Already Gone Read online

  I cursed under my breath.

  "Does your friend do this a lot?" Mason asked. "Leave you hanging?"

  I felt a pang of guilt. "Not all the time," I said. "Especially not when she knows something matters to me. But she’s got a tendency to forget things and sometimes she sleeps in. I just didn’t expect it today."

  "You do CX?" Mason asked.

  Most people called it policy debate. CX stands for Cross Examination, and it's a nickname used only in debate circles. I assumed Mason signed up for the class under pressure from his mom but didn't know anything about it. Maybe my assumption was wrong. I turned to him, suddenly hopeful. "Have you debated before?"

  He smiled. "No. I've observed a few rounds, you know for class at my old school."

  Better than nothing, I thought. I forced my best grin. "How'd you like to compete in your first tournament?"

  "Shouldn't we wait to see if Drew shows?" he asked.

  I nodded my head, "Of course, but if she doesn't, would you do it? I can do most of the heavy lifting. I can take ones or twos, I don't care."

  "Ones talk fast and get a lot of stuff read into the record, right?"

  I nodded again. "Right, and the twos sort of explain it and connect the dots." He looked athletic. I thought I'd try a sports metaphor, the only sport I know anything about, and that knowledge came exclusively from playing, rather poorly, on the beach on boring summer days. "It's like in volleyball, the ones set the ball, and the twos spike it over."

  "I think I'd do better as a two," he said, "since I'm not an especially fast talker."

  I was usually a two, since Drew couldn't see how things connected, much less explain the connections, but I could take over as a one. My diction's good, and I usually planned what we'd run anyway, so that wouldn't change.

  "Could you get a field trip form signed quickly? And faxed back to the school?"

  Mason laughed, almost bitterly. "My dad's at home, like always, so yeah. I should be able to get that done."

  I whisper, "Although Ms. Harris isn't the most observant. You could probably forge one and be just fine, as long as your parents won't be mad if you aren't at home on time today."

  "I doubt they'd even notice," he said. "Is it just one day? I thought these things lasted two."

  "We have to win today to make it to Saturday. You planning to win?" I smiled.

  "Heck yeah. If I do something, I'm in it to win it."

  "Then yeah, we'd need to go tomorrow, too." I cocked one eyebrow. "Is that a problem?"

  He shook his head. “I just got here so I have no plans. I wasn't even supposed to start classes until Monday, but the truck came early, and my parents were—let’s just say I needed to get out of the house. Besides, if I stay at home tomorrow, I’ll just be stuck unpacking my room."

  He went to Ms. Harris' office and spoke to her. She was actually the most coherent I’d seen her in days, which was good since we were about to leave campus under her direction. She picked up her phone and made a call and a few minutes later, Mason came back and sat down by me.

  "Are we good?" I asked.

  Mason nodded. "My mom said my dad would come sign the form and bring me some slacks."

  I hadn't even thought about clothes. "Hey, that's great." I beamed.

  Mason smiled back, but he looked almost nervous. "Don't get too excited. I have no idea what I'm doing, remember?"

  I pulled out my laptop and started showing him our files. "The topic this year is renewable energy."

  "I knew that," he said. I must have looked surprised, because he said, "I told you I observed a few rounds."

  "Okay, well most people are focusing on a particular type of renewable energy they think will solve the crisis, right? Wind, solar, nuclear, etc."

  "Which one did you choose?" Mason asked.

  I shook my head. "That's the thing. I tried a few, but I didn't like any of them, so I developed something a little different."

  I spent the next few minutes going over my new affirmative plan, one that would likely confuse opponents and judges alike because it existed outside the normal framework. Instead of proposing a plan to save America or on the opposing side, tearing it down, my plan was, in either position, to outline an alternative. By promoting humans to look at the world in a different way, we might actually affect the change the policy topic hints at. With my case, I was really trying to change how the future policy leaders looked at the impact of human energy use. It might take a bit for the judge to get what I was saying, forget about the opponents, but once it sank in, their link arguments and Kritiks and DAs should just fall away. It would be so empowering to only have to argue one thing really well, instead of running around like a beheaded chicken with a billion DAs and Kritiks and links and topicality attacks.

