Misty arrived at the conference room on time to find a pair of unfamiliar women waiting with Ms.Coolidge.“This is Dr.Emma Schindler, a sports psychologist we brought in to help us form the team.”
A woman with graying hair around her mother’s age stepped forward.“Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
“And this is Belinda Suarez.We met when she was a publicity intern during my Olympics, and I reached out to her PR firm for help with this venture.”
With her dark hair and smooth skin, Belinda looked several years younger than Dr.Schindler, but still older than Misty.“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Have a seat.”
Misty sat opposite the women, unzipping her parka and smoothing her ponytail as she did.She wouldn’t have worn hunter green leggings and a black sweatshirt with a fictional high school’s logo to a job interview, but it seemed okay for today.They would have expected her to be in workout gear, after all.
Ms.Coolidge went first.“Let’s talk a little more about your sports background than what you said in your introduction on the bus.How did you get into both track and kickball?”
“My best friend and I joined the track team in middle school, and I kept running in college after I got a little scholarship money for it.I didn’t run competitively after graduation, but then a coworker said something about his kickball league.I always liked to play in gym class, so I signed up five—no, six years ago.Wow.”Had it really been so long since she’d gotten into it?
“And what keeps you coming back?”
“It’s fun!”She didn’t have to think twice about that.“I love being a part of a team, playing the games, and spending time with people I like a lot but would never have met if not for our shared love of the sport.”
Dr.Schindler nodded.“I can’t imagine every minute of it is fun, though.Can you tell me how you deal with the parts that aren’t?Things like grueling training sessions, defeats, or difficult teammates?”
“I’ve been an athlete long enough to know that the training sessions are all part of the process.When we’re running drills, there is very much a sense that we’re all in this together, and that makes even the toughest sessions easier to get through.The defeats...Of course I wish I could’ve done some things differently, but I try not to play the blame game with the rest of my team.I just try to learn from the experience for the next time.”
She took a breath.“As for the difficult people...If we’re not working too closely, it’s easy to stay close to people I like more.But if we do have to work in close proximity, I try not to give them any reason to give me a hard time.I just try to remind myself that we all want the same thing: to win.”
Belinda typed something into the tablet on her lap, reminding Misty of Spencer.“Moving on...If you make the team, your name and face are going to be all over the media, leaving you to get noticed and picked apart by people all over the world.How are you prepared to handle that?”
“I already put myself out there to some degree with my social media pages, both personal and professional.”
“This is going to be that times one thousand,” Belinda said.“You’ll be all over the papers and TV stations, and all that is going to be picked up by social media where anyone can comment on your appearance, your outfits, your performance, and the most innocuous thing you said in an interview.”
“I’m glad that hadn’t been invented yet when I was competing,” Ms.Coolidge muttered from her seat.
“Right,” Misty said.“Don’t get me wrong, there’ve been times when I thought it would be cool to be famous, but I know from Tish’s dad’s experience that it’s not always fun, that you don’t necessarily want to be bugged for a selfie or whatever in the middle of a dinner out.I’m willing to go along with interviews, group photos, whatever.”
She took a breath as she pondered what to say next.“As for people picking things apart online...I already get that to some extent when I do artwork for a book and the character I drew doesn’t match whatever image people had of them in their heads.”
Never mind that anyone who actually read the books would have come across clear descriptions of the race or body type she depicted in her drawings.
“It usually leads to all sorts of wars in the comments, and I stay out of it.I have to, if I’m going to work again and keep authors’ trust.”
Belinda considered this.“Should you make the team, what are your plans for after the Games?”
Misty’s first thought was that, after all the training and stress to get ready for this winter sport, a tropical vacation wouldn’t go amiss.But because that probably wasn’t what they wanted to hear, she bought herself a little time by asking, “What do you mean?”
“Some people go into this with a plan to use their newfound platform and exposure to draw attention to certain causes.”Misty was immediately reminded of the vegan next to her at the welcome dinner.“Others want to become professional athletes, and still others are content to have this as one amazing experience in their lives.Where do you stand?”
“To be honest, I haven’t thought ahead to that.My plan at this point is to take things one day at a time.If opportunities for endorsements or more athletic events present themselves, that’d be cool, but it’s not the end of my world if they don’t.”
Dr.Schindler nodded.“Remind me what you do for a living?”
“I’m a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.I still have some contacts from when I worked for an ad agency, and I design book covers and fan merchandise.”She gestured to her shirt before continuing.“I got all my projects out of the way before I left, and I can reopen for commissions after I get home.”
“Can you tell me a little about your family?”
