Chapter 1
It was a cloudy morning in Flamingo estate, at 6 am on a Saturday, most of the residents were still asleep but a few such as Jummah, who stood by a window and stared at the birds flying out of their nests as they sang lovely tunes, Flamingo estate didn't have a lot of trees, they had only three actually but the birds managed to make a home for themselves in the trees and rooftops.
Jummah enjoyed watching the early morning activities of the birds and the people who woke up early for morning jogs, she wish she could join them and breathe in the fresh morning air, not through the window but outside with the birds and the little butterflies that flew around the patches of flower bushes the neighbours had.
But she knew her dad was too strict to allow it. She sighed and walked away from the window, the sun was beginning to rise already. She lay back in the bed and set her phone alarm to 7am.
I woke up to the loud shrill noise of the alarm, it was seven on the dot.
I yawned and stretched, looked around and saw that my sisters were still asleep, I had two younger sisters, and Jasmine and yasmine and two older ones Nia and Dia, and no, none of my sisters are twins. Jasmine's 14 year old while Yasmin's 12. They shared a room with me. I have tried to convince my parents multiple times to let them move into the guest room since we didn't have guests often. Truth is we barely ever have guests.
Mia and Dia had a separate room, I thought of moving into there's since they were away in college but I didn't want the stress of moving back into my old room when they came home for summer. I got up and went into the bathroom, I brushed my teeth and went into the shower to take a bath, I let the water pour on my hair, it took about a minute for the water to soak my hair, the thing with African hair is, it's thick , and woolly so it doesn't absorb water as fast as other races hair, as a child, I wanted long straight hair but not like the Europeans, the Indian kind of hair, it's long, full and silky, and the full part was something I could relate to, I didn't want the European kind of hair, it was far too scanty. As I grew older, I learned to see the beauty in my hair and how much potential it had, I had thick, full woolly hair and I could straighten, dye, braid and make it to beautiful styles that I stopped wanting other people's hair and learned to love mine a lot .
I foamed the shampoo and made the lather into a hat, a ball and spikes, I smiled and to myself "I still haven't outgrown this".
15 minutes later, I got out of the shower wrapped in a towel, my sisters were awake by then.
"Ewwwww, stop blinding us" they said in unison, I rolled my eyes and walked to the closet.
I searched through the rows of clothes and picked out a long brown pencil skirt and a white long sleeved turtleneck, I love turtlenecks and I look really cute in them.
I didn't have as much clothes as other kids my age did but I made the best of the ones I had and looked nice. I put the clothes on the bed and sat in front of the mirror and towel dried my hair, and I combed through it till I got all the tangles out and oiled it with olive, almond and coco butter oils. Then I part it into two equal halves and plaited them, then I plaited the tips together cause I didn't want them to dangle.
I took some hairstyling gel and styled the front into curls.
" you're going to style my hair this way too" I heard Yasmine say, I turned my head to look at her and asked "and why in the world will I do that?" "You didn't even say please"
She pouted and " pweeesh" I rolled my eyes, smiling, " don't think you look cute when you pout and say pweesh, you look like an old lady with no teeth" Jasmine burst out laughing and I turned to her and said " you look like an old lady too".
I faced the mirror and continued styling my hair, when I was satisfied with how it looked, I said without looking back " Jasmine, please pass me a white veil" being Muslim, my hair has to be covered when I'm outside and I was anticipating my mum sending me to pick up a few things for her in the supermarket. I could leave my hair open indoors but never outside, I didn't mind since I covered my hair with beautiful veils and turbans.
It made me feel like a princess wearing a crown.
I tied the veil into a turban-ish and applied some eyeliner, lipgloss and some mascara, cause my eyelashes were quite full, not too long but full and they got into my eyes easily. I toyed with the idea of applying more makeup but I just didn't want to ruin the way I looked, firstly, because my makeup skills weren't great and also because I looked really pretty and natural, I have a medium brown skin, almond eyes, high cheekbones that only show when I smile, laugh or squeeze my face, and I have been told I have really beautiful lips, my lips are full and have the perfect shape, I have medium full eyebrows which I believe adds to my looks and I have a gap tooth. Growing up I was embarrassed of my gap tooth but as I grew older and realized people found gap toothed people attractive, I stopped being self conscious.
I try not to let being called pretty get into my head, I want to be more than pretty , beautiful or whatever. I know there's more to me than that. I got up and saw that my sisters were still in bed, not asleep, they just didn't want to get up, I cleared my throat, you guys should get up now before I make you. And Yasmine, let me know when you are ready style your hair.
With that, I turned to leave the room.
