Crunch Time

Well, they won. Albert made his debate debut, in the Taylors debate, as 1st speaker, against St. Mary's, and they won. But it really isnt as glamourous as it may sound, the St Mary debaters were 1st timers, and they were disadvantaged trying to prove the Internet negative. But all certainly wasnt well.
The other 2 debaters told him quite frankly that he was not good enough, and persisted on it so much and were trying to come up with numerous solutions to this, even suggesting he should cut his hair. Suhaib even wanted to sponser the haircut. Thats when Albert started to ask himself questions.
Shereena compared the situation to that of a composer and a singer. The composer does all the work, makes the song work, and works with the lyrics too, but at the end of it the person with the better vocal chords get all the credit. You figure out who's who in the bloody anology.
It was hard doing anything for them after she said that. But 10 hours of reseach and writing later, here he was again, their speeches all nice and tidy, all 2000 words of it. You know what, Albert doesnt care. He'd like to go on and on about commitment, and responsibility, and all that other bullshit. But no. He simply wants to feel important. Sad yes, but thats the truth. Of course Albert wont tell you that, he'll complain that the others cant do it because of "splitting headaches", or limited intellects or whatever. But the freak secretly enjoys all this.
He enjoys their blurness when the debate teacher asks them "what have you done?". When they pass him nervous glances and almost magically, scripts are produced, research done, and Albert assures the teacher that there was ample "discussion", and all everyone needed to do was memorize the stuff. Doesnt matter how close to the actual truth this all is, its just very ego-stroking when Albert thinks that the entire debate team would go straight to hell without him. He needs his motivation. Its like how the neantherthal male get a testosterone kick when they bring home the bacon, or is the sole breadwinner(have you noticed how many fancy terms are attributed to this form of male ego stroking?), its the same thing. Of course, he wont tell you this, he'll just bullshit about responsibility and stuff.
He'll have to repeat this again for the district semi-finals for wira cup. If he doesnt do well, his team will lose the chance to compete in the district final. And his school has never gone past the semifinals of district, hence there is sort of a pressure to go one further. Albert screws up again, SS17 dont get into district final, and he'll be an easy scapegoat. More motivation.
Wish him luck for the semi-final. He needs it. For now he has to go. To write their speeches.