I wake up with a splitting headache and the worst case of cotton mouth I've ever experienced. I've only been drunk a few times in the past, so this sluggish feeling is foreign to me. A few moments after rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I realize that I'm still in my tux, which is restricting my arms as I try to stretch them above my head. I turn, expecting to find Sadie sleeping softly beside me, but, instead, I'm met with the image of Felix drooling onto a white pillow, his red hair falling onto his closed eyes. What the hell happened last night? I remember chasing after Felix, him telling me about his cheating asshole of an ex-boyfriend, and the smell of fruit punch liquor under my nose. After that, though, everything is a blur. Images of me stumbling around the hotel and sitting on the floor beside Sadie materialize in my brain, but everything after that is just blank.
The clock on the bedside table reads 6:00 AM. I wonder how late I was up last night. I really hope I didn't make a fool of myself. I flip around onto my stomach and groan into the pillow. I feel like shit. Felix stirs beside me, blinking his eyes and whining about the pounding in his head.
"What time is it?" He asks, pushing away the covers and stumbling out of the bed. He picks up his glasses off the bedside table, puts them on, and continues to rub his eyes from under the lenses.
"Late," I say. "We've got to go get breakfast and head out."
"Ugh, what did we do last night?"
"We got drunk," I sigh, finally getting out of bed.
Where is Sadie?
The thought suddenly hits me and soon I'm spinning around the room, seeing where she possibly could have gone. Where did she sleep? Please tell me I wasn't a drunk dick. When I see the bathroom door locked, I calm down slightly, and settle on the fact that she's probably taking a shower or something. I don't think I showered last night, so I decide to that when she comes out.
"Well I'm going to go to my room and get changed. Tell Sadie I say 'thanks' for taking care of us and stuff. I'll see you at breakfast in fifteen minutes?" Felix says, pulling on his loafers from last night.
"Yeah, no problem. See you."
While I wait for Sadie to get out of the bathroom, I down as many bottles of water I can. I don't feel too hungover, so I'm assuming that Sadie coerced me into going to bed at a reasonable enough time that allowed me to sleep off most of it. I can't even imagine Sadie taking care of me. While I cherish the moments that she is near me, she seems to feel the opposite. And that's when it hits me, like a dodgeball right to the face. "Kiss me." Fuck. I said that. My drunk ass asked Sadie to kiss me. I asked her to kiss me and she said "no." Oh my God. I'm such an idiot.
Finally, I hear the twist of the doorknob and out steps Sadie, wearing... Oh, fuck. I freeze as she waltzes toward her luggage, clearly not noticing my presence, in nothing but a black lace bra and matching underwear. I visibly swallow and make some sound deep in my throat that makes her jump up to face me.
"Oh, shit. Sorry. I didn't see you." She bends over to get her clothes out of her bag and I have to physically turn around because looking at her like that is giving me a lot of thoughts. Thoughts that I should not be having.
"Yeah, um, sorry. I just woke up. Felix left and is meeting us for breakfast. He said thanks for, you know, taking care of him last night."
She just nods, and begins pulling on a short plaid skirt and a white Fairridge button up. "It's fine. Just, next time, don't get drunk the day before we have debates."
I run a hand through my hair. "Yeah, of course. We were stupid. I'm sorry."
She shakes her head, "You're fine, Conners."
Now that it's safe to look at her, I notice that she looks tired. Fucking beautiful, but tired. As if she didn't sleep last night. I feel bad knowing that it's all my fault. She's braided her hair into two French braids that stop at her waist. I realize that I'm still in my suit, and excuse myself to take a shower before we leave for breakfast.
Ten minutes later, I'm waltzing out of the shower in a pair of black slacks and a black Fairridge button up. Silver rings rest around the fingers of both my hands, and I twist them often. Sadie sits on the edge of the now made bed, staring down at something on her phone.
"Where did you sleep last night?" I ask, coming to stand in front of her.
She gestures toward the armchair in the corner of the room. Shit. I'm a dick. She had to sleep on that for the whole night? Or not sleep, by the looks of it.
"You didn't have to do that. I'm sorry," I say.
"I don't think you've ever apologized to me this much in the three years we've known each other," she comments. Three years. That's fucking crazy.
"Well, we haven't really spent this much time together all at once over the past three years," I say.
She stands up, "I guess. Are you starting to like me, Conners?" The corner of her mouth is quirked up.
Yes, I want to say. And I'm not just starting.
