"Ms. Karam?"

Noha blinked back into reality when she heard her name. She glanced around the office of the guidance consoler, taking in all the little details her eyes caught. Mr. Mason doesn't seem to dust his office as often as he should and he seems to really like WWE and anything related to it. She wasn't too sure why that surprised her, she didn't know the man all that well to be so sure about what his likes and dislikes were. 

"Ms. Karam?" 

Noha blinked rapidly before focusing in on the man in front of her, "Yeah?"

"Are you alright?"

Noha nodded straighten up in the chair, "Yeah I'm good just tired" 

Mr. Mason didn't seem to believe that but just moved on from it and went back to explaining what classes she would be having this year, she was grateful to him for doing that. He went on giving brief overview of her classes and the teachers that would be teaching them but she still wasn't  really paying attention to anything he was saying. She felt like her mind was getting dragged into quick sand that just dragged her down deeper into it's dry and course pits the harder she fought against it. Maybe she should have listened to Rana about staying home today, they did just get Michigan not even a few days ago. But she couldn't deal being in that house any long then needed. 

"And with that we're done here for today Ms. Karam do you have any questions?" 

Noha looked ahead at Mr. Mason, his short choppy curly brown hair looked damp with sweat as the sun beamed down on him with hate. Poor man didn't deserve that they really needed to fix the AC in this place. She shook her head at him and grabbed her schedule from his desk getting up from the hard wooden chair she had been sitting in for the last almost hour. Rolling her shoulders she looked to see what class she would be going to first today. 

Mrs. Hanna Ali 

Algebra 2  Room 201 

"No thanks I'm ok for now Mr. Mason do I need a pass or anything before going?" 

He looked her straight in the eyes as if trying to see if he find anything that would give him a hint on what she as thinking. But he found nothing of the sorts. He sighed and shook his head before leaning back into his office chair patting down his face with a rag he grabbed out of nowhere if you asked Noha. 

"No need Mrs. Ali knows that your coming and won't ask you for anything. It's 8:05 but its only the first day of school so it shouldn't be any to heavy for the time being. Don't worry Ali is a good and fair teacher she won't give you any trouble as long as you don't give her any problems" 

Ok that's good then last thing she needed was a shitty teacher. 

"Alright then I'll see you later Mr. Mason have a nice day" and with that she exited his office and let out a breath when she got to the other side of the door. She was exhausted already and there was still the whole school day to go, or rather half school day to go. That's fine that's doable just get to 2 pm and then she's home free for the rest of the day. She began walking down the empty hall to her class. 

The halls were worn but clean as the school banners hang from the walls with the school mascots sewn into the very fabric of the banners. It was a simple but effective enough design, an alligator in a almost full circle as it looks like it was going to bite its own tail. In bold letters on the bottom the school's football team name stood, Green Star Juveniles. She couldn't believe it the first time she saw that name she laughed so hard she thought she was going to pee herself it was just too funny. 

Not wanting to waste anymore time looking at that she took two steps at a time up the stairs and began her search for her classroom. She looked at the door sign as she entered the second floor and it was the first door she laid eyes on. She couldn't really see into the room the door's window was made of that glass that was clear enough that you can see bodies and some slight details but not enough to be sure. She could hear Mrs. Ali in there talking to the class about something she wasn't too sure about. She got closer to the door and raised her hand and knocked on the it hard three good times. A hush came over the class when she did that making her feal queasy. She took a deep breath and made it her goal to get it over with, letting it drag would just make her feel ten times worst. After what felt like forever someone came and opened the door for her. 

She was a older woman in about her mid 40s with light bronze skin and dull green tint eyes that were sharp and aware of everything and everyone that was in her line of view. She wore a long black skirt that just barely avoided touching the ground, the skirt covered her feet which gave the impression that she was floating from Noha point of view. Her outfit was finished off with a regular white blouse and light cardigan that made the look come together for a professional yet still casual look. 

"And who may you be?" She asked Noha. Ah she could hear a bit of a Iranian accent in the woman's words. 

"I'm new today Noha Karam?" She replied and handed over her class schedule as if to prove a point. 

Mrs. Ali dark brown eye brows lifted up a bit but she took the piece of paper nonetheless and took a quick look over it, "I see well then Ms. Karam come on in and meet your classmates" 

Noha gave a nod and took her paper back before following behind the older woman who she just noticed was much shorter than her, which isn't saying a lot. Most people were shorter then her. 

The classroom wasn't overly decorated but just enough that you knew it was Mrs. Ali classroom. Lots of little common phases in Arabic, some photos that seemed to have come from home on her desk, a mix of classic Iranian and American books in the shelves all around the class. Noha eyes took in all the little details of the room and some of the other teens that were sitting there and looking at her as if they've never seen a new student before. That's the one thing she always hated about going to a new school, people acted so weird about it sometimes. 

