But rapidly Majors' quiz bowl ends up falling short of anything remotely resembling a HSNCT berth. After returning home from the Tal Atkins Memorial Tournament, and studying in the coach's car from and to the home institution, Anna confides with her mother:
"I might be the top scorer on this team, but the way this season is going, we are not going to the HSNCT. So I basically score about three-quarters of the team's tossups, and we finish sixth"
"But the state championship then?" her mother asks.
"I guess... but I think my time will be better invested in debating this season. On top of that I am waiting for the result of Duke to submit my early decision application at Chicago. Which I kept quiet about at school"
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What's clear to me by now is that just qualifying for the quiz bowl state championship doesn't make people feel any different about the team, and I believe it's the kind of school where debate also flies under the radar. So I may as well keep doing research for the Duke Invitational, and then write and rehearse opening statements, Anna muses, while she feels the need to cut cards for Roger as well as practice with him.
Speaking of Duke, which is the Majors' debate season opener, the coach is bewildered by how Anna manages to score the kind of speaker points she scores, as well as how she appears to find a way to win rounds irrespective of the arguments they run. Despite her lack of actual tournament experience. Equally bewildering to him is the size of the skill gap between the two new players. The coach then calls Anna, jumping directly to the implications of her victory at Duke in the novice LD division:
"I think the time has come to move you up to varsity for future tournaments. Don't kid yourself, however. Rounds will be a lot harder in varsity LD. People will debate better and all that"
"I can handle it just fine" Anna comments on her coach's comments.
"Especially at the speed you have been learning stuff..."
The game I played at the debate team dinner was approximately the same level of intensity as this tournament's final, perhaps a bit higher. I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Games will get more intense and draining, much like games in the HSNCT playoffs. By now my brain craves intellectual intensity, Anna reflects upon how she viewed the intellectual intensity of LD games.
She then receives a text message from Roger. "What's that for sticking it to the Venomous Agendas?" he asks her.
"If their hopes for Nats lie in international extemp, then ours lie in humorous interp!" Anna tells him after reviewing her teammates' results across events.
"Lol!" Roger responds, laughing with Anna, not realizing how big the jump is between winning an inter-state novice tournament and winning the state championship.
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On Monday morning, the principal makes the morning announcement, starting with a brief overview of how the Majors performed at this online tournament they call Duke. As they are about to hand in their science assignments in Oscar's section...
"Today's announcement is twofold: first, our own speech and debate team absolutely dominated at the Duke Invitational! Starting with Anna Tessier, who completely dominated in Lincoln-Douglas debate! And then Oscar Mayer, who won in humorous interpretation!"
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"Way to stick it to these pesky Venomous Agendas!" Oscar exclaims, while jumping for joy.
"What do you mean, way to stick it to these pesky Venomous Agendas? They always crush us in everything nerdy!" one of Oscar's classmates asks, believing a joke is forthcoming.
"I guess, they bit their own venom..." Oscar answers the puzzled students.
Oscar's class bursts into laughter without knowing the whole truth about the Majors' 3-player speech and debate squad vs the Venomous Agendas' performance at Duke. We won 2 events to the VAs' 1. Then again, what do you expect from the VAs, when they have the reigning national champion in international extemp as their speech and debate captain? Of course, Chantal was going to win extemp for them! Oscar muses while he does not realize what is happening in Anna's class.
The principal made it sound like I am a LD goddess because he kept quiet about LD being split into 2 divisions, novice and varsity. What I actually won was the novice division, Anna's thoughts race through her mind as she struggles to resist the temptation to set the record straight on her performance at Duke. More than anything else up to this point, this is the real test of how this place is going to differ from my previous life as a VA. Now that they know about me as a starter in debate tournaments, and that I will start at the remaining 5 tournaments...
"Anna thinks she's a cool kid now that she won some debate tournament!" Marjorine jeers at her classmate, while throwing her pencil case at Anna. "So get lost!"
"That hurts!" Anna says while her lower back hurts where the pencil case hits her.
"You made a big mistake, lame nerd!"
"Stop it, Marjo! Just because I am confirmed as a starter on the debate team doesn't make me lame or a nerd! Don't let your prejudices get in the way!" Anna warns Marjorine, before the second part of the morning announcement starts. Which is not about S&D.
"And now..." the principal rolls the drum. "Our football team won an astounding victory on Friday night on the road against Westlake, forty-six nothing. We are now in the playoffs!"
Beyond consistently earning good grades, winning even novice LD at Duke cemented my position as a "freaky genius". No use trying to set the record straight, I can tell they won't see the difference between winning novice and varsity LD, Anna muses while the class cheers at the announcement of the football team clinching a playoff berth. Once again, she faces the harsh reality of attending a school where little attention is given to academic teams, and sports take up much more social room.
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However, since Marjorine was caught several times bullying this year, she is due for another visit to the principal's office, and the principal isn't happy to see her again.
"I caught Marjorine bullying Anna again. She threw a pencil case on Anna's back once the announcement of her victory at Duke was made" the teacher tells the principal about the incident.
"Marjorine, you're suspended out of school for two days and we need to call your parents! Not even three months into the school year and you are hit by a second suspension for bullying! You see fit to bully our star debater! What do you hope to gain by picking on her?"
"I feel she hasn't done much to earn the respect of the student body. Right now, I feel like people secretly hate her..." Marjorine explains herself.
"People hate her in secret? What could the student body possibly hate about Anna?" the principal asks Marjorine, believing that just punishing Marjo wouldn't solve the bullying problem.
"She makes us feel like idiots at times"
For months, Marjorine kept picking on not only Anna but other smart kids whom she knew others in the student body hated secretly. Was our debate team so talent-starved in past years that when Anna suddenly wins even the novice division at Duke, just as suddenly, people start envying her? a puzzled principal ponders, while listening to the troubling answers given before he calls her parents.
"And you're expelled from band, too! Marjorine, you will no longer play trombone" the principal decrees to her.
"What?" an astonished Marjorine asks, while her face turns red.
"I know it's tough, because you were an asset to band as first chair trombone, but it's a decision that serves the best interest of the band as well as of the student body"
However, he knows he shouldn't hold on to Anna too much. Especially when the Majors can only get one season out of her on the debate floor. So far, Anna appears on track to realize what Oscar's father believed she would.
Maybe... maybe Oscar isn't bullied because he is perceived as a clown first and HI is just a vehicle for jokes to them! Anna muses upon realizing that Oscar wasn't mistreated the way she was for the first 2 months.