Already Gone Page 5

  I frowned. He and Angela hadn’t debated together before. Which was his insult, I guess.

  Todd and Frank had won almost every tournament they attended in the past four months, using the solar plan Todd and I wrote together. I wonder what happened with them? I wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to make him any worse than he was naturally inclined to be, since it would be Mason’s first tournament.

  “You may be wondering why I’m not with Frank.”

  I shake my head. “I don’t care actually.”

  Todd went on, undeterred by my feigned lack of interest. “We had an undefeated record, after all.”

  “I think I heard that.” I frown.

  “We figured we’d help some other people qualify for state since we were already qualified together.”

  My stomach twisted in knots and I wanted to smack Todd in his big horse teeth. I should be happy for him. We should be friends. But it was hard to be nice to someone who stole your case after you wrote it and lied to everyone he encountered about it. I wanted to beat him so badly, but with a brand new partner, odds weren’t good.

  "The thing about records," Mason said with a grin, " is that they're always getting broken."

  Todd’s mouth dropped open and I barked a laugh. At least Mason didn’t seem intimidated. Before Todd could say anything back, the judge walked in, and we all took our seats at our respective tables.

  Our judge was tall and almost painfully thin. He wore an expensive suit. He glanced briefly at both teams before he spoke. "My name is Anders Langston. I'm a senior associate at a law firm in town, Fulbright and Jaworski, and I debated in high school at Clear Lake before I went on to debate in college. To give you a little input," he pulled out a large yellow legal pad, "I believe in flowing. I know it's old school now, but there's no better way to follow an argument than here on paper, with little lines connecting the arguments, and if I can’t understand you, then you don’t get anywhere with me. I won’t let you send me all your data files, because I want to listen to how you present the arguments, not spend my time trying to read through your research. I care less about your preparation before the round, and more about how well you can formulate an argument. As far as my paradigm goes, I'd say I'm a games player. I look at this whole thing as an exercise. I expect you to really think, to wow me, and to bring things together cleanly and efficiently. I'm a lawyer in that way, and I want you to lead me like you would a jury."

  I nodded. I had flowed for an entire year on paper before figuring out the software that did the same thing. I didn't bother pointing out that you can do it all faster on the laptop, even without flashing the quotes. Old school was okay with me.

  "Do you mind spreading?" Todd asked.

  "I don't care whether you speak quickly because I understand the desire to get more information out there, and to have a rigorous debate, but I will yell ‘clear’ if I can't understand what you're saying. I don’t give you credit for telling me something if I can’t comprehend what you’re saying. Sometimes you kids lose sight of the goal. You're supposed to be preparing for the real world. It's good to think fast, but just talking fast for the sake of saying more is pointless."

  We all nodded, and I grabbed my iPad and stood up to read our case. Todd was surprised to see me standing up as a one. I'd been a two for years now, and I was a two at camp over the summer with him. I was pretty good at wrapping things up, but I can also talk really fast, more than three hundred words a minute at high clarity. Not that I need to with my case. In fact, although I still had to read quickly, my case was intentionally short enough that the people listening could process what I was saying. I suppressed a smile when Todd leaned over to whisper in Angela's ear. Todd might already have qualified, but he didn’t write the case he won with and he hasn’t had an original thought in years.

  The judge seemed pretty open to my ideas, nodding along whenever I looked up at him. In my experience, there aren't many new ideas in the policy debate realm. When you find a relatively unique one, people either love it or they hate it. I did bring a copy of our old solar panel plan, for when I met a particularly rigid judge, but I’m glad I didn't pull it out for Mr. Langston.

  When I finished, Angela asked me my cross-examination questions while Todd prepared for his first constructive round, which would form the crux of their negative attack. Most of Angela's questions dealt with topicality at first, but once she realized we were squarely arguing about how we as debaters could literally impact the future policy with our plan, she dropped that line. Her last question was the only really good one, but I had a response.

