Page 72 of The Hardest Fall

After everyone left the room, Jin Ae came over to us.

“Okay girls, are you two available to travel for a weekend?”

Miriam and I glanced at each other with a frown. “Ummm, I should be,” Miriam replied, still unsure.

Jin Ae looked at me. “And you, Zoe?”

“I’m sorry, I have a job scheduled this weekend, and I don’t think I can cancel it.” Not if I didn’t want to lose the job and the money that would come with it.

“It’s not for this weekend. Are you available next weekend?”

I thought about it for a second. “Yeah, I think I can do that. Is it a job you want us to do?”

“No, not a job, exactly. The school paper needs two students to follow the football team around at their away game next weekend. Their usual guys can’t make it, so Mr. Taylor asked me if I could recommend anyone.”

Football team? Following them? I didn’t think that was a good idea at all, and I’d have bet Mark wouldn’t think so either.

“That’s a great opportunity, thank you so much for asking me!” exclaimed Miriam.

I couldn’t exactly share her joy, though she was right—it was a great opportunity. “Uh…what are we supposed to do exactly?” I asked. “To be honest, I’m not sure I’d be any good at sports photography. I’ve never tried it—too much movement, not to mention I know practically nothing about football.”

Even if I wanted to go, I didn’t think Mark would appreciate me being around him or around any of his players, Chris in particular.

“This will be great for both of you,” Jin Ae continued. “If you have no other objections than not knowing about sports, Zoe, I’d like you to take a chance and accept the assignment. The school paper is planning on writing an article, and I didn’t get all the details, but I know they need photos of the players and the coaching staff, and not just when they’re on the field. You’ll need to be around them for the remainder of the time, too—at the hotel, on the plane, at practice, and I think even at the meetings.”

Maybe it would be okay if I asked Mark first, but I’d been avoiding all his calls and texts since our last conversation in his office, so asking him anything wasn’t something I was interested in doing.

Miriam was the first to speak up after she clapped her hands twice and did a small jump in place. “Okay. I like the challenge. I won’t disappoint you.”

Geez. You’d think we’d been invited to photograph the royal wedding with the smile she was beaming—not that photographing however many football players would be bad, especially if I could take a few (or a hundred) shots of Dylan while he was working out and get away with it by saying, Oh, I’m having a terrible time looking at your half-naked body, but…it’s for the paper, so what can I do? I’ll just have to suffer through it.

Jin Ae nodded at Miriam then turned her expectant eyes to me.

“Sure. I’ll be there, too. Thank you.”

“Good.” Turning on her heels, she walked back to her desk to grab her phone. “I told Mr. Taylor I’d let him know after class, and I’ll text him your information so he can get in touch to coordinate everything. He’ll want to talk to you sometime this week, so make sure to be available so he can let you know exactly what he wants you to do while you’re with the team.”

“Is it just the two of us or will someone else be going as well?” I asked.

“I think another student will be joining to conduct the interview part of the piece. You’ll have to discuss the details with Mr. Taylor when you talk to him.”

“Okay, one question: do we know where they’re going? For the game I mean.”

Jin Ae put her phone away and sat down in front of her laptop. “I think he mentions the location in the email, let me check.”

“Good question,” Miriam whispered as we waited in the doorway.

“Arizona. It says the game will be in Tucson, Arizona.”

* * *

“You lucky bitch. If I knew this kind of thing would happen, I’d take up photography too. Can you find out if they need someone to sketch the players? Oil them up? I can do that too—both, if needed.”

“I’m pretty sure there are no oils involved, but for you…I’ll ask. I wouldn’t get my hopes up though.”

“Bitch,” Jared muttered.

As soon as I’d gotten out of class, I’d called my dad to let him know I’d be seeing him in eight or nine days. When that conversation was over, my next call had been to Kayla because the three of us were supposed to meet for lunch. The moment she answered, I knew she wouldn’t make it, which wasn’t surprising anymore. So, that left me and Jared.