“I lied. I didn’t win it.” Vandal straightened his shoulders and lifted his chin. “I know it was stupid to tell you that when it wasn’t true, but Fenny wanted us to come to the competition this year, and you said I was ready for it, and I knew Butcher was dying to come to Canada, and Bos and Geoff worked so hard, too, and . . . I lied.”
“What money?” I asked Walker in a whisper, feeling more than ever like an outsider, but one who was determined to find her way into the inner circle.
He answered me without taking his eyes off of Vandal. “Each team has to pay not only the entrance fees to the competition—which amount to well over a thousand pounds—but their travel and living expenses, not to mention arranging for insurance for all members of the team during the competition, and for the pu
