Chapter 29: Rematches

Friday, September 10, 1982

School was ... school. I really didn’t pay much attention. First tournament in ... five months. Or not, if you count the Indiana tournament, which I probably should. So then, first tournament in ... two months. Much less dramatic, that way ... but, then, this was my first tournament competing in three events. That would be plenty of drama, figuratively and literally.

I regretted missing the pep rally. Pep rallies were a lot more fun now that I knew the head cheerleader and an increasing number of her cohort, not to mention a couple of star players on the team, plus several others. That, plus it looked like the team was good this year. Really good. At least, based on the first game.

Instead of all that fun, we loaded up the cars while the rest of the school filled up the gymnasium. Our destination was Alief Elsik, just about twenty-five minutes from Memorial. I had Cammie and Jasmine — who playfully fought over who sat next to me — plus Angie and Gene, plus Paige. I suspected Paige wound up in my car because she and I still were somewhat of an ‘item,’ unlike Lexi or Sheila. But I hadn’t made the arrangements. I just nodded my head when my social calendar informed me who was riding with me.

We all chattered away on the drive. Everyone was a bit high-strung going into this tournament. Cammie and I had Indiana to think about. We’d won there, so the pressure was on, a bit. Angie and I had Humorous Interp on our minds. Win? Fall flat on our faces? Who knew? Paige and Jasmine had the same problem with Extemp. Sure, we’d all broken at the last-chance tournament in March — but that, by definition, was against weak competition. Motivated weak competition, but still.

Last year, going into Clear Lake, we’d all been relaxed and were just looking forward to getting out there. This year, we’d all heaped pressure on ourselves. Winning does that. Now we had to prove we could master the pressure and keep on being the team we should be.

By four we were all clustered at the check-in table. Between them, Meg and Steffie had thirty-two kids in the tournament. Twenty-seven were in some form of Debate-related event, fourteen were in Drama. Nine of us were in both.

This, apparently, came as a shock to the kids who were manning the check-in table. Most schools didn’t even have one crossing over. Nine? Who brought nine? They had to call their head coach, who sorted things out. Apparently not even the head coach had understood what we were doing and was a bit nervous about round timing. He told Meg and Steffie he’d ‘work it out.’ Hopefully, he would.

Coaches from other schools kept coming by to greet Meg. State Coach of the Year sticks with you for a while, I suppose.

We settled in the cafeteria, where we were mostly let alone. Except for Meg, anyway. We hadn’t really formed friendships with that many teams from other schools. Or, to steal a word from almost forty years in the future, we didn’t have that many frenemies amongst the other teams. Perhaps in the future we would.

Pairings went up just before five. No one I knew in any of my rounds except Extemp, where I had Paige and Jeff. That was the way of it, all around - we’d brought perhaps a fifth of the total Extemp pool at this tournament. I suspected coaches would start limiting our participation in some events — which might be good for some people. Maybe even me.

First rounds were first rounds. I spent some time settling Jeff’s nerves, and probably Paige’s as well. Both of them seemed fine. Then Paige and I hustled off to Humorous rounds. We were both early in the round for Extemp, late in the round for Humorous.

Cammie and I met up about six for CX. Our round felt ... great, to be honest. The other team was nowhere near as prepared and just couldn’t get any traction. They just plain weren’t as good, and it wasn’t one of those crazy rounds where things get so confused that anyone could win.

Second round was pretty much same as the first. Elsik had things running pretty much on time and seemed to be managing things so we could get where we needed to be. I still felt like I was running around like crazy with two events in an hour, but I could manage.

Our second round CX opponents were ... frenemies, I guess. Ryan Mason and Nick Bell from Bellaire, the team that beat us at State in semifinals. We all got to the room before the judge arrived. They recognized us immediately and we all exchanged handshakes and re-introductions.

“That round was a squeaker,” Ryan said. “I really thought you had us.”

“Then we ran into your other team. No way was lightning going to strike twice,” Nick added. “We beat them that other time, but ... yeah. They’re tough.”

“We’ll have to disappoint you at State next time,” I said.

“Oh, really?” Nick said, grinning.

“Uh huh. See, we promised Lizzie and Janet that we’d give them a rematch in State finals.”

They both chuckled. “Well, if we have to lose, you’re up there on the list of teams to lose to,” Ryan said.

Cammie smiled. “And vice versa. Y’all did great in that round. Like you said, a squeaker.”

