Going for Gold (14 page)

Friday

Bryce

I put my hands on Alina's hips again. We were the only two
understudies, so we were fooling around in the back of the dance studio, half paying
attention, half trying to avoid our primal urges.
One more day.

"Is this right?" Alina asked. She bent down low,
pressing her ass against me.

Fuck yes.
"Yeah, that seems right."

I pulled her waist so that we'd be pressed even closer
together.

Alina laughed and stood up. "I'm pretty sure Lucas isn't
doing that to Kristen."

"I think we're doing it right."

"Mhm. Sure. Here, let me try to do that two step thing
again." She grabbed my hands and did something that involved shimmying. I
was having trouble not staring at her breasts. She turned to the side and I
dipped her low.

"No, no, no!" Tim yelled from the front of the
room. "Everyone stop! The thrusting needs to be more forceful. You have to
make the judges believe that you wish you were naked. It's the heat of the
moment people! I need to feel the romance!"

"I'm pretty sure Tim has lost it," Alina whispered
to me.

I laughed.

"Bryce!" Tim yelled. "Get up here. I need to
show them what I mean."

"Oh God," I mumbled. I made my way up to the front
of the room.

"Lucas," Tim said. "Grab Kristen's waist like
this. Lean over," he whispered to me.

"Okay." I felt like I knew where this was going.
But he was taking this so seriously to help me. I'd do whatever he needed me to
do in order for us to win this thing.

Tim grabbed my hips and thrust hard against my ass.

Alina was laughing in the back of the room. If I didn't love
hearing her laugh so much I might have considered punching Tim in the face.
Instead I just did what he said.

"Harder, Lucas! Thrust harder!" Tim thrust against
my ass again.

And I couldn't help laughing.

"Let's take five," Tim said and let go of me.
"Kristen, Alina, come here."

"You seemed to enjoy that," I said to Alina when
she reached us at the front of the room. She was still laughing as I wrapped my
arms around her.

"I'm pretty sure that was sexual abuse."

Tim cleared his throat and handed Kristen and Alina each a
shoebox. "Now that we have the general movements down, you should probably
start breaking these in."

Alina lifted the box to reveal sparkly blue stilettos. I was
starting to wish she's actually be the one in the dance. Tim had shown me the
sketch of the outfits and Alina would look amazing.

"How are we supposed to dance in these?" Alina
asked. "They're so high."

"Practice makes perfect." Tim clapped his hands
together. "Get to it."

Kristen was already putting them on. "I would have
preferred flats, but these shoes are amazing. Great choice, Tim."

"I knew you'd love them. Alina, come on." He
snapped his fingers. "Time is of the essence."

Alina put on the shoes. She was about six inches taller in
them, but still a lot shorter than me. They made her legs and ass look even
more amazing.
One more day.

"Back of the room, you two. Okay, Kristen, let's do it
from the top. Bump and grind, people!"

The music started blaring again.

I literally had no idea what I was doing. But Alina was doing
a pretty good job following Kristen's lead. And my favorite part was coming up
again. Alina twirled around and bent low, pressing her ass against me again. It
hit me in just the right spot now. I tried to think of something depressing so
I wouldn't get a boner. My athletic shorts certainly weren't going to hide
anything.
Puppies dying. Rodrigo. Shit.
I let go of her waist and ran my
fingers through my hair.

She turned around. "Are you okay?"

"I'm good. You can do that move for as long as you
want."

She laughed. "So, I've been thinking. You said you were
going to be able to visit Em more if you won gold. Does that mean you'll be
coming to the east coast a lot now?"

I smiled. Was she really worried that once the ITAs were over
we'd never see each other again? Couldn't she tell how much I liked her? I
could see a future with her. This wasn't just some meaningless fling. "I
was already motivated to visit more. And now that I've met you?" I grabbed
her waist and pulled her in close. "I'm probably going to be there all the
time." I leaned down and kissed her. Her hands immediately wrapped around
my neck, drawing me closer to her. Kissing her made my head spin.

"Understudy love birds!" Tim yelled. "Pay
attention or I'll make you run laps!"

Alina laughed and turned around again, picking up the dance
right where the song was. She leaned down and flipped her head back, whipping
her hair through the air.

