“5:43. Nice job, personal record,” said Ms. Jackson
“ You are only 11 and you are getting 5:40 miles. By the way how many marathons did you win? If you keep on running you will soon be as skinny as a stick,” said Nahid.
“ I won 34 marathons. That’s why I am respected throughout the city, I represent our city every month,” Mahima said, out of breath. Her face was wet with sweat, she was breathing as fast as a person with asthma.
“When are you going to stop representing the city in the marathons? It’s not like if you stop running you won’t be respected. Everyone looks up to you,” said Nahid.
“Exactly, everyone is looking up to me. If I stop running, our city won’t be as popular as it is now. I will never stop running and I am not running just for popularity, I just want Sunnyvale to shine”, Mahima said.
“Okay everybody ,time to go home. Nice job on your mile today. Best mile was Mahima Khan, 5:43, as always,” said Ms. Jackson.

The next day, Mahima got ready for school, while she was walking through the door, she glanced at her 1st place running medal. “What happened Mahima, are you okay,” Mahima’s mom said.
“Yeah I am fine,”Mahima replied and walked through the door on her way to school.
On her way to school, she was thinking about all the famous girl athletes in the world, and wondered if she could be world famous. Mahima’s dream was to become one of the famous athletes, but also to be academically strong. She reached school, and people were clumping together. “Is she new? “ said a girl.
“Where is she from,”said another.
“Wow I want to be like her,”another said.
Mahima spotted her friend, and tapped her shoulder “What is going on?”
“ There is a new girl,” Nahid replied.
“What is her name?” Mahima said.
“I don’t know anything about her, all I know is that she is getting popular very fast.”
Mahima got scared and confused, the last time a popular student came into her school, every sixth grader got bullied, but it’s been a long time since a popular student has came into this school, as she heard from previous kids.

Mahima shrugged her shoulders and walked towards the crowd.
“Hi I am Mahima, what’s your name?”
“Hi I am Aaliyah”, the new girl said.
“What grade ar-,” Mahima tried to say.
The bell rang, pushing, shoving and tripping filled the hallway, as teachers carefully opened their classroom doors. Mahima sprinted across the hallways to get to room 21, once she reached, all she could hear was clapping.
“Mahima Khan, you are late”, Mr. Jones said with a frown
Mahima walked in the door, staring at the wooden ground. People laughing, wanted to make her cry and scream, but she held in her emotions. She waded through the sea of desk and sat in her desk in the right row and 4th column of the room. She looked up and glanced in every corner of the room, and felt embarrassed. Every single pair of eyeballs were staring right into her face, she looked down and Mr.Jones said “Ok class. We have a new student. Aaliyah would you like to introduce yourself?”
“Yes, please Mr.Jones. HI everyone, my name is Aaliyah, I moved from Nevada. I am 12 years old and I am a very talented child,” Aaliyah said with a proud face.
Clapping from every inch of the room filled Mahima’s ears. Mahima felt like this Aaliyah girl, wouldn’t be a very nice person. First of all, she brags a lot and second, her attitude makes her a bully. Mahima didn’t want to judge someone right away from two minutes of speaking, so she ignored Aaliyah.

By the starting of sixth period, Mahima was relieved Aaliyah wasn’t in any of her classes except first period, until she saw Aaliyah in the changing room. Mahima sighs and continues to change, until Aaliyah walks up behind her and taps her on the shoulder.
“Hi… um … Maria, What P.E teacher do you have?” asked Aaliyah.
“First of all, my name is not Maria, it is Mahima. I have Ms.Jackson for P.E” replied Mahima.
“I also have Ms.Jackson, can you take me to the blacktop?” Aaliyah asked.
Mahima nodded and they both walked out of the changing room, towards Ms. Jackson’s area of the blacktop. While they were walking, Mahima thought Aaliyah was mean, but right now she was pretty nice.
“ You know, I won so many awards, in so many competitions, like best hair, or best clothing fashion, best makeup and so much more,”Aaliyah bragged.
Mahima smiled and pretended to be amazed, when in reality, she thought to herself, “Looks like I spoke too soon. Aaliyah is bragging, but I shouldn’t say anything mean.”
Once they reached Ms.Jackson’s area, Mahima introduced Aaliyah to the teacher. Ms.Jackson smiled and told the class about the Aaliyah. “So today,class we will be continuing our unit on soccer,” Ms.Jackson said with a smile.
“Yeah. I love soccer. I am so good at soccer. I used to play at a competitive team,”Aaliyah screamed with joy.
Ms.Jackson nodded with a smile and broke the students into two teams, when Mahima found out Aaliyah was in her team, she glanced at Ms.Jackson, who nodded and smiled. The class walked up the stairs, to the upper field, and started playing the soccer game. Surprisingly, Mahima got impressed by Aaliyah’s soccer skills. “Pass Mahima. I am open,”Aaliyah screamed.
“No, I have space, I can do this,” Mahima replied.
Mahima aimed for the goal and shot.
“Score. Nice goal Mahima,” Ms.Jackson said.
“Well. I could have done better!” Aaliyah replied, Ms.Jackson and all the kids ignored Aaliyah and continued the game.

At the end of sixth period, when everyone was vigorously moving into the changing room, Ms.Jackson pulled Mahima and Aaliyah aside to talk to them. “Nice job, girls. Now soccer team tryouts are starting tomorrow. Are you guys going to try out.”
“I would like to, but I need to study for my tests. I am sorry,” Mahima replied with a frown
“Wow Mahima, who cares about studying. I would like to tryout, but I already know I am going to get on the team,” Aaliyah blurted.
“It’s okay Mahima. How about this, if you really want to try out, you can come today after school and show me some skills, if it’s okay with your mom. If I like you, then you’re in the team,” Ms.Jackson said with a smile.
“Oh thank you, Ms.Jackson. Anyways my mom is going to come late from work, so I can stay to try-out”, Mahima replied.
