At football practice that afternoon, Kamran is distracted by the day's events. Only Adam has spoken to him—everyone else ignores him and stares. He is still haunted by Julia's face and her look of terror as she gazed at him. The play starts and Kamran falls flat on his back, knocked over by Omar, a linebacker. After a warning from the coach about reducing distractions, Kamran re-calibrates and thinks about the football games he played with Darius and the neighborhood boys when he was younger. Darius was eight years older than Kamran, and “a giant” by comparison (27). Darius demanded that Kamran suck it up and deal with any scuffles in order to play, and Kamran did, eventually proving himself to Darius and all the other kids too: “Those games had made me better, tougher, and I was going to need that toughness now” (29).

Practice continues; on the next down, Kamran blocks Omar. This time, Omar seems like he is throwing elbows just to hurt Kamran. The whistle blows and Kamran gets in Omar's face, ready to fight him.