It’s You

Sakina Huzaifa Palanpurwala

Daastan Publishing 2023

First Published in Pakistan by Daastan PVT LTD

House # A-41, Madni Street, Lala Rukh, Wah Cantt, Punjab 47040

www.daastan.com

www.meraqissa.com

Text copyrights © Sakina Huzaifa Palanpurwala

Book Design copyright © Anum Ameer

Edited by: Mariam Rizvi

The moral rights of the writer, illustrator and editor have been asserted.

All rights reserved

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN 978-969-696-815-3

This book is dedicated to my mother, who made me fall in love with reading and the magical world of books at a very young age. I never wanted to read books, but she encouraged me to do so and for that I am very grateful.

Table of Contents

1. The Email.....................................................................................
2. Celebration...................................................................................
3. Bucket List...................................................................................
4. Road Trip......................................................................................
5. Departure......................................................................................
6. University......................................................................................
7. Roommate.....................................................................................
8. Betrayal.........................................................................................
9. Detective Boaz..............................................................................
10. Accusations...................................................................................
11. Trouble..........................................................................................
12. Missing.........................................................................................
13. The Lake......................................................................................
14. Still Missing.................................................................................
15. Memory........................................................................................
16. Phone Call...................................................................................
17. Hurt..............................................................................................

1.

The Email

Friday, 9:57 p.m.

Julie paced nervously around her room, wearing her favorite red and black pajamas, biting her nails which were painted with a thick layer of baby-pink nail polish. A hundred thoughts were rushing through her head at once. She walked to the wall in front of her bed and looked at the pictures of her family and friends displayed on the wall surrounded by fairy lights, stickers and some quotes about family and friendship.

“Families are like fudge – mostly sweet with a few nuts.” Read one of them.

“In the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips.” Read another.

Looking at these pictures always calmed her down. As she scanned the wall, she saw a picture of her with her family at the amusement park with a giant cotton candy stick in her hand. A rush of embarrassment coursed through her when she thought about how she threw an extremely unnecessary tantrum in front of the whole park and forced her father to buy her that cotton candy stick. She moved along the wall and there on the top right corner was a picture of her and her cousin fast asleep in the back of a car. Ahh…the good times, when life was so much simpler. She laughed as her gaze fell upon a picture of her with two of her best friends at the water park. She remembered how one of her best friends, Carly, tripped over a tube and fell hard on her face.

That reminded her of something; she turned on her heels and walked to her bedside table. She pulled out the drawer and fetched a hair tie and quickly tied her long, brunette hair up in a loose bun. She grabbed her phone and sat on a chair opposite her neatly organized desk where her laptop rested open with her email inbox displayed on the screen. She stared at the screen anxiously for a while biting her lip then sent a text to her group chat with two of her best friends. “Ugh, what have I done to my nails.” She thought when she saw her chipped nails.

Julie: Any updates, guys??!

Stacy: Not yet, L…

Julie: Carly?

Carly: We are supposed to get it at ten p.m.…we still have two minutes. Let’s hope for the besttt! :p

Stacy: Any minute nooww!! Ahh I'm so nervousss!!

Carly: Me tooo!

Julie: Me three

The digital clock on Julie’s desk struck ten. She bit her lip, her legs bouncing uncontrollably. The group chat grew silent. Julie stared at her laptop screen…. nothing. She shut her eyes tight and crossed her fingers, praying and rocking back and forth, still waiting.

‘Ting’ came a sound; she instantly opened her eyes, and refreshed her inbox to see nothing new appear on her laptop screen. She realized it was her phone that made the noise. She checked her phone to find a text from Stacy on the group chat that said, “I got it!” In bold capital letters.

She smiled, and replied, ‘That’s great, Stace!’ Julie sighed. “Stacy got hers; I should get mine too… any moment now.”

The clock on Julie’s desk struck 10:01 and then 10:02. Still, nothing. Julie felt her heart shatter. No text from Carly either. She almost lost hope.

10:03. Julie’s laptop chimed. There was a new email in her inbox. She could feel her heart beating very fast in her chest. She opened the email and held her breath.

Congratulations, you have been accepted to Stanford University.

