Maddox Academy: Grievous Beginnings - Wattys 2022 Shortlister

Chapter Twenty-Four - Not All Competitions Are Good

If the presentation hadn't been important before, it became my priority from that Sunday onwards.

Every second I had went into going over my notes, making sure they made sense and trying to find ways to appeal to the judges. That ended up being a lot harder than first thought. Tests were easy to judge they had a coherent structure and a set of answers that a presentation didn't have. I could answer test questions, even form a somewhat structured essay that hit the rubric it would be marked against. The likelihood of hitting every mark for a presentation would be impossible unless I knew just what the judges were looking for.

Katie and Jo had dug out some old score sheets from previous years, helping me to sort through and form a list of just what made the presentations stand out from the others. The winning topics varied from project to project and each had been chosen for different reasons. There wasn't a formula for winning the presentations and it seemed to just be the luck of the draw and whatever appealed to the teachers on the day. I didn't think a presentation on Roman leaders really fitted the bill for being that much of an interesting topic.

"Someone won with a presentation on the Greeks before and they didn't have half the knowledge you do. Having an interest in the topic really helps," Katie said as we climbed the stairs two weeks after my meeting with Mrs Maddox.

"But standing there and reading out facts hardly seems interesting," I said.

"You'd be surprised. People have won with less than that."

"What's less than just talking through facts?"

"Handing a sheet to the judges and walking away," Jo said. Katie snorted, quickly clamping her hand over her mouth to stifle her giggling. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"She's not joking. Someone did that."

"Did they win?"

"Not at all, but it was funny."

We climbed the rest of the main staircase and walked down the hall, walking up through the dark spiralled staircase that led to my dormitory. I opened the door and walked the length of the room to my own bed as quickly as possible, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Since they had all turned on me and gone along with Victoria's lies, I hadn't felt the need to try and form any sort of friendship with them. Even Emma, who had been the only one willing to talk to me, had gone along with it.

I dropped my bag onto my bed and crouched in front of my trunk, rooting around and pulling out the book that Katie had requested. She had thrown herself down onto my bed, her legs hanging over the edge. Jo had simply perched on the edge; she didn't think Katie's actions were appropriate. After throwing the book onto the bed, I continued to rummage through the trunk until I found the bag of toffees that I kept hidden.

Katie took the book and flicked through the pages. I watched her chew on her thumbnail and rock her legs back and forth as she looked through it. The sunlight streamed through the open window and hit her at just the right time, lighting up her skin and hair. My stomach fluttered and I quickly popped a toffee into my mouth to try and distract myself from the feelings. The longer I tried to ignore them, the stronger they seemed to become until every time I looked at Katie made my heart and stomach flutter.

"Is this a library book or one of yours?" Katie asked as she flicked through it.

"Mine. An old school-teacher gave it to me before Christmas as a goodbye present," I said, chewing on the toffee.

"I thought so, it's full of little notes in the margins."

"Oh, sorry. I do that."

"I don't mind, I can see inside your brain a little more. Find out just what makes you tick." She lightly tapped my forehead and I frowned.