Even though it was the elder siblings who invited their friends over, the whole family helped them prepare the house for the guests.

Ishaaq and Ibrahim walked together to reach Hasan's house on time for lunch. Ayyub was already there since he was closer to Hasan's house than the other two. He had just returned from saying farewell to his sister, leaving her in the hands of two strangers that they had just met. Maybe one mysterious stranger they met earlier, but strangers, nonetheless. The only reason he trusts the strangers is because of their little brothers – Ishaaq and Ayyub. At least they were not strangers anymore.

Yes, that means Maryam has been kidnapped by Sarah, and she's now headed to Sana's residence, to keep her hostage (A/N: the ransom will be Ibrahim's hand in marriage). Her accomplices are Umm Ishaaq and Umm Ibrahim. The mothers are also gathering at Sana's house.

"Akhi Hasan has four cats?" Maryam asked to re-confirm, unable to believe it. Sarah chuckled. She nodded to confirm her question.

"You'll see at least one or two of them wandering in his garden on the way to Sana's house," Umm Ishaaq said, looking over at the garden that was nearing them. Maryam followed her gaze and spotted a black cat and a ginger cat.

"Are those Akhi Hasan's cats?" she asked, running over to the cats. Sarah saw the empty streets and ran over to reach her.

"Yeah, they are," Sarah confirmed, as the two cats came closer to them. Maryam kneeled down to pet the two cats.

"What are their names?" she asked.

"Peachie and Amaye," Ishaaq answered, surprising Maryam. He came out of Hasan's house. He was tasked, or rather, he took it upon himself to gather Hasan's cats to show Ibrahim. Hania followed him outside to 'guide' him as to where the cats were.

"The ginger one is Peachie, and the black one is Amaye," Hania explained. Maryam turned to look at Ishaaq, and then stood up, feeling bashful. Ishaaq focused on picking up both cats and telling his elder sister to take Hania with her at Umm Hasan's request. Umm Hasan too joined them on their walk to Sana's house.

Hania then said goodbye to Ishaaq and joined her elder sisters, Sarah and Maryam, to go to Sana's house. Ishaaq too, returned to Hasan's house with the two cats and news of Hania reaching Sana's house safely. Before he returned, his mother, Umm Ishaaq told him to behave and be a good boy, to which he gave her a mischievous smile.

Maryam felt too embarrassed to say anything the rest of the way. She hoped no one noticed the bright pink on her cheeks.

"Nice blush," Hania complimented, as soon as they entered Sana's elegant house.

Sarah and Sana turned to look at Maryam and smiled.

"I've only ever seen one other person blush in my life," Sarah said, glancing at Sana. Sana glared at her. Maryam laughed, feeling calmer. Hania laughed along with her.

Sana cleared her throat, "Sarah, remember you're in my house," she warned. Sarah feigned ignorance.

"And so?"

"I can kick you out," she threatened.

Maryam and Hania defended Sarah until Sana resigned and took both to her room. By now, the mothers all gathered in the living room, showing off their flashy dresses.

Maryam is awed by the serene, and clean nature of Sana's room. It is dark and minimalistic compared to Sarah's pastel and white room. She compliments Sana's design choice and Sarah and Sana bicker about what colour is better. Maryam keeps stepping in and stopping them from bickering, all the while trying her best to hold back her laughs. Hania keeps walking up and down the stairs with Ismail, and apparently, they're playing hide and seek.

Meanwhile, the boys are playing Uno at Hasan's house, while Hasan is preparing his dishes in the kitchen, abducting Hussien from the Uno circle to hear his opinion of the taste. Ishaaq just +8 Ayyub, who is now furiously playing Uno, determined to get back at Ishaaq. Ibrahim keeps laughing at Ishaaq and Ayyub. Ishaaq is always smiling at his friend while messing with him, and Ayyub is always scowling at his friend while having to deal with him.

Once lunch is ready, Ishaaq ditches every thought of Uno and runs over to the kitchen, sniffing the waft of freshly cooked Hasan's food as though it were oxygen. His stomach grumbles, leaving Hasan smiling widely and with his eyes. Ishaaq is honoured with the first plate of food, and his pleased expression – the stars in his eyes, and sparkles around him in the air, and how he looks like he had the best thing in the world just now – is enough for Ibrahim to believe in Hasan's culinary skills.

"Your food is truly Ishaaq approved," Ibrahim noted. Hasan nodded proudly.

