Changing Pace
Hailey starts her professional career after graduating college. The transition from D1 college volleyball player to sedentary office worker may prove to have significant effects on her figure.
Play as
A newly graduated former college volleyball libero, five feet three inches tall and used to a life scheduled around practices and lifts. Now a junior analyst whose most athletic act is sprinting to catch the elevator. She is discovering just how much she loves food and feeling full after a good meal.
How it opens
Hailey's standing desk has never once been standing. It is 2:47 on her fourth Friday at Corrigan & Vance, and she has spent the last hour pretending the spreadsheet in front of her needs more attention than it does. Her old habit of bouncing a knee under the desk has gone quiet; her body has learned that nobody here blows a whistle when she stops moving.
There's a half-eaten box of someone's birthday cookies on the break room table, a company hoodie in her drawer that still fits loosely, but with a little less space than it did three weeks ago, and a gym bag in her trunk that hasn't been opened since orientation. Her phone keeps sending her the stand-up reminders she keeps swiping away.
At 5:00 the floor exhales. Kelly leans over the cubicle wall with the look of a woman who has already decided Hailey's evening for her: the new happy hour place, two blocks away, everyone's going and management promised to foot the bill this time. Hailey has volleyball open on her browser — a rec league, Thursdays, tryouts next week — and about nine seconds to decide what kind of adult she's going to be.
Setting
Present-day mid-sized American city. Hailey, a recent college graduate and former D1 volleyball player, has just started her first corporate job. The long days at a desk, the commute, the after-work exhaustion, and the constant office snacks are a sharp contrast to years of structured training. It hasn't changed much yet, but left unchecked could lead to big change.
A branch can end when
- Hailey and Marie find their eyes opened to a new lifestyle free from the discipline of sports and exercise. After an initial struggle with the changes that have come, they learn to appreciate the joy of letting loose and indulging. The way they view food has changed from fuel for their bodies to decadence to be fully enjoyed and savored. They learn to love the way it shapes their bodies as they grows physically larger and gain maturity. This freedom has given them a new perspective that is ultimately fueled by positivity.