She gasped for air between sobs. Tears from her wide, moistened eyes streamed unchecked down her pale brown cheeks. The tears tasted brackish to her lips, with a significant tint of bitterness in them: bitterness that she felt and directed at the others for putting her in such a miserable and pitiful condition as she was in that day; Or always, for that matter. Tears blinded her eyes as a new surge of emotion swept her. A muffled moan of grief arose in her throat, and her head throbbed with pain. But she kept silent, because she had learnt to do so now. The way she had learnt to adjust to her new surroundings in this alien, hostile country, and had learnt to accept the countless jeers and merciless teasing and bullying from people around her. She was an Asian- and that was all that mattered.
With a heavy heart, Naseem walked out of the stall in the secluded corner of the girl's bathroom on the third floor of the school. Over the past three months, this had become her refuge, a sanctuary where she kept herself and her emotions from falling apart from the rest of the world. Whenever the going got worse and the matters rose to a head, Naseem was off, like the wind, to her retreat where she alienated her soul from the rest of the world. She quietly walked to one of the sinks and stood in front of the mirror and stared at her heartbroken condition. Her eyes were swelled and red from constant crying. Her brown skin glistened and showed signs of wetness in the glaring lights. Just then the door opened and in walked two of the school's most admired girl's, who were equally proud and callous. They were oblivious to the existence of another girl in the bathroom, and with impudence steeping in their malicious grins, began black talking about Asian girls and what nuisance they were. They specifically stared at Naseem, who by then had turned a bright shade of crimson. Humiliation dawned her. Naseem whished the earth would split open and swallow her in its midst. By