"Say Ma Sha Allah," he raised an eyebrow, smiling playfully.

"Allahumma Barik, Akhi," Ibrahim made dua, returning the smile.

They sit to eat together in the living room, praising the food, and discussing college, school, and football. And of course, their deen. Ibrahim asks Hasan about his cats, and he passionately explains how he rescued them from the neighbourhood.

"They're not my house cats, but they prefer to lounge here," he stated. His house was mostly a cat café without aesthetics. The cats loved his house best, because of Hasan. Hasan knew every cat in the neighbourhood because he took care of them all. The two orange kittens from Chapter 2 are safely in a larger box and are now being taken care of by Hasan and his other cats. They were wary of the two babies at first, but slowly getting used to their presence and now, taking care of them.

Back in Sana's house, Umm Ayyub serves lunch for the girls and moms. They all sit together to have lunch. Maryam, Sarah and Sana are laughing between bites, talking about Sarah and Sana's antics as kids, and Maryam telling some tales of her own. Hania and Ismail then come running to the table and sit in their places. Umm Ayyub joins in with amusing tales of how she and Umm Ishaaq met. They were both in the grocery store fighting over the last box of diapers for Sarah and Sana – then they both realized that they could just share instead.

The fathers were in the city for a business meeting. Which is why the moms and girls walked around the house in their fancy dresses.

Meanwhile, Ishaaq brought in the two cats that were outside, and they were still inside, seating themselves on the sofas, tables, and chairs – wherever they saw their human companions sitting. They sleep a lot.

"Akhi!" Ishaaq called out, rushing over to Ibrahim, being mindful of a cat walking in front of him, therefore slowing his pace.

"What's up, Ishaaq?" he asked, turning to face the sunshine-faced kiddo.

"Add me on WhatsDat!" he requested. Hussein and Ayyub were calling him over to help them clean up the dishes. "*** *** 4848" he recited, in one breath – in a hurry, running off to join Hasan, Hussein, and Ayyub in the kitchen to wash the dishes. He hurried to his contacts app to write it down. Ibrahim insisted on helping but the boys told him to just help clear the table and rest up since he had just moved. Although that was nearly a month ago. He reluctantly agreed, due to their insistence.

He decided to text the number he was given. Hasan's grey cat walked and sat next to Ibrahim. He pet it softly before messaging.

"Assalamu Alaikum,"

"Thanks for giving me your number,"

"I'm going to invite you over one of these days,"

He knew Ishaaq wasn't going to respond since he was washing dishes – more like bickering with Ayyub with Hussein and Hasan doing all the work – nonetheless, he sent the messages to surprise Ishaaq.

***

Maryam has an Instagram account, and she was even more excited to add her elder sisters there since they both too had their own accounts. Sana didn't post anything, whereas Sarah's account was public, and she only posted pictures of nature and birds with insightful captions.

While Sana and Sarah talked about their adventures and misadventures in the town they were born and brought up in, Maryam remembered her life in the city. There were no gardens, rarely parks, and many malls and tall buildings instead. She remembered how her friends used to hang out at malls, while she wasn't allowed to because she was too young. She felt deprived.

"Uktis, have you been to the mall together?" she asked, her heart feeling hollow with sadness.

Sana and Sarah look at each other and back to Maryam, "Only for clothes shopping with Ummi and Abbi," Sarah said. Maryam gaped at her.

"Not for fun?" Maryam asked, surprised.

"Shopping is not fun..." Sana sighed, remembering how long her parents took to buy gold.

Maryam smiled, "Back in the city, my friends used to hang out in malls, and I was left behind," she sighed. She was feeling less hollow now that she had two elder sisters to show the mall to.

"Oh, in that way," Sarah started, "we haven't gone yet," she concluded.

Sana nodded, "You can show us around next time we go to the city," she requested. Maryam was already excited at the thought.

"Of course!" She couldn't resist the urge to jump around excitedly, so she said that while jumping around excitedly.

***

After washing the dishes, the boys were getting ready to go to the masjid to pray 'Asr. Hasan's four cats were all over the house – one was found in the wardrobe, the ginger one was on the bookshelf, and the black one was on the kitchen floor, snooping around. The grey one remained on the sofa where Ibrahim was sitting. He was truly the fosterer of felines.

"You're just going to leave them here?" Ibrahim asked, surprised.

Hasan nodded. "They can take care of themselves,"

"They own the house after all," Hussein stated, matter-of-factly. It was true, the four cats were ruling the house. Ibrahim couldn't help but laugh at that.

