Her haircut was done and in the end she liked it a lot. This way it was cent per cent decided that she would be disguising as a boy.

She planned to get fake passports made for herself and Ateel as soon as they reached china. She found the Addresses of fake passport makers around the world tucked away in the bank notes left behind by her mom.

The day was over before they knew it and finally their day of departure arrived. Their flight was in the evening and today was a big day.

It was Zaria's birthday! Something which she had completely forgotten about.

After breakfast Ateel went to her suitcase and fished out a long box covered with a brown wrapper and handed it to Zaria.

"What is this ?" Zaria asked

"Happy birthday Zaria!!!" Ateel engulfed zaria in a hug. She retreated when she saw the confused look on her friend's face. "Wait. Did you forget?" Ateel questioned Zaria.

"Oh yeah, it's the 10th of June today." Zaria nodded

"Are you alright?" Ateel was tensed

"Do I look unwell?" Zaria chuckled.

"Stop acting. There's no way you would forget your birthday. Remember? Once when your mom forgot you cried for an entire day and refused to get out of bed." Ateel Reminded Zaria.

Zaria just gave a sigh and removed the wrapper .

" It's from your mom." Ateel said as Zaria was about to open the box.

"My mom?!" Zaria was surprised.

" Yeah, she gave it to me on the day she went missing. She asked me to give it to you since she had some work. I thought that she was talking about her job. Little did i know that it would turn out to be something this serious." Ateel was regretting many things.

"I don't blame you for it. there was nothing you could do" Zaria tried comforting Ateel but tears rolled down her cheeks without her knowledge. She slowly opened the box and found a dagger and a rod with beautiful carvings on it. There were two words written on it. One with red and other blue. It read colour and life. More and more tears flowed out as she lay her eyes on the gifts. A lump formed in her throat making it hard to speak.

She continued looking at them and felt really horrible. "Haven't I been the worst daughter to my mom?" She sobbed. "what have I done?"

Zaria picked the dagger up and looked at it through her tears. "She knew me the best and she never even complained. She loved me no matter what I did. And I repaid her by just being a brute who used all her love and kindness and I did not even know anything about her."

Zaria broke down into hiccups as she continued to cry "I have always wanted a dagger, but all i really want now is her to return. I want her to hug me and say all this is nothing but just a nightmare."

Ateel hugged Zaria and quietly let her cry as much as she wanted. "Its ok your mom knows you better than anyone else. She will find you in no time. She knows how crazy you are."

Ateel was well aware of how sensitive Zaria was. She pretended to be someone she wasn't. She always acted strong and would never shed a tear in front of anyone although if left to herself she would cry her eyes out. She claimed to be harsh and heartless. But Ateel knew how gentle and soft spoken person Zaria actually was.

It took 2 years for Ateel to understand Zaria. When they first met Zaria was just a girl who smiled at weird times and never interacted openly. She was someone who slammed a door at the teacher's face after having a heated argument but still got out Scot free.

Later on Zaria had approached Ateel and called her out of the class. Ateel was cornered and couldn't think of a way to escape. Ateel was shocked as being a very reserved person she thought she would never have to deal with anyone, especially troublemakers. And that was the very thing Zaria was named back then.

She couldn't think of a good reason as to why the spotlight was on her all of a sudden. She loved to be in the shadows and having no friends helped her in slipping past the limelight without people noticing. Ateel walked out and waited anxiously to get this over with. But the 5 simple words Zaria said that day hit her like a bucket of ice cold water. All she said was "will you be my friend?". It was something Ateel was least expecting. To her it felt as though the commitment to this friendship was like signing a contract. If something went wrong she wouldn't be able to escape. The formality of this situation was quite unnerving to Ateel. But it wasn't an offer she could simply decline without creating the possibility of getting on the bad terms with the school delinquent. The way Zaria introduced herself made Ateel want to run away.

She called herself bad and perfectly capable of doing every evil thing out there. She would say I am just holding on cause I don't want to go to hell. She would describe different ways to make poisons and carve out weapons from wood in her spare time. It felt so scary that all Ateel wanted to do was to hide in some corner and never come out. But slowly she came to realize that the person she thought to be a troublemaker was actually a really sweet person who was just a bit crazy and that she should not believe in half the things Zaria told about herself.

She was just a girl who did not trust herself and had a slight inferiority complex. But she was very proud and had a high view of herself at the same time. It was so contradicting that it had become almost impossible for Ateel to actually point out what kind of character she had.

Later in the evening Zaria was back to normal and they hurried off to the Airport. Before they arrived at the airport they stopped by the bank and transferred all the money from zaria's account to a fake account her mom had created for her. Her mom had left a note regarding the fake account in her gift box. The money left behind was enormous it came up to billions of dollars.

After this was done they arrived at the airport just in time and hurriedly completed all the boarding procedures.

This way they left America in good health and not a very bad spirit.

A/N: Do you guys think someone can become your friend the way Zaria and Ateel became friends. If you think people can not and it happens only in stories then you are totally wrong the way they became friends is a story from my life. That is how i became best friends with a really sweet girl in my class and I started writing this book because of her. I went to her table put my hand on it leaned forward and asked her to meet me outside the classroom and the rest of it is same as my story. That was a crazy time in my life . Everyone has such a time right :)

And if you like my story please vote and comment .

I'll be dedicating this chapter to ImperialSun for supporting me and helping me with my story as well as commenting and voting in it.