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by Rita Bullwinkel

Some of the coaches were amateur boxers, but many of them have never competed at the level that these girls are fighting in. The girls’ coaches travel to the tournament to get their checks from the association. In between rounds, Artemis’s and Andi’s coaches do speak to them, but the coaches speak only in clichés and useless information. Everything the coaches have taught the girls is in the past. The language of the coaches inside Bob’s Boxing Palace is like the sound of the loud overhead fan.

Andi hadn’t as much loved her father as she needed him. She had needed another person in her life to tell her that she was a real person, and that she might not be special, but that she was fine.