“Aaliyah, you can try-out with Mahima, if you want. Or come tomorrow after school,”Ms.Jackson said.
Aaliyah nodded with a smile, “I ‘ll stay today and try-out, my mom and dad will be fine with it.”
Ms. Jackson raised her hand to show a thumbs-up and the two girls followed her onto the lower field. The two girls started passing to each other for warm-up, then they started to run and pass to each other. They played one-on-one keep away, sometimes Mahima won, and sometimes Aaliyah won. In the end, they each took turns trying to steal the ball from Ms.Jackson.
“ I am impressed. Best girls I have seen in my past-life experience. There is no doubt you will be on the team. The real practices start next week, make sure you bring soccer cleats, shinguards, water, and extra pair of clothes or you can wear your P.E clothes. See you tomorrow, remember tomorrow is Friday,so it is early dismissal,” Ms.Jackson said.
Mahima and Aaliyah went into the changing rooms to change.

Once they finished changing, they came out of the locker room, with their hair tangled, red cheeks, and sweat on their forehead. Mahima reached for her water bottle in her P.E bag and started to elevate the water bottle to drink her water. “I forgot my water bottle, so can I drink some of your water,” Aaliyah asked.
“Um I kind of already finished my water, sorry. You can drink from the water fountain,” Mahima replied, with a smile, “I have to start walking home. So see you tomorrow. Tomorrow is early dismissal, so tell your mom to pick you up at 2:00 instead of 3:00. Bye Aaliyah.”

Aaliyah smiled and waved her hand. They both started walking in different directions, Mahima started to walk towards the drop-off and Aaliyah walked towards the closest water fountain. While Mahima was walking towards home, she was thinking how her mom would be doing. Since Mahima’s brother left for college, her mom wasn’t much fun anymore. Usually, her mom would want to play with them or talk, but now she just sits on her computer, tapping computer keys, talking to her employees on the phone, or going on many work trips, and leave Mahima at home with her grandmother.

Mahima reached home after 20 minutes, and went to her room, to put down her backpack. She glanced at her watch, and read 5:17. She sat on her red desk chair, and zipped open her backpack. She reached in to feel her smooth cloth math textbook, then she tried to feel the rings on her planner book, and then her math notebook. She set her items on her desk, grabbed a pencil from her black rectangular pencil holder and flipped her planner to November 6 to read the homework. “Pg 67 6-37 to 6-43,” the planner showed. She flipped her math textbook to page 67 and then she found the next clean page of her journal.
When she finished her math homework, she looked at her watch, “5:40.”
“Ding Dong,” the bell rang. Mahima quickly placed both of her hands on the front of the desk and pushed her chair, then got up, raced down the carpet covered stairs, with her right hand sliding on top of the maple wooden railway, jumped down from the third step closest to the ground and sprinted as fast as she could to the door. She cupped her hands on top of the door and pulled it as hard as she could, “Hi Mahima,” her mom said, placing her hands on Mahima’s shoulders and squeezing her, “how was your school.”
“Hi mom. School was nice. Guess what, Ms.Jackson let me try-out earlier for soccer, and I made it,” Mahima said with a big smile.
“Good job. You better practice for the soccer practice. You haven’t played since last year, when you sprained your ankle in the competitive soccer league game.”
Mahima nodded and blushed at the same time. Mahima was her soccer team’s best player,when she had sprained her ankle in the middle of the game, her team lost. She felt really bad that day, and since her injury, her mom has never let her played. So it was an honor to be able to play soccer again.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday went by really fast, everyday Mahima and Nahid went to the park to practice soccer, aiming, passing, defending and dodging defenders. On Monday, instead of walking Mahima decided to carpool with her friend, Nahid. Mahima reached Nahid’s house, with her backpack, cleats, and shinguards. Since Mahima convinced Nahid to also try out, Nahid tried and she made it so,she brought all her soccer supplies. Once Mahima and Nahid reached school, they immediately went into the changing room to leave their soccer supplies there, and then sprinted to their first period class. Mahima walked in her classroom door, just to see all her classmates slow clapping for her. “Wow Mahima. I thought you were a nice person, but I guess you aren’t,” a girl said.
“What happened? What did I do,”Mahima asked with a nervous smile.
“Gosh, you don’t even know what you did. You hurt Aaliyah during tryouts”, said a boy.
“I didn’t even touch her. I wouldn’t do anything like that. You guys know me,” Mahima was about to cry.
“Yes you did. Aaliyah told us the whole story,” another said.
Mahima glanced at Aaliyah, and Aaliyah mouthed the words,”You deserved it.”
Mahima was confused, scared, sad, and angry at the same time, she tried to ignore Aaliyah for the rest of the day, but it didn’t work. The end of the day came, and it was time for soccer practice. Mahima hoped the girls Ms.Jackson picked were really skilled at soccer. Mahima found Nahid outside the changing room with her neon orange jersey,  white soccer shorts, red goalie gloves, green socks over her shinguards and blue cleats. Mahima told Nahid the whole story of what happened at first period and that Aaliyah was bullying her the whole day. “That’s awful, but you shouldn’t just ignore her, be brave and stand up to her. Tell her to stop or tell a teacher,” Nahid said.
“I know, but you know me. I am not very strong emotionally, so I couldn’t do anything. The worst part is, everyone is going on Aaliyah’s side and protecting her, only you are helping me. I don’t know what to do. Now Aaliyah made the team, so she can tease me all she wants during school and after school.”, Mahima said with a quivering voice. Nahid could see the tears swelling up in Mahima’s eyes, so she decided to hug her. “It’s okay Mahima. I will help you, that’s what friends do. Later, when everyone realizes what a big lie and bully Aaliyah is,  everyone will leave her and start loving you again.”, Nahid said with a voice like silk. Nahid left her friend’s shoulder and walked Mahima to the lower field where soccer practice was. Nahid wiped the tears off of Mahima’s eyes and cheek. Before they were about enter the field, Mahima wrapped her arms around Nahid and Nahid did the same. Then they walked towards the field. “Let’s go and make Ms.Jackson proud,”Mahima said with a huge smile.
