Speech and Debacles by Heather DiAngelis

Author:Heather DiAngelis [DiAngelis, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: YA Young Adult Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group
Published: 2022-04-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Riker

Riker lowered his chin to his chest and held the pose for three seconds—the classic end to a humorous interpretation performance.

“Thank you,” the judge said from a small desk in the back of the room. She continued writing without looking up.

Riker nodded and worked his way down the aisle to the desk he’d chosen at the beginning of this round. The five other competitors were silent, unmoving—another of the strange traditions at these Speech and Debate tournaments. The silence unnerved him every time. In Drama class, clapping was customary, an indicator of how well he’d performed, but for Speech tournaments, clapping only happened during opening and closing ceremonies.

Silence engulfed the room as they waited for the judge to call up the next competitor. Riker was glad to be done with his turn. This might have only been the third tournament of the season, but it was the ninth time he’d performed in front of a judge in the course of fifteen days. If he’d bothered to multiply how many times he’d done this in the past two years…

Not worth counting—the number would be too disheartening.

Sure, he did okay at these things. Sometimes more than okay. At one point in history he had even loved the tournaments, looked forward to them. But lately he just wondered what the hell he was still doing there. The monotony, the repetitiveness, the strange traditions.

At least he had better success here than he did for voice acting gigs. He’d thought the Speech performances would make him a better voice actor, but if so, he hadn’t seen the results of that yet.

He snapped back to reality and realized the next competitor was already performing at the front of the room. He’d seen this girl before—an average speaker who’d placed a couple times since he’d first seen her two years ago. Now here she was performing a piece from Mean Girls, still trucking along two years later. Why?

Great, now I’m projecting my problems onto her.

This competitor plus two more meant about thirty minutes before they broke for lunch. It took everything in him to not slam his forehead on the desk.

He’d rather be home, alone with these dismal thoughts. Far from the conventions that told him to pay attention, to be polite, to enjoy himself.

He lifted his chin in a mock show of confidence. I am not miserable. I love being here. I’m great at what I do. I want this.

But thinking the words did nothing to make them feel true.

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