Alexis got to the gym by herself the next morning, letting Riley sleep in a bit. She still was in a bad mood, but seeing that her older sister was having issues too motivated her to push through. Payson had no doubt that Alexis would be strutting into the gym the next morning as well, so the mats by the vault were ready for her to start work as soon as she was stretched.
"Keep your sweats on, it's freezing in here," Payson wasn't in her wheelchair this morning, but Alexis knew her pain all too well. Beads of sweat rolled down her temples and to her chin just from standing, and it meant that there would be less physical support from Payson today. Sure enough, she heard Marty's car pull in the driveway a few minutes into stretching. She tried minding her own business but couldn't help but chuckle when she heard Marty's first few words.
"Oh man Pay, do me a favor and sit down. It hurts me to watch." Alexis kept focused, as much as she could as she listened into the conversation:
"So, what's going on with the surgery?" Marty asked, Alexis slid into a perfect split and reached out as far as she could.
"I want to do it. Dad and Mom are skeptical. I tell them, how can anything get worse? You know, at least if I'm paralyzed I won't feel anything." Alexis slowly got up, and winced as the familiar pain shot through her back.
"You know what Pay? I think you should do it too. I trust that doctor, she got you well enough to win the Olympics, I think she is capable of helping you walk without experiencing pain like this. But, I respect your parents too much to disagree with them. They have a point." Alexis got up, and did some jump-roping to keep her muscles warm as Marty made himself a coffee. When she tripped over the rope, Payson chuckled a bit.
"So, what do you think? Surgery or no?" When Alexis tried to fake a confused look, Payson rolled her eyes, "come on Lex, I know you were listening." Alexis felt like a boxer when she had to think of a good answer while she was jumping rope, except this wasn't a mathematical equation—it was real life, and if she said the wrong thing, it could really hurt Payson.
"I don't know Payson. It's a Paradox."

Riley woke up, a bit confused, but once she remembered about her episode yesterday she tried to find her new teammates. When she finally got out of bed and walked to the kitchen, she found her mom cutting a large amount of veggies.
"Hey sweetie, How are you feeling? Seth told me you were sick." Riley shook her head and sat on a chair. "But then, when he told me that you threw up, I knew you weren't. You aren't a puker, and trust me on this one, because Seth was a big one. He would come back from practice and practically every time he would vomit his heart out, or had done that while riding." Riley poked at a bowl of oatmeal, and took a few bites. "What's bothering you?"

Riley searched her mind; a lot of things were bothering her: the fact that for the next year she would have another 3 girls living in her house, or at least in her neighborhood; the fact that Alexis was injured; her life was just a jumble of bothersome things.
"Mom, I'm scared. Seth worked so hard to work this out. He has a whole game plan. And he expects it to work. But what if I fail? I mean what if I get to Europe and can't keep up with the girls there? What if I don't get much stronger this year and the other three do, and I'm the one left behind? What if I finally do get to the world championships, after this whole mess, and decide that it's too much?"

Riley knew that her mom didn't have an answer. The reason it bothered her so much was because there wasn't one. But she stroked her hair and wiped her tears, and when Riley decided to meet the rest of the group on their first ride together, she helped her unhook her bike from the rack in the garage and gave her a chocolate chip cookie for the road.

"Wow, Alexis, your vaults are looking very clean today," Payson commented, "when I called Marty I told him you were struggling yesterday, and he quickly drove into Boulder to check in on you." Alexis reached backwards to stretch out her back, and walked to the end of the runway again to do the vault—again.

"no, no, they are clean, but something is missing." Marty noted as he filmed the last part of the vault, and then watched it in slow motion for clarification. "First of all, your toes aren't pointed. What, are you three years old again? And, here, at the second flip, you're fiddling with your back." Alexis looked down and strained her face muscles a bit to keep a straight face. "What's hurting? Now tell me or I'll figure it out the hard way."

The hard way meant putting Alexis through hours of drills until he saw a wince on her face, then he'd know what was hurting.

"My back, my knees. It's nothing. Riley's sick, I think I'm catching something, it's just some fever soreness." Marty pressed his fingers to Alexis's forehead.

"No fever," he said and examined Alexis for one last time, "fine, do the vault again."

Riley caught up with the girls just in time for the climbing. "Climb for 5 minutes, turn around and scale the climb for 1 minute, and then turn around again and start climbing for 5 minutes until you get to the top. Twice." It was what Seth liked to phrase as "torture, Seth style".

"oh, and there's a catch. I'll start you each with 30 second intervals, and you'll have to catch the rider in front of you. Riley, you only do it once since you're sick," Riley watched the other girls start the climbing, and then she turned to Seth.

"I'm not sick…You know I wasn't. Now let me do the full ride." She stood up to her brother quite often, but not when it came to cycling. When Seth was coach, he coached, and when Seth was a brother, he was a brother. Now he was a coach, and Riley never told him what she thought—mainly because Seth was a genius when it came to cycling, but also because there was no point.

Seth let the rest of the girls go, and then made Riley sit down next to him. "I know you weren't sick. I know this is a rough time for you, especially with all the girls in the house and missing the World Championships last week, but I also think that you need a little break. You've worked your ass off for the past year, and you need to take it down a notch for a week or so, just so you can rejuvenate. Besides the fact that you lost a shitload of electrolytes from puking last night, so just do it once, easy pace, and by next week you'll be back at normal pace, and the girls will already be settled in their new homes."

Riley headed up the hill, caught up with Mara, and easily pedaled the way to the top with her best friend.