My Hockey Alpha

Nina

By the time the symposium came, I had spent the past few days trying my best to solely focus on my presentation. I decided that I couldn’t let my feelings for Enzo impede upon my grades in the exact same way that he couldn’t let his feelings for me impede upon his performance in the tournament. So, I didn’t see him at all for that time, although I couldn’t stop the negative thoughts and nightmares despite that.

The day of the symposium finally arrived, and I was well-prepared. I had a presentation put together on anatomy, and had spent hours practicing my presentation in front of Luke, who used his past as a talking skeleton to give me pointers and correct my mistakes.

I was well-prepared enough, in fact, that my presentation went incredibly well. I finished my presentation and stepped off of the stage, smiling in reaction to the applause coming from the small group of attendees, one of whom was my professor.

“Well, Miss Harper,” my professor said, approaching me as I packed up my laptop and other materials, “I must say that you gave an excellent presentation. I’ll award you the extra credit.”

I couldn’t help but smile even wider. “Thank you, Professor.”

“Remember that this is a one time thing,” he said, patting me on the shoulder. “I hope you’ll try harder from now on to be present in class and stay on top of your work.”

I nodded vehemently. “I will. Thank you again.”

The professor smiled, then left. I decided to stay at the symposium for a while longer and listen to some of the other presentations, as well as to walk around and look at the other projects that were laid out on tables around the gymnasium.

As I walked around and looked at all of the projects, I suddenly felt a familiar presence in the room. I froze for a moment, then jerked my head up from the particular project on mold that I was looking at, only to see none other than Enzo standing on the other side of the room.

He had his head bent and appeared to be looking at a project as well, but as I stared at him, he suddenly lifted his head as well and made eye contact with me.

His brown eyes began to glow ever so slightly red when he saw me, but he quickly looked away.

I figured that it was too late now to pretend that I hadn’t seen him — besides, I was curious as to why he was here instead of practicing hockey — and decided to make my way over to where he stood.

“Hey,” I said sheepishly as I approached, stopping to stand in front of him. “Surprise seeing you here.”

a bit of

a small smile. I folded my arms across my chest then as there was an awkward

the posterboard, my

biology or anatomy; it was a project

Specifically, their weaknesses.

a blurb under each photograph containing werewolf facts. On the other half of the poster board, there were bullet

out. There was a single silver bullet, a wolfsbane flower, and the handle of an axe — the head had been removed, of course, to keep with the rules of no weapons being allowed on campus, but below it was a small card that mentioned how werewolves

knot form in my stomach. When I looked back up at Enzo, his eyes were glowing again —

said, gesturing to the sick

I began, my voice trailing

his shoulder. As he did, a couple of other students quickly

he’s trying to incite violence,” Enzo

I could stop him, Enzo suddenly gritted his teeth and kicked the table, sending it toppling over and causing the project to scatter across

I said incredulously. “You can’t

allowed to blatantly suggest killing me to an entire host of

gonna help your cause,” I whispered, bending down to pick up the scattered items as people looked at us in silent

an apology under his breath, then helped me pick up

a problem here?” an attendant, one of the professors, said as

my head. “No, sorry. It was

— not at me, but at Enzo — but didn’t say anything else and walked away, seeing as how we cleaned up

to get more people to your side, and it’s been working. I know you’re angry and that what happened in the tunnels was awful, but you have to control these outbursts or

as he stared at the

sighed, then shifted my bag on my shoulder. “I have to go,” I said, turning to walk