Instead, I say, "You wish."
I'm finding it increasingly difficult to be in Sadie's presence. Even as we stand in the elevator descending down to the first floor, I'm fighting the strangest urge to wrap my arms around her and never let go. She's messing with my brain. With her around, I feel like puddle of... I don't know what. But, still, I want to win. When that Principal's List comes out tomorrow, I want to see my name in bold letters at the top of it. Maybe I wasn't so competitive before coming to Fairridge, but competing with Sadie for the past three years has instilled something in me. Something that craves victory
This Principal's List is important. It's the eighth one that will be coming out during my time at Fairridge, and it's a tie breaker. So far, the ranking have been as follows: Sadie got the top sport for the first one of freshman year, then I did, Sadie won for the last one of freshman year and the one at the beginning of sophomore year, I finished sophomore by winning the next two, and, finally, at the beginning of junior year, we tied with the exact same average. We win JW Debate and I pull through to win this Principal's List and third semester's, then Valedictorian is practically mine.
Felix is sitting in the middle of the hotel's dining hall with his forehead resting on the tabletop. After getting our food, Sadie and I walk over to join him. I gently nudge his shoulder and he jolts his head up, surveying Sadie and I with wide eyes.
"Were you sleeping?" I laugh, pulling out a chair and setting my plate of pancakes in front of me. Sadie takes the chair beside me, so we're both sitting across from Felix.
"I'm fucking hungover," he grumbles, shoving a piece of pineapple into his mouth.
"How are you?" I ask, my voice soft.
He seems to understand what I mean. "I'm fine. Like it fucking sucks, but I'm just not going to think about it. I may have drunk texted him and said some... things. But we're obviously not together anymore, and I'll just deal with it when I get back on Thursday."
"Yeah, that sounds like the best plan," I say.
"What did you text him?" Sadie cuts in.
Felix laughs, "I don't even remember. Something about him being a cheating asshole and that I hope someone chops his dick off. Nothing too extreme." He smiles.
"Fuck yeah," Sadie exclaims, and leans over the table to high five Felix.
We continue to quickly eat breakfast. We have to leave in twenty minutes. Partner debates have quickly become my favourite part of JW Debate. I never thought I'd enjoy debating alongside Sadie, but we just work. We play off each other's points perfectly and it's so easy to win with her by my side. It's strange that we're better off as a team than we are as rivals. I secretly hope that we'll continue to be partners when we get back to Fairridge. I can't imagine myself ever standing at a podium again without her by my side.
I feel my phone buzz in my pocket. Taking it out, I see a text from my dad. Immediately, I feel my eyebrows pull together as I read it, a frown forming.
You're going to have to work full-time this summer. It's time for you to get used to being around the diner more often.
Something about the text makes my blood boil. He just can't take a fucking hint. I don't know how many times I've said I don't want to work at the diner. How many times I've talked about going off to university after Fairridge and then going to law school. He just doesn't listen. And, at this point, I don't know how to make him.
"Well, I'm going to go find Mariana so she can bite my head off for leaving the ball early," Felix rolls his eyes, piling his napkins and fork onto his plate.
"Good luck," Sadie says.
"I'll see you guys as lunch or brunch or whatever," Felix calls out, already dumping out his trash and walking through the door.
It's just Sadie and I sitting beside each other with empty plates resting in front of us. I pick up everything off the table and walk it over to the trash can and bin for dirty dishes. Walking back to our table, I take the seat across from Sadie and lean my elbows on the table. She does the same, so our faces are only a few inches apart. Her eyes are shade of dark forest green today, surrounded by long black lashes.
"So, Jones, are you ready to kick some ass today?" I ask, putting on a fierce expression.
She bites her lip to hold back a smile. I my focus rests on her plump glossy lips. "I was born ready, Conners."
"Atta girl, that's what I like to hear."
"Do you now?" My eyes can't stop roaming around her face: the glimmer in her eyes, the creases around her smirking mouth. She's breathtaking.
"Love it" I say.
"I'm flattered," she replies.
"You should be," I clasp my hands together and rest them under my chin.
"Don't look at me like that," she says, but doesn't take her eyes off mine, just like I won't take mine off hers.
"Why not?" My voice is quiet–practically a whisper.
"Because every time you do, I seem to forget that I'm supposed to hate you."
