The Life of Middle School Debaters

Chapter 1

POV: Payton

All I've ever wanted is to impress my parents. Get straight A's, get into an ivy school, become a doctor or lawyer, marry a wonderful woman, then disobey my parent's legacy and let my kids do whatever the hell they wanted. Little did I know that would all change on a specific day, when Ethan Jawahir joined debate.

It all started on Monday, November 21st, 2022. Our school had just won 2nd place in the private middle school debate tournament for overall percentage of wins last week (small school, two teams, 4 rounds, 5/8 wins, altogether 62%). My team, consisting of me along with my best friends Lucas Wong and Eden Choi, won 3/4 games, while the other team, consisting of MJ Watson, Max Gray, and Saagi Namira, won 2/4 rounds. Due to this, I thought our debate coach (who definitely shouldn't be a coach), Ms. Noureddine, would keep our teams as they were. Guess God was against me though, because before I knew it, Ms. Noureddine was not only deciding new teams for EVERYONE, but she was introducing our newest debate member, Ethan.

Now, this normally wouldn't be a problem for me, just an opportunity to get some  more students interested in debate, right? The problem this time is the fact that Ethan joined. He seems like a decent person and I'll admit, is probably the hottest dude in school, dudes literally got no physically visible imperfections. Brunette hair, only good haircut in the entire school, perfect nose, jawline, teeth, and forehead, probably has straight dick too. Only if he was perfect in all ways possible, because his personality, at least from what I've witnessed, is terrible, and that's an understatement.

Now, I bet he could be a decent person if it wasn't for his friends, and when I say friends, I mean only one friend. Arib. I don't even know his last name because, excuse my language, he's that fucking bad. Now, he's homo/transphobic, which normally I'm fine with due to the fact that this was an Islamic school, wouldn't have been one without it. But the thing is that, for Arib, it wasn't just a little gay joke or even a "transasaurus" joke, it's just full on discrimination. And don't get me started on how racist this kid is. I'd think that he'd be a bit more inclusive due to the fact that he's Bengali, which is a pretty unknown heritage. Yet there he was, making jokes about black dudes dying. In general, he's just a dick. I'd never saw Ethan participate or even laugh at any of his acts, but it just made it harder to tell if he's a decent person.

Due to that, I started to get a bit worried. If I was in a team with him, would I become as terrible as he supposedly is? And even if we're not considering personality, is he even good at debating? He'd probably take refutations, POI's, and hell, maybe even heckling too personally. I just brushed the thoughts away though, thinking that I was overthinking as always, and I probably wouldn't even get him. Oh how wrong I was.

Ms. Noureddine just pulled up a document showing the new teams for debate, as she did last time. I legitimately started saying prayers as she opened her doc, hoping I still get with someone good, maybe MJ or Max.

"Oh for fucks sake." I whispered, as I saw the screen.

My name was next to his.

I was with Ethan.

POV: Ethan

From the day I started this school last year, I knew I was fucked. A (not visibly) bisexual dude at a school like this? Instant bloody murder. Never thought I'd fit in well until I actually met my class. Now? I just camouflaged into the class and might be the most popular 7th grader.

My first instinct was to just hang out with the first person that tries to be my friend, which is what I ended up doing. That sadly ended in me becoming friends with Arib, who's a little fucking twerp. I'm pretty sure everyone besides Aliyah saw me as a hot but terrible dick, so I joined debate so that people can learn that I'm not THAT terrible. Plus, I enjoyed debating at my old school and was ranked #1 second speaker in my entire district, so I guess I'm just killing two birds with one stone on this one.

No fucking idea why Ms. Noureddine introduced me to the debate team, they all knew who I was, and it was visible. They either just rolled their eyes or just didn't give any shits. Just plopped my backpack down and sat in whatever empty seat there was, which was right in between Payton and Maxine.

"Now that I've seen how the majority of you all interact with each other and how you debate, so I've decided new teams for everyone, INCLUDING Payton, Lucas, and Eden's team." She announced to the class. I heard Payton let out a big ass sigh as she said that. I heard that they were fucking cracked at the debate last weekend and would've been undefeated if they didn't have biased judges. Plus, Lucas is his best friend, and I'm pretty sure he likes Eden, so must be a bit fucking disappointing. She let us discuss with each other for a bit before quieting us down and starting to log into her laptop.

"Now, when you get your teams, I don't want to hear any sighs or 'why them?' comments, alright? Everyone here has the potential of being an amazing debater in their own way. Now, here I go!" She says before opening the tab

3.. 2.. 1..

Click.

I immediately look for my name on the screen. While scanning it down, I hear Payton quietly whisper "Oh for fucks sake." I look quickly to see who he got, and it comes as a bit of a surprise.

Teammate 1 Teammate 2
Halari, Payton Jawahir, Ethan

I'm on Payton's team.

Wait.

I'M ON PAYTON'S TEAM??

End of Chapter 1

Wassup everyone, been a good amount of years since I've even opened this app . Fucks sake thats a lot, and my other stories were cringy as fuckk. Anyways, wrote this idea as soon as I woke up today, so I guess I hope you enjoyed??