God, I wish Rosa could’ve come to this game, but she had some family things this weekend.
Ugh, this was stupid, I’m just going to click it and —
There were some hateful, bitchy comments. Of course there were. Soccer is, like, the oldest sport in the world and there are a shit ton of old, outdated asshole fans. And a few of the charities we listed were … bound to piss them off. Honestly, theonly charities that wouldn’t piss off those kinds of bitches were animal shelters and boy youth leagues.
But the overwhelming majority of comments were about how refreshing it was to see a team actuallyengagewith the charities they post about. They were saying this campaign didn’t feel like a photo op. They weredonatingto the organizations listed. There were even some local businesses asking to partner up for matching donations, including TJ’s, which Brooker wouldn’t shut up about.
And, naturally, there were a lot of girls swooning over Brooker and the golden retriever he “found” at the park. I’m 90 percent sure he flirted with some girl to borrow her dog for filming.
But overall, everyone enjoyed the direction the team was going in and the earnestness of it.
This was good. It was going well.
Oh my god, I’m gonna throw up.
Is this how Olli feels whenever he makes a risky move and manages to save?
It was so exhilarating, my body was shaking. And all I wanted to do was celebrate with the team who made it happen. And maybe kiss Olli for not letting me give up on this, even when it got scary.
I looked down at the bench where Olli was sitting, tensely watching the game. Before I could decide how to get his attention, Boyd walked up to him with a … not so happy face and phone in hand.
Well, maybe it’s not about the post. Maybe he got a call from the owners, telling him to sub Olli in. Or maybe that lady Brooker wants to buy the team, did. That’d be really cool.
Then Boyd looked up at the stands, eyes searching until they landed on me and narrowed.
Yeah, he definitely knew about the campaign. And he definitely wasn’t happy. He pointed at me, then the bench before he turned back to the game.
I guess that meant he wanted me to go down there?
Slowly, I made my way through the crowd, dodging some dude waving around his scarf like the team would score if he twirled fast enough.
Once I got to the field one of the assistant coaches waved me through security and guided me over to where Boyd was. He turned to me with a face of utter frustration, all his wrinkles exasperated by sunburn.
“You wanted to speak with me, Coach Boyd?” I said with a tense smile.
“No,” he grumbled and shoved a phone in my had. He moved back to the game, arms crossed, pointedly ignoring me. Guess I should start praying for a cool new ownerandnew coach.
“Hello, Kodi speaking?” I said into the phone. From over on the bench, Olli tilted his head, brows scrunched in a question. I gave him a thumbs-up, though I’m sure my face was anything but confident.
“Hi, Ms. Davey. It’s Hansen.”
“Oh, hi.” My voice was definitely five pitches higher than normal. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
He sighed then said, “You’re lucky you’re talented.”
A Celebration
Olli
“Who’s the man?” Brooker shouted, hoping into the locker room with the energy of a child after five gallons of soda and a whole birthday cake. “Where’s the champagne? I wanna pop the cork.”
“Do you think we can ask Langston to transfer Brooker?” Alvarez asked Ricci. “I’d rather not deal with this for however long it’ll last.”
“Let’s give him a week, then I’ll talk to him about it,” Christenson said, clapping the other two on the back, smiling for the first time in months.
In the last fifteen minutes of the game,afterBoyd had called Kodi down to the sidelines, he called a time-out to tell everyone the team had been officially been sold to Becca Langston because of our ‘little stunt.’ Apparently, while the commentswere predominantly positive, they were by a demographic that … wasn’t the old owners’ target. They panicked and made a deal with the first buyer who called.
Apparently, Brooker had ‘leaked’ Kodi’s campaign to Ms. Langston and she made sure she was first to make a bid after it went live.
