Debating Darcy by Sayantani DasGupta

Author:Sayantani DasGupta [DasGupta, Sayantani]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2022-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

AS IF THE encounter with Darcy wasn’t enough to throw me off my game, the next thing I realized was that Jishnu wasn’t even attending the Netherfield Academy forensics meet.

“I think he felt like he might be unwelcome here,” said Carter, one of the Regimental boys Kitty and Lidia had gotten a PhD in flirtation with.

We were all still in the fancy lobby, hanging out before our first rounds of competition began.

“But he didn’t mention anything to me.” I stared at my cell phone, as if it would give me an answer. “He could have said he wasn’t planning on coming.”

“He might have felt bad about disappointing you?” suggested Carter.

“Why would Jishnu feel unwelcome here?” Kitty had stopped bouncing on the lobby sofa but was still kind of sprawled over it next to Lidia.

“Because he used to go here and had to leave.” Denny, the other Regimental dude, nodded in my direction. “He told you about that, right?”

Lidia sat up, her eyes getting round like shining saucers. “Are you telling me that Jishnu used to go here before he went to Regimental? Netherfield Academy?” She spread her arms, indicating the splendor all around us.

Carter scratched his pale, pimply nose. “I don’t know a lot about why he left. He’s very private about it.”

“I think something went down between him and the administration. Why else would he come to a military academy?” laughed Denny, pulling at his uniform collar. “We all screwed up in some way in our other schools.”

“Not me,” said Carter. “I’m at Regimental because my dad went there too. I’m going to apply to the naval academy, like him. We’re a military family all the way.”

“Spill it, Leela,” demanded Lidia, now standing up to confront me. “What did Jishnu do to get him kicked out of this gorgeous place?”

“He didn’t do anything! He had to leave because he couldn’t afford it.” I hesitated, not sure if I should say any more. “It was actually Darcy’s family that was helping him pay tuition, and they stopped.”

Denny screwed up his beefy face in a quizzical expression. “Jishnu told you that?”

I nodded significantly. “And more.”

“That Darcy’s kind of a jerk, huh?” Kitty looked in the direction that he’d just left the lobby. The environmentally sound lights overhead glinted softly off her braces.

“Rich people can afford to give offense wherever they go,” I said simply.

“Weird, though, that Jishnu would have to leave school for that,” Lidia mused. “Don’t these schools help you pay once you’re in? And how is he affording Regimental? That’s not public either, right?”

“I don’t know,” said Carter with a smile. “Regimental’s not free, that’s for sure. But I think there’s a lot of scholarships, that sort of thing.”

Denny patted my arm with his big hand, saying in a low voice, “He said to tell you sorry that he couldn’t be here.”

I nodded. “Thanks. Tell him I missed him.”

The rest of my day went sort of downhill from there. I actually felt prepared for the November-December debate topic: Resolved—Universities requiring standardized testing for admission is an elitist practice.

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