CHAPTER 1

                 "Class, this is a new student and she'll be joining our class from now on. Would you care to introduce yourself, Sofea?" said the teacher in Bahasa Malaysia. "Oh, and, it's okay if you prefer to speak in English. It is English lesson right now anyway,"added the teacher. Sofea only nodded, and took in a deep breath before speaking in front of the class.

                 "Um, hi. My name is Sofea Jaseena Abdul Malik. My last school was at the American International School. But that school is located in Indonesia. I've been schooling there since first grade which means this is the first time I've come to a public school in Malaysia. Um..I have two brothers, one elder and one younger. My elder brother is  now in 8th Grade where as my younger brother is still only six years old. Well, I guess that's all for now..." "Any questions?" her tearcher continued.
                
                  A boy with dark brown hair suddenly raised his hand, and asked his teacher, "Cikgu,dia boleh cakap Bahasa Malaysia atau tidak?" Sofea, who understood little Bahasa words managed to understand what the boy was asking his teacher. He had asked his teacher whether Sofea could speak in Bahasa or not. The teacher glanced at Sofea and was about to answer the boy's question. But Sofea answered herself by saying, "Ya, saya boleh cakap sikit-sikit," ("Yes, I can speak a little bit.")

                 Her teacher smiled, and asked Sofea to sit at an empty desk near the window. There was a girl sitting next to her, and as she sat down, the both of them exchanged smiles. Sofea took a glimpse at the girl's name tag. The name written there was Munirah.

                The rest of the day was kind of tough for Sofea to go through at school. It was very different from her old school in so many ways. The hardest part was when she had to go through the Islamic class. This was because Sofea had never been taught much about religion and how to read the holy Quran. Throughout the whole class, she had only thought of how much she missed her old school in Indonesia.

-TO BE CONTINUED-

PROLOGUE

              At about 3 in the morning, the little girl was awakened by the mosquitoes buzzing at her ear. The child tossed and turned in her bed, but at last, she chose to get up. She sat at the edge of her bed for about a minute or two, before jumping down and making her way to her parents' room. As Sofea had always done before, she would wake her father up and ask him to tell her a story if she had trouble going to sleep. And as always, her father would never have any problems doing this even if Sofea had woken him up in the middle of a tiring night. Easily said, Sofea was never let down by her father.

              But suddenly, as Sofea was about to twist the doorknob open, she heard her parents talking to each other. Though only at the age of 6 at the time, and not really understanding anything, she had somehow felt the urge not to go inside the room and interrupt her parents. She listened silently from where she was.
  
             "I can't take it anymore," she heard her father say. "I know you did so, so don't you try to deny it!" his voice somehow getting louder, but was controlled not to get loud enough. If it were to get any louder, he would have woken up all five of his children, which was something he would not do at such an early hour.
 
             "Look. I did not do so and you know I never would do such a thing!" said her mother in return. "How in the world could you accuse me of doing such a sin?". Her mother's voice was stating to sound as if she was about to cry.

             "I know you did it," said her father sternly.

              Suddenly, the sound of a woman's cry was heard. Sofea, who was hearing this, did not understand anything, but inside, she was deeply feeling sorry for her mother. With that, she slowly opened the door, and poked her head inside. "Mom?"

              Both her parents looked at her, and then her father stood up from the bed, and went to her, asking if she wanted him to tuck her into bed. She shook her head slowly, and walked to her mother, who was covering her face with her hands, clearly because she didn't want Sofea to see her cry.
              "Mom, are you okay?" she asked in a whisper. She placed her small hand on her mother's lap. Her mother wiped her face, and then carried Sofea, sitting her on the bed. She hugged the innocent, absent-minded child, and said that she was fine. Sofea's father only watched from where he was . In just a moment later, Sofea found herself being tucked in bed by her mother, and was feeling sleepy once again.

              Deep in the child's mind, she was still trying to understand the adult conversation she had just heard. Though it came to no result, she still wondered herself with the thought, until she finally fell asleep.