Assalamualikum everyone. I am here with the new chapter and I hope you'll like it.There will be a lot of talking about food in this one.lol.(sorry to those who are fasting. XD)

Special thanks to japaneseSunshine,RJRahim and smilesandhappiness(sorry of i spelled your name wrong.)for voting and commenting my story.

Happiness wasn't something she was much familiar with.But that didn't mean she didn't desire it. Fate wasn't kind enough to spare them some moments of joy and laughter so she would take whatever life threw at her and make her own happy moments out of it with her mother. Life might not be all smiles but it wasn't all tears either.

At the begining of every month her father would go out of city to stock his shop in with fresh supplies. That's when Samra and ammi would pay their dear Khala Zohra a visit. Before going out, ammi would put on her black abaya and top it off with a chaddar. Samra wanted an abaya too but ammi always told that they didn't have one of her size so she would wrap a chaddar around her small frame that reminded ammi of the cream rolls old man Kadra sold down town with its creamy filling peaking out of its pastery. And ammi would laugh her heart out. Samra never told her, but it was one of the reasons why she always put that huge piece of cloth on, no matter how hot it was outside.

Khala Zohra was a very kind lady who always greeted them with kisses and bone crushing hugs. The old lady would often ask Samra to sing her a naat to which she would gladly oblige. Than she would reward her with a five ruppee coin from her small metal box. Samra thought that the box was magic with a never ending supply of five ruppee coins. After all, she was once the queen of all tooth faries.(The reason why she still had all her teeth intact.)

Sometimes, they would stroll the streets of bara bazar afterwards commenting on the various objects on display. If lucky, she would stumble on something pretty yet cheap like the bracelet ammi bought her last winter, which she kept in the small pouch she made herself. At the end of the day, they would always get a golla each. She loved sucking on the cold treat, loved the various colors of syrups the man poured over it, loved as they ran down her arm in colourful beads and left her fingers sticky afterwards.

On her birthdays, ammi would make her cake out of bread with layers of cream and fruit inbetween. She would top it off with more cream or sometimes chocolate. Then she would light a candle over it and tell her to make a wish.Her ammi was the best baker there was. She could make a cake without actually having to bake it!

Samra liked going to school. It kind of offered an easy escape from the ugliness in her life. But most importantly, it kept abbu from her for some time. The school was a world in itself. Here people were kind. Teachers praised her often and gave her red stars on her cheeks which she showed off with pride. The only thing the school lacked was her ammi. It would have been almost perfect with her.

Recess was her favourite time of the day. She would spend that time making straw dolls with her friends Atifa and Momina. Then she would marry them off to her friend's and would celebrate it by sharing her lunch, kind of like a walima meal. Back then, she didn't know that walima was always from the groom's side. Neither did she ever notice that the two sisters never brought their food to the play ground.

She remebered the day when she had scored highest marks in her class. She had ran all the way from school to tell ammi the good news only to be welcomed by the sight of abbu on the door. "Oh so you topped your class, eeh." He said looking down at the report card. Than he threw it on the floor and continued. "Don't know what good it will do ya." With that, he left. After that day, she started hating going to school.

Abbu was right. There was no point in going to school. She once believed that if she studied real hard, than maybe one day she might go to a college and get a degree. And than she would earn and it would solve all their problems. But Samra was growing up fast. Faster then other kids her age. And she had realized that it wasn't money,or the lack of, that was the problem. The problem was with her fate and no degree was going to change that. No degree was going to make her abbu less cruel. No degree was going to make her mother's suffering go away.

She had grown up real fast.
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Bara-big
Golla-crushed ice topped eith sweet syrups
Walima-marriage banquet

Like i said,construtive criticizm is always welcome.read,vote and comment.

Love you all.

Until next time.

tayyabalaraib.