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“Ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to announce the 1,128 Rhetian World Team. Erena Nato, two-time Continental Champion and nine-time National Champion; Sunlissia, 1,125 Bars Continental Champion and two-time National Champion; Elila Orro, 1,126 Bars Continental Champion; Tyanna lya Azon, 1,127 Bars Continental Silver Medalist; Tara Tlaer, three-time Vault Continental Champion; and Reana lya Azon, 1126 Beam Continental Champion.”

Erena. Sunlissia. Elila. Tyanna. Tara. Reana. None of those names are mine. Did they forget me?

“In addition, we have selected three alternates. 1,127 Continental Team Member Ktine lya Azon…”

They didn’t forget me.

I cry.

I stay seated. I won’t get up.

Mom pulls on my jacket. They are playing the National Anthem. I don’t care. I won’t be representing my country. Why should I care about a National Anthem?

The hardest part about being an alternate, I think, is that I still have to train. I will be focusing on getting into university in the fall. I want to go to Lilseoe University, the main Rhetian university. They don’t have a gymnastics team, and, quite honestly, that is fine by me. If I’d wanted to do gymnastics in university, I would have to go abroad. One of my mom’s old teammates tried to do that, but she found it too alienating to be in a different country. I don’t think I could be that far from my family.

“Why couldn’t I just quit and get away from here?” I whine to Sunlissia.

“You’d still be coaching, even if you weren’t training.”

That is true. I’m coaching the pre-team girls now. They are adorable, though they aren’t always that good at listening. I’ve been coaching since I was fourteen. So has Sunlissia.

The one nice thing about it being Corosk is that I have more free time than during the school year. Sunlissia and I used our weekend afternoons to explore. We had practice every day of the week except Wednesday, when we coached most of the day.

Rirae has four districts. We live in Tkoroso, just north of the gym. Sunlissia and I liked to walk south to Aralyse, the wealthy district to the west. Sometimes, the guards would tell us to shoo, but, since Sunlissia had lighter hair and foreign features, more often, they thought she lived there. I think it gave Sunlissia satisfaction since, after all, her parents hadn’t wanted to keep her because she was half-foreign.

Other days, we would walk to Rasikto, the poor district. It wasn’t very far from us, just a little north. It had been more fun when we were younger, because there had been girls our age to play with. Now, the girls our age were married and taking care of children. Or working. My brother Torin’s best friend lived in Rasikto, so he is probably playing there.

The one place we don’t go is Essima, the factory district to the east. The people who work in the factories are paid next to nothing. People in Rasikto don’t work in factories; they work in various service jobs. They are poor, but they have enough to eat. People in Essima don’t have enough to eat. They live in makeshift housing rather than “Lenny-houses” like my family, so-called because many of them were built under Queen Lenorata. They work twelve, maybe more, hours per day. The kids don’t get to finish school because their families need them to work. My primary school class was twenty kids. The next year, there were ten, and we shared classes with the next grade.

In Aralyse, most people go to college. A lot of the young people go to private school rather than the local public school that I went to, but they are around for the summer. They are snooty and don’t talk to Sunlissia and me. Sometimes, they’ll even call the guards over, instead of their parents.

Today, it is so hot that Aralyse is deserted. We admire the large houses, set separately from other houses instead of in a row. One house has a rose garden in front. Another can barely be seen over a hedge. A third has long native grasses and a pond. The lady who lives there is nice. We are allowed to take a shortcut through the yard and out to the western sea coast path. Ordinarily, only the people who live in Aralyse can walk to the ocean.

The Pacific is beautiful. The waves roar against the cliffs. Sunlissia and I have tried to find a path down to the sand, but we never have. The sand is only there at low tide, anyways; during high tide, like right now, the waves pound against the cliffs. On the eastern side of Lilia Island, there are caves. People have hidden out in them. The entire west coast, so far as anyone knows, is cliff after cliff, with no beach. Aroli is the only place with a beach.

“Look! A whale.”

I look. Sunlissia is right—there is some dark shape out there. We watch the whale until it disappears, then head back so we’re home in time for dinner.

I keep training. My heart isn’t in it. I used to love flipping around but now it seems like a chore.

Then, just before we are to leave for the World Championships—the whole family was already planning to go, regardless of whether any of us made the Team—Coach Trili gets a call. “Tara Tlaer is injured.”

I am a member of the World Team. Not the way I would have wanted this to happen, but I will be competing to represent my country. Sunlissia gives me a hug. “I’m so glad,” she whispers. “Not about Tara, of course not, but it will be so fun to compete together!”

I couldn’t agree more.