I'll Find You... I Promise

One Shot- What are you doing here?

I haven't ever been to a debate tournament, I tried doing some research but couldn't find much. So I kinda improvised. Lets see how this goes.

Janus still remembered his first ever debate. He had been in the fifth grade and the topic was whether cloning humans, if possible, would be ethical or unethical. Janus had argued against it, arguing that knowing the human race they would most likely treat cloned humans as subpar. He also mentioned how people might use their clones to get them out of necessary things that perhaps were as little as sending your clone to class in your place or as large as sending your clone to prison in your place. 

His opponent was a girl named Holly Brent who Janus would later face in fifth-grade elections for class president (they had tied, and shared the seat as co-presidents). Now, Janus had to give Holly some credit, she could have just made her point that cloning was cool or something similar. Her argument had been how useful and valuable clones could be to the medical industry. If humans were able to create clones, then why not clone smaller parts of the body? Like organs or limbs? It was a compelling argument and Janus had found some of her other points interesting as well. 

Janus ended up losing the debate, but was not all too disappointed. He found he quite liked debating, and he found he was good at it. Crafting arguments and speeches, molding facts to fit his story, and shaping the audience's beliefs and points of view. It all came so naturally to him, even if he lost every once in a while. Not to mention it was so much fun! There was a special sort of thrill one got when walking up to the podium with an opponent on one side and reading out a speech and watching as others nodded along, slowly succumbing into your perfectly set trap made of nothing but beautifully crafted words. 

Ever since then, Janus had been interested in debate. Whenever he switched schools it was the first thing he sought out. He had gotten lucky both at his last school and the school he attended now that they were staying with Logan and Patton. Both schools not only had a debate team but a debate class as well. It was built into the public speaking course, and occasionally the writing class would join them as well to learn how to write compelling arguments. But it was a debate class none the less, and that was something Janus found more and more rare at each school he attended.

Janus, along with five other students, had been selected to represent his school at a local debate tournament that took place on the weekend. He had been surprised at first, the teacher had seemed wary of him when he first arrived (no doubt due to some of the things mentioned in his permanent record) and the other students had seemed doubtful of his skill at first. But here he was, chosen by not only the teacher but the students as well to be one of the few to represent them all. He really could not be more excited than he was now, it was a wonderful feeling.

So far, the tournament had gone splendidly. Janus and the rest of his team had shown up well before their debates were scheduled and they had time not only to witness some of the debates other schools were participating in but to listen to some guest lecturers as well. But the end of the tournament had begun to draw near, Janus was the last in his team to debate. His prompt; Does the traditional classroom address contemporary society's needs? 

Janus was arguing against, and could not be more grateful. Despite knowing and enjoying the fact that he was a skilled liar, he did not know if he'd be able to lie about that topic in particular. He simply could just not force himself to even pretend to agree with such a stance.

Still, agreeing with the prompt was not enough to win and the pressure was on. His teammates had already received their scores, two of them had won their debates, one had been a draw, and the other two had lost. Their school was just on the cusp of placing third, the only thing that stood in their way was Janus's opponent. Both their schools were tied with points, and this being the last debate of the day meant that there were no more chances for either of them after this. The scores would be settled here, and now. His school wanted third place, they didn't qualify for first or second but they could make it to third. All he needed to do, was win. It was all up to him, and the pressure was on.