Chapter 2

   "Thank you Amilah." I just tutured Jenny, a girl in my science class.

   "You're welcome." she walks out of the library of the university. I pack up my stuff and walk out also. When I walk out, I see a tall guy in an army suit.

   "Azan!" I jump up and hug him. He's my big brother by four years.

   "Ronia, I missed you." That was my name before I became Muslimah. I didn't care that he didn't call me my Muslimah name at the moment.

   He's been fighting in the army for two years. He's been in Iraq.

   Basically, he has brown hair, pale skin, and bule eyes. He has the the same American accent that I have.

   "Did you go to mom and dad's house yet?" I ask.

   "No, but they picked me up from the airport. They're waiting in the car. Come on." We walk to the car and talk on the way. It's a big campus, so we had a lot to talk about.

   "What resturaunt do you want to go to, Azan?" Mom asks him when we get inside the car.

   "Gianini's." It's an Italian resturaunt. It's my second favorite place to eat.

   We pull into the parking lot. I'm wearing a fancy pink hijab with jewels all over. I have a black jacket on with a long pink skirt.

   Azan is wearing his army suit.

   Mom is wearing a "spaghetti" strap blue and purple dress with her hair in a bun.

   Dad is wearing a red plaid jacket with black jeans.

   We walk into a place with chandeleirs over every table. No one is wearing anything too fancy, so we blend in.

   The walss are covered with scarlet paint with a huge mural of Italy in the middle of the place.

   It looks crowded and is noisy, but there's one table in the back.

   "Can we please get that table in the back?" I ask the waitress that'll be seating us.

   "Sure. Follow me." she starts to walk and we quickly follow her.

   After we get the menus and meet our waiter, my brother says he should tell us something.

   "Please don't get mad." That makes me a little suspicious.

   "We won't." I say.

   "Well, I've been in Iraq as you know. I've been studying their culture. It's better than what they portray it in the media. I got attached to the culture. I discovered their religion. I had my friend, Abdul tell me about the religion. I then wanted to know more about it. I started reasearching it, asking the mosque he went to about it. They gave me the copy of the Qur'an translated to English. I then said to Abdul, "I need to convert." I then said the shahada in his mosque. I'm now oficially Muslim."

   "Welcome to Islam brother!" I say proudly.

   "I knew you would be proud of me. Thank you." my brother replies with a huge grin.

   "This is an outrage!" my sas says furiously.

   "Dad, calm down." Azan says calmly.

   "No, I won't calm down! Why would you choose Islam over Judaism?"

   "Ranaan, remember, this is a public place. Don't make a scene here." my mom says.

   "Fine, I'll lower my voice. Azan, what are you thinking?" my dad says in Hebrew.

   "Look, I knew you weren't gonna be happy with this. Just accept it like you have with Amilah." I guess the conversation will be in Hebrew.

   "It's fine if he's Muslim." my mom steps in.

   "Plus, Judaism and Islam have some simluarities." I say hoping dad will change his mind.

   "You two are both crazy. Islam is not even a religion. Judaism is the authentic religion."

   "Look. dad, I know that you're not happy with Azan's decision, but you can't insult our religion like this." I say frustrated.

   "Muslims should go to hell!" my dad just crossed the line.

   "Ranaan!" my mom yells.

   "Amilah and I are leaving now. I will be staying at Amilah's. I don't want to see you, dad. I will only visit the house when mom is the only one there." my brother and I walk out. Mom decides to unlock the car so my brother can get his stuff.

   "Azan, I will come visit Amilah's apartment. Your father was way out of line with that extremely rude comment." she says sadly.

   "Thanks mom." we hug her.

   "You two can catch a cab, right?"

   "Yeah, mom." I say.

   "See you soon." Azan says. We go up to the main road and call out for a taxi. The taxi drives to the university so I can get my car back.

   "McDonald's?" he asks me when I start to drive off in my car.

   "McDonald's." I reply with a grin. I park in front of the nearest McDonald's. We decide to get our meals to go. We're both tired.

   I order the 10 piece chicken nugget meal and he orders a chicken snack wrap with fries. We both get our favorite soda, Coca Cola.

 

   "I must learn Arabic." Azan says. I just put on Arabic music.

   "I would love to teach you, but I'm a horrible teacher. They have classes at the mosque I go to."

   "For adults? You'd think they'd be for kids."

   "Yes, for adults too. Where'd you think I learned my Arabic?" I laughed.

   "You could've learned it anywhere." he laughed too.

   "I'll bring you to the mosque on Friday. Everyone will love you."

   "Really? I feel special already haha."

   "They love all of the recent converts. Do you remember the say you converted?"

   "Like it was yesterday."

   "Good. People will ask the date you converted and the story."

   "I bet."

   "Oh, and my friend's son is coming here from California. He invited my family and I to go. Maybe we can invite mom."

   "I swear, dad has lost it."

   "I agree."

  

  

 

  

 

Author's Note

if you've read chapter 1 before September 7, 2010, i've edited some important dates. i advise you to go back to chapter one

Reviews

[T. R. Writer]

This is great. Try to remember to "show" more and "tell" less in your descriptions, but those are minor details. For a young writer, you definitely have possess skills well beyond your youth and are a superb story teller. Funny, I started learning Arabic in the mosque too, but stopped because I was having difficulty learning both Arabic and Spanish at the same time, but I may start going back after reading this.

[Coyote Poetry]

I like the conversation. Maybe we need to listen to the common sense of children. They see the world with better eyes. A very good chapter. A very good pace to allow the reader to know the characyters in the story.
Coyote

[Huggy Bear]

Interesting chapter:)