My Hockey Alpha

“Well? What’s your assignment?” Jessica asked.

“Um… sports medicine,” I replied, handing the phone back.

Jessica looked confused. “I thought you wanted-”

“Surgery, yeah,” I said, grabbing my bag and heading for the door with Jessica on my heels. First thing in the morning, I would go to the dean of the medical school and ask for a reassignment.

“And why do you want to be reassigned?” the dean asked as I stood in front of her desk the next day. She was a curly-haired woman with glasses and a hard face.

I swallowed and tried to calm my

nerves. “It’s just… not the direction I was hoping to take,” I replied. “I don’t

Chapter 10 The Internship

like sports medicine.”

“You can’t just ask to be reassigned because you don’t like the internship,” the dean said. “And besides, you haven’t even tried it yet. How do you know you won’t like it?”

She was right– I couldn’t just ask for a new internship simply because I didn’t like my assignment, and there was no way I could explain the real situation to the dean. How could I tell the dean that I didn’t want to be assigned to the sports medicine internship because I didn’t want to be around Justin and Enzo?

The dean must have seen my pained expression, because she sighed and pulled out a form. “Just go to the first few sessions,” she said as she filled in a portion of the form. “If you still really hate it by then, come to me and we’ll see about a reassignment. Sound good?”

I nodded gratefully. I was still a bit disappointed that I’d have to go to a few sessions where I’d likely have to deal with the hockey team, seeing as how they were the most likely sports team to be injured, but at least I could get out after that. Not to mention that sports medicine was totally not even close to the field I actually wanted to work in.

dean dismissed me and I exited her office. Jessica was sitting

she asked. “What did she

“She wants me

wanted, but look at it

voice sounded

me with her elbow. “How could you not be excited about

want to be around Justin,” I replied. I wanted to tell her that I

was getting weird. I wondered if he had something to do with my assignment, considering his influence

sitting on the floor of the living room with a stained white sheet around

her nose and mouth with her shirt and running

Chapter 10. The Internship

that’s because you’re high all the time anyway,”

laugh

time for me to go and meet my internship mentor for the first time. She sent me an email with her office information; it was located in between the soccer field and the hockey arena. It was

a pretty woman with wavy brown hair sitting at a desk. She looked up and flashed me a toothy

desk and coming around to greet me. Much to my surprise, she hugged me. I was

deal with sweaty, whiny athletes all day. In fact, even though she was middle-aged,

finally pulled away from hugging me. I’m so happy to see another young woman working in sports medicine! We don’t usually get female students in here, so it’s

down at my feet, unsure of whether I should tell Tiffany that I actually didn’t want this internship or if I should just

her face. “Are you alright? You seem depressed. You know, I’m not just

felt comfortable being candid with Tiffany even though I was usually not the type of

to say this, but… I

face fell. She looked disappointed and a bit