I walked at a slower pace. That judge was right. It would be nice if I had a more evenly balanced team. I had to do what was necessary to win with the only partner I could get.
Mr. Robarb was visibly distraught when we saw him in the gym. When I saw the winners of the last round, I understood why. He had only two teams advance to the next round. Bethany and Laura and Jared and me. I couldn"t believe Leslie and the Blimp were taken out at round one. Leslie was livid. Evidently, the Blimp had really messed up and cost the round. He was nowhere to be seen.
Our next round was with two girls. Honestly, they seemed like they should be competing in the novice division. I took no delight in producing easy evidence against every single argument. When we were done, one of the girls started crying. Her teammate looked at me with accusing eyes. I felt like a bully. By the judge"s demeanor, she felt like I was, too. But she had to give us the round.
We were starting to see some of the kids from our school pop into the cla.s.srooms to watch some of the debates. I liked an audience, especially when I was on a roll and we were refuting every argument thrown at us.
The schools were being served lunch in the gym. Jared ran after our squad to sit with them. As usual, I wasn"t eating lunch. I sat down in the debate room to close my eyes and think about our case. We were presenting next and I was using some new material.
"Hey, Bea," I heard Brody say from the doorway. I opened my eyes to see him leaning against the frame.
"Brody, what are you doing here?"
"It"s still school for the rest of us," he laughed. "How"s debate going?"
"Good. We won our first two rounds."
"Congrats. Do you think I can watch you in the next round?"
I felt my stomach tighten. I wasn"t sure how I felt about Brody watching me. It might make me too uncomfortable and I"d lose my focus. "I don"t know," I said hesitantly.
"Would it make you uncomfortable?"
"Maybe," I said.
"Too bad. I"d love to see you in action. But I understand."
I picked up my case in my hand. "I need to go over this before the next round."
"I know you"re busy. It was good seeing you. You look really good in your suit."
I felt a big smile spread over my face. "Thanks, Brody."
He smiled back and held up his hand to say goodbye before walking out. If anything made me distracted, it would be Brody. I didn"t know what was going on with him and Lanie because I"d been so caught up in this debate that I hadn"t been working much. Dang. I missed seeing him around.
I sat in the debate room till the third round was about to start. Jared met me outside the music room. Thankfully, he didn"t have food in his teeth or on his clothes. He actually seemed to be in a good mood.
"I sat by the team we"re debating against," he said cheerfully when he met up with me.
My heart sank at his words. "What did you talk about?"
"I felt really good about myself. They were asking questions about our case and I couldn"t believe that I remembered. I mean, you must have drilled this debate stuff in my brain."
I tried to remain calm. I really did. "You told them about our case, Jared?"
He was oblivious to how I was feeling. "I couldn"t remember all of it, but I was proud that I remembered a lot."
"Jared, do you realize what you just did? You gave them an advantage."
"Naw," he protested. "They already knew most of the stuff I told them. I didn"t give away any secrets."
I was seething inside. I didn"t know whether to knock him in the head or open my mouth and yell at him like a drill sergeant. "You know what? I"m not sharing any more information with you, Jared. I can"t believe you wouldn"t think before sharing our debate evidence."
Jared suddenly started laughing. "Gotcha! I"m not as stupid as people think I am. I did sit beside Chad and Todd, and they were pumping me for information--like I didn"t know what they were doing. I fed them what they wanted to hear. Those boys bought all the manure I was shoveling to them that they"re swimming in it."
"You mean, you didn"t give our case away--all those hours of preparation aren"t down the drain?"
Jared grinned broadly. "You"re the one who told me to be paranoid of everyone. You"re right. I knew the minute those boys came over and started being friendly that they were up to no good."
"Jared, I could just squeeze you," I said with a relieved smile.
"Don"t you start trying to get frisky with me, Beatrice," he joked.
I"m not a sentimental girl. I"m putting that out there because I just happened to look at Jared through new eyes. He had stood beside me through all the rounds, taken my foot stomps, bad att.i.tude, yelling--and yet, he still came through for me when it mattered. It reminded me of our first debate tournament. He was someone I would call a friend. As crazy as that might sound.
"Jared, we can win this thing."
"I know we can," he said with conviction. "You keep feeding me the words to say and I won"t let you down."
I reached out and gave him an awkward hug. Some idiot walking by gave us a shout. Really. Like I would ever hug Jared that way.
"Let"s get to our next round," I said and grabbed my file cabinets.
"You know we"re the last team standing, right?"
