The swimming carnival was an annual event for our high school. Every year the entire school walked to a pool a kilometre away and held swimming competitions and events there, and every time the year twelves would get to dress up, supporting their house colours. This year it was my turn.

"Zeinab, you look like a smurf," I guffawed at my sister, who thought it was appropriate to support her Blue House by smearing her face in blue paint. She still had to wear her uniform since she was in year ten but that didn't stop her from going all out.

"That's exactly the look I was going for," Zeinab beamed as we burst out the front door, however Immi called us back in.

"Ya Allah, Zeinab, what did you do to your face?" Immi tutted, grabbing a tissue. Zeinab squirmed away from her, arguing about how it was for the swimming carnival and all her friends were doing it too.

"You look like you were locked in a freezer," Immi frowned, managing to hold Zeinab still enough to wipe off some paint from her cheek.

"Immi, Allah khaleeki, can't I just support my house? Why do you have to go ruining it every year?" Zeinab complained, stumbling away from Mama's grasp.

Immi looked hurt. "Zeinab, I don't want my daughter going out looking like this. Have some respect, you're representing our religion."

Zeinab stamped her foot, huffing, "Can't I represent my religion and my house at the same time?"

Immi raised an eyebrow. "Are you really going to leave this house like that?"

I decided it was time I step in. "Zeinab, listen to Mama, you don't need to paint your face blue to fit in," I reasoned, and Zeinab shot me a look of betrayal, but then Nasr suddenly appeared.

"Whoa, Zay, you look like the girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you know, the one who turned into a blueberry?"

Zeinab's face immediately transformed into a blue grin as she took in our brother's words, and I felt a little bad for siding with Mama. There was nothing wrong with face paint, as long as she wasn't offending anybody.

"See, Nasr gets it, I look awesome!" Zeinab hugged Nasr, and he raised his hands, stepping away from her.

"Hey, you can look awesome from over there without getting your paint on my shirt," Nasr chided playfully, but his smile dropped when Zeinab grabbed his face and attempted to give him a blue kiss on the cheek, much to his displeasure, and much to our amusement. Even our mother was smiling, shaking her head and muttering something about us getting the craziness from our father.

"Okay, yallah, crazy children, go get ready!" Immi clapped her hands, and Zeinab finally released Nasr from her blueberry grip to reapply the paint she had lost to Nasr's skin and shirt. I laughed as he sighed in disgust and trudged past me to the bathroom, rolling his eyes at me with a slight smile. Once again, he managed to get Immi to let Zeinab be her quirky self and have fun, even if she did look silly.

"Ya Allah, what am I gonna do with that girl?" Immi shook her head, before turning to me and taking in what I was wearing. I was also in Blue House, so I wore a long sleeve black t-shirt and a long chiffon blue skirt down to my ankles, with my white wedges. My hijab was a blend of deep blue to pale blue, framing my face and bringing out my murky brown eyes, and I looked pretty good if I did say so myself. Immi smiled at me.

"At least my eldest daughter looks presentable," she said, pulling me into a hug. "I hope you put sunscreen on, habibti. It's going to be very sunny today."

"Yes, Immi, I did," I replied. As soon as I broke away from the hug Immi grabbed a black floppy hat from the hook, slamming it onto my head.

"Wear this, I don't want your beautiful skin to get burnt," Immi advised.

"But Immi," I whined. I didn't like wearing hats, but Immi insisted. I always used the excuse of wearing a hijab being enough layers for my head, but apparently that wasn't the case.

"And don't forget your sunglasses," Immi handed them to me, and I sighed, slipping them over my face as Zeinab returned, face even bluer than before.

Immi let out another sigh, but she didn't make any more comments besides, "Stay safe, habibati."

"In Sha Allah," we called as we descended the steps into the morning sunshine. It was going to be another hot day, which would be perfect for the swimming carnival. I never took part in the swimming, mainly because I could not be bothered to get changed and compete. I knew how to swim, I just chose not to, especially in front of leering boys.

We always took the bus in the mornings, since Nasr was too lazy to get out of bed and drive us. But in the afternoons he had been taking us, which was handy since the bus got too hot then. Of course, we weren't the only ones dressed up for the carnival on the bus. Lots of other students caught our bus to school and I spotted a few year twelves sitting in the back. While Zeinab joined her friends, chatting avidly and giggling, I took my usual seat near the door and plugged in my earphones.

