Chapter 1 - Making Plans

It was ten o'clock, Sara was watching TV and got bored, so she thought about going to her best friend's house.

“Mom, I’m going to Neha’s house and I will be home by lunchtime.” 

She was a very energetic and enthusiastic person. She had light skin, long hair, and was a very bubbly girl. She had lots of friends and was an outgoing person. She always wanted to become a fashion designer, but her parents wanted her to become a doctor, so she decided that she will fulfill her parents’ dream. Sara’s parents’ names were Emraan Khan and Ayesha Khan. 

They lived in Helena, which is the capital of Montana. They lived close to the city of Helena Valley West Central. Most of the time she wasn’t allowed to go to her friends’ house, but she was just allowed to go to only one friend’s house, Neha. Neha was her best friend, and her parents and Sara’s parents were also close friends. Sara's mother was very protective of her daughter and she wanted her daughter to live her life fully and get everything she wants, but she was always very protective of her. They didn't let her make any kind of decisions because they were afraid that if something wrong will happen to their daughter, then they won't be able to forgive themselves or live without her. She was their only daughter, and she was so happy that her parents loved her so much. 

Her mother was cleaning the kitchen and told her, “alright; come home soon, your dad will be worried.” Sara was already outside the house and barely heard her mother. 

She drove to Neha's house and knocked on the door. Knock knock… Neha’s Mother opened the door, “hello Sara, how are you?” Sara gets inside the house and answers her, “I’m absolutely fine Auntie; how are you? And where is Neha?” 

Afsa wasn't her real Aunt, but to give respect to her elders, she used to call them auntie or uncle. Sara also used to ask lots of questions at once before someone could answer her first question. Afsa replied, “I'm fine and Neha is in her room.” Sara thanked Afsa while running to Neha's room.

Sara goes to Neha’s room and sees that Neha was studying, but when Sara went close to see if she was studying, she saw that Neha was looking at a magazine, which was inside of her Biology book. She was looking at a fashion design magazine. It was their last year in high school and both of them were interested in the same career fashion designing, but their parents didn’t want them to become a fashion designer. They wanted their children to become something that will raise their name and dignity. They thought that if their daughters become fashion designers, then it will ruin their dignity and their family’s name and reputation. So, that’s why both of them Sara and Neha majored in Biology as their career in college. But behind their back, Neha and Sara used to look at the stuff that was related to somehow fashion designing like watching television shows and participate in high school clubs, etc.

“So, you’re looking at a fashion magazine behind my back, you should be ashamed of yourself. How can you cheat your parents?” Both of them laugh and shush each other, “Shhsss..” 

Sara started talking again and lays on the bed, “you are so bad; you didn’t even tell me that you bought this magazine and you’re looking at it by yourself. You didn’t even bother to call me. Hahn, tell me?” 

They were lying on Neha's bed on their back and looking at the magazine. Neha sits up and tells her, “chill, Baby. I didn’t buy this magazine; I borrowed it from a friend of mine. Okay. You know my parents; they won’t let me buy anything that relates to fashion designing.” 

Sara elbowed her with a teasing look, “friend, hmmm. Don’t you think that I should know who this friend is, who lets you borrow his magazine?” Neha tells her, “Shut up. It’s her not him.”

Sara and Neha used to tease each other as if they both were having an affair with somebody. But in reality, both of them didn’t have boyfriends. Sara didn’t believe in love and she thought that love is just infatuation and nothing else. She believed that nobody could love somebody so much, but Neha thought that if there is no love, then the world wouldn’t have existed. Neha and Sara had a different opinion about love. Sara never thought about having a boyfriend and she thought that if she does get married in life, then her husband should respect her parents and care about them as well. 

But Neha was the opposite of Sara, she told her that she was going to have a love marriage rather than an arranged marriage. She thought that her dream boy is going to be rich, handsome, and who will love her a lot, but it didn't come true because she fell in love with a guy at school, who was different from her dream guy, but she couldn’t help it because she was so much in love with him. 

Sara started talking again, “Anyways, I came here because I wanted to tell you about….” She rolls her eyes and lets Neha guess what she’s about to tell her, “What???” 

Neha never liked to guess whatever it was, but Sara used to tell her to guess all the time, “Guess, what is it??” 

Sara wasn’t telling her and was rolling her eyes, then Neha finally spoke, “okay, fine. I give up. Now tell me.” 

She takes the tickets out of her pocket and waves in front of Neha. “I have two tickets to a fashion show and it’s going to be tomorrow. Yeeehhhh!!!,” now Sara bought the tickets to the fashion show, but they couldn’t go because it was at night and their parents wouldn’t allow them to go. So, now they had to find a way to go to this fashion show, but they didn’t know-how. 

