Final Football Game Duty: Ticket Booth

Leah had volunteered to help with the ticket booth. Well "volunteer" was the wrong word. It was the last option she had so she had to select it. Like most games it was a busy mess of students and families for about 30 minutes before the game and the first quarter.

The first half went by rather quickly and Leah had lost count of how many tickets she had sold when Coach Reed came out of nowhere from the back of the ticket booth.

"Leah!" he said his voice slightly frantic. He motioned for her to come away from the ticket counter. Leah told her fellow volunteers that she would be right back. It was quiet now that it was half time--they let people in for free from here on.

"Whats up?" she asked.

"Whats up? Whats up?" he looked around frustrated "Have you not been watching the game?"

"Well no I have been in here hel-"

"These refs are going to fuck us." he said anger straining his voice. "They have made some of the worst damn calls I have ever seen. I know that white hat son of a bitch is gunning for me ever since I told his ass off last season."

"The white hat?" Leah asked then answered her own question "Oh the head ref."

"Yeah." he said with a frown "that fucker is going to ruin our chances for making the state finals."

"I mean can you make a formal complaint or something?" she asked confused.

"What? No. Nothing like that would help." he shook his head.

"Well I can't do anything about it. I'm sorry Reed." she shrugged.

"Yes you can." he said looking her in her eyes intensely.

"But what?" she was seriously struggling to understand how she could help sway the game in any real way. She barely knew how football worked. Sure she had watched plenty in college but it was mostly an excuse to get pretty and go drink at tailgates. It was the South after all.

"I don't know...distract them or sweet talk them or something. You gotta help me. I can't think of anything else. Maybe you can come up with something. You are smart. If you do I will certainly put in a good word for you with Mr. Howard. I know its your tenure year."

"I mean..." she furrowed her eyebrows in thought.

"Shit." he cursed looked at his watch "I gotta go. Just help if you can. Please!"

Leah sat there in silence, well relative silence with the whirl of students and fans in the background as she tried to think of a solution.