“That’s my friend I want to see,” Nahid replied.
Then they both raced into the field and asked Ms.Jackson for instructions. Ms.Jackson started the warm-up, then they started to practice.
One hour passed, when Ms.Jackson blew the whistle. Everyone started to gather in and make a semicircle in front of Ms.Jackson. “Nice practice everybody. We will have a game every week on either Friday or a Thursday. Mahima and Nahid if you are okay with coming everyday for practice, you guys can come, but if interferes with you soccer league, try to at least come 2 days a week. Everybody else, practice is everyday 3 days a week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then games on Friday or Thursday. Good job guys see you tomorrow for practice.”

Weeks past, one after another, all Mahima had time for was soccer games, soccer practices, and studying, she was having fun. Their soccer team had won 6 games, lost 2 and tied 2.Although, the bully problem continued, Nahid was trying hard not to let Aaliyah get on Mahima’s nerve, and Mahima was trying hard to ignore Aaliyah as best as she could. Although, nothing worked. “Nahid, it’s been weeks, and Aaliyah won’t leave us alone. We have tried really hard, she bothers me at soccer practices, soccer games, during classes and during brunch and lunch. What can we do,” Mahima spoke with a shaking voice.
“Mahima, listen. The last soccer game is tomorrow. If we win this game, we will be first place out of all the sunnyvale middle schools. Don’t get distracted by Aaliyah. She is just another girl, and I know you are stronger than her,”Nahid said and put her hands on Mahima’s shoulder, “come on let’s go practice for the soccer game tomorrow.”
The two friends started to walk from school to the city park to practice. There they saw something, they never expected. “What is Aaliyah doing here,”Mahima asked Nahid, “I thought Aaliyah never practices for soccer.”
“No,”said Nahid with a nervous look on her face, “ I don’t think she is here for practicing, and look she even has backup.”
“Well, well, well,”Aaliyah spoke as she proceeded towards the girls, with another girl, “what are you doing here on this fine lovely day.”
“Zoya, what are you doing here. I thought you would be at home, I never knew, you were Aaliyah’s friend,” Mahima said scratching the right side of her head.
“Well I am her friend now, Mahima the monkey,” Zoya said.
“Leave us alone. We have to practice for the soccer game tomorrow. Stop calling Mahima names,” Nahid said, with her hands on her hips, “let’s go Mahima. Just ignore her.”
Mahima and Nahid left the park and walked to Mahima’s house to practice in her backyard. Once they reached, Mahima noticed her mom wasn’t her yet and the door was locked, so they went in the house from the side gate.  They tiredly dropped their backpacks down on the plastic table in the backyard, and started to warm-up. They played one-on-one for a little, then they switched to goal shootouts to help Nahid for goalie, and then they ended with aiming. After practice, they went inside with their backpacks to have a snack and to do their homework.  They climbed up the stairs, entered Mahima’s room, and started their homework.
After a while, Nahid looked at her watch, “Oh god, sorry Mahima, I have to go home. It is already 6:43. Will you be okay staying at your house by yourself?”
“Yeah it’s fine. You can go home. Remember to get enough sleep and eat a healthy breakfast for the game tomorrow.”
Nahid picked up her backpack and soccer bag, laughed and waved good-bye, she skipped down the stairs, while grasping the slippery wooden railway, opened the door, exited, and closed the door behind her. Mahima zipped open her backpack, reached in with her hand, and felt for her book. Once she found it, she placed her finger where the bookmark and the book meet. She dug her finger in, and pushed the book open to start reading. After an hour, she heard the bell ring. She pushed herself out of the chair, ran out her room door, carefully ran down the stairs and opened the door. “Hi Mahima. Ready for your game tomorrow,” her mom said, while she walked into the house, and closed the door behind her.
“Pretty much. Nahid came to practice soccer with me, then we did homework. She left an hour ago,”Mahima replied.
“ Come on let’s go eat dinner,”Mahima’s mom replied with a chuckle.
Mahima and her mom walked to the dining room, and started to eat dinner.

“Ok guys ,remember what we worked on. Always pass, when you think you are going to lose the ball. You need to trust every player on this team. If we win this game, we will win the championships, but it doesn’t matter, just have fun and learn from this game,” Ms.Jackson said, while everyone was wearing their soccer materials.  Mahima was nervous about the game. Yesterday she didn’t get enough sleep, so she might run out of energy.
The game started, everyone was doing great in Mahima’s team, but then “Goal,” the referee yelled out. The opposite team had scored a goal, but they were only winning by one goal. Mahima, Nahid, Aaliyah and Zoya were sitting on the bench, because Ms.Jackson wanted to save the best players in the end.
The first half ended, and they were losing by one goal. “Nice playing guys. Remember don’t get nervous, you have come a long way, don’t give up yet. Next up Mahima will be substituting for left striker, Aaliyah will be substituting for right striker , Nahid will substitute for goalie, and Zoya will substitute for right defense,” Ms.Jackson said with a big smile.
The second half started great for their team. Mahima got close to scoring 3 goals but her aim was off, Nahid saved four goals, and Zoya was defending great. “Goal!,” the referee screamed.
“Nice goal Mahima,” Ms.Jackson said.
Mahima glanced back at Nahid, who showed a thumbs-up sign, and Mahima smiled back. Aaliyah was muttering to herself and stuck her tongue out at Mahima. Mahima looked back, to see Nahid mouthing the words “Ignore her, just concentrate.” 
