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E ndy could barely push open the door to her office, the floor in front of it was stacked with cases of Gatorade and boxes of bananas and huge canisters of trail mix.

“Help me,” came a plea from behind her desk. “Help …”

Endy stepped over the boxes on her floor, leaned on her desk, and peered over. Maria lay splayed out, Endy’s desk fan pointed at her face, blowing her curls away from her neck.

Endy smiled. “Did you carry all this up here yourself?”

Eyes closed, Maria nodded.

“And now you’re hot and exhausted, right?”

Maria nodded.

“And you want to go home early because you did all the shopping at Costco, then came back here and unloaded and carried it up all by yourself.”

Maria nodded.

“Sorry, but I need you the rest of the day because the fundraiser is tomorrow.” Endy slid a box of peanut M&M’S to the edge of her desk and tipped it over, spilling the packets next to Maria.

“Oops, looks like this box got accidentally torn open. Maybe if you have a pack or two, you’ll get your energy back. ”

Maria’s eyes popped open, and she sat straight up. She grabbed a yellow bag, tore it open, and slipped three M&M’S into her mouth.

“Okay, I’ll stay.” She fluttered her eyelashes at Endy. “Hey, you know how it’s always so busy at Costco? Well, their parking lot was packed full, and I had to park my car across the side street where that big empty storefront was. You know the one I’m talking about?”

“Yeah, wasn’t that a Bed Bath & Beyond or something like that? But it’s empty now.”

“Maybe not anymore. I saw a bunch of construction trucks parked in front.”

“Huh. Someone must have leased it out.” Endy looked down and moved the multipack box of M&M’S off the sign-up sheet she’d left on her desk the previous evening. Her eyebrows drew together, and she blinked quickly.

“Maria, did you fill these in?” Endy picked up the paper and turned it toward Maria. “All the adult slots have names in them—it’s full.”

Maria popped three more M&M’S in her mouth and stood up.

“I guess I forgot to tell you because I was so exhausted from the Costco run. But yeah, when I was unloading all this stuff, your phone rang so I answered it. Someone named Inez said she and four others wanted to sign up for the Paddle Battle, so I got her info and told her that they could pay the entry fee tomorrow morning when they register and meet their youth partner.”

“But we had ten empty spots …”

“Yeah, so after Inez called, the phone rang again right after. And it was somebody else who said they wanted to sign up.” Maria shrugged. “There were five of them too.”

“You’re kidding!” exclaimed Endy, jumping up and down. “We’re full! We’re full! We’re full!”

“I know. Why do you think I’m so exhausted?”

Endy pulled Maria into a hug then spun her away. Delirious with happiness, Endy laughed loudly and raised her arms over her head, bumping her hip against Maria’s.

“Who’s the one with big dink energy now?” she whooped.

Endy was ecstatic. They had all their tournament day supplies ready. The weather forecast for the next day was beautiful and sunny.

And all sixty of her kids would be partnered up at the Whisper Hills Country Club Paddle Battle.