Free Gold Medal Murder by Franklin W. Dixon

give us the cold shoulder,but she was definitely one of the rudest. I hoped she slipped in her own puddles!
    Bess bounced back over a few minutes later, eager to tell me everything the Ryan twins had said to her, including their favorite colors, foods, and places to travel.
    â€œAny threats or anything?”
    â€œA few obsessive fans—not me—but nothing like what Lexi and Scott have been experiencing. You get anything from that woman?”
    â€œJust a whole lot of attitude. But it seems pretty clear that whatever is going on, they’re targeting Lexi and Scott specifically.”
    â€œYeah. Speaking of which, it looks like Lexi is about to have a practice match. Want to go watch?”
    Bess pointed across the gym, where Lexi was getting into her fencing suit. I hesitated for a moment. It didn’t seem like anyone else was being threatened, but we hadn’t talked to
all
of the athletes yet, so we couldn’t know for sure. But I was curious to see Lexi fence with another person at her skill level, someone who could give her a real run for her money.
    â€œSure, let’s check it out.”
    Lexi fenced with the saber, which is one of the three blades used in modern fencing—the others being the foil and the epee. Saber is the one that’s most like the sword fighting you see in movies. You can strike with the edge of the blade, as well as the point. It’s what Lexiwas teaching me, since it was the most likely to come in handy if I ever got in a sword fight, which given my life, isn’t as unlikely as it sounds.
    â€œFencing, as a sport, has quite the prestigious history,” I whispered to Bess as Lexi and her opponent suited up. “The first recorded use of the term ‘fence’ is in William Shakespeare’s
Merry Wives of Windsor
. It is one of only four sports to be in every modern Olympics.”
    The small audience that had gathered around the fencing mats grew quiet as the two women took their places. The starting pose of fencing looked almost like ballet: one leg back, foot pointing to the side, the front arm raised, weapon ready.
    â€œEn
garde
!” yelled one of the coaches.
    For a moment, no one moved. No one even seemed to breathe. Then it began. The two fencers were lunging at each other, twisting, slashing, stabbing. The blades flickered so fast they were nearly invisible. The sharp sound of metal-on-metal echoed throughout the arena. They danced back and forth across the mats rapidly. At first, Lexi was being forced back toward the edge of the mats, which was dangerous, because stepping off the mats could make you lose. But she quickly recovered, and drove her opponent backward.
    Step by step, Lexi seemed to be winning. Her opponent was definitely on the defensive. In a few seconds, it seemed Lexi would make the first point of the game, bystriking her opponent with either the point or the edge of the blade—saber fencing allowed you to do either.
    But suddenly her opponent made a risky move, a full-out lunge, throwing herself directly at Lexi. If she missed, or if Lexi parried her blade, she would be left entirely open and be unable to defend herself. But she didn’t miss. The point of her saber got Lexi in the leg.
    And Lexi screamed. Not a sound of surprise or frustration, but one of pain. As I watched dumbfounded, blood blossomed on her all-white fencing costume. Something had gone horribly wrong.
    â€œLexi!” I yelled. Bess and I stood up and ran toward her side. Her opponent was standing there in total shock, not moving, her blade still sticking in Lexi’s leg. In fact, no one seemed to be moving. Everyone was so surprised.
    Everyone except Lexi’s dad, who beat us to her side. She was on the ground now, clutching her leg, moaning in pain. But instead of helping her, Lexi’s dad turned on the teammate who had been her opponent.
    â€œWhat did you do? How could you be so stupid!” He was screaming at her, as