Fifteen
Eli
“T his is terrifying,” I whispered to myself as I took small steps to enter the large building.
Javier put his hands on his hips as took in the complexities of the building. “Have you never been to a convention center before?”
“I’ve never had a reason to go to one.”
One could see how big the building was from the outside, but once inside it seemed even larger than before.
I had no doubt that there were at least a hundred rooms on each floor, maybe even more.
That was how long the building was. Standing inside of it, I was surrounded by white walls with massive floor-to-ceiling windows arranged in a pattern, a grey, marbled floor that stretched so far down the convention center faded into the distance, and a ceiling so far above my head that it was at least three stories high. It was intimidating, to say the least.
We had met up with Principal Montgomery at the front of the building since she took her own vehicle to get here.
She was lucky that she got to skip an entire day of work to go watch her top two students compete against top students from other schools.
Though, I would have chosen work over coming to the competition.
Competing against others was entertaining but watching people compete against others was not.
Our school Principal walked alongside Javier and I to find the room that we needed to be in.
Well, it was more her leading the way and us following.
The section that was holding Thinkfast: Valedictous Duo's happened to be on the opposite side of the building from where we were.
It was unfortunate since we were running a bit behind, and the thousands of people in the convention center that we had to weave through did not help.
Javier’s bluish-green eyes scanned the room. "How long do you think this will last?"
I shrugged, too busy with my own thoughts to pay much attention to him. I fidgeted with my fingers by my waist as we walked. It was a subconscious act, though I didn’t stop when I noticed it.
"Do you think these other people are actually smart?" Javier asked, his arm brushing against mine as he leaned in to speak to me. “I mean, the subject is history which isn’t difficult at all. It’s just memorization. If the others can’t keep up then the rest of this thing will be a breeze.”
Mrs. Montgomery sped up her pace again. We had less than five minutes to make it there and we were struggling to find it. She waved her hand at us obnoxiously, signaling us to move faster because we were walking too far behind her. We quickened our pace.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled as my eyes focused on the tiles on the floor that whooshed past as I walked over them.
Javier eyed me before smirking. “You nervous?”
"What? No." I scoffed and stuffed my hands into my pockets. Then, more quietly and with a tiny grin I muttered, "Shut up."
His silver earrings glistened against the light shining through the large windows as he chuckled softly. "Well, if you were nervous, then I'd say that you don't have to be. We are two of the smartest people in our class, even Mrs. Montgomery said so."
"Yeah, and so is everybody we're competing against," I grumbled as my hands flailed outward. "And those people probably haven’t been at each other's throats since their freshman year like we have. What makes you think that we're even going to get past the first round?"
My recently conflicting feelings for Javier did not change the fact that we hadn’t been the nicest to each other over the years.
Majority of the conversations we had were unfriendly, hostile, and competitive.
We never had the chance to see if we could be compatible working together because we were too busy competing against each other.
He was naive to believe that we could all of a sudden put aside our differences and years of difficulties to pull out the dub for our school.
"Hush before your negativity rubs off on me," he spoke in a joking tone but there was seriousness behind his words.
It’s stupid to get your hopes up when you know nothing will ever go your way.
Javier pointed a finger in the air. “Maybe that is the exact reason why we'll win. Our rivalry is what sets us apart from the rest of everyone else."
I sometimes hated his confidence and optimism. It was annoying.
Our principal whipped around once again and gave us a look of warning. She gritted her teeth and waved her hand again to non-verbally tell us to move faster. We sped up again to the point where we were practically jogging.
We eventually found the room after lots of aimless wandering. When we entered we were met with a large space that had multiple tables lined in a ‘L’ shape. There were two chairs per table, and each table was labeled with the school’s name and the team members.
There were only two tables left empty, one of which had our school's name on it. Our principal whispered at us to go take a seat. We walked across the eerily quiet space while everyone’s eyes followed us.
"You remember most of the stuff that we went over, right?" Javier whispered to me as we sat down.
"No, I’m stupid," I said sarcastically.
He rolled his eyes and then mumbled, "I sure hope you know how this whole thing works because I only skimmed over the rules."
I looked at him incredulously. He was harassing me about being prepared yet he wasn’t familiar with the rules! The fucking audacity. Before I could lose my shit, a man in a black tuxedo stood in the center of the room and took hold of a microphone.
"Good morning, everyone!" the man greeted us cheerily. "I am so glad to see all of your bright minds here today. You should all be very proud of yourselves for getting invited to participate in such an event. Give yourself a round of applause."
Our competitors clapped for themselves, as did Javier. I opted to hit my hand on my knee a few times.
The man continued rambling about how excited he was to host before he eventually got off track and started talking about his children.
I had no clue how we had gotten to talking about how his daughter had a habit of bringing home stray animals and begging to keep them.
I was extremely tired of his incessant talking and wanted nothing more than to start the competition. The anticipation of it was killing me.
After what felt like forever, he got back on track and started explaining the rules for the people who were too lazy to read them like the rest of us. Cough, cough, my partner, cough, cough.
The rules for this round were simple. There were ten tables to sit at because there were only ten schools competing against each other.
The tables were labeled with the name of the high school on the front and then two nametags on either side with the participants' names.
The nametag on the left had the number one on it and the nametag on the right had a number two on it.
That was the order of answering. I would answer second.
We were given five points if we answered correctly, but we could gain an extra two points instead if we answered correctly and in under five seconds.
The announcer started with the first table and asked a question. The girl on the left answered and said the correct answer with no hesitation, so their school was given seven points. Now it was the second table’s turn, and they gained seven points as well.
It went on like that for a bit. None of the tables, including ours, were getting any of the questions wrong.
People were blurting out their answers so quickly that they were spitting in the process.
It made sense that things were going soothingly considering everyone in the room was the top of their class.
However, someone was bound to mess up eventually.
And someone did. When the boy saw the host frown and a table next to him gasp, his face dropped. His partner sent a glare his way, unable to hide the annoyance and disappointment.
The questions weren't even getting more difficult. It could have possibly been the nerves getting to him, or maybe he hadn’t reviewed that section of history.
Each time after I answered, I held my breath for the second it took to find out if I was right or not.
I had been right so far, and I wasn’t trying to break that.
Javier kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. I chose to ignore him and focus on remembering what we studied so that I didn't fuck it up for the both of us. Next turn was our table once again and it was my turn to answer.
The man asked me the question, but I didn't catch what he said.
"Can you repeat the question?" I asked with a gulp.
The man nodded. "What did James Watt do for the Industrial Revolution?"
My mind went blank and I suppressed a nervous gasp.
On quizzes, tests, and exams I never blanked.
I studied so much that I did not believe it was possible for me to forget it.
Even when I was nervous, I still normally remembered what I had learned.
This newfound forgetfulness made me shudder in my seat.
Why was I suddenly experiencing short-term memory loss? One wrong answer would guarantee that we lose the first round. Hell, not answering at the speed of light could guarantee it. I didn’t expect us to get first place every round, but I wanted us to.
I turned to Javier and found he was already looking at me. He was waiting on my answer just like everyone else around us. My leg was bouncing up and down rapidly as I pondered my answer.
I could tell that Javier knew the answer based on his facial expression. I so desperately wished that he could answer for me. If my partner knew the answer, then why couldn't he say it for the both of us? Damn rules.
I sighed and faced forward and kept quiet. Five seconds had passed so there went our extra two points.
The host adjusted his tuxedo. "Your answer?"
I regretted ever agreeing to the stupid competition.