I stopped in my tracks. "Are you serious? Bethany and Laura didn"t win?"
He shook his head no. "Nope. It"s just us now."
I felt an increase in pressure as we continued walking. This round would determine if we would advance to semi-finals. I told myself to breathe. We couldn"t let our school down.
The judge was already in the room when we got there. Chad and Todd were there too. Wearing great big grins. Jared walked by, holding up his hand to give them a high five as we pa.s.sed.
"Hey, fellas," he said loudly.
I settled into my seat and got us prepared. Jared looked over the new case I had pulled out. I know he wasn"t really paying attention to the changes, but to the judge it would appear that he was getting ready for the round to start.
I stood up and waited for the judge to give me a green light to start. As soon as I had it, I started off at a quick pace, conscious of Chad and Todd scrambling to grab their pads to write it down. They had underestimated us and were caught completely off guard. For once, Jared had contributed to the round in a big way.
For the rest of the round, the other team seemed as though they were to trying to catch up. Their arguments weren"t solid and they couldn"t produce evidence against my case that would make them win.
It was actually a dull debate round. Several of the music students had stopped by half way through and watched us. They gave us a thumbs up when it was over. I appreciated their support and kind of wished I hadn"t discouraged Brody from watching us.
I stayed in the music room while everyone left. Jared ran to the gym to find out the results. I felt more calm the less interaction I had with the other teams. It wasn"t long before Jared poked his head through the door.
"We"re in the semi-finals," he said happily.
I wasn"t surprised. I bet Chad and Todd weren"t happy with the debate, but it just served them right trying to weasel information out of my debate partner.
Jared and I went to the cla.s.sroom for the semi-finals. It was packed. The other team arrived right behind us so we all walked to the front together. It was a guy and girl that we had debated before. They were tough, so it should be a good round.
I had heard their case before and was sure that they would have added different elements to it. I was right. The guy started off fast. I loved making my flowcharts. I was as quick taking notes as I was speaking. By now, Jared knew not to do anything to disturb me.
When the guy finished, I handed some questions to Jared to ask him. It was more of a formality to buy me time. I had my new jewels of evidence that I was going to use. I carefully laid them out in order for my speech.
When it was my turn, I argued every point of their case with the evidence. I could tell they were surprised with my new evidence. It was tough, but I felt satisfied that we had left no stone unturned, so to speak, in that round.
The cla.s.s started emptying as everyone was rushing back to the gym to see who would advance to finals. I lagged behind with Jared. This round could go either way if the judge didn"t keep accurate notes.
I let Jared pull the file cabinets when we walked to the gym. Before we got close, Bethany and Laura ran up to us.
"You made it! You"re in the finals!" they shouted.
I was shocked at their enthusiasm. I was so used to their jealousy that their behavior made me suspicious. "Thanks," I said quietly.
Mr. Robarb led the rest of the squad out to meet us. They were all supportive, even Leslie. They gathered around us, cheering.
"No pressure, you two," Mr. Robarb said, "but the school is counting on you. A win here would be a major accomplishment for hosting our first tournament. It would also help my case in trying to get a bigger budget for the debate squad next year."
I didn"t know how to take this sudden support. It was weird. Especially when Leslie gave me a thumbs up. Jared was grinning from ear to ear. He squeezed my arm as we walked to the theatre department. The finals were being held on their main stage to accommodate the larger crowd that would be watching. The princ.i.p.al and several other teachers were already planted on the front row to watch. They cheered when we walked in.
Jared instantly looked scared. Seriously scared. Like he could poo in his pants scared. It was one thing to debate in front of the squad, but quite another to have the princ.i.p.al watching from the front row.
"Don"t look," I warned him in a low voice.
Jared"s hands started shaking. He s.n.a.t.c.hed a file out of my hands and sat down to read it. I admit, it was harder to concentrate with school officials watching. I could feel my own hands starting to tremble.
The other team walked in. It was Tony and his partner. I tried to hide the surprise I felt at seeing them. They strode confidently to their table and took out pads of paper.
"I bet they have your case," Jared whispered. "I heard a lot of the schools sharing it."
"How do you know?" I whispered back.
"Because I was sitting right behind two schools that did it and I hear your name everywhere I go. They all want to beat you."
I calmly reached into my filing cabinet and pulled out one of my revised cases. Admittedly, it wasn"t that strong of a case, but there was one point that I knew no other team would be able to refute. Believe me, I had tried. My whole argument would hinge on that one point.
The room filled quickly. Three spots were reserved for the judges up front. As soon as they arrived and settled into their seats, we had the clearance to start.
