Chapter 65: Opening State-ment

April 23, 1981

We converged on school about 11am, those of us going to State. They’d waived all our classes both today and tomorrow, giving us a pack of homework we’d try to get through in the boring wait between rounds.

Each of us had our own Extemp file for this one, rebuilt over the past two weeks. Just getting that done had been a major task. But we couldn’t count on sharing. The CX’ers had sample cases full of evidence cards, of course.

We loaded the school bus with all our materials first. Then our luggage. It went in the front; no one wanted to lug all that stuff to the back. So everyone clustered towards the back. Including Meg. On the one hand, it meant we’d be under the watchful eye of our teacher and chaperone; on the other hand, it was Meg, and as long as we didn’t break the cardinal rules — sex (at least heterosexual sex; I still wasn’t sure what the understanding was with Janet and Lizzie, and might never be; it wasn’t my business, after all), drugs, or alcohol — it’d probably be cool.

Alcohol might — might — get a wink if it wasn’t much, and you didn’t flaunt it. If it was, well, sucks to be you. The other time around I’d seen Meg miss a fairly obvious but low-key alcohol-consumption incident and come down like a ton of bricks on two others.

We’d gotten a surprise two days before. A sister school of ours, Spring Woods, had only two qualifiers to State, both in Extemp, and couldn’t justify sending the coach and transportation. The girls — Nat and Candy — were going to travel with us. They seemed nice, if less serious than we were. I hoped we’d get to know them better.

No, not that much better.

We had a second bus going with kids from Drama, along with some Spring Woods and Northbrook kids. I still didn’t know most of our Drama kids, much less the ones from other schools.

I wound up in the back row with Janet (and of course Lizzie). Cammie joined me as well. Janice was in the seat just forward, and Kenzie and Callie grabbed the seat across the aisle.

Janet, of course, had to comment. “Like, ohmigawd! You’re totally in the gay girl row, dude!”

I shrugged. “Hey, we’re all interested in the same thing. Girls.”

She giggled. “Totally!”

I caught a look from a couple rows up. Nat and Candy were staring back at Janet and Lizzie. Offended? Curious? Kindred spirits? Who knew? Their expression was unreadable.

Well, they’d have to be clueless to have not figured it out before long. Janet and Lizzie were going to be themselves when around the rest of us. At the tournament they’d be all business; I’d never seen them go beyond a hug in that sort of public setting. And, as a team, we’d become inclined to hugging. But once apart? They’d hold hands and smooch and if you couldn’t deal, tough.

Cammie, though, wasn’t so out — for excellent reasons — and she shot Janet a look and flashed her eyes up at the newcomers. Janet lowered her voice. “Sorry — I wasn’t thinking. If it comes up, I’ll play it off as a joke.”

“It’s OK. Just, you know.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I forgot it’s not just us.”

People who aren’t from Texas don’t have a good feel for how big things are, I don’t think. How spread out. Going from Houston to Waco in 1981 took about four hours. By 2020 it’d be an hour faster, with better roads and new bypasses and such. Those hours will get you across several states in the Northeast. Here? If you were going out of the state to the north, starting from Houston, you’d need another three hours going that route. And south? From home to the southern border would be nearly six hours.

So we had a bus packed with kids and we’d be on the road for about four hours, and that’s just to get somewhere relatively close by Texas standards. And of course, we’d have at least one stop. You can’t take about twenty high school kids that far and not stop somewhere. Someone’s bladder is going to have problems otherwise.

The driver tuned the radio to something we’d be happy with, and we started chattering away. The older kids offered advice on state. We got into current events, politics. Other kids at school. Movies, music, books. It was all over the map.

Nat and Candy were reluctant to join in at first, but of course, when the conversation goes all over the place, eventually you’ll hit a jumping-off point. For them, it turned out to be movies. They were both big Harrison Ford fans and were looking forward to Raiders of the Lost Ark. I assured them I thought it was going to be great.

