Mara wasparticular.
After making her first podium in the World Championships, she wore the exact same necklace she had worn that day anytime she put her skis on. She fixed her hair the same for competitions—a tight French braid with a purple hair tie. She always wore her lucky lip balm, and she had different lucky lip balm for every event.
She had two pairs of sunglasses—a pair for training and a pair for competitions—plus one single pair with clear lenses for evening or cloudy-weather skiing.
Her dad called her irrational. But she liked to think she was intense. A control freak. She could control her jewelry. Her hair tie. Her socks. Her skis.
There was so much she had so little control over. Other people. The weather. The media.
Interviews with Janette Collins.
Her heart rate when Kirby touched her shoulder that one time.
Jordan and her puppy dog eyes when she asked Mara to borrow a pair of sunglasses before a warm-up ski with the whole team.
They were doing a nice, easy fifteen kilometers for conditioning.Together. To foster a team atmosphere. But everyone had been giving her a wide berth, just like she liked it.
After that hellscape of an interview, Mara wasn’t in the mood to foster shit.
“I lost my sunglasses,” Jordan said. Mara glanced between Brandilyn and Jordan. They were young. Nineteen and twenty-one. Younger than she’d been at her first Olympics even. “Do you have an extra pair with you? I’ll give them back later, I swear.”
Mara was shocked to be asked. Skiers were picky about their gear. There wasn’t a lot of sharing. Hoarding was much more common, especially as the Olympics got closer.
“It’s okay if you don’t have any. Or if you don’t want to lend them to me,” Jordan said, her voice small. “I get it. I’m sorry for asking.”
Oh, God.
“Here. Hold on.”
Mara grabbed her competition pair out of her bag. They had a sunshine yellow rim. She put them on and handed her practice pair to Jordan. They were silver.
“Wow. Really?” Jordan said, staring down at the silver sunglasses like Mara had given her a diamond.
“Sure.”
And it was fine. They finished their warm-up. It was sunny, so it was fortunate Jordan had been able to use Mara’s sunglasses.
But then Jordan took off with Brandilyn without giving them back. Mara didn’t want to be petty and chase her down, so she took a deep breath and let it go. She would get them back that afternoon.
But when the afternoon came, and Mara showed up for her private training session with Coach Karlsson, Jordan, who was supposed to be there before her, wasn’t there.
It was okay. It would be okay. Mara trained. She was smooth as butter.
Five days to the Opening Ceremony.
Six to her first event.
Everything might have been spiraling out of control off the course, but she’d never felt better in her skis.
She hit the intervals she was supposed to. Her legs felt good. Her breath was on point. She visualized every push, every curve and hill. She was laser focused, and it was a great practice. The best she’d had since arriving in Oberhof.
It was the type of training session that helped her put the interview behind her. To put Kirby and Kirby’s games behind her.
But on the last turn, her sunglasses fell off. They dropped right off her face, one earpiece disconnecting from the frame. The sun glared off the snow, and she had to blink to adjust to the cold air and brightness hurting her eyes. She kept going because she was a professional. Shit happened all the time. She finished her session, recovered for a few minutes, debriefed with Coach Karlsson, and went back for the pieces of her glasses spread across the trail.
Jordan was stretching at the start of the course, chatting with Coach Wu, when Mara returned. She wasn’t wearing Mara’s sunglasses.
Mara marched up to them, the broken glasses in her fist. “Where are my sunglasses?”
