The Opposition

Chapter 28: Carter

Before I barged into Felix's hotel room–he gave me his spare key–I was set on getting Lucas Wilson kicked out of this fucking competition. That was until Felix raised a hand–after screaming that I scared him when I burst through the door–and told me that I was being stupid.

"You can't kick someone out of a competition just because they beat you. That kind of defeats the point of it being a, you know, competition," he says, sighing at my stupidity.

Of course, he's right. I know he's right. I just lost it for a second. It's getting harder to bury down my feelings for Sadie. Yes, I know I have feelings for Sadie. Or something for her. Every time I'm near her I feel this flutter in my chest, like a million butterflies tickling my heart. It makes me feel giddy on adrenaline and pulls me to her like a magnet. I don't know what these feelings are, or what to do with them. I don't have time for them right now.

"You really like her, don't you?" Felix asks, as if he just heard all of my thoughts.

"I don't know," I say. It's a lie. "She's fucking irritating, and I hate losing to her. But she's also like... addictive."

Felix snorts, "It sounds like you like her."

"Fuck," I breathe, then shake my head. "So what are we going to do?"

"About what?" Felix looks perplexed.

"I need to know that we're still in this competition for first place. She'd kill me if I did anything to stop us from winning fair and square, but there's no harm in, you know, checking that we're ahead..."

Felix catches on, "You want to steal the score log?" He starts laughing. "You do know that I am also in this competition. We're friends and stuff, but do you really think that I'm going to go out of my way to help you make sure that you win."

"Yeah," I say, a little sheepish. "But I get that this is a competition, so you don't have to risk your position to help me. Only if you want to. Do you?" My last question is hopeful.

His face breaks into a smile as he jumps off of his bed and trips over towards me. "Of course. I'll be your partner in crime."

I can't help but smile at that. I'm really glad I met Felix. "Partners in crime," I say, and we shake on it.

We have a plan. All I need to know is that we have enough combined points that puts us in the top five. First would be best, but top five gives us a chance to win with our next three debates. Finding this information is simple. Kind of. I know that all scorecards are delivered to Dr. Snyder, who has the rankings on a spreadsheet. Also, I know what hotel room is Dr. Snyder's because he told us, probably expecting flowers or something for putting together the competition. He got them. Every morning he gives out at least ten "thank you"s to different schools for gifting him anything from flowers to hundred dollar wines. And that's our in.

That's how Felix and I find ourselves in a convenience store a few blocks away from Lux Inn. The inside of the store is filled with print ads, broken drink dispensers, and chip flavours I've never even heard of. Felix is scrutinizing a bag of cinnamon sugar potato chips while I look around for something we can gift Dr. Snyder. There don't seem to be any flowers in this store. Or wine, but we wouldn't be able to buy that anyway.

"We could get him a chocolate bar," Felix says.

"I don't think a chocolate bar is going to hold his attention for that long," I reply.

He smiles, "That's my job."

I laugh.

We walk over to a small slushy machine with only one flavour: blue raspberry. I grab a giant white cup for myself and one for Felix, filling both of them up with the icy mixture and snapping on a cloudy plastic lid. I turn to give Felix his cup, but he's no longer behind me. I find him in the middle of two shelves, stuffed with bags of cookies and roasted peanuts.