the challenge-match endnote: the locker room as body-inspection chamber
You can take your time dressing, flex in front of the big plate mirror over the sink; the mirror has projecting side-mirrors so you can check out the old biceps from either side, see the jawline in profile, practice expressions, try to look all natural and uncomposed so you can try to see what you really might normally look like to other people.
Context
The empty locker room's real function surfaces: it's a body-inspection station. The plate mirror has "projecting side-mirrors so you can check out the old biceps from either side, see the jawline in profile," the athletic body studying itself from every angle, rehearsing a candid look at its own surface. "The best mirror in the Academy," built on purpose: the founder engineered the vanity apparatus knowing exactly what a body-obsessed sixteen-year-old needs to see.