Prodigal

~3.23~

“I’m so proud of you, Emelia.” Jeffery said to me after the last class of the day. We were standing by our lockers as everyone was racing to get out the door. “You stood up for what you believe in and you stood up for yourself.”

“Thanks, Jeffery.” I responded as I grabbed both his hands with both of mine. “I’m sorry if I made things really bad for you on the team.”

“It’s only one more game for the season, then I’m done with them for a while.” Jeffery said. “And it’s the state finals. They care more about winning than being bigots.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” I responded.

“EMELIA!” I heard my English teacher yell from down the hall. She was scurrying towards me with a stack of papers in her hand.

“Emelia, I’m so glad I caught you before you left.” She said. “Fantastic job on your presentation today!”

“Thanks.” I said back, not really knowing how to respond to that.

“I thought it was so good, that I submitted the video of your presentation to the Platinum Pen contest.” She said to me. Yes, my English class tapes our presentation. A little weird, but...

“What’s Platinum Pen?” I asked. “It sounds familiar, but…”

“It’s an international public speaking contest for high school students.” She explained. “It’s been around for thirteen years now, and it’s very prestigious. Participants from over thirty countries come together to compete, and the winner gets a $100,000 college scholarship. They also tend to get lots of admission offers from Ivy League schools.”

“And you think my speech is good enough for that?” I asked.

“I do. I submitted it. The Platinum Pen committee chooses the best 150 applicants, and those 150 meet in January to give their public speeches in front of judges and an audience. From there the judges decide who’s is best. I just got an email back from them, and your speech is going to be considered by the committee!”

“Oh my God, that’s awesome!” I exclaimed. “So if the committee chooses mine, I’ll be one of the 150?”

“That’s right!” She said. “Good luck, Emelia. That was a great presentation!”

Notes

That's a wrap for arc 3! I'll start arc 4 soon, and let me warn you, arc 4 will be the rawest of them all!