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The weekend goes far too quickly, and suddenly it’s Monday and I’m back at the stadium—earlier than usual since it’s the week of final exams and I don’t have class this morning.

“I’m back!” Joanie says with a little too much glee as the interns gather around the table in her office. “And I’m here with your final competition for those of you still interested in the full-time social media position. Once we tally the points after this comp, we’ll select our top three candidates to interview.” She does a great job avoiding eye contact with me, something I appreciate considering she just told me the other day that I’m a lock for the position. It seems like the rest of this is just a formality.

“We’ve done a variety of challenges over the course of this competition, from profiles on our players to scavenger hunts for free tickets, and I’m so excited to see what you come up with for this final challenge. The winner will be awarded ten points since it’s the final one, and just to remind you, we have a tight race for the top three,” she says.

I glance over at Dylan ready to smile, and I spot him glance away from me just as our eyes meet.

My brows dip a little.

Is something wrong? Is Mia mad at me?

I haven’t spoken to her in a while, and I get the sudden feeling that something is off.

But it’s something I’ll have to deal with later since Joanie continues on.

“For the final challenge, your goal is to come up with a pitch for a single day promotion by Wednesday. This can be a game day promo or something you put together in the off-season, but the goal is building a community and your theme is Heat Wave .” She glances around the interns with a touch of glee. “Any questions?”

Chase looks monumentally confused. “Heat Wave?” he repeats, his brows drawn together.

Joanie nods. “Take it and run with it. Whatever that means to you.”

He makes a funny face. “Okay,” he says, drawing out the word, and the rest of us laugh. I can’t wait to see what it means to him.

I basically lock myself in the library to work diligently on my plan for the next forty-eight hours—barring the two final exams I have to go take. Cooper texts me with encouragement, and I pop by his place for a quick kiss before heading home to call it a night. I don’t want to tell him or my father what I’m working on because I want to win this on my own ideas.

And when Wednesday morning arrives, I find out where Chase’s mind went when she said Heat Wave .

“We’ll call in the Guinness Book of World Records during one of the hot summer months to do the biggest fan wave in a stadium ever recorded.” He looks so proud of his idea, and while it’s cute, and I suppose it does build community, it’s not exactly a winner.

Mackenzie’s pitch is about a contest where fans create artwork and posters to hang around the stadium, and Justin pitches multiple giveaways at the gate from a variety of sponsors. Chloe suggests a family fun day, and Ben’s idea is to have a bring your pet to the stadium day. Dylan pitches a player and fam community service day, which is actually a pretty awesome idea.

I pitch last, and I’m nervous as I stand to present my idea. I feel like it’s good. I feel like the hard work I put into it will shine through.

But I also feel like Mackenzie will assume I got input from my father when that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Close your eyes with me for a moment and picture this.”

I glance at the other interns, and only Justin and Chloe have actually closed their eyes. Joanie’s eyes are closed, too, and Zelda’s and Mike’s—our three judges for this competition.

“It’s a Saturday,” I continue, “and we’re in town but don’t have a game. The stadium is full of fans who bought a ticket to access a stadium tour, a pitching clinic with a Heat player, live press conferences, the chance to interact with players and coaches, bounce houses on the field, arts and crafts stations, and more. Our vendors are here selling their products and we invite others in the community to set up booths. Think spin the wheel to win, contests and games, whatever anybody wants to do to get people to their booths. We mark all the open seats still available for season tickets with their price structure and sell those out mid-season. We have a garage sale to clean out the swag closet of the previous year’s items. We discount merch, or we offer special merch only available for that one day. We call it Fan Fest, and it’s the Heat’s way of waving to other businesses in our community as well as opening our home to our fans while promoting everything we can about our brand.”

The room is silent when I finish speaking, and I wait nervously for someone to tell me it’s a silly idea that will never work.

Instead, Mike starts clapping.

The general-freaking-manager of the Vegas Heat claps for my idea.

I draw in a deep breath, and Joanie and Zelda join him. Justin does, too, and he stands, and Chloe is next, standing beside him. Brian and Chase join in as well. Dylan seems reluctant, but eventually he joins, and Mackenzie stands but never claps.

It feels like a victory.

It feels like a win.

I keep waiting for someone to tell me what’s wrong with my idea.

I keep waiting for someone to explain why it’s really second best…because it seems like I’ve always been second best—or at least my mother has made me believe that.

Instead, Mike stands and reaches out a hand to shake mine. “I don’t think we need to vote, Gabriella. This idea is outstanding, and regardless of who wins the chance to interview for the social media position, we will be implementing this fan fest idea in our inaugural season. I see it becoming an annual event, and I could not be prouder of what you’ve come up with here today.”

Tears spring to my eyes as one of the most important people heading up this organization compliments my idea. Other teams do fan fests, too. This isn’t a new idea, but it’s new to the Vegas Heat, and as we establish our team and our place in this community, it’ll hopefully become an exciting annual event both for locals and for tourists.

And the longer I intern here, the more I hope it’s me who gets to document it all as the social media manager.