Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2020 finalist, Madeeha Waheed! Madeeha finished 5th grade this past school year. The story she submitted is called “Flipping the Halal Way.”  Madeeha told us “The part I like best in my story is when my main character Layla, finally realizes the importance of wearing a modest leotard and following her religion.” 

FLIPPING THE HALAL WAY
by Madeeha Waheed

I was tumbling midair in a roundoff back handspring, back handspring, back tuck. Boom. I stuck the landing!

“Nice Layla! Just make sure to point your toes and open your shoulders a tiny bit more in your second back handspring,” said Coach Brea, with a big smile.
“Alright girls, line up! Practice is almost over,” Coach Hazel told the team.

After we were dismissed to go home, Coach Brea and Coach Hazel called me over to talk to them.

“Layla, have you and your family decided on the leotard situation?” Coach Brea said.

Ugh, the “leotard situation.” I hated the way that sounded, and I definitely hated to talk about it.

“Oh, um not yet. But I think I’m going to have to wear a bodysuit,” I replied.
“Ok, but make sure to talk to your parents so we can finalize the decision,” Coach Hazel continued.
“I will,” I responded.
“Alright team, see you tomorrow! Make sure to stretch and condition every night!” the coaches added.

When I got home I ran straight to my room without saying a word to anyone else in the house. I have a ginormous bed on the left side of my room. On the right side is my desk. There are stairs you climb to the loft, but I like to call it my hangout space. Once you climb into my loft you can see pillows, blankets, and even a 50-inch TV. Next to the TV there is a side table with a bunch of luscious green plants. The walls are painted light blue. My desk is white with some shelves, drawers, and a white fluffy spinning chair. Under my loft are my bathroom and a door that leads to the room where I practice my gymnastics. The room is filled with bars, a beam, room on the floor to practice my floor routine, and a station where I stretch and condition. I walk up to my loft, turn on my TV, and put on my favorite show, “Fuller House” on Netflix to be exact. It is a Friday so no homework, woohoo!

“Layla, sweety do your conditioning before your friends get here!” Mama reminded, not in an angry way, from downstairs.
“Ok,” I replied. My mom is Pakistani (Pak-is-tan-ee). She was born in Chicago and raised to be Muslim. A Muslim is a person that belongs to the religion called Islam. My dad is white, born in Chicago and raised Christian. My siblings and I are all Muslim. My older sister Aila is 13. I have a baby sister on the way who is going to be named Laiba. Aila Mae Parker, Layla Rose Parker, and soon Laiba Jane Parker.

I went to my gymnastics room and started conditioning. When I was done I went to get a yummy snack. What am I feeling today? Banana and peanut butter? Shrimp? Grilled cheese? Ooh ya, grilled cheese, tomato soup, and chocolate milk. Yum.

“Mama, can you make me some grilled cheese?”
“Sure baby,” She replied with a great sincere smile. I grabbed the tomato soup from the fridge and warmed it up in the microwave.
“So what are we going to do about the leotard?” I asked. Muslims have to wear modest clothing. Leotards aren’t so modest so we have to get a leotard that covers my legs.
“Well, we can get tights or a jumpsuit?” She replied. I slowly slumped back into my chair.
“I know you don’t want to do this but you know you have to,” My mom said in a very forgiving way.
“I know,” I replied. Ding dong ding dong my doorbell sang.
“My team friends are here!” I shouted running to the door.
“In that case, I will make more grilled cheese.”
“Hi!” I exclaimed.
“Hi!” They said back.
“Come in!” I said all of us walked to the kitchen where Mama was cooking.
“Hi girls!” Mama said.
“Hi, Miss Leena!” They replied.

I’m on the bronze excel team. There are eight girls on the team including me. Kinsley and I are best friends.

“How’s baby Laiba doing?” Kinsley asked, looking at Mama’s stomach.
“Oh she’s alright,” Mama replied, all the girls answered with an “aww.”
“I made you girls some grilled cheese sandwiches with chocolate milk and tomato soup.”

After we finished eating we went to my room and straight up to my loft and talked. I had a great day. The next day I was vibing listening to my workout music practicing gymnastics. Roundoff back handspring, full turn handstand… I was practicing my floor routine when Aila my sister came and told me Mama and Dad wanted to talk to me. I walked downstairs wondering what they needed to talk about. Did I do something wrong? Oh no, what if they take away my Tik Tok!

