You Must Remember This

Chapter 34: March Of The Volunteers

The energy of Friday's rally had faded over the weekend, especially for the leadership students who had worked themselves to the bone making it happen. Ms. Foster's room was being used as interim storage for the rally decorations that nobody had the heart to throw out, and so Behrooz walked under a balloon arch, pushed his way through hanging paper streamers, and brushed confetti off his seat before he started working. He still had "Uptown Funk" stuck in his head, and just as he was about to reach the chorus, he heard the distinctive clip-clop of high heels.

"Hey, Juliet," Behrooz waved when she walked in the classroom.

"Good morning Behrooz! What's up?" she chirped and sat across from him, immediately pulling out her laptop from her backpack.

"How did you enjoy the rally on Friday? Wasn't it a bit, you know, excessive?" Juliet thought for a moment, not wishing to speak unkindly of the people who were quite responsible for that excessiveness.

"I guess, yeah. But they're always like that. That's the point of the rallies, to have some of that spectacle. At least the cheer team still got to perform, and it was cool how the band got to as well."

"Oh, yeah, of course that was nice. But Tom and Regina were literally dragged screaming out of the gym while everyone was booing them. Tom seriously looked like he wanted to murder Alan."

"I can see where Alan's coming from. He worked so hard to get to this point—we all did—and it was so demoralizing to see people purposely being assholes just to spite them, you know? But I see your point: we should talk to Alan. They should apologize to each other so we don't have any bad blood."

"Well, I wouldn't say that I contributed much to this. You guys already had everything figured out, I'm just here for the ride."

"Don't say that, Behrooz. You're such a generous and warm person. We all look up to you to be levelheaded."

"Anyway, what can I do? If I vote differently from Frank and Alan, I'm in the minority, and any tie will be broken by Ms. Foster, and we all know she's on his side."

"What sides are you talking about, Behrooz? We're all in this together because we have the same goal: to make the school a better place."

"I guess you're right, but still... I don't know..." Behrooz shook his head and changed the topic. Before he and Juliet could grow too comfortable in discussing their impending English test, Alan walked in with a triumphant air, his face coated with streaks of face paint that had somehow intensified in hue over the weekend.

"We are the champions..." he sang off-key, sitting down with a thud and feigning surprise at seeing the others.

"Speak of the devil and he appears," Behrooz muttered to himself; Alan turned toward him, so he laughed as if he intended his remark as a joke. "So Alan, as you've decided to show up; what did you think of the rally? I must say, you really exhibited leadership! Some people in life are destined to be leaders, and some are destined to be followers, and nobody made that more clear than you."

"Where's Frank?" Alan grunted, not picking up on Behrooz's double entendre.

"He has a meeting with Ms. Wolfe. But we're all friends here, we can speak freely. Tell me what you honestly think," Behrooz continued sarcastically, not noticing the security camera behind him swivel to match his head movements.

"I think the rally was perfect. I've never seen such a beautiful, such a perfect, such an epic experience. The third wave has crested, and boy, it's a tsunami! I felt like I was running for president or something. I had so much fun—didn't you, Juliet?" Juliet was about to enthusiastically concur until Behrooz put his finger to his lips.