"You all good?" Michael, the journalist for Surfer Magazine checked as I adjusted my headphones over my ears.

"Yeah, let's do it."

"I'm Michael and I have the pleasure of being joined here today by River Lancer," he adjusted his voice to a more professional tone, "River just completed her first year on the Championship Tour, and after finishing fourth she is now up for rookie of the year. Thanks for joining us River, how have the past few weeks been for you?"

I laughed slightly. "They've been a wild ride, to say the least, but it's been a very cool experience."

"How have things been since the news broke of your nomination? Was the reaction what you expected?" Michael questioned.

"I would say that it has been both similar and different than what I expected. On one hand, the professional surfing community isn't the largest thing in the world, so I feel like most people knew of me before I even qualified on the tour. Still, since the nomination for rookie of the year I've gotten a lot of messages from surfers that I've never talked to before, and some of them I've looked up to for a long time, so that has been cool."

"Now, you may not bring this up, but over here we've also been checking you out on social media and have noticed that you may have a few more followers over there..."

I laughed again, surprised that the conversation had ended up here. "Yeah, I think I've gotten a couple thousand more followers over the past week, which has been funny to watch. I think that part of it is also funny because clearly the nomination was like a stamp of approval that I actually deserved their attention, so that has been interesting. We'll see if I'm able to keep the content up to appease the followers though."

"That is pretty interesting. I've heard you mention before that being a professional athlete has always been a dream of yours, can you tell us about what it has been like to live that out?"

"It's been more than I had ever dreamed of. There are obviously some things that get hard to balance between your career and your personal life, but overall it was an amazing experience and everyone that was there was very gracious towards me."

Michael smiled, "That's great to hear. Has anything been different than you expected?"
"Growing up I always dreamed of being a pro surfer, as you mentioned, but I wasn't sure how that would work out financially as a woman. A couple of years ago the WSL announced equal prize money between both male and female competitors, and that has been a huge blessing to me as well as many other women on tour. The WSL is on the forefront of the fight for equal pay as one of the first international organizations to do this, and that's been an honor to be a part of.

"Definitely, it's great that you guys are getting the pay that you deserve," Michael responded, "Well, it's been great to have you with us today River. We wish you the best of luck at the awards ceremony, and we'll be rooting for you here at Surfer Magazine."

"Thanks so much for having me," I said before removing the headphones and sitting back from the mic.

"Okay, we're off the tape now. Thanks so much for coming on River, it was great and we'd love to have you back sometime," Michael took my headset with a smile.

"Yeah no problem, I appreciate the opportunity," I responded before grabbing my stuff and preparing to leave.

"So, it's probably a pretty obvious answer, but how are you actually feeling about the awards? He asked, clearly curious about whether I had any thoughts that I hid from the public.

"I mean I'm genuinely very excited. We'll see what happens, I'm not counting on anything, that's for sure. My family is coming out though so it will be fun to have them all around."

Michael paused for a second before asking his follow up question. "So, I'm from Hawaii and all so I kind of know more than most people, but you came home to see the Sanders boy right? I've heard that your families are pretty close, are they coming out for the awards?"

I shook my head quickly. "Nah, Will has to recover here. He's just starting to recover from an infection, not to mention the rest of his wounds, so it doesn't really make sense right now for their family. They don't exactly want to ditch him either, so they'll just watch from home. I've already gotten the texts letting me know they've got the streaming website and everything all lined up," I laughed slightly at the end.

"Gotcha, that makes sense. Well again, have a great rest of your day and good luck over the next few weeks!" He said with a wave as I turned out of the recording booth.

---

The next few weeks ran together quickly, and before I knew it it was the day before I was leaving for Australia. I had already packed the majority of my stuff and gotten my workout in for the day, so I was back at the hospital for my last few free hours.

Noah stood across from me in the room and we were bouncing a tennis ball back and forth, waiting for Will to come back from PT. His sessions were longer now, and Noah and I had already covered most of the topics under the sun, leaving us in a slightly bored silence.

