NoQS Agent Round: Fearless

Title: FEARLESS
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Word Count: 73,000

My MC and MA (main antagonist) are dressed as:

Both my main character, Annie, and her rival, fellow MMA-fighter Janice, would come dressed up as badass Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. As any MMA fighter knows, execution is everything—but Annie’s costume would be a little last-minute; the details not quite right, the costume a bit uninspired. Janice, however, would show up dressed in a perfect replica Wonder Woman costume. So perfect, in fact, Annie half expects her to whip out a real lasso of truth. While Annie would look more naturally the part with her dark hair and bronze skin, she would still feel second-best to Janice.

Query

Seventeen-year-old Annie Armani had her life all figured out. Along with her brother Marc, her idol, the two were going to make it big as the hottest brother/sister MMA fighting duo. Until he was killed in a car accident. Numb with grief, Annie continued training for her title match and did what no one thought she would do—she won. Now Annie’s worried everyone will learn what she already knows: that this recent title winning victory was a fluke.

While Annie’s convinced her fight was too easy—flukey-easy—viewers don’t see it that way. They see her victory as a calculated punch unlike anything they’ve seen before. Now she’s “big time,” the face of female MMA and the star of a feature show documenting her journey to her title-defending match.

But all the hoopla has taken the fun out of MMA for Annie. She starts to dread going to the gym, a place that before served as her sanctuary. She starts to question if being a MMA star is really what she wants. Giving up MMA and Marc’s dream would be like losing the last piece of him, losing her soul. She can't keep being what other people want her to be either, though. She’s not Marc.

With her title defending match only a month away, and Marc’s legacy on the line, Annie has to find the courage to make her own mark and prove to herself she’s the fighter everyone thinks she is.

First 250:

Walking into the convenience store, I immediately recognized the fight showing on the TV sitting in the corner. Shit. I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head, hoping to mask my identity. I wasn’t ready to talk about my stroke-of-luck title win with the clerk at the convenience store down the block. I grabbed the milk I had come in for and scooped up a bag of Skittles for my half-sister, Margie. Walking up to the counter, I pulled out a wad of bills from my back pocket. The clerk's attention was on the TV, the fight reflecting in his gray eyes.

“Gimme one sec.” His gaze never left the fight. “This girl’s gonna throw a punch like nothin’ I ever seen before.” He chuckled, still watching. “This girl, winning this fight like this—it’s the ultimate Cinderella story.”

My throat went dry. Why wasn’t there a guide to the so-called happily-ever-after?  Did Cinderella feel this kind of dread every time she looked at her prince, knowing she didn’t belong in a castle?

I cleared my throat. “Look, I have somewhere to be. Besides, isn’t this fight old news?”

“Old news? Not a spectacle like this. It’s—what do the kids these days say?—it’s gone viral. Her first professional fight, and she won like it was nothin’."

Turning my head to the TV, I was just in time to see my knock-out punch. My opponent crumpled to the ground, hard. Just as it had in real time, my stomach lurched.