The Second Team
The Second Team
After the City Round, my team fell apart. The two others weren't going on to the Global Round. Everyone had their own reasons, I don't hold it against them. Just like that, the three-person team was down to me.
It was the summer before tenth grade. I was carrying a pile of things: courses I'd set up for myself, a personal project half-done, a few other competitions stacked back to back. My time was just about full. A team falling apart is a reasonable enough excuse to stop. I could've said never mind, I'll try again next year.
But stopping never crossed my mind. The first thing I did after hearing was work out who to team up with.
I pulled up the list of kids from my school who'd competed in the Country round. Went down it name by name, looking for teams that had just broken up like mine, people left on their own like me. Then I messaged them one by one. I didn't feel weird about messaging people older than me. I'd been in the debate group the round before, so it was normal to me.
The new team had three people. A guy from another school, a year older. A girl from my school, also a year older. I was the youngest. The one who pulled the team together, messaged first, set the schedule, was the youngest of the three. I didn't think much about that at the time. There's something that needs doing, you do it.
By the time we got to Bangkok there was barely any time to ease into knowing each other. The three of us shut ourselves in the room and grinded. I was focused to the point I didn't know what was going on around me. One evening my dad had to remind me before I remembered I hadn't eaten. Didn't feel hungry either. That night, from what I'm told, I sat up in my sleep, touched my dad's cheek, then lay back down and kept sleeping. In the morning he asked if I remembered. I didn't remember a thing.
I don't know why I wasn't panicking. Three people just thrown together, going to compete internationally. And I was just fine.
We competed. I got a few individual medals, Debate and Writing. But I don't really remember those. What I remember is the three of us, near strangers, grinding together in a hotel room in Bangkok. Nobody walked out.