The referee blew the whistle and the game continued. The opposite team sprinted their heart out, but when they reached Zoya, she stole the ball and kicked as hard as she could. The ball flew over the heads of the players, and it landed right next to Aaliyah’s feet, but right when Aaliyah was about to reach the ball, the defender stole it from her. The defender was about to kick the ball, when Mahima ran and stole it, the crowd screamed, and she started to run. When she was almost in the goalie box, a defender blocked her path, she didn’t have any open shot. “Pass, Mahima. I am open,” Aaliyah yelled. Mahima didn’t have any choice. She aimed her foot towards Aaliyah and kicked it. Aaliyah picked up her foot to stop the ball, she had a clear shot. She swung her foot backwards for power and kicked the ball. The ball spun in the air, passed the goalie and fell into the goal. The referee shouted, “Goal,”and he blew the whistle, it was the end of the game and sunnyvale middle school won 3-1.”
“High five, Mahima,”Nahid called out.
Mahima and Nahid’s hands clapped together, and they gave each other hug.
Everyone gathered around Ms.Jackson who was clapping for them. Aaliyah walked next to Mahima and said, “Nice pass.”
“Thanks, but you are the one who scored the goal that made us win,” Mahima replied.
“Yeah , but if you wouldn’t have passed the ball to me, I would have never scored ,” Aaliyah replied.
Mahima smiled and they both started to laugh. “Sorry, I was bullying you, I kind of got jealous about all the attention you got from running marathons” Aaliyah said.
“It’s fine. Friends?” Mahima asked, and stuck out her hand. Aaliyah stuck out her hand and they both shook hands.
The next day, a big assembly for all the girls took place. “Hello girls of Sunnyvale Middle School. We are going to declare a special competition for all the girls in this school. All the girls are going to be competing for the Girl of the Year trophy. It’s going to be a triathalon, a mixture of swimming, biking, and running all in one. First there is going to be an IQ test to pick the top 15 girls, the questions will be according to your grade. The test will be next week and the triathlon will be the week after the test. Good luck, girls,” the principle said and all the girls got dismissed.
At the end of the day, when Mahima reached home, her mom was already there. “Hi Mahima. How was your day,” her mom asked.
“Hi mom, it was nice. Mr. Smith made a competition between all the girls in our school. They will conduct an IQ test to decide the top 15 girls that will participate in the triathlon for a trophy. Next week is the test and then after that week is the triathlon. It sounds cheesey, but every girl has to participate,” Mahima said.
“Wait, who is Mr.Smith,” her mom asked.
“Our principle,” Mahima replied while she got out her homework and set it on the dining table where her mom was sitting.
“Well, I know you will do very well. You are a bright student, plus you’re athletic. You will do fine,” her mom replied and gave Mahima an apple cut into fourths.

The week passed by really fast, and everyday Mahima and Aaliyah were studying really hard. Each day they would walk to the library from school, to check-out as many book they could find about any subject in their grade level. Then they would go either to Mahima or Aaliyah’s house to study and do their homework. Since Aaliyah wasn’t a straight “A” student, Mahima promised to focus harder on her than herself.
When it was the day of the test, Mahima walked to Aaliyah’s house at 5:30 AM to study even more. “ What is the chemical formula of sugar,”Aaliyah asked Mahima.

“Carbon 12 Hydrogen 22 Oxygen 11,”Mahima replied with full confidence.
After a while the clock struck 7:50, when the girls started to walk to school. They reached school at 8:15, 5 minutes before first period was going to start. Mahima and Aaliyah ran to room 21, as fast as they could, when people were about walk into the room. Mr. Jones was standing outside on the left side of the door, greeting the students as they walked into the classroom. Once Mahima and Aaliyah reached the door, Mahima walked in without a “Hi,”  and Aaliyah walked in with a”Hi.” Mahima glanced back at Mr.Jones who was looking right and left for sprinting students, and then he closed the door. She continued to walk straight through the maze of desks and sat in her desk in the back left corner. Class started, all Mahima, and the other girls were thinking about was the IQ test.
Second period came fast, and it was time for the IQ test. Instead of going to her second period class, she walked through the pavilion, between the boy and girl locker room, took a right, and walked through the open door of the gym. Her eyes got wide when she saw the crowd of girls standing in the gym. She entered and turned her head right and left to look for Nahid. She continued to look, and then an unusual movement caught her eye, she glanced at the swaying motion, and saw Nahid waving her hand. Mahima smiled and ran to Nahid in the back corner of the gym.
“I am so nervous,” Mahima said while looking around to see anyone she knew.
“Why are you worried? You know a lot of general knowledge, and you get straight  A’s,” Nahid replied with a smile.
“Good morning girls.Take a seat. So as you know, today is the IQ test to pick the top 15 girls to participate in the triathlon. Good luck and as all teachers say, do the best you can,” Mr. Smith said.
The principle passed out stacks of papers to the first person in each row, to take one test and hand the rest to the person to the left of them. Once Mahima and Nahid got their test papers, the girls started. Mahima read each problem very slowly and carefully, she checked each answer multiple times. Once everyone finished, the bell rang. The girls pushed, shoved, and tripped as the crowd got dismissed for brunch.
School ended and, Mahima and Nahid walked together talking about the test. “ The test was pretty hard, I mean I knew the answers, but it took me time to answer the math,” Nahid said while swinging her lunchbox.
“Yeah I agree, but I don’t get the point of Girl of the Year. It’s not like if you win, you’ll become famous,” Mahima replied while kicking a pebble, pretending it was a soccer ball. They continued to walk down the rough path, turned a right on Rose Garden and looked right and left to watch for cars.
They reached Nahid’s house, and Mahima waved bye and gave her a hug. Then Mahima  continued to walk to her house, thinking to herself about what problems she could gotten wrong, and what problems she knew she got right. A while later, Mahima reached her house, saw her mom’s turquoise colored prius which brought a smile to her house. She always felt good when her mom was back. She rung the doorbell, waited for two minutes, and rung again. She peeked into the window, but saw no one. Her mom was here, but why wasn’t she. Mahima was confused, then she thought, maybe her mom was in the bathroom. So she kicked the side door, and went in her backyard. She pulled the backyard door and entered her house. “Mom,” Mahima yelled, “mom are you home? Mom?” She walked deeper into the house, glanced into the kitchen, knocked at the bathroom door and yelled in one more time. “Mom.”
