Zaynah's POV

"Why the hell are you still on your bed?" I rubbed my eyes and looked at the woman screaming at me. She was shooting glares at me but I barely cared about it. I sulked a little and my gaze traveled to the wall clock.

Damn, 8 am, I remember I slept again after praying fajr cuz the whole night I was studying.

"You want me to punish you again, I've told you thousands of times to not sleep again after fajr. Now how are you gonna make breakfast in 20 mins? Skip classes today" she announced and my eyeballs popped out from my socket.

"But, you know I can't skip my classes, only a few days left for my entrance exam," I said gritting my teeth and made my voice lowest as much as it was possible but I was planning her death in my brain.

"This is your punishment honey" she gave me her bitchiest smile and left the room without letting me speak any single word.

I sighed and pushed back the tears which were willing to come. I can't risk skipping my classes. I had completed my school last month and now I was taking online classes for preparation for the entrance of my college. My class was going to start at 8:20 and this breakfast thing will take me about an hour. Sighing, I made my way downstairs... As I was passing from the stairs, my gaze traveled to the room of Safiya. She was still sleeping and I knew she wasn't gonna wake up before twelve as the whole night she was busy with her boyfriend on call.

I saw the menu of breakfast and sighed. They literally wanted me to make these nine things only for breakfast in just fifteen minutes. I started preparing dough for Puri and chopped vegetables for the Spanish omelet. After a few minutes, my eyes landed on the wall clock, 8:30 am. My class is going on and here I am busy in making some stupid breakfast. I can't help but cry... Still, a lot of things remained to cook. I tasted my salty tears and rubbed my eyes. I don't know what has gotten into me, I opened the red chili jar and emptied half of the jar in korma. Then I did the same thing with chhole, almost fifteen spoons of salt.

So what? Let them teach a lesson, I ain't their maid or something. I am also the daughter of this house.

After messing with all breakfast, I realized it was 9 am. I ran to my bedroom and opened my phone. I was asking for a laptop, God knows how long but they never bothered to buy me one. I missed a lot of things, lectures were going on...I started writing down all the important points.

My stomach was grumbling, but I ignored it... My whole focus was on my study. Suddenly, the door of my room opened with a thud revealing a furious face.
"You ungrateful bitch what you just did with breakfast" she came closer to me and twisted my hand. I flinched from pain and tried to free my hand from her grip but she pushed me back to the bed.

"I didn't do anything..." I lied.

" You liar" she screamed and hit my stomach. I felt a strong pain growing in my stomach but didn't utter a single word.

"What were you doing on your phone" she snatched my phone and threw it on the floor. My old phone touched the floor with a loud thud.

"Leave me" I shouted and pushed her, she stumbled a little then she gripped my hair.
"You're a true whore like your mother, how dare you mess with breakfast, okay so no food for today" she pushed me on the bed and left my room.

Her words tore my heart. It was not the first time I was hearing such things about my mother but it still gave me a lot of pain. I put my head between my knees and started crying my eyes out.

I am Zaynah Fatima, the oldest daughter of this house. When I was one year old, my mother left us for some rich asshole (this is what everyone used to tell me) and from that onwards my father started hating me. He got married to her cousin Asiya, the next day my mother left us. They have a daughter Safiya and a son Maaz. Safiya, two years younger than me, the princess of this house who hates me God knows why? My father never considered me his daughter and Asiya and her daughter Safiya did their best to make my life hell. My father was never home as he was too busy with his business and Asiya did everything to torture me emotionally and physically. She used to beat me up and locked me in the basement for hours. She kept me without food for days. She made me a breathing corpse, I didn't know why she hated me that much. Maybe my mother wasn't a good woman but I never did anything wrong. I was suffering this just cuz of my mother who left me for a luxurious life. She never tried to contact me, she never thought about me. I hated her more than I did Asiya.

I was just waiting for my college, I was pretty smart in my studies and now I wanted my dream college with a scholarship. I didn't want their money. I was working hard for a 100% scholarship cuz I knew they weren't gonna spend a single penny on my studies after school. All I wanted was to get rid of that hell where I spent my seventeen years of life, this whole house was familiar with my pain and suffering. There were hundreds of bruises on my body but I least care about them. The only thing which hurts me was the topic of my mother and that bitch knew how to make me cry.

Safiya and Maaz were born with a silver spoon. We weren't that rich but still, my father did his best to make them happy. He loves his both child more than anything but he never put a glance at me cuz I reminded him of my mother. When I was a kid I used to peek from the door to watch my father playing and loving Safiya and Maaz. He was such a nice and caring husband and father but for me, he was just an angry and ruthless man. He never wanted me around him. I remembered, whenever they wanted to hang out together, they used to lock me alone in the house. He never cared what I was eating and how I was living. I was always given leftovers of Safiya and Maaz but I had complete faith in Allah that one day He will hear me as He says "Surely, With every hardship, there comes ease" [ Quran 94:5]
So, I must wait for my ease.

Heyy lovelies! So this was the first chapter of "the nerd and Mr. Popular" Tell me how was it and do touch the star icon below.
~Asmaa