A Very Large Expanse of Sea

Shirin tries to withdraw from Global Perspectives, but Mr. Jordan will not sign off on her request. She skips four days of the class; then Mr. Jordan finds her and apologizes. At first Shirin will not accept his apology nor agree to come back to class. She tells him that if he would have thought about it from her side, he never would have put her in that position: “You don’t get to make an example out of me” (125). She tells him how tiring it is to be “patient with bigots” (125). He agrees that teaching tolerance to racists is not her job. Because he seems sincerely sorry and convinces her that her voice is important, Shirin relents and agrees to come back to class. Before she leaves, Mr. Jordan surprises Shirin by telling her that Navid signed up the breakdancing crew for the school talent show.

Navid tells the crew that they will perform in the January talent show. Shirin is the only one upset by the idea. Bijan begins to teach Shirin how to do backflips. At one point, after a fall, Shirin asks Bijan if he is bisexual, because he mentioned when they met that he is “eighty percent gay.” He tells her he is still figuring it out, and because his parents do not know, requests that she not tell. She assures him she will not: “Your eighty percent is safe with me” (132). After practice, Shirin ignores a cheerleader who is trying to get her attention until the crew points out that it is an opportunity to “be nice.” It turns out that the cheerleader, Bethany, wants to ask Shirin about Carlos. Shirin introduces the two, then sees Ocean leaving the gym. She misses him and wants to talk but will not allow herself to do so. For days she avoided him and kept their class talk brief. She senses he is “hurt and confused,” but Shirin believes he will be better off with “a nice blond girlfriend” (136). 

Shirin returns to Global Perspectives. Mr. Jordan assigns new groups of four. Ocean, seated nearby, passes her a note which asks if she is listening to music in class and why she deleted her profile when they first messaged. He ends the note with “I have so many questions” (140). Shirin continues to stay distant from Ocean; she recognizes, however, her own growing attraction to him. One day he asks if he is saying her name correctly, then practices the correct pronunciation several times when she coaches him: Shee-reen, with a rolled “r.” He asks its meaning; because the name means “sweet,” she laughs and comments on the irony: “I mean no one has ever accused me of being sweet” (142). He tells her she seems strong and unafraid. Shirin whispers that she fears “lots of things,” but will not respond when he texts that night inquiring what she meant.

The next day, Ocean accidentally causes Shirin to fall against him when he steps in her way. For a moment she holds onto him, and her mouth brushes his neck. She cannot concentrate for the rest of class, and after, he asks if she is “feeling this too” (145). She does not reply verbally but thinks that he senses the truth from her expression.

After school, Shirin still cannot concentrate. She begins to run a fever and Navid takes her home early. At two in the morning, after seeing some texts from Ocean, she calls him. He asks if she feels the strong chemistry between them, and she finally tells him that she does. She cautions him that anything between them will be complicated; “I mean the world is really awful, Ocean. People are super racist” (153). He is surprised that it is such a concern for her. He insists he does not care what others think and asks if they can spend time together outside of school. She tells him she would like to. They hang up. Shirin’s fever continues for three days, so she does not attend school for the rest of the week.

On Friday after school, Navid tells Shirin that Ocean found him to inquire about her. Navid calls Ocean her “boyfriend” despite Shirin’s efforts to correct him. Navid also warns Shirin to break it off right away if she does not genuinely like Ocean, as he (Navid) thinks Ocean is in love with her. Navid’s words hit her hard and she doubts all over again whether any kind of a relationship is wise. Shirin believes that Ocean’s “safe, comfortable bubble” (159) would be “punctured” as soon as he sees or experiences the bigotry she experiences. Shirin recognizes that, prior to September 11, she “used to be just a regular weirdo” (159) whom many people ignored. Now, though, Shirin feels “in the spotlight” and carries too many negative experiences with her to rationalize an attempt at a normal relationship with Ocean. She feels she is treated as “a talking point; a statistic […] an outrage. An uncomfortable topic of conversation” (159). Not wanting to subject Ocean to that, Shirin chooses to not call him.