The wind howled. Rain beat down on the wooden roof of the auditorium. I stared at the audience as my heartbeat increased. My name is Harper Giana, and I am in 8th grade. This is my third year making it into the California High School Speech Association finals, but my first year making it to the finals. Even though I have done debate since I was 3rd grade, walking up to the stand still terrifies me.

 A round of applause rose from the audience as I nervously walked to the podium. I could see my friends and family seated below the stage. I cleared my throat, and started my timer.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlem-”

Suddenly, the lights in the speaker room shuttered. They blinked, flashing on and off. Everyone gasped in surprise. 

Quickly, the tournament host took the microphone from my hands, and made a general announcement. I could tell his voice was shaking, but he tried his best to hide it. 

“Ladies and gentlemen. It seems that we have issues with our lighting here for now. We will wait for the storm to subside, and then begin the tournament again. Please wait for notifications or loudspeaker messages, and return when requested. Thank you for your patience.”

He then turned around to us, the competitors.

“Now, I know you must want to take this time to research your opponent’s cases. However, we all know that is not allowed. Therefore, you will not be allowed to touch your devices while on hold. If there are any emergencies or you must check on something, please let me or any of our tournament staff know, so we can monitor what you are doing. I apologize for the delays.”

“You will also be monitored in your prep and break rooms by other tournament staff, though it will be looser. Please note that you will be taken to separate prep rooms from the rest of your teammates. You will still be with your partner, though.”

Hearing that, I breathed a sigh of relief. I wouldn’t be able to stand my teammates asking us what happened, asking for details, and trying to improve our case. It would’ve stressed me out too much to continue the round. I would deal with all of that later. 

I stepped down from the stage to go discuss the round so far with my Public Forum debate partner, Evelyn Nora. She and I have been debating together since 4th grade, when I first started doing Public Forum. 

As we walked towards our prep room with the other teams from our school, my friends and family joined me. They peppered me with questions about how I thought my round was going, and even after I told them I was not allowed to discuss the round, they still continued with the questions about how I was feeling, how I thought the debate was going, and what I thought about the other team.

As we got closer to the speaker room’s exit, I heard scurrying footsteps outside. No one else seemed to notice it. I whispered to my partner,

“Did you hear that?”

“What? The door?”

“No! The footsteps!”

“What footsteps?”

“I don’t know, that's why I’m asking if you heard them too!”

“Where’d they come from?”

“Probably outside.”

We glanced around the room, hoping for a hint to what happened, but everyone else just continued on. A member of the tournament staff opened the door, and our guide led us down the long hallway to our special room. As we walked past the room the rest of our teammates were in, I overheard someone talking about purposely sabotaging the lights, but only having enough time to make the lights slightly flicker. 

“Hopefully they think it was just the wind and intense rain.”

“Goach! Do you know how big of a risk that was? But anyways, the other team probably thinks so.” a shrill female voice said from the prep room.

“Harper and Evelyn have the skill to defeat that team with no help at all, though. Why did you do that?” another male voice sounded.

“It’s to secure them a spot, and to scare the other team out of their wits. That way, they’d be too scatterbrained to collect themselves and debate against us.”

“I can’t believe that worked. Hopefully the other team is now too scared to continue the tournament. Wait. Did anyone ever tell Harper and Evelyn about the plan?”

“Oh no…”

I could not hear more of the conversation, as our guide was leading us away from the main prep rooms, and towards our own private room. 

Inside the room, my partner and I both slumped into the soft cushion chairs. I gulped my water quickly to help overcome the churning in my stomach. We attempted some small talk, but the overwhelming event in the speaker room had shocked us both. I wanted to discuss what I overheard on the way over to the prep room, but the staff member could easily overhear all of our conversation. I pondered what it would mean for our team if the staff found out what our team had done. Suddenly, the lights in the prep room turned off. We both shrieked.

This time, the lights did not automatically turn back on. Instead, they stayed off. Since Evelyn and I had our phones confiscated to prevent us from doing research, neither of us could see our hands even if they were right in front of our eyes. The staff member in charge of our room immediately pulled out his flashlight, and got on radar contact with the director to check for our next steps. My thoughts flashed at a hundred miles per hour, never focusing on just one thought. 

“Is it our team? Or the other team? Who would win? What would happen to us if the staff found out the truth? Should I tell the staff the truth?”

All of a sudden, we heard sudden, earth-shattering gunshots and screaming coming from down the hall, where the electrical panel is stored. Our staff member rushed us to the main speech hall, where we found the rest of the competitors all huddled together, preparing for the worst. All the teams had been gathered together, and heads had been counted. Thankfully, no one was injured, and everyone was accounted for. However, the lights were still out, and security was trying their best to find out who had shut off the electricity. 