“Did you do any summer programs?” Nick asked.

“Indiana, both of us,” Cammie said, nodding.

“We went to UK. Kentucky, I mean. Loved it,” Nick said.

“I’d love to go there,” I said, “but I might have my heart set on Northwestern next summer.”

“Northwestern is awesome, I hear,” Ryan said.

Nick added, “I’d like to go to Redlands, maybe.”

“Janet and Lizzie had a great time there,” Cammie said with a grin.

“See? I knew we were right to skip it!” Nick said, chuckling. “We did not need to keep running into them all summer! They’re great, but ... yeah.”

“How was your Nationals experience?” Cammie asked.

“It ... stunk, honestly,” Ryan said. “Literally. We went out to Fisherman’s Wharf and got some bad clams or something. About as sick as I’ve ever been. We competed, but ... man. It did not go well.”

“That sucks. My sympathies,” I said.

“Mine, too,” Cammie added.

The judge walked in at that point and got us started. I thought we had them, but it was a tough round, as it should be.

Everyone wrapped up a bit before eleven. The buzz in the car was very positive for main events. For secondary events? I wasn’t so sure about Humorous, and neither Jasmine nor Paige had that much confidence in Extemp. No surprise — maybe we’d actually all done great, but who could tell? We had no real track record to go on, after all.

I had everyone dropped off and made it home by midnight. Angie and I exchanged a quick hug and kiss, then headed to bed. Sleep easily won out over talking when there was a tournament involved.

Saturday, September 11, 1982

After more than two years, I still found it strange for ‘September 11th’ to just be a normal day, with no one paying it any special attention. Of course, it was just a normal day in 1982.

We started our normal day with a stop for kolaches on the way to Elsik. Welllll ... somewhat on the way. It was a bit of a detour, but well worth it. Buying kolaches for almost thirty-five people equals a lot of food, but — again — well worth it.

We all collected in the cafeteria and munched on the kolaches, waiting for the third-round postings to go up. When they did, I lagged behind, getting the food put away as best as possible.

Angie was waiting when I got there, with a look on her face that spelled ... I don’t know. Not exactly trouble, but ... something. She waited until the crowd cleared a bit and then pointed at one of the pairings. Memorial Winton/Ortega against...

I blinked. Bellaire Mayrink/Myers? I gave Angie a look; she gave me one right back. What were the odds that Bellaire had another Mayrink? I didn’t think it could be Dave’s little brother — if I remembered right, he was three years younger.

Angie leaned in and whispered, “Did we do that? And by ‘we’, I mean ‘you’?”

“I ... have no idea. If it is ... I’m a little bothered.”

“Huh?”

“He could’ve looked me up yesterday.”

“Maybe he was nervous? Or ... something?”

“I’ll have to check and see.”

Darla bopped me on the shoulder. Then Linda bopped me on the other one.

“Something you know about our opponent?” Darla said.

“I may know Mayrink. If it’s Dave Mayrink, I do. He and I were friends a few years ago, outside of school.”

“Small world,” Darla said. That was either spot-on, or the farthest thing from the truth I could imagine. I had no idea which. Maybe it was both.

“So, what do you know about him?” Linda asked.

Angie grinned a bit. “If he hasn’t grown up, you two are going to be trouble for him.”

“Huh?” Darla said.

“He hit on Jasmine. In front of Steve. Badly.”

Both Linda and Darla broke out in giggles. “Oh ... that’s ... hilarious,” Linda choked out.

I smiled a bit. “We had the same level of social skills when we were friends. I got better.”

“Oh, my, did you ever,” Linda said, grinning.

Darla grinned, too. “Not having seen him, I can’t say ... oh, to heck with it. Yeah. You did.”

They high-fived each other and then went off to get their evidence cases. By this point I’d realized that we’d better get a move on, too, or we’d be late.

Angie repeated herself, once we were clear. “Did we do that?”

“I still have no idea. I think it’s possible.”

“He wasn’t iceberg Steve but ... still. Holy shit!”

“Good for him, if it’s him.”

“Yeah. I have to agree.”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” I said.

“Yeah, no doubt about that. Linda and Darla will yank his chain if he hasn’t grown up. Like ... a lot.”

“Yeah. I almost feel bad about that.”

