Before The Boys Say No Part 5

CHAPTER 5.

I always vomit before the first debate tournament of the year. So there I was at five o'clock in the morning, heaving my guts out in the toilet. I felt satisfied when I was done. Throwing up had become part of my routine. It's not that I'm superst.i.tious, but I kind of look at the vomiting thing as a good sign that my senior year of debate will be successful.

I showered and pulled on sweats to drive to the tournament an hour early. It was being held at a local college, so we were meeting up as a group rather than taking a school van there. I liked taking my suits to change into. I always took two so I could feel the place out and decide which one I would wear.

It was early when I arrived at the college. There were very few people on the campus so I had to walk around to find an open building so I could use the bathroom. I had locked my files in the trunk of my car and taken my garment bag with me. I looked at the two suits I had brought. One was a charcoal pinstripe suit with a skirt; the other was a navy blue. I decided on the charcoal pinstripe with the light pink blouse.

I slipped the suit on, reveling in how the wool felt against my skin. Most girls seemed to like light, fluffy stuff. Me? I love heavy wool suits. I also liked wearing my four-inch heels with them. I was almost six feet tall when I put those on. There was a purpose for that. I wanted to intimidate the other team. When I slicked my hair back into a tight bun at my neck, I look crazy intimidating. It's the only time I like how I look.

I took the wardrobe bag back to my car and pulled out the portable file cabinets. Some other teams had started arriving. I could feel the anxious flutters in my stomach. Mr. Robarb was crossing to a building adjacent from me so I tugged the filing cabinets in that direction. Jason and Sue were already there. So was Max and Shane--brilliant guys, but lousy communicators. They carried all their debate information in a single binder.

We all greeted each other and then fell silent as we waited for the others to arrive. This year, all the girls had taken a cue from me and wore suits. Leslie and the Blimp walked up together, each carrying file totes. Her baby blue suit looked pretty on her, but not serious enough, I thought. She looked me up and down and rolled her eyes. No way was she going to shake my confidence.

"So, Beatrice, are you competing in the novice division?" Leslie asked with a sly smile.

There were two divisions of debate--novice and varsity. Theoretically, I could have signed my team up for novice since this was Jared's first year. That would have caused a huge controversy from the other teams because I had so much experience. Leslie would have liked me to be in that category since I wouldn't be competing against her.

"Varsity," I responded shortly and looked away from her.

The other two teams arrived together. Bethany and Laura were smart and should do well together. They had been each other's debate partner since Freshman year. Carla and Tim weren't strong debaters. She didn't put the effort into it like Tim did. I could tell they had already started arguing amongst themselves. She kept her distance when she joined the group.

The only one not there was Jared. I ignored the comments from the others about me not being able to compete without a partner. Mr. Robarb kept looking at me with a concerned expression and checking his watch. The tournament was going to start in fifteen minutes and we still needed to find our rooms.

He was just about to dismiss the group when we saw Jared strolling on the sidewalk, trying to find us. I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. I had specifically told him to dress in a nice suit. His answer for a nice suit? A jean jacket and jeans with a b.u.t.ton down western s.h.i.+rt. His silver buckle shone brightly in the sun as he made his way to us. As expected, I heard the snickers from the other debaters.

Mr. Robarb raised his eyebrows and gave me a look. I could feel my body stiffening, but I wasn't going to let them see me upset. I forced a smile on my lips when Jared got closer.

"Wow," he whistled softly. "Y'all look like a pack of lawyers."

"You're late, Jared," Mr. Robarb reprimanded. "We always try to meet early."

"Sorry, sir. I got lost and couldn't find you guys. Everyone looks the same in those suits."

"All right," Mr. Robarb said. "Let's head over to Steinway Building and find our rooms. Remember, keep your cool, guys."

Briskly, we walked to the building. I was irritated with Jared. How were we going to be taken seriously when he looked like that? It was too late to do anything about it now. Jared half jogged beside me to keep up with my long strides. We reached the building and found our rooms. I was out of breath from lugging the filing cabinets.

