"In the beginning, there was nothing. And then BOOM! Universe," Mr Newton's sudden burst woke up the majority of sleeping students, which was pathetic really since the lesson had barely begun, and people were already dozing off.

"Didn't we learn all that last year?" Denise questioned, not even bothering to put her hand up. She was the type to just speak what was on her mind directly to the teacher. Only she could pull it off, though. If I did that, I'd just be drawing unwanted attention to myself. And I already had enough of that with my hijab and all.

"Yes, but I just wanted to start this year off with a bang," Mr Newton grinned, and those of us who weren't asleep groaned at his pun. "And since the majority of you are already dozing off, perhaps this image will wake you up." He clicked to the next slide, which displayed a gif of how the "big bang" had supposedly looked like. Yes, Mr Newton used gifs in his PowerPoint presentations. And yes, it might be one of the reasons why he was my favourite teacher.

"So, to further elaborate, about 14 billion years ago, this universe as we know it came to exist. How, you may ask, can something just begin from nothing? Well, that's what we're going to investigate, guys. Our first topic for this year will be solely based around our universe – the origins, the planets, the stars and - and this is my favourite part – the possibility of life on other planets. Who's excited?" Mr Newton held out his hands, one foot out and eyes twinkling as if he had just performed a show and was waiting for the applause. There was no applause.

"Are we going to learn about aliens, Mr Newton?" Damian asked, his deep husky voice almost startling me. I had almost forgotten he was sitting on my left. I was doing a good job of almost forgetting his existence when he decided to do the one thing he was good at doing for the past five years of high school – annoying the teacher.

"I prefer to call them extra-terrestrial beings, but no, we won't be covering that this unit," Mr Newton said dismissively. "Instead, we are going to focus more on the cosmological aspects of the universe, but I just threw that in there as a teaser." To our absolute horror, he winked. Even though he was my favourite teacher, he really did not have to traumatize us all with that petty attempt at a wink.

"Do you believe in aliens, Mr Newton?" Damian pressed, taking the opportunity to steer the class away from the actual point of the lesson. I didn't even know why Damian was doing physics – he barely passed last year. And every year before that. It was people like me who worked hard and deserved to be in this class, not slackers like him.

"Well, I'd hardly say I believe in them, but there are theories of possible life forms on other –"

"I believe in aliens," Damian interrupted. Everyone now had their attention on him, and not just because he was speaking. Seriously, I thought girls doing physics would have higher standards than this egotistical jerk.

"Damian, I really must move on with the rest of the introductory slide," Mr Newton was slowly losing his patience with this boy. In fact, he had probably lost his patience years ago, but for some reason, was still intent on listening to what he had to say.

I felt Damian's eyes on me, and from my peripheral vision I sent him a glare. He had that look in his eyes like he was about to do something bad. Not bad as in something he'd regret, because a guy like him had no regrets. But bad as in mischievous, humiliating and detention worthy.

"You know why I believe in aliens, Mr Newton?" Yes, Damian was one of those guys who said the teacher's entire name. There was no 'sir' or 'miss' or nicknames. He did the opposite of what would be expected from guys like him, and I had to applaud him for his irony.

"Humour me, Mr. Brewer," Mr Newton sighed in defeat.

Damian smirked. He was really enjoying this, wasn't he? "Because there's one sitting right next to me."

And this was why he was a jerk.

"Excuse me?" I reared on him, shooting him my most penetrating glare. As penetrating as honey brown eyes fringed with dark eyelashes could be, anyway. Yaz said it was my best trait – my eyes. It was also my best weapon.

"I think under all that, you're just an alien, spying on us humans," Damian continued as if my glare wasn't affecting him. Oh, wait, that's right, my glares didn't work on him, the cocky bastard. "To be honest, I think all Muslims are aliens."

"What?!" I cried indignantly.

"Dude, that was low," Russell shook his head in disapproval as others in our class began whispering. I felt my cheeks redden, and not just from the heat.

"What a dickhead," Denise muttered, shooting me a sympathetic look.

"Now, Damian, that is not how we treat other students," Mr Newton chided. "Apologize now or you get to spend lunch time with me."

Damian shrugged. "Whatever. I'm not sorry. I'm allowed to stand up for my beliefs, aren't I?"

"What about my beliefs?" I sneered. "I should be allowed to stand up for mine, shouldn't I?"

"What's the point in believing in something that doesn't exist?" Damian snapped.

A chorus of "ooohs" rounded the class. For once, I was lost for words. How dare he challenge the existence of God? Mr Newton did his job and shushed everyone, fixing his dark eyes on Damian, who looked as smug as a thug. "Damian. Detention. Lunchtime. My office," he growled.

Damian winked. "It's a date."

