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and Amy.
    “Teller? Shower?” She glares at me. “Fine.” She throws the towel off. “Dan?”
    “Yeah?” He turns back.
    “Drown.”
    He grins. “Sure.”
    Oh no. That’s not what I wanted.
    “Wait…”
    “You’re right, we should be practicing too.” She whistles, points, pats the top of her head as if signaling another guard to watch her water while she goes for the save, and then jumps in with her tube with an oddly graceful motion. I’ve never seen anyone look so graceful going into the water.
    She swims deftly to Nate, keeps the tube between them, then reaches under his arms and wraps him against her tube. Locked in her arms. She’s not watching me, swimming quickly to the edge of the pool with Nate. But I’m watching, and Nate’s smiling in a gross way to the rest of the guards. I look around and see several crude gestures that make me embarrassed for my own gender. I move over to her.
    Nate is trying to say something. I push him out of the way.
    “Hey,” he says.
    “Hey, what?” I turn and fix him with a glare and he stops immediately. We both know what he did, and he sulks away.
    “What was that for?”
    “Demonstration. And to keep my skills sharp.” She shakes her hair, spraying water in my face. “And to be a shower, not a teller.”
    “I didn’t know you were so easily provoked into stupid things.”
    She flips around. “And what was stupid?”
    “You know what I mean. He was just creeping on you.”
    “And you weren’t?”
    She’s got me there. I’m trying to think of how to explain why it’s okay if I do it but not if they do it, but she cuts me off.
    “I can’t help what people think of me while I’m working. But that’s on them, not me. I can’t not do my job just because of unpleasant men.”
    “So you think he’s unpleasant. Am I unpleasant?”
    She blushes but turns away and mumbles something under her breath.
    “I’m sorry?”
    “We’re done for today.” She holds out her ridiculous cartoon watch. I mean it would be ridiculous on a fifth grader. She cups her hands and yells the announcement to everyone, letting them know the time of the next training. Without even confirming with me.
    “Wait a minute.”
    “If you have a problem, you can take it up with Dave. He’s letting me set the schedule.”
    Of course he is. But I let it go. I can tell, as she walks away, that at least for today, she’s completely tapped out of toughness. She’ll probably go home and curl up with a chick flick. I kind of want to ask if I can come too.

Chapter Three
    Knight

    I groan as I open my locker and rummage for my shorts. I’m tired and even though it’s only the second day of training, I’m ready for the season to just start. I want the patrons, the noise and the tension and the knowledge that anything can happen at any moment. I jump in a changing room to get into my shorts.
    I’m not looking forward to today. The guards will be over their nerves and behavior will be generally worse unless Rain and I get stricter to counteract it. Not that Rain could be much stricter.
    I pull on my gray sup polo as I walk to my locker. It’s a bit tighter than it was last year. Either I shouldn’t have had it in the dryer or my gym addiction is getting out of hand again.
    I’m already studying the guards, trying to figure out who is going to freeze and who is going to be fine. You can train them all you want and still have to jump in for them when they’ve locked up at their first save.
    It’s a lot of stress. I get it. It’s not for everyone. But it is for people like Rain and me. My eyes find her quickly, her blondish-brownish-reddish hair bobbing as she directs the guards around her.
    Thinking about seeing her made it easier to get out of bed today. Made it easier to go to work. Something exciting about it. I scratch the back of my neck as I head out to her, behind a group of guy guards.
    I can hear Rain’s stern voice over the noise of the guards, and I’m shocked to see