Two weeks became ten days became a week faster than Ivy could quite process, the accumulated weight of depositions and legal filings and Federation challenges finally giving way to something simpler and more familiar — the specific, focused exhaustion of serious training, six a.m. sessions stretching into after-school drills, Coach Orlova pushing both her and Lex harder than either of them had been pushed all season.
"You're overthinking your footwork," Coach Orlova said, midway through a Thursday session, watching Ivy fumble a combination she'd executed cleanly a hundred times before. "Your body knows this. Trust it."
"I keep thinking about Naomi. About how fast Nationals-level fencers actually are. What if I freeze up? What if all of this — the depositions, the eligibility challenge, e