Listening to Quran always prepared me for the day to come, and days like these were the biggest tests. Yeah, we were all going to the pool to lounge around on the grass and watch the races, however, there would be shirtless boys showing off their six packs and girls strolling around in bikinis, so if anything, it was scarring for the eyes. Nevertheless, it was a school event and since it was my last year, I had to attend.

"Mims, you look amazing! Masha'allah!" Yaz complimented me, grabbing my wrists as she studied my outfit. I smiled at her use of Masha'Allah. It was times like these that I remembered she was my sister in Islam, and it gave me hope that one day I could reel her back onto the safe side of faith. For now, I would let her have her fun, for she was wearing a yellow crop top to support the Yellow House and a yellow tutu, her long tan legs painted in yellow zinc and her feet in yellow flip flops. Even her cheeks were streaked with yellow zinc and she wore a yellow flower headband.

"And you look very yellow," I remarked just as Theo came up to us. All the Year Twelves were milling about the lockers before the bell, sharing zinc and spraying their hair with green, yellow, red or blue, the four house colours.

"I am the hulk!" Theo roared, flexing his muscles. He was wearing a bright green tank top, his arms painted green. Everyone was painting their skin, except for me because I was special like that.

Yaz and I rolled our eyes. "Of course you are, now let's go, they're leaving now," I said, leading the way. Our entire cohort was a colourful mess. I laughed at some of the costumes, such as the red Tele-Tubby and the green mermaid. I stuck with Yaz and Theo as we walked, until we found Denise, or rather, Denise found us.

"There you are! Oh my God, Yaz, you look amazeballs!" Denise squealed. She was in Red House, which was quite convenient with her red hair, which she had in two braids tied with red ribbons. She wore red devil horns and bright red lipstick that contrasted with her creamy white skin, and she wore a similar outfit to Yaz, except in red.

"You too!" Yaz squealed with her.

"And Mariam, wow, I love your hijab," Denise stroked it, feeling the material, which was a light chiffon.

"Yeah, it really brings out your eyes, Mariam," Yaz added, smiling at me.

"Thanks, guys, really," I was flattered at all their compliments. Like I said, compliments were my weakness, and if you throw a heap of them at me I turn into a puddle of humbleness.

"Theo? Aren't you going to say something?" Yaz nudged him.

"Ow! Why are your elbows so damn sharp?" Theo cried, rubbing his arm. He shot me a grin and nodded, "You look great, Mims. And I mean that in the most respectful way possible."

I smiled back. "Thank you, Theo."

We were the first to reach the venue, and Yaz had volunteered to give out the flyers for the race times, along with Aidan, for the yellow house, so Denise, Theo and I went to find a shady location on the sloping lawn before all the good places were taken.

"We should sit right up here, it's got a good view of everything," Denise pointed to a tree, but underneath it was dusty soil and there were bees buzzing about.

I shook my head. "Nah, we should sit on the grass, over here. Even if it's got a bad view, at least it's comfortable."

"Once again, Mariam is right," Theo declared, setting down his beach towel on the grass where I had referred to.

"If Mariam is right, then I'm left," Denise joked.

"Then what does that make me?" Theo pouted as we sat down.

"It makes you Theo," I shrugged. "Just plain old Theo."

"There is no Theo," Theo said in a deep voice, raising his arms and clenching his biceps. "There is only the Incredible Hulk."

"Oh, would you stop it with the Incredible Hulk act?" I smacked him with my hat. Would you look at that? It did have its uses.

"It's not an act, it's because I am indeed the hulk," Theo insisted, barely flinching from my smack.

"Minus the incredible bit," Denise added with a laugh.

Theo stuck his tongue out at her. Such a mature and witty comeback – not.

"You guys don't mind if Aidan sits with us, do you?" Yaz returned after twenty minutes of sitting around waiting for the rest of the school to arrive at the venue. Trust Yaz to invite company to spoil our pool hangout day, which would've consisted of petty card games and telling funny stories while eating ice cream from the canteen, except our plans had been changed. Way to go, Yaz.

"Sure," Theo replied cheerfully, fist bumping Aidan as he sat down beside him after setting down his own towel. Yaz lay down beside me on her towel, sliding her sunglasses over her eyes and sighing.

