divine , devon lee

04. on the news

CHAPTER FOUR
on the news

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    "now that we've finished our warm-ups, we're going to start thinking. do you want to be affirmative or negative? which topic do you want to advocate for?" mr.alpine spoke. he paces back and forth at the head of the library as he talked, his shoes clicking loudly every time it met the carpet. his voice boomed through the quiet library. chairs were set up in two rows in front of mr.alpine, all the debate students listening silently in them.

"oh, and, don't forget your partners from our last meeting you should've chosen. if you need me, i'll be working." and with one last click of his shoe, he sat down at a table behind a bookshelf and opens his laptop.

devon turned in her chair to diane. "you remember the topics, right?"

"yeah," diane lied. she could put on a great poker voice.

"you're choosing then, because, i don't really care for any of them," devon said.

diane now hesitated. "um, actually, you can choose. you've been at this for longer."

"okay then." devon shrugged. "why not the karate thing? you could relate to it, right?"

"right. the karate thing..." diane repeated, trailing off. what karate thing again? she was so wrapped up with the robby stuff all things about debate were erased from her memory.

"we can be negative for karate should be banned. you have karate experience and i have debate experience. we need to get evidence and research. what do you know about karate?"

"um. it's... it's a sport. martial art."

"and?"

diane tilted her head, trying to think of something. "it's from okinawa, japan. i think?"

"okinawa's in japan, yeah," devon answered. it was so clear diane couldn't say a single thing about karate. "anything else?"

diane sucked air through her teeth, an unconvincing look on her face. devon sighed.

"okay then." she exhaled, clearly disappointed. "we have a lot of work to do. let's go to the computers."

"i swear i know a lot more i'm just not good at remembering!" diane followed devon up from the chairs to the computer lab attached to the library.

"whatever. we'll find something online." devon pulled the door open, revealing tables with two computers on each one. the two slide into seats beside each other.

devon started by searching up karate. she tapped on the news button under the google search bar. the first thing that pops up? karate school fight delinquent is found after two weeks and is put in juvenile detention; san fernando valley news.

"oh shit," devon murmured. the curser hovered over the article, showing the first couple sentences. just yesterday, fugitive 16 year-old robert keene was found and arrested around 3 p.m. keene resisted but was ultimately turned in.

"hm?" diane leaned over to see. her face dropped.

"should i keep reading it?" devon asked for permission.