The other team was already there, looking cool and collected. I recognized them. I had debated against them several times--and won. The girl looked at me and her eyes widened. But when she saw Jared, I saw her relax. She nudged her partner and he glanced over. He couldn't hide the grin that spread over his face at the sight of Jared. It was painfully obvious this was Jared's first debate.

We sat down and I started pulling out files, whispering last minute instructions to Jared. Just then, the door opened and our judge walked in. You could have knocked me over with a feather. He wore jeans and a western s.h.i.+rt like Jared. His old cowboy boots echoed loudly on the tile floor as he made his way to a desk and sat down.

I looked over at the other team. Their gloating had instantly turned to worry. They started shuffling through papers like crazy. I don't know if the judge was a gift from G.o.d, but I said a quick prayer of thanks. Instantly, I was able to relax.

The other team went first and presented their case. I was adept at listening and writing their points down. It required all my attention. I had already warned Jared not to talk with me, so when he leaned over to whisper something, I took my spiked heel and rammed it into his cowboy boot. I heard his gasp of pain, but it worked. He didn't lean over again.

When the team was done, I handed Jared a list of questions to ask. He read them off even though he didn't understand the other team's responses. He didn't even understand half the questions he was asking.

The judge didn't take notes. He just sat with his arms crossed and watched us without expression. I quickly pulled out pieces of evidence and stood up to deliver my reb.u.t.tal. It was flawless. I addressed every argument of their case, point by point. When I was done, I had shredded their case to pieces.

The girl stood up and asked a couple of questions. She didn't even use up their five minutes. They had lost and they both knew it. Now, if only Jared didn't mess it up.

The guy stood up and tried to defend his case and refute my arguments. He was weak and didn't have a piece of evidence to support him. I wrote that in bold letters on the top of Jared's paper I had prepared and whispered for him to say that when he spoke.

Jared's turn arrived. He stood up with shaking legs. Nervously, he cleared his throat. He still had problems saying all the words. I know he wasn't practicing at home like I had told him to. He was probably too busy riding bulls.

He started off reading my bold words. For the first time, I saw the judge slightly nod his head. Jared stumbled through his arguments and sat down. I shoved my elbow in his side and he quickly stood.

The guy from the other team stood and looked at Jared for a long minute before starting to cross examine. Then he started firing off questions. Poor Jared. He didn't know how to answer and was fumbling around with responses. I felt anger rise inside. I had practiced responses to those questions all summer with him. He couldn't remember them?

The guy asked one final question about gun control and Jared took a deep breath. I was watching my time and we only had thirty seconds left. If Jared could take his time and not really respond, we may still have a chance. Jared decided to speak. And it didn't have anything to do with the other team's question.

"What I know about gun control is that my grandfather gave my father a 22 rifle to hunt deer on our property. My father gave that gun to me and I'll pa.s.s it down to my children. No one has the right to take my gun away from me."

"Time," the judge said.

The debate was over. I wanted to lay my head on the desk in defeat. I felt sick to my stomach. The guy and girl smiled at each other and came over to shake hands. They knew they had ended the debate stronger. Jared was clueless. He grinned ear to ear when he sat down. One look at my face, however, and his grin faded. Fast.

"Did I do something wrong?" he whispered in my ear. His breath smelled like bacon.

"You did a lot of things wrong," I whispered back. "Our only hope is that we had a cowboy judge."

He watched me put away my paperwork. I heard paper rustling and looked over to see him eating a chocolate candy bar. He held it out to me, offering me a bite. I shook my head, so he crammed the last bite in his mouth.

The other team walked out with their briefcases. I stood up and started wheeling the filing cabinets out of the room. The judge was still there, writing on the official paper. I looked back to see Jared stopped at his desk, talking to him. I tried to clear my throat to get his attention, but he wasn't paying attention. I didn't know if it could get any worse.

"Jared," I yelled as sweetly as I could. "We've got fifteen minutes before the next round."

