"Mama, is Mu'az coming to Silver Stars Nursery today?" Maryam asked, looking at Afra in the mirror.
"Yes, dear." She replied, braiding her long curly brown hair.
"Thahir Uncle would drive to his house to pick him up in our school van, right?"
"Yes, dear."
"It'll be fun to have him with us in the nursery!" Maryam said cheerfully.
"I'm sure that three of you would have so many wonderful moments together from today, in shaa Allah," Afra said with a bright smile as she tied the end of her braid with a blue colour ribbon which matched her blue and white uniform.
"I like having him around with us," Maryam said. "He's really good. He shares all of his toys and books with us. Also, his hair is dark brown, just like mine. I hope, the children at my nursery wouldn't call him a Coco head too."
"It's rude to call names," Afra said immediately as she clipped some hairpins to Maryam's front curls. "Well, I'm sure that Bilal boy and his friends wouldn't call you that anymore. Mrs Miller has warned him not to call names to you, hasn't she?
"Yes, she did warn him," Maryam said with a dull smile. "He doesn't say that to me anymore, but his friends do. Also, some kids in my class call Bilal, Toad eyes. They say that to him because his eyes seem to change colour. I've noticed his eyes too. They look green when we are playing on the ground, but they look brown in the classroom. Why does it happen to him, Mama?"
"It must be because he has hazel eyes," Afra said, turning Maryam to her side to look at her neatly combed hair.
"Hazel eyes?" Maryam asked curiously. "What does that mean?
"Hazel eyes are greenish-brown eyes," Afra explained to her. "They mostly consist of shades of brown and green. Hazel eyes may appear to change colour from green to light brown to gold. I've read this somewhere. Listen Maryam, you or Neem should never insult a person or call them names because of their appearances. Allah has created all of us uniquely. All humans are beautiful in their ways. We should never find faults with their looks."
"We both don't call names to anyone, Mama."
Maryam said innocently. "Also, I don't think Bilal looks ugly because of his eye colour. His eyes are different, but they look nice. I've got brown eyes too."
"That's my girl!" Afra said, pleased to hear those matured words from her young daughter. "I feel proud to hear this from you." She bent down and kissed her crescent forehead.
"Maryam!!" Thasneem rushed into the room with her bag at that moment. "Our school van has arrived! Didn't you hear the horn sound?"
"Oh, I'm coming!!" Maryam said and hurried to get her bag.
"Did you get your water bottles and lunch boxes?" Afra asked them. "I've packed some sandwiches for Mu'az in another lunch box too!"
"Don't worry, Mama!" Thasneem said, showing her heavy bag to Afra. "I took all of our lunches and water bottles."
"Neem! Your bag looks too heavy for you to carry." Afra said with a warning look. "Give Maryam's lunch box and water bottle to her."
"No, I can carry my bag with all of it," Thasneem said as she adjusted her bag on her back. "It's getting late. Thahir Uncle is waiting for us."
"Alright, then," Afra said as she followed them downstairs to say farewell to them. "Take care, dears! Fe amanillah."
"Fe amanillah, Mama!!" They both said together and ran to get in the school van. Afra stood at the doorway and watched them leave.
The van driver stopped the van in front of Mu'az's house to pick him up next. Both Maryam and Thasneem greeted him with bright smiles when he got in the van and made space for him to sit.
"This is our friend, Mu'az." Thasneem introduced him to the kids who tried to peek a good look at this new boy. Their van stopped at a few more houses to pick up some more kids before it stopped in front of the nursery gate.
"Come on, Mu'az," Maryam said with a smile when they got down from the van. "We'll take you to our classroom. I'm sure our teacher will be there. She comes earlier than us."
"Is she good?" Mu'az asked her.
"Yes, she's very nice!" Maryam assured him. "She tells us stories and sings beautiful songs. She teaches us many things. I'm sure that you'll like her."
"Hey, Neem!" They heard someone calling from behind them and turned to look.
"Don't call me that!" Thasneem said with a sullen look when she saw that it was Bilal.
"Why not?" He asked her with a confused look when he caught up with her pace. "Everyone calls you that!"
"No, not everyone," Thasneem said, narrowing her brows at him. "Only my friends call me Neem, and you are not my friend."
"Oh, I don't care," Bilal said annoyingly. "I'd still call you Neem."
"Then I'd call you_," Thasneem said, and stopped for a moment to think. "I'd call you, Bee. Bee stings."
"Neem is bitter," Bilal said immediately and laughed at her.
"You are so annoying!" Thasneem said, feeling irritated.
"Okay... Okay.." Bilal said as he walked next to her. "I want to race with you."
"You lost to me once, remember?" Thasneem reminded him.
"Yes, that's why I want to have another race with you." He told her. "Will you race with me to the classroom?"
"Sure!" Thasneem agreed at once. "On the count of three. One! Two! Three!!"
With that, both of them started to run towards their classroom. Thasneem began to feel the heavy load of her bag immediately, but she didn't care about it. She couldn't let that annoying boy win the race. Her heavy bag had slowed down her pace and Bilal had taken the lead. She had together some more speed to catch up with him. But something stuck in her foot when she had almost caught up with him and she lost her balance and fell onto the ground.
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"Thasneem, how many times you've been here since you joined this nursery?" Mrs Perera, who worked as a nurse in the first aid room asked her as she bandaged her knee.
"Four or five times, Ma'am" She replied. "I don't know for sure."
"Seven times." Mrs Perera corrected her. "This is the seventh time you've been here. Why are you being so clumsy?"
"I was racing." She said tiredly.
"Hmm... I see." Mrs Perara sighed at her. "Last time you fought with a kid, didn't ya?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Thasneem said, noticing the fading cut on her hand.
"I don't know why Mrs Miller is still keeping children like this in her nursery." Mrs Perera muttered to herself as she finished bandaging her knees and got up. "You should learn to behave like a good girl." She said as she kept the ointments inside the cupboard. "I'm going to have to give a complaint to your parents in the next parents meeting, which will be held on coming Thursday."
"Is there a parent meeting on coming Thursday, Ma'am?" Thasneem asked her curiously as if that's the only part she had heard from her conversation.
"Yes." Mrs Perera said. "Why do you seem to be interested in it?"
"Because I know that they are going to talk about our annual trip to that meeting, Ma'am," Thasneem replied, smiling at the thought of it.
"Hmm... I see." Mrs Perera sighed. "I don't know what kind of troubles those teachers are going to have to face if they took these children out on a trip. They are having enough trouble here already."
"Mrs Perera, we've got another child here." Miss. Reed, her assistant nurse said, peeping inside the room to look at them. "He fell from the swing and hit his forehead."
"Alright, you are done now." Mrs Perera said as she helped Thasneem to get down from the nursing bed. "Go straight to your classroom without roaming anywhere else, do you hear me?"
"Yes, Ma'am." She said politely and went out of the door. There she saw a crying boy who was seated on a chair. His forehead was bleeding and he had blood all over his white shirt. She knew that his name was Umair and he was in Mrs Kumaran's classroom. She thought of telling him not to cry, but Miss. Reed hurried him inside and closed the door. Thasneem stood behind the closed door for a moment wondering if she should wait there to help him when he comes out. But she knew that Mrs Perera would get angry if she saw her there again. So she walked slowly to her classroom, where Maryam and Mu'az waited to see her.