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The Final Debate

My mind finally felt clear again. I wasn’t consumed with worrying about Michael, stressing about my parents, or balancing Danielle and Emily. All that was on my mind at that moment was the debate team. We practiced day in and day out. The night before the big debate was crucial. We stayed up practically all night under the lead of Ravi. He was so determined to win; he called a mandatory overnight meeting at his parent’s house.

Pete had picked me up on his way to Ravi’s, “Do we really have to do this?” he groaned as I climbed into the passenger’s side.

“It’s for the team, do it for Mr. Anderson,” I encouraged him, except he peered back at me lamely.

“You’ve got to get over this man-crush of yours on Mr. Anderson,” he began to pull out of my driveway, “It’s creepy, dude.” He joked with me.

It was nice to be in the car with Pete again, talking and laughing like old times. We discussed everything too, the debate tomorrow, Schoop’s mom, Michael, and most importantly my impending trip to London.

“You have to promise me you’ll hook me up with some of the British babes you meet there.” Pete’s views on women still hadn’t changed much, not in comparison to me, anyway. I finally understood that ‘hooking up’ wasn’t one sided. Any ‘babe’ I met there would get a say, but for the sake of Pete, I agreed. “I’m so jealous, man. You better have a hell of a time.”

It almost shocked me that I would be leaving after the debate. The next day would be the official start of winter break, and I would be overseas until the New Year. It was great that I would get to spend some time with my dad, just like we used to before Mom came back.

It would be weird not to hang out with Pete and Schoop over break, and not opening Christmas presents with Michael, but I thought this trip was well deserved. Senior year was a hell of a lot tougher than I thought it would be, and I was mentally exhausted. I had to make it through one last effort though: the big debate.

We arrived in front of Ravi’s compact suburban house and noticed all the other debater’s cars parked out front. Pete groaned as we got out, slinging his overnight bag over his shoulder and dragging his feet towards the stoop. I gave him a pat on the back as I reached my hand out to ring the doorbell.

The smell of curry eluded as Ms. Sahrin answered the door in her patterned apron, “Welcome debaters! You’re just in time for some pakora!” she greeted, a bit too enthusiastically.

As she turned her back to walk back inside, Pete raised his eyebrow at me as if we had just arrived in crazy town. Ms. Sahrin hustled her plate of pakoras to the table where our teammates awaited, “Where have you guys been? You’re ten minutes late!” Ravi wondered, raising his voice a bit, “We could’ve gotten in some warm ups!”

It was a little frightening how serious everyone was taking this debate. I grabbed at Pete’s elbow as he stepped forward to argue with Ravi. It was good to show initiative at an argument, since that was what a debate involved, however we didn’t need to be using that energy on each other.

“Sorry Ravi, we’re here now,” I motioned for Pete to take the chair next to me as I began to seat myself, “What’s the game plan, Captain?”

Suddenly, all eyes were on our team leader. Standing over a warm plate of pakoras, I watched as our team captain’s face went blank. We shifted uncomfortably in our places, waiting for Ravi to say something, anything. His worried brown eyes scanned over us, searching for an answer, but everyone was looking to him for the solution. He gulped, and then connected with me. I gave him a reassuring nod and pointed to the paper set out at each table setting containing a list of the topics we would be debating that very next day.