“No, I mean you’re not giving up on your dream job.” The waffle maker beeped again and Olli made quick work of getting it out. “Grab whatever other food you want and let’s go. We’re making this work.”
An Encouragement
Olli
“Never thoughtyou’dinvite me to your room,” Brooker said as soon as I opened the door. I gripped the knob tighter, fighting the urge to slam the door in his face.
“If this wasn’t for Kodi,” I grumbled, not even finishing the sentence as I stepped aside to let him in.
“You meanmyPA,” he said with a mischievous grin. I smacked him in the stomach and walked back to the main part of the room, where all our other teammates had gathered.
“Olli,” Kodi groaned for the dozenth time. “I told you, we don’t need to do this.”
“Do what?” Brooker asked.
“We’re making her calendar idea.”
“It’s the middle of summer and without company financing, we can’t make anything that great. Besides, what will it prove?”
“You know,” Brooker cut in. “I’ve been tagged in a lot of conversations about how owner transfers affect players and all the other employees that make up the team. The way you changed the topic from us complaining to an actualconversationmade an impact. I think if we just do something flashy enough with your name on it, fans will push for you.”
“And you have the team behind you, too,” Christenson said, stepping up to pat her shoulder. “And honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think this’ll help us attract the kind of ownerswewant.”
“Like Langston!”
“Brooker, I told you, they haven’t mentioned her when talking about potential buyers. If she’s expressed interest, I don’t think they’re taking her offer seriously.”
“Typical white men,” Brooker huffed and Carter put a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. “Right, duly noted.”
“Anyways, Kodi, are you game for a sort of impromptu photo/film shoot thing?” Taylor asked and everyone turned to look at Kodi. Her eyes went wide, face pinking, then she looked at me.
“You’ve got this,” I mouthed to her. She chewed on her lip, still uncertain.
“Are y’all sure? It could get y’all in trouble. And we only came together on this plan last night, it might be too impulsive to —”
“Kodi, it’s not impulsive. You’ve thought this through and you’ve got the experience to do it. Carter and Christenson wouldn’t be here if they didn’t agree.” I took her hand and pulled so she’d face me. “You could do this even if itwasimpulsive.”
“You notice how he left the rest of us out?” Sosa mumbled in the background.
“But I’ve already gotten you benched,” Kodi whined. “What if I get the whole first-string benched, too?”
“Boyd couldn’t do that,” Christenson said with a bit of sharpness.
“And if you wanna talk impulsive,” Fuller said, rolling up his left sleeve to show a very red tattooed soccer ball with a pirate hat under some plastic wrap. “I got this last night.”
“Yeah, he tried to get us to get one too, but …” Sosa said, trailing off as his mouth twisted.
“Why’d you get a tattoo before a game?” Christenson asked, voice going up a pitch.
“It’s totally fine.” But when Ricci gently placed a hand on Fuller’s arm, he hissed.
“Okay, I’m gonna get Fuller some … cream or something. Kodi, if you want to take some nicer photos, I can give you the team photographer’s number. And Freedom Park might be a nice place to go.” Then Christenson was out the door, phone pulled up to a map of local pharmacies.
“Should we get in our jerseys for the shoot?” Alvarez asked and again all eyes turned to Kodi. And again, she looked at me. I wanted to nod, give her a thumbs-up, something to instill more confidence in her. But she didn’t needmeto have confidence in her, she needed to have it in herself.
Kodi let out a little huff, fear turning to a pout as she read my mind.
“Yes, grab your jerseys. Shorts are optional.”
