Here I am in Egypt once again after spending a year in Saudi Arabia.
That year I didn’t have much of a social life. It was only a year about school
and studying. I didn’t really socialite with anyone since I was still sad and
attached to Mennah. But when I returned to Egypt, everything changed!
It was my second year of preparatory school (8th grade) and I
went to a school called (Mosab Ebn Omair). In my class I ran into Mustafa Jamal
who was a friend of mine two years ago. He helped me to fit at school and to
get some new friends. He told me that I missed an important year of education
and I needed to enroll in some tuitions. We were at the beginning of the year
and I didn’t think that I needed tuitions in all subjects. At the time I only
took a math tuition, but through the year I enrolled at several tuitions in
subjects like science and English.
At the science tuition, the teacher used to make competitions between
the students so that they could exert their efforts at studying and beat each
other. For me, it was somehow annoying to participate in such things. I wasn’t good
at studying at the time and I also didn’t fit in properly, so as a result I
didn’t!
At the English tuition I was good but also didn’t answer or raise my
hand unless I was told to. The teacher was working with my mother at the same
school, but I didn’t tell him about that. One day he began to notice and asked
me “What does your mother do for living?” now I was sure that he
noticed. “My Mother is a teacher, English teacher” I said and
immediately jumped the next question “Where?” I didn’t want him to know
me so I didn’t tell him the name of the school precisely, he kept asking for
several classes and I kept telling him “I don’t know” till one day he
said that he knew me and from that moment he began to ask me on everything
about everything!
By the second semester I was good at school, tuitions and made a lot of
friends and knew all of the boys in my neighbor. I began to participate at
tuitions’ events and competitions. At science tuition, I was very good and so
was Mo’men (a friend of mine). We both competed against the others and used to
beat them all. One day the teacher enrolled me in a competition that included
girls… “Girls?? No way!” I answered quickly. The teacher tried to
convince me several times but my answer was always: NO.
One day he came to me and said in a firm way: “You are to compete
against them or you’ll never attend my tuition again!” What do I do? What
could I do? Nothing!! I later knew that the competition was between two teams:
one of the boys and one of the girls. My team (the boys) included me and Mo’men
and two others. On hearing that Mo’men was with me I was a little bit
reassured. But all of them kept saying: “You’ll face a very clever team, be
aware and don’t compete against ‘Alyaa’”. “Who is Alyaa?” I asked. “You
don’t know her? She’s the daughter of our Arabic teacher, she’s also VERY
clever”
My heart, that was reassured minutes ago, now got shocked! Seriously?
First competition for me against the girls and I’m facing a strong team? Come
on, give me a break! So I studied, as hard as I could, and went there the next
time shaking.
We finished the tuition and waited for the girls’ team to show up. When they
came, the teacher looked at us and said “Get ready!” On hearing that, my
heart dropped down to my knees. Mo’men was beside me and he definitely noticed
me, He patted over my back and said “Don’t worry”.
The competition started and the girls’ team sat against us and the girl
that sat in front of me was stunningly beautiful. I immediately had doubts and,
to be honest, I liked the girl a lot. It wasn’t seconds before the teacher came
up to me and said: “We’ll start with you!” and I was like: “Who?
Me???” and he said: “Yes you!” and he asked me a question. Thanks
god I was able to answer and pulled myself together. After answering that
question I had a little of self-confidence. I looked at the girl against me and
she seemed a lot comforted and that made me more nervous. The teacher asked her
and she answered confidently. The teacher then moved to Mo’men and asked him
and there was the shock: Mo’men couldn’t answer!! So we lost that competition
and for my luck it wasn’t my fault. When we left I said to Mo’men “You kept
telling me not to let you down and you let us down, what happened up there?” He
looked at me and said coldly “Never mind” and then he smiled and looked
back at me “So what do you think of her?” I looked back and asked him
who he talked about. He smiled wider and said “The girl that sat against you
dude, Alyaa?” He said that and I was surprised. So that’s Alyaa? She was
really beautiful tbh. But I was grateful that I didn’t know that before the
competition or I would’ve ruined everything.
Everyone else that day was talking about how I competed against Alyaa
and that I didn’t lose. Was it really that big of a matter? All I know is that I
liked her, a lot!
To
be continued,,,
