Astrid's eyes followed Tip's. "I guess," she mused, "they probably didn't want to cancel after putting all the effort into setting it up. I might hold out."

It reminded her almost of the sky in Amsterdam, and how they'd only really had a handful of sunny days, and all these hopes of rain that only were met half the time.

"I've never done anything like this before, either," she added. "Maybe we'll be paired up, and we'll spend the whole race just fighting to get ourselves out of a circle."