“Sorry I’m late. Practice ran over and—” Ari didn’t need to turn around to recognize that voice. But when she did, she was immediately greeted by an oversized red puffer coat emblazoned with the Team USA logo. The familiar face wearing it looked down at her in shock. It was Thandie. Thandie Dlamini.
It felt like the whole room went silent for a moment as everyone at the table watched them, waiting with bated breath to see what would happen next. The moment was so tense that Ari felt like one wrong move would bring everything around her crashing down. Thandie had the same look in her eye that she got in the first second of a competition, the intense focus that overcame her as she waited for the puck to land on the rink. It was the look she got when she was about to scramble to take control of the game. The determination of a person ready to tackle whoever she needed to in order to win. Ari had seen that look dozens of times before. But this was different. They weren’t on the rink, they weren’t playing hockey, and they weren’t with their teams. In fact, Ari was seated with three people who, on any other day, would have been wearing supporters’ jerseys for the opposition.
“What are you doing here?” Thandie said, so calmly it terrified her. But Ari still wanted the Dlamini grandparents to like her, so she tried to sound upbeat.
“Hey, Thandie, it’s nice to see you,” Ari said, nervous.
“No, it’s not,” said Thandie, shaking her head.
“Thandie, be nice,” said her grandma.
Ari felt like she was stepping out onto a wobbly tightrope.
“What’s going on here?” asked Thandie, shooting her family confused looks. But nobody answered her, they all just looked at Drew.
Drew opened his mouth, then clamped it shut. Ari leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. It was like sitting in a nightmare. The kind of anxiety dream she got before a big match where none of the scenes or characters made sense. When she opened her eyes and looked at Drew, she saw the blood draining from his face.
“Drew? What isshedoing here?” asked Thandie, who, from the look in her eyes, had figured out that her brother was at the center of this mess.
“You didn’t tell your sister?” said Drew’s grandpa in a too-loud whisper. Thandie’s eyes widened. She looked at Drew, and then she looked at Ari. The missing pieces in the puzzle clicked.
“I’m going to need someone to explain what’s going onright now,” said Thandie.
But something dangerous was taking over Ari. She was usually a measured person. She thought things through, kept the peace, and tried to de-escalate situations before anything could go wrong. She’d spent her whole life doing that with her family and the past three months doing that with her teammates. But something about Thandie brought out her teenage self. Maybe Drew hadn’t planned this whole thing to throw Ari off her game, but that didn’t mean that Ari wouldn’t use it to rile Thandie up a little, to get her back for all the years she’d spent doing the same. All was fair in love and competitive sports. So, she found Drew’s hand, held it, and made a show of pressing them together until their fingers were intertwined.
“Thandie, me and your brother… we’re inlove,” she said, blinking shyly as if she couldn’t help but tell the truth. Thandie looked horrified.
It was petty, childish, but Thandie had spent years messing with her head on the ice rink in retaliation for that accident all those years ago. Ari had apologized countless times, but eachsorrylanded on deaf ears. In fact, the more Ari tried to make amends, the more Thandie doubled down on trying to get into her head and throw her off her game. Ari could write pages of accounts of all the times Thandie had purposefully tried to get her back, of sly moves on the ice, subtly cutting comments behind the scenes, and all the people whose perception of her was shaped by the image Thandie had painted in their heads. So, it was only fair that she give Thandie a small taste of her own medicine.
“Ari,” said Drew, tilting his head and looking at her with a weary expression. She could tell that he knew what she was doing and why she was doing it. But at the end of the day, he was the one who’d gotten them into this mess. She was just playing along.
“You can’t choose who you love,” said Ari with a shrug as she patted Drew on the cheek.
“This isn’t happening,” said Thandie with a blank expression.
“Honey, take a seat,” Mrs. Dlamini cooed.
“You,” Thandie said, glaring at Ari.
“Me?” said Ari, feigning innocence. She wasn’t being mean-spirited, she just liked having a rival to bounce off. It was fun. Feuds had existed since the dawn of creation, and knowing someone was praying for her downfall gave her a reason to work harder. The animosity between them made them both play better. The fabled rivalry raised the stakes of every game.
“What kind of fucked-up psychological warfare is this?” Thandie asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Language, honey,” her grandpa warned.
“Do you really think I would go to all of this effort just to throw you off your game?” said Ari.
“Actually, I don’t care why you did it, because I’m going to enjoy every single minute of destroying your team on the rink regardless,” said Thandie, glaring at Ari as she pointed a dessert spoon in her direction.
“Okay, here’s the cheese fond—oh,” said the waitress, who’d just arrived at their table with a trolley topped by a large copper-colored fondue pot.
“Don’t worry, sweetie, you can go ahead,” Drew’s grandma said, shooting an intensebehaveglare at all three of them. The whole table sat in silence as the waitress laid out their food, the tension palpable. When she was done, they all gave her polite, slightly embarrassed thank-yous before going back to where they’d left off with Thandie, directing her annoyance at her brother.
“Ofall the peoplein the world,her? When did you even meet each other?” asked Thandie, annoyed but curious.
“New Year’s Eve, at Klaus’s party,” Drew said, speaking up at last. Ari looked over at him. He had a strange look in his eyes. She wondered if he was thinking about the same moment up on the roof that she was thinking about. That kiss at midnight and everything that had happened since.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Thandie asked.
