Which side of the debate was Meenal on at the start?

Meenal had written her speech in favour of school uniforms, and she had written it well. She had practised it in front of the mirror, in front of her brother, and once, to his great embarrassment, in front of her brother's friends. She knew it so well that she could have said it backwards.

Then the opposing speaker, a quiet boy from the other school, stood up first and made every one of her points for her, and answered them.

He said that uniforms were meant to hide the difference between rich and poor, and then he pointed out, gently, that everyone could still tell whose uniform was new and whose had been worn by three older sisters. He said that uniforms saved time in the morning, and then he asked how much time his own mother had spent saving for a blazer.

By the time Meenal walked to the microphone, her speech was a pile of arguments he had already knocked down. She looked at the first line, the one she had practised most, and could not make herself say it.

"I was going to tell you uniforms make us equal," she heard herself say. "I think I was wrong about why. They don't make us equal. They just make it harder to see when we're not. Maybe that's still worth something. I'm not sure."

She sat down to a silence she was certain was the worst she had ever caused. Then the quiet boy from the other school began to clap.