Kat clapped her hands over her head, gliding backward. “Hey, hey, everyone, we have a special challenge today. I’ve offered Daya a starting spot in our first bout if she can get past me.”

Oh, game on.

Lena skated up beside her and plowed to a stop. “Say what now?” she asked, face contorted in confusion.

Kat ignored her. “Everyone line up on either side!”

Slowly, everyone—except for Lena and Shanti—lined up along one of the longer portions of the track.

“You have that length of the track to prove you haven’t gone soft,” Kat said, pointing as she rolled around me and then backward toward the starting line.

I skated over without looking at Shanti. If I did, I might lose my resolve, and I needed to do this. She’d understand. I hoped.

I faced Kat, who was about three feet in front of me. She lowered herself into a squat and held her arms out to her sides, then made a come on gesture with her hands. I tried to use her cocky expression as motivation and steeled myself, focusing on all the bruises I was about to get—how each one might give me the relief I needed.

Bending my knees, I started to skate forward. Kat adjusted to every move I made, her wheels stepping and pushing sideways, her body shifting its weight one direction and then the next.

I burst forward, aiming straight into her. I wasn’t scared of her hits. I wanted them. I was going to absorb every single one. Her concrete arms slammed into mine and I slammed back into her. We zigzagged across the track while the team cheered and clapped. Her knee collided with mine, my shoulder crashed into her ribs. I didn’t even want to get by her yet—I wanted to draw in as many bruises as I could. She knew it too. We were basically just smashing into each other, elbow pads and wrist guards clacking against one another’s. Hips, shoulders, legs bouncing off, then colliding again.

“Come on, rook. That all you got? Yer running out of time, softie.”

I stopped pushing for a split second—long enough to open up a bit of space between me and Kat. Kat must’ve thought I was getting tired, because a self-satisfied look came over her face and she straightened her legs ever so slightly. I used the opportunity and rammed my shoulder fully into hers, sending her flying backward onto her ass.

I didn’t even bother skating to the end. Instead I stood over her. “I told you I wasn’t soft.”