lessons in love || chaennie

chapter thirty-two

Jennie left the stall and exited the bathroom, leaning against the wall until Chaeyoung walked out a few minutes later and nodded towards the lecture room. They walked into the large oval room and noticed quite a few other teenagers milling around different areas. Lisa, Jisoo and Seulgi were sitting behind a seat that had 'Park Chaeyoung' taped on and waved them over.

"Look, Chaeng, your own little seat and everything," Lisa said, pointing.

"I know," Chaeyoung replied with a grin, taking her seat, "It's gonna start in a few minutes guys, so I just wanted to say thanks again for coming down. It means a lot."

"No worries," Jisoo responded, "And sorry for earlier. I promise you won't hear a peep from me from now on."

"Thanks. You all rock."

Chaeyoung got a round of reassuring smiles as they heard a man go up to the podium to start proceedings. All the while, the redhead prepared her sheets and pens for rebuttal in front of her and saw Mr. Ramos slip into the group behind her. As the first speaker got up she felt her nerves begin to waver a little, focusing solely on listening to the words being spoken.

When it was her turn, she stood tall at the podium and saw Jennie mouth 'love you' at her before she spoke. Taking a deep breath, she started her speech, knowing it pretty much by heart at this stage and made sure to make eye contact with everyone in the room, looking at her girlfriend if she ever needed some reassurance. When she was done, she calmly walked back to her seat, inwardly delighted, happy at how she had performed and got back to focusing on everyone else's speeches for her rebuttal.

The time passed in a flurry of words and arguments until eventually everyone had said their speech, presented their rebuttal and the judges had excused themselves to deliberate. Everyone gathered around the blonde when the judges left, congratulating her, telling her she'd been fantastic until the judges returned, asking everyone to return to their seats.

"Firstly, we'd like to thank everyone for being here today, we were all very impressed with the quality arguments put forth and the confident approach to public speaking presented here today. Those of you who are not named winners, please be assured that debate is something you can continue on with through your high school and college years and we look forward to seeing you again. If we call your name, please come up to accept your plaque. In third place; Ryan Kim, St. Marks Preparatory School, Santa Barbara."

There was a round of applause as a tall boy went up and took a small plaque from the judge at the podium.

"Second place, Jackie Donaldson, Whitfield High School, San Diego."

A jumpy girl let out a slight squeal and jumped from her seat, excitedly taking the larger plague and blowing a kiss to the entire room as everyone clapped.

"And in first place, we would like to say that we were thoroughly impressed with this entrant and are looking forward to seeing them in competitions in the future. So congratulations to Park Chaeyoung of Mission High, San Francisco."

"HA!" Seulgi said, jumping up with a grin, "In your face, other schools!"

"Yea!" Jisoo said, jumping up as well, getting lost in the excitement, "We have the best debater in the whole state, so suck on that!"

"Um, very well. If you could please sit down so your friend could accept her award," the judge said from the podium, a shocked expression on his face.

"Oh right," Jisoo said, looking down to see Chaeyoung slinking down low in her chair, "But nobody forget that she's the best!"

Jisoo was yanked down into her seat by Jennie, Seulgi pulled down as well by Lisa as Chaeyoung sunk lower and lower.

"I'm quite certain we will remember," the judge spoke again, "Uh, Park Chaeyoung, first place."