She shook her head. “No more confessions, Drew.”
“In case we see each other again?”
“We’renotgoing to see each other again,” she said firmly as they locked eyes. He could feel the tension, and he was sure she could, too. “We shouldn’t.”
She was right, but that didn’t stop Drew from wanting to pick up where they’d left off the last time they’d seen each other. Her phone alarm rang before he could say anything else.
“That’s my cue to go to bed,” she said, tying a scarf around her neck and reaching into her pockets to put on her gloves.
“But it’s only eleven. Aren’t you going out?” he asked.
Thandie had told him about at least ten different after-parties happening across the Village that night. And Drew couldn’t help but wonder if getting some behind-the-scenes photos would winhim the approval of the Zeus Athletics socials team he so desperately wanted to impress. But Ari just shook her head and turned to leave.
“Only mediocre athletes and overconfident medal winners party on the first night,” she said as she started walking toward the athletes’ quarters. “Championsandpeople flying by the seat of their pants go to bed early.”
“And which one are you?” he called out.
“A champion, of course,” she said, shooting him a brilliantly confident smile.
“See you later,Ari,” he said, testing her resolve. She shook her head and walked away.
15Ari
DAY ONE OF THE 2026 OLYMPICS
It was six a.m., and the sun hadn’t risen yet. But Ari was already outside walking in the snow with her headphones on, listening to her self-assigned weekly audiobook and trying to look past its corny sports clichés. “Make sure to highlight your teammates’ strengths before you address their weaknesses,” said the voice of Valentina Ross-Rodriguez, a gold medal–winning gymnast. “Resist the temptation to take on other people’s doubts,” she said as Ari looked at her own footprints in the snow.
The stress of managing the team’s emotions while trying to bring out the best in them on the ice was so overwhelming that Ari had developed a mild case of insomnia during the first three weeks of boot camp. She’d considered calling Gracie for advice—after all, she’d been the first person to text her when her new role as captain went public. But she couldn’t. She knew that Gracie would pick up and say something helpful and encouraging. But it felt selfish to interrupt Gracie’s recovery with worries about thejob Gracie had spent her life working toward. Slipping away for an hour in the morning to listen to someone else’s advice felt like the least-complicated alternative.
But Ari couldn’t focus on what she was listening to, because she’d woken up that morning thinking about Drew. She would have never predicted seeing him again, and the last place she expected to find him was under a lamppost in the middle of the Winter Village. But to her surprise, she’d felt as comfortable with him as she had on New Year’s Eve. Maybe it was because she’d told him so much that first night that it felt like seeing a friend who’d been in the trenches with her. But what really surprised her was how much more attractive he was up close with the lights on. How handsome he looked with stubble. The small spark she’d felt as he gently grazed her skin.
Deep in her thoughts, she lost track of the chapter she was listening to and reminded herself that she hadn’t come all the way to Switzerland to spend the first day of the Games thinking about a boy she barely knew. The next ten days were going to be a marathon. They needed to win at least two of their four preliminary games to have a good shot at making it to the quarterfinals. After that came the semifinals and then the actual finals, when the best teams at the Games would compete for gold. Ari had much more important things to worry about than the boy she’d kissed last night. So, she finished her walk at seven, grabbed breakfast with her teammates at eight, and headed over to the other side of the Village to get ready for her first-ever Olympic match.
Ari imagined that in every other area of his life, Coach McLaughlin walked into rooms with a certain air of authority. He’d been coaching hockey for the past thirty years, leading a bunch of the men’s teams to victory. But because the women’s team had been through so many coaches who’d only stuck around for a few months, they were much harder to impress. Coach liked toempower each team captain he worked with to take on the role of leading and inspiring their team. And one of the ways he did that was by asking them to start each locker room session with a short speech. Gracie’s speeches were always memorable. Sometimes she began with a joke about something she’d noticed in training, and other times she started with an anecdote that she would spin into some meaningful lesson or rally cry. Gracie knew how to energize her teammates, but Ari was still just trying to figure it out.
“Let’s get started,” she said as she walked to the front of the locker room.
But nobody was listening. They were all plotting, panicking, and celebrating the fact that in less than fifteen minutes, they’d be up against the Czech Republic for the first time since their disastrous loss at the start of the last international hockey season.
“Shall we begin?” she asked, trying to get their attention.
But Izzy was teaching her teammates on defense a TikTok dance, Sienna was sitting in a corner with her noise-canceling headphones on, and Yasmeen was chatting in a circle with the girls in reserve, sharing gossip about one of the after-parties. If Gracie had been here, the room would have quieted in an instant. Her very presence inspired focus. But Ari’s voice wasn’t very loud, and they weren’t used to hearing her speak as any sort of authority.
“Okay guys, it’s time to get ready. Huddle up!” she said with no success. They carried on milling around the locker room, paying her no attention. She stood there for a moment, trying to find the right words, until Coach McLaughlin finally glanced over and shot her a sympathetic look.
“She saidlisten up!” Coach shouted, commanding the room. Everyone stopped talking and looked over, surprised.
“Captain?” said Yasmeen. A few of the other girls laughed. They’d taken to lightheartedly calling her that whenever shestepped into her role and, while she knew they were just playing around, it still freaked her out. Coach McLaughlin looked over at her and put his hand out, not so subtly telling her to take the reins.
“I’ve heard you talking about today’s match, and I know you’re worried,” she began. “But if there’s one thing we can’t afford to do today, it is to go in scared. Yes, the Czech team is brilliant. And yes, they defeated us last time…”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Captain,” said Sienna, who’d never scored a goal against the Czech team. Ari knew she was dreading their upcoming match.
“What I meant to say is that our last game against the Czech team is history now. So, when you go out onto the rink, look at it as a fresh start,” Ari said, trying to sound confident enough to convince her teammates that she knew what she was doing.
“Defense?” she said, looking over at Yasmeen and her part of the team. “We have a weak spot when it comes to the right side of the rink, so be mindful of that today. Goaltenders?” she said, looking over at Izzy. “Look alive. I’ve noticed that you don’t get alert until a few minutes into the first third, and we can’t afford that today. And centers?” she said, looking over at Sienna and the rest of their teammates. “Stop trying to control what’s going on behind you. It’s not your job to manage the rest of the team. Focus on getting those pucks into the goal.”
Becoming captain made her hyperaware of everything that was going on around her. At boot camp, she’d spent more time trying to lead the team than playing her position. But now it was time to focus on what she’d originally been put on the team to do: score goals. Ari nodded and gave one final line of encouragement.