No answer. She set her backpack down, zipped open her lunchbox, and found her iPhone 5 . She switched it on, went to the phone call app, tapped her fingers on the screen and held the lightweight phone up to her ear. She waited a minute, while she heard the ring. “The phone number you dialed, is not available, please leave a voice message after the beep,” the voice in the phone said. Mahima rolled her eyes at the voice and switched off her phone.
Nervous and confused, Mahima swung her backpack over her shoulders, held her phone in her hands, and walked up the stairs, wondering what happened to her mom to start her homework. After an hour or so, when Mahima finished all her homework, she decided to go outside to shoot some goals which might change her mood. She dropped her phone in her pocket, went down the stairs, opened the closet to wear her neon green jacket, and opened the backyard door to go outside. When she found the soccer ball, she set up a goal to practice her aim. When she swung her foot to kick, she sent the ball flying pretty high, but she missed the goal. “What happened to my mom,” Mahima said to herself, with a sad tone, running to find the ball. The wind blew, clouds started to form together to create larger ones, as the trees danced and the wind caused Mahima to shiver.
She felt too depressed to play, so she went back inside to her room. When she entered her room, she glanced at her watch which showed 6:27. She grabbed her post-it note pack from the right corner of her desk, and sat on the right corner of her bed. She ripped one paper from the stack crumpled it into a ball, located her circular trash can in the room, and threw the paper which landed in the can. Mahima had a trick that she does whenever she’s nervous. She would crumple paper into a ball and throw it into the trash can into her room. After throwing 10 balls, if she threw more paper into the trash can than she missed, her mom would be back safely.
After throwing 10 paper balls, she counted how many she missed, and how many she threw into the basket. She made 5 baskets and missed 5 baskets, she looked outside her bedroom window and saw nothing except trees swaying and kids playing in the park right across the street.
She started to throw more paper balls into the basket. When she threw ten more balls, she counted again. This time she missed four and made 6, which made her feel much better. She zipped her backpack open and started to read a book.
After an hour, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs, Mahima didn’t hear the bell ring, and she was sure she locked the backyard door. She jumped onto her bed, and covered her body with the blanket. “Mahima, I know you’re on the bed,” a voice said. Mahima wanted to run, but she kept still. She heard a jingle sound, like a jingle bell, and thought it might be a weapon. The trees scratched her bedroom window, and she heard wind singing.
“Who are you, what do you want from me,” Mahima yelled, with a shaky voice, and grasped her blanket tighter with her right hand, and reached her left hand in her pocket to feel her phone.
“Mahima, I am your mom.”
Mahima kicked the blanket of herself, and looked in front of her. Her mom and Mahima both laughed.
“What happened? Are you okay, I saw your car outside,but you weren’t there. I got really nervous, so I started to shoot paper balls, the trick Hussain taught me,” Mahima said.
“Sorry, you got scared.  My car ran out of gas, so I got a ride from Nahid’s mom,” her mom said.
Mahima nodded and they both walked down the stairs to eat food.
The next day, every girl was nervous for the results of the IQ test. Mahima and Nahid walked to the gym during brunch, and saw all the girls sitting in chairs. They found two empty seats in the fourth row on the end and sat. “Good morning girls. We will announce the top 15 girls, who will to participate in the triathlon next monday after school,” Mr.Smith said into the microphone.
Mahima folded her hands together and placed her hands on her lap,and Nahid took her hands and placed them on top of Mahima’s.
“Please stand up when we call your name. In 15th place, we have Rachel Wong. In 14th place, we have Maria Matthew. In 13th place, we have Aaliyah Rafiq. In 12th place, we have Ananya Syed. In 11th place, we have Zoya Akbar. In 10 place, we have Robin Johnson. In ninth place we have Anabel Chase. In eighth place, we have Amy Jackson. In seventh place, we have Samantha Davis. In sixth place, we have Mary Wilson. In fifth place, we have Kriti Mathur. In fourth place we have Nahid Ahmed. In third place, we have Mahima Khan. In second place we have Akira Aslam. Finally, we have Anushka Azad for first place. Good job everyone. Please clap for the top 15,” Mr.Smith said with a smile.
Everyone started to clap, Mahima looked at Nahid and they started to smile at each other. Nahid raised her hand to show a thumbs-up.  When everyone got dismissed from the assembly, “ Good job Mahima, third place is awesome,” Nahid said.
“Fourth is also good,” Mahima said, while Nahid gave Mahima a hug.
“Oh no. Here comes trouble,”Nahid said glancing behind Mahima.
Mahima turned her head to look behind, and saw Aaliyah coming towards her with Zoya next to her, trying to block her path.
“She doesn’t look happy,” Nahid said.
“Hi, Mahima. I guess you’re happy, about getting third place,” Aaliyah said, while folding her arms.
Mahima nodded while looking at Nahid, who was placing her hands on Mahima’s shoulders.
“If we studied together, shouldn’t I have gotten 2nd place instead of 13th,”Aaliyah said pointing to herself.
“Leave her alone, Aaliyah. It’s just a silly contest,” Zoya said quietly, trying to make her forget about it.
“Look who’s talking,”Aaliyah said.
“It wasn’t my fault, you didn’t get the score you wanted. All that matters it that you made it in the top 15,” Mahima said.
“No it is. You probably didn’t tell me all the answers and studied more on yourself,” Aaliyah shouted.
“Stop Aaliyah. She helped you as much as she could. Now forget about it. Just because you got worse than Mahima, doesn’t mean it’s her fault,” Nahid said.
Nahid walked as she pulled Mahima along with her, and she saw the tears in Mahima’s eyes. “Mahima, forget about it. It’s not your fault. You did your part,” Nahid said.
