All For What!

15

Sa'eed walked into the room he shared with his wife, exhausted. He found her sleeping peacefully in the bed. He went closer to her and planted a kiss on her forehead. He missed spending time with his wife. They hardly spent any time together anymore.

Maryam stirred in her sleep and her eyes fluttered open to see her husband smiling at her. "When did you come back, habibi?" She asked, sitting up.

"Just now," he answered.

"How was work?" She inquired.

"Hectic as always, yours?" He asked.

"Alhamdulilah."

"Is Manal asleep already?" He missed spending time with his baby also. His job was depending a lot of time from him.

"She fell asleep after I gave her some medicines," Maryam responded.

"Medicines?" Saeed asked, surprised. "- what's wrong with her? Is she sick?"

"She had a slight fever and threw up, but she's better now," she replied.

"Why didn't you call me to inform me and why didn't you take her to the hospital for proper treatment?" Sa'eed asked, concerned. He didn't wait for her to answer, before standing up and walking out of the room to Manal's.

He opened the door to her room and saw her lying in bed on her stomach. He felt really bad for not being there to take her to the hospital when she fell sick.

He kissed her on the forehead gently to avoid waking her up and scooped her up in his arms, taking her to their room.

"She's sleeping here tonight," Sa'eed stated, dropping her beside Maryam carefully. He also got in bed, with Manal in between them and drew her closer to himself. He whispered goodnight to Maryam and kissed Manal's forehead once more before drifting off to sleep.

•

The next morning, Sa'eed prepared her for school himself and dropped her off.

•

"I'll be leaving now, make sure you lock the main door before you leave for school,"

"Alright, ma," Nafisa replied. 

Maryam finished what she had to do, before leaving for work.

Nafisa suddenly got very angry. No one even thought of dropping her off at her school — they expected her to walk because she was not their daughter.

She finished the little house chores she had to do and went to her room to prepare for school. She made sure to lock to main door as Maryam had ordered, before leaving for school.

•

Nafisa was on her way to the  cafeteria to buy some snacks, alone, because Zeenat was absent from school. She was about to start eating, when sjhe saw the clique of friends she wanted so bad to be a part of, but knew they wouldn't even spare her a look, talk more of a chance. She decided to try her luck regardless.

"Hi girls," she waved, smiling sheepishly.

They exchanged looks and burst into laughter.

"Are to referring to us?" One of the girls asked, pointing to herself, then to the other two girls. The way she acted and was in the middle of the girls, Nafisa suspected she was the leader of the clique.

"Ye...s?" Nafisa stuttered. The girls, especially the leader whose name was still unknown to her looked intimidating. She was intimidated by them. She didn't belong to their class - she knew this quite well.

"You're the new girl right?" The girl at the leaders left asked. She was tall, skinny and beautiful. They all were, but the leader was more beautiful and had lots of  confidence.

"Yes I am," Nafisa raised her head, high. She was intimidated by them, but didn't want them to have the impression, so she mustered all the confidence in her.

"What do you need from us?" The leader spoke again.

"I want to be friends with you guys," Nafisa stated boldly. She didn't want to beat around the bush anymore.

The three girls burst into uncontrollable laughter. Did she say something funny? - she wondered, keeping a straight face. She refused to get more intimidated by them.

"Really?" The last girl, standing by the right finally spoke.

Nafisa nodded.

"You don't have what it takes to be a part of my clique," the first girl spoke. It was now confirmed to Nafisa she was indeed the leader.

"What does it take to be a part of your clique?" Nafisa asked. She was willing to do anything to be a part if their clique and to be known for that.

"Actually they are three," the leader started. "- the first, you must be rich. Second, beautiful and third, intelligent. As you can see, we three are qualified, we have it all," she finished and the other two nodded in agreement.

Nafisa gulped audibly, but would not back off. She wanted this and would do anything to get it. "I am rich, beautiful and very intelligent as well."

"Really?" The leader asked.

"I am not a liar," Nafisa smiled, convincingly.

"Very well then. You have to show us if you really have the qualities you claim to have before we accept you," the leader said and walked away, with the two girls trailing behind her.

"I will be a part of your clique soon and that's a promise," Nafisa muttered to herself. She was going to do all it takes to be worthy of being their friends, even if she had to steal from Maryam and Saeed - she would do it in a heartbeat.