My Hockey Alpha

Nina

“Nina?” Jessica asked, finally making me tear my gaze away from the door where the two new transfer students had just disappeared through. “Knock knock. Anyone in there?”

I shuddered as I came back to my senses and turned back to face Lori and Jessica, who were looking at me with concern. “Sorry,” I said, forcing a fake smile. “Just got a little distracted.”

“I’ll say,” Lori replied, pursing her lips. “You have got to stop staring at that new guy. His girlfriend is gonna get pissed.”

I nodded and headed back to the fitting room. “I know,” I replied. “I’ll stop.”

But as I took off the black dress and changed back into my regular clothes, then paid for the dress at the counter, I still couldn’t quite get my mind off of what I had seen in the mirror. As the boy and I locked eyes, it really did seem as though his face was morphing into Enzo’s. And for a moment, I swore that he recognized me, too. But as soon as I turned around, he looked nothing like Enzo again, and he didn’t seem to recognize me at all anymore. Maybe I needed therapy or something, because this was getting out of hand. Lori was right; if I kept staring at that boy every time I saw him, his girlfriend would certainly start to get suspicious — and I didn’t need another Lisa on my hands.

After we bought our dresses, Lori, Jessica and I made our way over to the cafe to enjoy some coffee and pastries. It was just like it used to be — if I pushed my strange familiarity with the new boy, my apparent looming insanity over losing Enzo, and the fact that a quarter of the stores on this little shopping strip were boarded up because of the Crescent attack. Then at least I was able to pretend that everything was normal.

As we stepped into the coffee shop, I felt a wave of relief wash over me. The two new students weren’t here, so I was able to just focus on enjoying coffee and pastries with my friends. We ordered our food and sat down, and I couldn’t help but smile a bit as Jessica prattled on about how excited she was for the dance and how good we all looked in our dresses. In a way, I almost felt like I was in high school again and as though it was the day before prom. I also couldn’t deny the fact that I was excited as well to have a bit of fun — not to mention the fact that the fundraising from this dance would be good for our campus.

I suddenly felt someone bump into me. Something warm and foamy soaked not just

voice said from beside me as mine and my friends’ eyes widened. “Sorry! It

cardboard coffee cup in her hand — which was now empty — and although she apologized, she didn’t actually seem regretful at all. In fact, when I looked

Selena.

of moments, that it really was Selena. I could see it

quickly faded back to that of the new girl. I blinked a few times, feeling confused. But by then, Jessica had apparently already decided to stand up for me

Jessica said, standing. “I saw you

new girl pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “I did not! There’s a rug here.

brand new dress. You should buy her a new one; not only that, but you should also feel sorry, because her

fine!” I suddenly interjected, standing and dabbing at myself with

not just a dress,” Jessica insisted, her hands balled up into fists at her side. “You needed this, Nina. And she just ruined it, totally on

toward the barista, who was walking our way with an angry look on her face.

her arms across her chest. “You four are disturbing the peace,” she said. “If you can’t break it up and calm down,

“We’re sorry, I mean. We’ll be