The Offer
Bailey sat at her booth in the school gym, just like all of the seniors in her class, she had several of her projects laid out and on display. She never did understand the purpose of this fair, it felt so backwards to have people coming to speak to her about colleges instead of her seeking them out. She was fairly certain that this was the school's attempt at getting those who hadn't committed to a school to do so. Why they had chosen a Saturday morning to do it, she didn't know, but she was there, nonetheless. The school had arranged for her piece to be delivered from the museum so that it could be included in her display and bright and early at 6:00 that morning she'd received a phone call from the principal saying that it had arrived in one piece and had been secured in a plexi-glass display case. The other piece that she'd selected for the display had been the one that had been hanging in the firehouse. Judd had delivered that piece that morning and it was propped securely on an easel next to her museum piece. Her smaller prints were scattered around the table as well as her several school projects both artistic and strictly academic alike.
People had visited her booth, several people in fact but after six hours of sitting and entertaining the public Bailey was feeling the effects of her 6:00 AM wake-up call. She was sitting in her chair her eyes barely staying open when another group approached and she blinked rapidly to try and put up her polished front.
"Woah, you look dead on your feet." Came a voice.
Bailey snapped up and saw that it wasn't a college recruiter but the 126 who had come to her booth.
"Hey guys." Bailey said, relaxing back into her chair.
"I think you need this more than we thought." Her dad said holding up an In N' Out Burger bag and a cup.
"Is that what I think it is?" Bailey asked hoping for her usual order.
"Double-double no onions extra cheese and a large Neapolitan shake." TK recited, holding the bag out to her.
Bailey smiled brightly, accepting the bag and cup.
"Thank you." She said taking a drink of the milkshake.
"So, how many people have come by?" Carlos asked, slipping back behind the table and taking a seat on the little cooler that held Bailey's waters.
"A lot, I'm peopled out and I've still got like four hours." Bailey admitted taking a bite of her burger.
One by one the members of the 126 took up places spread out behind Bailey's booth laughing and talking to one another. Bailey smiled as she was drawn from one conversation to the next, never really starting or finishing any one conversation but floating around and everybody floating with her.
"Excuse me, this is Bailey Reyes-Strand's booth yes?" Somebody asked.
Bailey looked up from her lunch and saw a man in a suit standing in front of her table. She quickly swallowed her food and wiped her mouth and hands before standing and nodding.
"Yes it is, I'm sorry, I was just eating some lunch." She said.
The man smiled.
"It's not problem at all, I get it, I remember doing these fairs when I was your age, I thought they'd never end. It's good to see that you've got company though." He said gesturing to the 126 who'd taken up several places around the table.
Bailey smiled.
"Family is my biggest support system." She said.
"As it should be," The man said. "I must say though, Bobby's description of your work did not do it justice in the slightest."
Bailey blinked rapidly.
"I'm sorry, Bobby? As in Bobby Nash from LAFD House 118?" Bailey asked.
The man laughed.
"The one and only. I met him and the other members of his firehouse a few weeks back and we were talking and he mentioned your name. Said I might want to look into your work." He said.
Bailey blinked again and then looked back at her parents who were clearly just as confused as she was.
"Um, so what are you doing in Austin Mr.-" Bailey trailed off.
"Oh, I am so sorry my name is Kevin Thomas, I'm a scout for University of California Los Angeles." He said with a smile.
Bailey's eyes widened.
"You're a scout for UCLA? Why are you talking to me?" She asked.
Mr. Thomas laughed and opened the folder he'd been holding under his arm and pulling out an envelope.
"Because," He said. "I'm a scout for the art department, and I hoped that you might be interested in coming to school in LA next year."
He held out the envelope with a smile and Bailey took it gingerly.
"I will definitely think about it." She said.
"Good," He said. "All of the details are dictated in that letter. I'm going to be in Austin for a few days so give me a call if you have any questions."
"I will, thank you." Bailey said.
Mr. Thomas waved at the 126 and stepped away from the table. Immediately Bailey turned and began to open the letter. She past the envelope to Owen who took it and flipped it over looking at it for a moment while Bailey read the letter. She was silent as her eyes widened, only prolonging the suspense.
"Well?" Tommy asked.
"What does it say Bails?" Carlos asked.
"It's uhh, it's a..." She trailed off and handed the letter to Carlos who immediately scanned the page.
