THOSE GOOD TEEN YEARS 3 CRUSHES NO MORE

Chapter Six: The Debate

The noise in the auditorium was deafening.

The James Hoffman High School auditorium was huge. It was capable of sitting the now present students from the five different schools for the debate competition.

Peter was sitting in the middle row, with Ali and Lincoln. Lincoln was busy with something that suspiciously looked like helicopter blades and tin foil. He decided to ignore it, though a part of him thought it could easily be some homemade firecracker, and the the auditorium might blow up. Better make the best of the moment.

"This is going to be so cool!" Ali yelled over the noise. Peter nodded. The only person he wanted to see right now was Em. He had stayed up late at night to help with the research. He hadn't wanted to tell Em that he too had a ton of work, not after the way she pleaded with him. He hadn't slept that much, and now he wanted to just curl up and sleep. Thankfully he didn't get any dark circles. Em would have caught on immediately.

"What I want to know is, why didn't you fill in your name?" Ali asked.

"Oh, c'mon, Al. I had, like, a ton of work to do, and doing this thing would have killed me. I'm quite happy sitting here."

"It's called time management, Pete. You could-"

She was interrupted by Principal Yang, who was standing on the podium.

"Good morning, everyone! I welcome you to the Inter School Debate Competition. The students from the various schools are welcome. We will start the competition with out first participant- Luke Striker from James Hoffman High School!!" She clapped, and everyone followed. Luke came up on the podium, grinning. His parents were big defense lawyers, and Luke had the makings of one. He could argue wonderfully, and was perfect for a debate. Next to him, Peter was the second best. Peter felt happy for him.

Luke introduced his topic. Peter felt extremely guilty about it, but he decided to catch a few zzzs. He told Ali to wake him up when Em came up.

"Why? Is that how you support your best friend?" She asked.

"First of all, Luke is my second best bud. Em is the first. And I don't want to doze of while she's saying anything. So, yeah, Al. And you would do me a huge favour by NOT telling him." Ali narrowed her eyes but nodded. Peter closed his eyes and fell asleep instantly.

He was roughly shaken by Ali.

"C'mon, sleepy head. Em's coming." Peter woke up wide awake just in time to see Em coming up on the podium. She looked beautiful.

"Hey, everybody! My name is Emma Deyton, and I'm against the motion. My topic is- Is the on going war in Iraq sensible?

"Like my friend suggested, we need oil. Iraq's got a whole country full of it. But using war to control the oil? That's wrong. It not only waste's precious tax payer's money on war efforts, but also leads to loss of life. All wars do. That's what those who enlist know, and they are prepared to risk it. I respect them for that. But they are giving their lives, not to protect the country, but to help the government control oil that rightfully belongs to Iraq! I'm not being anti war here. But what's the point in controlling oil that we will waste on industrial production, and hence lead to more global warming. And USA is the lead in global warming. Therefore, I don't think the war in Iraq is sensible. People are asked to enlist for a year, in service to their country. But once they get enlisted, they must do things that they are not trained for, and that puts them in danger! But no, you're in the army, you know you face a risk. Yes, a risk. A risk against things that they never anticipated, that they haven't been trained for. There is a stop-loss program in the army. The enlistees are told that they will serve for one year, but in reality, their contracts can be extended to twenty plus years! You heard it right. All I can say is, it's time we spent our war efforts on sensible things, like eradicating terrorism. That's been our goal. Thank you so much."