Ayyub pulled Ishaaq out of the washroom. "You're the first person in the world who takes five hours to do Wudhu," he snapped, annoyed.

"I was washing my hands with soap!" Ishaaq retorted.

"You should have been done with that earlier, sloth!" Ayyub called.

"Bickering will only waste time, let's go to the Masjid before the Adhan," Hasan silenced them. Ibrahim was too amused by the banter to stop them.

After Salah, Sarah noticed that received three notifications from WhatsDat. Is it messages from her teacher, or something important? She opened WhatsDat only to see that she received texts from an unknown number.

"Assalamu Alaikum"

"Thanks for giving me your number"

"I'm going to invite you over one of these days"

...

Panic. Who did she give her number to? And who is this person – why are they inviting her over? Huh? She closed her phone and decided to not respond to the unknown number.

"I'm going to invite you over one of these days"

Should she be worried? She was very worried right now. She doesn't give out numbers to anyone, only her Instagram handle. Did someone stalk her profile and find out her number? She was overthinking. Then she brushed it off. Allah will protect her. Maybe it was her little brother's friend, texting the wrong number? After all, they have similar phone numbers. His ends in 4848 and hers ends in 8484.

Indeed, Ibrahim mistyped 4848 and wrote it as 8484. Oopsie.

The boys return home to a neat house – the cats had gone out because they were bored. Ishaaq and Ayyub flew over to Hussein's room to trash it while he was still downstairs, with Hasan and Ibrahim.

Ibrahim pulls out his phone to check on his mother and to know when he should go back home. He saw that Ishaaq had left him on seen.

"Leaving me on read?"

"Not cool"

"It's Ibrahim"

"Don't block me lol"

He explained. Maybe now Ishaaq would give him a response?

Sarah had WhatsDat open and with every message she received, she grew even more confused. What does he mean by "Don't block me?" – does he know that is exactly what she is about to do?

"Did you forget your phone, Ishaaq?"

Oh. OH. The last message makes it all make sense now. He received her number instead of Ishaaq's. Oh! That all makes sense now. He isn't a weirdo. She didn't give her number to anyone. And Ibrahim did not invite her over – but instead, he invited her little brother. Of course, it all makes sense now. She sighed, relieved. Sana raised an eyebrow at the battle Sarah was having with her screen and then shrugged it off. She was probably playing Candy Crush and failing hard.

"You're texting Sarah's number"

"This is Ishaaq's number:"

"*** *** 4848"

She sent this message before blocking him. Ibrahim, on the other end, was left baffled. Sarah? The mysterious, cheerful Niqabi elder sister of Ishaaq, Sarah? How did this happen?

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know"

But of course, that message never reached her. Since he's now blocked. He added the correct Ishaaq's number and messaged him. Immediately, Ishaaq sent him an image of him and Ayyub on Hussein's computer, playing Minecraft. Hussein walked over to Ibrahim because he was chuckling.

"What are you laughing at, Akhi?" he asked, curiously.

Ibrahim turned his phone to Hussein. Hussein gaped at the sight of Ishaaq on his Minecraft server, then flew up the stairs without saying another word.

***

After Maghrib, everyone returned to their own houses, reuniting with their beloved families. Of course, Ibrahim and Sarah are baffled at themselves about what happened in WhatsDat.

Maryam kept replaying the encounter with Ishaaq – it may have been brief, but he had appeared when she was kneeling! That was embarrassing. She turned pink at the thought of it. I should have been more careful! She thought.

Ishaaq could only think of Hasan's delicious cooking as he dozed off immediately.

Hussein changed his laptop password. Guess what. Ishaaq blew up his raid farm. In survival Minecraft. That was something to sulk over for a while.

Sana came across some pictures of baby Hasan and baby her on her mom's phone. She chuckled, remembering those times. She used to be a very loud, and bossy little kid. Hasan used to be the shy, quiet yet equally mischievous kid. They both were the menacing duo, partners in crime. The smile didn't last long when she remembered all the times he threatened her with cats. She frowned.

Thus, we live in the same story universe, but each of us has our own book series based on us and the people around us – each one having a different narrative than the other. If Sarah and Ibrahim were facing the same situation, they would both associate different emotions with the same event and think different things – even though the event is the same. Subhan Allah. This reminds me of an ayah:

"Say, 'Each works according to his manner, but your Lord is most knowing of who is best guided in way.'"

~ Surat-ul Isra, 84