After that second competition nothing really happened till first term exams...

I was at a private school, "Mosab Ibn Omair". Since 9th grade is the end of our elementary education, it was an important degree. The exams had to be held in a local school, i.e. a school built by the government. Our school was assigned to take exams with "Al-Salam" mid school for girls, the same school that Alyaa attends.

At the school, Mo'men was with me at the same school. Every 5 minutes he'd pop up to me and tell me where Alyaa was, what she was doing and with whom she was talking. Every day I see her before me, everyday Mo'men keeps telling me how beautiful she was and every day I like her more than I used to the day before until I finally discovered that I'm in love with her, all because of Mo'men.

The exams finished and we started the second term with me knowing that I love her so I tried to stay close and talk to her but still, nothing! The term finished and the exams came. In the first day we had Arabic exams… I did well in the exam, great tbh, and revised with my friends after the test. When I got out of the class something strange happened. Something I couldn't believe at that instant.

“Are you Ahmad Mamdouh?” A girl showed up out of nowhere asking… That felt strange and extremely odd to me. I don’t know her, doesn't ring a single bell and she knows my name! That feeling was immediately crushed and replaced by surprise when I saw Alyaa behind her. Most likely she didn't want her friend to ask me but her friend, apparently, wanted face her with reality. I still don’t know why that happened. I don’t even know how it happened and how her friend knew me in the first place.

Never the less, “Yes” I replied looking at Alyaa and still confused but Alyaa stepped forward, which made me very nervous, and asked me in several points in the test. Some of them were true and some were wrong and it didn't matter anyway. All I knew at that point is that I wanted the time to freeze because there she was right in front of me, an angle talking to me and I don’t believe it.

“Anything else?” was my stupid, hideous response. I didn't even wait for an answer and went away from them without looking back. Until this day I don’t know what made me do that. I realized how stupid that was immediately afterwards. Should I go back? – No. I told myself that I’d talk to her after the next exam but I never got the nerve to do it. Until this day I blame myself for leaving her there. Until this day I wished to go back in time and make it right… but things just don’t work that way. And yes I’m stupid!

“So are you ready?”

It was as if my mind is talking to me, “Are you ready for the new year?” I really don’t know, am I?

Last year I didn’t see her much, couple a’ times after the science competition and that’s it. I didn’t give it much of thought and went out for my first day – 3^rd prep school, a fresh year and a fresh start.

Days have passed and new days have come and they all look normal and the same. I took tuitions in English, math and science. The English tuition was rather boring because I didn’t have my friends with me in the same group at the time but. The tutor, Mr. Nasser, now knows me and keeps asking me and I ended up answering every question. I don’t really remember but I think no one answered but me and there wasn’t any competition of any kind so... Really boring! The same thing exactly was with the math tuition. The science tuition, however, was a very different thing. I had my friends with me and it was kinda fun... After some weeks, I switched my English group to match my friends’ and attended with them and it began to be better and more fun.

One time Mr. Nasser, the English tutor, decided to hold a contest, to determine who the best in English amongst his students is. The test was then decided to be on Friday and the students to take the test were chosen, the most intelligent and fluent, and here comes the irony, Alyaa was included just as I was included. What should I do? I have to prove myself! I studied only English the three days before the contest and prepared well. I think that was the first time ever that I studied that hard. On Friday, the test was early in the morning and so I went but there was a delay and we started late. As usual, I was the first to finish and handed my papers so the teacher would mark them. He looked at me when he finished and said “Bad marks you’ve got, Ahmad. Bad marks” and there was my shock. “Wait!” said Mr. Nasser, “The distribution of marks was wrong, ok now you’ve got higher marks” You won’t believe how much I was relieved on hearing that. Now I have nothing to do but to wait for the others to finish. The second one to finish after me was Mohamad Zaki but he didn’t get higher marks than I did but he was the closest one. One after one the students delivered their papers and I still had the highest mark and Mohamad Zaki was the second with 18.5 and 18 respectively. Now all students had delivered their papers but one… Alyaa.