Neha was always scared of going anywhere, so she used to make excuses, “I have this biology test on Friday and another test day on Monday.” 

Sara gets up from the bed and sits on the computer chair. “So, it means that we can’t go to the show. I’ve been waiting for this day for so long and now you are telling me that you won’t go. Look, I’ll help you study for your test,” Sara said. 

Neha always thought that if both of them lied to their parents then they will get into some trouble. 

Neha explains to her, “I didn’t say that I won’t go, but you know that I hate lying to my parents and what if they find out that we went to the show without asking them, and then we will be in big trouble.” 

Sara stands up and walks around the room. She starts to think of a good excuse to tell their parents, “they’re not going to find out because nobody is going to tell them. You know what, I got an idea” Neha spoke softly, “Of course, you do.” 

Sara always had ideas to go anywhere she wanted. “Go on, I’m listening.” Sara still walking, “I will tell my parents that I’ll be staying at your house for a night because we have a laboratory project to do for our Bio class and then we can escape from this window to go to the fashion show. How do you like my idea?” 

She gets so excited and claps her hands together.

Neha’s room was very neat and clean. She was a girl, who liked to have everything organized and her room was like a giant room. When you enter her room, you see a bed with a beautiful bed sheet on it, which makes it look like it is a queen’s bed. She had a dresser next to her bed, and her walls were painted in light purple same as her bedsheet. Her computer was set far from the bed and beside the door. Her window was next to the bed, which she also painted with flowers and hearts. She was a very creative girl and she liked to paint everywhere she could in her room. So, whenever you go to her room, you will feel like you are in the most beautiful room in the whole world. 

“Well, I’m gonna have to think about that. Besides, I do have a Bio test as I said before, which I will have to study for it because I don’t want to flunk that class and I hate to lie,” Neha always taught Sara that she should not lie to her parents because it’s bad. 

Whenever she told her that, Sara starts to imitate Neha’s words as she spoke, “You know that if you lie, then it keeps coming back to you. You have to tell another lie, to hide one lie and it keeps going. You know that I don’t like it.” 

Sara was imitating Neha when she was talking and when she turned to look at her, she stopped imitating. 

“Okay, fine. I think you don’t want to be a fashion designer and if you keep listening to your parents then you will never be able to fulfill your dreams and stay the way you are right now. You will do everything they say, you will marry the person that they choose, and you won’t even say a word,” Sara intimidates her. 

Neha tells her, “I think you’re talking about yourself cuz I’m gonna have a love marriage and you want to have an arrange marriage.” 

Sara lays down on the bed again, “Love sucks and my parents will find the right guy for me.” Neha doubted that “Yeah? How?” 

Then Sara explained to her, “Well, they have more experience and they’ve seen the world more than us. Plus, you're never going to tell them who you love cuz you're too scared to face the truth.” 

Neha didn't want to answer her because she knew that Sara was right and she will never tell her parents about the guy she liked at school. 

So, she ignored whatever Sara said and asked her, “What if you fall in love with somebody and your parents don’t agree to get you married to that guy, then what will you do?” 

Sara never believed in love, “Well, first of all, I’m never going to fall in love with anybody.” 

Suddenly she changes the topic, “Anyways, Neha, you’re gonna have to lie to your parents and we'll come back before they find out, I promise. Nobody’s gonna find out if we’re in this room or not. Common, you will have to do this. I don’t want my dreams to shatter because our parents think that it’s some kind of bullshit. I love fashion and I want to be a fashion designer. Just wait and watch,” 

She was walking around the room, imagining “one day both of us will be on these magazines and then they will be very proud of us. If we don’t go to this show, then we won’t have any kind of experience and how are we going to prove ourselves to our parents. We have to give it a try.” 

Sara used to convince Neha and it was like she used hypnotize Neha try to get her to agree to whatever she wanted. Neha agreed, “You are so right; we have to give it a try.”

Now Sara had to find a way to tell her parents that she was going to stay a night at Neha’s house. She was praying on the way home that her parents’ mood was good, so they won’t refuse her. 

When she got home, she saw that her parents were in a really bad mood because both of them were fighting over a show on TV that it was an old episode, but her mother said, “no it wasn’t”. 

So, both of them were fighting over that. Sara got angry because she thought that God never accepts her prayer. She had only one wish that one day she becomes the biggest fashion designer and very famous. She knew that God never accepts her prayer, but she still believed in God a lot. She prayed to God that hopefully one day God will listen and grant her wishes. She never told her wishes to anybody except God because if somebody finds out what she wishes for, then it will never come true. 