I wasn't sure if we would even advance to the next round. We'd have to wait with all the other teams in a large room till the results were posted. Jared strolled out the door, giving me a thumbs up.

"He's a real nice man," he told me. "He gave me some advice for the next round."

"What did he say?"

"He said to say things in my own voice. Don't worry about reading something that someone else wrote for me."

I groaned out loud and pushed Jared down an empty hall to a cla.s.sroom. "You listen to me, Jared. That man isn't your debate partner. I am. I don't know if we'll advance to another round, but if we get that chance, you will read every word I put in front of you."

"But I don't even understand what I'm reading, Beatrice."

"If you don't understand what you're reading then how are you going to put it into your own words?"

That stumped him. "Good point."

"Sit down and let's go over questions again. They creamed you on that."

"I didn't even understand what that guy was asking," he said with wide eyes.

"Then you just go back to reading your arguments--from the paper I wrote in front of you. Even if you don't understand."

"So--you mean if I don't understand the question then I just read the whole paper again?"

"No, Jared. Just grab a section and read it. And if the other team says you're not answering the question, say something like--well, you're not asking the right question."

Jared nodded and started mumbling to himself. I perched on a desk to gather my thoughts. It was hard enough to stay in the right frame of mind to debate, and harder still to have to think for my partner, as well.

We waited for about five minutes before we left the room to check on the results. They should be posted by now. There was a flurry of activity when we got to the large room. I told Jared to wait by the door so I could check.

Because I was taller than a lot of kids, I was able to quickly check the charts. To my relief, I saw Jared and my name posted for the next round. We had won. Not only that, but Jared had gotten the top marks for individual debater. It p.r.i.c.ked me because I had done all the work, but with a cowboy judge, I understood why he had gotten it.

Leslie and the Blimp had won their debate and were celebrating in the middle of all the kids. The only other team to advance was Bethany and Laura. They pushed past the crowd to find their room, giving me a small smile when they saw me.

I strode back to Jared who was trying to hide himself behind the door. "Come on. We won."

"You serious?" A big grin covered his face.

"Follow me," I said and started leading him out of the room.

Mr. Robarb was still waiting to see who had advanced to the next round from his team. I gave him a thumbs up and relished the look of surprise on his face. The other teams would be surprised too. Especially when they saw Jared named as the top debater.

I walked down the long hall, my heels clicking and Jared's boots making a scuffing sound. I'm sure we looked a sight--amazon girl and the skinny cowboy. I had to change Jared before the next round. And I had eight minutes to do that.

We hurried out to my car and I pulled my navy jacket from the wardrobe bag. Jared looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

"No way am I wearing a girl's jacket," he snorted.

"Put it on, Jared," I ordered.

Reluctantly, he took off his jean jacket and pulled mine on. It was too big for him. I always tried to prepare for anything. I had been known to rip a pair of slacks or two over the years. I carried a small bag of safety pins just for that purpose. Swiftly, I tucked and pinched, fastening safety pins on the inside. I looked at my handiwork when I used up all the safety pins. Not too bad, except it still hung on him.

"Beatrice," Jared said seriously, looking me square in the eye, "if you ever tell anyone about this, I won't be you debate partner again."

"Deal," I said and slapped his arm. "Looks much better than the jean jacket, Jared. Why didn't you wear a suit anyway?"

"You said to dress nice, and that's nice for me. It's what I wear to the dances."

"It's not attractive," I retorted. "I'm taking you shopping for a suit."

He nodded and we strode back inside. We were out of breath by the time we found our room. The judge was already waiting with the other team, two girls wearing dark clothes. We slid into our seats. I never apologized for being late. It made us appear weak, I thought. I had warned Jared not to, either, and was happy that he didn't say anything.

I opened with my case for the proposition. I was very authoritative and could speak rapidly. I could tell the other team was struggling to keep up. I was right. As soon as I was done, one of the girls asked me for my notes. I hated giving them up. I always felt like that was cheating. I stood patiently and answered the few questions she had. Nothing of substance.