“Why does she always figure out a way to blame me,” Mahima said while her teardrops fell towards the ground.
“ Mahima, look at me,” Nahid said turing Mahima’s shoulders to face her,” I am not going to let that bully bother you anymore, ok. Just calm down.”
Mahima looked up at Nahid, who smiled, “Thank you Nahid,” said Mahima.
“No sorry and no thank you in our friendship,” Nahid replied and they walked towards their third period class.
At the end of the day, Mahima’s mom picked her up from school. “How was your day,” her mom said, peeking through the rear-view mirror to see her daughter’s face.
“Very good, I got 3rd place in the IQ test, and Nahid got 4th,” Mahima replied looking outside and smiling.
“I guess the studying paid off, didn’t it,” her mom replied.
“Yeah, it did. I’m glad I worked hard, but it’s not over yet. The real race is on Monday, only three days from now. I have been working out with Nahid, so we are in pretty good shape,” Mahima replied.
The next three days, Mahima went to Nahid’s house to prepare for the triathlon. They lifted weights, ran miles, swam miles, and biked miles.
Monday came, but since it was Staff Learning Day, Mahima and Nahid had seven hours to prepare for the race. They woke up early,  Mahima walked to Nahid’s house to swim laps, then they would eat a very healthy breakfast, run three miles, and then finish off with biking. When it was an hour before the race, Mahima and Nahid ate apples, pears, fruits, homemade salad, and then drink lots of water. “ Girls time to go. You don’t want to be late to the triathlon,”Nahid’s mom said, while the Mahima took her and Nahid’s water bottle off the dining table, and went outside the house to wait for her mom.
“Mahima,” Nahid’s mom said, “ do you know where Nahid is.”
“Oh she’s still changing her clothes,” Mahima replied.
“Here I am,” Nahia replied as she came running outside ,” Mom, do you know  where  my water bottle is.”
“I have it,” Mahima replied, handing her water bottle to Nahid.
Nahid’s mom came outside, locked the front door with keys, and unlocked the car, so the girls could sit. Nahid’s mom sat in the car, plugged the keys into the socket and started to drive. The whole way, Mahima started to pray to herself, not about winning the race, but about staying safe during the race. They reached the school swimming pool, where top 15 girls were sitting down in chairs in the swimming clothes. Mahima and Nahid entered the swimming pool room, placed their bag, with their spared clothes on the right side of the room, found two empty seats, and sat.
“Good afternoon, girls. As you all know, today is the big day of the Girl of the Year triathlon. You all will start in the swimming pool, since there is 15 lanes, each girl will get a separate lane with your name on it. You will swim one lap, front and back, get out of the pool and run outside to get on your bikes. Each bike has your name on it, so find your bike and start biking. You can either wear your water shoes during the whole race or put on your regular shoes after the swimming, which will take time. No pushing or shoving during any part of the race. The biking is around the neighborhood, there will be arrows to lead you the way, the biking portion will finish when you see a sign with running shoes. You will get off your bike and start the running portion which will be up the ramp to the upper field and run two laps of the track, then you will see a finish line. Good luck girls, this is a friendly competition, so don’t fuss about this,” Mr. Smith said.
The girls lined up according to their names on banners above lanes. Mahima and Nahid’s lanes were next each other. Mahima glanced to the right of her to see Nahid, who held up a thumbs- up and mouthed the words, “ Good Luck.”
Mahima nodded and bent forward, placed her hands on the edge of the pool and looked forward ,ready to dive. “Ready, set.. go,” Mr.Smith said, while pointing the gun and shooting, “ BAM!”
Mahima pushed her body forward , making her body fly through the air, and landing on the surface of the water. She held her breath, while she swung her arms in and out of the water and kicked her feet as fast as she could. When she elevated her head out of the water to take a breath, she would look around to see what position she was in. In swimming, she saw, she was in eighth, Nahid was 5th, Zoya was 2nd, and Aaliyah was sixth. When she was done with the laps, she placed her hands on the edge of the pool and pulled herself out of the pool. Despite the cold, she sprinted out of the room, to put her on water shoes, she looked for her bike. She swung her leg over the bike seat, and started pushing the pedals of her bike, to accelerate her speed. She kept on pushing harder and faster on the bike pedals. She passed Anushka, Akira, Aaliyah,Nahid, and Samantha. She was in 3rd, she pushed her finger against the gear buttons, and started to push against the pedals harder and faster. She squinted to see the two people in front of her. Zoya was second and Ananya was first. Soon they reached back on campus, Mahima swung her leg over her bike seat, to get off her bike. She sprinted up the ramp and started her laps. Her heart was beating, sweat was dripping down her cheek, her legs were moving back and forth. In the middle of her first lap, she met Aaliyah, who sprinted ahead of her. Mahima felt a rage of anger go through her brain, she started to sprint, regardless of the pain. Once she and Aaliyah were right next to each other, Mahima turned her head to look at Aaliyah, who also looked at Mahima. She understood they were going race full speed to the finish line. So both girls started to sprint for their lives. Sometimes, Mahima went ahead, or Aaliyah, but only a foot apart. They passed Zoya and Ananya, to first and second. On last quarter of the second lap, Aaliyah looked at the crowd, sitting on the bleachers, cheering and screaming. She saw Mr.Jones, looking at Mahima with a stern face. Aaliyah sprinted one foot ahead, while looking at Mr.Jones, who then started to smile. Aaliyah purposely slowed her speed, to let Mahima, Ananya, Nahid, and Anushka in front, which caused Mr.Jones to frown. Mahima continued to sprint, but she was confused. Mahima ran into the finish line,  causing the rubber band to tear, and stopped. She could feel her heart beating rapidly, sweat made a wet trace on her cheek and dropped onto the ground.  Everyone cheered for her, except Mr.Jones, Mahima didn’t smile, as she was wondering why Aaliyah let her win. Nahid ran up behind Mahima and gave her a tight hug. “Mahima… you .. won,” Nahid said out of breath. Anushka walked to Mahima, just when Mahima turned around. “Mahima, I don’t know how you did it. Nice job,” Anushka said, while squeezing her arms around her. Everyone congratulated her, except Aaliyah, and Mr.Jones.
