Coverage

"Coach wants to see you before you take off," Gregg told the blonde girl. As he'd been instructed, the strength and conditioning coach had not left her side since she'd entered the locker room. Melody wondered whether the man considered the assignment punishment or reward.

Down a long, narrow hallway, and past a number of storage rooms, film rooms, and laundry rooms, the coaching staff maintained their offices. Despite being far, far removed from the men's locker room behind her and the few stragglers that remained there within, Melody gave no thought to putting her clothes back on. Later, she'd justify the oversight by reasoning that she was still, technically, in the locker room, and she dared not risk violating the spirit of her agreement with Art Hull. But the truth of the matter was that putting her clothes back on before sitting down with the old man didn't even occur to her.

Hull's office was at the end of the long corridor, with windows overlooking the team's practice facilities to the northeast of Palmetto's Alumni Stadium. In addition to the door through which Melody entered, there was another, opening into a more formal Athletics Department lobby separate from the men's locker room. On every wall were bookcases, filled with book after book after book on football history, coaching technique, and scouting tips. In that same office, a week and a half earlier, Melody and Hull had shared their loud, contentious discussion about the head coach's new locker room restrictions.

In a way, both had been able to claim some measure of victory.

Melody sat down in one of the leather seats across from Art Hull's desk, the coach glancing at the naked girl as she stepped into his office. Her hair was still wet, even if the rest of her body had long since dried from her afternoon shower with Dave Lebeau and a dozen other Stallions. She laid her purse down beside her, but left the Dictaphone out, and recording, and placed it on the coach's desk.

"When I told you that you'd only be allowed in my locker room if you were stark damn naked," Hull began, cutting to the chase immediately, "it didn't even cross my mind that you'd actually be crazy enough to do so."

"I called your bluff," Melody replied.

"Yes," the head coach nodded, rubbing his temples. "Yes, you did."

The old man glanced at the naked girl before him once again. He went on. "We live in a world in which equality is constantly being forced upon on us. But that equality only seems to go one way."

"I don't follow," Melody said.

"I drove past a new gym in downtown Danbury back in August. Women only. Men need not apply." He stared the blonde. "Can you imagine if we erected a new gym that was men only?"

Melody shrugged. "Men don't really seem to care about that sort of thing. But sometimes women want to work out without being hit on, stared at, or otherwise feeling like a sexual object." She caught herself towards the end, realizing that she had spent the better part of her afternoon naked in a men's locker room, being hit on, stared at, and otherwise made to feel like a sexual object.

"When Palmetto College became Palmetto State, South Carolina forced the hands of the trustees and made the school go co-educational. Clemson, a few years before that, began to admit women. But even today, we have Converse College and Columbia College, neither of which admit men."

"So this is your line in the sand?"

Hull looked up from his desk, and across at the young, naked blonde.

"So if Billy Bullock strips to his skin, he'll be allowed into the women's locker room from here on in?" she asked.

Hull shrugged. "Sounds fair."

"Your locker room is just one last gasp at an all-boy's club? Girls not allowed?"

"And even still, we're not allowed that one simple luxury. My boys aren't allowed one place they can have to themselves, once place where they can change and shower without a woman being present."

"Take a poll," Melody groaned. "I don't think many of them really care all that much."

"Damn it, I'm their coach. I'm looking out for them, for their futures, for their world. I can see what's best for them."

"What's best for them is keeping women out of their locker room?"

"As you said," Hull growled, "it's my line in the sand."

"And yet I crossed."

"And yet you crossed."

The two stared at one another for a few beats, before Melody finally sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"I don't suppose you're planning on repealing your rule," Melody stated flatly.

"No, I don't suppose I am," Hull answered. He rubbed his temples again, doing his best to keep eye contact with the young girl, though tempted by her bare body. "But you earned your story today. And I have to admire you for it. And I'll be expecting to see you next week, in Atlanta."

Melody smiled, and reached for her purse. She knew she was being dismissed. "So, tit for tat once again?"

"Tit for tat," Hull chuckled, reluctantly. The coach pointed to far door, the door leading into the athletics lobby instead of the men's locker room. "You can go ahead and leave through that door, if you'd like. No sense in going all the way back through."

The girl nodded, somewhat thankfully. She didn't relish the idea of dressing herself in front of Art Hull, but she didn't much like the idea of dressing in the lobby, either. Cautiously, she poked her head out the door, and comfortable that she'd be the only one in the room for at least the next few minutes, she pushed it open.

As the door was shutting behind her, Hull called out, "Miss May!"

Melody propped the door open, eager to finish the conversation and get dressed before some eager recruit or curious fan let themselves into the Stallions' sitting room. "Yes?"

"You might have to work a bit harder for stories next week," the coach warned her. "I've already gotten calls from WTAT in Charleston. They'll be sending their weather girl with their sports reporter next week."

Melody smiled, and gave the man's advice some thought. Part of her felt some measure of comfort in the idea that she wouldn't be the only naked reporter in the visitor's locker room the following week. But she also felt a twinge of jealously, given that she'd been the object of attention that week. Hull was right – she'd have to work a bit harder the following week.

"I look forward to it," Melody smiled, and let the door close behind her.