  Of course, I did prepare a few of those, but for the most part my plan was to focus on our strengths. I'd won the entire tournament at UT's summer camp with a partner from Grapevine, but we used a solar power plan. Which meant not even my old partner Todd would see this coming. I was hoping this plan would get me the points I needed. Drew didn’t help me write it, but she knew the hopes I had for it. I was worried about her, but I was getting kind of pissed, too.

  I spent the rest of first period explaining the basics of the affirmative and negative positions to Mason, which he picked up quickly. Since it was not only new but also unique and utterly unheard of, I was surprised how quickly he grasped it.

  "Hey what's your schedule?" I asked.

  "I have Physics next with Broussard. Then History with White, and Calculus with Grigassy, I think."

  "You're kidding. I'm in all those classes.” I smiled, and he smiled back.

  "Great, then maybe you can help me smooth things over with them when I ditch their class on my first day here."

  "I think I can swing that. They love me," I say.

  "I bet they do."

  The bell rang then, startling me. Ms. Harris came out of her office, a big grin on her hot pink lips. "Okay everyone who's going to the tournament needs to grab their things. We're all going down to the buses."

  "Is your dad coming soon?" I asked. "We leave in like five minutes."

  "He'll be here," Mason said. "You can count on it."

  I was pretty nervous, despite Mason's certainty, but sure enough when we got down to the bus, a dark blue Audi was sitting in the parking lot. A tall, handsome man got out, wearing slacks and a polo shirt. I could see where Mason got his looks. His dad had dark hair too, and even though he wore sunglasses, I could tell he had the same nose, and the same light brown skin.

  Mason snatched the proffered backpack from his dad’s hand, not acting grateful at all, and turned away sharply. His dad stood there dazed for a moment, and then turned and went back to his car. When Mason reached the bus, top of the backpack clutched tightly in his fingers, I asked him, "Is everything okay with you and your dad?"

  He nodded, but didn't offer any other explanation. I turned and waved at his dad, who smiled back at me. Then I followed Mason onto the bus and sat down next to him on a big yellow bench. Somehow, with him next to me, the bench didn't seem quite so large. After a moment, the Audi drove off and Mason seemed to breathe a big sigh of relief. The bus sat for a moment while Ms. Harris did heaven knows what. The driver finally closed the doors and the bus rumbled forward slowly. We were starting to pick up speed when I saw her, jogging toward us full tilt. The backpack straps over her shoulders bounced, and her knuckles were white where she clenched her laptop in her hands.

  Drew.

  Chapter Five

  Lacy

  Drew’s dark hair and cheeks flush bright red whenever she's been running, which she pretty much never does. Unless she’s being chased, or she’s late like today. Her dark hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, with little braids feeding into it on each side. Her eye makeup was just as severe as usual, with thick eyeliner around each eye, turning her blue eyes almost cerulean.

  Normally I'd be happy to see her. Normally I'd
grin and make some joke about her cutting things close, or ask her what came up this time. Her mom had never texted back, which wasn’t so weird, but I’d been worried Drew was sick or hurt.

  Once I realized she was fine, I wanted to yell at her and swear. The more I thought about it, the more upset I got. I already had six points with her and we’d been debating together for two years. I really should debate with her for the first time with my new plan, but now Mason and his dad had gone to great lengths to fix her mess last minute, and I didn't know what to do. And since Drew’s obviously not sick and had time to do her hair, she’d been up for more than an hour. She should have texted me so I didn’t worry. Careless and obnoxious.

  The bus doors opened and she came flying up the stairs, her eyes searching for mine. When she saw me, she did a double take. She scowled at Mason and came to a stop in the aisle right in front of me.

  "Who's that?" she asked.

