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Soon after match point, which DJ had served and Aspen had won with a kill in the back corner of the court that Selena and most players in the world couldn’t get to, Kendra hurried over to the sideline, where she met Aspen and DJ prior to them even making it to their chairs. They were both still breathing hard and probably could’ve used a minute, but Kendra had a producer in her ear telling her that he needed her to get the minute with the players now so they could go to commercial before they switched their programming to soccer.

“Aspen, DJ, great match. You’re moving on to the semifinals this weekend. How are you feeling?”

“Pretty good,” Aspen replied after Kendra moved the microphone to her mouth. “Monica and Selena were great out there today. We had a hard time blocking their shots and had to regroup a couple of times, but we pulled through.”

“And, DJ, I know you had a foot problem in yesterday’s match. Did that get in your way at all today?” Kendra asked and moved the microphone over to DJ.

“No, that wasn’t a big deal at all, and I didn’t have any issues with it today,” DJ replied. “I can’t even blame it for my issues blocking them today.” She laughed a little. “I just had a few balls go off my hands and out of bounds because I was in the wrong position. It’s something I’ll be working on in training.”

“Will you be watching the matches later today to see who you’ll be facing in tomorrow’s semifinals?”

“We usually try to catch them if we can,” Aspen replied. “So, yeah, we’ll watch to see what we’re up against.”

“Well, congratulations on the win, and good luck in the semis,” Kendra said and turned her face toward the camera.

“And we’re clear,” her producer said in her ear.

“Thanks,” Kendra said to both of them and removed her earpiece.

“Sure,” Aspen said. “Hey, can I ask you something while I have you here?”

“Um… Sure,” Kendra said and then nodded for her cameraman to step away for a moment.

DJ was already on her way over to their bench, so outside of the stands that were filled with people waiting for the warm-ups for the next pairs to start, they were alone.

“Last night, after I got back to my room, I kind of maybe looked you up.”

“Looked me up?”

“Yeah. I found an old article from when you played volleyball in high school. Your team was really good and made the online local paper or something.”

“Oh, right. I forgot about that,” Kendra said with a little laugh. “We went to state a couple of times. They wrote it up.”

“You were really good,” Aspen noted. “There was a video on YouTube. Sorry, I went down a rabbit hole. I’m not a stalker, I promise. I just found one link, and then there was another, and… I’m sorry.”

Kendra smiled at her. Aspen looked a little nervous, and it was adorable.

“I was okay.”

“You had scholarships,” Aspen pointed out. “You did an interview about them before one of those state matches, but I didn’t see anything about you playing in college. I might have come across an old Facebook post from someone you must know or something, and they said something about a–” Aspen stopped herself for a second. “A heart condition.”

“Oh.” Kendra looked down.

“Is that why you had to stop playing?”

“Aspen, I don’t really want to talk about this.”

“I’m sorry. Now isn’t the time, I know. But I saw that, and… I don’t know. I got worried. And this is the first time I’ve seen you today. I usually have no filter. It’s a problem, and I know it, so I shouldn’t be talking about it now. I just wanted you to know that I saw that and thought–”

“Aspen, I’m working right now. You really couldn’t wait to ask me this until we were at home, where we live right next door to each other, and could’ve talked about this over coffee or, you know, not at all?”

“I was worried. That’s all. I know I’m wrong here, and I apologize.”

“What you’re really trying to ask me is whether I’m okay, right? Healthy?”

“I guess so, yes.”

“I’m fine,” Kendra told her and nodded. “Now, I need to go. I have pre-match interviews to do with the other teams.”