Angie suddenly laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“I just had a vision of Linda telling him that you ... were ... are?... dating the head cheerleader. And Jasmine. At the same time. I don’t know if his heart could take it!”

I rolled my eyes. “Linda would do that, too.”

“That’s why it’s so damn funny!” she said, grinning.

Jasmine came up behind us. “What are you two laughing about?”

Angie jumped in before I could say anything. “We think Steve’s old friend, Dave Mayrink, is here.”

“Huh? He’s in Debate now?” she said. “I ... well. I was going to say I hope his social skills have improved, but he’s honestly on par with half the kids in Debate. Not our group, though.”

Angie chuckled. “Isn’t that the truth?”

“So, how’d you find this out?”

“If it’s him — it’s a Mayrink from Bellaire, anyway — he’s debating Darla and Linda in a little while.”

“Darla ... and... Linda. Oh my God! That will be funnier than any of our Humorous rounds, if he hasn’t improved,” Jasmine said, rolling her eyes.

“There’s hope. I got better,” I said.

“So much better,” Angie said, nodding, then hugging me. “Seriously, Jas, you have no idea.”

“And I’m probably glad that I don’t,” she said, smiling, hugging me, too. “Anyway, running late, which I’m sure you both are, too. See you soon! Love you, boyfriend!”

She gave me a pretty emphatic kiss, then bounced off, wiggling her ass.

“So, so much better,” Angie said.

“No argument. None at all.”

“Wise of you. C’mon, let’s get a move on!”

We were, indeed, running late. I lost a few minutes’ prep time for my Extemp round, and probably made the judge wait a few minutes for my Humorous round. I made it to our CX round in decent time, and it was a round we could’ve won on autopilot, I’m pretty certain.

They’d put up fourth-round postings by the time we got back, so we just had time to check, figure out where we needed to go, and get there. No time to check with Linda and Darla.

Fourth round was more of the same. Solid Extemp, iffy Humorous, and a decently challenging but not great CX round.

We made it back to the cafeteria around one-thirty for lunch, which turned out to be school cafeteria burgers. Not the worst, not the best. Checking around the table, everyone — even the new people — was feeling good. Perhaps our nervousness hadn’t been warranted? I suspected more that it was simply the same ‘pre-game jitters’ that athletes, even elite athletes, get.

A bit into lunch I got up and started looking for the Bellaire group. I noticed Angie and Jasmine both following me while pretending not to. As Jasmine had said, comedy might ensue.

It didn’t take me long to find them, via the simple expedient of spotting Ryan and Nick. From there, a quick look, followed by a double-take, and I was looking at Dave Mayrink. I hadn’t seen him wearing a suit in ... hrm ... over thirty years. That would be at his wedding, a wedding I was guessing would never happen. Who knows, though? The world seemed to have a way with coincidences.

I headed over. He looked up as I stopped.

“Hey! Steve! I was wondering if you were here! I tried to find you, but never could.”

He got up and offered his hand. I had to say — so far, he looked more polished. A bit, anyway.

“Hi, Dave! Good to see you. Yeah, I’m probably hard to find — I’m doing three events. And, sorry I never got in touch last year, but I can’t even begin to tell you how crazy my spring was.”

“It sounded busy when we talked.”

“That was before ... let’s see ... running for student council, becoming the center of school-wide gossip, going to State, all the rehearsals for ‘Brigadoon’, having to defend myself before the School Board...”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Nope. All true.”

“School-wide gossip?”

“The head cheerleader asked me to Sadie Hawkins. I already had an offer, so I turned her down.”

“The ... head cheerleader. You have to be joking.”

“Nope. Angie and Jasmine are lurking somewhere around here...”

“They’re over there.” He called over, “Hello, Jasmine. Hi, Angie.” Normal tone of voice, calm and collected. Progress!

“They’ll back up the story. So would Linda, who you debated a couple rounds ago.”

“Why Linda in particular?”

“She’s a cheerleader.”

“Is it something in the water over there? How in the world?”

Angie and Jasmine came over.

“Hi, Dave,” Angie said.

“Hello,” Jasmine added.

“Ladies,” David said, tipping an imaginary cap. “I should introduce my partner, Adam.” He gestured to the guy next to him. Nerdy, but with a very nice suit.

“Um ... h ... hi,” Adam said, his eyes not quite settling either in the wrong place or the right one as he looked between Jasmine and Angie. Maybe Dave had passed on his awkwardness?