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After all these years my dream had finally come to fruition. Albeit, differently than I imagined, but that was the joy of life, wasn’t it? The surprises along the way. I hadn’t expected to spend eight years in Hollywood, but I’d been lucky. My first project had gotten me a lot of attention.

I hadn’t stopped working since. I was part of blockbuster movies, award-winning movies, and made a name for myself. The only problem with that was it made it hard to turn down amazing projects and opportunities.

Then this came along. The Tampa Bay Tangerine’s were a women’s professional soccer team. Their new owners, rockstars Kristin Holt and Travis Brantley, wanted to share the team and the sport with the world. They wanted to make a documentary.

At first they hired a turd. He messed everything up. Then Seth slipped my name to Kristin and the job was mine. It quickly grew from an artsy two-hour documentary into an unscripted series. Essentially a long-running documentary told in episodic format.

I was in love.

I was born for this.

I just needed to find someone other than Frannie to assist with my vision. Frannie was good for technical things, but she didn’t have an artistic bone in her body. I didn’t have the heart to tell her.

Not yet. When I really understood her strengths, I’d sit her down and redirect her ambitions. In the meantime, I needed to find someone with a good eye to help me craft these shots.

“Using the drone during the game?” Charley Tennant, the oldest player on the Tangerines jogged in place beside me. Her brown hair was pulled back in a braid with a thin headband to hold back stray hairs.

“Sure am.” We had six cameras around the field to capture action shots during the game. I wanted more, but the current budget didn’t allow for that. As it was, the network crews were being territorial about which of our cameras were allowed where.

Luckily they weren’t using any overhead shots for the television broadcast so the air was all mine. It was part of why the drone shots were so important to me today.

“Following the ball?” She stretched her arms over her head.

“Nope. Static overhead shot of the whole field.”

“Nice. That will really capture the scope of the game,” she said with a nod.

I gaped a little. “A fan of documentaries?”

She shrugged. “I might have an MFA in Motion Picture Arts.”

I let my jaw flop wide open. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?” These last two weeks I’d been pulling my hair out trying to get good people to work on this project and the ideal candidate was playing on the field?

She shrugged again. “It’s not like I expected to be able to play this long or make this much money. I planned to transition into film when my career belly flopped.”

“Except it didn’t.”

“Nope. I did most of my MFA remotely over the last few years. Only graduated ten months ago.”

Her obligations to the team would take up most of her bandwidth, but in her spare time… “Want some on the job experience?”

A grin curled her lips. “I’d love it.”

“What areas are your favorite?” We only had five minutes, but that was more than enough time to learn that Charley’s talents lay in the editing bay. Where I had an eye for the shot, she had one for the story. I’d have to look at her work to confirm what she told me, but I may have just found a unicorn in the most unlikely place. Like finding a pot of gold hidden behind a shadow instead of at the end of a rainbow.

As kickoff drew nearer, the energy in the stadium amped up to a fever pitch. Tangerines games were almost always sold out now that our first season was burning up the streaming services and tonight was no different. The sky got into the game, turning a bright orange as the sun set. I grabbed my own camera to capture it, then swapped to my DSLR to take both video and a handful of photographs. Satisfied I’d gotten the shot I hit my microphone, coordinating with my crew.

Sophie was with the team.

Alana had the guests in the crowd we were focusing on tonight.

Kourtnay was up in the owner’s suite.

And Jai was on the field.

Frannie was on drone duty with Marcia.

Then the team was announced and it was showtime.