Chapter 77: Grapes, No Whines

January 29, 1983 (continued)

It felt a little weird to still have three rounds to go, but ... it was what it was. We hung out in the cafeteria, traded jokes and stories, and waited for them to post results.

Once the results were ready, Cammie and Paige headed off. As usual, they swapped speaker orders when they returned, papers clutched in their hands. Paige led off with, “Everyone, shush. I mean it! Shush!”

It mostly helped.

“Duo: Jas and Carole, Lexi and Sheila.”

Ben and Penny had to be let down, after doing so well two weeks ago, but in truth, that had probably been a fluke. They needed more time and practice to get consistent.

“Humorous: Me, Jas, Carole, Lexi, Angie, and Steve.”

Not bad — we’d lost just two, so far, of those that broke.

“And, Dramatic: Still me, plus Mikayla, Jas, and Sheila.”

Caitlyn looked disappointed, but perhaps not surprised.

Cammie got up. “Swapping orders, because why not ... LD! Callie, Kenzie, and ... Jaya!”

Now I felt sorry for Brad, but he, too, didn’t look surprised.

“CX: Steve and me...”

Janet gave a little whoop. She knew who we’d beaten, of course.

“Janet and Lizzie, Angie and Gene, and Megan and Anne.”

And that right there was ... something. Half of quarterfinals! Oh, we could all lose, but ... we probably wouldn’t.

“And, finally, Extemp: Amit, Steve, Angie, Darla, Jaya, Bree, and Sue.”

I felt a little bad for Jas — thought she still had three events — and a bit more for Anne.

Meg got up and grinned. “If they’re mad at us — which, a little bird told me, some of them are — to heck with ‘em! Kick butt! And yes, we can say that. I checked!”

Steffie chuckled at that, then gave Meg a high-five.

If our last round had been easy, this made up for it. No, I don’t mean that we got clobbered, I just mean it was a very tough round. Whoever won would deserve to win, and whoever lost ... would also deserve to win, pretty much.

Our opponents were Brad and Chelsea, of San Antonio Churchill. We’d debated them months ago and they’d been really tough. I thought we were better now than we were then — but so were they. They’d obviously been putting in the work. They had counters for nearly everything we had, but we had counters for nearly everything they had. They could go fast and not mumble; we could go fast and not mumble. They could slow down and wax rhetorical — for ten or fifteen seconds, that being all the time we could spare for that — and so could we.

I really wanted this win — it’d punch our ticket for ToC. But, being fair — if they won? I could be happy for them.

After the round, I went over to them. “How’ve y’all been?”

Chelsea answered. “Good, and you?”

“Good, too.”

“Are you worried about ToC?”

“Yeah,” Cammie said. “We picked up a bid at Emory.”

Chelsea grinned. “We got one at the Sooner Shootout.”

“I didn’t even know they debated in Oklahoma,” Cammie said.

Brad chuckled. “They do, it seems like. It was pretty good.”

“So, one of us will be going...”

“And one will be hoping,” Chelsea said. “We’ll be at U.T., so that’s one more opportunity.”

“We will, too,” I said.

“Cool! Hopefully, we don’t have to debate you,” she said.

“Ditto!” Cammie said.

We headed out.

“I like them,” Cammie said.

“Me, too. They seem like good people.”

“I still want that win.”

“Me, too!”

They served dinner while we were waiting for breaks. We got pizza — almost clichéd, but it’s an easy choice for a bunch of teenagers. Admittedly, it’s on the riskier side, mess-wise, but by now most of us had plenty of practice in protecting our clothes.

After dinner, we chatted, and I fretted. By the time Cammie and Paige came back from the mob, I’d convinced myself that we’d lost. Hadn’t they been just that much quicker? It felt like it.

But ... Cammie was grinning. Would she be grinning if...

“Shut up!” Cammie said. People did.

“CX: Us! And Janet and Lizzie!”

In that moment I really couldn’t think. Oh, I felt bad for our two other teams, but ... we’d done it! We were actually qualified for ToC! And Janet and Lizzie still had a shot at joining us!

