Summary

Chapter 5 begins as Nishat wakes up for the first day of school in the new school year. She and Priti go down to breakfast as her mother criticizes Priti’s ironing of her skirt. Nishat waits for her own critique but her mother stays silent, and Nishat thinks, “It feels like a slap in the face - like the ultimate criticism is this sudden lack of criticism” (52). As she eats her cereal breakfast she thinks with longing of the Bengali breakfasts her mother made over the summer - smelling porotas or khichuri and eating with their hands “like messy Desis” (53). She wonders if they will ever have those breakfasts again, “not just because the summer is over, but because of my revelation” (53).

When they get to school - Priti peels off to find Ali while Nishat’s friends Chaewon and Jess approach Nishat...