Page 22 of (La)Crosse My Heart

“Well, I flew to Chicago last weekend and tried countless takes, only to run out of time before they got anything usable. So they might need some time to recover before they fly me out there again.”

She nods, tapping her chin with a pen. “Okay, if you’ll give me their information, I’ll take care of that.”

“That’s what my agent is for, Jessa.”

“Oh, yeah. Duh. Okay, send me your agent’s information so I can coordinate with them. Have they done nothing to help you with this?”

I mentally go through the many meetings I’ve had over the past few seasons and while I’m grateful to my agent for helping me get a contract with the Lancers, he hasn’t done a lot since then.

I’m the one who had to reach out to the sponsoring companies with my stats and information, just to make sure my name was getting out there. The goal is to set up things for the future, and it won’t happen on a player’s salary.

“You know what? Maybe you should be the one negotiating with the companies.”

Jessa raises an eyebrow and says, “Are you sure? I don’t want to step on toes.”

“To be honest, I think it’s about time we parted ways. My agent hasn’t done a lot to help me in the past year.”

She nods. “Okay, send me whatever information you need me to know. I can schedule things and get the ball rolling to finish out your media obligations. Well, until the games start, anyway.”

I smile, grateful she’s here and willing to go all in. Maybe I should’ve found someone like her a lot sooner. But when I was only focused on the four to five months of lacrosse and trying to survive on a different career’s income, it was harder to make the switch or take the time to do that.

She drives us back to the house. I’m determined to get everything inside in one trip, so I loop all the bags over my wrist and walk as quickly as I can across the street.

“Make sure you hang everything up. I don’t want to see it on the floor with wrinkles when you need to wear it.”

I laugh and call out over my shoulder, “Okay, Mom.”

I might not be able to see her face, but I can definitely feel the invisible daggers she’s shooting at me.

This might not be the worst arrangement I’ve ever had.

10

Jessa

My mind has been going a mile a minute since our shopping trip yesterday. Maybe it’s the urge to fix things in me that makes it hard to concentrate if things aren’t just so, but part of me wonders if Daphne and upper management know all the missing pieces for this Lancers team. The lack of a photographer and social media person are two slots that should be filled almost immediately.

Sure, it can be a colossal pain in the behind, but there’s something about knowing there’s some tangible growth happening for this club, even if it’s just in the slow uptick of followers.

I have to make this into a seamless, understandable schedule for my brain and so far, it’s not quite fitting nicely.

I’ve contacted the two companies sponsoring Clark. He’s set to head back out to their studio to get the photos and media they need for his campaigns in two weeks.

That means I have fourteen days of major work on his media presence and confidence in front of a camera before we have to go back, but I think we’ll be fine.

What would be great is to get some shots of the guys now. That’s one problem with being thousands of miles from my hometown. I don’t have a contact for everything I need.

I used to love photography and even took a few classes in high school and college, loving that it was an escape from the harder subjects I didn’t enjoy.

There are a bunch of other things I should do, like coming up with a detailed guide of how I’m going to get Clark comfortable in front of a camera, but I’m now hyper-focused on finding a good camera on the local classifieds.

There’s been enough scams for me to realize what’s good and what’s not. So after scouring through the listings for a bit, I finally find one for a decent price. I’ll have to order a better lens, but at least it’s a start to taking photos of the team. I might be the image reform gal for Clark, but I can imagine a few others would benefit from this system.

After meeting the person in a Walmart parking lot, we exchange the money for the camera. The guy is kind of shifty and so once I’m in the car again, I go through every single pocket, making sure he didn’t leave any random allergens or possible dangers in there.

Everything looks to be in order.

I don’t have time to go back to the house and change, so I drive to the arena. At least I’m in jeans and a T-shirt, which is going to be a lot easier to take pictures in than a pantsuit.

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