“Baby we need to talk about the whole leotard situation,” Mama said motioning me over. A weight was lifted off my shoulders, phew I’m not in trouble.
“We think you’re going to have to wear a bodysuit,” Mama said, ugh a bodysuit that’s gonna look so weird. I’m going to look like a scuba diver! I don’t want to look different from everyone else.
“Hazel and Brea said they could bedazzle it up,” Mama said.
“I know,” I said, fighting back tears.
“We are going to talk with your coaches after your practice tomorrow,” Dad said.
“Alright,” I replied.
“Scurry on now,” Dad said. I went up to my room, laid on my bed, and cried. Just then Mama walked in.
“Hi baby, I know you don’t want to wear a bodysuit but you might have to do some things you don’t like. Remember that quote we saw the other day?” Mama asked. I tried to remember the quote.
“The way I see it, if you want a rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” – Dolly Parton
“Now Layla what does that quote mean to you?” Mama asked.
“Well, I guess it means if I want to get what I hope in life I have to deal with the bad things.” “Right,” Mama replied.
“Now do you see how that connects with your problem?” Mama asked.
“Well if I want to be a national champion and be in the Olympics one day I have to deal with the kind of stuff like the leotard,” I said starting to get it.
“Exactly,” Mama said.

It was two months away from the first competition. We really needed to order my leotard for competition. Mama and Dad had their talk about my leotard with my coaches. I was doing my homework at the kitchen table while eating a snack.

“I talked with your coaches, and they said they would order the bodysuit from GK the leotard business, but they need to get your size. We need to go to the GK website and see how they do the sizes and measurements.”
“Ok,” I said. I grabbed my Macbook Air out of my room and looked up GK. We figured out the sizes and gave them to my coaches. They ordered it to look like the team leotard, but with leggings attached. I was actually sorta excited. I love ordering new clothes and shoes. I was also a little worried about what my team would think, but I knew I needed to follow my religion.

It was getting so close to the competition! The leotard still hadn’t come yet. We were getting worried about what might happen if it would come late but I really needed to work on my floor routine. For the floor routine music, I picked Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid.

A couple of weeks later my mom woke me up very early and told me to get ready for gymnastics. I was so confused. I normally don’t have practice on these days. It was very strange. I rolled out of bed, put on my leotard and leggings, and did my daily morning breakfast routine. My mom drove me to the gym. Once I got to the gym all I saw was my coaches and a bunch of bags they had with them. I thought to myself, What could be inside them? They looked very excited. I saw a few of my teammates coming out of their cars. They too also looked very confused.

Coach Brea looked at the other girls while being very thrilled and said, “ The moment we’ve all been waiting for your leotards!”

I was sooooo excited I didn’t think this day could be possible. Coach Hazel handed each girl a bag, but me. Each girl rushed to the bathroom to try them on.

I asked Coach Brea, “What about mine?”

She replied back to me with,” I’m sorry Layla, but yours hasn’t come yet.”

I felt like I was about to cry a river. Everyone else got to feel the joy of trying on a brand new matching shimmery, navy blue, beautiful, amazing, sparkly leotard. Who knew when my brand new sparkling bodysuit leotard would come. It was 1 week before the competition.

“I’m sorry Layla, we don’t know when it will come — it’s late,” Coach Hazel said.
“I understand,” I said, trying to fight back tears. I went inside and saw all the girls in their new leotards.
“Wow you guys look great,” I said with a forced smile.
“Thanks! I’m sure yours will be great when it comes!” ” Kinsley said.

After gymnastics, I told my mom what happened. She explained to me that it will all be worth it when I actually compete. I practiced my routine like crazy! Step, turn, back handspring, front tuck… The week flew by and I needed to worry about doing well in the competition. I practiced like CRAZY and I mean crazy!

“Layla wanna go see a movie or something?” Aila asked me one day while I was practicing.
“Can’t. I need to practice!” I replied.
“C’mon you’ve been practicing every single second of every single day, you need a break,” She said.
“Oh alright, I do need a break,” I said. We went to ask Mama if we could go to the movies. Mama said yes, so we went to the movies.