I took a deep breath and stood up. And we were off. I spoke rapidly to get through the case. Tony and his partner were struggling to keep up. The way they flipped the pages of their pads were the first indication I got. Tony kept sighing the whole time I spoke.
I finished just as time was called and Tony stood to cross examine me. He really just spent his time clarifying what I"d said. After a couple of minutes, I sat down, preparing for their counter attack.
And attack they did. Tony"s partner started of by making a snide remark about the Amazon woman"s crazy case. Teams had always tried to take me down with insults the whole four years I had been in debate. It didn"t work. By the time he went through my case, he"d done a pretty thorough job of refuting my points. Except that one. And that"s where I had Jared attack next.
"Speak loud," I whispered when he stood to speak.
Jared"s voice shook as bad as his hands as he read word for word of my counter argument. Time was running out and he still had several points to make. I tapped my pencil on the desk and he stopped right in the middle of speaking to look at me. I twirled the pencil to let him know to speed up. That made him more nervous. He pretty much butchered the English language with his Aggie drawl as he read as fast as his tongue could p.r.o.nounce the words.
"Time," one of the judges bellowed.
Jared stopped and gave me a quick look. I winked. He had covered everything he needed to. Tony"s partner cross examined him. Jared read every piece of paper I placed on the table under him. At one point, Tony"s partner objected loudly to me handing him an answer to read.
"I don"t understand your problem," Jared drawled. "We"re a team. That"s what teams do--work together."
"Yeah," he scoffed, "but she"s doing all the work for you."
"Well, she"s not speaking for me, now is she?" Jared said loudly. The audience laughed, making Tony"s partner embarra.s.sed.
This was one round I was glad was over. Tony"s partner had a bad att.i.tude. He refused to even shake our hands when it was over. Big mistake. Judges didn"t like to see that.
I looked out into the audience for the first time, and right in the center was Mom and Dad. I caught my breath. My parents had never seen me debate. I would never have dreamed that they would come to watch me. Mom was crying and Dad had a proud look on his face. He nodded when he caught my eye.
Right next to them was Brody. He had tried to sink low in his seat so I wouldn"t be distracted by him. I smiled at him. He stood up and gave me a silent clap of approval. I was glad I hadn"t known he was in the room. I wasn"t sure I would have performed as I had. But it sure was nice to have their support.
The princ.i.p.al and teachers came forward with our debate squad to congratulate us. We hadn"t won yet, but they were confident we would. Jared"s cheeks had to hurt from the big smile plastered on his face. I was glad we had finished so strong since this was our last debate together.
We all joined the other schools in the gym for the results. Our princ.i.p.al handed out the trophies for the novice division first. I felt like I was on pins and needles waiting for our results. Finally the top four teams were called to the front. The third place was given to the team that had debated Tony and his partner. We waited for the winner. The smile on the princ.i.p.al"s face when he looked at the judges" decision gave it away before he called out the winner. Jared and I had taken it.
We stepped forward to receive our trophies as the crowd clapped. Of course, I won individual debater as well. It was pretty much a given since we were the winners. Now I could go meet my parents and Brody.
Mom hugged me profusely when I made my way through the crowd to them. "I had no idea you were that capable, Bea," she gushed.
"I didn"t even understand what all this debate stuff was all about," Dad said. "If I"d known, I would have made it a point to watch you long before now."
"It"s okay, Daddy. I"m just really glad you came. I wasn"t expecting you."
"Brody called us and told us about the tournament," Mom said. "You should have let us know."
"It"s not big of a deal," I said, but my dad held up his hand.
"Yes, it is a big deal. I"m just happy we got to see you. She was good, huh Brody?"
"Fearless," Brody grinned.
"That partner of yours could use some help though," he said.
Just then, Mr. Robarb called up the debate team to take pictures for the school newspaper. I rolled my eyes, but Mom gave me a shove in the back. I reluctantly pushed through the other schools and took my place center stage. I glanced back at Brody, looking so good in the middle of the crowd. He crossed his arms and c.o.c.ked his head to watch me. Of course that made me feel self-conscious. Especially since the princ.i.p.al placed Jared and me right in the middle of the team. I felt like I was looming over the little guy. He looked up at me with a big smile of excitement. He loved the attention. I threw my arm around his shoulders and smiled just as the picture was snapped.
Years from now, I would laugh at how tall I looked in the middle of the debate squad. Today, however, I was basking in the glow I felt from having my parents and Brody watch me debate.
CHAPTER 13.