But now I was having trouble focusing. For some reason it had
just hit me. There weren't that many events left. Brazil was down by one gold.
If that stayed the same until tomorrow night, it was going to come down to the
last event of the ITAs, the women's volleyball final. Brazil and the USA were
both guaranteed to get a silver or gold out of it, so I assumed one of
Rodrigo's other operatives would be in play to rig the game in favor of the
games going to a tiebreaker. If Brazil was up by one silver and down by one
gold, the game would be rigged against the US. Alina would lose. She wouldn't
get enough money to save her bakery. And I couldn't do anything about it.

Saturday

Alina

The spectators were already filing into the stands. We had
passed by the line outside the volleyball arena. It was going to be absolutely
packed. This was the last game of the ITAs. And we were definitely going to
win. We were going to bring home the last gold for the USA. I closed my eyes
and took a deep breath.

"Alina, are you okay?" Kristen asked and sat down
next to me.

I opened my eyes. "I'm great." And I meant it. I
was hyper focused. There wasn't a doubt in my mind about what was about to
happen on that court. I'd finally beat Gabriela once and for all.

"You should probably get dressed. The game starts in 20
minutes." Kristen already had red, white, and blue Kinesio tape wrapped up
and down her arms and legs and lots of the other girls were already doing their
pregame rituals.

I nodded and stood up. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and
opened up my locker. As soon as my locker door opened, photos fell out,
spreading all over the floor.

"What the hell?" I bent down to pick them up and
froze.
Oh God.
I could feel the tears coming to my eyes. Chris banging
Gabriela. Tons of photos of Chris fucking Gabriela against a wall in Club Blue.
It was obvious because there was a neon blue sign above their fucking heads
that said Club Blue. I flipped one over. It was dated from the night Chris had
won his gold.
He lied to me. I knew he lied to me!

"Alina?" Kristen's voice sounded miles away. I saw
her crouch down next to me and before I knew it, she had grabbed all the
photos. "Alina?"

I sat down on the locker room floor. It shouldn't hurt like
this. Chris and I had broken up. I liked Bryce. Why did it hurt so much?

"Alina?" Kristen put her hands on my shoulders.
"Gabriela's just trying to get in your head. Don't let her win."

That's why it hurt. It wasn't that Chris had cheated on me. I
knew he was a dick. It was the fact that Gabriela had won him over. She always
beat me. She always took everything away from me.

"Alina, say something."

Instead I burst into tears.

"Shit," Kristen mumbled. She wrapped her arms
around me. "Alina, you can beat her today in the one thing that matters
the most to her. In front of the whole world."

But I didn't feel like facing her. I felt like admitting
defeat. All I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and pull the sheets over my
head.

"It's time to kick her ass once and for all."

***

I knew my eyes were still puffy as I made my way out of the
locker room. The pep talks from Kristen helped.

The pregame warm-ups went by in a blur. All I knew was that
way too many of my practice serves hit the net.
Focus!

When it was time to shake the other teams' hands, I knew
exactly what I was going to say to her. I was going to look her in the eyes and
say, "Nice try." And then I was going to annihilate her in the game.
When I got to Gabriela, she locked eyes with me and smiled, just like always.

She grabbed my hand under the net. Before I could say what I
wanted, she said, "I'll make sure to tell Chris you said hi." She
winked at me and released my hand.

I was going to kill her.

Kristen put her hand on my back and pushed me forward to
shake the next player's hand. "I hope you're enjoying Alina's sloppy
seconds," she said to Gabriela.

Gabriela scoffed.

Why didn't I say something clever like that? Why didn't I
say anything at all?

I took my place on the court. I scanned the crowd looking for
Bryce. That's what I needed. To see him cheering me on. To know that one person
was on my side. I saw him smiling, holding his sign. Tim and Alex were on
either side of him. Alex had a sign of his own: "I heard gold wasn't even
the best thing you ladies are getting tonight." There was a winky face at
the end.

Oh my God.
I laughed out loud. I shook my head and
looked across the court. There was no way Gabriela fucking Santos was beating
me again.

And she didn't. We won the first game by three points,
despite the fact that the refs were making awful calls. Coach Hammond's face
was bright red from yelling so much.