There was no question that this year, I’d had a goal of making either Nationals or ToC. I’d have been fine — completely fine — if we hadn’t. I had so very much else in my life for either to matter that much. They were, after all, soon to be ‘Glory Days’ moments (even if I’d have to wait over a year to sing that song). But ... still. We’d actually done it.

I got my head back together enough to hear “ ... Jaya and Sue.”

Must have been Extemp, and ... was I still in? Out? Cammie gave me a quick little grin. She knew I’d been out of it, and why.

“Finally, LD: Callie and Jaya!”

Sucked for Kenzie, terrific for Jaya.

Paige got up as Cammie sat.

“Duo: same old, same old. Humorous: Jas, Lexi, Angie, and Steve. And Dramatic: Me, Mikayla, and Sheila.”

So, as of now, our ticket was punched, everyone who’d gotten a bid at Emory was still in the running, and we had a bunch more who might get bids of their own before U.T.

Kicking ass! Or ‘butt’, as Meg had to put it.

After they’d finished, I headed over and hugged Cammie.

“I can’t believe it!” she said.

“I know!” I said.

“Mom and Dad will be so proud!” she said. That ... was touching. With all of the issues, all of the worries, and the fact that I knew part of her couldn’t stand them, I was glad that more of her still cared, and cared so clearly.

She caught it, of course. I’m not that good at concealing my emotions from the people close to me, not really.

More softly, she said, “I love them. I really do, and ... I think ... I hope ... I always will. Half the time I can’t stand them, but I love them. My biggest fear isn’t getting sent away, I think. I mean, it would utterly suck. But, my biggest fear is them doing something — that they probably could — that would make it so I couldn’t really forgive them.”

I nodded. “I hope, and pray, that it never comes to that.”

“You don’t really believe in anyone to pray to, though.”

I shook my head. “There are powers bigger than us out there, I feel certain. I just don’t know what they are, not at all. But it doesn’t mean I think there’s not ... more ... out there.”

She hesitated, then hugged me. “Me, too, Steve. Me, too.”

We just hugged for a minute. Then, she broke the hug and looked at me, grinning. “I know you missed the announcement.”

“I did, except the last two.”

“Amit, you, Jaya, and Sue.”

“Well, heck. I wasn’t sure I’d still be in it.”

She giggled. “Me, neither, but there you are. Go! You have two other events before we get to kick ass again!”

No, we did not debate Janet and Lizzie in semifinals. And, no, we did not kick ass, not really.

Our opponents were a team I’d never met: Caitlyn and Beverly from The Hockaday School. I vaguely thought I remembered Beverly from one of the hospitality tables. Maybe.

Suffice it to say that we were in semi-finals at a ToC qualifier where we’d both already received bids. They were damn good. We were damn good. All of us knew that. No one was holding back.

My head said they’d probably won, my heart said we had. It was a coin-flip either way. No one kicked any ass — or perhaps we’d all kicked each other’s asses really hard.

Paige shouted at us — again — to shut up. I was pretty sure we’d already done that. Everyone was on pins and needles.

“Last time...”

Cammie shouted, “This tournament!”

“ ... that we do this. They did not post down to sixth, so if you didn’t break, you still might get a bid. Okay ... Duo! Same old, same old.”

Jas and Carole bounced up and hugged. I’d have my girlfriend at ToC!

“H.I.: Jas, Angie, and Steve!”

And I’d have my sister, too! And that was new bids for Jas and me!

“And, D.I: Mikayla and Sheila.”

She sat down and Cammie got up.

“CX — Janet and Lizzie, avenge us!”

Janet grinned. “Totally, dude and dudette!”

I couldn’t even make myself feel annoyed. We were going, Jas was going, Ang was going, Mikayla was going ... we’d really done this.

“Extemp: Amit and Sue.”

Maybe a bid for me — and Jaya — there, maybe not. Who knew? Of course, the answer was ‘The Grapevine tournament staff.’