In morning practice, Scarlett attempts an inward from the springboard and fails badly, surfacing furious and ignored by the deck. She withholds that she hit an inward at 2 a.m. the night before elsewhere, and instead notes a new internal shift: less mortified, more combative and ready to move forward.

She considers updating Lukas but remembers he is en route to a Nordic meet and drops the impulse. The weekend brings a low-key celebration of her MCAT score with Pen; they walk among alumni crowds and joke about donations, and the ordinary day feels genuinely good.

By Wednesday, Sam returns sounding sick and asks about the recent meet. Scarlett deliberately pivots away from scores, admitting she omitted key context around her accident: a boyfriend broke up with her the morning of the NCAA finals, and an email from her controlling, abusive father arrived the day before. She acknowledges these stressors are connected to diving.

Pressed on her fear, Scarlett articulates the core issue: not injury, but the unpredictability of life, loss of control, and the terror of attempting anything without being perfect. Sam listens calmly, validating what she has suspected.

That afternoon at practice, Scarlett translates the insight into action, managing two inward pikes that are technically terrible but attempted. The efforts mark tentative progress: confronting perfectionism and uncertainty, she chooses to try anyway.