With every day that passes at JW Debate, the morning announcements get shorter. They only lasted for five minutes, with Dr. Snyder sending us off to our first debate of the day with thirty minutes before it actually starts. So, Felix, Sadie, and I remain in the conference hall. Felix is going on about how Mariana went off on him for embarrassing their school at the ball, even with her only sitting two rows away talking to her cousin.
"And then she said that I was acting like a child. Like, oh, I'm sorry I wasn't celebrating the fact that my boyfriend–ex-boyfriend–cheated on me. What the hell?"
Sadie and I just nod as Felix continues to vent.
With five minutes until the start of our debates, Felix stands up and trudges after Mariana, who didn't even spare him a glance before exiting the room. Sadie and I jump up onto our feet and walk the short distance to the room our debate is being held in. The whole time we're crossing the halls of the board office, she's grinning.
I nudge her hip with mine. "What are you smiling about?"
She twirls around to face me, continuing to walk backwards towards the room right in front of us. "It feels like we're going to win, right? Like, I don't want to jinx it or something, but we're just really fucking good debaters. Well, I am. You're okay, I guess."
I don't know why, but that makes me smile. "I'm fucking amazing. And you're right."
She ignores me. "I know," she exclaims. "I don't know, but I feel like winning would feel pretty fucking good." For a second her smile drops, but then she puts it back in place so fast I almost think I imagined it ever disappearing.
"It would," I say.
We walk into a small room that's bare except for three rectangular desks. One for the judges and one for each team. There are no podiums anywhere, so I'm assuming that this is the rare time that we're going to be allowed to remain seated while debating. Taking a seat at our table, I look over at our competition. A boy and a girl sit at their table with their eyes downcast on blank sheets of lined paper. Between their matching light brown hair and sloped noses, they look like twins.
The thing about debate is that you never really think about your opinion on the topics that are given out. You only think about the facts that justify your side. There are no personal opinions because, at the end of the day, the winner is the team that had the best argument, not who has the right opinion. That was hard to get used to when I first started debate. I made my arguments too personal, so, when I got a side I decided I didn't agree with, then I was automatically destined to loose. Sometimes, I can't even pick a side after a debate is over because both sides brought up such good points.
At the end of a debate, you're always left with papers of points. Ones that oppose what the other team said and some supporting your argument. I always keep my notes and store them in old binders. I never really read them back, but something about just having them feels satisfying, like it's proof of all the hours I have put into debate. Since starting partner debates with Sadie at JW Debate, I've been stealing Sadie's notes. For some reason, these are the notes that I actually look back on. I could spend hours analyzing her loopy writing, from the way she tilts her "t"s to the curves of her "g"s.
At the front of the room are three judges, each looking to be around fifty to sixty years old with greying hair and matching wrinkles on their foreheads. The lady in the middle aligns her stack of papers on the table before clearing her throat to get our attention. "Welcome to your first Monday debate. If I am not mistaken, we should have Sadie Jones and Carter Conners from Fairridge Prep and Milica and Andrei Eder from Hillcrest Academy."
All four of us nod.
"Good, good," she claps her hands. "You've all done this four times already so I see no reason to go over the rules once again, since they will remain the same throughout the whole competition."
The woman beside her, wearing a ruffled green shirt, speaks up. "Today's resolution is as follows: All eligible citizens of the United States of America would be required to vote in each quadrennial presidential election."
The man on the far right cuts in, "Please flip over your name cards to discover what side you will be arguing for. Your prep time starts... now."
This is a fairly popular topic to debate, as far I've heard. I remember doing a debate similar to this back in freshman year as practice, but, surprisingly, it has yet to come up in a competition.
Sadie and I both flip over our name cards at the same time. "OPPOSITION" is scribbled across the back in bold black letters. As always, I don't take the time to form a personal opinion on the matter and pull out my notebook from under my chair to begin scribbling down anything that comes to mind that would support the idea that not everyone should have to vote. Sadie is doing the same, concentrating with the tip of her tongue between her teeth as her pen darts across the page.
She turns toward me. "Do you think it makes sense to say that making everyone vote would make the results slightly inaccurate because some people might not put a lot of thought into their vote if they don't want to vote, and they'll just write in something because it's mandatory."
"Yeah, that makes sense. But they're going to rebuttal you and say that the results aren't accurate for the country as a whole if millions of people don't vote at all."
"You're right," she clicks her tongue. "But maybe we can POI that."
"Not if it's in protected time or unnecessary in context," I remind her.
"Theme speech?"
"Only if it fits your main themes."