"Ah, this is the life," she murmured.

"It sure is," Denise agreed from my left. I stared up at the twinkles of sun that peeped through the canopy, feeling relaxed. Until I heard the megaphone announce the first race of the day for the 13yro girls, and then a familiar voice said, "Can I join you guys?"

There are two types of familiar – good familiar that's a relief when you encounter it and bad familiar that makes you want to curl up into a ball and pretend you don't exist. In this case, it was the latter.

"Hey, Damian, sup, man?" I covered my face with my hands, muttering a prayer to Allah as Theo greeted him, and I could hear them talking as Damian sat down, talking loudly with Aidan and Theo. The problem with being Theo's friend was that sometimes you had to tolerate unexpected company, which was the same with Yaz, but infinitely worse.

"I love swimming carnivals. Look at all those hot babes walking around," Damian said, most likely checking out any girl who walked past.

"Hey, Mims, why are you covering up your face like that?" Yaz asked me.

I peeked through my fingers, turning to her on my side. "Oh, I was just playing hide and seek."

"By yourself?" Denise chuckled on my left.

"I was hoping if I counted to ten he would disappear," I grumbled, jerking my chin to the direction where Damian sat with Theo and Aidan. They were in their own little world, talking and laughing. I didn't think Damian had noticed I was here until...

"Hey, Theo, who are you hiding over there?"

Theo's large figure was blocking Damian's view from where Denise, Yaz and I lay. But then Theo had to go and ruin it by shifting to the side and revealing the one face I had wanted to avoid today. Damian. And Aidan. But mostly Damian.

I had hoped today would be a day filled with just chilling with my friends, relishing the fact that we had no classes and our school was mad enough to bring us all together for swimming, and I had hoped no classes meant no Physics, so no Damian. But it seemed wherever I went, there he was, irritating me with his mere presence.

"Oh, look, it's Virgin Mary and co."

I seriously didn't know why he kept calling me the Virgin Mary. Maybe it was because in year eight during a presentation about my religion I mentioned how my name was the Arabic version of Mary, and I was named after the Virgin Mary. I never thought it would stick, but with Damian, you'd be surprised.

"Oh, look, it's the devil himself," I retorted, pointing to his devil horns, which were the same as Denise's. Unfortunately, she was in Red House with him, and Red House's mascot was a Devil, so you get the idea.

Damian smiled. He was wearing a red t-shirt, and his arms and face were smeared in red zinc. He looked like a cooked lobster.

"I saw your sister, she looks like a smurf," Damian told me, pointing to where she was, so I followed his red arm like it was a red flag until I spotted her by the pool, chatting with her friends as they watched the races. Sure enough, she and all her friends had painted faces according to their house colour.

"Yeah, I saw her too, her face was all blue," Yaz laughed.

"Just like how your face is all red," Theo pointed to Damian's face. Damian held a hand up to his face, as if he had forgotten he had painted it red.

"Yeah, I wanted to go all out for this year," Damian said. I noticed beside him Aidan had yellow arms and legs poking out of his shorts and t-shirt. He even had zinc streaked on his cheeks and nose, and a yellow hat.

"I can't believe it's our last year," Yaz sighed, leaning on her palm and sitting on her side. "I'm going to miss dressing up like this."

"Me too," Denise said sadly.

"This is the last time you girls will see me as the Incredible Hulk," Theo said teasingly.

"That's one thing I'm not going to miss," I taunted.

"Will you miss this?"

Damian and Aidan suddenly tore off their shirts, standing up. I averted my eyes, hardly believing he had just done that. This was the main reason I didn't like swimming carnivals, other than the multiple other reasons I liked it. There was too much skin, and right now, there was nothing but skin.

Yaz and Denise gaped at the twin six packs while Theo sniggered. I, however, tried to look anywhere but there, but Damian's voice wasted my efforts.

"Is my six pack blinding you, Mariam? Is it too much for you to handle?" Damian said contemptuously.

I briefly glanced at his abdomen, before looking away hastily. Astaghfurullah. This boy was really testing my faith. "No," I mumbled.

"You call that a six pack?" Theo scoffed, whipping off his singlet. Oh, not him too. "This is a six pack, boys! Watch and learn!" Theo pointed to his muscles, which thankfully I couldn't see because he had his back to us girls.