Everyone went home, tired and sweaty. Mahima and Nahid congratulated each other, hugged, and went home with their moms. Mahima reached home and took a shower, as she was exhausted from the running. Once she took shower, she came outside the bathroom, to comb and dry her hair. She started to walk downstairs, when she heard, her phone rang. She stopped , turned back to walk to her room. She listened to the ring and followed it, to her backpack. She zipped the zip open, and grabbed her phone, before it could stop ringing. She swiped her finger across the phone to answer the call, so fast she couldn’t even read the name or number that was calling her. She held the phone to her ear, and spoke into it, “ Hello.”
“Hi Mahima, how are you,” a young male voice said.
Mahima held her breath in surprise and happiness, “Hussain,” she asked.
“Yeah, how are you,” her brother asked again.
“Oh I ‘m fine. It’s been 2 years since you left for college, and this is the second time you actually called,” Mahima said in anger, but more in happiness. She was glad her brother was fine.
Her brother laughed while he said, “Nice job in the race. I heard you won first place, and Sunnyvale Middle girl’s soccer team won first.”
“How did you know all of this? I never told you anything about this,” Mahima asked with confusion.
“No, you didn’t tell me, your friend did,” Hussain said.
“Nahid told you,” she asked.
“Yeah,” her brother replied, “how is mom.”
“She’s fine, you want to talk to her,” Mahima asked.
“Oh um… no it’s fine. She’s probably busy,” Hussain replied with a sad voice   tone.
“Oh no, she’s just eating dinner. Hold on… ,” Mahima took the phone away from her ear, and shouted “Mom.”
“Mahima. Don’t it’s fine. I have homework. Gotta go, bye,” Hussain said and immediately switched the phone off.
Mahima got confused, so she went downstairs, to start eating. Her mom was already sitting at the table finishing her dinner. Mahima pulled out a chair, sat on it, and greeted her mom. “Who called you,” her mom asked.
“Oh, um… Huss-” Mahima stopped, she wondered if she mentioned her brother, her mom would get emotional, so she lied, “ Nahid. She asked if we had any homework.”
Her mom handed her a plate, but Mahima refused. She was stuffed from the heavy lunch and breakfast. So she just gave her mom company, by talking to her. Once her mom was done with dinner, her mom went upstairs to her room, and Mahima went to her room. She switched off the light, switched on the fan, got in her bed, covered herself with her blanket, and went to sleep.
The next day, the minute, Mahima entered her classroom, all she heard was, “Good job ,” and “how did you do that.”
Everyone congratulated her, except her first period teacher, Mr.Jones and Aaliyah. “Well as you all know, Mahima won the race, but stop congratulating her. This is history class, we are here to learn about Rome,” Mr.Jones said with the same face he made at the race.
At second period, all the classrooms were told to meet in the auditorium . Every single student had a chair in the room, since Nahid and Mahima had the same class in second period, they sat next to each other. “Hello students of SMS. As you guys know, yesterday was no school, but a very important event also took place, the Girl of the Year race. Maybe you guys know who won, maybe you don’t, but we’ll still announce the positions. In 15th place we have, Robin Johnson. In 14th place we have, Amy Jackson. In 13th place we have, Mary Wilson. In 12th place we have, Anabel Chase. In 11th place, Samantha Davis. In 10th place we have, Rachel Wong. In 9th place we have, Maria Matthew. In 8th place, we have Kriti Mathur. In 7th place, we Zoya Akbar. In 6th place, we have Akira Aslam. In 5th place we have, Aaliyah Rafiq. In 4th place, we have Ananya Syed. In 3rd place we have, Nahid Ahmed. In 2nd place, we have Anushka Azad. Finally in 1st, we have Mahima Khan.The top 15 please stand up, and everybody clap for them,” Mr.Smith said, while everyone was clapping. Mahima and Nahid looked at each other, and smiled, but inside, Mahima didn’t want to smile. She was still confused about why Aaliyah let her win. “ Now I would like our winner, Mahima Khan, to come up on stage to retrieve Girl of the Year trophy,” Mr.Smith said with a big smile. Mahima carefully walked her way through the field of chairs to reach the stage. She climbed up the stairs and soon she was staring at a bunch of students awkwardly smiling and looking at her. Mahima moved her eyeballs so she was focusing on Nahid who mouthed the words, “Calm down.” Mahima nodded slightly and took a deep breath. “ I declare Mahima Khan the winner of Girl of the Year. Mahima, would you like to say a short speech,” Mr.Smith said, while he moved the microphone towards her. Whispering filled the room, so it sounded like the room was noisy, but Mr. Smith ignored the sound.
Mahima nodded and she raised the microphone leg, until it was about 20 inches below her chin. Mahima opened her mouth, but the microphone made a loud screeching sound, while everyone covered their ears. Mahima took a breath and spoke into the microphone, “ Hello students of Sunnyvale Middle School. In case you don’t know me, I am Mahima Khan a seventh grader and I am 11 years old. First of all, I would like to thank my best friend, Nahid Ahmed, who came third place and stuck to my side the whole time. She supported me throughout my whole elementary and sixth grade experience. Second I would like to thank my mom, who is at home right now, but she has supported me through my happy and sad days. She encouraged me to try new sports that helped me win first place. I feel honored to be winning the Girl of the Year trophy. So thank you.” 
The principle handed her trophy, while people screamed and cheered. She received the trophy and held it in the air. The principle whispered something in her ear, and she nodded. “Nahid Ahmed and Anushka Azad, please come up to the stage to receive your medals,” Mahima said with joy. Mahima always enjoyed being with her two best friends. She watched her friends walk through the chairs, from opposite sides of the room. The rain thundered on top of the gym roof, which took the attention of some students.
