Page 13 of Home of the Brave

I shot him a warning look. “Don’t get any ideas.”

“She owes me a life debt; I chose to accept payment in the form of a nickname.” Otto grinned and held out his hand. “I don’t believe we’ve met before. I’m Otto.”

“Miles,” he introduced himself. “I usually cover outdoor events, so I’m excited to be here.”

“Me too,” Otto turned back to me. “Do you know all of the guys? I can introduce you.” He took a step in the direction of the loud mass, but I stopped him.

“I’ve interviewed most of them, but I wanted to run something by you, actually.” I hadn’t planned on getting player input, but I might as well.

“Shoot,” he smirked. “Hockey pun.”

I shook my head. “You need to get out more.”

He sighed. "Unfortunately, that is true.”

“Are you talking about our plan?” Miles asked.

“Yeah,” I looked between them. “We were thinking instead of the same old questions or doing silly internet trends, we set up challenges. Something super quick and easy.”

“Like trick shots or mini stick goals,” Miles added.

Otto grinned. “Sounds good. Anything to break up the monotony of press days.”

“Great,” Miles nodded to me.

“Yeah, although I do like the random quick-answer questions too. Like favorite cartoon character as we’re passing by. Those make us laugh on the bench.”

“Good to know. I’ll be ready.”

He opened his mouth when someone called his name. “Sorry, we should catch up later!”

I agreed as he jogged away and faced Miles. “First task: Find mini sticks and goal.”

He pulled out his phone and began typing.

“Second, plan at least ten challenges. Third, come up with. . .” I scrunched my nose, trying to come up with a realistic number, "twenty quick-fire questions?”

“That sounds good. We can come up with more if needed.”

“Right, then I can ask relevant questions about practice or games as they come up.”

I felt slightly better having a plan that differed from the usual, and having built a good rapport with the players over the years, and the Olympics, would make it easy to get them to buy into the mini games.

“There’s a sporting goods store a few blocks away.” Miles slid his phone into his back pocket. “We can check there and make it back to greet the women’s team when the rest of them arrive.”

“Perfect.” I couldn’t be more grateful for him. If I had any chance of making this work, I needed his help.

This might just be enough to set us apart. To show the network I have potential beyond thirty-second clips. If we could build this into something during the tournament, it would be exactly what I needed to bring to the negotiating table.

4

JOSH

Walking through the doors with Coach Abrams, Amelia, Hartman, and Schultz somehow made the experience more surreal. Having them around should have been a comfort, but it was unsettling being in a new setting, on a new team, and surrounded by familiar faces that were not part of my organization.

I shook hands and slapped backs as we wove our way to an empty table before the first official team event, breakfast.

I waved and smiled at guys from the Olympics, looking forward to catching up and spotted a few glares being thrown around.