We were all waiting for the delighted princess to finish and it’s become late. She kept looking at her papers, then her friends, then me. And she looked nervous and frustrated that I thought she’s going to get up and beat me. After a while, so much convincing and insist of the teacher she handed her papers to be marked. Now I became nervous waiting for her result and she was still looking at me with her sparkling-with-evil eyes. The teacher finished and looked at her “He still have the highest score!” She was like… I don’t know really what that expression was but she was annoyed. I didn’t care much at the time because I was busy celebrating my victory and the teacher gave a girl called Maha a closed envelope and told her to give it to me and so I opened it to find 20 pounds there as my prize for winning the competition. Alyaa was so envious and had funny expressions on her face.

So this was the second time we had a competition and confronted each other but I won this time. That’s one for me and null for Alyaa.

That’s it for now… to be continued,

Here I am in Egypt once again after spending a year in Saudi Arabia. That year I didn’t have much of a social life. It was only a year about school and studying. I didn’t really socialite with anyone since I was still sad and attached to Mennah. But when I returned to Egypt, everything changed!

It was my second year of preparatory school (8^th grade) and I went to a school called (Mosab Ebn Omair). In my class I ran into Mustafa Jamal who was a friend of mine two years ago. He helped me to fit at school and to get some new friends. He told me that I missed an important year of education and I needed to enroll in some tuitions. We were at the beginning of the year and I didn’t think that I needed tuitions in all subjects. At the time I only took a math tuition, but through the year I enrolled at several tuitions in subjects like science and English.

At the science tuition, the teacher used to make competitions between the students so that they could exert their efforts at studying and beat each other. For me, it was somehow annoying to participate in such things. I wasn’t good at studying at the time and I also didn’t fit in properly, so as a result I didn’t!

At the English tuition I was good but also didn’t answer or raise my hand unless I was told to. The teacher was working with my mother at the same school, but I didn’t tell him about that. One day he began to notice and asked me “What does your mother do for living?” now I was sure that he noticed. “My Mother is a teacher, English teacher” I said and immediately jumped the next question “Where?” I didn’t want him to know me so I didn’t tell him the name of the school precisely, he kept asking for several classes and I kept telling him “I don’t know” till one day he said that he knew me and from that moment he began to ask me on everything about everything!

By the second semester I was good at school, tuitions and made a lot of friends and knew all of the boys in my neighbor. I began to participate at tuitions’ events and competitions. At science tuition, I was very good and so was Mo’men (a friend of mine). We both competed against the others and used to beat them all. One day the teacher enrolled me in a competition that included girls… “Girls?? No way!” I answered quickly. The teacher tried to convince me several times but my answer was always: NO.

One day he came to me and said in a firm way: “You are to compete against them or you’ll never attend my tuition again!” What do I do? What could I do? Nothing!! I later knew that the competition was between two teams: one of the boys and one of the girls. My team (the boys) included me and Mo’men and two others. On hearing that Mo’men was with me I was a little bit reassured. But all of them kept saying: “You’ll face a very clever team, be aware and don’t compete against ‘Alyaa’”. “Who is Alyaa?” I asked. “You don’t know her? She’s the daughter of our Arabic teacher, she’s also VERY clever”

My heart, that was reassured minutes ago, now got shocked! Seriously? First competition for me against the girls and I’m facing a strong team? Come on, give me a break! So I studied, as hard as I could, and went there the next time shaking.

We finished the tuition and waited for the girls’ team to show up. When they came, the teacher looked at us and said “Get ready!” On hearing that, my heart dropped down to my knees. Mo’men was beside me and he definitely noticed me, He patted over my back and said “Don’t worry”.

The competition started and the girls’ team sat against us and the girl that sat in front of me was stunningly beautiful. I immediately had doubts and, to be honest, I liked the girl a lot. It wasn’t seconds before the teacher came up to me and said: “We’ll start with you!” and I was like: “Who? Me???” and he said: “Yes you!” and he asked me a question. Thanks god I was able to answer and pulled myself together. After answering that question I had a little of self-confidence. I looked at the girl against me and she seemed a lot comforted and that made me more nervous. The teacher asked her and she answered confidently. The teacher then moved to Mo’men and asked him and there was the shock: Mo’men couldn’t answer!! So we lost that competition and for my luck it wasn’t my fault. When we left I said to Mo’men “You kept telling me not to let you down and you let us down, what happened up there?” He looked at me and said coldly “Never mind” and then he smiled and looked back at me “So what do you think of her?” I looked back and asked him who he talked about. He smiled wider and said “The girl that sat against you dude, Alyaa?” He said that and I was surprised. So that’s Alyaa? She was really beautiful tbh. But I was grateful that I didn’t know that before the competition or I would’ve ruined everything.