Sara went to the kitchen and started walking around. She didn’t know how to tell her mother, then finally she spoke, “mom, I was thinking if I could stay at Neha’s house for a night cu…” 

Her mother interrupted her, “You were just at Neha’s house and now you want to stay there for a night, what’s wrong with you?” 

Sara told her, “mom, you are not listening to me. I want to stay at her house because we have a laboratory project for our Biology class. She has other tests as well, which she is gonna study during the day. So, we can’t do that project during the day. That’s why I’m gonna have to spend a night at her house to do our project. If you don’t want me to pass Biology, then it’s fine. I can just drop that class and change my major to fashion designing.” 

Sara’s mother used to get mad whenever she used to blackmail her mother for changing her major, but she also knew that she would say yes anyway. Her mother agreed and didn’t want to say no to her because she was their only daughter, so agreed to all her little requests. After a while, she went straight to her room, which was upstairs.

Sara’s house was two-story, and they had four bedrooms. The master bedroom was downstairs, and three rooms were upstairs, her parents stayed in the room that was downstairs and Sara stayed in a room upstairs. Her house was very big according to Neha’s house because their house was only two-bedrooms and one story. When you go upstairs, you will see a game room next to the stairs and a room on the other side of the game room. The other two rooms were straight in front of the stairs, which were for the guest as her mother told her, but Sara used them as well. 

Her room was next to the stairs and it was really big. It was messy too because she didn’t like to clean and didn’t know how to make her room pretty like Neha. Whenever Neha visited her, she cleaned the room for Sara, and it looked nice for that day. Her mother used to clean her room every day and didn’t let her daughter do anything in the house because she was their only daughter. Even if Sara wanted to clean someday, her mother didn’t let her. Most of the time, she wanted to be alone and didn’t want to be around people, so her room was the only place, where she could be alone herself.

It was just two months for Sara and Neha to graduate from high school. Sara was never into studies but was more into fashion designing. She knew what she wanted to be when she was a child. She always wanted to do something that gave her fame as a fashion designer. She was really smart, that was the reason that she made it through high school and made really good grades. She was top of her class and had a really good GPA. She was not arrogant because most people think that if somebody is really smart, then they don’t socialize with people and very arrogant. She never told anybody that she was in the first place in her class except Neha, but everybody knew that she was really smart and intelligent. She was going to do her bachelor’s degree in Biology and go to Medical school after saving some money by getting a job, so she could afford the university’s fees, but she didn’t know that she was going to get a scholarship for attending University because of her good GPA.

She had her clothes, books, and other things everywhere in the room, her mother cleaned it in the morning, but she went to Neha’s house, she threw everything on the floor. 

She started talking to herself, “Oh man, I wish I could keep my room clean. I don’t know how it gets very dirty and I’m tired of cleaning it every single day. Hopefully, one day when I come in, it will be clean, and I can sleep peacefully.” 

She picked up her clothes and books from the floor, tried to clean her room, so she could sleep well. She made her bed and put everything else away. She found her iPod on the floor and saw that it was dead. She got really mad for even little things like a battery running out of iPod, the room being messy, and things being on the floor. While cleaning her room, she thought that somebody was in her room when there was nobody. She used to imagine things that weren’t real because she used to watch lots of scary movies. Most of the time, she made her mother scare; whenever something was missing, she told her that somebody came to her room and took it, which made her mother think that there was a thief in their house.

For instance, one day she was missing her calculus book, which she had put on the lamp table the other day, and found the book somewhere else. She asks her mother that if she had gone to her room and put the book somewhere else. When she had put the book somewhere else and later found it. She was the only child and her mother believed her whatever she said. Sometimes, it made Sara’s mother think that she had some kind of problem with forgetting things. 

“Now I can’t listen to my iPod man. I have to charge it now, so I can listen to it when I go to bed,” said to herself. 

She loved listening to music at night and her parents used to get so mad at her because she used to get so lost in the music that she couldn’t go to sleep. So, she used to go to sleep in the morning and not wake up on time. She wasn’t a morning person and couldn’t sleep till late. 

She was screaming from her room, “Mom, can you help over here? I’m missing my charger; I need to charge my iPod.” 

Her mother replied, “it’s plugged into your computer. Remember, the other day you were synchronizing music into your iPod.” 

She found the charger and she could hear her mother blaming her father because he couldn’t find the adapter for his memory card, which she had given to him yesterday. Sara smiled and went to take a shower.

After the shower, she went surfing on the net for a little while and was looking for cheap books for her next semester in college. She was already registered and her friend Neha as well. Both of them registered for the same classes. 

