum said she was a journalist.

It was time for them to leave when my mum asked them to have a sleepover but they couldn't accept the offer due to few reasons.

I bid them farewell while I went inside.

Salma's POV
Abba couldn't take me to take us to the Masjid today, I'm actually surprised at the way I chatted with them, well, that's a nice thing though.

I laughed a lot, remembering Jackson's jokes makes me smile again. They were funny guys, a nice circle I guess, but not everyone gets the chance to be in a good circle such as this, Hammad and Jackson have being friends since I was admitted into this school, very close, Nasir joined not long after he started schooling here.

After they dropped me, I waited till Maryam and mum came back home, I served lunch and went to my room, I have no appetite for food.

I brought out my Islamiyyah bag to revise, tomorrow's Saturday and I'll go to Islamiyyah by 10am, I won't wake up as early as usual.

I revised for almost two hours, I even memorised the ten verses given to us as assignment.

"Salma...Salma..." I heard my mum calling.

"Naa'aamm" I called while picking a veil, I put on my slippers and went downstairs to the parlor.

"We've finished" she said

"Ohh, ok" I said

I picked the plates, washed and cleaned up the kitchen, it was almost 45 minutes.

When it's few minutes past time for Maghrib, I was walking upstairs to my room to perform ablution when my mum said "where to?"

"It's Maghrib time" I said

She looked at me weirdly and said, I need you to wake Maryam up. I went to her room, I knocked but there was no answer, I knocked again, same so I decided to open the door.

"Maryam... Maryam, mum's calling you" her room is so messed up.

She was sleeping so I woke her up and went to pray, after praying I made few Duas and went back to the kitchen to make dinner.  As usual, I've already made stew, nothing much, just make rice.

The rice was on the gas, while I took a stool and sat at the extreme part of the kitchen since it's not advisable to use your phone in the kitchen.

I was scrolling through Tweets on Twitter when I came across a tweet that said "𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚕 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝚛𝚎𝚋𝚎𝚕, 𝚎𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞."

"Strong words" I murmured.

My dad came back after Isha, we had dinner but mum and dad haven't really reconciled yet, I think so though.

I was watching a SciFi movie with dad, Maryam and Mum were on their phones, after the movie, I was about leaving when dad said "well, Salma, for you to focus on your studies for finals, I've got a maid"

He said that with a spark in his eyes, he was happy.

Mum snapped and said "no way am I going to allow a maid in this house when Salma is here, no way"

"Rukayyah... Rukayyah" my dad  warned

"Is it because I've not being talking to you about Salma doing all the house chores, why can't Maryam help her, I've just being looking at you and your so called daughter, this daughter of yours will make you shed tears" he said.

He looked strangely calm while saying that.

"Maryam and Salma are my daughters but the way you've spoilt Maryam is alarming" he added.

"From now on, Salma won't do one chore in this house" he said while my mum just smiled, he has said this a couple of times but it's always broken.

"I'm so serious about this, if you dare tell her to do any chore, you know the consequences"

My parents relationship is getting really bad.

"and for your information, the maid is resuming tomorrow" immediately he said that, the bell rang, it's late who could it be.

The parlor was quiet for few seconds, I went to get the door.

I was shocked when I opened the door.

         ━─━────༺༻────━─━
𝔒𝔐𝔊, 𝔴𝔥𝔬 𝔠𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡 𝔦𝔱 𝔟𝔢??😂😂🤩

ℋℯ𝓁𝓁ℴ 𝓉𝒽ℯ𝓇ℯ, 𝒽ℴ𝓌 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝓉ℴ𝒹𝒶𝓎'𝓈 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉ℯ𝓇?
𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒, 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒💗💗

Almost 800 reads🤯🤯 thank you so much guys😇