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Khai woke up for the first day of school like she does every year, but this time was a little different... This was her first day of high school: high school in America.

She had just moved here from Pakistan a few months ago.

She got out of bed and put on a brand new pair of blue jeans that she paired with a bright red blouse from back home. She carefully put on some bangles as she rushed downstairs to eat some breakfast before the big day.

Khai got to school and sat in the first seat she could find. She grew more and more nervous as the classroom filled up; she wasn't used to being the new kid.

At lunch time, she sat with some girls from her math class and listened in on them talking about her favorite show, Grey's Anatomy. She built up the courage to ask, "Did you guys watch last night's episode?"

I love Grey's Anatomy! Did you guys watch last night? It was crazy!!

The conversation abruptly ended and all eyes were on her with fake smiles and confused faces. Khai looked down at her lunch and continued eating, wondering what she said wrong.

One of the girls, Amanda, motioned over to the henna that covered Khai's hand and asked, "Don't you have to be 18 to get a tattoo?"

Khai looked up with a smile, glad that she was being included in the conversation, and replied, "Yeah, this is temporary though. It's henna." The girls looked at her mildly impressed, but continued to ask questions.

"Looks a little too crowded honestly. Also, why'd you get brown of all colors?" someone asked with a hint of disgust in her voice. Khai's eyes teared up as she was thinking of a way to reply to the question she was just asked.

"It's always brown. That's the only option." It was a simple answer, but it was the truth. She didn't know how else to respond.

The girls giggled and looked away as Khai covered her beautiful henna with her sleeves out of embarrassment.

The next day, Khai walked into class and sat down when she noticed something on her classmate's hand. She asked her to look at it and noticed that it was a bright red design, just like her henna.

"This looks like my hand! Where'd you get red henna?" she asked excitedly.

The girl jerked her hand back and said "It's just red sharpie. Amanda is doing original designs for all the girls."

Khai looked at her with a confused face. What did she mean by original design? It looked almost identical to the one that her mom had done for her.

Khai was trying to ignore the incident but then slowly noticed these red designs on everyone's hands. She started to get frustrated.

She walked up to the huddle group of girls from lunch yesterday where she saw a stack of five dollar bills and Amanda hunched over someone's hand with a focused look and steady hand.

Khai couldn't believe this. Just yesterday Amanda and her friends were making fun of her henna and now they're making money off of it? It didn't make sense.