Before the Boys Say No Read online

  She carried my backpack as we strode over to the basketball courts. Johnny P. was there performing with the usual crowd. I rolled my neck a couple of times and stretched my arms over my head. I pulled off my coat. I was wearing a long sleeve black T-shirt. For once in my life, I felt hot. It was the shoes.

  We received a couple of curious looks as we made our way to the front of the crowd. I didn’t look around for fear the tattooed girl would recognize me. Johanna nervously played with the CD player she had brought. I whispered for her to turn it up full volume. Then I would make my entrance.

  The music started blaring. I slowly, seductively, strode out onto the court with Johnny P. He stopped dancing and his face registered surprise. He looked around uncertainly. How could he know I was there to challenge him?

  My music was louder than his, so I started gyrating my hips like Marge had practiced with me. I twirled, I sashayed, I wiggled, barely conscious of the whistles and yells from the audience. Suddenly, my music was shut off. I was so caught up in my routine that I wasn’t prepared for the dance off part.

  Johnny’s music came back on and he started his robotic style. I stood back to watch him, glad to have a break because I was out of breath. Johnny kept his eyes on me the whole time. After a minute, his music was turned off and mine came on. I almost tripped in those amazing shoes as I made my way to him. I danced around him, letting my big hips work for me like Mom had shown.

  After several minutes of dancing back and forth, Johnny P. grabbed me in a hug and started laughing. The crowd of kids started cheering. In the middle of them, I heard horror or horrors--Mom and Marge’s loud shouts that drowned out all the kids. I looked for them. They were on the sidelines, whistling and clapping. And Brody was there with them. He had seen the whole thing.

  If I could have crawled away on my belly, it would still not hide me from the absolute mortification I felt. Brody was clapping and cheering just as heartily as they were. I couldn’t even concentrate on what Johnny was trying to say to me because I was so embarrassed.

  Johanna ran up and grabbed my hand, jumping up and down like a giddy three-year old. “Bea, you were amazing! I had no idea you could dance like that.”

  I motioned with my head in the direction of Marge and Mom. She instantly got serious and her eyes widened. Johnny still had his arm around me and was talking to a guy on the other side of him. I ducked to escape his arm and made my way through the unruly crowd to Mom and Marge.

  “I should be very angry at you,” Mom said when I walked up, “but how can I? You were great.”

  Marge enveloped me in a massive hug. I tried to breathe as she squeezed me. “I had no idea you would really pull it off, honey!”

  After she released me, I cast a look at Brody. He was nodding his head appreciatively at me. “And here I thought you were shy, Bea,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

  “Sorry, Mom, for kind of misleading you. Johanna got me into this mess and I just had to follow through.”

  I had almost forgotten why I had challenged Johnny to a dance off in the first place. I looked around quickly. Johanna was talking to him. I’d hear about his response later.

  “Those shoes are--” Brody stopped, shaking his head as he looked at them.

  “Delicious and amazing,” I said with a grin. For the first time outside debate, I actually felt confident in myself around other people.

  He smiled back at me and nodded. “You are amazing, Bea,” he whispered.

  I’m sure I didn’t hear him right. I mean, Brody would never say anything like that to me, except in my dreams. Marge and Mom butted in, dragging me away from those blue eyes that I wanted to drown myself in. So much for dreaming.

  CHAPTER 12

  Hosting a debate tournament at our school is more grueling than working at the restaurant. Let me explain. This is the first year our school has held a tournament. I don’t know why. At first, it sounded kind of exciting, but as the squad started working out details, egos got in the way. I stopped going to the planning meetings. Every time I’d make a suggestion, it was immediately discarded. Mr. Robarb finally started defending me, but he’s just a teacher, you know? He doesn’t have any authority with those egos.

  I hadn’t seen Jared for the month we’d been back at school. Evidently, he had gotten the flu so bad that it had turned into pneumonia. He was going to be making his first appearance at the debate tournament.

