HIJABI ✔️

Chapter 3

Ruqayyah's POV

Five minutes into the lesson and I'm already in the spotlight. The ice breaker has always been the most hated part of first days for me. We had to present ourselves and tell everyone our age and one thing we liked.

"Alright class, everyone will grab this piece of paper filled with questions and write the name of whoever has that thing." Mrs Fatima says as she hands out a piece of paper to everyone. "So for example one of the questions say, 'who has a car?' find at least one person who has a car and write their name down. You can not write the person's name more than one time or write two names in one question. So that means you have to keep moving to meet new people and getting to know them. Understood?"

"Yes!" the whole class answers but they remain motionless.

"Then why are you all seated? It's time to get up and get to know people. I don't want anyone seated." She says and I sigh as I get up along with everyone else.

"Well, I guess I'll start with you," Bianca smiles as she stands in front of me and I return the smile, "Do you have a license?" She reads the question.

"Yes, I do, do you?" I ask and she nods as she writes my name down on her paper. Before I could have the chance of writing her name down on the paper the door opens revealing two latecomers. I recognized one of them from this morning, Aisha's brother. I believe his name was Youssef, and I recognised the second one from yesterday in the restaurant. Son of a worldwide known businessman.

Mrs Fatima just gave them the pieces of paper and said a few words before letting them join us. I immediately look down at my paper when I notice Alexandre's eyes on me, just like yesterday, except now he looked almost excited to see me.

Bianca had already moved to another person. I write down her name next to the one who has a license and I stand back straight to move on to someone else, but as soon as I turn around I find Alexandre right in front of me causing my heart to jump due to his sudden appearance. My eyes widen as I place my hand on my chest. He watches me attentively without saying a word and I realise I should leave as soon as possible.

"Do you like volleyball?" He asks right when I was about to walk around him and leave. I stop in my place and he makes his way in front of me once again.

"Um...I...yes...i mean...I like sports." I leave it to that and expect him to write it down but he doesn't. He simply stares in my soul as if trying to decipher the password of a safe box.

"Is this your first year at BCH?" He asks after a while and I look at the paper but I did not find that question there.

"Um...no...second year." I reluctantly answer.

"Have we ever been in the same class before?" He continues and I look at the paper again, not finding the question there.

"Um...no...I'm sorry_" I try to tell him I need to move to someone else but he interrupts me.

"What's your name?" He asks and I sigh in relief. He doesn't know my name, maybe that's why he hasn't moved on yet. He still has to figure out my name to be able to write it down. That's all, right?

"Ruqayyah...Deen."

"I'm Alexandre, but don't try to pronounce it, you won't be able to." He says because the R in Alexandre was really strong and the name as a whole had a French accent. I could even pronounce his name because I'm from Guinea, which is a country that was colonised by the French and yes I can speak French. I have forgotten a little, but I can keep a basic conversation. However, the Guinean French accent and the France's French accent is really different. So yes, maybe his name can be hard to pronounce the way he does it because it sounds to be from France.