Didn't see THIS one coming!

So. I am still kind of in shock. Yesterday was the Speech and Debate Tournament. Well, Friday was debate, too. And I went. But I wasn't as involved. I just watched that, although I'm thinking of doing it next year. I think it would be kind of fun, but I think I would be really bad at it. And I bet you that Mom's going to get all mad at me for typing that, but it's true.
Anyway. Saturday was Speech and three rounds of debate. Which, again, I did watch, although the final round I didn't really pay attention, and instead found it advantageous to play hangman and tic-tac-toe with another girl.
I did a Programmed Oral Interpretation. POI. I think I described that in another post, and I don't really want to do it again.
My first round went pretty well. I was up against K, who was first place last time, is really nice, and is from my club, along with some other guys from other clubs. I didn't know them from the last tournament. Their POIs were pretty good, but I knew my presentation was better, not to sound full of myself. Two of them didn't have it very well memorized and that showed, and the other was good, but too quiet and his facial expressions weren't very strong. I was pretty happy with my performance, although the room was TINY and that threw me off a little bit, because my focal points were skewed. Focal points are when you do a character and face in a different direction for them. Every character has a different spot in the room that you look at, and the narration is at the judges. But I had to be in the corner of the room, and it threw everyone off quite a bit. They should have put the impromtu speeches in that room.
I left the round and hung out with Aragorn, Grape and Lynn, along with some other people. There was about 15 minutes until the next round.
That round was not nearly as good as my first. The people were a LOT better. Of course K's was good, I knew her's was going to be. But there was another girl, and I thought her speech was WAY better than mine. Another bad thing was that half-way through my intro (which has to be memorized, and the rest of the speech you have to use your script) I transposed a few of the words, and that rattled me, and luckily the judge let me start over. Unluckily, that had an effect on how I did the rest of my speech because I was nervous.
There was lunch and another debate round in between my next round, which was nice. Lunch was funny. I sat with a few other members from my club (including Emma) and we laughed the entire lunchtime, it seemed. Well, we laughed and stole pieces of each other's lunch.
Before the final round, I was worried. The final round, unlike the first two rounds, is power mathced, meaning that all the people who did the very best are in one room, and depending on the amount of people doing the speech, the other rooms are the middle and worst. I didn't think that I'd made it to the finals, or the room going for first. Although the rooms aren't labeled, you can kind of tell which room is which. I looked at the postings with great trepidation.
I was in the same room a K and EG. They won first and second places the last tournement, and I had seen K's other two rounds, and knew that she was even better than last time. I flipped out. I was in the finals!
But I couldn't find anyone from my club! I wanted so badly to tell someone, but I couldn't find anyone! Finally I spotted Kris, who is also in my algebra class. I grabbed her shoulder.
"I'M IN THE SAME ROOM AS EG AND K!" I said, not loudly, but with great feeling. She grabbed both of my shoulders and shook me.
"That's great! Good luck!"
"My head is going to explode!" I said.
"No, it's not. You're going to do fine."
I told everyone I knew. A boy who I had been sitting with at lunch and who is in my club, asked me who I was with right before I went in. I told him.
"You're sick." He said, not meanly, but slighly jealous.
"I'm going to be," I thought.
"Well," he continued. "Get first place. Then I can say that the person who got first liked my POI." Which I do.
The third and final round was actually good. The other people were all great, and I, knowing that I was trying for first, gave it my all. I did the very best I could do, and walked away knowing that, whether I won or not, I was happy with what I'd done. And that was the best thing I could have asked for.
Before they announced the winners, there was a two hour long debate round. I nearly died. Then a guy did a speech. Then they began to announce the winners. Starting with the littlest kids, who all got called up. Then the Junior Varsity. Then impromptu speeches. Then platform speeches. Then, finally, the POI.
The entire time I had seen other people go up, I was thinking "It would be so great to go up there and have my club shouting my name. It would be great." But I was pretty certain that, although I was happy with what I'd done, I was not going to win. And then:
"Third place in POI: Bard!"
Lynn and Aragron both grabbed my shoulders, slapping my back. I think I shouted. "OH MY GOSH!" I couldn't even see straight. There were at least 18 kids competing, maybe 20. There had been six really really good speeches in the finals. I won third, which was really good, especially considering that this is my first year doing speeches of any kind, and my second tournament. I was smiling so much that my mouth hurt. Aragorn, Edison, Emma and Jord all stood up. I didn't see them, but Aragorn and Emma told me afterwards. Emma's mom said she was screaming my name at the top of her lungs. I was SO happy.
Plus I got candy.