Hala 2019 Hala, a Pakistani American teenager girl in her final year of high school is cautious with her words, but avidly curious with her eyes and ears Floating in a limbo between two cultures, shes gently pulling back from her Muslim faith and tentatively testing her crush on Jesse, a tousled blond classmate with a sensitive soul Shes a fascinating paradox, at once subdued and adventurous One moment, shes meekly enduring the affectionate nagging of her anxious mother Eram the next, shes racing through their Chicago suburb on her skateboard