  "You're saying that your entire plan centers on this one debate round?" Angela asks.

  I nod.

  "So, and correct me if I'm wrong, you don't have a proposal for the government to enact. Your entire plan is to come to these tournaments, and explain to the humans present that looking at the world as a good that we can consume is what caused this mess? And somehow, that will solve the energy crisis?"

  I smiled. "You hit the nail right on the head. I see where you're going. The glamour of passing sweeping legislation about solar panels, for instance, is pretty sexy. But when you get right down to it, we're high school students. We might one day become important, like our judge here already is, or maybe we will become world leaders even, but for today, we have absolutely no say in what happens in the world government. What we do control is how we as students, and others here involved in this activity including our judge, view the world. So unlike all the other plans out there, our plan actually impacts real world policy, not some pie in the sky dream of the federal government passing a coherent plan without a million special interest riders."

  Angela laughed. "So you expose, what? A few dozen people at most to this notion-"

  "I'm sorry to interrupt," I said, "but that's just wrong. I flashed you the plan a few moments before this began, which means every student at Grapevine will have this case in a matter of hours. When you take it back, you'll likely email it to everyone you’re friends with in the debate world. They'll upload it to the open evidence project to make sure everyone is ready for this in the future, and voila, massive exposure. Hundreds, if not thousands of people."

  "So after just one round, your entire plan is destroyed? You've done all you can do?" Angela smirked.

  Mr. Langston called, "Time, but you may answer the question."

  "Of course not," I said. "The only thing that will make people study it, consider it, and really change their minds is when we win. Round after round, debate after debate. In that regard, my plan gains increasing significance with every single round, and every single win."

  I smiled and sat back down. Mason whispered in my ear, "Wow girl, you were really great up there."

  "You starting to get the picture?" I asked him.

  He nodded.

  While Todd outlined his defense, focusing pretty heavily on the traditional stock issues, I watched Mason taking notes. He used a yellow pad since he hadn't brought a laptop, but he kept up pretty well. I handled the cross-examination questions, but I noticed while I did that Mason was preparing for his speech. When I wrapped up my questions, we took three minutes of our eight minutes of preparation time to review what he intended to say. His responses were already pretty well formed.

  To say Mason did better than Drew ever had was the understatement of the year. He fumbled around a little bit near the beginning, but once he found his stride, there was no stopping him. He shored up our arguments on topicality, and used an analogy I'd never thought to make, comparing our case to lighting candles across America, while the other cases were like politicians, all talk and no action. I can't remember exactly how he said it, but it made the judge laugh and that's never a bad thing.

  Todd managed to confuse Mason on cross, and we took a step or two back, but it was nothing I couldn't repair during my rebuttal. He did have one great comeback, though.

  Todd asked him, "If part of your whole point is really that we should value animals
as much as or even more than people, does that mean we shouldn't what, shoot a bear if it’s attacking us? Wouldn't you?"

  Mason got a strange look on his face and said, "For there is no folly of the beast of the earth that is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men."

  "What does that even mean?" Todd asked.

  "I'm just saying that for every bear that has killed a human, humans have killed a hundred, or maybe a thousand bears. Before we get up in arms about how we can't defend ourselves under this view, think about how much harm humans have done, believing they're the end all, be all in the world."

  When he sat down, I asked, "Where did that quote come from?"

  Mason shrugged. "It seemed to fit."

  "A fan of Melville, huh?"

  Mason's head whipped around. "Are you?"

  I just smiled. He might have been the hottest guy I knew, and he was shaping up to be the smartest, too. A dangerous combination.

  During his rebuttal at the podium, Mason did even better. He slowed down from the pace of everyone else, and really spoke to the judge. He didn't look at his paper more than once. I may never forget his closing line.

