Page 3 of The New Girl

Safa had also missed a year of school while in the refugee camps and she was desperate to catch up. One of the last things her father, Baba, had said to her was ‘Safa, education is freedom.’

Safa wasn’t so sure about that; Baba was educated and he wasn’t free. He was still stuck in Greece. The Red Cross had given them two visas, one for Mama and one for Safa. They said that they would make sure that her dad would get one as soon as possible and follow them over, but he still hadn’t. Safa had helped Mama to write to the Minister for Justice to apply for family reunification, which meant that Baba would be able to come to Ireland and live with them, but they had heard nothing back yet. Safa prayed that she would be reunited with her father soon. She missed him every second of every day.

Safa leaned forward to listen to Miss Ingle. The girl beside her, Ruby, was fidgeting with a pen that had a mermaid in the top part. When she put it one way the mermaid had a tail, but when she moved it the other way, the tail disappeared and she had legs.

Safa watched as the mermaid changed form. The girl looked sideways and caught Safa watching.

Safa took a deep breath and decided to break the silence between them. ‘I like your pen,’ she whispered.

‘Well you can’t have it and don’t even think about nicking it.’ Ruby shoved the pen into her pencil case and zipped it up.

Safa looked down at her hands and willed herself not to cry. Why would this girl think she wanted to steal her pen? All she did was say she liked it.

Safa closed her eyes to stop the tears from falling. She thought back to her bright, sunny classroom in Syria and her three best friends, Sarra, Amira and Taqwa. She missed them so much. She wondered what had happened to them.

They had stayed behind. Their families believed things had to get better. They were wrong; things had got worse. She prayed that they were safe and unhurt.

They had laughed so much together. Always making jokes, dancing, singing and laughing. Safa missed laughter. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d really laughed. Life was so serious now, there was no reason to laugh.

Tears escaped from her closed eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She heard the girl beside her gasp. Safa opened her eyes.

Ruby was staring at her, her big green eyes wide with fear. ‘God, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry. Please stop. Miss Ingle will kill me if she thinks I’ve upset you,’ she whispered.

Safa wiped the tears away with the corner of her scratchy grey school jumper. She hated the feel of it on her skin.

‘Are you OK now?’ Ruby asked.

Safa nodded.

‘Look, if you want the pen that badly, take it.’ Ruby pulled the mermaid pen out of the pencil case and handed it to Safa.

Safa shook her head. ‘I don’t want your pen. I just said I liked it. I have never stolen anything in my life.’

‘Seriously, nothing?’ Ruby seemed surprised. ‘Not even chocolate from your mum’s bag?’

Safa smiled. ‘My mum doesn’t eat chocolate.’

Ruby grinned. ‘Mine lives on it.’

They sat side by side in silence, then Ruby asked, ‘How come your English is so good? Do they speak English in Syria? I thought you spoke some other language?’

Safa nodded. ‘We speak Arabic in Syria, but my dad is an English teacher – he went to university in the UK – so from the time I was very small, he spoke English to me.’

‘You sound very posh when you speak – like a posh English person. I’m rubbish at languages. I’m the worst in the class at Irish.’

‘I’ve never studied Irish, but it sounds so lovely when it’s spoken.’

Ruby looked at her as if she was mad. ‘Lovely? It’s a total nightmare. It’s super hard to learn and you don’t spell it like it sounds. You should try to get out of learning it.’

Safa shook her head. ‘I want to do everything that the other girls in the class do. I want to learn as much as I can.’

Ruby raised her eyebrows. ‘Wow, you’re keen. Miss Ingle is going to love you. I hate school.’

Safa bristled. Was this girl seriously saying these words? Didn’t she know how lucky she was? ‘My school was bombed to the ground. You are so lucky to be able to go to school in a peaceful country. My dad says that education is freedom.’

‘Jeez, keep your knickers on. I was just saying I don’t love school.’

‘Well, you should be happy that you can go.’

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