The other girl stood, and still using my notes, tried to go point by point to refute me. She was sloppy. I made meticulous notes on what points she dropped so I could point them out to the judge.

Jared leaned over and whispered something to me. I drove my elbow into his ribs and he gave a sharp squeal. It was loud enough to distract the other team. The girl paused, looking at him. He raised his hand and shook his head apologetically. The judge frowned and the girl continued.

We couldn't afford to lose any points with the judge. I was grateful to see him taking notes and following along. It seemed to be a pretty uneventful debate. I had a solid case and they had weak arguments. Jared followed my advice and stuck to my speech I had prepared for him. Even during the questioning, he would pull out pieces from the speech. They were such random responses to their questions that it took the girls by surprise. They kept asking questions to try to understand his response. I felt the sweat forming under my armpits even though the cla.s.sroom was cold. I almost sighed out loud when time was called.

Clearly, we had won the debate. The girls' cold demeanor toward us let me know that they agreed. I grabbed Jared's arm and led him over to them to shake hands. They barely looked at us as they politely shook our hands.

By this time, Jared knew the drill. We'd have to wait to get the results. I felt confident we would advance. I was right. Bethany and Laura had lost their round, but Leslie and the Blimp advanced.

I pulled Jared into an empty room to give him another pep talk and coach him to make sure he didn't mess up. This round went even smoother than the last. The judge was a stern-faced woman wearing a dark suit. I think I scored some points as I was the only girl in the debate round.

The guys we debated against were fierce. One of them, a dark-haired guy, started trying to flirt with me to mess me up. That tactic had worked on me in ninth grade, but not since. I firmly put him in his place and stayed focused on the debate. We finished the round out of breath. They were as fast talking as I was. I saw respect in their eyes as we shook hands. We had never debated each other before so it was kind of fun to really exercise my brain on that one.

I knew we had won when the woman judge whispered, "Great debate," as I pa.s.sed by her on the way out of the cla.s.sroom. I felt on top of the world. Jared let out a deep breath when we got out in the hall.

"That was intense," he said. "Don't you ever get scared?"

"Scared? That was fun."

"I don't know. That just stresses me out. I'm thinking twice about this lawyer stuff. I mean, I want to make my parents proud and all, but man, this is tough."

We waited in the large room for the results. The dark-haired guy I had just debated against came up behind me and tapped me on my shoulder. Yes, I had to look down at him in my four inch heels.

"Hey, you were great in there," he told me with a wink.

"Thanks. So were you guys."

"I'd heard about you and wasn't sure what to expect. Our coach said we'd have a tough debate. That was for sure. Who do you think won it?"

I shrugged. "It could go either way." I really felt like we had taken it, but there was always room for the unexpected to happen.

"Yeah," he replied. "Sure wish we went to the same school. It'd be great to be on your team. I mean, Dereck's good and all, but you--bam! I mean, you slammed it home."

Now he was starting to make me feel uncomfortable. He was all right looking, but too over the top for me--kind of like those theatre kids.

"You're in theatre, aren't you?"

"Yeah.," he said, surprised at my question. "How'd you know?"

"You're just very theatrical," I told him.

He laughed. "Is that good or bad?"

A man was approaching the wall to post the results. I wanted to be done with this conversation. "Let's just say I wouldn't choose you to be my partner," I said and slid away to check the wall.

Jared snorted behind me. I'm not sure what the guy's reaction was, but I would be shamed if they won the debate. My eyes roamed the wall and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw our names. We were in the semi-finals. Leslie and the Blimp had lost their round. We were Mr. Robarb's last chance for a trophy at this tournament.

All the kids were breaking for lunch. I wouldn't be eating. I couldn't even think of food during a debate tournament and marveled at how the other kids could gorge themselves and go right back to it.

Jared followed the rest of our group to get lunch and I found an empty room to go over my information. I had just closed my eyes and was mouthing arguments to some potential questions when the door opened. A tall guy with brown hair popped his head in. He smiled.

"Looks like we had the same idea," he said warmly.