"Oh yeah, and Kyle? He's so hot! Sucks that he has a girlfriend already." Alexis yawned as she listened to the ongoing conversations about Kyle, the new gym hotshot. The girls went to have smoothies after practice, but Alexis sipped a diet soda quietly and listened. She was never much of a talker, but when it came to Kyle she really had nothing to say. He wasn't that cute—well at least not as cute as Neil.
"Hey Lex! What about Neil? You have such a crush on him…" Lilly giggled, and all the girls followed.
"That's so not true!" Alexis lied, "Kyle's cute, but Neil? The way he smiles when one of us falls on our asses after a vault? It's so…" Alexis actually found it funny, and her eyes rolled into a dreamy sort of place, but then she snapped back into reality. "…mean. It's so mean of him."
"Yeah, right, whatever. Well, I have to get home, so I'll see y'all tomorrow at the gym," Said Melissa, and as Alexis watched them all head off back to their homes, she walked back to the gym to get some afternoon conditioning in.

"Hey, I hope you didn't drink too much smoothie because I have a helluva workout for you today." Payson said cheerily. Alexis like the outings with the Rock girls, but not the fact that she came back to the gym to do more training as they all headed home.
"Naa, I got a soda." Alexis told Payson, as she scanned her body.
"Take your coat off," Payson ordered Alexis, and she unzipped the flame-butterfly coat, "You've lost a ton of weight. How much are you at? 85 pounds?" Alexis looked down. She had, and she wasn't even realizing it.
"I dunno Pay, seriously…I gained 11 pounds when I was out with my knee, and I needed to lose some weight, but I haven't been tracking." Alexis knew what was coming, so she just headed to the locker room to get the scale.

'Interesting…86.4 pounds, that's 5 pounds lighter than before your knee busted out. Let's just see how this works out for you, and then I'll decide what I want you to do."

They headed to the track to do some running, and Payson nervously watched from the sidelines. She called Marty.

"Marty, she's losing weight." Payson said shakily,

"Great! She was on the heavy side when she came back. What's she at? 93 pounds?" Marty sounded relatively cheery, "Because I was getting worried she really wouldn't be able to compete in the Pacific Rim. You know Marta and Bella, always checking out the lines."

"Marty, no, she's 86 pounds. I mean, it might work out for her, she's not that underweight, but I'm just nervous. She isn't obsessing, she's eating what she should be, but I'm just nervous because of—"

"Kaylie? Kaylie never had a strong mind, and you know that. Alexis is rock hard, she'll never get an eating disorder, let alone let the eating disorder ruin her career. Kaylie is in the position she's in right now because she let fear eat away at her."

Payson hung up, and looked up at the giant photograph of Kaylie posted on the side of the rock building. No one knew it, but Kaylie was in the hospital, fighting an eating disorder that was eating at her heart, liver and life. She never really recovered from the eating disorder, and only a few months after the London Olympics she collapsed in her home.

Riley and Mara got out of the car, and simultaneously looked up to the sky. It was scorching out, and a race is weather like this was no fun, even if it was going to be an easy win. They both immediately removed the sweatshirts they were wearing for the car ride and started preparing their bikes to warm up. There would be a time trial in the morning, and a road race in the afternoon, and then the next morning they would be on a plane to Italy.

As the two were in the midst of their warm up, the rest of the girls on the team arrived, and also started warming up. Since Riley was ranked the top rider in the country, she started her time trial last, so she stayed on the stationary bike as the girls headed to the starting line to get their gears checked and to start their race. Once they were all gone, except Mara, who stayed besides her, Seth came up to them.

"Listen, girls, I know this technically can be an easy win, but I don't want it to be one. I want you to open a 5 minute gap! Do something incredible!" He started, and stuck a few ice cubes under Riley's shirt so she would keep cool. "Now, In the Time trial, there are no secrets. Just ride as hard as you can and the best will win. In the afternoon, it is supposed to be hotter than now. Mara, I know you aren't much of a heat person but you are the strongest girl besides Riley when it comes to the climbs. You guys attack right off the bat, and stay alone for the whole 70 kilometers. "

Riley nodded, finished off her bottle, and headed to the starting line. "OK Riley, 30 seconds to go. Don't beat them by too much though!" One of the judges joked. Riley wasn't into jokes on the starting line, especially when they were like that. Mara had started 30 seconds before her, and she planned on catching her, catching Nicole—the girl in front of Mara, and then catching Jessica. The second the clock zero-ed off, Riley put all her force into the pedals and attacked. Within 10 seconds she could already see Mara in front of her, and proceeded to catch her.

The last mile sign came up, Riley's legs were spinning on pure will-power, and nothing else. "Come on Riley," Seth said from the car, "go all out now…" Riley felt like she was going all out, but her heart rate monitor begged to differ. Her heart was beating at 192, and she could get it up to 196 for a mile. Riley clenched her teeth, and practically hyperventilated as she tried. She looked down, shut her eyes, and just pedaled until she reached the finish line, waving her left fist in the air to show that she won the time trial, and was leading the tour by a minute and a half.