The inspiration for this story was a girl that was a computer lab monitor at my college. I figured the background that I knew about her would make an interesting addition. The first two parts are slow as they build the characters, primarily her, but gets going once this is established.
Chapter 1
Shafira Jonna was born into a fairly conservative Chaldean family in West Bloomfield. She had three older brothers. Like some women in her society, she was sheltered through her youth. Besides working hers shift at the family's store, she wasn't allowed to go out and party like her brothers were allowed to do. Her mother, Anatu, felt that the boys should be able to sow their wild oats before settling down and providing her with grandchildren but her daughter was to remain pure, like she had been, until her wedding night. Ordinarily, she would have spent time with her cousins since her mother thought all of the local girls were of low morals, but she didn't have any female cousins. Instead, all of her time was spent studying. When combined with her already high intellect, she was the smartest in her class. This further alienated her from her classmates.
When it came time to choose a college, Shafira wanted to get as far away from home as possible but Anatu wouldn't allow for that. Donald Sr. had to play peace maker since his wife and his daughter wouldn't come to an agreement. He recommended U of M - Dearborn since, while it was close to the house, was a commuter college so she could remain under their control and it offered a chance to transfer to Ann Arbor if they decided that she could handle it. Plus, it had a large Chaldean community and hopefully would meet a husband. In addition, it had a good Business program. While Mr. Jonna knew his first born would take over the family business, as is customary, he was afraid that the boy wasn't smart enough to keep it from going under without help from her. But with her help it would flourish.
After classes started, it was decided that her curfew would be extended from 10:00 to midnight. What her parents didn't realize was that during freshman orientation, Shafira was paired up with Amy Miller. Amy was everything that Shafira wasn't. She was blond, long-legged, bubbly, dressed amazingly and out-going. This made Amy extremely quick to make friends with everyone. As Shafira watched Amy interact, she assumed that she would be treated like the rest of the world that came into her orbit and would just quickly fade into the background as Amy moved on by. During the lunch break, the two got momentarily separated and Shafira started to feel that she was about to disappear back into the crowd when she felt someone tug on her hand and say "And this is Shafira!" Shafira looked up and Amy was talking to other beautiful people from another session but when they saw her, almost on cue, the group had a face like they had smelled bad milk. When Amy saw their reaction, she said "If you don't accept my friend then you can all FUCK OFF! Bunch of assholes!" Amy stormed off while dragging Shafira behind her.
Shafira, "Why did you do that?"
"Because of how they judged you."
"What do you know about me?"
"Well, you went to Walled Lake Western."
"How do you....?"
"NHS"
"You were in NHS?"
"Yes. And you have two older brothers"
"Three actually, how do you know that?"
"NHS dinner and I've seen you working in a party store in Sylvan. Well, studying more than working but you were behind counter and yelling at the same two guys who just were staring at my tits and not working. I assumed they were your brothers and were checking me out since I didn't understand what you were yelling at them."
Shafira didn't remember this interaction since it happened too often with her brothers and their friends.
For rest of the day, the two of them were inseparable and they soon realized that they would be in a lot of the same classes. For the first time in her life, Shafira actually went to the bathroom with another girl after years of despising her classmates for doing it. At the end of orientation the two exchanged phone numbers. Amy had Shafira pose with her for a goofy selfie and saved it to her phone. Shafira wanted to do the same but her somber upbringing wouldn't allow herself to do it.
At first, Shafira was in agreement with her father's plan for her to major in Business until she saw how much more enjoyable the math and science classes were now that they were taught by passionate people. Her high school teachers weren't much smarter than she was and they were all approaching retirement so they had other things on their minds. Now that she was surrounded by people that weren't scared of her intellect and started making friends, she started to come out of her shell.
For the entire fall semester, Shafira and Amy were normally together when Shafira was away from her family. Shafira found herself lying to her parents about additional lectures or assignments just to get out of her house and instead spent it at Amy's house with her mother, Lori. Lori had been a teen mom but had worked her way up and had a decent career. Her and Amy could almost be confused for sisters with their looks. When Shafira realized that Lori was only a few years younger than her mother, she couldn't believe how different they were with how they raised their kids. Lori was more forgiving and treated her daughter like an adult that lived with her and only gave her guidance, Shafira's mother was cold and treated her like a child and tried to dictate everything.
As the fall semester was wrapping up, the two of them made sure that their winter schedules matched the best they could. The two of them were almost attached at the hip. While not an official employee at the store, Amy started spending more and more time at the store and Shafira would occasionally sleep over at Amy's. Amy wasn't brought around too often to Shafira's since Shafira didn't think her mother would approve of her best friend and wanted to keep her brothers away.
For Christmas break, Amy invited Shafira to come with them to Colorado on their annual skiing trip but Shafira didn't want to overstep her bounds plus she couldn't ski. Even though Lori offered to get her lessons, Shafira refused to attend. They tried to talk most every day while Amy was gone but the time difference made it difficult and Shafira felt alone again. This time it seemed to hurt more since she now realized how nice it was to have friends.
Amy came home the day before classes started and paid Shafira a visit at the store. The two didn't stop talking for the next six hours and seemingly only took a break to breath. Amy handed Shafira her phone and Amy ran the cash register while Shafira looked through the pics. Shafira had never seen the Rockies before and was simply in awe of all the sights. The condo looked amazing. She had been going through the pics when one popped up that was a selfie of Amy in a pool with a few guys around her. They were all smiling and looking to be saying cheers. As she looked closely at it, it looked like Lori in the background walking out of the pool wearing a skimpy bathing suit and was walking towards a guy.
Shafira, "What is this?" As she looked up to show the pic to Amy it had dawned on her that Amy was working the register. No one besides family members had touched the register for as long as she could remember. If her father had seen this, he would have hit the ceiling but Amy seemed like her sister so Shafira would deal with any fallout if it ever happened.
Amy walked over and looked at the pic, "That was the day before New Year's Eve. That party was amazing."
"No, the background. Is that your mom?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Her bathing suit, if that is what you call it."
