My Hockey Alpha

Nina

“Man,” Matt said, huffing as we slowly made our way up the mountain, “who knew hiking was such a workout?”

“I’ll say,” Lori chimed in. By this point, she had piled her black hair on top of her head and was flapping her ratty black band t-shirt to cool herself off as we climbed

“You guys are a couple of wimps,” Jessica said, her long and slender legs allowing her to climb the mountain. with ease. She was wearing tight leggings and an even tighter long- sleeved workout top that zipped up the front, and didn’t have a bead of sweat on her entire body. Her ponytail swung back and forth, its curls from the day before still somehow perfect after a night of sleeping on the ground.

“Says you,” Lori grumbled. “You’re. built like a gazelle.”

It wasn’t often that Jessica’s nerdy side came out in front of other people, but this was one of those rare times. ” Actually,” she said, sounding somewhat full of herself and making everyone groan, “gazelles are better suited for flat terrain, like plains. If anything, you should be the one who’s best at climbing like this, because you’re short and muscular Like a mountain goat

There was a collective silence

Finally, Matt was the first to burst out laughing, which started the chain, 1 even heard Enzo chuckle behind me, and thought I saw a smirk on James’ face in the front while Lori fumed, clearly trying not to laugh.

Lori folded her arms across her chest and stuck out her tongue

We kept climbing, taking breaks here and there for water and to catch our breath as the climb slowly got more difficult. An hour later, we were all getting annoyed at James for claiming that the hike was “easy” – except for Enzo, who stayed mostly quiet behind me, his brown eyes focused on me the entire time– but he kept promising that we were almost there.

Finally, just as we were considering turning back, we reached the peak

We climbed up one last large rock face, having to help each other climb up. Enzo quickly came over as I tried to climb up the rock and boosted me up while James scrambled to be the one to take my hand, making me blush at the two of them practically competing for my affection

When I finally got up, however, the last thing on my mind was guys

The view was absolutely stunning The way that the afternoon light shone across the colorful autumn leaves, mixed with the deep green of the pine trees, took my breath away. No matter how much we groaned on the way up, the view made it all worth it.

everything from here!” Jessica exclaimed, throwing her arms up and

be careful,” James shouted after her “You

a picture for me? I have got

out my phone to snap a picture of Jessica. She grinned and struck a pose with one foot up behind

away my phone when, all of a sudden, a strong gust of wind blew across the summit and made Jessica lose her

all happened so quickly, but felt like slow motion at the same time. She started to fall backwards over the edge of the cliff, her arms windmilling wildly as her face filled with panic Lori and I

was a

a lightning bolt. He shot forward and grabbed Jessica around

notice that Enzo had moved at an inhuman speed to save her Jessica

tears streaming down her cheeks.

— away from the

next

Jessica blushed and nodded.

died!” She took the whimpering Jessica by both shoulders and shook

She kissed Jessica.

me, James started to laugh as well while Enzo flashed me an amused look. I couldn’t hold in

was beet red when

scare me I mean, us– like that again,” Lori growled, to

the night before, as well as Jessica’s near-death experience, it was a lovely afternoon. Jessica and Lori stayed practically conjoined at the hip,

wash away my stress — and when I felt Enzo’s hand brush a strand of hair out

he looked out at the horizon. The sun was beginning to set, and none of us wanted to hike back to camp

but I knew that I would remember that view forever, so I figured that it was worth the struggle “Here, let me help you,” James said, holding out his hand as I struggled to climb down a small but steep

and he helped me slide down the rock face, landing on my feet at the bottom. It wasn’t as bad as I expected, when you’re looking down from

James walked beside me. He was quiet for a few moments

“Hey, about last night…”