  I was a teensy bit relieved she didn’t seem interested in him at all.

  "Hey Drew." I stood up. "Drew Dunmore, this is Mason Montcellier." I intentionally mispronounced Mason's name, saying it the way Coach Harris had.

  Mason smiled.

  "What's so funny?" Drew asked.

  "No," I said, "this is not where you get all defensive and rude. This is where you apologize to me, and maybe you say 'Nice to meet you, Mason.’"

  "Nice to meet you.” Drew turned to me. “Now, what was so funny?" She dropped her voice. "And who is this guy? I don't care about his name at all, no offense."

  "None taken," Mason said from behind me. "And I don't really know what I'm doing here, if you really are the elusive Drew. Up until a few moments ago, I was filling in for you."

  "What happened this morning?" I asked her. "Why were you late? It better not be what I think."

  Drew looked down at the rubber-coated floor of the bus, and bit her lip. "I just slept in, okay, that’s all.”

  I lift one eyebrow. “So you weren’t online, gaming until sun-up? Chatting with your little internet friends?”

  Drew sighs. “My mom was at work, and I was up late last night… finishing up a paper."

  "Finishing your English paper?” I rolled my eyes. “The one you finished and handed in yesterday? This matters to me, Drew, and I figured you knew that.” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “How do you think I felt sitting and waiting on you today? You’re supposed to be my best friend and you didn’t even text to say you were late."

  "I made it here in time, didn't I?"

  "Not in time, no."

  I pointed to the bench next to me and Drew sat down. Her snottiness and Mason's politeness cinched it for me. "Mason, as I’m sure you’ve already surmised, this is the very late, and very rude Drew. She chronically shows up last minute, but she’s usually not so rude when she does.” I stare pointedly at Drew’s flushed face, then I turn toward Mason again. “You’re still filling in for her. She can't stay up half the night before her best friend’s big tournament playing video games, forget to plug in her phone so that she doesn’t see my texts, and then waltz in and think everything's fine because she managed to sprint to the bus as it was driving away."

  Mason tried to stand, but he was too big to manage it very well on the inside of the bench. "I'm not trying to cause any problems. I can just head back to class. It's no big deal."

  The bus lurched forward and I fell back against Mason, landing forcefully on his lap. His arms wrapped around me. “Whoa there, you okay?”

  My heart sprinted faster than Drew was running for the bus moments before. I hoped my face didn’t flush like hers had, too.

  Drew cleared her throat. “If you’ve survived your terrifying near death ordeal…”

  I snorted. “Obviously I’m fine.” I slid off Mason’s lap and back into the seat. “But we’re on our way to the tournament now, and Ms. Harris already changed the roster to me and Mason.” I leaned toward Drew and put my hand on the seat in front of her. "You were late, again. Today of all days, when I’m going to run my new case, the one I’ve been spending every waking moment on. I had no idea if you were even coming. Sometimes late isn’t a big deal. Sometimes it’s too late." I turned around and looked straight ahead at the back of the seat in front of me. I had no idea then how right I was.

  "That was kind of harsh," Mason said.

  "She does this all the time," I said. "She used to be the most amazing best friend anyone could have. Heck, she joined debate for me. But a few months back she got addicted to this dumb internet game, and now she stays up all night playing it. Her mom doesn’t care, and the only person who even seems to be annoyed about it is me. It’s our senior year, and our grades matter, and this matters.” I gesture at my debate briefcase. “But she's always running late, and forgetting things. It's part of what makes her a crappy partner, actually. I'm sick of it."

  "Out with the old?" Mason raised his eyebrows.

  "I don't know," I said. "For all I know you might really suck."

  "I doubt it," Mason said. "I'm pretty smart. I can’t even think of a time I forgot to plug in my phone."

  “Mental note: Mason’s memory is unreliable.”

  He laughed. “I have an excellent memory. Let me rephrase. I’ve never forgotten to plug in my phone. I’m practically perfect in every way.”

  “And about as humble as Mary Poppins was, too.”

