One morning for some reason Mr. Tehrani was absent and thus we were left to ourselves. It seemed like the perfect time for each group to conduct internal voting and determine who their new leader would be. Up to that point, much to my disappointment, as I considered myself a better student than him, our group leader was Vahid Siahkolah. I wasn’t so sure how I would fare in a vote as Vahid’s namesake and cousin, Behzad, was also in our group, thus guaranteeing him at least two out of six votes. We each made our case to the rest of the group as to why they should vote for us and then we all verbally cast our votes. I was assured of my own vote and that of Noroozi who sat next to me and had become close friends with me. However, much to my surprise I received one more vote from Ravani, who in turn had received a vote from Mousavi, thus leaving Vahid with only two votes. While I declared victory, Vahid claimed that there had been miscommunication and that to avoid it each person should write their vote down. I accepted and quickly began urging everyone to take out a piece of paper. As I stood next to our desks and explained to Ravani and Mousavi what we were about to do, I noticed Noroozi that quickly sat down in Vahid’s seat and a sudden silence overcame the classroom. I turned around and saw Mr. Davai at the doorway.

“What’s going on here? Why are you all so loud?” he asked the class. His gaze turned to me as I still remained standing. “Sadr, why are you not sitting down?”

I remained speechless.

“Why are you not in your seat?”

Again I said nothing although with what he said next I wish I had said something, anything.

“Sadr, you are suspended from any kind of playing for a week.”

I don’t know why I just didn’t explain what I was doing which was in fact a legitimate reason for me not being in my seat.

While I didn’t expect Mr. Davai to be keeping an eye on me for the whole week, I was hesitant to openly break his rule. Following this incident, the first recess we had was the next day. I decided that during soccer I would stay close to the sideline and make quick, nonchalant taps whenever the ball came my way in order to not look too obvious that I was participating. I kept up my charade for about two minutes before I found myself completely engaged in a full-blown game of soccer. The next period a few students made jabs at me as to why I was playing which I denied I was.