Suddenly, she remembered that she should tell Neha about the books on Amazon.com are very cheap and both of them should buy the books from that website. Sara called Neha and told her about the deal on Amazon.com, but Neha as usual was very scared to do anything especially on the net. To get the deal from Amazon, she would have to give out her credit card number, which she was afraid to do because she was afraid that if somebody steals the card number or something bad will happen. So, Sara told her that she’ll sign up and order the books for both of them. She also asked her to tell her parents that she’ll be staying at their place when her mother calls to ask her parents, so they won’t refuse to her mother. Neha’s parents also liked her and didn’t mind her being with Neha or at their place. They hung up after talking a while.

It was six o’clock in the morning, the alarm goes on. She was awake before even her alarm got on. She hits snooze and pretended that she’s asleep. She didn’t want to wake up, but she couldn’t do that. She also picked her classes the morning times for next semester. She wanted to sign up for the afternoon classes, but her parents didn’t want her to stay out very late. She was pissed because she wanted to go to some college, which was far away from home. Her parents didn’t want her to leave them because she was their only child, and she was only 17 years old. 

After ten minutes, the alarm goes on again, and Sara’s mother comes in to wake her up. 

Before her mother could say something, Sara got mad, “I’m awake, mom. I’ll be ready, how many times do I have to tell you that I can take care of myself. You don’t need to do all this for me and God’s sake, I’m turning 18 in a couple of months.” 

Her mother got sad and left the room immediately. 

Sara, underneath her breath, “why can’t she leave me alone?” 

Sara got up and went to the bathroom to take shower. She got a dress for school and went downstairs to go to school. Her mother caught her at the door and asked her if she wants to have breakfast. But Sara was still mad at her because her mother always looked into whatever she does. Sara left the house without saying anything to her mother. 

She drove straight to Neha’s house to pick her up and then went straight to school. Sara didn’t say anything in the car while driving to school. Neha knew that whenever Sara was quiet in the car, she was mad at her mother for some reason. Both of them didn’t say anything else and listen to music.

She had a Toyota Camry, which her parents gifted her on her 17th birthday. She took a driving class and got her driver’s license when her parents told her that they will give her a car.

There was a guy in their school, who liked Sara, but Neha was in love with him. His name was Johnathan Nelson, and everybody called him John. He was tall, slim, brown eyes, light brown hair, and looked handsome. She only liked him as a good friend and also explained to Johnathan so many times, but Johnathan never understood her and still liked her. She didn’t want to go out with him because she thought of him as a good friend and Neha was in love with him. Besides, her parents didn’t want her to date. 

She was a Muslim girl and in the Muslim religion, “girls are not allowed to date anybody” as her parents told her. Johnathan never cared about her being a Muslim because he loved her so much that he didn’t care about what her religion was. 

He told her so many times that he liked her and wanted to go out with her, but Sara always refused him because of what her parents told her. 

Her parents told her that it is Haram to have a boyfriend in the Muslim religion. Haram is something that is not forbidden, illegal, and unlawful, or impure according to the Muslim religion. Her parents were not very religious because they let Sara wear any kind of clothes she wanted and let her do anything she wanted except the idea of having a boyfriend. 

The Muslim religion says that women are not allowed to wear clothes that show a women’s body, but Sara wore lots of clothes, which showed her body. 

Sara and Neha arrived at their school at 7:45 a.m. and John was waiting for them outside the school. John always waited for Sara because he loved to talk to her all the time and didn’t want to miss even a word she said. Neha gets out of the car first and John talks to her while Sara parks the car. Neha also knew that he liked Sara but didn’t care because she loved him without any conditions. She didn’t care if he loved her back or not, she only wanted to see him every day and she never told him that she loves him. Sara knew that and wanted to tell John, but Neha always stopped her.

“Hi, Neha. How you’re doing this morning?” said Johnathan.

Neha replied with excitement, “I’m fine and you?”

Johnathan was still looking at Sara, “I’m great”.

When Neha didn’t get attention from him, she just thought it’s better to leave, “Hmm… I’ll see you later then”. Sara came to the school door.

John and Sara started walking inside the school. She was already in a bad mood, “What’s up?”  Johnathon asked her, “You’re not in a good mood, what happened?” Johnathan could always tell if she was in a good mood or not because he was madly in love with her.

Sara rolled her eyes , “No, I’m fine.”

Johnathan lifting his hands up in the air saying, “Alright, you don't wanna talk about it, that's fine. I just wanted to ask you if you want to go to the prom with me?”

