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For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. -Psalm 149:4 (NIV)Melissa truly had not been paying attention to the scores -- she was merely trying to survive and do her best -- so when the timer hit zero and the waters died down, she was shocked to see how well she had done. Well, that was a lie Melissa tried to tell herself. She knew she had been doing well by simple virtue of having dished out more than she had personally taken. In some ways, then, coming in behind both Fen and Valerie was a blessing, because it meant downplaying such a placement with humility didn’t come across as false. She allowed herself some measure of pride, then. “Well done, everyone,” Melissa said as she exited her boat. She returned Fen’s high fives. “Likewise, you took to the whole experience so quickly; it was amazing to see.” Valerie, meanwhile, was graceful in her team’s defeat. She was clearly frustrated, but she still smiled and said, “Hah, next time we'll do something I can actually move around and you'll get to see me at my best!” Melissa tensed up at the thought of a rubber match with someone still so self-assured, but the tension was for naught -- no challenge was forthcoming just yet. Instead, Melissa just said, “I look forward to it,” and moved on to the next person to reconcile with. “Thank you for the match, Kira,” Melissa said. “Um, the way things were going, I’m sure you would have been able to pull ahead. I think I might have fallen into a whirlpool soon, the way I was driving, and you had just managed to get Trevor. Either way, it was close.”