3 DAYS UNTIL QUARTERFINALS
Time sure moves at a rapid rate these days. No matter. Those who are prepared for this jarring speed counter it with extreme preparedness.
And boy, was Mandy prepared. Colour Carded note cards. An exercise book worth of arguments. The names and Wikipedia articles of the Judges. Stuff she absolutely would not be allowed to bring into the venue.
Everything was in order here. Everything but this soul-sucking, life-draining symbol of unseriousness is currently staring intently at the ceiling. Upside down.
"What," she started with a dangerous calm," are you doing?"
He didn't respond. But the freeloader, muddy shoes propped right on table, did.
"I don't know."
"You don't know."
"He's done this like, every day. Why are you still surprised?"
"Because…Freeloader-"
"We're not on naming terms?"
"We're not on naming terms. You're not even meant to be here!" She put her hand to her forehead. "And you're distracting me from the topic at hand!"
"Focus then."
"Oh get out with all of that. We have just 3 days to prepare, and the star student over here hasn't moved an inch!"
She strode toward him, and grabbed him by the shirt collar. That's one way to get his attention.
"Davidson," she hissed. "Are you sabotaging me?"
His pulse thudded under her fingers. His breathing quickened, just slightly.
She blinked. She hadn't expected that reaction.
Reluctantly, she released him. He slumped back into his chair, just as useful as before.
She facepalmed again, before exhaling sharply. "We're- well- We're running out of time!"
She looked around, frantically, before a lightbulb lit above her.
"Oh! Maybe you just have amnesia!"
She spoke as if she were out of breath, as she tossed her stress ball at Him again.
Mandy stormed to the whiteboard, snatching up a marker with enough force to crack it. She scrawled in furious, elegant handwriting:
LAGOS STATE DEBATE QUARTERFINALS
Structure (By Amanda Cherry)
OPENING STATEMENTS (3 minutes each) (All on me, no worries!)
CROSSFIRE (6 min of Pure Chaos) (You should know this one very well!)
- All four debaters argue at once.
- No shouting (it makes you look overly aggressive and silly)
- No insults (overt ones, anyway).
- Basically: Shonen talking. (bad analogy, sorry)
CLOSING STATEMENTS (3 min each) ( You're yet to fail this. Unfourtunately.)
(She wrote too big)
"I didn't know you watched anime."
"Shut it."
She turned to Tammy.
"Now, do you understand the rules?"
Squeak.
"Great. Are you OK doing the closing statement?"
Squeak.
"Alright, progress!" She blurted, a bit too excitedly.
"Ok. Let's discuss points. I've got 5 of them. Can you-"
Squeak. Squeak.
"Speak"
She snapped the marker clean in half. "What do you mean No?"
"I thought he was pretty clear."
Mandy didn't look. She hurled the marker's corpse at his forehead.
"Ow."
"So if you don't want to practice.... In the practice room, Then what in the world do you want to do, Davidson?"
He stared at the wall. The wrong wall. Not even the one with her meticulously colour-coded notes.
"Listen. I know who you are. You're the number one. The phenomenal, glorious one. But I am struggling to understand why the heck you of all people won't take this seriously. This is a state competition! The only things below the nationals! Why won't you just practice with me?"
Her voice splintered. "Why won't you care?"
But he couldn't look her in the eye. He had no plan to answer these pressing problems.
"Do you know how many times I've gone to the principal over you? But he doesn't care. He doesn't care that you're trying to sabotage me. It's like no one does. And everyone just looks the other way. It's not normal, Davidson. It's not normal to sit here absent mindedly for days upon days on end while I do all the work."
Her rage was slowly rising. "It's… it's freakish! It's abnormal! And you won't talk about it either?"
"That's enough, Mandy." Destiny interjected.
"WHAT IS ENOUGH?"
She stood there, a storm of fire pretending to be a girl, and Destiny watched in silence. Some truths burn louder than speech, so he said nothing.
"Fine," she said softly, gathering her things. The door clicked shut with terrible finality.
Destiny exhaled, long and slow. "I don't think you've ever had a partner that reacted like... that?"
He was left wide eyed and motionless. Slowly, but surely, despair clouded around his face.
Destiny waited. Then, softly, he spoke. "She doesn't get it. Which isn't her fault. But it isn't yours either."
He put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I know you'll win. You always do. Don't feel too bad about this ok? She thinks you're choosing this. She doesn't know…" He trailed off.
The clock clicked twice. The loudest thing in the room.