“Her hair is jet-black, hanging loose down her back, and I think hair that gorgeous has no business being on someone like her. She’s wearing jeans and a plain white T-shirt. She’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen and it stupidly, inexplicably throws me.”

When Michael first sees Mina, they are on opposite sides of a protest about immigration. Abdel-Fattah uses first-person narration to reveal Michael’s first impression of Mina—while he’s struck by her beauty, his words also point to the influence of Michael’s parents’ xenophobia on his own perspective. For example, even as he marvels that she is “the most beautiful girl [he’s] ever seen,” he others her in his word choice: “someone like her.” This passage serves as a starting point for Michael’s character arc and foreshadows the ways his relationship with Mina changes him over the course of the story.

“‘But you were also smuggled out of a war zone, lived in a refugee camp, traveled here on a leaky boat, and were locked in detention for months. By all means be scared.’ And then, without a hint of irony, she adds, ‘But just remember, I’m expecting you to be top of your class.’”

Abdel-Fattah uses the dialogue in Mina’s conversation with her mother to reveal her protagonist’s backstory. Mina’s mother hopes to give Mina courage by reminding her of the harrowing experiences she’s survived as a refugee. However, Mina’s mother also emphasizes her expectations that Mina rank at the “top of [her] class” in the prestigious Victoria College. Later in the story, Mina and Michael bond over the pressure they each feel from their loving yet demanding parents.