  "While I may never completely abandon my anthropocentric view of the world, after all, I'm a mighty fine man and I appreciate that, studying the idea that the world revolves around other creatures in their spheres, and recognizing that we share this big rock we live on has helped me want to do better myself. It even made me look into the state subsidies for solar, and I plan to talk to my parents about choosing an electric plan that offers a higher percentage of renewable energy for the same price. It's not much, but it's a start. The best way to change our anthropocentric view is by shifting one small thing at a time. I hope you’ll join with me and help us turn these candles into an inferno, one that might affect real change here on the planet we live on." He threw a fist in the air and shouted, "Vote affirmative and save the whales!"

  I couldn't help it. He was so exuberant and he tried so hard. I laughed. Mr. Langston did, too.

  I wasn't surprised half an hour later when I got our copy of the judge's ballot reflecting that we won. He awarded Mason and I both perfect speaker points, an even thirty apiece. Mason and I were both pretty pumped, and Ms. Harris wasn't too drunk yet, so she knew why we were cheering and shouted and jumped around with us. She sat down and went over the notes with us. She even shared a helpful tip I used in the next round. I could only imagine what a great coach she could’ve been if she’d have been able to kick the drinking habit.

  The next team was a pair of novices who shouldn't have even been in the varsity circuit. They started to cry after we finished our counterplan. Mason argued the anti-anthropocentrism case better every time, and I started throwing in a few topicality attacks and a kritik or two that didn't conflict with our counterplan. By the time our last round ended, Drew’s mom had come to pick her up and she was already gone. Mason and I advanced to the second day undefeated.

  Mason showed up on Saturday morning in an amazing tan colored suit. He brought a laptop with him this time, with the proper software downloaded and prepared. I was surprised when we took first place late Saturday night after a very grueling final round against a team that went to semi-finals in state last year.

  Mason was as giddy as a schoolboy when we found out we had won. He had taken off his suit jacket and loosened his tie while we waited. He fiddled with his tie nervously. When the ballot came, awarding us both perfect speaker points again, he tossed me up in the air like I weighed nothing, and then caught me and swung me around. He set me down and I hugged him. I was looking around his shoulder when I saw Drew in the corner of the room. She looked at me with a look I'd never seen from her before, and I thought I’d seen every face Drew had ever made five thousand times. I pulled away from Mason, but before I even took a step toward her, she turned and left.

  “Mason, I’ll meet you at the awards in a minute. Drew just left, and I want to make sure she’s okay.”

  I took off after her, but by the time I got out of the auditorium, she was already gone. I checked each of the rooms closest to us without luck. When I glanced at my watch, I realized I’d looked for her for almost twenty minutes without success. I was about to give up and head back for the awards when I heard voices. One of the doors to the back parking lot had been propped open and cold air rushed inside.

  Drew was sitting next to an idiotic rich kid from our school, one I didn't know very well, but I knew he wasn't on the debate team. He was wearing dark jeans and a Metallica t-shirt, but otherwise I had no idea what Drew might like about him. He had his dark hair all gelled up, and when he glanced up at me, I saw that he had the rich guy smirk down perfectly. They were leaned together, and as I walked up, I remembered where I’d seen him. His friends called this guy Juan, and when I asked Hope why, since he clearly wasn’t Hispanic in any way, she told me it was because he always had a joint. Juan, for Marijuana.

  "Seriously?" I asked. “You stay up all night and show up late. Then you sulk all weekend, and when Mason and I win first place, you bring Juan to the debate tournament? What is wrong with you?”

  Drew sat up when she heard me and placed both hands palm down against the tile. “What’s wrong with me? I’m supposed to be your best friend. I run a little late, and you replace me?”

  I spluttered. “I didn’t replace you, I found a last minute sub. But now that you mention it, maybe I should.”

  Drew scrambled to her feet. Her pinstriped pantsuit was rumpled, but her white shirt and suspenders looked clean, at least. "I changed my entire schedule to be your partner because you had no one else."

