“I compete,” Alexa said defensively.
“In what?”
“Mountain biking,” she said. “Snowboarding. Marathons.”
“So do lots of other people. That doesn’t make them athletes. How did you get included?”
Alexa hesitated. “There’s a group of us,” she said at last. “We decided to do this last year. Not all of us got in.”
“Go on. Are the others all athletes, including the ones who didn’t make the cut?”
“Well, yes.”
“So how did you get included? Are you a trainer of one of them?”
“Sometimes,” Alexa answered.
“That’s not much of an answer,” Will commented. “Why are you here?”
“What?”
“Why are you here, Alexa? Why did you decide to be part of this?”
Alexa hesitated, bit her lip, and sighed.
“Tell me,” Will ordered.
“I wanted to beat them,” she said, her voice barely audible.
“What?”
“I want
