Chapter 8: An Auspicious Start

September 11, 1981

Everyone met at the Debate room at 1:30pm, already changed into our debating clothes. They’d excused us from our other classes. Cammie, Doug, Henry, Sue, and Amit were riding with me. I had just enough trunk space for the evidence collections plus our Extemp boxes. Sue rode in front, in deference to her new status as the Homecoming date.

Clear Lake’s about forty-five minutes across town in clear traffic. The first third of that is the familiar drive to UH; after that, just keep going until you hit Clear Lake, then navigate to the high school. It’s not bad, just time-consuming.

Cammie decided we needed to pass the time by singing along with the radio. No one else agreed; she still won.

Surprisingly, I turned out to be the best singer. Cammie’s voice was also quite good, but Doug was pitchy, and Henry was just OK. Sue was unfortunately close to a strangled cat, and Amit was worse at what the radio was playing. He sang us two Indian songs a capella, and they sounded really nice. I have no idea what they were about, however.

We got to our planned rendezvous and found Meg waiting along with Lizzie, Janet, Zoe, Adam, Callie, and Kenzie. Angie arrived soon after, bringing Gene, Anne, Megan, and Janice.

The others arrived shortly thereafter. Meg smiled. “Good to see that everyone’s made it here safe. Thank you to all our drivers! If you’re feeling too tired to drive after competition, you will tell me. Correct?”

“Yes, Meg!” we all responded.

“Good. Now, let’s go get ourselves checked in. I’m thrilled that we’re done with buses for the time being.”

As usual, we staked out tables in the cafeteria and got ourselves organized. This would be the first tournament I’d be in CX, and I was nervous. And Cammie was nervous right along with me.

Lizzie dispensed words of wisdom. “Look, if you do really well, but not quite as well as the other team, you lose. If you fall completely on your face, you lose. So, don’t sweat it.”

Janet added, “Like, we totally fell on our butts the first time. A really gnarly wipeout. You can’t do worse so don’t even try!”

That got us laughing — as intended — and we hugged both of them. By now, Lizzie hugging me on a regular basis was a team joke. I’d figured it out, I thought — but hadn’t talked to her about it. She had a reputation as a man-hater. I think she had some real issues with a lot of guys, but not nearly the number that people thought she did. Once she’d determined that I was pretty much on her side, I fell into the ‘OK’ category. Even the ‘good’ category, perhaps. I’m pretty sure it helped having gay friends who would vouch for me actively helping, not just passively refraining from judgment.

Around 3:30pm we got our round 1 draw. 4:30pm Extemp; Cammie and I were in different groups. 6pm CX against a team from Humble that we’d never heard of. I knew she’d checked with Janet, who had no idea. That was better news, at least, than being told ‘Oh, yeah, them? They’re sharks.’ Angie was in Cammie’s group for first round Extemp; I knew she’d do her best to help settle Angie’s nerves.

I checked the postings. Memorial had brought seven CX teams. The closest other school had five. I was responsible for the equivalent of one team, via Angie and myself, but I suspected Gene and Cammie might have skipped the first tournament without our being there, and Anne and Megan came because of the extra encouragement from Angie.

Ripples. We’d never had that many teams at any one time my first time through. I think we’d gotten to five for a couple of tournaments, that’s it. Here, we could, in theory, take all but one slot in quarterfinals. I doubted we’d get anywhere near seven to quarters, but it could happen. It’d sure piss off the other teams if it happened.

About 4:15pm I went and gave Angie a big hug. “Kick ass, sis.”

“You too, big brother.”

“Don’t let anything psych you out. You’re amazing. Just show the judge how amazing. Well, not so much of it that you cause any heart attacks.”

She giggled. “You! I’m looking forward to it, really. I think it’ll be fun. I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing, but who cares?”

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “Extemp I’m good with, but CX? I’ll struggle. And that’s fine. First tournament? Of course I will.”

We split up and headed for our rooms.

Extemp was old hat now. I went in, got my topic, and started working. Forty-five minutes later I’d finished and Cammie and I rolled our evidence cases to our CX room. We found the other team setting up. Two guys, likely juniors or seniors. They seemed OK. We shook hands and then started doing prep. They were affirmative this round.

It went ... OK. They were rusty. We were new. Their case had holes in it; we struggled to do a good job of exploiting them. On balance, trying to be objective, I thought we’d done enough. Hopefully.

We shook hands again and headed back to the cafeteria. Angie dragged in about ten minutes after I did. I met her with a hug.

“How’d it go, Sis?”

She shook her head. “Why did I let you talk me into this?” she groaned.

“Because you love me and you know it’s a good idea.”

“Oh, yeah, that. OK. Fine. Really, it didn’t go that bad, if you discount the paralyzing fear in Extemp and the feeling that I was babbling half the time in CX.”

I hugged her again. “I know the feeling. It gets better. Obviously, or most of these people wouldn’t be here. And I felt the same in CX today, and in Extemp back in January.”