Everyone was extremely confused, and details were very spare. The security staff wanted to make sure all the competitors were staying calm. However, we were all begging for details. 

“How long are we going to have to wait?”

“Do they know who is causing this trouble?”

“When can we go back to our tournament?”

“Can we at least get our phones back?”

I thought about telling security what I knew about the sabotage from our team. However, I could not seem to get rid of teammates or fans. I tried saying that I needed to go to the restroom, but that just caused a round of concern and more nerves. It seemed I would not be able to help in any way. 

All of a sudden, I saw the coach walking in through the main entrance, a look of complete surprise at the sheer amount of people gathered. Quickly, he transformed this look of surprise to a look of terror. 

“Coach! Coach! Co-ach!!!”

He turned to our direction. Hurriedly, I walked towards him before any of my team could reach him. “Why did you turn off the lights?! Don’t you know how much trouble it would cost ME AND EVELYN if you were found guilty? We could even be disqualified!”

“Please calm down. You need to hear the full story before jumping to conclusions.”

“What full story. You just want us to succeed. That's all you care about. Nothing about the consequences. Just the current actions.”

“Harper, Evelyn. I am really sorry about not informing you guys beforehand. When we realized that you and Lucas and Anirudh from the other school were going to compete, I knew I had to do something to scare them. Those two are the best team in the state. They’ve even won the state championship before, and got top 10 in the West Region National Competition.”

“Sure, ok, whatever. You still should have let all of us have a fair chance at winning, though. Just because they have better records doesn’t mean they are better than us in this case.”

“Neither of you are allowed to tell ANYONE outside the team about anything I just told both of you. If I hear that anyone outside the team hears about this, both of you will be kicked off the team, and I’ll change your records.”

“Alright, coach.”

After slipping out of sight of the coach, I turned around and discreetly made a beeline towards the security staff. 

“Are you out of your mind?!” I heard Evelyn’s warning voice.

“Don’t worry about it. I just want to give them a hint about who is behind this, maybe a version of the truth.”

As we were walking towards security, I tried my best to tune out Evelyn’s warnings and complaints, but instead thought about what to tell the security guards. 

Five yards from the entrance to the head security office, I stopped cold. Should I really do this? Could the coach actually punish me, like he threatened? It's for the best, I told myself. If I told security now, it would all be over soon. I walked the final few steps towards the staff.

“Excuse me, sir. Is it possible for me to speak to someone of higher power? I don’t mean to do anything bad, I just have a clue from what I heard that may help figure out who is the culprit.”

“Ugh, fine. Only one of you though.”

My stomach churned. Would they take me seriously? What if they thought I was trying to get out of the blame? What if I get blamed? 

Suddenly, the loudspeaker came to life, and the voice of a female reporter came on. “All who know any information regarding the sabotage, please report to any security staff.” Seems like I was in luck. Coach can not stop me from telling them what I know now. 

With my chin held high, I walked through the entrance, and into the security head office. A secretary led me down the hall, to the head of security’s office. The man seated across from me was bold, and quite a large man with an overgrown beard. His gruff appearance didn’t help the butterflies in my stomach.

After an excruciating two hours with the head officer about what I knew, I walked out of the room, sweat dripping from my forehead. Even though I knew I was perfectly in the clear, the thorough interrogation still drained me. When I walked out of that room, I saw my coach, with a look of pure anger, while managing to look perfectly at peace with the world. 

The entire announcement was just embarrassment after embarrassment for our team. Our coach had been the culprit of the sabotage for the tournament, and our team was associated with that forever now. I knew what I did was for the best, but many of my teammates still resented me for it. They believed I had marred the team name. 

“So THAT’s who was causing trouble for the entire tournament. How will the coach be punished?”

“Will there be any long term punishments?”

“What about all the threats he gave to those who knew information? Would Harper be awarded for her honesty?”

If only. It was hard enough bringing up the courage to even go to security, much less ignore Evelyn’s advice. Damn. This world was a true battle for survival of the fittest. My mind then flashed to the earlier memory of me and Harper, standing on the stage, preparing for the debate. If only our coach had not done anything. If only our coach had believed in us. Then none of this would have happened, and we could have completed the tournament by now. 

I was brought back to reality with a voice in my ear. “Wait…Does this mean we have to come back and debate again?” Evelyn asked.

“I really don’t know… I zoned out for the last few announcements.”

Two days later, Evelyn and I were re-called to the campus for the finalist round. I was much more confident this time, looking down at the audience and my opponents. And so the story ends where it began, with me back on the stage, ready for the final debate.