In Out of Nowhere, Maria Padian tells the story of Tom Bouchard, a high school senior living in a small town in Maine. Tom’s life is relatively quiet and revolves around playing soccer for his school team. However, this changes with the arrival of several Somali refugees, particularly one named Saeed. Tom becomes curious about him, and he admires his soccer skills. Although Saeed doesn't speak much English, Tom, as captain of the team, offers to help him. Over time, they become close friends. However, things take a turn when Tom and his friend Donnie are caught sneaking into another high school to paint over their rival's rock. Tom is sentenced to 100 hours of community service and must repaint the rock. Meanwhile, as more immigrant groups arrive at school, communication becomes difficult due to language barriers. This leads to segregation based on culture, religion, and language. However, Tom is a very social person and is always trying to talk with immigrants and understand their situation. Another place he does this besides school is the volunteering place for his community hours, where he helps a little Somali kid to get his school work done. There he also meets Myla, a girl in College who loves volunteering and helping immigrants. Tom starts having feelings for her, and takes her out for dinner a couple of times, even though he already has a girlfriend, Cherisse. Tom is learning a lot about Somali people and their tradition. There’s one in particular that he is a little concerned about: Ramadan. This is because he made a bet with the Maquoit school for their next soccer game. Back then, Tom didn’t know it was scheduled during Ramadan, which means their best players won’t be at their maximum condition. Fortunately, they end up beating Maquoit, their biggest rivals, so everyone is really happy about that. Tom breaks up with his girlfriend Cherisse and starts dating Mayla. At this point, everything seems to be going great in Tom’s life. But everything changes when Maquoit questions Saeed’s eligibility, so he’s not allowed to play for a while. Everyone on the soccer team is really mad about this. Especially Saeed and Tom, who is trying to understand why Maquoit is doing that. After talking to Alex, a friend of Tom from Maquoit, it seems like everything is back to normal. But then a huge storm hits, and the entire town collapses, losing all power. During the storm, Saeed disappears, and Tom gets a call from Donnie's mom: Donnie's been in a terrible accident and is in the hospital. Tom immediately goes there with his father. After waiting for a long time, the doctors say that Donnie will live, but it will take very long until he recovers. Unexpectedly, Mayla and Samira, Saeed’s sister, show up at the hospital, looking for Saeed. Samira starts to panic, worrying deeply about him, which makes Tom feel very sorry for her and decides to give her a hug. Unfortunately, Cherisse sees this and takes a picture of the exact moment, and posts it on Facebook. At first Tom doesn’t realize how bad this is, until Mayla tells him. Somali girls are not supposed to touch anyone outside their family. Because of this, the whole Somali community is really mad at Samira, and her family. Meanwhile, Saeed’s family finally contacts the police, reporting him missing. Tom is being interrogated at Saeed's house, when he walks in through the door. It turns out that Saeed was playing for another soccer team in Portland and couldn’t get a ride home. Tom tells Saeed about the situation with Samira, but there’s nothing they can do about it. One day, Saeed and his whole family are missing. After soccer practice, Tom stops by their house, but no one is there. They seem to be gone. Nobody knows anything about them. A few days later, Tom and Myla are studying at the library when Myla gets an email from Samira. She explains that they moved to Minneapolis and now live with her uncle and his family. She is really sad and misses a lot of things and people from Maine. But they all know it’s better for them this way.
Does the character in your book get held to high standards just to be able to fit in?
Saeed's sister, Samira, struggles more to make friends than Saeed does. This is probably because Somali traditions and religion make it much harder for women than for men. Or perhaps it’s simply because Samira is quieter and shyer. However, she doesn't always follow Somali religious practices strictly, most likely to fit in: "Yes, that is what you would see, and that is your truth. But there is another way to see things. You say she works hard, but does she help her mother? After school, she was often at the K Street Center visiting with the American student, not cooking or watching her younger brothers and sisters. You say she is religious, but some days I would see her at school not wearing hijab, only a small scarf. Sometimes she had on big gold earrings. One day I saw her with a jacket I thought was a boy's." (Padian 319). This shows that Somali people don’t always follow their rules and prohibitions, and a good reason for this is to fit into their new society.
