Chapter-16 Maryam's Friend Circle

The next few days were registered to Maryam's name. Those were exciting and nervous and crazy and awkward and pathetic and priceless and memorable and interesting and fun and insecure and fantastic and curious and strange and special and new and friendly and knowledgeable and smart and fashionable and overall everything! She experienced all the good and bad feelings of the world.

She was very different from other immigrants in the school. Generally, they were used to abstain from the natives. Indonesians are popular for their friendliness and kindness, but only as long as you are good. Once they like you, you become their first priority. You become their family. But, if you appear or behave bad, they are going to fight you. Unlike other Indians in her class, Maryam tried to mix up with the people and the environment. From the first day, she was friendly with everybody. Soon, she made some general friends. Many days had past since she was unable to face Raza. She respected his feelings and had a soft corner for him. Every morning, he would meet her and say sorry immediately after sighting her as he thought she was angry at him for not helping her, however, that was not the only reason. While Maryam's Amma was learning Bahasa and doing her job well, Abba was finally recruited in the PD of Kaur. He was on the post of a constable again, but was learning bahasa first. They all had got refugee IDs, the citizenship not yet. This issue was dominating the country, but it was all messed up. It needed time, resources, money and patience. The government was taking steps on smaller level till then.

Maryam had made many neighbourhood friends including Nazia! Once Nazia was telling their friends about Mihran.

'I can't believe Nazia, you doing things with Indonesian boys. ', "uninterested" Rafiya disgusted.

'Oh, my Gosh! This is nasty! ', "classy" Alina screamed.

'Nah. More like shameless! ', "shy" Noor completed.

'Let her live her life, you guys. ', "cool" Neda proceeded.

'It's all upto Naazo. Neda is right. ', "wise" Maryam defended.

'Oh, dear! Thanks for understanding me. ', "desperate" Nazia exclaimed. Then, she seriously said, 'You all need to be about it a different way. Listen to me, will you? '

'She's right. What happened when you met? ', Alina eagerly asked.

'Just tell us about that jerk. ', Rafiya inquired in anger and curiosity.

'Yes, go on. ', Noor finished.

'Tell us about the climax. ', Neda interrogated.

'No! Tell us about everything that happened so we can tell you if you got with the right man or not. ', Maryam sweetly adviced.

'Guys, I told you about the Touch Game and then, he left. That's all. He doesn't do a lot of things. My point is not what he was, who he was. My point is... how finely carved and how talented he was! '

She was deep in her thoughts. Nobody was wanting to listen to her, not even Maryam.

'Girl! When you didn't do anything, why are you exaggerating it so much? ', Alina exclaimed in sassy anger.

'She's right. ', Noor supported.

'Then, he was just like others. Why were you so excited to tell? ', Rafiya disgusted.

'But, he's so sexy! You all need to meet him once in your life. '

Nazia was obsessed .

'Well, we don't want to. ', Maryam clarified. 'Do tell us if any boy ever does something. We are there, you know... ' Maryam boasted women empowerment.

'No. We didn't even kiss! ', Nazia told everyone to which everyone's reaction was, 'What?!'

'No way! I can't believe this. ', Rafiya exclaimed in amazement.

'That can't be true! ', Alina was shocked.

'Yeah.... What did you think? Every boy I hook up with, I kiss?... Well, kind of yes. But, that's just his charm that he didn't even kiss me and I still can't complain. '

'He's just so special, isn't he? ', Noor threw a sarcasm.

'Of course! ', Neda joined. 'Girls, I'm shook. Did you know, Indonesians don't kiss! '

'That's pretty fascinating, though. ', Maryam had a different point of view. 'He's got a limit. Seems like a good badboy. Hehe!

'You're so correct, today. ', Nazia exclaimed. 'I can't get him off my mind since he left. He's the first guy who's impressed me this much. '

She was sunk in thoughts.

'Hey, you say this about every other guy. ', Maryam pointed out.

Rafiya joked, 'Turns out, he was gay that's why he didn't do anything. '

Alina teased, 'Or even worse, he wasn't as creepy as Nazia! '

Laughter was in the air!

Besides these friends, she only had some common friends in school. She put efforts towards people, but the newcomers' reputation didn't let her completely become friends with any native and the Indians in her class were a little toxic towards her. And she wasn't talking to Raza evenly either. There were bullies also in the school campus. There were four sections of 11th and 12th grades each, but the cruelest were A and B seniors. Some seniors used to visit classes or call the juniors in theirs to bully. Sometimes, teased them in the loos and seldom, in the library when the library was on leave.