Long tables ran from wall to wall with cardboard signs taped to the front, and behind the Region 7 table a clerk in a university sweatshirt was stapling packets in a rhythm that never changed.

Claire gave her name, then Eli and Owen Bennett, Region 7, debate.

The clerk typed.

She frowned.

She typed again, with two fingers.

“I don’t have badges for those names.”

“You do.

We registered in September.”