The two girls reached the top of the stage and they both took turns hugging Mahima. Mahima stood in the middle of the stage and then Anushka on the left of her and Nahid on the right. Mr.Smith handed Mahima two medals, then Mahima placed her trophy on the stage ground, and took the medals from the principal's hand. She read the first medal that showed Nahid’s name and 3rd place. Mahima let Anushka’s medal slide through her arm and held Nahid’s medal with her pointer finger and thumb. She walked towards Nahid who bent her head and Mahima placed the bronze medal around Nahid’s neck. Nahid raised her neck. Then she walked towards Anushka, who also lowered neck. Mahima slid the silver medal that showed Anushka’s name and 2nd place onto her neck. Anushka raised her neck to face the audience.
Mahima picked up her trophy and the three girls exited off the stage and back to their seats. The principle entered the stage from the left wing and switched on the microphone, to speak. “ Can we get a round of applause for our top 15 again,” the crowd began to clap and cheer, “ you guys are dismissed for brunch. Have the nice rest of your day.” The bell rang and students started file out of the gym
At the end of the day, Mahima and Nahid decided to walk home together. Mahima was carrying her trophy and had her backpack slung over her shoulders. Nahid was wearing her medal and also had her backpack slung over her shoulders. In the middle of their walk, they saw Zoya and Aaliyah walking the opposite away. Nahid sighed, “What do they want,” Nahid said softly to Mahima. Mahima shrugged her shoulders and said, “ Not they, only Aaliyah. Zoya has become nice to me. Aaliyah is the problem,” Mahima said nicely.
“Hi Mahima and Nahid,” Zoya said with a cute smile.
The girls replied, “ Hi Zoya.”
“I see you got your little prizes,” Aaliyah said madly.
Zoya tried to calm Aaliyah down.
“Aaliyah there’s no reason to get angry. If you hadn’t slowed down, you would have also got the trophy, but why did you slow down,” Mahima asked.
“Fine, I’ll tell you,” Aaliyah said calmly, “ when I was about pass you, I saw Mr.Jones, our history teacher smile. I figured, you guys didn’t like each other and I didn’t really like him.”
Mahima nodded in agreement.
“So I slowed down on purpose, then when I looked back at him, his smile faded. I wanted you to win to get revenge on that teacher, so he can respect you for all your marathons you win to make Sunnyvale respected. He’s your teacher for the whole year, he was only mine for half. It wasn’t a smart idea, but I risked it,” Aaliyah continued.
“ Aaliyah, you didn’t need to do that, but I appreciate your kindness,” Mahima replied in surprise.
Aaliyah started to walk away, but Zoya caught her hand and pulled her back. Zoya nodded and Aaliyah started to speak again, “ Mahima… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten angry at you for the IQ test results. I just got jealous about getting such a low score. Is it okay if you forgive me?”
Mahima looked at Nahid who smiled and nodded. “ Yeah. It’s fine, just promise you wouldn’t change for somebody else’s sympathy or problem,” Mahima said.
“Thank you, Mahima,” Aaliyah said and started to walk away with Zoya.
“ Wait a minute,” Mahima said, “ we don’t know who really is faster.” The four girls looked at each other and laughed.
The next day, after school, the four girls changed into their P.E clothes and met up at the track. “READY, SET, GO,” Zoya and Nahid said, as Mahima and Aaliyah started to sprint one lap. They finished a lap and Zoya said, “ Aaliyah won.”
While at the same time, Nahid said, “ Mahima won.”
“Looks like it’s a tie,” Mahima and Aaliyah said out of breath with red cheeks. While they rested their hands on their thighs, bending down and looking at each other.
After that day, the four girls hung out with each other, they did their homework and did sports together. Mahima continued to win marathons, Nahid got on a national soccer team, Zoya biked nationally, and Aaliyah continued to become popular. The four girls became friends, but no one suspected they would.
“ Ding dong,” the bell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Mahima said, as she ran downstairs and opened the door.
“No way,” Mahima said, “ Hussain?”
“ Surprised,” a tall fair boy, with light brown eyes, black hair asked as he stood in front of the door, with his hands in his pockets.
Mahima’s eyes went wide, her mouth opened and she nodded.
Her brother laughed, “ Where’s mom?”
Mahima’s faced stayed the same way, and she pointed towards the kitchen. Her brother stepped inside the house, while Mahima closed the door behind him. The siblings made their way to the kitchen, while Hussain looked around observing the house. Mahima saw her mom dropping spices into pots, and stirring them with a wooden spoon, and smelling it seconds after seconds. Mahima saw her brother’s sad face as he walked towards their mom. “Hi mom,” Hussain said, as their mom turned around. Once she caught a glimpse of his face, Mahima saw tears swelling up in her mom’s eyes, rapidly.
“ Hussain? You’re back,” their mom asked, trying to stop her tears from flowing out of her eyes. Her son nodded and gave her a hug. Mahima stared at them, and felt wet drops falling down her cheeks. She pulled her shirt sleeve to wipe the tears off her face.
“ You look exactly like dad,” Mahima said.
Hussain laughed and walked towards Mahima. “ I look like him or does he look like me,” Hussain asked to annoy her.
“ Stop,” Mahima said with a tone of annoyance, “ you haven’t changed a bit. Did you annoy your room buddy in college?”
Hussain laughed, “ You didn’t change at all either. You’re still my little annoying sister.”
The three of them laughed, and Mahima helped her brother get his luggage out of the car and into his room. Mahima’s life had changed in a good way. Her mom became happy again, they would go on road trips every one-week break, she had some fun in her life again, from her brother and her friends. Sometimes she would miss the days, when her brother was still at college, and the first few months when Aaliyah bullied her, but overall she was a happy girl with a happy family, and happy friends.