Damian and Aidan applauded him. "Do you bench, bro?" Aidan asked him.

"You bet I do," Theo replied smugly, slipping back into his tank top. "I can do a hundred a minute."

"I can do two hundred," Damian boasted, flexing his biceps. I rolled my eyes. Seriously, boys these days.

"I don't think so, man," Aidan shook his head as he slid back into his yellow t-shirt.

Unfortunately, Damian didn't wear his shirt again. He wandered off barefoot towards Samantha and Carrie, who wore bikinis that were way too inappropriate for a school event, however I didn't see any teachers complaining. I watched for a moment as Samantha rubbed sunscreen on Damian's back before glancing away, feeling like my eyes had seen too much for today.

"Is that guy wearing budgie smugglers?" Yaz said incredulously, dipping her sunnies down the bridge of her nose as a guy walked past with blue melting off him, as he had just recently gotten out of the pool. And like Yaz said, he was wearing extremely tight swimwear.

"Oh, my eyes!" I covered them with my fingers, lying back down onto my towel.

"There is just too much hotness everywhere," Denise moaned beside me, also covering her eyes. "I can't take it anymore."

"Am I too distracting for you, Denise?" Theo teased, prodding her side. Denise slapped his hands away. "No! You're the reason I'm covering my eyes, so I don't have to stare at your Shrek face!"

I snorted with laughter. So did Aidan and Yaz. Theo pouted. "I'm the hulk, not Shrek, how many times do I have to tell you?"

"Now that I think about it, you do look more like an ogre," I said, tapping my chin.

"At least I'm a good-looking ogre," Theo said smugly, reminding me of Damian. Ugh.

***

Two hours later the eighteen year old boys were racing, and Theo and Aidan were two of them, meaning we were by the sidelines, cheering them on. Well, I was cheering for Theo, who was no longer a green ogre, and Yaz was clapping and hooting for Aidan, while Denise was minding our stuff on the grass.

Damian was also one of the competitors, unfortunately, and he had Samantha and Carrie supporting him. Everyone knew Samantha and Damian had gone out a few times, and there was a rumour that they even did the deed. I didn't listen to rumours, nor did I care for them, so I just pushed them out of my mind and jumped for joy as Theo came first place, with Aidan second, Damian third and the rest of the swimmers following. Damian looked pissed off that he'd come third, but he still received a kiss from Samantha on the cheek and a ribbon from the judges.

"I won! I won! I told you I was the incredible hulk," Theo was overjoyed as he ran up to us, still dripping wet. Since he had short cropped hair, he couldn't shake it at us like he had done for the past three years but Aidan had long enough blonde hair, so he shook it like a wet dog, spraying me and Yaz.

"Aidan!" Yaz giggled, wiping her face. I just flinched, not at all flattered that Aidan had sprayed half of the pool onto my lovely hijab.

"Come here and give me a hug, Yaz!" Aidan chased Yaz with open arms and she squealed running away from him. Theo and I watched as he caught her in the end, wrapping his slimy wet arms around her torso.

"The party's tomorrow," Theo said as we trudged back up the grass. Theo decided it was best to dry naturally, as he couldn't be bothered changing. Denise wasn't going to be too happy about that.

"Do you think Yaz and Aidan are going to hook up?" Theo's question caught me off guard as I sat down beside Denise, who had her earphones in, eyes closed. Theo dried himself with a towel, waiting for an answer.

I just shrugged. "Yaz can do whatever she wants, I guess." But I felt protective of her. The countless times she had gone off with boys, I never said anything about it. Yeah, I might have lectured her about it being haram in Islam, but she just said she was having fun, that's all, and it was all harmless anyway. I knew better, but I didn't try to convince Yaz further. Yaz was exploring herself, and though she was my friend, and I wanted what was best for her, I thought if I let her do what she wanted she would learn by herself. So far she wasn't showing much learning progress, but there was still time.

"I'll be there anyway with her," Theo said, his brown eyes filled with concern. He was Yaz's friend too after all. "So don't worry about her."

"How did you know I was worried?"

Theo smiled. "You're not hard to read, Mariam. Your emotions show right on your face."

"Well, I hope so. I'm human, aren't I?" I said jokingly.

"That's debatable," Theo teased. I threw my hat at him. Once again, it was proving to be very handy in these kinds of situations.

"I could say the same about you," I retorted.