Julie’s heart was beating uncontrollably; she couldn’t believe her eyes. She refreshed her inbox just to double check, yes, it was still there. She clapped her hands to her mouth. She had gotten acceptance in one of the top universities of the world. She jumped up, and danced around her room, she was on cloud nine; excitement, happiness, and shock rushed through her veins.

When she was nine, her cousin got into Stanford, and soon after her graduation, she became an insanely successful person, and since then it has been her childhood dream to go to Stanford.

She was out of breath, she picked up her phone and texted to her group.

Julie: Guuyyss!! I got mine tooo! 

Stacy: Oh my god! This is like a dream come true!                                                                           

Julie: I know right!! I can’t believe this!! We got into Stanford! 

Stacy: Carly?? What about you ??                                                                                                        

Carly: I didn’t get mine.

Julie:  It's okay Carly you'll get yours soon :)

Carly:  Yeah, I hope so.

She rushed to the living room downstairs, taking two stairs at a time and she found her entire family in the living room. A handsome, slightly overweight man, with balding brown hair, hazel eyes, and broad shoulders, was slumped on the comfy gray L-shaped couch facing the TV, with a can of cold beverage in his hand. He looked quite young for his age. On the other side of the couch, laid a young boy, with caramel brown hair, glossy green eyes and flushed cheeks, wearing a red shirt with his sleeves rolled up, a grey blanket covering his lower body. A pair of headphones rested around his neck and he was typing something on his phone. Besides the couch, in an armchair, was a beautiful woman, gracefully sitting, wearing a white button-down blouse and a black pencil skirt. Her blonde hair neatly tied behind her in a low bun. Her mesmerizing blue eyes fixed upon a book while she brought up a cup of coffee to her lips and took a sip.  Near her feet, was a beautifully groomed golden retriever with shiny fur.

 Julie burst in and positioned herself in the center of the living room, blocking her father and brothers view of the television. She stared at her family with a bright big smile and her face lit with joy.

Her mother, Amanda peeled her gaze from the book and fixed it on Julie. She was astonished but she felt happy seeing her beloved daughter happy, standing there in the middle of the living room craving attention, smiling in a silly and comforting way. Her brunette hair loosely tied up, her nails chipped, from that ridiculous habit of biting them. Her blue eyes glowed for some reason, and the brightest smile in the world was taking over her face. Amanda admired her daughter. People always told her that Julie looks like her, but she never thought so, until today.

 “Move aside, you idiot, we would much rather watch the stupid football game we’re losing than your dumb face,” her brother commented looking up from his phone.

Julie ignored his statement. She didn’t care what her brother thought, she was the happiest girl in the world; no force in the entire universe could destruct her happiness right now. “You guys won’t believe what just happened!” she said excitedly.

Her father, Edward, sat up straight. Usually, a sentence like this would make him anxious, but judging by the happiness of her little girl, he felt comforted and happy. “What happened, Jay?” he asked with a smile.

Julie couldn’t find the words to explain. She jumped a few times, the dog got excited seeing this and started to run around the living room making everybody laugh. Brody, her brother, didn’t seem so amused by the situation. “Go on. Tell us what happened, Jay.” He mocked and rolled his eyes, which were fixed at his phone screen.

“Now let’s try to be nice, Brody,” his mom scolded and then looked back at her daughter. “Tell us honey, what is so exciting?” she asked curiously.

Julie took a deep breath, and calmed herself down. She looked at her mom “Mom….,” then she looked at her dad “Dad….,” and then she looked at Brody who was still lost in his phone. Julie made an annoyed face, “Nincompoop…” Brody looked up and stuck his tongue out making a silly face. She ignored him once again.

“Mom, dad…I GOT INTO STANFORDDD!!”

Nobody said anything for a few seconds. Maybe they were all processing what Julie had just said. Amanda set her coffee cup on the side table and got up. She walked up to her daughter with a bright smile on her face and pulled Julie into a warm happy loving hug.

Brody slowly got up, gave Julie a weirdly suspicious smirk and hugged her from the side. Then, he made his way back to the couch, smirking and texting continuously on his phone.

“We need to celebrate!” said Edward and kissed Julie on the forehead.