The sound of voices in the hallway got louder, and it quickly became clear that Will was on his way back and was greeting every staff member that he saw on his way. Finally, he turned into his room.

"Gosh, can't you losers find somewhere better than some old hospital room to hang out?" Will is back and dressed in his normal clothes, a blue workout shirt from the high school baseball team and black athletic shorts. His hair is noticeably longer than when he first came to the hospital, and the ends of it are starting to curl up more than before.

Noah allowed the ball to bounce against him as he turned his head to focus on his brother. He paid attention to Will in a new sense now; it had always been clear that he cared about his brother, but he was much more alert and protective of him now.

"Sup dude, how'd it go?" Noah asked, picking the ball off the ground and bouncing it to his younger brother.

He grabbed it out of the air and tossed it over to me. "Good I guess."

I nodded in response and pushed myself off of the wall that I was leaning against. Will glanced at Noah and I before turning himself back towards the door. "Want to go for a walk outside?"

"Lead the way," Noah nodded.

We followed Will through the hallways and down the elevator to the main floor. Will was moving at a decent clip, and Noah and I almost ran into him when he stopped suddenly in front of the automatic doors.

"You know those things open automatically, right bro?" Noah said with an amused look.

Will's attention however was focused elsewhere. "Wanna race?" He asked, eyeing the manual wheelchairs that were used to transport patients to and from the hospital.

"Um, we could probably get in trouble for that..." I said reluctantly, although the glint in his eye made it clear what was about to happen.

Noah pulled a wheelchair out of the row with a flourish, setting it behind me. "There will be plenty left over if they need them," he said, grabbing his own, "Besides, we'll return them."

Before I knew it I was frantically pushing on the wheels of the chair, trying to keep up with the boys in front of me. My turning skills were admittedly worse that Will's were at the beginning, but after a couple of close calls with the curb I managed to make it to where Will and Noah were already lined up at the edge of the parking lot.

"Alright, last one to the last parking line has to eat the worst thing on the hospital food menu," Will yelled excitedly before pumping himself forward.

He was already ten feet in front of me, and no matter how hard I tried to push the wheels I fell further and further behind. My right arm also seemed to be stronger than my left, sending me curving towards the other cars on the left. Noah was not faring much better than me, although he was the only one with any hope of catching Will. Several long seconds later, ill was at the finish lines surveying our progress.

"That's tough guys, really, you need some more practice," he sighed, a mock look of disappointment spread across his face.

"I'm pretty sure my arms are going to be sore tomorrow," I gasped by the time that I made it there.

"Yeah, my biceps and forearms are burning right now," Noah agreed.

"Whimps," Will scoffed before making his way over to a sidewalk that went up a hill. At this point Noah and I abandoned our chairs, our only hopes being to protect Will from injuring himself from the wheelchair. He took several turns careening down the hill, laughing as his brother chewed on his lip with nervousness. We were then assigned to four more races, which resulted in four more decisive losses for Noah and I.

Finally, Noah decided that Will had had enough for the day and Will dutifully agreed. We returned the chairs and headed back up to the room.

"Well, it's probably about time for me to head out," I supplied, looking at the clock as Will went back to bouncing the ball with Noah. He caught it and looked over at me. "You leave tomorrow, right?"

"Yep," I nodded.

"And then you'll be back a week from tomorrow?" He confirmed.

"As long as everything goes according to the plan."

Will nodded and extended his arm for a fist-bump. "Don't lose the hardware on your flight back, I wanna see it in person after I watch you win on TV."

I bumped my fist against his and grinned, "Sure thing, dude."

Noah extended his arms for a hug and I walked towards him. "Good luck River, you don't need it though," he said as I put my head over his shoulder.

I waved as I made my way back into the hallway. "See you guys later!"

They called back that they would see me in a week, and I left with a smile. 

I used to have a neighbor who had to use a wheelchair in high school I think and I used to head stories about how he would ride his wheelchair down these giant hills so fast that the wheels would spark hahaha, some minor inspiration for this chapter. Other than that thanks for reading and see you in the next one, I'm excited for it :)))