26Becca listened to the swing chain creak as she rocked.
A perfectionist. She understood the definition, having lived her life in pursuit of the impossible goal. Her world had always been one of either-or, with nothing in the middle. If you didn't win, you were a loser. Her parents had made that clear. Second-place medals were tossed in the trash. Even being the high-school valedictorian was lacking, tarnished because she could have earned more college credits in dual-enrollment classes, had she foregone those “useless and time-consuming art electives.”
Her friends in high school and college had teased when she would decline party opportunities to improve her schoolwork. “You already have all As,” they'd chide her. “Come on. Take a night off.”
But Becca couldn't abide an A that was only