"It's a full ride to UCLA." He finally said.
There was silence, until there wasn't.
✵✵✵
Bailey was staring at the UCLA letter that was propped up on the apple bowl in the center of the dining room table as her chin rested on her arms which were resting on the table in front of her. It'd been a couple of days since the fair and she'd talked to several other scouts during the duration of the event but for some reason she was stuck on UCLA. Bailey wasn't sure if it was because it was the first offer she received or because it'd been a school she'd been interested in off and on but the offer was incredibly tempting.
"Hey kiddo." TK said, walking in from the front porch and opening the fridge and pulling out a water bottle.
The porch of their new rental home had become a favorite space for the family since their backyard was no more than a small, paved space with a little bit of grass.
"Hey." Bailey mumbled.
TK slowed to a stop on his way back outside as he passed the table.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah." Bailey replied.
"Yeah, cause that was convincing," TK said, pulling out the chair across from Bailey's and sitting down. "What's going on?"
Bailey sighed and sat back in her seat.
"It's this letter." She said.
TK nodded.
"Okay, what about it?" He said.
"I don't know," Bailey shrugged. "It's just bothering me. It's like I'm stuck on it for some reason. I've talked to all of these schools and I'm just stuck on UCLA. I feel like I haven't given the others a fair shake, ya know?"
TK hummed.
"Well, maybe you being stuck on it means something," He said. "You know when I was figuring out what I should do after high school I was just as lost as you are, if not more so. So, I applied to a lot of schools and thought that maybe if I got an acceptance then there was my answer and I'd go there and figure out what I should pursue by looking at that school's catalogues. Go in undecided and make a choice after some time."
Bailey nodded.
"What happened? What school did you get into?" She asked.
"Oh I didn't get in anywhere," TK laughed. "My grades were awful; I mean I passed but man, they were bad."
Bailey chuckled quietly. She wouldn't have but it was obvious that her dad wasn't self-conscious about it.
"So what did you do?" She asked.
TK took a breath and smiled at her gently.
"For a while I didn't do anything," He admitted. "Until I got a circular in the mail from the fire academy," TK said. "That was my kick in the pants. I'd always watched my dad go off to work as a kid and I would think that that would be me one day and I'd forgotten about it until I got that ad. I signed up the next day and two months later I was starting at the academy."
Bailey nodded and looked from her dad back to the letter. She'd always had a connection to UCLA, she wasn't sure why but it'd always been in her head that that would be a school that she'd want to go to one day. For a long time it felt like an elaborate dream, one that was never really achievable, but now it was real, it was achievable, and it was right there in front of her.
"So you think I should do it?" She asked.
"I think," TK said standing up and circling the table so that he was standing behind her. "That you should let your heart," He said tapping her chest. "And your head," He tapped her head gently. "Work together instead of keeping them separate. There seems to be a connection to LA for you, so I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to see where that pull takes you."
TK kissed her head gently before walking back out to the porch. Bailey sat there for a bit, not moving, just thinking and she closed her eyes, taking some deep breaths. Maybe her dad was right, she'd kept her heart and her head separate but maybe letting them work together every now and again weren't all that bad of an idea. When she opened her eyes and looked at the letter she knew that that was meant for her, it was where she felt drawn and where she wanted to be.
✵✵✵
TK smiled when he saw Bailey reach for her phone. He had a feeling she'd end up in LA when he saw her face while they were there. She looked like she'd fallen in love.
"What are you thinking about?" Carlos' voice wondered into his line of thought.
TK smiled.
"I'm thinking about how soon I can order UCLA dad t-shirts and it not be weird." He said.
Carlos arched a brow and turned to look in through the window to see Bailey holding the letter and talking on the phone.
"I knew it," Carlos laughed. "Mateo owes me five bucks."
TK laughed.
"You bet on whether our daughter would go to school or not?" He asked.
"No," Carlos said defensively. "We bet on when she'd make the call. I said no more than three days; Mateo said a week."
TK laughed again.
"That doesn't make it better." He said.
Carlos shrugged.
"I'm just glad that she found a place that she's going to be happy. It's weird to see her making that decision already but I know that she's ready." He said.
TK nodded.
"Yeah, but she's grown up a lot in the past year," He said and looked back inside. "She's not that kid that we found on her bedroom floor anymore."