  I lowered my voice. “I know you did. I’m sorry. I don’t want to fight with you. I came out here to see where you went and make sure you were okay. I guess I was just surprised you were out here with Juan.” I tossed my head toward him.

  “His name’s Jack,” Drew said. “And he’s a friend.”

  She had been sitting awfully close to him for a friend. “Whatever you say.”

  “I appreciate you checking on me,” Drew said, slumping back down to the ground next to Jack, “but you better get back to your boyfriend. We wouldn’t want to make him anxious waiting for you. He might replace you with some random girl he’s never talked to before.”

  I blushed but it was dark, so I doubted anyone could tell. "He's not my boyfriend. And we hadn’t just met. He was a new student who had observed several rounds in the past. I tried calling you and texting you, I don’t know how many times, before I even talked to him."

  Drew exhaled and slumped against Jack’s shoulder. ”I don’t even care, okay? Whatever.”

  She was making me out to be the villain, and it wasn’t fair. She’d actually missed two different tournaments without telling me. I had to just forfeit the first round. And she’d been late too many times to count. “You’re always so irresponsible,” I said, “and you just expect me to be grateful because you did me this favor. You joined the team. Well, I’m not going to keep doing that. Maybe the reason you suck so badly is because you never even try. If you want to be my partner, you’ll have to try harder and actually show up.”

  Drew’s mouth twisted and she lifted one carefully plucked and dramatically shadowed eye sharply. “You’re not the only person dealing with stuff, Lacy. You just don’t notice anyone but yourself.”

  Her words stung like a slap in the face and I blinked back tears. I wish I could say I thought about what she said and paid more attention to her life, dug into her problems. I wish I could say I wasn’t selfish and I took her words as a cry for help.

  But that would be a lie.

  I think I was embarrassed and angry and maybe a little guilty for good measure. I don’t know what I would have said if my phone hadn’t binged right then. But I looked down at the screen in relief and saw a text from my mom.

  I’M HERE. YOU COMING? I WANT TO MEET YOUR NEW PARTNER.

  I glanced up at Drew, cozied up to the biggest idiot at our school, and a rumored
druggie too.

  “I want to hear about your life too, but I don’t have time right this very second because I spent the last twenty minutes checking every room in this school to find you.” I huffed. “My mom’s here because she’s hoping to see me get a big old trophy. Something I figured my best friend might want to cheer about. I guess I was wrong."

  “We should both be getting that trophy.” Drew folded her arms.

  “You only signed up for debate because I couldn’t find someone better. You hated every round! Just come with me to the awards ceremony, please?” It took every bit of my self-control not to glare at stupid Jack.

  She shook her head and her new friend smirked at me.

  I threw my hands up in the air. “Fine, you know what, stay here.”

  In spite of my words, I stared at her for a moment to see if she’d get up and come with me. She didn’t. My mom texted again. IT’S STARTING IN FIVE. WHERE ARE YOU?

  I turned and walked away, looking back over my shoulder a few times, but never turning around, never apologizing. Drew never even looked up to meet my eye.

  By the time I reached the cafeteria, Mason was surrounded. A girl we beat in the semi-finals sat on his right, chatting like they were old friends. On his left, Kelly Willis from our team kept giggling and touching his arm. He caught my eye and gave me a look that pleaded with me.

  And if that wasn’t enough, he mouthed the words, "Save me."

  Of course I promptly walked right past him and sat by my mom, grinning ear to ear.

  “Where’s Hope?” I asked.

  “She’s spending the night at Gwen’s house. She said she’s very proud of you, but she can’t withdraw your teammates.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Withdraw?”

  My mom laughed. “I think she meant withstand. But it was so classically Hope I decided to quote her exactly.”

  The corner of my mouth turned up into a half grin. When Hope came to my award ceremonies she was treated sort of like a celebrity, but that much adoration could get a little scary as Mason was learning firsthand. I didn’t mention that I was a little relieved. I wasn’t ready to have him meet her yet anyway.