my Story

Wind blows my hair; grass tickles my

bare feet, rain drops on my glasses.

“Christina, come in and get dressed for
Church.” My Mom calls.

I turn my phone on hello - Adele now playing
was written on my screen. I paused it and my
phone starts to vibrate it’s an alarm for church
that mom has put, although I told her not to do
this because I already heard the bells and I could
also hear her voice calling me and my twins;

Cindy and Chris. As we arrived to church, it was
already filled with tons of people.

When everyone sat down the Priest started
talking “Make sure you have an open mind and
heart, when we pray”

Everyone closes their eyes and puts their hands
together and the priest continues “Start by
asking god to be with you” then we all pray… I
didn’t really pray that day or any day since a
month or so, I had a really weird feeling that
makes my tummy full of butterflies. The next
day, I woke up late as usual and went downstairs
with my pajamas.

“11:00 a.m. tomorrow, I’ll be there okay,
thank you!” Mom hangs up then puts her phone
on the table. Cindy and Chris were eating
breakfast, they wake up way too early but to be
honest I am not a morning person, I actually hate
waking up early.

Mom waits for me to sit down “I’ve got
exciting news,” she exclaims as her smile got
wider “we’re moving to another country! Egypt!
Isn’t this exciting?”

We all nod our heads in agreement.

I turn to look at Chris whom had got the
‘Research is on me’ look he was turning his
computer on.

Cindy ran upstairs without saying anything. 5
minutes later she came back with something in
her hands. “Dad got me this book, before he …”
She cried, she remembered dad, he died 2 years
ago in a car accident and she still can’t get over
it, I don’t judge her because so do I, I cry every
time. She wipes her tears away and continues

“It’s about Egypt, it might help” she says
blowing the dust from the book’s cover.

Chris looked really interested; I could see the
words reflected on his glasses. By midnight our
bags were packed and everything was ready we
had even found someone that wants to buy our
house. We arrived at the airport at about 10:45
a.m. when it was 11:00 sharp we had already
been in the airplane in our seats. I watched a
movie about Egypt. The narrator in the movie
started talking about how that Egypt was one of

the most ancient countries in the world, and that
the pyramids are one of the Seven Wonders of
the World, but what caught me and got me
turning my face from the window to the screen
is the narrator saying “Egypt is an Islamic
Country.” The moment when I heard that
sentence I got the butterflies. The only thing I
was thinking about was Islam and how our
family will deal with it, because we are staying
at people’s house for a week or so until we find
a house and those people are probably Muslim.
Mom turns to look at me, I guess she realized I
was just staring at the screen for about 10
minutes just thinking.

“Christina, honey, what is wrong?”

“Erm, well you see…”I hesitated. I could tell
she was curious. “Mom,” I sighed “how will we
deal with Muslims? Will they accept us?”

“Don’t worry about it,” she says tapping my
shoulder “We’ll be fine, the Muslim people are
really sweet! And Egypt has some Christens too

and the Muslims seem to accept them pretty
well!” she smiles then turns back to her movie.

Zzz I turn to find where this sound is coming
from; it was Chris who was in his deepest sleep
all the way from America to Egypt. Cindy
looked quite annoyed from him she couldn’t
read her book from all that snoring, but I won’t
judge Chris the chairs are way too comfortable
they do make people want to sleep, but I guess
when you have butterflies in your tummy you
won’t be able to sleep. Finally, we were landing
as much as I love when we land as much as I
hate the pain in my ears.

“The People we will be staying at their house
have triplets like you, but they are boys; Ahmed,
Mohammed, and Mustafa” she said expecting
me to say something but I just nodded with a
sarcastic smile.

When we landed Chris woke up and mom told
him about the triplets expecting him to act
different than I did and he did he was really

excited to meet them, when Cindy saw what’s
going on she removed he headphones and asked
about what’s happening, mom explained but the
Cindy rolled her eyes and gave mom the same
sarcastic smile I did, and put her headphones
again. Chris was not like me and Cindy, Chris
was born different, I remember a picture of us
three as babies’ mom was giving us baby and
Cindy and I seemed really disgusted but Chris
was eating it, and he seemed impressed!

“Thank Jesus there is someone to play with, I
thought I’d be lonely and the family would have
girls who are going to be Cindy and Christina’s
friends!” he said Clapping his hand together.

We walked in the Airport in circles

“Um... excuse me Ma’am” a handsome boy
has poked mom with his finger.

“Oh, hi there! “Mom said.

“Hello!” the boy smiled. “I think your
crucifix had fallen from your necklace Ma’am”
He said handing her the crucifix.

“Thank You so much! What’s your name?”
my mom asked as she took the crucifix from his
hand.

“Ahmed”

“Do you have any siblings Ahmed?” my mom
asked as she rubbed the boy’s head.

“Yes, I have Mohammed and Mostafa, We’re
Triplets!”

“Oh God! Are you the family whom we will
be staying with?” Mom asked curiously.

“I guess! Wait I’ll call mom she told me that
we have guests.” He says running back to his
mom who listens carefully of what he said then
she pulls her phone out of her bag and probably
is looking at a picture of us and comparing it to
us. She smiles and walks over to us with her
sons.