  Since we hadn’t had any time together, I was concerned with how well Jared and I would perform at the tournament. He had called me to invite me to his house to prepare, but I heard his whole family hacking and coughing in the background. No way was I going to expose myself to those country germs.

  Everything else in my life had been shelved for me to put my attention on this debate. Even Johnny P. He had actually called me a couple of times, but I never returned his call. Johanna thought I was crazy. After all, I had won the guy’s interest. But she didn’t understand how important this debate was. It was on our home turf. We had schools sign up to compete that we had never debated against. Mr. Robarb said it was because they wanted to steal the trophy from me--on my own school grounds.

  The morning of the tournament, I waited outside the main office for Jared, wearing my black suit and light blue blouse. Everyone else was already at the debate room while Mr. Robarb went over last minute details. I could practically see them licking their chops at the thought of beating Jared and me--especially Leslie. They all knew we hadn’t spent any time preparing together for the tournament. What they didn’t know was that I had spent almost every waking minute going over every finite detail of our cases. I had found a couple of pieces of gold--evidence that I could use to give me an advantage in a round.

  I finally saw Jared taking his time to walk up the sidewalk. He looked skinnier than usual, if that was at all possible. His seventies suit hung on his thin body. He have me a grin when he got close. I squinted at his teeth. He had little bits of black granules stuck in them.

  “Hey Beatrice,” he said with a sigh.

  “Jared, have you been eating coffee grounds?” I asked suspiciously.

  He raised his hand to his mouth and wiped it. “Naw, it’s just my chew.”

  “Chew? You mean, chewing tobacco?”

  Jared nodded with a faint grin. “My daddy got me on it. He said it would help me get over being sick. Now I’m addicted to it.”

  “Are you kidding me, Jared? That stuff probably made you more sick. That’s why you’ve been out of school so long.”

  He leaned over and spit. A string of brown saliva hung from his lips. I wanted to vomit. He looked at me quickly. “Don’t look at me like that, Beatrice. The chew helps me relax.”

  “But it’s all in your teeth,” I told. I couldn’t even look at him. “Spit it out now, Jared. You can not go into a round with black granules of chewing tobacco in your teeth.”

  His tongue swirled in his mouth and he leaned away from me to spit out a wad of brown mass onto the ground. “There. You satisfied?”

  “I will be after you rinse your mouth out,” I said. “What is Sue going to think about that?”

  “She broke up with me after Winter Formal.”

  I didn’t know that. That explained why she had joined the rest of the squad in making snide remarks about Jared being gone and us being “dethroned.”

  “Well, let’s get to the debate room,” I said. “We’ll stop at the bathroom on the way.”

  Jared walked beside me as I dragged my mobile files down the sidewalk. I looked at least a foot taller than him. I rather enjoyed towering over the other debaters. With my high heels, I was taller than most guys I debated against.

  We made it to the debate room after Jared rinsed out his mouth. I had to send him back into the bathroom three times to get all the stuff out of his teeth. I know there was a mirror in the boys bathroom, but he still kept failing my teeth inspection.

  Mr. Robarb looked relieved to see Jared. We both were afraid he wouldn’t make i
t. I wouldn’t have been able to debate without a partner. I think the other kids were secretly hoping he wouldn’t show up.

  “About time you showed up to help,” Leslie muttered when she walked by with a handful of papers.

  I ignored her and made my way to Mr. Robarb. “Anything we can help with?”

  “I think the rest of the team’s got it, Beatrice. Why don’t you and Jared go somewhere quiet to get ready for the day?”

  The other schools would start arriving any minute. Time was so tight that I felt guilty leaving the rest of the squad to take care of the last minute details. But I really needed to get Jared in the right frame of mind for the debate. He always needed my prep talks to keep his mind focused each round.

  Jared followed me to the lunch courtyard and we took a seat at one of the tables. I felt like I starting over with Jared. I had to take him through the cases--again. I talked fast, showing him the new pieces of evidence I had found and new arguments I had written for him. The whole time he wore a blank expression on his face.