The movie theater was only a 3-minute walk from our house. We got our popcorn and an ICEE. We saw the movie Onward. It was pretty good, It was nice to have a little break from all of the pressure of competition. When we got home Dad had a suitcase in his hands and Mama was getting in the car. I was very confused.
“What’s going on?” Aila asked.
“We’re going to the hospital early, Mama thinks it’s time. We are going now because we don’t want to be rushed,” Dad said.
“You’re going to the hospital!” I screamed.
“Can I go?” I added on.
“I’m sorry but you can’t. When the baby is born you can come. Nani (Nan-i), my grandma, is coming to watch you until the baby comes home,” Dad said.
“Ok,” Aila said. I hugged Mama and ran inside. I don’t know why but I felt anxious it was all happening so fast. This was a happy time we have all been waiting for.
“It’s okay, this happened when you were born too,” Aila said. I calmed down after that and Facetimed my friends on my new iPhone 11. Nani came and we had a lot of fun.

That night Nani said “you know when I was little growing up in Pakistan we didn’t have the option of doing gymnastics. And when your mom was little she didn’t have the option of wearing leggings with leotards. You should be really happy”

The next morning we made a welcome home sign for Mama and the new baby. We baked a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing (Mama’s favorite). Just then my grandma got a phone call from my dad. She put him on speaker.

“The baby is born!” He said. We rushed to the hospital, got our visitor passes, and ran (as fast as we could for being in the hospital).

“Meet baby Laiba Jane,” Mama said, holding her out. She was so tiny and cute. She was perfect. She didn’t look like the most newborns with their squished up faces. She was tiny, with really light skin, and bright blue beautiful eyes. My mom put her tiny head in a cute pink beanie.

“Can I hold her?” I asked. My mom nodded her head and handed her to me. After that Aila held her, and we stayed in the hospital. Laiba was a healthy baby born on January 4th, 2020. Exactly one week until my competition. Right, when I held Laiba, a wave of responsibility washed over me, I felt so blessed. Laiba went home a few days after she was born. Aila and I helped Mama a lot! I put her to bed sometimes, I burped her, I read to her, I sang to her, my favorite thing to do was let her hold my finger. I was so excited about the meet. I got my routine down, I was so confident. On the other hand, I wasn’t so confident about my leotard. The week flew by and it was already Friday night! The meet was TOMORROW and the leotard STILL hadn’t arrived.

“Mama the leotard still hasn’t come, what are we going to do?” I asked Mama at dinner
“You are going to have to wear the leotard we ordered just in case this happened”
“But… Ok then,” I said. I was excited to be different and follow my religion, but that wasn’t going to happen.

The next day, it was the morning of the competition, That meant getting ready, woohoo! I rushed to the door to see if my leotard had arrived yet. It was like opening the doors to the wardrobe of Narnia. Just way less exciting because it WASN’T THERE! Tears started rolling down my face. Thousands of questions were going through my head like was I going to compete? Was there even any point in going to the competition? Why am I even doing this? I reassured myself I should do this, this is what I’ve been practicing for. Mama did my hair into an extremely tight bun because in gymnastics in competitions if a strand of hair comes out of your bun points will be taken off. She put at least 1000 cans of hairspray on me. I got into my leotard. It felt so weird with no leggings on. I felt uncomfortable. But I knew I had to wear it. It was 6:30 A.M. The competition started at 10:00 A.M. I woke up at like 5:00 A.M. because I was super excited. We needed to leave at 7:45 A.M. It takes two hours to get there, and my coaches told us to be there early. I got my gymnastics bag and made sure everything was in it: extra leotard, hair ties, hair spray, hairbrush, bobby pins, bun maker, flat iron, curler, wallet, snacks, and water.

It was time. We loaded the car and got in. I felt a mix of emotions. Excitement, nervous event, discomfort, displacement. But I was mostly excited. We pulled off the driveway and headed towards the road. I was sitting in the second row of the car in the middle of Aila and Laiba. Mama and Dad were sitting in the front. Right then we saw the postman.

“Dad, turn around and the postman is here! He might have my leotard!” I said practically yelling.

Dad made a sharp turn and headed back home. I ran out of the car and to the postman.

“Hello Miss, how are you?” The postman asked.
“Hi, I’m good, do you have anything for 1343 Maria Way?” I asked.
“Yes, I have mail fo-”
“Anything from GK?” I asked him to cut it off.
“Yes?” He pulled it out very confused. I grabbed it and ran to the car.
“Thank you, have a nice day!” I said.
“I GOT IT!” I screamed happily. I felt so excited. A wave of Joy fluttered over me and all of my family, even Laiba smiled.
“You will have to put it on when we get there,” Mama said, and with that, we drove to the hotel they were having it at. I wasn’t at all nervous to do my routine in the bodysuit. Even though I haven’t practiced in it it’s basically what I wear all the time- a leotard with leggings. The only difference is that the leggings are attached.

