Quote: Chapter 16 (page 138)

"He pats me on the head and doesn't let me go into the kitchen with the women, but makes sure I sit right next to him. I'm embarrassed, but I like this, being the special one." I don't think that Nadira realized what Aisha felt like. At times she might have felt embarrassed, pressured, and then she liked being the special one. I think that Nadira wasn't used to being cared about like this. If she is going to help her family like this then she should get used to feeling this way. I think that when she was usually standing around, she wasn't held there by her father, Aisha was. Aisha had made some bad decisions and she sort of got pushed away. Her parents gave up on her and reached for Nadira to hold onto. I think that Nadira will get used to it but I hope that she won't get stuck on being the perfect child like what happened to Aisha. I think that Nadira should grasp onto her parents and her personality, so that she doesn't loose track of either of them as their family goes through their problems. She is going to find, like Aisha did, that it is hard to keep this position. People expect a lot from you and you have to, most of the time, fall into those expectations. It seems like a lot of pressure that I certainly wouldn't want to fall on top of my shoulders.