My competition against Hamid became a regular thing and he proved to be much better – or luckier- than me. Often times my throws would be blocked by passersby while on the other hand his would take lucky deflections past me. I gave full reports of my matches, mostly losses, to my groupmate Seyedanmalek, to which he would often sarcastically reply, “You sure are making the 5th grade proud.”

One morning prior to recess I showed Seyedanmalek a new ball that I had retrieved the day prior. “Today, I’m gonna use this ball to beat him,” I said. He rolled his eyes showing that he didn’t quite believe me.

I’m not sure how my match turned out, although I am under the impression that I lost. It was after lunch break and prayers that I was approached by a classmate, Shahrestani.

“Where did you get that ball?”

“From home,” I replied. “It’s mine.”

“It’s not yours,” he shot back. “It’s mine. I lost it during lunch.”

While initially I was startled by the confrontation, however, his last comment assured me I would get away with this.

“It’s definitely not your ball if you lost it during lunch,” I said. “I brought this ball from home and I’ve had it since this morning with me. I showed it to Seyedanmalek during first period.”

“You’re a liar,” he responded. “That’s my ball and you took it from me during lunch. Give it back to me”

“This is easy to settle,” I countered. Let’s go find Seyedanmalek. He saw me with this ball in the morning. He’s my witness.”

A crowd began to gather. “God is my witness,” he responded.

“How could you have lost this ball at lunch if I’ve had it since this morning?” My question fell on deaf ears as everyone gathered around Shahrestani and assured him they would get his ball back. I began walking away to find Seyedanmalek and possibly Hamid.

“Don’t let him get away!” someone shouted. They quickly surrounded me and in spite of my pleas to first talk to Seyedanmalek to verify my story, they ripped the ball out of my hand and returned it Shahrestani.

The incident left me extremely bitter. Granted in all likelihood it was his ball and he must have had the days mixed up, however, to any unbiased observer I had an airtight case for claiming possession of the ball yet no one even was willing to listen to me. Had Shahrestani said he had lost his ball the day before or even earlier, I probably would have just given it back to him and told him that I had found it on the ground, not knowing whose it was. But for a perfect alibi to be completely ignored was gut wrenching. “This is messed up,” I shouted out loud to no one in particular. “I’m leaving this stupid school.”