School Was My Happy Place

 is the first episode of the Netflix series AlRawabi School for Girls.

Synopsis
What seems like a regular day at AlRawabi School for Girls when Mariam still enjoyed school quickly goes awry. Queen bee and school bully Layan sneaks off the bus to meet her boyfriend for the first time, and newcomer Noaf has her first day transferring to AlRawabi. Multiple one-sided confrontations between Layan and Mariam culminate with Layan shoving Mariam and pretending that Mariam is the one who assaulted her. Layan finds out about Mariam snitching to Principal Faten and assembles her friends Rania and Ruqayya to brutally beat up Mariam. At a school meeting, Layan manages to manipulate her classmates and Principal Faten into believing that Mariam is the one who provoked the attack and hit her head accidentally. After her wounds heal, Mariam resolves to get her revenge and take down her bullies.

Plot
The episode starts with a sequence of Mariam reminiscing over how school was once her "happy place" before she is beat up by unknown assailants. Several of her classmates are brought in for questioning, expressing a range of emotions from concern to disdain for Mariam.

After a flash back in time, Mariam gets onto the school bus and meets her best friend Dina. School bully and queen bee Layan teases Mariam for her alleged "masculinity," but Mariam retorts back confidently. Mariam apologizes for missing a movie with Dina, who gushes over Zac Effron's abs. Layan discusses her upcoming date with her best friend Rania and makes fun of Dina for eating sweets. Layan and Rania signal to a fellow classmate to distract the bus driver and order Mariam and Dina to switch seats with them, but Mariam refuses. In response, Layan takes Dina's bottle, spills tea on her, and exits the bus.

Without Layan, the rest of the girls arrive at school and sing the school's anthem. Rania covers for Layan. Meanwhile, Layan changes out of her school uniform and meets her date at a café. This is their first time meeting after a month of texting, and Layan is apprehensive. At school, a new student Noaf joins their classroom. Unlike the other schoolgirls in pink uniform, Noaf is dressed all in black with chains and piercings. Rania's friend Ruqayya teases Noaf for joining the school halfway through the year and hypothesizes that she ran into trouble at her last school. In contrast, Dina welcomes Noaf to a spot behind her.

At the end of the day, Layan sneaks back onto the bus and spills the details about her date with Rania, sharing how he picked her up in his sports car and smelled nice. He also brought her a card and flowers that she had to throw away due to fear of her new relationship being discovered by her brothers. Dina overhears everything, including her plans to see him again on Wednesday.

Mariam shares dinner with her family. In a reversal of gender norms, Mariam's father cooked the meal, while her mother Laila is the one to arrive home from work. Further, Mariam's walls are covered with girl empowerment posters. Mariam hops onto a call with her friend Yazan. He tells her he misses her, and they talk about a TV show. At some point, Yazan jokingly calls Mariam a "nerd," which reminds her of when Ruqayya also called her a "nerd" earlier in the day and hurts her deeply. The next day, the girls start with a morning basketball practice - Dina struggles, while Rania flourishes. Layan refuses to pass the ball until their coach repeatedly instructs her to do so and then chooses to aggressively throw the basketball at Mariam. When the coach criticizes Layan for this, she mocks Mariam's body, which gets her sent to the bench.

In the locker room, Layan confronts Mariam and insinuates that Mariam is attracted to her. Ruqayya joins in on the mocking. Layan prevents Mariam from leaving, shoves her, and then pretends that Mariam grabbed her. Due to her popularity, the other girls join in and agree with Layan about her false version of events. They call her a "freak" and tell her to leave. Noaf witnesses and keeps quite.

Layan charms her classmates with her acoustic cover of Mashrou Leila's Inni Mneeh. Dina finds Mariam sitting by herself and comes with the "hot gossip" that a "complete and utter weirdo grabbed Layan's boobs," not realizing that Mariam was the subject of the false rumor. Mariam chides her for "gossiping" until Dina drops that she knows some gossip about Layan skipping the bus on Wednesday. As Mariam glares angrily at Layan and her posse, she misses hearing Dina wish that she had a boyfriend and would even be willing to date their mutual friend Yazan.

Principal Faten calls Layan into her office and warns her not to skip school and let this information out again, but Layan is spared any real punishment due to her dad's influential position. Ms. Abeer disapproves. Layan regroups with Ruqayya and Rania in the bathroom, and they guess about who snitched to the principal. Layan blackmails the janitor Sumayya that she will falsely report Sumayya for smoking unless she uses her access to the school to find out who reported Layan. Mariam receives a text to meet someone at the bus. There, Layan and Ruqayya confront Mariam for snitching. Ruyayya kicks Mariam, and Layan fiercely threatens Mariam and throws her to the ground. Mariam hits her head on a rock, starts bleeding, and passes out. Rania spots Noaf observing the attack and warns her not to tell anyone about it. Soon after, Rania tells the Layan and Ruqayya to run away from Mariam before anyone sees them. Noaf runs to help Mariam, who is carried away on a stretcher.

The episode returns to the opening scenes in the investigation room. Layan, Rania, and Ruqayya all successfully avoid taking the blame for the attack. Mariam wakes up and pretends she was attacked from behind and didn't see their faces.

The investigator and Principal Faten address students and parents in a meeting and give the attackers one last chance to step forward, revealing that they had security camera footage implicating "two girls." Layan stands to "tell the truth," Instead, Layan distorts it by bringing up the false claim of Mariam grabbing her in the changing room and accuses Mariam of being the one to attack her in the courtyard. Ruqayya and Rania corroborate Layan's story, while Dina stands up to defend Mariam. More girls raise their hands to support Layan. As Mariam tries to reveal Layan's motive for attacking her, Principal Faten cuts her off and suspends her for two weeks.

Back at home, Laila rifles through Mariam's room and rips her feminist poster. She cannot believe her daughter after a room full of students maligned Mariam.

After her wounds have healed, Mariam rips off her bandages and stares determinedly into the mirror.

Cast

 * Andria Tayeh as Mariam
 * Noor Taher as Layan
 * Rakeen Sa'ad as Noaf
 * Yara Mustafa as Dina
 * Joanna Arida as Rania
 * Salsabiela as Roqayya
 * Reem Saadeh as Ms. Abeer
 * Nadera Emran as Ms. Faten
 * Jana Zeineddine as Laila
 * Sameera Asir as Summaya
 * Ahmad Hamdan as Laith
 * Khalid Zamamiri as Yazan



Music

 * Inni Mneeh (AlRawabi Cover) - Noor Taher
 * Ma Lkit (Not Found) - Emel Mathlouthi