“Yeah. I’ve never done anything like that, exactly. I mean...” She looked around, making sure we were out of earshot. “I’ve walked into a room and known people were judging me, but that was totally different. This isn’t like that. This ... it’s a good sort of judging. But it was still nerve-wracking. Plus, I had to produce coherent thoughts on something off the top of my head. Ugh. And I need to do it at least three more times!”

“A bunch more than that. I know you. You won’t quit after your first time.”

“Nah. Go postal, maybe. But not quit.”

I laughed. “So, babbling notwithstanding, how’d you and Gene do?”

She shrugged. “The other team was babbling too. 50/50 we won, probably.”

“That’s how our first round went. We were more focused than they were, but I felt rushed. It’s funny; in Extemp, I want time to fly and save me from having to fill up more space with words. In CX it’s the opposite; there’s never enough time to say all the things I need to say.”

“I think I need to not dwell on it right now. And I’m hungry! Let’s find something to eat.”

“Tomorrow, lunch at least, we’ll go out. Right now, I’m OK staying here and eating whatever they’ve got.”

“Me too. Adrenaline’s a little high for driving, honestly.”

“Debate tournaments are powered by caffeine and adrenaline.”

“As pumped up as I am, I don’t need caffeine!”

“Yeah, but this is early on Friday. Tomorrow we’re doing it all again on short sleep.”

“Don’t remind me!”

The next rounds were supposed to be at 7:30 and 9:00, according to the schedule. They actually hit at 8:15 and 9:45; something had gone wrong, somewhere, and thrown the whole schedule off. No big surprise, and it gave us more time to eat. And talk. Continuing to not dissect the first round.

Enough of us wrapped up at 11:15pm that my passengers could leave, along with Angie’s. We said goodbye to Meg, who admonished me to drive safely, and took off for home. Cammie wanted ice cream, Amit seconded it, and we wound up driving through a Jack In The Box for shakes. The drive itself went quickly enough, and I had everyone dropped off and was home by 12:30. Angie was good on her diet and had beaten me home.

I found Mom yawning and talking with Angie. “Hi, Mom! You didn’t need to stay up!”

“I couldn’t sleep! I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but this is the first time you’ve been out this late and had to drive! How’d it go, Honey?”

“Pretty well. Second round felt more comfortable than the first.” Angie’d said that, too, before we left.

“I mean the driving!”

“Oh, that,” I laughed. “Fine. No problems. I don’t mind driving at night, and I was plenty awake. I’ll sleep, though. We have to be on the road by 7:30am.”

Angie groaned. “You keep reminding me of things I don’t want to be reminded of!”

“You kids had better get to bed. I’m glad you’re home safe. Have fun tomorrow!”

“I’m sure we will!”

Angie got up and we headed for our rooms. She stepped into mine, hugged me, and rubbed noses. “Just stopping by. Too tired to talk. Love you, big brother. And thanks for encouraging me, even if I griped about it. It really was fun, and half the gut-wrenching terror was gone the second round.”

“Go get some sleep. Love you, sis. See you in the morning!”

“See you then!”

I got changed into PJs and hit my bed. The adrenaline had worn off, and I was ready to crash. The worst thing is being unable to sleep, watching the clock, knowing you have to get up and be coherent in an ever-diminishing number of hours.

September 12, 1981

Thunderstorms today made driving more interesting. And slower. We all brought umbrellas and made sure our evidence boxes and cases were as waterproof as possible. Cammie had put a trashbag over hers for protection, something that I hadn’t thought of. Not even the first go-round. I’d have to put bags in Ang and my trunks for the future. I dropped off the rest of my crew at the covered walkway at the front of the school, then parked and headed in, huddling under my umbrella.

We were off and Extemping at 8:30am, with CX at 10:00. Second round was on time at 11:30, thank goodness.

By 2:30pm we were done and starving. Given the rain, I took orders and drove to the closest Jack In A Box. I drove back with a mountain of fast food in my car. Gene, Amit, and Henry were waiting at the front to carry the food. Even with the three of them, I’d have to help; we’d forgotten to account for the drink carriers.

“What happened? It’s been a while!”

“I guess it takes them a while to make fifteen hamburgers, plus the tacos and everything else.”

I parked the car, ran back, and helped carry. We split up the food and munched.

“How was your first round today, sis?”

“Better! Still nervous, but I didn’t feel like I’d walked in naked or something.”

“That’d be unfair to the competition.”

“Says you. Some of the girls here are pretty cute. Including your partner.”

“Hottest blonde in the world. I can say that because Cammie’s not blonde, and Janet won’t care if I don’t rank her as hottest.”

She laughed. “You’re so biased.”

“So? I’m also right.”

“Anyway! It went better. And in CX I think we didn’t flail around quite so much.”

“Good. Us, too. I’m feeling pretty OK, right now. Even if we don’t break, which, who the heck knows? First tournament of the year and all. Might, might not. Anyway, even if we don’t, it’ll be good experience. Of course, Meg’s dream could come true and we could have all but one Memorial team in quarters.”

“Not holding my breath.”

