Senior Year Box Set

“We’re ahead of our most aggressive projections, according to the business plan. We’re going to need to hire more managers to help out Kent and his team,” Frank, president of Dawson Management and a managing partner of IDC – Public Relations, shared.

“What does that mean?” Dad asked.

“In the short term, we may need to spend some money to hire and train people. But if we continue at the pace we’re going, we’ll be in the black way ahead of projections,” Caryn explained.

“I want to hire some people familiar with modeling. We haven’t touched David’s modeling contacts yet,” Kent said.

“I know who you should call: Aubrey Dunham,” I suggested.

“Was she the woman I met in the UK?” Dad asked.

“Yes. She and Adrienne are friends, and she’s currently working at Ford Models in Europe to help train new models. She knows the business and just recently retired from being a full-time model herself.

“The other person you might want to contact is Clare Thomas. She’s the niece of Deb Thomas, who’s a vice president in charge of talent development in Ford Models’ Chicago office. Claire was my agent there but quit and went back to school to get her MBA,” I said, giving them a couple of options.

The discussion then turned to my recruiting.

“We mocked up pictures we want to send to each school’s bloggers and sportswriters,” Frank said. “I need to give Lily credit for coming up with the hashtag #WhyNotUs. It’ll help brand the three of you as a package.”

“I like it,” I admitted.

“We’re also getting requests from ‘insiders’ to talk to you about your recruitment,” Megan said. “They told me they want to make their ‘crystal ball’ predictions, whatever that means.”

“One of the recruiting websites has people who’re supposed to be plugged into college football make predictions about where a recruit will end up. I admit that I find it amusing to read some of the fan message boards’ meltdowns when a prediction changes. We could have some fun with this,” I said.

“I recommend against that. If you start creating a bunch of drama, you risk alienating potential fans. People will look at you as an attention-seeker and write you off,” Frank advised.

He could be a total fun-sucker sometimes, but he was right. Message boards tended to create their own drama. Diehard fans of a school hung on every post and tried to glean any information they could get or make up. Since they were on the Internet, where they could hide from the world in their parents’ basements, they could be a bunch of cyberbullies while acting like experts.

Some of my favorite threads were the ones where they tried to prove that their school was better than a rival. The Ohio State and Michigan fans had it down to an art form.

What made it all hilarious was that these adults apparently didn’t have anything better to do. They spent their time trying to figure out what a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old meant with a post to social media. It felt a little like they were stalkers when their comments would stray to talking about the girls the recruits would either start to follow or get messages from.

The Wisconsin board was convinced I was going there. That was all because Dawn, the college basketball player I’d met on the trip, and I had started following each other online. I was sure that if I got onto Kentucky’s message board, I’d find they were talking about me following John Phillips, their starting quarterback, and my friend.

“Okay, fine. I do have something else to talk about. My mom was approached by a representative of Southwest Central State. They wanted me to come for a visit and seemed to indicate they might pay for it.”

“I’ll talk to Duane Morris and find out what we should do about that,” Shannon said, going into lawyer mode.

Mr. Morris was the sports attorney Ms. Dixon had hired to deal with NCAA issues. From there, we wrapped it up and drove home.

◊◊◊

I was in my apartment, reading ahead, when Cassidy came in looking sad.

“What’s wrong, Bad Girl?”

That brought a grin to her face.

“Mr. Hicks is mad at my dad. Dad has to go talk to him tonight,” she explained.

Mr. Hicks was our athletic director and Coach Hope’s boss. I kept my expression neutral because Cassidy was a friend.

“Dad would like to talk to you before he meets with Mr. Hicks,” Cassidy said.

“I’m fine with that.”

We did need to clear the air, or I would have a problem working with him for the rest of the season. Cassidy sent a text and then ran downstairs when there was a knock at the door. Duke came running up the steps. I’d left him in the house with the little ones taking naps. Duke acted as an early warning system for when the boys woke up. Peggy appreciated it because she didn’t have to check on them. Duke would come to get her as soon as one of them would stir.

I was glad to see my dad come up first, followed by Cassidy and Coach Hope.

“Somehow, this seems wrong,” Coach Hope said.

I gave him a confused look.