For the rest of the lesson Mr Newton continued by introducing the topic, before handing out a sheet which basically said exactly what he had just told us, so really it was a complete waste of forty five minutes. The entire time I was seething about what Damian had said. How dare he say that in front of everyone? I'll tell you how – he's Damian Brewer, school delinquent and dickhead, with no filter from his brain to his mouth.

He didn't say anything else to me while Mr Newton spoke, and I sent a silent thank you to Allah for at least giving me twenty minutes of peace. But it was only when we gathered our books and headed out into the augmenting heat of day that Damian dared to provoke me further.

"Hey, Mariam!"

I turned, scowling. I didn't like the sound of my name on his lips. It made it sound dirty, when in reality I was honoured to be named after such a highly ranked woman of religion. "What do you want, Demon – I mean, Damian." I didn't even bother to hide the fact that I'd called him that. But he didn't hear me. He just strode up to me with a smirk.

"I know exactly how to get under that burqa of yours," he drawled.

"It's not a burqa, it's a hijab. How many times do I have to tell you that? Or is your skull too thick to even process what I say?"

I began to walk a little faster, however due to my height and his long legs, he had no trouble catching up to me. Here I was puffing and sweating while he just casually strode beside me. How dare he walk beside me? After what he said, I felt like hitting him with my physics textbook. Maybe that would knock some sense into him.

"Same difference," Damian shrugged. He high fived his mates as he walked past, because of course a bad boy like him was popular. I didn't understand why he was following me. It was really irritating. I was busy scanning the crowd for Yaz, but I couldn't see her yet.

"I have one question – why the hell do you wear it? It's like 50 degrees today," Damian pinched his shirt forward and flapped it just to prove his point.

"First of all – it's 35 degrees, and second of all, I wear it to protect me from perverts like you," I replied, finally reaching my locker.

Damian laughed. "Pervert? I like to think of myself as more of a humble admirer."

I unlocked my locker with my key, shoving my books onto the second shelf and scoffing. "You call that admiring? I call that eye rape."

"Whoa," Damian chuckled, holding up his hands.

I whirled on to him, my hand halfway in my lunch box. Yes, I still brought a lunch box to school. Got a problem with that? "Why are you still here?"

"My locker's right here," Damian pointed to a locker situated beneath mine, and I silently cursed myself for forgetting that. I didn't see him at the lockers this morning, so I had completely forgotten his existence, which had been nice while it had lasted.

I realized I was blocking his locker, so before I could let him get to it, I turned to face him. "Apologize to me and I'll let you through to your locker."

Damian cocked an eyebrow. "And if I don't say sorry? What are you going to do, bomb my house?"

I cackled, then let my features fall into a poker face. "Yeah."

Damian's eyes widened. "Really?"

"No, I'm not a terrorist, but you are."

"Hey, I ain't a terrorist."

"But you terrorize women with your face," I retorted.

Damian burst out laughing. "You so want me."

I scoffed. Who did this boy think he was? "The only thing I want is for you to get out of my face."

Damian only took my words as an invitation into my personal bubble, which had now been popped thanks to his proximity. "What if I don't get out of your face? You gonna call ISIS on me?"

I cocked an eyebrow, trying not to swoon in his cloud of cologne. Seriously, did he just dump the whole bottle on his head? Maybe the fumes were seeping into his brain, because he was clearly asking for it. And by it I mean trouble.

"For once can you just leave me alone? Go back to your mates, they're probably missing you and your massive ego," I snapped, slamming my locker door in the process. It felt good to slam that door. If only Damian's hand was in the way, it would've felt even better.

"Won't you miss me, Mariam?" Damian pouted.

I snorted, spotting Yaz in the crowd, advancing towards us. Alhamdulillah for Yaz!

"I don't miss people who miss the point," I said just as Yaz appeared behind Damian. She was gaping up at him, mouthing words to me that I couldn't understand while making strange gestures. I arched an eyebrow at her antics as Damian asked, "And the point is...?"

"Leave me alone," I answered, and Damian held up his hands, taking a step back and consequently stepping on Yaz's foot.

"Ouch! Watch it, jerk face!" Yaz cried out her automatic insult to anyone who dared to cause her pain, forgetting it was Damian Brewer.

"I seem to be getting a lot of that lately," Damian mused, walking away.

"He didn't even apologize to me!" Yaz complained as she rubbed her foot, wincing.

"That makes two of us," I muttered, staring daggers after him. I knew it was wrong to wish others bad luck, but since Damian had already ruined my first day, it was only fitting to curse him. Boy did I hate that guy.

"I officially hate him," Yaz declared after I told her what happened in Physics.

"Officially?" I repeated.

"I mean, he's cute and all, but his personality stinks," Yaz said, wrinkling her nose. Maybe she finally realized she was wearing too much perfume.

"Let's be honest, Yaz – the majority of people here have stinky personalities," I stated, biting into my apple.

"Ameen to that!" Yaz laughed, raising her yoghurt tub in agreement.