As we switched sides, Gabriela walked by me. "Looks like
your boyfriend's here," she said with a huge smile on her face.

Again, I couldn't think of anything witty to say to her. We
had just beat her in the first game, and she was still the one crawling under
my skin. Was she trying to have sex with Bryce too or something? I looked up at
the stands to see what Bryce was doing. Instead, I saw Chris taking a seat a
few rows in front of Bryce. He was wearing a Team Brazil T-shirt. He had a
bouquet of flowers in his hand, like he already knew Gabriela was going to win.

Are you fucking kidding me?
Traitor!

My first serve of the game went right into the net. The rest
of the game wasn't much better. None of my bumps seemed to hit the mark. And
every single one of Kristen's spikes went right at Gabriela's face. The only
problem was that Gabriela was good, and all she had to do was take one step
back and bump it perfectly to their setter.

"That was in!" Coach Hammond yelled at one of the
refs. "Do you need fucking glasses?!"

We lost by 10 points.

"What the hell was that?" Coach Hammond said as we
made our way off the court. "I knew practicing for that stupid tiebreaker
would throw you two off your game," she said, directly at me and Kristen.
"And if you two would get your heads in the game, you wouldn't even need
the tiebreaker. Focus on the game. All of you!"

I had never seen her this upset before. I ran back onto the
court. Coach Hammond's wrath was enough to make me focus. It was exactly what I
needed. Gabriela and Chris were both awful people. Who cared what they did
together? I liked Bryce. I really liked Bryce. I took a deep breath. And I
needed this money. I needed to win gold. Coach Hammond was right. Now my head
was officially in the game.

But even with me playing better, it didn't seem to matter. It
was almost like the game was rigged. The line judges were blowing easy calls,
all in Brazil's favor.

"It was like a foot in!" Nina yelled after her
serve was called out. "What are you talking about?"

The ref lifted out a yellow card from his pocket.

"This is such bullshit," she mumbled. The ref gave
her a warning look. One more wrong move and she'd be ejected from the game.

We started hitting all our shots directly into the middle of
the court to avoid bad calls. And eventually we got up by two points to win the
third game. We were leading the match, two games to one.

I took a huge sip of water. All we needed to do was win one
more game. Then gold was ours. Coach Hammond was having a heated discussion
with the refs instead of lecturing us. Which probably meant she thought they
deserved her wrath more than we did.

I closed my eyes for a second and just listened to the crowd.
This might be the last volleyball game I ever played. At least at this level. I
wasn't sure I could ever give it up completely. The crowd's excitement was
electric. It revved me up even more.
We're going to win.

The ref blew the whistle and I ran back onto the court.

"Ow!"

I snapped my head around. Jess, our inside hitter was on the
ground holding her elbow.

Coach Hammond was already kneeling next to her. "They
spilled water over here!" she screamed, pointing at the other side of the
court.

The coach from Brazil walked over and put her hand on her
hip. "None of my girls did that."

The closest ref came over to evaluate the situation.
"One of your own players could have spilled that," he said.

Meanwhile, Jess started sobbing. She was clearly in a lot of
pain. An athletic trainer knelt down next to her. Jess winced when she lifted
her arm.

"This is a delay of game," the ref said.

What the hell?
One of our best players had just gotten
hurt. And maybe sabotaged. And we were the ones delaying the game?

Coach Hammond shook her head. "Fine." She motioned
for Jess's backup to get on the court. Unfortunately Jess's backup wasn't
nearly as good. All of us seemed a little shaken. I was still probably the most
off my game. The game was close again, but this time Brazil pulled off the win.

I shook my head as I walked off the court. We were tied two
to two. It all came down to one last game.

"Girls," Coach Hammond said. "You all know
what this game means. It's not just a gold for you. It's a gold for Team USA.
It brings us out on top. And we are not the ones that are going to lose
bragging rights for the USA. Not on my watch. The refs clearly favor Brazil. So
we hit every ball toward the center. Do it for Jess. Do it for yourselves. Do
it for whoever you want, just get it done."

We all nodded and put our hands in. "Team USA!" we
yelled at the top our lungs. I ran back onto the court.

