Faking Forever With My Hockey Captain

Zoey’s PovIf there was one thing everyone in my hometown took more seriously than breathing, it was hockey.It didn’t matter whether you attended Evergreen High or Ridgeview Academy. The moment winter arrived, classrooms emptied faster, conversations grew louder, and every shop downtown decorated its windows with blue-and-white banners celebrating the upcoming season. Even the local bakery sold cookies shaped like hockey sticks, and our history teacher somehow found a way to compare famous battles to championship games. Sometimes I wondered if the whole town would simply stop functioning if a puck disappeared.As someone who had spent years winning debate competitions instead of scoring goals, I’d long accepted that people like me would never get the same applause. Athletes were greeted with cheers every time they walked through the hallway, while the debate team usually celebrated our victories by eating stale cookies in the library after school. Not that I was bitter. Okay, maybe

Zoey’s PovApparently, the universe had a strange sense of humor. First, it let me embarrass the captain of Ridgeview Academy in front of half the town, and then it decided the perfect punishment was making him my partner for the biggest event of the year.I found out about the second part before I’d even made it to my locker.By the time I walked through the doors of Evergreen High the morning after the pep rally, my phone had already buzzed itself into a small crisis. Forty-three notifications. Group chats I hadn’t opened in months had suddenly come back to life, every single one filled with the same ten-second clip of me telling Ryan Walker that hockey wasn’t the only thing worth cheering for.Someone had set it to dramatic orchestra music. Someone else had turned it into a meme with the caption “Evergreen’s Final Boss.” My personal favorite was the one where they’d zoomed in on Ryan’s face at the exact second he ran out of things to say, freezing the frame like a trophy.“You’re f

Zoey’s PovThe announcement that Ryan and I had been chosen as the official student representatives spread through both schools much faster than either of us expected. Everywhere I went, someone seemed to have an opinion about it. Some students congratulated me because they thought it was an important opportunity, while others wondered how long it would take before Ryan and I started arguing in front of the entire committee again.Even Ava couldn’t resist teasing me. “You know,” she said as we walked toward my locker after history class, “I’ve never seen you talk about another person this much.”“I don’t talk about him that much.”She gave me a look that clearly said she wasn’t convinced. “You mentioned his name four times during lunch.”“Only because everyone else kept asking about the committee.”“Mhm.”“And because he keeps changing perfectly good ideas.”She smiled. “So you were thinking about him.”“I was thinking about the project.”“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”I gently