Twice Upon Qadr - A Shot At Love **EDITING**

Chapter 5

"Sheikh you wanted to see me?"

Sheikh Saad looked up from his computer, and motioned Hana into his office. She took a few steps before sitting down in a chair across from his desk, and crossing her legs nervously. The Sheikh didn't usually talk to her save for their monthly teacher meetings, so when he had had the secretary call her and ask her to come down to the Masjid, she had gotten nervous.

"Welcome Hana! Thank you for coming. I hope it is not an inconvenience?" he asked and Hana shook her head.

"It was no trouble."

"Good, good." The Sheikh said with a nod. "I have a meeting in fifteen minutes, so I will just cut to the chase. I want to offer you a job."

Hana blinked.

"I already have a job. I teach remember?"

"I know," he said with a wave of his hand, "but I am talking about something I think you would be interested in. For a while now I have had members of our community tell me that they think it would be a good idea if we had a newspaper for the Masjid. Talking about the happenings in our community and the neighborhood and what's going on in the world. We could have pieces and pictures on the classes we offer, and the activities the children do. Print the weekly Jumuah topic and if we have any guest Khateebs we can do profiles on them. And I want you to be in charge."

Hana's mouth fell open and she just stared at the Sheikh in surprise before she broke out in a smile.

"Sheikh that's amazing! We could have a highlight piece every week on a different Sahaba, or maybe influential Muslims in history and nowadays! I have so many ideas!" she exclaimed excitedly, and the Sheikh smiled.

"I can see I picked the right person for the job! I will allow you to pick your own team, but please get back to me by the end of the month."

"Of course!" she exclaimed, her face flushed with pleasure. "JazakillahuKhairan thank you so much!"

"You are most welcome! InshaAllah I am excited to see what you can do!" he said with a smile, and after she said her salaams, she rushed out of the Masjid, eager to get home and start planning.

Once she had gotten home she said a hurried salaam to her parents, and rushed into her bedroom, logging onto her computer. Almost immediately she got an IM message from her best friend Kalthoum.

Hanooooooooooni!

She laughed and hurriedly typed a response.

Salaam Kalthoum! You will never believe what just happened to me!

You saw Houssam!?

Hana's hands stilled over her keys for a moment.

What?

You know he is coming home today right? My brother can't stop talking about how excited he is to see him. It has been like a year since Houssam was here.

Didn't he come like two months ago for a visit?

Ooh you remember when he was here?! Ooh Hana!

Hana rolled her eyes. She had not told anyone her feelings for Houssam, and wasn't going to. She had liked him way before he was famous. She had known him her whole, and had liked him ever since she could remember. He had been a senior when she was a freshman so of course he didn't notice her. She had followed his career faithfully, and while she had never been interested in sports before, she never missed a game when he was playing, either watching it on television, or listening to it on the radio. She thought he was funny and kind and a good Muslim, and boy was he handsome MashaAllah! Over the years her feelings for him only intensified even though he never paid her any attention, and she had secretly suffered for years. But he saw her as his best friend's little sister, that was painfully obvious, and would never see her as anything else. She had to get over him.