  “I don’t think I’m the right partner for you, Beatrice,” he said out of the blue.

  “What?” I asked, my heart starting to pound uneasily. “You can’t cancel on me now.”

  “No, I’m not canceling on you, but I think you need to find someone else. I mean, this just isn’t fun. I know I said I’d be your partner and all, but I just don’t have it in me anymore. Especially since Sue broke up with me.”

  “Sue breaking up with you has nothing to do with debate, Jared.”

  “I know,” he shrugged. “But there’s a lot more I’d rather be doing than this. You can get anyone to be your partner. You do all the work anyway.”

  “Let’s stay focused,” I said quietly. “We’ll talk about this after the tournament, okay?”

  Jared nodded and looked at the ground. “We can talk about it, but I’ve pretty much made up my mind.”

  “You’re going to let your father down--”

  “Nope,” he said quickly. “I already talked to him about. He thought you were overbearing and that it wasn’t good for a guy to be partnered with a girl like you.”

  “Overbearing?” I asked loudly. “Do you think that, Jared?”

  He looked at me as if I must be joking. “Yeah, Beatrice. That word pretty much describes you. You’re worse than my mom. At least she lets me chew and wear what I want.”

  “I am not your mother, Jared.”

  “You act like you are though. I don’t like it. I just want to hang out with my friends, ride some bulls, do some wood working--you know, guy stuff.”

  The guys I know didn’t do those things, but I wasn’t going to say that to Jared. I took a deep breath. This very well could be my last debate. If it was, I was going out with a bang. I was going to debate like my life depended on it.

  I stood to my feet and grabbed my debate files. I didn’t wait for Jared and started striding to the gym where the debate rounds were to be announced. Jared rushed after me, wheezing and coughing up phlegm. I didn’t even care when he spat it out on the ground in front of other kids.

  “Beatrice!” I heard my name called. I looked behind me to see Tony rushing up.

  “Hi, Tony,” I said, forcing a smile to my lips.

  “Do you think you’re going to have the home court advantage?” he asked with a grin.

  I looked at him with fresh eyes. He wasn’t as cute as I had remembered. All of a sudden, he seemed to be calculating, like he was up to something. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but I got the sense he was trying to throw me off my game.

  “Of course,” I said confidently. “Don’t you?”

  He wasn’t sure how to respond. I left him standing with a puzzled expression on his face. Jared ran to catch up with me.

  “That wasn’t very nice, Beatrice. He was just trying to be friendly.”

  “No one is trying to be friendly at these debates, Jared. Everyone is out to get us.”

  “Don’t be so paranoid--”

  “You need to start being paranoid,” I told him. I whirled around to look at him and he bumped into me. “If this is our last debate together, Jared, then I need you to do me a favor. I need you to do everything I tell you.”

  “I always do,” he mumbled.

  “Not always, but most of the time,” I agreed. “I’m going to hand you pieces of paper when you’re being questioned. You just read what I put in front of you, okay?”

  “All right. You’re the boss,” he said with a shrug.

  He followed me into the gym. It was swarming with debaters. I felt the tension starting to mount as I made my way to the wall where the debates rounds were posted. I found our names. Just great. Our round was going to held in the metal building. Jared would be happy to be in his familiar surroundings. The smell in that building gave me a headache though.

  Jared did a little dance when I told him. I slapped his arm to make him stop. He looked like a skinny guy imitating a squawking chicken.

  “Who are debating against?” he asked as we walked to the building.

  “I don’t know them,” I said shortly. “Don’t ask anymore questions, Jared. I need to focus.”

  Jared quietly walked beside me. I held my breath when we opened the door to the metal building. The first whiff of air was the worse. I had already thrown up that morning and didn’t want a repeat occurrence from the heavy oil smell.