Once in, they followed us through the topics pretty well. I wasn’t super-impressed, but they seemed nice enough and fun to travel with. Cammie summed it up in a whisper: “They’re pretty nice, but I don’t know if they’d fit in if they were around all the time.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too.”

The ride to Waco goes right through College Station. I looked at Janet as we pulled into town. “It’s, like, totally ‘déjà vu all over again’, dudette!”

She giggled. “Totally, dude!”

We pulled up to a gas station and all the girls piled out. Most of the guys did, too. I hit the restroom, came out, and noticed the long line for the women’s room. I should’ve expected it; we had more than a 2-1 female to male ratio. Kenzie argued that they should just take over the men’s room. “Hey, Steve! Is it clean in there?”

I shrugged. “It’s not bad. Probably it’s clean enough.”

“Anyone still in there?”

“I’ll go check.”

I headed in. Looked around. “Nope, all clear.”

Kenzie put her hands on her hips. “I don’t care about the rest of you, but I’m splitting the line. Callie, you watch, then I’ll watch.”

I stepped over. “Hey, Callie. I can watch if you want to go in.”

“Thanks!”

Once it was a fait accompli, the line split. Nat and Candy looked a bit scandalized and stayed put. Lizzie and Janet joined the split. So did Cammie.

Meg came over. “I’ll take over, Steve. I can’t officially suggest it, you know, but with this many girls...”

“Yeah. Makes little sense for one restroom to sit there empty while you all stand in line. It’d make more sense to just build a big room with fully enclosed stalls and shared sinks, really.”

She looked at me. “It’d scandalize half the state, but you’re right. Maybe in the future.” Even in the future, I’d only seen it done a handful of times in Texas. It worked, though.

Even with the line split, it took the girls about 15 minutes to all get through.

Kenzie gave me a thumbs up as she settled into her seat. “Thanks, Steve! It was plenty clean. I don’t think we trashed it too much,” she giggled.

We got rolling again and I mostly just watched the scenery drift by, dropping in and out of the conversations that swirled around. It’d been a long time since I’d been this way. A long, long time.

We got to our motel around 3pm. Meg got us checked and handed out keys, keeping one for every room. I lugged my bag upstairs, then went down to offer my services to any of the girls who wanted help. Nat and Candy took Art and me up on it.

After I got their bags to their room, Nat stopped me along the balcony. “Are they, um ... really ... um... ?”

I nodded. “Lizzie and Janet are a couple, yeah.”

She blushed. “I um ... I don’t know anyone like that.”

“They’re really cool people. Just get to know them.”

“I’m just not...”

“Look, you’re talking to me? I’m more likely to go after you than they are, in theory, right? I wouldn’t, I’ve got a girlfriend, but you get the point. I’m pretty sure you’d like them.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way. Um ... I’d probably be OK. I dunno about Candy. They go to a pretty conservative church.”

“She can believe what she believes, but I go to a pretty conservative church, too, and I don’t have a problem with it. I don’t see why anyone needs to judge. Sure, if someone was hitting on her, that’s totally different. But otherwise? It’s not contagious, and they’re not trying to convert anyone, as if they could. I can safely say that no gay guy is going to get me to change teams, and I’m pretty sure the same is true for you and Candy.” Unless she’s questioning, or closeted, I thought, but didn’t add.

“I’ll talk to her. I think she was a little scandalized, that’s all. That they’d be open about it and no one thought it was a big deal.”

“That’s because it’s not a big deal. Someone being rude or a jerk or selfish or hurting the team is a big deal. A girl who wants to smooch a girlfriend instead of a boyfriend isn’t a big deal.”

She blushed at that. “OK. Well, thanks. Steve, right?”

“Yeah. Nice to meet you. And best of luck!”

“You, too. Extemp?”

“Yeah, that’s all I’m doing this year. I’m just a freshman and joined halfway through. CX was too much to bite off.”

“We’re both sophomores, and yeah, both Extemp. I don’t know. We might do CX next year.”

