30. Ozren

30

Ozren

T he whistle sounds, and we haul ass across the pool toward the ball. Meggie is fast, faster than the Greeks. When she takes possession first, I feel like the game is ours even though it's only just beginning. "Hell yeah!"

Bringing an Olympic swimmer on the team was brilliant, for so many reasons. The way Meggie has taken first possession nearly every single game makes me swell with pride that she's ours. She's fucking glorious.

This is my favorite part of the game, right at the start, when anything's possible. The energy buzzing through me is electric and my body is tense and focused. The world narrows to what's happening in the pool and nothing else. My teammates. The other team. The ball.

Adrenaline pumps through my veins as Meggie passes to Harrison. Harrison passes to me. Fighting off a Greek, I glance around the pool looking for an opening before quickly passing to Nils as we make our way toward the Greek goalie. Nils can't hold the ball for long and sends it hurling towards Ellis. Giving himself a burst out of the water, Ellis catches and… SCORE!

Fifteen seconds into the first eight-minute quarter, and we're in the lead 1-0.

Meggie takes possession first again to start the second quarter, but she fumbles and Greece steals, booking it down to McQuinn. Come on, man. Hold strong. His eagle eyes follow the ball as it passes, passes, passes across the pool before one of the Greek alphas takes a shot.

Blocked! McQuinn takes half a second to kiss the ball before throwing it back into play. I love when he does that. Superstitious bastard.

Nils's whoop is loud and proud as we take the ball and swim back across the pool. My muscles burn with the strain as I push myself faster, one of the Greek players keeping pace on my left.

We braced for a dirty game—this is the Olympics after all—but it's been hard and clean. Greece doesn't want to lose points on stupid fouls and penalties when we're this close to the gold. Neither do we. My pack defends the lead like a mama bear defending her cubs. We're clean, but vicious.

It's not enough. By the end of the second half, we're down 7-8.

We're all feeling eager to turn the score around, but as we reach the side of the pool for a huddle, Dante's looking pale and maybe a little green. And Meggie looks flushed, almost like she's overheating. I splash her, and she splashes back laughing. Alright, she's fine.

"Your shoulder?" Harrison asks Dante, noticing the same thing I did.

"It's fine." He bites the words off and we all share looks. It's not like him to be snippy. But we can't push him right now. Even if his shoulder is acting up, we only have a few minutes until the game starts again.

Dr. Atkinson and the rest of our team pass around water bottles so we can rehydrate before going back out there. Why is something as simple as electrolyte water so damn good in the middle of a game? My body practically screams in relief. It might not look like it since we're covered in water, but we're sweating buckets and losing lots of energy during a game like this.

With half the game left, this is when things really get tough. We're all exhausted already, but we still have a lot of game left to play.

"We didn't come this far to only come this far." Dante's words ring with alpha power and determination, erasing any hint of the pain he's gotta be feeling. "Leave it all out there. Leave everything you fucking have in that pool! We've worked too hard for this. Each one of you has worked too damn hard for this." He moves his shoulder almost absentmindedly, stretching his arm across his chest as he talks. "We're down by one. One fucking point! This game is ours. Team USA baby. USA!"

Dante's a champ. This isn't his first Olympics or his first time playing through pain. When he, McQuinn, and Harrison were here last time, they lost the semifinal and took home bronze. He knows what it's like to win and lose. He's got this.

When the warning buzzer sounds, we all jump into the water and get into position, lining up at one end of the pool. Everyone looks refreshed and energized after the break. Except Meggie. Her face is scrunched, almost like she's in pain.

"You okay?" I holler over at her.

She gives me a thumbs up. And then the buzzer sounds.