The cheers from the crowd reverberated through me. My heart
seemed to beat to the rhythm of the cheers. I looked up at Bryce in the stands.
He was on his feet waving his sign in the air, cheering. I smiled and got ready
for the first serve.

Bump, set, spike...perfection. After several minutes, we were
up by three points. I looked over at Gabriela and smiled, hopefully mimicking
that fake smile that she always gave me.

She locked eyes with me and smiled back. And then she winked
at me.

Why the fuck is she winking at me? She's just messing with
me. She's just trying to get in my head.

I dove and missed my next dig.
Fuck.

The next play, I was able to get it to the setter. Nina
spiked the ball from behind the middle of the net, perfectly toward the back
corner. It skimmed the Brazilian player's arm before landing outside the lines.

Kristen high-fived Nina.

The ref pulled his arms to his shoulders, signaling that the
ball was out.

"Come on!" Nina yelled and tapped her right hand
against her left wrist. "She touched it! It only went out because she
touched it!" She pointed toward the player who had clearly touched it. The
girl shrugged her shoulders innocently.

The ref pulled out his red card and blew the whistle.

"This is bullshit!" Nina yelled. "Coach, do
something!"

But there was nothing that Coach Hammond could do. She called
for a time out. "I told you to hit it toward the center!" she yelled
at Nina.

"It was a perfect shot, and you know it." Nina
grabbed her water bottle off the bench. "This game is fucking
rigged!" Nina shouted. She was quickly escorted back to the locker room.

Is was one thing to lose Jess, but Nina was our best server
and it was her turn to serve next. Which meant a backup was going to take her
place. Nina would have brought us the rest of the way. She would have served us
to victory.

"Kelsey, get over here," Coach Hammond said. Kelsey
got off the bench. "You're taking Nina's place."

"But I'm not a middle hitter."

"Yeah, but you're the best backup server we have."

"But I play in the back row." She looked so
nervous.

"You'll be fine."

Except it wasn't fine. I ended up having to dig twice as many
balls without Nina there to help block at the net. But eventually we got the ball
back.

Kelsey's first serve went straight into the net.

"It's okay." I gave her a high five anyway. I
needed to help calm her jitters or we were going to lose this thing. Besides, I
had lost a serve in one of the games today too.

I didn't even realize that it was Gabriela's turn to serve. I
took a deep breath. We just needed to get the ball back and tie it up again. I
bumped the ball almost perfectly to our setter, but Jess's backup spiked it out
of bounds.

Shit.
Gabriela served the ball again. I stepped to the
left, but stopped. It was going out.

The ref put his hands forward, signaling that the ball was
in.

"What the hell?!" Coach Hammond screamed "That
was out!"

Luckily she was the one yelling. I bit my tongue. The last
thing I needed was to be ejected. I glanced up at the scoreboard. I hadn't
realized that Brazil was one point away from winning. I swallowed hard.
You
got this.

Gabriela served the ball and time seemed to slow. If Jess had
still been in, she would have stepped back and gotten the ball. But her backup
stayed glued to the next.

No.
I dove forward, my stomach sliding against the
floor. The ball landed an inch in front of my hand.

The crowd erupted in cheers. For Brazil.

Everything suddenly felt cold. I tried to stand up, but my
legs gave out. I collapsed on the court, tears streaming down my cheeks. I
lost. It was my fault that we lost.

I heard Coach Hammond throw her clipboard on the floor. I
felt Kristen wrap her arms around me. She was sobbing almost as loudly as me.

The roar of the crowd was suddenly deafening. Everyone seemed
to be cheering for their home team. The sound echoed around in my head.

This is all my fault.

The next thing I knew, our whole team was standing on the
podium, getting our silver medals. But I couldn't seem to stop crying. I didn't
want silver. Silver wasn't enough money for the bakery. Silver wasn't enough to
beat Gabriela. Silver wasn't good enough. It wasn't gold.

They started playing the Brazilian national anthem. The medal
was heavy around my neck. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I needed to get out
of there.

Seeing Gabriela on the gold medal podium just made it worse.
She towered above me. She was always towering above me.

As soon as the music stopped, Gabriela jumped down to the
silver podium and gave me an apologetic hug. "How does it feel to always
come in second place?" she whispered.