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.

dismissed me and I exited her office. Jessica was sitting

she asked. “What

I replied. “She wants

but look at it this way:

My voice sounded anything but

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

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

wondered if he had something to do with my assignment, considering his influence in the

home. Lori was sitting on the floor of the living room with a stained white sheet

her nose and mouth with her shirt and running over to open the window. “The fumes!” Lori chuckled. “I didn’t notice

Chapter 10. The Internship

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

couldn’t help but laugh

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 chilly out and getting dark, so I threw my jacket

in!” a chipper voice called when I knocked on the door. I opened it and poked my head in to see a pretty woman with wavy brown hair sitting at

coming around to greet me. Much to my surprise, she hugged me.

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

medicine! We don’t usually get female students in here, so it’s always nice to know

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

she looked at me with concern on her face. “Are you alright? You seem depressed. You know, I’m not just your mentor with this internship; I’m your

I tried to come up with my response. For some reason, I felt comfortable being candid with Tiffany even though I was

but… I was actually hoping for

looked disappointed and a bit hurt, but nodded in an understanding