Page 76 of Home of the Brave

“Really?” Kendall asked.

“For me, it’s probably not as drastic,” she explained. “I still film and photograph, but my clips are cut much shorter. Like, instead of showing an entire play, it’s just the two seconds before a touchdown or goal.”

“That’s frustrating," Schultz frowned. “That doesn’t tell the whole story, who got the assists, or how they navigated opponents.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, it’s a bummer as far as the storytelling side of my job goes, but it’s not what the masses want anymore. They only want to see the result, the one-second excitement of scoring.”

“What about you, Victoria?” Madi asked, looking much more hesitant than before.

Victoria straightened, and I could sense the tension rolling off her. “It’s shifted drastically recently for me as well. It’s no longer about in-depth interviews or telling a full story. The paper doesn’t care about print anymore; we all knew that, but they don’t really care about online articles either. It’s just about quick, easily digestible content.”

“So social media?” Kendall started nodding. “I’ve seen a lot of news stations and papers on my feeds.”

“Exactly, they don’t want me to sit down with any one athlete for an hour, they want ten to thirty seconds. They want to entertain, not educate.” The bitterness of her final words set me on edge.

“Then why do you stay?” I hadn’t meant to ask that aloud, let alone in front of everyone, but the pain in her expression surprised me to react without thinking.

She pursed her lips, glancing at Cambrie for a split second before answering me, “I’m not so sure anymore.”

Cambrie sighed and reached out, placing her hand over Victoria’s forearm.

Victoria forced a smile. “I’ve started wondering lately.”

“Especially since they won’t let you cover what you really want,” Cambrie added with a look.

“What do you want to cover?” Amelia asked.

“The women’s teams,” I blurted, not meaning to answer for her, but some pieces fell into place for me.

“Right,” Victoria nodded. “I was originally assigned to cover the men and women, but it changed,” she explained. “Now I’m stuck with these guys.”

She tried to laugh, but it wasn’t fooling anyone.

I noticed the look Kendall first shared with Madi, then Amelia. Oh no. They were up to something.

“What would you want to do?” Kendall asked. “If you could pick anything in the world?”

Victoria didn’t answer immediately. She stared at her water glass before finally sighing, “I’m not sure. I thought journalism was the way for me to stay close to hockey and help build awareness and fans for the women's league, but it’s been years, and I haven’t been able to do much of that.”

“You covered them at the Olympics, that was big,” Cambrie encouraged.

“Yeah, I’m not enough of a name for them anymore. Not now that they’ve gained popularity.”

“So journalism hasn’t worked out the way you thought. Do you still enjoy what you do, even when it’s not with the women’s team?” Kendall asked.

She hesitated, “Sometimes I do. Other times I feel a little silly asking adults what their spirit animal is or to catch a deflating balloon before it touches the ground just to get views.”

“That was really hard,” Hartman let out a laugh.

“Is there anything else you’d like to be doing? Working with the women’s league specifically?”

“Maybe? I guess the commute to Delaware would only be about an hour and a half.”

“But you would be even further removed from the athletes than you are now,” I added.

“What about working for a specific team?” Amelia offered.

“I’ve thought about that,” she admitted. “So far, nothing I’ve thought of feels right.”