  He shook his head. "No, I don't think I've ever been called humble."

  By the time we reached Katy, we had run through some possible contingencies on my new case, and I felt like Mason understood it at least as well as Drew did. It helped that I planned to use essentially the same thing for both affirmative and negative. Drew was speaking to me again when we all exited the bus, but she ignored Mason entirely as though he wasn’t even present. We walked to the cafeteria in a bunch, finding a clear spot on one of the long, graffiti covered tables. I sat next to Mason, and Drew took a seat on the opposite side of the table. She pointedly never looked at him, as though she forgave me because she was complicit in my decision, but she’d never forgive Mason for being new and helpful. It was better than her being rude to him, I supposed. Or flirting with him. The thought sent a dagger to my heart.

  "Should I be worried?" Mason whispered, bobbing his head toward Drew.

  "I think you could take her," I said.

  "I would never, ever hit a girl." Mason arched one eyebrow. "My dad would kill me, so it wouldn’t matter whether I won or not. But that’s not what I was asking. I meant, do you think if she ignores me long enough, I might really disappear?"

  I shouldn't have laughed, because I love Drew and I knew she was upset, but she was acting like a baby. If she couldn’t give Knight Fort a break on the night before our big tournament, then she could suffer the consequences. This time I raised my voice so she could hear me clearly. “You’re going to be fine. Her mock displeasure won’t make you disappear. She obviously has some issues with managing her disappointment in a constructive manner."

  "Obviously."

  Drew rolled her eyes so hard I worried they’d get stuck up inside her eye socket.

  Coach Harris handed us the list with team match ups. I was surprised to see Katy had already updated our team on the paperwork. We were listed as Shelton-Montcellier. It always made me happy to see my dad's name on paper. My parents were both only children, so they decided to keep their names when they got married. I was the first born, so I took my dad’s name, Shelton. Hope got my mom's last name, Vincent.

  It's kind of funny, because apparently I look and act just like my mom, and everyone says Hope is just like my dad, so I guess they named us wrong. Hope's stunningly beautiful, so I guess I got the short end of the stick there. At least I got something of my dad’s, even it was only his name. Mom’s brilliant and everyone says I got her brains, so it's not all bad.

  I tried not to feel guilty about Drew when we walked past her on the way to our first round. It wasn't like she had nothing going on. She had Extemporaneous to do, even
though she wasn't debating. Her eyes followed me out the room and I tried to hang on to my righteous indignation over her lack of care for me and what mattered in my life. Anger felt better than guilt.

  When we reached the room, my stomach fell. I should’ve recognized the names, but in my defense, there are a lot of Millers out there and he’s changed partners again. Todd Miller, my partner from UT's summer camp, looked up at me when we walked in. He looked about the same as he always had. His hair was still parted on the side, with about a bucket of gel holding it in place. His enormous white teeth would have been more at home on a sportscaster, but he flashed me an enormous smile with them, completely un-self-conscious about their size. I wish heartily that I hadn't ever kissed him, but I couldn't change that now.

  "Hey, Todd," I said. "This is my new partner, Mason. Mason, meet Todd Miller. We were partners at debate camp in Austin this summer."

  Todd crossed the room and held out his pale white hand. Mason started to hold his out as though Todd meant to shake. I shifted in between them and placed a flash drive in Todd’s hand before he noticed. He handed me his with a sideways glance at Mason and I knew he realized my partner was completely green. I tried not to care.

  I uploaded their files into my computer so I could follow his arguments without trying to make sense of his unintelligible slurring. Todd took a step over to Mason and held out his hand again with a half smile, this time intending to shake. I shuddered to remember how his hand felt in mine, like a dead fish lying in my palm, cold and clammy and deathly still.

  Mason turned back to me and tilted his head to the side questioningly, as if to say, ‘what the heck?’

  "We won the summer tournament together."

  "We expected great things from you after this summer," Todd said. "But so far I'd say Angela and I have a slightly better record."