Everyone else that day was talking about how I competed against Alyaa and that I didn’t lose. Was it really that big of a matter? All I know is that I liked her, a lot!

                                                                                                            To be continued,,,

After reading the script, we built an image about what the play is. The play talked mainly about water, how humans waste huge amounts of water and that other creatures want it badly.

Aliens came to earth and kidnapped Marti (me) and Granny Flora (Mennah) to lead them to the place from where they could get the most possible amount of water. As time passes by, Marti and Granny Flora realize that people really waste water unnecessarily, and there are other worlds desperate to find some. Therefore, they decide to mislead the aliens by taking them to the desert and take advantage of the mirage. When the aliens die of thirst, because there is no water, Marti and Granny Flora return to their house proud for saving the planet and they never waste water again.

We started practicing the following day and so I began to meet with Mennah and, as time slowly passed by, the ice between us began to melt down and we started to check up on things. Bonds built up and we began to hang out around school’s halls using the play as an excuse. I even got her out of class few times (some we arranged) and went to the theater to yell, practice or run after each other.

Those days were probably the best of my life. They changed me and somehow Mennah changed me, too. Everything was perfect! Until... the day of the party.

School had already been finished and we went to the theater where the school was to award its nerds. The party was big and some VIPs attended and the TV was recording, it was hell of a party!

We sang with school’s coral and then changed for the play. We performed well and most of the people agreed that the play was the best part of the party.

When they began to award the students, we went to the back to change and rest after the whole thing. Suddenly, Mennah came up to me and handed me her phone. She did not give me the number but she gave me the device itself. I was shocked and confused at the same time when she said: “It’s my mobile”. What was I supposed to do? I have no Idea! “What should I do with it?” I told her. I’m not sure why but she panicked and didn’t answer me, then her friend came by and told me “keep it with you for a moment” and grabbed Mennah of her arm and took her away. I was still confused but I saw them arguing about something. Apparently, Habeba (Mennah’s friend) had told her to give her phone number to me, but Mennah misunderstood her and gave me the whole device. They came back to me and Mennah’s face blushed when she said “My phone, please” and Habeba took her away quickly.

After that day, I couldn’t find Mennah anywhere or contact her by any means possible. I traveled back to Saudi Arabia to attend school there, very sad because I wasn’t gonna be able to see Mennah again, ever.

So here I am in Egypt for 6^th grade, still young. I went to Salah El-Dein School for the year knowing absolutely no one there except for my sister and she only stayed for the first semester.

I had to, somehow, try to make some friends. As I said before, it was a lot easier to make friends in Egypt than making some in Saudi Arabia. So I made some friends from my class like Mustafa Jamal, Moaz Khairy and Ahmad Bakkar.

Once Mustafa Jamal came to me and said: "Why don't you join us in the school choral team?" and answered: "But I don't sing" – "Don't worry we're just gonna have fun and escape some classes".

On hearing that, I agreed delightedly and we went there after the class. The teacher was very kind; he welcomed me and gave me the lyrics for the songs we sang at the time. I had fun and got on very well with the team, the teacher loved me and I attended all the meetings they held until one time, I saw her…

A beautiful, fair girl with dark hair, I can say that I immediately fell in love with her. I didn't know at the time what love is as I was young and didn't have ANY previous experience. However, I felt comfortable while being next to her and loved to hear her voice very much.

I couldn't talk to her at all at the time as my friends were always with me and she had her best friend with her, so complicated.

I enrolled in a poetry competition because I love it a lot. I won several times and reached the finals. The teacher who was responsible for these activities admired my performance and offered me a role in a play that my school had organized for graduation party.

"You're going to be a main character in the play" said Mr. Mohamad, "Marti, that's your name, and the other main character is… Mennah! "

"Mennah? Wait… which one?" I said to him. -"You'll see her now, come!" we went to an empty classroom, and there she was, looking at me… the girl from the choral team, Mennah!

-"Hi there" she greeted me with a cute smile. –"Hi" I replied with a nervous voice.

-"She's gonna be your grandmother in the play, her name will be Granny Flora" said Mr. Mohamad while giving us our scripts. "Save your lines! We'll begin practicing tomorrow"

These words made me happy till the end of the year. Finally, Luck is by my side!