My Hockey Alpha

Nina

That night, I returned to the arena for the hockey game. There were still protests happening outside, but there were fewer people now that campus security was standing around — and apparently, as Lori and Jessica explained to me on our way there, several students were arrested for throwing objects and starting fights. After the mini-riot, more students also realized that such negativity was toxic, and decided to join the pro-werewolf club. I was relieved to hear this.

The hockey game that night was a landslide victory on our part. Although the crowd on our side of the arena was much smaller than it normally was and our cheerleaders had completely boycotted the game, our team played hard. Enzo used a lot of different tactics to outsmart the other hockey captain, and I began to wonder as I watched them if the other captain was even nearly as skilled in hockey as Enzo, or if he was only placed in that role because he was a Crescent werewolf. It made me think, as our team scored goal after goal, that there really was nothing special about werewolves in particular that could help them win this tournament over skilled hockey players.

I was also shocked to see that Enzo was not only performing incredibly well despite his recent injuries, but so was Matt. In fact…

Matt’s performance was far above what it used to be, and his injured hand was perfectly fine now. It was almost superhuman.

…

The next morning, I went to class after another uneasy night of sleep that was full of nightmares. I could practically feel the dark circles under my eyes as I walked to class, and even the coffee I bought at the dining hall didn’t seem to be helping much.

How much longer would these nightmares last?

I arrived at class with Jessica, and vowed to focus solely on my classwork. I couldn’t let Enzo, Edward, anyone or anything else invade my thoughts anymore. Now, my grades were the only thing that I could focus on.

At the end of class, however, the professor called me down to his desk.

“I’ll catch up with you at the student center,” I said to Jessica before swallowing the knot in my throat and walking down to the professor’s desk.

slipping, and you were out without any sort of excuse for almost all of last week. This isn’t like you; is

missing from class because I was being held hostage by the campus counselor for days on end and was brainwashed into

“Well?” the professor asked.

I said, which wasn’t entirely a lie. “I’m sorry. Is there any way I can make

professor sighed and folded his arms across his chest, leaning back in his chair. “I don’t normally do this, but I like you and I know that you’re a good student,” he said. “Tell you what: there’s a symposium next week. If you give a presentation, I’ll award you with

so much, professor,” I said with a smile. “I promise I’ll do

professor nodded, then let me

my surprise, I spotted James crossing the quad from afar. I waved, then jogged up to him. I secretly just wanted to pry about

I said with a smile

little nervous as he adjusted his bag on his shoulder. “Uh… Nowhere in particular,”

heading to the library,” I replied. Then, after biting my lip for a moment: “Did you hear what happened at the protest yesterday?” I asked. I waited to

his eyes shifting from left to right and giving him an uncharacteristically suspicious

was starting to get apprehensive about James’ behavior, so I decided to pry just a little bit more. “They sure are,”

throat and opened his mouth to speak — but before anything came out, his eyes caught something behind me, and he closed his mouth

were fixed unwaveringly on James. Was he about to have another outburst of jealousy, or was he suspicious

me and breaking his gaze from James. “Do you have that jersey I gave you? I

for it. “I was gonna find you later to

hurled a rotten tomato at Nina?” Enzo asked. His voice was low, and almost accusatory. “Whoever leaked this info should’ve thought about these consequences before doing it. Someone could get hurt from all of

eyes widened momentarily. He cleared his throat again and shifted from one foot to the other. “Uh, yeah,” he said, moving to walk around Enzo

heel and stormed off. He moved so quickly, in fact, that a folded up piece of paper fluttered out of his