On the way there I just watched a little TV and did some homework. When we got there we went straight to our hotel room, where we would be staying. The room was beautiful! It was sweet with 2 rooms connected. The first room was 1 queen bed for Mama and Dad. We brought our own fold-up crib for Laiba to sleep in. The second room had 1 queen bed, which was for Aila. My team including me and my coaches were going to stay in one room. I and my gymnastics team got into the same room, but inside of the coach’s room there were two queen beds and in our room, there will be four queen beds, two kids in each. There was a kitchen and a room with a sofa and a TV. It was 9:37 P.M. and my coaches said to meet them at our team’s room at 9:45 P.M. sharp. I quickly changed into my bodysuit. It felt so good! It was a tiny bit weird because I have never worn it before but mostly it feels the same. I feel so strong in it. It looked so good! It was navy blue with our gym name on it, which is Orange County Gymnastics School. It had leggings basically on it. The real leotard had long sleeves so I had a whole bodysuit on. Mama did the finishing touches to my hair and we headed towards my room. All the families had rooms next to each other. Our room was number 1805, my family’s room was 1810, and the rest of the rooms went from 1808-1815. I tell my family goodbye, they wish me good luck, and I feel really good. Since my room was only five rooms down I went by myself. What I really liked about the hotels is that they have doorbells for each room. I rang the doorbell, and coach Hazel replied. I was wearing the team jacket over the leotard so it looked like I was wearing the regular leotard with leggings on and the jacket over.

“Layla! You look great! I’m so glad it came in time,” Coach Brea said.
“Thanks,” I said.
“You can put your stuff in the room,” Coach Hazel said.
“Okay,” I said. I walked in and went to my room, I put my backpack down and claimed a bed.
“Hi, guys!” I said. Everyone had just got there.
“Hey Layla,” they said.

Kinsley and I wanted to share a bed. We all gathered in the sofa room.

“I have a surprise for you all,” I said. I stood up and took off the jacket.
“Layla! It came!” Brooke said. They all were so excited, and so was I.
“Alright girls, it’s time. Make sure you point your toes, and wink at the judges or smile, they love that,” Coach Brea said.

We walked to the place where they were doing the meet. I saw my parents and waved to them. I was first for my floor routine. I am ready, I got this, I am amazing, I can do this. I thought to myself.

“You got this Layla!” My teammates were talking to me. I GOT THIS!
“Layla good luck you are going to be amazing!” My coaches said. I walked on the floor and got into my ready position. This is really happening. Tun Na na na the music went. I did a little hula motion with my arms and hands. Turn front tuck, back walkover to back handspring. I went on with my routine.
“Go, Layla!” I heard people yelling. I ended in my ending position and walked off. I hugged all my teammates, my coaches, and my family.
“You did so well!” Everyone said. I was so joyful and surrounded by love. I looked for my score on the big board.
“I GOT 9.75!” I screamed. Everyone around me hugged me. Next, I did a vault. I did it so well! 9.65! After that bars, even better 9.85! And finally, beam. 9.65 again! I was so joyful and sparkly. It was time for awards.
“Third place for floor….. Ellie!” The announcer called all the gymnasts piled up on the floor. Ellie wasn’t on our team; she was with a different gym. “Second place floor…. Kinsley!” The announcer called.
“Kinsley! You got second!” I was so happy for her. That was it, I didn’t place. Suddenly my heart sank.
“And the first place winner with a score of 9.75, Layla!!!” I was so shocked. My jaw dropped.
“Layla! You got first!” Everyone screamed. I ran to the podium and stood on the very top. I put my hands up in a salute and they put a gold medal over me. For vault, I got 3rd place, beam 3rd, and bars 2nd! After the ceremony, I walked off the floor with four medals. When I walked someone came up to me.
“Hi, can I take a picture of you in your leotard? I think it’s awesome and really cool, I know a person in the same situation and I would like to show them this picture.”
“Sure,” I said. She took the picture and said goodbye. Whoa. That is so cool. I am so glad I chose to follow my religion. I am being a role model to so many young Muslim girls. I felt so honored. I was glad to be there and glad to be covered up. My mom was standing right there when the lady took a picture of me, she gave me a big hug.
“I’m so proud of you Layla,” Mama said. I was proud too.
.
“She believed she could, so she did.”
– R.S. Grey