  The other team was already in the room when we walked in. It was two guys, dressed in black suits like me. Except I had a skirt on. One of them smirked when he looked at Jared. For some reason, that just made me mad. It was one thing for me to coach Jared on his appearance, but I took offense to anyone else making fun of him. Yeah. These guys were going down.

  I smiled sweetly and led Jared to our table. Silently, I pulled out files as Jared sat in his seat with his arms crossed. We had about ten minutes before the round was supposed to start. That gave me some time to get my thoughts straight. I was glad the other team didn’t try to talk to us.

  After about five minutes of pouring through my information, I glanced over at Jared. He was still sitting in the same position, but with his eyes closed. His head nodded to the side and I realized he had fallen asleep. I couldn’t believe it. I took my elbow and jammed it into his arm. His eyes flew open and he looked at me with a guilty expression.

  “I still don’t feel good,” he mumbled, wiping his mouth.

  “Just pretend you’re sharp, Jared. The judge will be here any minute.”

  We started the round as soon as the judge arrived. I didn’t hold back anything. I talked fast, held up our positions with fresh evidence, and fed answers to Jared. I was a one man show. The other team knew it and tried to shake up Jared. He just read everything I put in front of him. He didn’t have to think for himself because I did all the thinking for him.

  By the time the round ended, the guys didn’t have any evidence to lean on. I had taken them on, chewed up their weak case, and spit it out for the judge to clearly see. I was the winner of that round, hands down, and they both knew it.

  They didn’t smirk at Jared after that, let me tell you. Even though I had done all the work, Jared got the benefit of association. I packed up our files and prepared for the next round.

  “Great work,” the judge said from the middle of the room where he had parked himself.

  I looked up, surprised. Judges didn’t normally talk to us. The other team looked at each other with their eyebrows raised.

  “I am tempted to give the round to you, Beatrice and Jared, but I’m having a conflict. This is supposed to be a team effort, but clearly, there’s one person doing all the work.”

  My heart sank. And all my hopes for winning on our home turf. Was this really how I was gong to leave debate?

  I stood up and looked the judge square in the eyes. “May I speak?” He nodded. “The definition of a team as defined in the dictionary is 'two or more persons forming one of the sides in a game or contest.’ It doesn’t state that one
can’t be better than the other, or work harder than the other. You don’t see athletes performing at the same standards of one another in sports. I think it would be unfair for you to approach this round with that mindset.”

  I could tell the judge was impressed with my response. He looked at the other team. “Do you have anything to say to that?”

  One of the guys was frantically flipping through a large dictionary they had brought with them to challenge my definition of team. He was at a loss because there was nothing to refute my argument. He laid the dictionary down. They had conceded defeat.

  The judge didn’t say another word. He picked up his paper and walked out of the room. Jared gave a low whistle that echoed in the room. He turned to the guys.

  “She’s really good,” he drawled. “You have to admit when you’ve been licked, guys.”

  They didn’t respond to him. They gathered their files and walked stiffly out of the room. I let out a long breath and turned to Jared.

  “You did good, Jared.”

  “No, you did good,” he said. “I might not like debate, but I can sure appreciate how you kick butt.”

  I had to laugh at his quirky expressions. “Come on,” I said. “Let’s check to see if the judge does give us the win.”

  I walked at a slower pace. That judge was right. It would be nice if I had a more evenly balanced team. I had to do what was necessary to win with the only partner I could get.

  Mr. Robarb was visibly distraught when we saw him in the gym. When I saw the winners of the last round, I understood why. He had only two teams advance to the next round. Bethany and Laura and Jared and me. I couldn’t believe Leslie and the Blimp were taken out at round one. Leslie was livid. Evidently, the Blimp had really messed up and cost the round. He was nowhere to be seen.

  Our next round was with two girls. Honestly, they seemed like they should be competing in the novice division. I took no delight in producing easy evidence against every single argument. When we were done, one of the girls started crying. Her teammate looked at me with accusing eyes. I felt like a bully. By the judge’s demeanor, she felt like I was, too. But she had to give us the round.