"Ugh, no one's willing to share around here. I nearly lost a tooth to some blonde girl who kept trying to one-up me on one-liners." And probably won, unfortunately, but Venus was exhausted by then and not very liable to give good, witty quips.

"Exhilarating's a good word for it. It's not the best part, though. It's knowing there are people at home watching, eating up their popcorn, waiting to see how it turns out." Venus tilts her face up to the sky. "It's imagining their faces as every blow hits, you know? Wondering if for ten seconds you can make them feel something real through a television screen."