"Alright then class, time for you all to meet a new classmate of yours. This is Noha Karam and I excepted nothing less from you all understand?" She spoke with it apparent she wasn't for the nonsense when it came to her students. 

When she was satisfied with their response she nod and glanced Noha way, "All right then you can speak you piece don't make it long we have a lot of stuff I want to get through today" 

You didn't have to tell her twice she didn't really care to do stuff like this anyways.  

"Ok then well as you heard name Noha Karam and I don't tolerate people not saying my name right so either make an attempt or I won't bother talking too or answering you. I moved here from California a few days ago so I'm still getting used to Michigan and all, other then that I don't have much else to say got questions shoot" 

It was quiet for a moment before someone shoot a hand up in the back. Noha looked the way the hand shoot up from to get a better look at who it was. She was a brown girl Noha couldn't tell what ethnicity she was from looking at her. She wore a t shirt that showed a bit of her mid riff and washed out jeans. 

"Uh yeah?" 

"Why are you wearing that?' She asked in a innocent tone or more trying to be. A chorus of chuckles came from the others around her which was quickly shut down by Mrs. Ali with one slight upturn of the lip. Noha face twisted up in annoyance at the comment the girl made, as if she didn't get this enough from her Mom. Always the talk about her being more feminine like her older sisters. 

"Why don't you try some make up on? You have a nice face it's such a waste."

"There's no boys you have a crush on? None at all? Be serious Noha you can tell me I won't tell your Dad"

"You're not wearing that and that's final go put on that dress your grandmother-"

"Cause I want to, is that going to be a problem for you?" Noha returned with more annoyance then she meant to let slip out. 

The girl kissed her teeth and rolled her eyes, "I was just curious is all" 

Mrs. Ali scoffed at the girl before pulling out some papers from her desk, "I'm sure that came from a real place of curiosity Ms. Reyes, you can sit right in that empty seat in the second row Ms. Karam. Now here's an over view of what this year lessons is going to look like for the rest of the school year" 

Noha made her way to her new seat the feeling in her gut that the rest of the day wasn't going to be any better even though she didn't have any proof outside of Reyes's little sly comment about what she wore today. She placed her book bag on the left side of her desk making sure it wouldn't be in the way for anyone to have an excuse to kick her stuff around. Mrs. Ali went on to explain that the first few weeks would be of them brushing up on Algebra 1 so that they can hammer out anything that people were having problems with overall. Noha grabbed a random new notebook to write down notes on as she glanced over the board to see what was written on it so far. 

The first half of the class went off without any problems, a student here and there yawning maybe even someone whispering all of it went quiet when it was made known to Mrs. Ali. The numbers and equations seemed to go in one ear and out the other for Noha they seemed to melt into one other as the 35 minutes dragged on. She sighed and wiped her eyes with her thumb and middle finger before trying to focus on the lesson again. She was regretting not staying home more and more as time went on, she hates to admit it but she should have listened to Rana. 

"Fuck my life" she whispered under her breath. Or at least she thought she did until she heard the person in front of her snort out a laugh from her comment and giggle a bit too loudly. She felt as though someone poured a bucket of cold water over her when she saw Mrs. Ali paused with the chalk in hand and turn slowly in her direction with a look of annoyance on her face. She closed the Algebra book she had and placed it on her desk 

"Is there something funny Mr. Tanner?" She asked arms folded across her chest. 

Tanner, a white boy with a tan that bordered lined on sun burn, eyes widened when she asked him that. His mouth was agape for a moment like a fish out of water as if trying to give her something anything for what caused him to laugh. Noha was a bit surprised at his stumbling when he could have just thrown her under the bus, being taken aback can really have people falling over themselves.

"He just shocked at Noha sailor moon is all" someone replied from a couple rows over. Mrs. Ali eyes glanced over to whoever spoke and then to Noha who flinched a bit when their eyes made contact with each other. 

"Is that true?" She inquired. 

It felt so much quieter as Noha thought over what to say to that, if she even really had anything to say to that. She just got here did she really want to tell her whole class all that? This wasn't some random class these are the people she's going to graduate with in a couple of years their here for the long run. But she also didn't want to make it seem as though she would be a problem child for Mrs. Ali especially when Mr. Mason said don't cause her any problems. Ahh what should she do?

"Well?' Mrs. Ali asked once more. 

Noha lips parted a bit and then closed before she opened them again, "Yes I cursed...because I guess overestimated my ability to focus in class since I didn't get too much good sleep the last few days with our move. And Tanner heard me because I was louder then I thought" she trailed off near the end of the sentence. 

It was quiet for a beat after Noha finished talking and Mrs. Ali picked up her book again and went on writing on the board back towards the class, "I'll let  you off the hook this once Ms. Karam but don't do it again understand?" She asked. 

Noha nodded and sat up in her seat as she looked over the problems on the black board "Yes ma'am understood"