Broken

By Maryam Ashraf

While staying home with my two brothers as my parents were at military training, I feel there is something my brothers and pretty much everyone I know is hiding from me. I dont know what that is, but whatever this is, it is making my life difficult.

There is something going around, everywhere. Will I know what it is? Will I change? Will I be the same person?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Feb 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503502260

Maryam Ashraf

This book took me time and effort to write. It’s not as easy as I thought it was going to be. It came from the heart. I love writing, I always did since I can last remember, and I used to write so much stuff for fun because I always thought that writing was something I could do to let out. I appreciate the people around me. One day I told my parents I wanted to publish a book, and they supported me a lot with it, and I am really thankful for them. Some people didn’t believe I could do that because they thought I was too young. Well, here I am today with a published book. I say thank you a lot to my parents, Shawana F. Shaikh and Ahmed N. Ashraf, who have supported me all the way to write my book. And thank you to my sister Hira N. Ashraf and brother Ibrahim N. Ashraf for inspiring me with a lot of idea’s to write my book, and my best friend who I can call a sister, Salma F. Alsemari, for not allowing me to give up and inspiring me with a lot of Ideas.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Maryam Ashraf.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 02/10/2015

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

650533

Contents

Chapter 1 My Family

Chapter 2 School

Chapter 3 Arguing

Chapter 4 Curiosity

Chapter 5 Unexpected

Chapter 6 Jane’s House

Chapter 7 Expelled

Chapter 8 Coming at Night

Chapter 9 Never-Ending Night

Chapter 10 Principal’s Office

Chapter 11 Exhausted

Chapter 12 Charlie

Chapter 13 Comfort

Chapter 14 Answers

Chapter 15 Clues

Chapter 16 Home Sweet Home

Chapter 17 FI14

Chapter 18 Tom’s Birthday

Chapter 19 Getting There

Chapter 20 Exposed

Chapter 21 Letting It Out

Chapter 22 Life After

Dedicated to Ami, my grandmother who always told me to follow my dreams and do anything I want to do in life, which keeps me happy. I couldn’t do this without her. She will always be in my heart. Till this day her words influenced me to be a successful person. She is the reason that I have the confidence to do this. Thank you Ami.

CHAPTER 1

My Family

Jassmyne, hurry up if you want me to drop you to school, my brother, Tom, screamed.

Okay, be right there, I need to grab my books.

Tom is about a year older than me; well, to be exact he is eleven months and fifteen days older than me. Tom is seriously like my best friend ever. Every morning, Tom and I go to school together, and it’s fun. Tom is that cool kid in school, who is very a sensitive guy, who pretends like nothing happened if someone said something nice or mean. When he would go home, he would come up to me and talk about it, and it could be about the most stupid thing ever. He will take about an hour just thinking about what someone has said. We usually would have a four-hour discussion just about school. Sometimes we would just sit at the TV room watching movies while comparing our lives to the movies we have watched. I honestly think we have the best relationship a brother and sister could ever have.

Sam, I’m taking your car, said Tom when we were heading out for school. He didn’t wait for any response; he just took Sam’s car keys from the key shack and went on to the car with me. Sam is my oldest brother. He is twenty-one years old, and to be exact, he is five years, five months, and seven days older than me. Sam is like both of my parents in one body. He’s so strict, but at the same time, he’s really chill. Me and Sam talk every day, but me and Tom don’t really see him that often. He’s usually at university all the time. Apparently, studying law is a lot of hard work. When he gets back home, he would go straight to his room and just lock his room door. It’s usually always locked. I honestly don’t remember the last time seeing his room. Some nights we would just order something from outside, but sometimes me and Sam would cook something together. Me and Sam aren’t so close; he’s immature, a bit responsible, dumb but smart at the same time, the one person that seems to be too cool for school and not really open to share things—that kind of guy. Me and Sam get into more arguments than me and Tom have ever had in our lifetime. Tom and Sam sometimes get along. Usually, all their conversations end up in huge physical fights like legit rustling fights. It can get kind of annoying sometimes, but they never go too far. It’s just because they’re brothers and they have nothing better to do.

Call Mum and Dad. I already talked to them this morning, said Tom when we were on the way to school.

Yeah, I woke up early today, so I had called Mum and Dad, I replied.

Both of my parents are in the military. They have been in the military for about five years, but before that, they had been in training for six years. My parents come back home every six to eight months a year and sometimes on special occasions. Me, Tom, and Sam have to keep our parents up to date in order to live by ourselves and not have Aunt Polly come live with us again. We have to call our parents at least once a day, but they expect us to call them twice a day and video call them every day for about an hour. If we don’t keep them up to date, the next day, there will be Aunt Polly at our door, stalking us and driving us crazy.

CHAPTER 2

School

First day of school today. My stomach had the butterflies, and the rest of my body had the shivers. I got to school and all I saw was everyone with a group of people, even the new kids, and I mean everyone. My stomach growled; my heart started pounding fast like I just finished a triathlon. I haven’t talked to anyone this summer, and just going back to them was weird and awkward as it could ever be. I opened the car door. I stood outside, looked at everyone outside the school, took my bag from the car, closed the car door, and started walking toward the building for my first class. People said hi. I just smiled and kept on walking with no answer.

Colline came up to me and said, Jay! Hey where you been all summer? She said it in an excited way but in a sensitive and low voice. Colline was my best friend last year. We used to be really close but something happened. We both agreed we shouldn’t be so close anymore, and we wouldn’t get in the way of anyone.

Oh, nothing, just hanging at home. Um, I’m going to class. Okay? See you later. I didn’t want my face shown in school. I didn’t have that reputation anymore.

Okay, see you later, Colline said then walked away.

My first class was math with Mrs. Noala. She’s a new teacher this year. She seemed nice, but how could I judge her just by how she looks? There are a couple of new kids in our school this year. All I wanted was to be with a class full of