Debate Night

The debate was held in the Main Auditorium, which seated eleven hundred and held fifteen hundred. Students hung from the balcony. They sat in the aisles. A boy in a Spiderman costume was selling ice cream at the back.

Ify stood behind the curtain with her hands in a death grip. She wore her one good dress, navy, borrowed from Bukky. Her notes shook so badly she could not read them.

"You'll be fine," said Bukky, hovering.

"I will faint."

"You won't. You'll be brilliant."

"I will faint, and I will be brilliant while fainting."

"That's the spirit."

On the other side of the stage, in a perfectly fitted suit, Chidera stood at his podium with a glass of water and a relaxed half-smile. Even from here, she could see he was enjoying himself. Of course he was. This was his natural habitat.