2.

Celebration

Sunday, 6:45 p.m.

The Browns organized a small barbecue soiree in their backyard with close friends and neighbors. They decorated their backyard with blue and red balloons, banners and pictures. Right next to that was the grill set-up. The Browns were very excited, but also a little sad as their beloved daughter would be leaving. There were still a few arrangements that were yet to be done.

“Brody! What are you doing? Why are you using your phone, you idiot. I asked you to arrange all the chairs accordingly; you can’t do one thing right!” Edward scolded. Annoyed, Brody put his phone back into his pocket and arranged the chairs, however, he still felt like it won’t be good enough and his father would scold him yet again.

Soon after they set up everything, the guests started to arrive. Julie’s best friend, Stacy Lee, was first to arrive along with her family. Her delighted face instantly lit up everything around her. She wore a short blue flared dress with her sneakers and a couple of bracelets around her wrist. Julie wore the same outfit, but in red. Stacy came in with a huge bag of gifts, set it aside and ran over to Julie to hug her. Julie saw Stacy’s family walk in over her shoulder. Victor Lee, a handsome man dressed in black pants, paired with a white shirt and a black blazer. Even at this age, he had his A-game in fashion. Alongside Victor was the gorgeous Charollet Lee, with black leggings, and a silky long white shirt. Her short blond hair shining as the gentle sunlight grazed her face illuminating her bright blue eyes, the elegant gold jewelry reflecting light as she pulled her hand to her face to block the sunlight.

The Lees walked over to Julie and Stacy. Victor set his arm around Stacy’s shoulders as her wife began to hug Julie and congratulate her. “Don’t go around creating trouble at Stanford, you two,” Charollet said.

The girls giggled. “We’ll try Mrs. Lee,” Julie said.

They were all busy talking until they were interrupted. “Yooo! What is upp Jay-Jay!” called a loud voice. Julie turned to see Russell Lopez standing by the backyard door, pointing at her with a smile on his face.

Russell was a tall, attractive boy with messy blond hair, a muscular build, and hazel eyes.  He wore a navy blue t-shirt with white pants and a smart watch around his wrist. He ran over to Julie and Stacy and picked Julie up and twirled her around and said, “You got in Stanford, dude!” When he finally put her down, he picked up Stacy and twirled her around as well saying the same thing, “You got into Stanford too, Stace!” They all burst out laughing together.

Soon arrived the rest of Russell’s family, Benjamin and Mia Lopez walked in together, their hands intertwined with each other, smiling and looking amazing as always. Behind Mia and Benjamin was Gia, their beautiful beloved daughter.

Everybody was there except the Robinsons. Julie called Carly, her other best friend, over and over but she won’t pick up. Nobody seemed to be worried except her. She kept checking her phone and looking at the door waiting for her arrival. The wait was over when she saw Carly walking through the door with a gigantic cake in her hands. She set the cake on the table and walked over to Julie with a huge grin on her face. “Hey, Stanford girlll!” They both giggled and hugged each other.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get in, Carly,” said Julie. They pulled apart, Carly rolled her eyes and shrugged, “Oh never mind that, it’s okay, besides I got into Harvard anyways. It’s not that big of a deal though.” She looked at Julie with a silly face and waited for her reaction. Julie could not believe what she had just heard.

“Wai-…wha-…how…CARLY! OHH MY GODD!” She exclaimed, “YOU GOT INTO HARVARD?” Julie gasped and laughed and pulled Carly into another hug, and they both rocked back and forth and jumped around in happiness. “Why did you not tell me earlier? This calls for double celebration,” Julie said. “I just got the letter this morning, and yes, we will celebrate, but not tonight; tonight is all about you and Stacy! Where is she, though?” Carly said.

Stacy was sitting at the table talking to Brody. Julie looked around and spotted them, “Oh, there she is!” she said, and walked over to Stacy accompanied by Carly. They all got seated on the table and were excitedly talking about the future, how they were nervous, excited and scared all at the same time.

“Think about moving so far away, and being exposed to new people, new surroundings, new challenges, new everything and on top of that we will be away from our families. I’ll miss them a lot,” said Carly with a pouted face.