Sara knew this will come up sooner or later, but she had to refuse him, “Well, the prom is tomorrow night and I can't go because I'll be staying at Neha's place tonight and my parents won't let me stay out for another night. You know my parents, how they are.”

Johnathan was begging her, “Please, just go with me; this is the only time we can go with each other as a date.” He was blushing while asking her out just for a day.

Sara knew that Neha liked Johnathan, so she had to refuse him no matter what, “Please, try to understand. I can't go.”

Johnathan still insisting, “Just ask them, maybe they will say yes.”

Sara again rolling her eyes and nodding her head sideways, “Ha ha ha, they will never say that; especially, when you're gonna be with me.”

Johnathan getting excited, “alright, just give it a try. Maybe...”

“Okay fine. I'll ask them.” They were already by her classroom. “I'll see you at lunch.”

The bell rang and both of them head to their classes. Her first period was Newspaper, and she was the Editor in that class. So, all the students under her were writers, photographers, and designers. She had to check all the work when they were done with their stories. 

Sometimes, she had to go take pictures and write stories for some new students. She had been taking that class for three years and this was her last year. She also received awards for being an editor in the Newspaper. Her teacher was impressed with her work and she liked her so much.

Her teacher Diasy Watson looking at Sara, “Hello, how are you? You are looking low today.”

Sara putting her bag down, “I'm fine Ms. Daisy, how are you? I just don't want to do anything today, is that fine with you?”

Ms. Daisy standing coming up to her table, “Yeah, of course. You can take a day off. We don't have anything important to do today, but you do have to understand that you do have some stories to edit and check on other students because I need to check and publish them as soon as possible.” 

After Sara does editing, the stories used to go to Ms. Daisy for final touches, and then the teacher used to publish them in the school newspaper or Yearbooks.

Sara putting her hair in a ponytail, “Yeah, I'll do them on Monday and don't worry everything will be done by the deadline.”

Sara went out of the class and wandered around the school. Nobody could say anything to her if she walked around the school because she had the press pass, which only newspaper or yearbook students had. So, the whole period she was out of the class and went to get Neha’s class because she was really upset and wanted to talk to her. Sara knocked on the door and Neha's teacher opened it.

Sara knocked on the door, “Mr. Brooks, Can I talk to Neha for a minute? I need to interview her for the Newspaper.”

Mr. Brooks looking down to see nothing in her hands, “Well, you don't have anything in your hand and how are you going to interview her?”

Sara thinking of making up some excuses, “Hmm, I know my questions and I won't take her for long.” He caught her because Sara used to go to Neha’s class often and made excuses to talk to her, so Mr. Brooks knew that she was just making up stuff to talk to Neha.

Mr. Brooks knew that she was from the Newspaper, so he had to let her to talk to her, “Alright, but don't take too long because we have an important review to do for our upcoming test and I know that Neha wouldn't want to miss that.”

Sara hopeful, “Sure, Sir.” Mr. Brooks called Neha and she came out of the class.

Neha closed the door behind her and getting angry, “What do you want now? I can't miss my class and you know that I hate missing stuff in the class. Why don't you do me favor? Go tell the principal that change my schedule and put me in the same classes as you. Then I can listen to you any time you want, and you won't have to worry about lying to everybody anymore.”

Sara in sarcastic way, “That's a great idea, but right now I'm not in a joking mood. I want to talk to you about something important and don't waste time cuz Mr. Brooks will come to get you soon.”

Neha hurried, “Okay, tell me what is it?”

Sara turning her face away, “I was rude to Mom and I know that she loves me, but when she comes to my room and always being overprotective; I get so mad. I just want to say sorry to her and want to tell her that I love her, but she doesn't need to be so protective of me because I can take care of myself.”

Almost tears in her eyes; she wanted to cry, but she hated to cry in front of people even in front of Neha. She didn't want people to know that she was so weak. So, she made everybody think that she was very strong, but inside her, she was very weak. Sometimes, people and her own family believed that she is very strong and she’s always happy.

Neha turned her to face to face, “If you feel sorry, then call your mom and talk to her. I know that she'll understand.” She was still into her class because she hated missing her lectures.

Sara replied, “you know I won't be able to do that. I can't be nice” both of them laughed.

Neha suggested, “you can do one thing, why don't you just forget about it and your mom will forget it too, pretty soon.”

Sara was still worried about her mother, but Neha didn't pay attention to her at that time because she had a test coming up, so she didn't want to miss the lecture. Suddenly, Mr. Brooks came out and told Neha that they're going to review now.

Neha hurried up to go back to class, “I'll see you at lunch and we'll talk there.”

Sara with a sad face, “Yeah, see ya” waving at her.