"Josie, can you come in here for a moment." The sound of my boss's voice echoed around my office through the phone. Letting out a sigh, I pushed away from my desk and headed for the door.
On the walk to my bosses office down the hall I prayed she didn't suddenly need me for something. There was only an hour left of the work week and I was more than ready to go home and relax. My lower back was killing me from bending over my desk for the past two hours and my eyes were going buggy from staring at my screen for far too long. I was in a dire need of a glass of wine when I got home.
Knocking on my boss's door, I popped my head inside. Her short blonde head bent over her desk, working on something.
"You needed me?"
"Yes, come in." As I took a seat across from my boss, Lydia, I instantly knew my plans of going home a bit early were null and void now. "I just got a last minute request for someone to take pictures of a local football team that made it to some championship game," she started to say making me groan.
"And you said I would do it." By the sheepish look on her face I knew I was correct. "Why me?" I all but whined. I have already spent the whole week taking pictures of a local charity group planning a huge event in a few weeks, not to mention editing and writing multiple blog posts for other events happening too.
"Everyone has already left or are out on others assignments. I know you've already had a full week but they promised it would only take an hour tops." Lydia said, leaning forward and sending me a pleading look.
I loved Lydia, I do. She's probably the most easy going boss anyone could have, and seeing that she was basically one of my best friends, she knew exactly what looks to give me to make me agree.
"You will also be getting paid over time if you do it," she added. I went to groan again at her words. She knew I wouldn't pass up getting paid over time. Plus, it wasn't like I couldn't do it. I had pretty much finished up my work for the week anyways and it wasn't like I had huge plans tonight.
"Fine, I'll do it." I mumbled which made Lydia beam.
"You are a life saver, Josie." She rattled off details as she typed into her phone. "Just take the pictures and ask the boys how they feel about making it to the championship, talk to the Coach for a second and then you are done. On Monday we can work on the rest."
I nodded while looking at the details she sent me. It was a pretty straightforward meet up and wasn't that far from the office. Definitely should be able to knock it out in an hour if not earlier.
"I better get going but you owe me for this one." I said as I stood up and headed for the door.
"Yeah, yeah. Let me know when you are done." I sent her a thumbs up as I opened the door and stepped out. "Let me know if you want to hangout this weekend," she called after me. With a shout over my shoulder I went back to my office to grab my things.
I made quick work of grabbing my purse and camera. The sooner I got there, the sooner my plans of going home to relax could come true. After saying a few quick 'see you laters' to the people left in the office, I headed out of the office and towards my car.
Despite the groaning in Lydia's office I loved my job. It is the first time I have ever been able to actually say I love what I do. I literally get paid to go around and take pictures of events, people, food, concerts, sports, and write a little piece on it for people to read and see.
I loved every second of it, even if that meant working overtime and spending hours staring at my computer screen trying to make everything perfect. It's not everyday someone can say they adore their job like I do.
When I graduated college, I for sure thought someone like me with an English and Photography degree wouldn't find anything. I literally spent 3 months after graduation applying to every job there was. Some weren't even in my area of degree.
Because I had to make rent I kept my job at a local pizzeria and worked another job at a retail store. Let's just say neither of those were the greatest jobs. Working retail taught me a lot about people and how much I despised most of them. And the pizzeria, well that taught me that game days here were great days to work for the tips, but not much so for the drunk customers.
I had almost lost hope on finding a career with my degree when Lydia reached out. Her company, now my job, Fusion Weekly, was just barely starting out. It was a mix of a magazine and a newspaper all in one. We displayed everything from pictures of local hot spots to alerting people about what kind of events were going on in the city.
When Lydia described it all to me I barely let her finish before saying yes. Besides the fact that it sounded amazing I was beyond desperate. From the moment I showed up to the brightly light office, I knew it was the place for me. It's been three years since I started and I couldn't see myself working anywhere else.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Just a little more to your right." I called out. "No, your other right."
I sighed deeply as the football team shuffled around, not listening to a word I was saying. We have spent the last 35 minutes just trying to get them all into a position where you could see everyone. I hadn't expected it to be this hard to fit 40 plus teenagers into frame and get them to hold their positions long enough for me to snap a picture. For a bunch of football players, they didn't take direction well.
Every time we finally got them set, someone would complain that they couldn't see cause the person in front was too tall. Or someone would suggest they stand based on their number, only seconds later to change it. The entire time their coach stood off to the side talking on his phone, not once bothering to help.
I was literally seconds away from exploding. It was just a simple picture. I've had little kids act better than this and trust me, getting little kids to take pictures was hard. Taking pictures of them running plays was the easiest part. But getting them to sit still was like wrangling up toddlers.
After finally getting the boys in the position they liked, I wrangled in their coach to snap some pictures. Well over an hour later, I got the shot. I was more than tempted to leave, but I knew I had to get some comments, on them and no way was I coming back next week to do this.
With my camera hanging from my neck and my voice recording app on, I approached the boys.
"Would any of you like to make some comments to be used in the article?" I asked over the loud chatter. Almost instantly all heads snapped towards me. All at once, they swarmed me. It took a moment to get them all to talk one at a time, each wanting to say something for the article.
I should have known that asking a bunch of 15-18 year olds to say something wasn't smart. Really not smart.
"Are you single?" The boy in front of me asked. He couldn't have been more than 16, with braces and a really bad haircut. I raised an eyebrow at him. Around him, his friends snorted, a few slapping him on the back for having the balls to ask me that question.
"In your dreams." I replied moving onto the next one.
"Are you into football players, babe?" It took everything I had not to laugh at the way the kid tried to smirk at me, trying his hardest to look sexy when he was far from it.
"Nope." Next.
"How about me and you ditch this place and go get something to eat?" This boy went as far as to wink at me.
"Do you have a car?" I asked. The kid sputtered in front of me, his cheeks reddening letting me know he in fact did not have a car. Thought so. Before another boy could ask me out or make some stupid horny comment, I spoke loudly and clearly.
"I am 24 and so far out of your leagues. Now if any of you actually have comments that are not about asking me out, step forward. If not, I suggest you go wait for your parents to come pick you up."
I could tell my words hurt their egos as they all grumbled and started walked away. I didn't feel bad about it, though. Aside from the fact they were underage, I was severely over everything right now. A job that should have taken an hour had taken almost two. I was more than ready to be done.
I contemplated if it was worth coming back to get comments next week when two boys approached me. I looked over at them fully expecting them to make some comment like the others, but instead they surprised me.
"Do you still need some comments?" My eyebrows shot up at their words.
"Uh yeah I do." The two boys in front of me and could tell they were a bit older than the boys from before. Maybe 17 or even 18.
"We are the two captains. Sorry about those ones." The one with dirty blond hair gestured over his shoulder. I was shocked by the apology.
"It's okay. They see an older girl and think they have a shot." I waved him off. "But uh, those comments, you two don't mind?" I switched the topic back to my article.
"Not at all." The other kid shrugged. Relief washed over me. Thank god. Maybe I could still get out of here in a few minutes.
After asking the two boys some questions about their team, how it was being captains, and how excited they were for the championships, I was finally able to pack up. Surprisingly the boys were great. They answered all the questions without any problems and even threw in a few comments about their coach I would be able to use instead of interviewing the guy. He wasn't even around anymore.
Sending them a grateful thank you I let them leave as I grabbed my stuff.
I sent Lydia a text telling her I was finally done and that she really owed me one, before getting in my car.