Page 76 of Chasing Headlines
I sighed as my eyes found the picture of Dotty up on the board. The lady had been ducking my calls so far, not like I'd tried more than a couple of times. But a bit of digging had turned up a few things of interest. Mostly that she was still wealthy, a partial investor in the Silverado senior living center. And still had some honorary title with the Board of Trustees with the college. “Cooper'd better mind his manners around her. Hmph.” I let out a sigh and tapped my nails against the wall.Why had I crushed on him again? Could I claim temporary insanity due to teenaged hormones?I tilted my head. “Seems plausible.”
“Got a new idea for your story, then?” Mrs. P said as she approached.
Crap. What did I say out loud?“Oh, um, just contemplating. Heavily.”
“Something seemed plausible? Maybe if you share, I could help you shape your idea.”
I looked back at Dotty's face and tapped a finger to my chin. “It's a little out there. I'm not sure I know where to begin. Maybe I should work on my pitch?—”
“Your pitch was due two days ago, Liv.”
I nodded. “Yes, Mrs. P. And I did turn in . . . several ideas in the appropriate format. Some dating back as early as the first week of school.”
“And I have accepted exactly none of them. No history of the stadium, no expose on the evolution of baseball at the college. No hokey 'look back at how the founders lived'.”
“You know who she is, right?” I pointed at the picture of Dotty.
“Yes. What I don't have a pulse on is what angle you're pursuing with your interview. So when Mrs. Schreiber called to verify your credentials, I told her you were not currently on assignment.”
My stomach sank, taking the rest of my insides with it.Suck.
“So, Liv. Let's chat about this plausible idea of yours.”
I shrugged. “I kinda thought that I could find an angle after I interviewed her. Once I'm officially on assignment, that is.” I'm sure I didn't manage to keep the bitterness from my voice, so I rushed along. “Professional journalists handle interviews that way a lot, right?”
“Professional journalists pick the interviewee based on an angle and then dig deeper. I do happen to think Dotty is a fascinating study, so I'm inclined to let you move forward. But Liv, we talked about this early on.”
I nodded. “We did, yes. And I've been trying.” This wasn't good. I'd never been 'behind' in a class before. Shit. “You called her a fascinating study.”
A wry smile appeared on Mrs. P's lips. “Ha. Yeah, she's a spitfire. Raised two sons, one's a county judge a few counties over. And one played baseball, actually. Surprised you hadn't figured that part out. Considering. She and Coach Schorr weren't the best of friends during that time. But her son did well. Like many student athletes, though, he graduated and went into a more stable career. He's not local, though. Houston, I think.”
“Interesting. So, huh.”
“You'll need to have a plan. You can't just ask the woman to tell you about her life and write some pseudo memoir.”
Dammit. “She seems to have, er, hear me out.”
“Let me guess, is there a baseball angle you want to pursue?”
“Only a teeny tiny bit?” I winced and smiled like a kid caught in the pantry eating Oreos a half hour after bedtime.
She crossed her arms.Yeah, not amused.
“I don't have like a fully-developed angle, I'd need to research more about the psychology of being in a senior center, but between her legacy with the college and a tie to a freshman athlete . . .” Whatever was left of my poor stomach was disintegrating in the fire-and-acid whirlwind churning up my insides. Coop might full-on murder me if I tried to write another story with his name in it.
“I'll trust your instincts. If you hand me some watered-down memoir piece, you'll know it. Dig deeper, do the research you're?—”
“Mrs. P, how do I go about getting some resources?” Rivers Reyes the edgy fanboy oozed into our conversation space.
She pivoted. “Rivers, I'm?—”
“I need computer lab time and support from the helpdesk to perform asset matching.” He held up a laptop as he continued his approach.
I shrugged and tried to slowly disengage. Cathy would be super interested in whatever this was, but it wasn't all that intriguing to me.
He flipped his screen around to face Mrs. P and shook his head. “The IT manager says I need a charge code for his team's time?”
I shuffled noiselessly to the other end of the oval-shaped worktable. Only five minutes left until our class time was over.