Page 26 of Crew Girl

“Good race, son.”

Josh huffed a laugh. “Yeah, right.”

“You know,” his dad said, looking out to the lake instead of at Josh. “I lost my first alumni race. To your grandfather.”

Who else would he have lost it to? Didn’t change anything. Josh had fallen to the bottom of a mountain he’d stupidly thought he was about to summit.

“That anger you feel?”

His dad was talking in a way that reminded Josh of the wise grandpa characters who teach valuable lessons in cheesy movies.

“That fire that’s fueling you right now?” His dad thumped his own chest, correctly assuming doing the same thing to Josh’s wouldn’t end well. “That’s the fuel you use to win.”

No comment. Josh stared straight ahead.

“My second race?” His dad’s voice shifted tone from inspirational to “spoiler alert.” “I beat him by a boat length. You’ll get us next year, son. I’m sure of it.” Josh didn’t look, but he was pretty sure his dad was giving him an encouraging smile. He was positive when his dad slung his arm around Josh’s shoulders. Weirdest feeling ever. The hand on his shoulder tightened its grip. “I expect nothing less.”

Ryder was the one who threw the first punch.

To be fair, Josh had all but begged him to throw it.

When in doubt? Insult a guy’s mom. It works a treat.

Ryder had spotted Josh coming back from his inspiring father–son talk and, sensing it hadn’t gone well, asked him to join him for a swim to cool down.

Josh had said something about it being too tempting an opportunity to drown a traitor, and Ryder, instead of punching him, had been nice. Asked him if he was okay because he knew Josh’s dad could be a dick sometimes.

The international rule of families goes like this: An immediate family member can say whatever they want about each other. Cousins outward? Against the code. So Josh had gone for the jugular. In truth, he didn’t know Ryder’s mom well enough to know if she was a grasping, status-hungry leech, but it had been enough to make Ryder launch a fist.

It quickly devolved into a WWF-style assault. Punching. Kicking. Flipping each other this way and that. He was vaguely aware of Britney screaming for someone to stop them, but this crowd was more likely to live stream the fight.

Somehow, he managed to pin Ryder to the ground. His eyes looking up at him all wide and scared, bugging out of his stupid red face. Josh cocked his arm, pumped up with the anger his dad had told him to use to win. He’d win this at least. This stupid, long-overdue fight. He cocked his arm, stared at his cousin’s face. Time to establish his dominance over Ryder once and for all—

“Oh shit!”

Out of nowhere, a cascade of ice rained down on him and Ryder.

TEAGAN

She’d had to wash her hair three times to get the stench of algae out of her hair, but the look on Josh’s face when she’d thrown the bucket of ice on him had been worth it. It was just a shame he’d immediately filled it with lake water to throw back at her.

Boys were idiots.

Coach hadn’t just shouted at Josh and Ryder, though. He’d yelled at all three of them. Sent them home saying he didn’t want to see them again until they had the grace to act like athletes instead of children. Errr, hello! She had been. Not to mention the only one brave enough to intervene. She’d been steaming. To the point she’d seriously considered quitting the team and staying home instead of participating in the child endangerment “challenge” the school was disguising as an opportunity to “exceed their limits.”

The Iron Crucible?

Where did they come up with that?

She’d said as much to Cam. He’d gone quiet, those brown eyes of his looking into hers without giving anything away. “Too bad,” he’d said. “You’re miles better than our last cox.”

Her resolve turned to mush.

Her mom had sealed the deal. After taking Juliet’s advice, she’d turned the parents’ night reception around. Dazzling the other moms with the juicy details about the dire straits Dad had left them in. One was so impressed she’d hired Ella to be the party planner for their son’s birthday. The fee? More than enough to pay Teagan’s tuition.

So here she was at the starting line of the Iron Crucible, listening with increasing horror as Principal Cabrera consigned her student body to certain death.

“The course is comprised of seven obstacles, each separated by a two-mile run. You must use your digital wristband at each obstacle to mark your progress.”