One of the most loved Olympic traditions was the ritual of swapping pins. The athletes were all given official pins by their home country, and a few of the more famous sporting figures made their own custom badges. So, Izzy and a few of their other teammates had made it their mission to collect a pin from every single competing country. Their lanyards were covered in metallic souvenirs from the countries that had sent the biggest delegations to St. Moritz. But there were a few rare pins from smaller nations that they were desperate to track down. So, when they’d bumped into an Emirati skier, they’d immediately tried to convince him to swap pins. It was his country’s first time competing at the Olympics, which made his pins the rarest of them all. But he’d only brought a handful of pins and could only offer the group one. So, Izzy had come up with a grand idea. She and her teammates would do a good old-fashioned race to decide who got to keep his pin. But instead of finding a running track or postponing it toafterthey’d finished the most important tournament of their lives, they’d decided to start the morning by lacing up their skates and racing across the ice. Natalie brushed her hair aside to reveal the red-and-green pin on her lanyard.
“I won, but at what cost?” Natalie laughed through her tears. The race had ended with a painful fall. But luckily, she’d escaped with an ankle sprain instead of a break. Their team medic had reassured her that she’d be able to play safely, though painfully,in a couple of days. But her injury meant that the team would lose one of their best defenders two days before their fourth preliminary game.
Ari reassured Natalie that everything would be okay, promised to go back and visit her after the game, and then ushered the rest of her teammates out of the medical center.
“Coach is going to kill me when he finds out,” Izzy said, looking panicked as they all walked down the corridor. Coach McLaughlin had zero tolerance for foolish decisions, and Izzy’s race suggestion would be enough to have her and the rest of the team banned from doing anything but training for the rest of the Games. But Ari wasn’t going to let that happen.
“He’s not going to kill you, because he’s not going to find out,” she said, pausing in the middle of the corridor. Izzy looked over at her in surprise, and so did the rest of the girls who’d been involved in the misguided race.
“You’re not going to tell him?” asked a girl named Emily.
“No. He doesn’t need to know. If it comes up, tell him that she hurt herself because I asked everyone to do laps around the ice rink.”
“But why would you take the blame? It was my stupid suggestion,” Izzy said.
“Because team above everything, right? Natalie’s injured, and you’ll all have to live with that. But beating yourselves up isn’t going to make you play any better,” Ari said. She’d happily take one for the team if it meant they wouldn’t spend the rest of the day worrying. But she realized she was going to have to put her foot down. Again.
“Okay, listen up,” Ari said, raising her voice to get the rest of the team’s attention as they stood in the hallway of the medical center. “What you did this morning? Unacceptable.” Internally,she flinched. She hated putting on her captain voice, but she had to take a stand.
“We’re not the men’s team, who can fool around, make dumb decisions, and still be given grace,” she said. Their male counterparts had been caught at a cabin party in the mountains last night and gotten away with a slap on their wrists, but there were different standards for the women’s team. “We can’t afford to make any silly mistakes. I get it, you want to have fun. Take the edge off a little. But this isn’t a regional tournament, this is the Olympics. I need you all to get it together and start treating this more seriously.”
Izzy nodded, looking down at her shoes. She seemed embarrassed, but Ari didn’t have time to try to make her feel better. They were friends, but she was going to have to deal with the consequences of her actions by herself.
“Jasmine?” she said, looking over at one of her teammates who played defense. “I need you to step up and take Natalie’s place. You’re ready to be on the ice.” Jasmine looked nervous but just nodded and gripped the kit bag on her shoulder.
“Soha? I heard you came in last.” Soha opened her mouth as if to protest the allegation, but then she clamped it shut, realizing that wasn’t going to help her. “Well, I spoke to Coach after our last game. Today you’re going to be on the starting line.” Soha nodded. It would be her first game of the week, and Ari knew that being selected would boost her confidence for the rest of the tournament.
“Izzy, you’re going on the bench.”
“What? You can’t be serious.”
“Serious as death, which is what could have happened this morning if yourracehad ended differently.”
Izzy grimaced, looked down at her kit bag, and then gave her a nod. “Okay,Captain,” Izzy said, but Ari could hear the note ofannoyance in her voice. She would have usually let it slide, but not today.
“Do we have a problem?”
“No,” Izzy said quickly.
“Good. Because there’s no way I’m lettingthisbe the reason we go home.”
30Drew
DAY SIX OF THE 2026 OLYMPICS
Thandie:Are you friends with Harrison now?
Drew:No? Why?
Thandie:I just saw him.
Thandie:He told me to pass on a message, so I thought you’d bonded over photos or something?
Drew:What was the message?
Thandie:It’s a photo. Wait, let me send it.
Drew nervously watched the three dots until a photo arrived. He opened it to reveal a photo of Harrison at a party. He was posing with Klaus Lindberg, the guy whose dad owned Zeus. As Drew examined the photo, he realized it had been taken at the New Year’s Eve party they’d all gone to. He didn’t know what rattled him more: the fact that Harrison might actually be able to leverage his apparent friendship with Klaus to get what he wanted,or the fact that he’d sent the message through his sister to try to intimidate him.