"Okay, can you rebuttal it?" She asks, but cuts me off as soon as I open my mouth. "No, wait. Just build off that point during your speech. They won't spend time during their three minutes to continue one small argument."
"That could work," I say. "But we'll see what their first speaker does."
And that's how it goes. We continue to throw out possible arguments and quickly dissect them before moving on. Ms. Davenport always said that it was better to have fewer arguments and for them to be really strong, than to have tons of arguments that are weak and easy to pick apart.
We have four pages of notes filled out and two blank pages ready to write down Hillcrest's arguments when the middle judge claps her hands together and says, "Time is up. We will now begin the debate with the proposition's first speaker."
Milica clears her throat and makes eye contact each of the judges before beginning. "Good morning judges and fellow debaters. My name is Milica Eder and this my partner, and second speaker, Andrei Eder. We will be representing Hillcrest Academy in today's debate: be it resolved that all eligible citizens of the United States of America would be required to vote in each quadrennial presidential election. We define "all eligible citizens" to be residents of the United States, who turn eighteen years old before or on election day..."
There's no better way to start your morning than with winning. To say we crushed the other team is an understatement. We got in a lot of POIs that immediately got them flustered. And they turned their whole theme speech into a rebuttal instead of actually summarizing the main points of their debate.
Sadie and I are walking with a skip in our steps to the cafeteria.
"We fucking rock," Sadie says.
I throw an arm around her shoulders and she doesn't even try to shrug it off. "Yes, we do."
We find Felix sitting in our usual spot in the cafeteria after getting our food. He takes one look at our faces and says, "You guys won didn't you?"
Sadie beams at him, "Yeah, we did. Did you?"
Felix smiles, "We did."
"Congratulations," Sadie and I sing at the same time. As soon as I open the container of fruit in front of me, I pick out the watermelon chunks with a fork, place them on the inside of the container's lid, and slide it over to Sadie. She accepts it with a small smile.
We sit around talking about our debates and about what we plan to do during our last few days. Felix suggests going go-karting. I agree and so does Sadie, but we plan on getting together later to make some more definitive plans.
Sadie stabs a piece of watermelon with her fork as a girl with dark brown hair and large eyes sneaks up behind her, wrapping her arms around Sadie's shoulders and spinning her around on her chair.
"Gracie!" Sadie sequels, hugging the girl–Gracie–back and pushing her on top of a barstool.
"How did your debate go?" Gracie asks.
"We won!" And there's that smile again.
"OMG, yay!"
"What about you?"
"We lost," Gracie says, but she doesn't look too beat up about it.
"I'm sorry," Sadie pouts.
"It's fine," Gracie says. "I'm wishing you luck, though. For when you have to go against Lucas Wilson."
Sadie groans.
Felix's eyes have been darting between Sadie and Gracie for the whole time they've been talking. "Um, Sadie Bear, are you not going to introduce us to your friend?"
Sadie laughs. "Sorry. This is Gracie. She's a friend who's also competing at JW Debate. Gracie, this is my friend Felix." She gestures toward me, "And this is Carter, my debate partner."
"Hi, Felix. Hi, Carter," Gracie says. She turns toward Sadie and whispers, "He's even hotter up close." I don't know if she's talking about me or Felix. But I can make an assumption from the way her eyes keep flitting over towards me and back at Sadie.
"Well, hi, Gracie," Felix says, extending a hand out to her. "You seem way more fun than these two tightasses."
"Hey!" Sadie and I exclaim at the same time.
I say "hello" to Gracie before she falls into a deep conversation with Felix about their debate partners. I wonder what Sadie has told her about me. If anything at all.
When our lunch break is over, Sadie hugs Gracie goodbye and invites her to go go-karting with us. She accepts the invitation and skips off to her next debate.
"I like her," Felix says and waves us goodbye as he saunters away.
"Well, I'll see you at 2 o'clock," Sadie says to me.
"Meet in the conference hall?" I ask.
"Yeah, okay."
We stand in silence for a while, neither of us moving. Finally, Sadie speaks, "Kick their asses, Conners."
I smile. "It's what I do best."
"Are you always so cocky?" She smirks.
"Why? You like it?"
"Maybe," she says, winking at me as she turns and disappears into a crowd of students.
There's this weird feeling in my chest and a smile on my face the whole time I walk to my next debate.
...
A/N
A longer chapter today that I wrote at 3 AM, so I'm hoping it was okay to read.
New chapter coming soon...
Thank you for reading!