“I definitely will. I’m trying to see if my sister will join the team. If she does, we might be partners.”

“Being partners with my brother would be weird! I think I’d kill him!”

“Angie and I get along really well. We have a couple sibling teams. Zoe and Adam are twins and CX partners, and Callie and Kenzie are twins, too. And Larry and Kelly are brother and sister, but they didn’t qualify. And weren’t partners.”

“Is your sister older or younger?”

“Younger. She’s a freshman, too.”

“Twins?”

“Nah, it’s complicated. She started out as my cousin, but then we adopted her.”

“Oh! Wow! I’ve never known anyone like that! Instant sister!”

“Yeah. It was surprising. But maybe that’s why we get along so well. We don’t have any of the little-kid rivalries to overcome.”

“Maybe so. Anyway, nice meeting you. I’m going to go in and see how Candy’s doing. I’ll see you at dinner.”

“See you there!”

I headed into my room. Brad and Adam were already there. “Checking out the new girls?” Brad asked.

“I figured someone needed to be social.”

“How are they?”

“I dunno. I don’t want to say too much yet. Let people make up their own minds.”

“Not a ringing endorsement.”

“Yeah,” Adam chimed in.

“I don’t know yet. They’ll fit in or not. If not, we just have to share a bus.”

“Unlike us.” Adam stretched. “How do you wanna do this? Draw straws?”

I shrugged. “I don’t care. There’s three of us. Each of us gets a bed to ourselves one night? Draw straws for the order?”

Brad nodded. “Hey, I like that, that’s better than just setting who’s where.”

“Yeah, I can go for that. I’ve got some cards, we can use those.” Adam rummaged in his pack, pulled out a deck of cards. “High card tonight, middle tomorrow, low Saturday? Aces high?”

“Works for me.” “Me too.”

I drew a Jack, Adam got a 7, and Brad pulled an Ace. “Well, looks like I’m in the middle.”

Brad opened his bag and rummaged through it. “I have to admit, I’m curious about Lizzie and Janet. On the one hand, why shouldn’t they share? On the other, it feels like it leaves Meg in an awkward situation.”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure nothing’ll happen, unless Janice is really, really accommodating. And Cammie for that matter; just ‘cuz she’s on the same team doesn’t mean she wants to watch. Or they want her to watch. Plus, it’d probably be lonely without her girlfriend.”

“You know Cammie’s girlfriend?” Adam asked.

“Yeah. Mel and I have been friends for a while now.”

“I have to admit, I was unsure at first. It’d upset mom and dad,” Brad commented. “They’re really conservative. But I like Lizzie and Janet. Well, and Cammie, but ... you know.”

“Lizzie and Janet are up front about it every day,” Adam nodded. “So you could ignore Cammie but not them.”

“Yeah. I dunno. They’d probably decide the team was a bad influence on me. So I’m just not gonna say anything.”

I shrugged. “Why would you? It’s not your parents’ business. And Janet and Lizzie slip back into the closet whenever we’re around, you know ... outsiders. Parents included.”

“Yeah. So, how do you think we’ll do?”

We chatted about the team’s chances for a while. I wasn’t optimistic for myself, but didn’t care either. Getting here was the point. Art was cautiously optimistic; he was a senior, and this would be his last chance. We all expected Ted to be Ted, and therefore kick butt.

We piled in the bus around 4:30 and headed downtown to the Hilton and thence to the ballroom, where we found a giant buzz of conversation.

There are somewhere around 150 tournaments across the state in a year. Each qualifies two people, except the Last Chance tournaments. Drop out the occasional kid who moves out-of-state midyear or gets sick or whose school can’t justify traveling — fairly common for kids from places like El Paso or Brownsville, where getting to Waco is an all-day or overnight trip — and you’re left with 300 or so just in Extemp. In theory it could be almost twice that in CX, plus another 300 in LD. There are a lot of overlaps, but you’re still looking at 700+ kids who travel and compete.