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Callie snickers as I squeeze my eyes shut, plucking the tomato off my face and putting it in my mouth. “My brain hurts,” I complain around my chewing. “Dr. Willard didn’t approve my final project outline.”
Callie’s grin falls away. “What? Why? I don’t even know why you have to do a final project. You are the poster child for the marketing department.”
She isn’t wrong. “She says she wants something more, that she knows I can market teams, but she wants me to think outside the box. I did my fall paper on my influencer stuff, so I can’t do my spring final on that.”
She thinks that through, biting her lip. Then her eyes light up. “Maybe market an event? A charity event?”
I make a face. “I did that last year, and now that she said what she did, I think I need something better.”
“Oh yeah,” she agrees, looking just as defeated as I feel.
I bring my lip in between my teeth, furrowing my brow. I let my head fall back when my brain aches from moving so quickly.
If this is what it feels like to be an adult, don’t sign me up.
Chapter Three
Cameron
I still have no idea what I am doing for my final project as I head back to the Bellevue sports compound.
I went through every possible idea I had in my head on the drive over, and nothing is clicking. Nothing feels good enough, and now that I know Dr. Willard wants me to think outside the box, I know I have to rise to that. She’s right; I can market ice to a polar bear, but how can I use my skills to do something more? Events, I’ve done. Marketing for teams, easy, done. Marketing myself, easy peasy. But what can I do to prove I am the best in my class? What is out of the box?
I have no clue whatsoever.
I sit down as my coach and the senior media team gather in the meeting spot in our training facility. The Bullies gymnastics team shares the facility with the hockey, volleyball, and basketball teams. The meeting rooms are always full, with team meetings or the student athletes doing their homework. It’s a little loud today, but once the door shuts, it’s not as bad.
As I look across the table at my coworkers, I smile in a friendly manner. I’ve worked with Nati, Amber, Levi, and West regularly. While my focus is more on the gymnastics team, I do help with ideas and different strategies for everything on the Bellevue campus. Amber is an incredible photographer with an eye like a hawk. She can see things no one else does and always gets the best shots. West is a Photoshop genius. I swear he can turn a turd into a flower. Our senior videographer is Levi, and sometimes I think he doesn’t even need to waste his time in school anymore. He’s fantastic with the camera and always gets the best shots of me at meets and in practice. No matter if it’s with a phone or a camera, he kills it either way. Nati is the project manager, the person who keeps everyone in line and helps execute ideas. The team is badass, and our social media accounts for the school have taken off. We’ve raised attendance at sporting events, we’ve attracted a lot of kids to the school, and most of all, we have a blast doing it.
After everyone says hello, we get started. I’m the first to speak. “Confirmation emails with Coach Sinclair have been reviewed, and the team will be ready for the Beauty and the Bull media day on Sunday.”
“Great. Since it’s your senior year, you’ll go out as our Beauty, and thankfully, Benson Jeannot has agreed to be our senior Bull,” Nati informs us.
Benson Jeannot.
Benny.
Benson fucking Jeannot.
Oh, butterflies be still.
I don’t react outwardly to his name, but inwardly, the butterflies I asked to be still aren’t listening, nor do I feel they care to listen. Which is dumb. I haven’t spoken to him but maybe three times over the last couple years. When we have a shoot, it’s to the point and we get it done, even if heat explodes through me when our hands touch and I’m breathless the whole time.
It’s silly; the ship of Benson and Cameron has sunk. It was hit by a hell of a cannonball, and there is no coming back from that. Yet I still think of him. I still feel his lips on mine. His hand in mine. His heart’s steady beat as I lay in his arms. I can still remember every single interaction between us, and they still feel just as real as if they were yesterday.
“Good since it’s been that way for the last three years,” Levi laughs, and he’s not wrong. “We’ll need him to share on his accounts too. His social media is almost as popular as Cameron’s.”
