Chapter 36
Monday. The summer fete was in five days and the ban was still in place, even though we’d protested. It wasn’t exactly easy fighting it from my bedroom and not actually being at school. I still hadn’t decided how I was going to catch the attention of the chair of governors at the fete and convince him that Mrs. Owen had got everything wrong. And time was running out.
First, though, I had to figure out how to stop Yusuf from going to that rally and maybe fighting with my best friend’s racist brother.
I almost wished I could reschedule my attempt to talk to the governors until things calmed down with Yusuf. But after the sit-in protest and Jonah’s supportive emails and us all starting a group chat, there was no way I could back out. Especially since this was the only chance I’d get to speak to the governors about reversing the ban without Mrs. Owen glued to them.
This was the first time I’d had to fight for anything. I was finally doing something important with my life, but Yusuf was seriously disrupting things. With all my worry about him, I couldn’t focus as much as I wanted. But I had to do something. Otherwise us getting suspended and Lisa having to hang out with her racist brother all week would be for nothing.
I picked up a pencil from my desk tidy and pulled a scrap piece of paper from underneath Furball to write down some ideas so I’d be ready for when we all chatted next. I had to get the ban reversed. Somehow. School would be unbearable if it was kept in place; everyone would believe they were right: that because we were different we were a problem.
I sat at the dining table reading The Hate U Give. The front door slammed shut and Yusuf appeared in the kitchen doorway, glaring at me.
He hadn’t spoken to me since Friday night when I’d accidentally told on him and his plans. And I had avoided him in case he suspected I was following him. I still wasn’t sure if he’d seen me before I’d ducked into the pharmacy and he’d got in the car.
I waited for him to launch into me, but he didn’t. Probably because Dad trailed in after him. Phew.
“As-salaamu alaikum.” Dad pushed past Yusuf and dropped a bag of shopping on the floor. He’d asked me to go with him, but I still didn’t want to face a big building full of strange people. It made my spine tingle and the hairs on my neck stood up just thinking about it.
“Walaikum as-salaam,” I responded, looking between Dad and Yusuf, who was still hanging around for some weird reason.
“Tell her, then,” said Dad, nodding toward Yusuf.
Yusuf hung his head low and mumbled something.
“Did you hear that, Aaliyah?” asked Dad.
“Umm …” I said, worried that this — whatever this was — was going to make things worse between me and Yusuf.
“You might want to repeat that,” said Dad, opening the fridge door and starting to put the groceries away.
“I said — I’ll come with you to your school fete. You’re my little sister and I should be looking out for you,” said Yusuf, his arms crossed, his foot tapping on the tiled floor. “It’s not safe out right now.”
“Oh,” I said, surprised Dad had already asked him. “Right … thanks.”
Yusuf opened his mouth to say something else and then didn’t. He looked at Dad and said, “All right, I’m going up to pack the books I don’t need anymore.”
His empty eyes glanced at me before he turned to head out of the door. I remembered how on my first day at secondary school, he’d walked me into the grounds to make sure I knew the route. How did he go from that to this?
“Okay,” said Dad, his head in the fridge.
As soon as the kitchen door shut, I got out of my chair and went to the fridge. “How did you get Yusuf to say yes?” I asked, picking up a milk carton from the shopping bag on the floor and handing it to Dad to put away.
Dad glanced at me and took the milk. “He’s got no choice. I’ve spoken to his friends’ parents as well, and we’re all making sure they keep away from that rally.”
I smiled at Dad. I had literally had the best idea ever.
Dad bent to pick up a tub of Greek yoghurt from the shopping bag and added, “I told him you’ve been bullied, and he has to look after you. I’ve also messaged those rally organizers on that poster, Peter and Darren, about the fete fundraiser for the bombing victims. You should’ve told us about Yusuf before, Aaliyah. I’m not happy …”
Dad’s words became muffled as I stepped back in shock. He didn’t just say he’d invited the hate group to the summer fete?
“Why would you even do that?” I screamed, running out of the kitchen, a thick lump forming in my throat. Of all the people you could invite to a school fete to bring people together, my dad had decided it would be a good idea to invite a bunch of racist, Muslim-hating thugs. I couldn’t believe it.
“Aaliyah!” Dad shouted after me.
I ignored him and slammed the front room door. I couldn’t believe he had invited not just the guy who had threatened me and taken my best friend away from me, but his whole group too.
I slumped onto the carpet and stared at the silver flowers on the wallpaper.
A knock on the door — I crossed my arms and turned away from it.
“Aaliyah.” It was Dad. He crouched in front of me and put his fingers on my chin to lift my face to his. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I should’ve told you properly — I wasn’t thinking.”
Tears of frustration rolled down my face. I couldn’t look at him.
“I did this for you,” he said.
“How is inviting a gang of thugs to MY school fete, while Yusuf’s there, going to help me? You’ve ruined EVERYTHING!” I cried and threw his hand off my chin.
“Listen,” he said, sitting cross-legged on the floor opposite me. “I consulted some community leaders at the mosque and we felt it was the best way to deal with the situation.” He paused to look me in the eyes, but I turned my face away.
“If they come and support the collection, they won’t be at the rally, or not for long,” he continued. “We’ll have achieved the impossible. Everyone will be together, working for the same cause. Kids like Yusuf and his friends will be safe, and hopefully these people will see that we’re not bad. That we can work together.”
I glanced at Dad, who was pulling at his shirt collar, loosening his tie.
“Aaliyah, listen, we have to extend our hand of friendship. If we don’t, things will just get worse.”
“They probably won’t come anyway. They want to chant at their racist rally,” I said. “They hate us.”
“Well, then, it’s their loss, isn’t it? If they can’t forget their stupid opinions and get behind a fundraising event when they’ve been especially invited, that says a lot about them.”
I supposed he was making some sense. “How did you invite them? How do you even know them?” I asked, facing Dad. I wondered if he’d clicked that Darren was Lisa’s brother.
“I don’t,” he said. “I just sent a text to the number on that poster Yusuf brought home and told them to come.”
My brows arched so high, my eyelids hurt.
“Give it a chance. I’ll have the police on standby — don’t worry. We have to extend our hand and show compassion. You never know, it might just change their minds … It might not,” he said, pushing himself off the floor. “But we won’t know unless we try.”
He pecked me on my head before walking to the door. I forced myself to smile at him. Maybe he was right. Maybe it would change their minds. But it didn’t mean I wasn’t scared.