My Hockey Alpha

Nina

The day after the hockey match was Halloween, which also meant that the Halloween fair was in town. Every year, an exciting fair came to town for Halloween weekend. I normally went with Lori and Jessica, but they wanted to make it a date this year, so I went alone this year.

The fairgrounds were already packed full by the time I arrived. The air smelled like kettle corn and apple cider, and all I could hear above the din of excited students and screaming children was the sound of rides and Carnys trying to sell their rigged games. Ahead of me, a man on stilts dressed as the Grim Reaper terrorized a gaggle of children, and a woman dressed in a skimpy clown costume juggled bowling pins while passersby tossed coins into her hat on the ground.

Smiling, I walked into the fair and started making my way through the various carnival games. One particular game caught my eye that seemed new; it was a simple shooting game with moving targets.

As I was watching a couple trying to shoot the targets to win a stuffed animal and ultimately walk away empty -handed, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see none other than Ronan standing behind me.

“It’s Nina, right?” he asked.

“Oh, hey,” I said, feeling a little awkward to be talking to the rival school’s hockey captain. “Are you planning on playing this game, too?”

Ronan nodded. “I’ll try to win you something,” he said with a wink as he stepped up to the counter. I watched as Ronan picked up the toy gun and tried shooting the targets, but missed almost all of them.

“I guess you’re not as good at carnival games as you are at hockey,” a familiar voice said from behind me. I whirled around to see Enzo standing there. His eyes flashed orange as he glanced at me, quickly fading back to brown as soon as Ronan turned around.

“I guess so,” Ronan replied, surprisingly well-spirited although I could tell that Enzo was being more territorial than joking. Ronan looked Enzo up and down, noticing his protective stance as he strode forward to stand next to me. There was a flash of something unrecognizable in his eyes, but he said nothing and instead gave us his usual polite nod before walking away and disappearing into the crowd.

“How much for that one?” Enzo said to the attendant, pointing to a stuffed wolf hanging on the wall above him.

“Tell you what… fifteen shots in

the counter, picking up the toy gun to shoot the moving

done, he set down the gun and folded his muscular arms across his chest while the baffled

seem to appreciate

wolf, who took it and turned to face me He held it out to me with an adorable combination of seriousness and bashfulness on his face. For a moment, I completely forgot all about the rival hockey captain. It was as if everything else faded away as Enzo held the wolf plushie out to me, our fingers brushing as I took

“Thank you,” I murmured.

explain anything about why Ronan was with me, Enzo wrapped his arm around my shoulder and made my heart skip as he guided me toward the ferris wheel. As we got in line for the ferris wheel and I clutched the stuffed wolf to my chest, I realized that

to the next available seat. Enzo climbed on ahead of me, sliding over on the bench and

heights,” I said sheepishly, running my fingers

for

clutched my wolf to my chest

your eyes,” Enzo said as we started to move up above the fairgrounds. I did just that, clenching them as tight as possible. I gulped as I felt the wind hit us as we went higher and

ferris wheel the most here out of all the other rides,” Enzo said,

cracked one eye open at first, then

was right: it was gorgeous. We could see the entire campus from where we were,

said quietly.

while we were right at the top, the ferris wheel stopped. I gasped. and clutched the sides

happening?” I said, my

“It’s fine,” he said. ” We’ll start moving in a

spinning out of control, like the ferris