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-