Page 82 of The Hook Up
“I see,” Ellie said slowly, still not sure what was happening.
“Good morning, boys and girls,” Mrs. Colt said, taking her place at the front of the room.
“Good morning, Mrs. Colt,” Ellie chorused along with twenty-five small voices.
“This morning we have a very special speaker for career day,” she said. “Tyler Hendrix is a partner with Speak Up. It’s a video studio that’s part of First Impressions Branding & PR. Does anyone know what that means?”
Several hands shot up, including Henry’s. Mrs. Colt smiled and deliberately pointed at another little boy on the opposite side of the room. “Joey?”
“Branding is what my grandpa does to his cows,” the boy said. “He has a ranch in Montana.”
“That’s one kind of branding,” she said, smiling at Ty before stepping back toward her desk. “I’m actually going to have Mr. Hendrix explain that for us in just a moment. Mr. Hendrix?”
Ty stood up, reminding Ellie all over again what a big man he was. He’d always seemed huge to her, but in a room full of three-foot-tall humans, he looked positively gargantuan.
And positively—nervous?
He smiled at her then, trepidation flashing in those dark brown eyes. She remembered what he’d told her about dreading public presentations. But as he glanced away and directed his gaze over the classroom, he squared his shoulders.
“Good morning,” he said with the faintest quiver in his voice. He cleared his throat and continued. “My name is Ty, and I make videos for a living.”
“Like for TV?” piped a little girl in the corner.
“Raven,” the teacher scolded, giving a stern look. “Remember to raise your hand.”
Ty smiled and went on. “Like for TV,” he confirmed. “Sometimes it’s commercials, and sometimes it’s videos like you see on the internet. Who here has watched videos on YouTube?”
A few hands went up, and Ellie said a silent prayer their parents had good monitoring software on their devices. God only knew what kids could see these days. She’d once caught Henry doing a search for “Little Mermaid mating.”
Her palms started sweating, and Ellie wiped them on her skirt and tried not to stare at Ty. Then again, he was at the front of a classroom. Wasn’t she supposed to stare?
His eyes met hers, and an electric current rolled down her spine.Those eyes. They were as dark as she remembered, but there was a light in them now that she hadn’t noticed before. Some spark that seemed new.
He smiled again and looked back at the students. “Does anyone have any idea how those videos get made?”
A few more hands shot up, but Ty didn’t call on anyone this time. Instead, he touched the trackpad of a laptop sitting on the edge of a table beside the whiteboard. The screen behind him flickered to life, and Ty stepped aside, giving everyone a clear view of the presentation.
“I wanted to show you a quick demonstration of how video editing happens,” he said. “Henry, would you please turn off the lights?”
Delighted to be called on for a task, Henry scrambled up and flipped the light switch. Hurrying back to his desk, he grinned at Ty, then at Ellie. She reached over and squeezed his hand.
“Good job, baby,” she whispered.
“First, I’m going to show you some raw footage from a project I did recently,” Ty continued, using a little handheld remote to cue up something from the laptop. “How many of you have been to Great Wolf Lodge?”
Several hands shot up, and two kids in the back of the room began chatting excitedly about the Howlin’ Tornado. Ty held up a hand for silence, and the kids obeyed instantly.
“A couple of weeks ago I did a project for them,” Ty continued. “Would you like to see some of the video I took from inside the park?”
Ellie found herself nodding, even though it might mean coming face-to-face with photos of herself in a bathing suit. Even as she thought it, she realized Ty wouldn’t do that. The man might have faults, but a lack of discretion wasn’t one of them.
Amid a chorus of “yes, please,” Ty clicked a button on the remote. The screen flashed to life, filled with an image of water crashing from the mouth of River Canyon Run. Then it panned to a shot of the enclosed waterslide tube leading into the pool. From there, the footage shifted to the wave pool and a sea of unidentifiable heads and bodies bobbing on the rolling swells. A few more shots of Fort McKenzie followed, with a sweeping shot of the Totem Tower slides, then close-ups of the water jetting from the ground. Ellie’s heart gave a soft little hiccup as she remembered how much fun they’d had galloping through the geysers.
Then, the images stopped. Ty surveyed the class and rubbed his hands together. “That’s raw footage,” he said. “It shows you what the parklookslike, but not what itfeelslike. Does anyone know what editing is?”
This time, Henry’s hand was the only one that went up. Ty hesitated then pointed to her son. “Henry,” he said. “Can you tell me about editing as it relates to videos and not to burping?”
A few kids snickered, and Ellie smiled to herself. Say what you would about Ty Hendrix, but the man was a quick learner.
