We’d had one other practice after Kat’s and my showdown. Shanti hadn’t been there, and I was relieved. I couldn’t think about her or where she was. I just focused on playing my game—hits and hurt. I took pity on no one—including Kat. Especially Kat. When she wasn’t on my scrimmage team, I made sure to place her in my target zone and then blast myself at her with everything I had.

Instead of getting angry, though, she seemed smug. It kind of pissed me off, but I also got it. I was proving to her I could be just as hard as her. I planned to do the same thing at this first bout, especially now that I was starting.

“Last year, the Skintastics took the league title, but just barely,” Charlotte explained as we suited up in a dismal changing room at the rink. “We were right on their asses the entire season and lost by only six points in the championship.” She swung a thick arm around me and play-punched my chin. “We’re gonna get ’em this year, rook. And you’re gonna help us do that.”

Charlotte’s massive grin so close to my face revealed a row of determinedly crooked teeth that sent my mind backward. My mum had had an incisor that tilted a little forward, like it was competing for a spot near the front of her teeth.

I shook the image away. No time for that stuff. Eye on the prize.

A sock hit me in the shoulder, hesitated for a moment, then flopped to the ground.

“Smell it, rook! That’s the smell of last season!” Lena yelled from across the room.

“Thanks, I’ll pass.” I kicked the slightly crusty item back toward her. I guess Kat had convinced Lena that it was a good idea to put me on the starting lineup. I’d be replacing another blocker, Saba, who was currently giving me stink-eye from her spot in the corner.

Oh well. Not my problem.

Despite the bleak lighting and musty smells of the changing room, the atmosphere tingled. All around me, my teammates were yanking at their skate laces, stretching our gold-and-black uniforms over their bodies (Lena had made me use masking tape to add DAYA DOO WOP to the back of my jersey for now, which made me want to crawl into a hole and die), and crowding around the smudged mirror to get their makeup on. Friendly smack-talk flew from one person to the next, while others obsessed over the stickiness of the track and which wheels they should use.