Chapter 23

Tiana's POV

Today's the day for the actual competition. I must admit, it's really nerve-wrecking. Every one of us are nervous as ever. The competition was held in the evening which gave us enough time to prepare in the morning.

And now, all the teams gathered up in the venue, all dressed in formal attire. I dressed up in a peach dress that falls down above the knee, black heels, black blazer, I applied a bit of makeup so that no one can see my nervous pale face and I tied my hair into a fixed bun with a bit of strands of hair hanging.

"Hey!" Derek called out, jogging towards my direction.

"Yeah?" I said, shaking my hands.

"How are you feeling?" he asked as I showed him my shaking hands.

"We're going to have a debate in this hallowed hall with a lot of people, what do you think I should feel?" I said as he chuckled a bit and squeezed my hands.

"Heyy, just relax, okay? You can do it!" he said and hugged me tight while rubbing my back. "Good luck!" added and then headed back to his team area.

Gosh I could really use a phone call with Marcel that's why I started dialing his number.

But I can't.

"Tiana! Places!" Miss Hiddleston said as I nodded.

I stared at Marcel's picture for a while and finally turned off my phone and went to the stage with the team as the white-haired man in the nice suit, the speaker, went to the stand and started talking.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said with a deep voice "We are all gathered here today to witness the 54th annual extemporaneous speech-debate competition between three prestigious universities from the United States of America, from the United Kingdom and of course, from our very own, Canada." he said as Fallon nudged my elbow.

"You okay?" she mouthed as I bit my lower lip and nodded.

"The teams will all be given the same topic and opposite teams will choose a member to be their opponent, and we have our judges here today-- Professor Angus Deaton from Princeton University who we just want to congratulate after receiving the nobel prize in Economics for his analysis of consumption, poverty and welfare." the speaker said as we all applauded. "Another lovely judge from National University of Singapore, MD, PhD, Professor James Goh Cho Hong who excels in neuroscience and has also big contributions in economical issues in Singapore. Third, the president and chief executive officer in Ashford University, Dr. Richard L. Pattenaude and last but not the least, Entrepreneurial Female Icon of the year, American theoretical physicist and a leading expert on particle physics and cosmology, Dr. Lisa Randall from Harvard University." the speaker finished as we all applauded in sync as the judges stood up and greeted the audience.

Wow. These judges are over the top! Each time the speaker introduced a judge made me even more nervous knowing our judges are one of the most brilliant professors from very prestigious schools all over the world. Without even noticing, the competition started.

The first topic of the first round was about the decreasing of America's economy. The opponents are Michael Chavis from our team, Blair Anderson from Stanford University and Derek from Toronto University. It all went well and everyone made a point. Each person had 3 minutes of thinking about the topic and had 7 minutes of delivering their on-the-spot speech. The debate lasted for half an hour until the judges had decided that Derek wins the first round which gave their team one point. I then gave Derek a thumbs-up even if deep inside, I felt so envious and nervous.

The second round was about the political problem in the Philippines. It was debated that if this female presidential candidate should still be allowed to run as president in the country even if she became an American citizen before which made her denounce her own nationality. Most of the speeches were very convincing and true and I must admit, Stanford and Toronto Universities were both very smart in delivering their speeches but Fallon, with her ever so witty brain, gained us one point in the end.

The third round was my turn to debate and our topic was about whether Religion and Science coexists with each other. I was the first one to deliver the speech and I guess the judges were very much convinced which gained us one more point.

So that's two for us.

2 hours passed by and we finally went up to the clincher round to break the tie since all three teams had 4 points each and the team who would gained the last point will be declared as the winner.

"Stanford, choose your opponent." the speaker said as the team had a 5-second decision-making before they made up their minds.

"We choose Derek Hampton from Toronto University." Deena Richards from Stanford University said as Derek stepped forward as his team sat down behind him.

"Team 2, your turn to choose," the speaker said as Gordon and Julio debated for a while on who we should choose until it was time for us to decide.

"We choose James Von from Stanford University." they said as this tall, thin guy with glasses stepped forward as well.

"Lastly, Toronto, choose your opponent from the last team remaining." the speaker said as Hailey Green stepped in to reach for the mic.

"We choose Tiana Lynn Carter."

Great.

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