Saifullah clapped his hands three times and turned to head back down the stretch of trail they had just ascended. “We’ve got five more sprints to do.”

“You’ve got five more,” Hamza shot down from above. “I’m headed back to town.”

“Praise be to Allah,” Alim declared as he followed Hamza over the edge between ascent and descent.

“And you, Noor?” Saifullah asked with a turned back as his last roommate started to follow the others.

“You’re on your own, Saifullah,” Noor shouted back, without looking back. “I’m saving my energy for those seventy-six virgins.”

Slowly, Saifullah looked back at the lonely wilderness before him. “Seventy-two.”

############

“What’re you still doing up?”

Joe looked up from his own computer screen, and over his cluttered home office desk, at his daughter standing in the open doorway. “Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to be asking that question?”

“Why ask the question when you know the answer?” Lumi replied as she plopped herself down in the spare chair. “I’m doing schoolwork.”

“Don’t you think staying up like this night after night might affect your grades?”

“Don’t try to change the subject.” The girl pulled her knees up to her solar plexus and hugged them tight. “What’re you still doing up?”