“Me neither,” I grinned. “But it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”

By the last rounds, I’d been feeling back in the groove. Extemp was just a matter of going in and doing the work; CX was still a struggle, but more manageable. It may actually have helped that our fourth-round opponent was the best CX team we’d faced at this tournament. Janet and Lizzie knew them and said they were pretty solid. Not top tier, but pretty solid. I felt like we kept up.

I knew, from experience I couldn’t share with Cammie, that some of the worst rounds I’d ever been in were against lousy teams. A really lousy team can produce a tangled, jumbled mess of an argument that’s hard to refute because you risk confusing the judge even more. If you follow their structure, you can’t make things much more clear than their mess; if you try to restate things in a logical order, you risk the judge failing to follow your structure.

And yes, trying to do this intentionally is a terrible idea. You may win some rounds you weren’t going to any other way, but you’ll lose a bunch of rounds you should’ve won. I could see it as a very cynical tactic when you know you’re outmatched, but I think in the long run it’d go over even worse than Janet’s valley-girl routine. She was already toning it down by making it more of an in-joke and less of a tactic.

I checked in with Sue as we waited for the results.

“How’d you and Amit do?”

“Good! Well, I think so, anyway! I’ve been waiting to get to do CX for a year, though. We could go 0-4 and I’d feel like a winner just getting to compete. And Extemp actually felt better, because I felt like it was my choice and not just what they forced me to do. Also, it feels so much better having a team I can hang out with without feeling like a fifth wheel.”

“Good! I’m glad. Amit’s cool. We lost touch some last year, but he’s a good guy.”

“He is! I kinda felt, just at first, like it was back to being pushed into things for a bit. You know, ‘here, be partners with this guy’. But I think I’d have chosen him anyway, and everyone else’s partners make sense, too, so I can’t say anyone else should’ve switched.”

“Yeah. Angie and I thought about it, but Cammie and I had worked together so much already, it’d kinda always been there, and then Angie wanted to partner with her boyfriend, which I could hardly say no to.”

“Nah. As long as they don’t split. That’s ... wait, no.”

“Mmm?”

“I was going to say that helped my old school. You know, all the teams were guys, so no breakups. But that doesn’t apply to Lizzie and Janet.” She caught the start of a smirk. “Yes, I know they’re not guys! You know what I mean!”

“I do,” I said, laughing. “If those two break up, I think we’ll all feel a disturbance in the Force.”

She giggled. “Yeah, definitely.”

Postings went up around 3:30pm. Off schedule, but not terribly so. Cammie continued her role as posting reporter. We all gathered round for the announcement.

“OK, people! Quarters! We have breaks in every event!” No matter how rusty we were, someone would break. But her grin suggested good news.

“Woohoo!” Janet called.

“Extemp: Emmy, Callie, Kenzie, Amit, Steve, Angie, Gene, Sue, me, anddddddd Megan!”

I hugged Angie, then Gene did. A bunch of others were hugging, too.

“Wow! That’s, what, ten! We’re almost a third of quarters!” Gene exclaimed.

“LD: Kenzie, Janice, anddddd Doug!”

“Finally, CX. Janet and Lizzie. Angie and Gene. Sue and Amit. And, Steve anddddddd me!”

“Holy cow!” Sue cheered. “Wow!”

Amit looked at her with a very serious face. “Cows are indeed sacred.” Then he laughed at Sue’s expression. “Got you!”

Sue laughed. “I think if you believed that, you’d have some ‘splaining to do, after three burgers.”

Amit grinned. “Ricky’s Cuban, not Indian, Lucy.”

“OK, everyone, gather round!” Meg said, laughing. “This is amazing. Thank you all for your hard work. We have over half the team still in competition in something. Our low mark is in Extemp where we are only almost one-third of the slots. Three-eighths in LD, and a ridiculous half of the slots in CX. Most of the other coaches are going to hate me!” She paused, then grinned. “So, I want you to make sure they hate me for good reason!”

We all cheered. Then scurried off to our rounds. I stopped Angie for a second.

“So, either you weren’t naked, or the hottest blonde thing worked for you.”

She laughed and swatted me. “I’m amazed. And nervous!”

“Nah. Just go in with the attitude I had in January. You came here hoping to not fall on your ass. Anything else is a bonus.”

“Good attitude! You realize if we all win, we’ll have to debate each other.”

“I’m aware of that! And if we all win in Extemp, an all-Memorial finals is possible. Ain’t gonna happen, but then I’d have said fourteen of us breaking wasn’t gonna happen, so my skills as a prognosticator are questionable. And I wonder if this’ll be our high point, but, no matter what, it’s a nice high point!”

“So are these.” She wiggled her chest.

“Yeah, yeah. Hottest blonde. Got it. Now go knock ‘em dead!”

“Love you, big bro!”

“Love you, too!”

We split up to head to Extemp. I had Emmy and Megan in my round. A guy from Cypress-Fairbanks High looked at us. “Hey, dude! Is it something in the water over there? You guys are kicking butt! Maybe we need to get you tested for performance-enhancing drugs!” He was laughing, fortunately.