Chapter 36: Frenemies

Saturday, October 2, 1982

Jasmine teased me at breakfast. “Me, Paige, Cammie, and Mikayla in a hotel room. Imagine the possibilities!”

“I’m imagining ... all four of you going to sleep because you’re focused and responsible.”

“Hrmph. Party pooper!”

“That’s what you did, right?”

“Unfortunately,” she said, pouting cutely.

“You and Paige can get together nearly any time. Mikayla, too. Cammie will never cheat on Mel, and that would definitely be cheating for them. Even watching might be.”

“Hrmph again. You’re right, though. We should’ve traded. Me for Brad.”

“Meg wouldn’t go for it.”

“She’s no fun.” Jasmine pretended to pout again, but couldn’t hold it. “Fine. She’s plenty of fun, for a teacher at least.”

“Love you, brat.”

“Love you, party pooper.”

Day 2, same as the first. All my rounds felt good, and I didn’t run into anyone I knew except our crew.

I got bored at lunch and flipped through the local paper, discovering that EPCOT had opened. Again. I mean, for me. First time for everyone else, of course. I’d always liked it, and it’d be awesome to go to Walt Disney World. Again ... and also for the first time. Of course, I’d miss Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, since neither of those were much more than an idea on some Imagineer’s sketchpad just yet.

Talking with others after lunch, the air of confidence had most of us in its grip. Caitlyn was fretting about something-or-other, Brad was stoic, Bree was still less sure than most, and Linda and Darla were the least sure of all, but mostly we were all calm and optimistic.

Cammie and Paige handled breaks, Paige reporting first.

“Okayyyyy ... so...

“Humorous: Me. Jasmine. Carole. Sara. Steve. Yes, that’s everyone.

“Dramatic: Me, again. Caitlyn. Mikayla. Still everyone.

“Duo: Jasmine and Carole. A. K. A., everyone.”

Jasmine rolled her eyes. “You realize you could’ve just said ‘everyone’?”

“Where’s the fun in that?!”

Meg rolled her eyes. Cammie chuckled, stepping up.

“I do actually have to read mine. Well. A little.

“Extemp: Me, Steve, Callie, Bree, Brad, Darla.

“CX and LD, yeah, everyone.”

Meg stood. “Goodness! I hope the Kingwood group is doing as well! Y’all are kicking butt. Keep it up!”

Quarterfinals was ... weird. Cammie and I drew a team from College Station who looked, well ... a bit starstruck. Apparently word had spread about Memorial. Well, I’d expected that, but ... I was a celebrity? Again?

This was nothing like the Jessica chaos, but it was still weird. People that I’d never met — never even heard of — knew my name, knew we were a tough team, were watching out for us.

No such problem in Humorous, and Extemp was its usual, so I felt good, overall. Just ... weird.

Paige and Cammie collected the breaks, swapping orders. I had no idea what it’d be like in two years when Cammie stopped being the reader. Someone — Megan? Bree? Jaya, perhaps? — would need to step in. Anne would never do it. Megan might not last to senior year if she lived up to her potential in basketball, for that matter.

Cammie grinned. “So ... we’re still in it. Like you’d believe me if I said we weren’t.”

That got a round of laughter.

“So ... Extemp. Me, Steve, Bree, and Darla. Go, Darla, go!

“CX: Sorry, Darla and Linda. The rest of us are still going.

“LD: Kenzie and Brad.”

Callie shook her head. “That guy was a jerk. One of you, beat him for me.”

Kenzie gave her a big hug, then Brad did, too.

Paige got up next. “And, for us ... not everyone. In Humorous, we have Jasmine, Carole, and Steve. In Dramatic ... everyone. And, in Duo, everyone.”

And there we were. Mostly still going strong. Callie losing was unexpected, but she was already qualified, so no major worry there.

Meg got up next. “I caught up with Steffie, just a bit. Trying to get in touch via pay phone is nuts. I had to get their tournament director to page her, and he wasn’t thrilled. We may or may not get another report. Anyway, they’re up to semis, too, and she said more than half are still in it, overall. So ... more people not from Memorial will get to later rounds, but we’ll get more people qualified, too.”

“Win-win,” Cammie said, grinning.

“Win-win,” we all chorused.

Same story, different round. I felt good about Extemp and Humorous. More Extemp than Humorous, but both were fine.

CX was a bit more interesting, if only because our opponents were two girls from Duschene, Brenda and Natalie. I introduced myself — politely — and mentioned that I lived under a mile from their school. And that my former girlfriend was a sophomore there. One of them knew Candice. Both of them knew Sherry. They promised to mention me to either of them if they saw them.

Debate-wise, they were good. Really good. One of the toughest rounds I’d had this year. I felt like we had it, but they were tough.

It also reminded me that I really, really owed Candice a call, and hopefully a dinner.

Cammie and Paige swapped again.

Paige smiled. “Shorter, this time. Making Humorous finals are Jasmine, Steve, and Sara. In DI, we’ve got me and Mikayla. In Duo ... um ... everyone?” We dutifully laughed.

Cammie went next. “Extemp is me, Steve, Bree, and Darla, again. Kicking butt, Darla! LD is, amazingly, Kenzie and Brad. CX finals are ... there’s some typo.”

Janet growled. “Fu ... uh ... fudge!” More laughter. A lot more. “They did not!”

“They did, dudette.”

“Last time we made Emmy and May clobber these guys. Steve, Cammie, do the honors.”

I had to think. “Mason/Bell?”

“Yeah. Can’t stand them.”

I looked at Cammie. “We had them at Alief Elsik. Went okay.”

“They go after two-girl teams, I think,” Lizzie said. “Emmy and May got a three-woman panel for finals. Screwed them.”

“We will defend your honor,” Cammie said.

“Thanks,” Janet said, then both of them hugged both of us.

By this point I could just run through ‘The Parrot Sketch’ and not obsess over whether the judge was a PETA activist who’d loathe anything with a dead animal in it.

In Extemp I drew a fairly weird topic about the Chicago Tylenol poisonings, which were national news this weekend. I had to scramble on that one, especially since I couldn’t say that it was nearly over by this point. For all anyone knew, there could be hundreds more victims yet to come. Awkward and strange.

Then, CX. Nick and Ryan were waiting when we got there. We shook hands, made some small talk, and everything seemed fine. Lizzie and Janet watched, and at least pretended not to glare.

They’d gone affirmative at Alief Elsik. We won the toss and went affirmative, which I think threw them. After all, we’d beaten their affirmative and hadn’t really struggled doing it. I figured they’d have something up their sleeve. Not in an underhanded way — I still wasn’t sure if Lizzie and Janet really had something, or if this was just a grudge — but just in the way that it’s good to be prepared for the eventuality of rematches.

They didn’t have the best responses for our alternative. I was surprised by how muddled and messy the round got, and how much I had to dig it out of the weeds in rebuttal. Either they were trying to make a mess of things, or ... something. I don’t know. Maybe Janet and Lizzie had a point.

In the end, I felt really good about this one.

After the round, I headed over to their table. “Hey, did Dave Mayrink come up here? I used to know him way back when.”

“Nah. He got some sort of stomach flu. He’s at home, probably puking his guts out,” Nick said.

Ryan nodded. “He was doing awful when he left school on Wednesday.”

“Too bad. If you see him, tell him I said ‘hi.’”

“Will do,” Nick said, then gave me a look. “You guys didn’t bring that many here. I was surprised.”