The summer of 2024 had begun. School was over.
Most days, Tomek and John came over to Abdullah's house. They played soccer in the field near his home, talked about random things, walked around, and sat on walls until time blurred.
"Yo, how many five-year-olds do you think you could fight before losing?" Abdullah asked one day.
"I think I could take a good ten," John said.
"Nah, bro. Those little guys? We could take way more," abdullah replied.
"At least twenty," Abdullah added.
"Yeah, but they'd swarm you," Tomek said. "Like five go for each leg and take you down, then the other ten finish you off."
Abdullah laughed. "Alright, then how many ten-year-olds do you think it'd take to defeat our dads?"
Most of their days were like that—talking nonsense, playing soccer, walking around, sitting on walls, doing nothing important.
One day, while they were playing soccer, they saw Jan walking toward them.
"Yo, what a coincidence. What are you doing here?" Abdullah asked.
"I live in the other estate," Jan said.
"What? No way. I live right there. We're basically neighbours," Abdullah replied.
Jan turned out to be insanely fast. It became obvious once they played together.
"You should join a club," Jan said to Tomek.
"Yeah, I've been thinking about it," Tomek replied.
Over the next few days, because Jan and Abdullah lived close, they started going on walks together.
"Hey, let's go to the park," Jan would say.
"Sure."
After a while, Abdullah slowed down. "Man, I'm tired."
"Already?" Jan said. "Are you kidding me? I do this all the time."
"Why don't you just stay home?"
"My parents don't let me use my phone for more than an hour a day. They make me study all day. So it's either reading books or going outside."
"Yo, they sound kinda strict."
"KINDA?" Jan said. "Bro, they're the strictest ever. My parents expect 100 on everything. I once got minus three percent on a test and had to hide it. Parental controls on every phone. Xbox once a week. I clean the whole house, wash everything, or else they'll beat my ass. Sometimes I even have to cook dinner."
"Bro, what the fuck. So what does your mom do?"
"She goes out with her friends."
"So you're basically the housewife."
"Yeah. The second I turn eighteen, I'm leaving. Let's see how they do then."
"I guess until then you're just their personal slave," Abdullah said.
"I guess."
One day, Abdullah, John, and Tomek were sitting on a wall when he heard a familiar voice.
"Oi, Abdullah."
He turned. "Yeah?"
It was Ishtiak—an old sight. They started talking, Ishtiak asking about secondary school.
"Well, I'm friends with Tomek, Jan, Nadeem, this guy Erop, and another dude called Alois," Abdullah said.
"So basically you're the geeks of the year."
"What? We're normal."
"Believe what you want, but when I join first year, I'm gonna be the most active first year."
"What does that even mean?"
"Like, the guy who knows everyone."
Ishtiak showed him pictures of himself with guys Abdullah didn't recognise—except one.
"Oh, you know Joe. He's a nice guy."
"Yeah, he's chill," Ishtiak said.
Soon, Abdullah's birthday came around. Tomek and John were the only ones who showed up. His cousin Sami was there too, recording everything for his vlog channel. John's cast was finally gone.
They sat outside for a while when Tomek pulled out his phone and started recording.
"Oh my God, John, your baby is calling," Tomek said.
On the screen was a picture of John making a weird face, with the caption your baby calling. Abdullah looked at the screen, then at John making the exact same face, and burst out laughing.
They ate together and talked. Later, Abdullah and John found a ball and threw it back and forth for ages. Eventually, they went to sit on the wall near the house.
"Hey John, you haven't become a weirdo at that new school yet, have you?" Abdullah said.
"Shut your googly ass up. Your school has more weirdos than mine."
"Nuh uh."
"Yuh uh."
"Nuh uh."
"Yuh uh."
They kept going until a ball came flying at them at the speed of light, almost taking their heads off.
"DUDE," John shouted.
"Bro, why the fuck are you shooting the ball at us?" Abdullah yelled.
"Let's play a game," Tomek said. "I try to hit you guys with the ball."
"Hell nah," John said, walking away.
Abdullah stayed sitting.
"Bro, why aren't you moving?" John asked.
"It's not like he's gonna hit me," Abdullah said—right as the ball smacked him straight in the face.
"Dude, what the fuck, man?"
"I'm sorry, I swear. I didn't think it'd actually hit you," Tomek said.
John was laughing his ass off.
The day ended, and they went their separate ways.
Not long after, Sami's sister Safiyah came to visit. She was pregnant and had moved to England with her husband, but she was staying with Sami for a bit.
Abdullah and Ali were walking with her, taking her to where Sami was living.
When they looked back—
"Bro, what the fuck? Why weren't you paying attention? You lost a pregnant woman," Ali said.
"What do you mean me? You weren't paying attention either. And it's not like she's five," Abdullah replied.
"Just shut up and call Dad."
"With what? I've got nothing on me."
They walked to a restaurant, and eventually their dad managed to find Safiyah.
"Why the fuck weren't you paying attention?" their dad snapped at Ali.
"It was his fault," Ali said, trying to blame Abdullah.
Their father slapped Ali.
"It's your responsibility. You're older. You know he's not capable," their dad said.
Abdullah thought to himself, I am capable.
Ali shot him an angry look. "It's not my fault," he muttered, then turned away.
The rest of the holidays passed normally—Abdullah hanging out with John, Tomek, or Jan.
Then one day his dad said, "We're going to England again."
"Alright."
"We'll have a lot of fun."
"Sure," Abdullah replied.
That night, as he went to sleep, he thought
Looks like we're
going...