“Mrs. Jenny?” The Woman asks.

Mom nods her head.

“Welcome to Egypt! I am Sarah” The woman
said smiling, and then she looks at me and my
siblings “Oh, these are your kids how beautiful,
they will be instant friends with my sons”

Wait! Was that boy I called handsome is her son
so that means I will have to stay with him for a
week and even more than a week because mom
will probably become friends with Mrs. Sarah.

“Yes I am sure they will!” mom said “This is
Christina” she pointed at me.

“Hello Mrs. Sarah” I say smiling to her.

“Hello Sweetie! I am sure you and Ahmed
would make great friends!” Mom and Mrs.
Sarah Both giggled while Ahmad and I turned as
red as a tomato. After mom had introduced all
three of us Mrs. Sarah introduced her sons too.
We had more like a moment of awkwardness
then a moment of silence.

“So let’s go now and get you some food,
you’re sure hungry!” Mrs. Sarah said breaking
the silence.

Mom nodded her head.

“Yes sure but I’ll just go change our dollars
to… um what do you call your currency?”

“Well you can call it Egyptian Pounds,” Mrs.
Sarah said.

Mom went, while Mrs. Sarah took us to the food
court. All the signs where in Arabic I couldn’t
understand a word! I think Mrs. Sarah read my
thoughts.

“Would like us to teach you Arabic?” she
asked smiling to me.

“Yes, of course I would! Since everything is
written in Arabic here” I said

Mrs. Sarah laughed.

“Since you’re staying a whole week or even
more with us than maybe one of the boys could
teach you,”

I gave her a smile and looked at the floor then
looked up and it was really crowded! Mrs. Sarah
spotted an empty table and pointed at it.

“There boys we’re going to sit there” She said.

The triplets ran to it before anyone could take it.
As usual I was the last to arrive there was no
place to sit except for next to Ahmed so I went
for it. Cindy snapchatted everything and when I
say everything I mean it! Chris was already
having fun with Mohammed and Mustafa, Mrs.
Sarah was ordering food and mom was heading
to our table after she exchanged the money, and
Ahmad, well, he was sitting there tying all his
fingers together, I could feel how awkward he
felt though, because I was feeling the exact
same. Mom called me and said she had to talk to
me. So I stood up and headed to her.

“Um... Christina, why don’t you to talk to the
kids, that one over there, the first one we met?”

Oh wait, did she just tell me to go talk to a boy
that I just met and I don’t even know how will
he react to me? Oh well mom you got some
weird stuff going on, I look back to our table,
Mrs. Sarah was talking to Ahmad, she is
probably telling him the exact same thing!

“Okay Mom! I’ll try!” I head back to the table
and sit back on my chair; I think of mom’s
words when she gave me that look pointing to
Ahmad with her eyes, aka “don’t ignore what I
told you and go talk to him” so I pull out my
phone and open Instagram , and say the
cheesiest pickup line ever :

“So Ahmad, do you, um ... have an Instagram
account?”

I just won an award for saying the worst pickup
line to ever exist! Bravo Mom for making me
look like a fool 

“Yeah I do, wait let me follow you! Do you
have snapchat?” he asked looking relived that I
talked first.

“Of course I do, my Instagram username is:
@christina.j and it’s the same on snapchat,”

BEEP...BEEP

“@Ahmad_W started following you on
Instagram”

“Ahmad_W added you on snapchat”

We ate, Then 2 hours later we arrived, although
their house is really close to the airport but as in
the movie I watched on the airplane said “Egypt
is somehow really crowded!”

“So what part of Egypt is this?” I heard mom
asking Mrs. Sarah as we get out of the car.

“Alexandria, it’s the most beautiful place in
Egypt!” Mrs. Sarah Replied.

Mrs. Sarah opened the door; it is actually a
really impressive house. Mrs. Sarah got some

tiny pieces of paper and wrote on each one, one
of our names and folded them then she put my
sibling’s names and mine apart from her sons’
names, she told me to pick one her sons name as
she scrambled them, I picked one and she told
me to not open it, she made my siblings do the
same thing, now the three of us have a paper in
our hand,

“The boy’s name that is on your paper is going
to be your roommate,” She said

Cindy unfolded her paper first “Mustafa” was
written on her paper, so Mustafa took her bags
and led her to the room and showed her around
the room. Muhammad was really wishing it
Christian is going to be his roommate, and so is
Christian. Christian and I unfolded ours at the
same time, and guess what, I am with Ahmad
and Christian is with Muhammed. I took my
bags and go through the hallways to his room,
but something on the walls of the hallways

caught my eyes, it was words in a frame I think
it’s in Arabic, I asked Ahmad about them,

“Oh this, It’s words from the Quran which is
a collection of words Allah sent to our Prophet
Muhammad, you may think it’s like the Bible
but no offense the Quran has the real Religion,
and has the real words Allah has brought to his
Messenger, I am Sorry I didn’t mean anything!”

I got those butterflies again.

“No it’s fine,” I said.

We looked at each other for a minute, then I
looked at the floor and blushed then he kind of
said this

“ I um will leave um you I think I should leave
you so you change and rest from your flight.”