Hawkeyereport Off Topic

Liam Whitemore has everything. The captain's jersey. The legacy. The girlfriend everyone says he's lucky to have. What he doesn't have is a single person who knows the truth about him. Then Kai Novak walks into the locker room, scholarship kid with nothing to lose and everything to prove, and Liam's careful, perfect life starts coming apart one stolen glance at a time. They shouldn't want each other. They definitely shouldn't risk everything for one another. But on the ice, under the lights, alone after everyone's gone home... some feelings just can't be tucked away. One wrong move. One person looking too closely. And the life Liam has spent years building could disappear overnight. The only question is whether Kai will still be standing beside him when it does.

'Since when did so much hate become affection, no, NEED' Callum Reyes has spent his entire life earning his place. A scholarship wide receiver at Crestfield University — one of the most elite football programs in the country — he knows exactly what he is to the people here: a charity case with fast legs and a GPA they didn't expect. He keeps his head down, his grades up, and his heart locked behind something no one has ever bothered to pick. Then there's Jaxon Whitfield. Quarterback. Team captain. Golden boy of Crestfield's football dynasty. Jaxon is everything Callum isn't — legacy money, a famous last name, and a jaw that could cut glass. He's also, by every measurable standard, the most infuriating human being Callum has ever been forced to share oxygen with. From the first day Callum stepped onto that field, Jaxon decided he was a problem. Too fast. Too good. Too'there.' He rides Callum harder than any other player, gets under his skin in ways that shouldn't be possible, and looks at him with those dark green eyes like Callum is something he can't figure out — and hates himself for trying. But when a career-threatening injury, a locker room secret, a rivalry that's starting to feel like something else entirely, and one night neither of them planned for collide — Callum and Jaxon have to reckon with something they were never supposed to feel. 'Offside' is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers MM sports romance about two young men learning that the person who makes your blood boil might just be the person setting you on fire. It's about class and legacy, found family and loneliness, the weight of expectation, and what happens when the one person you want to hate is the only one who actually'sees' you.

Annie Halden was the exact definition of a wallflower. She lived on the sidelines, didn't like attention and worried too much. She wrote letters to herself as her way to get her thoughts out. She never told anyone or let anyone see. Leo Smith, one of the school star athletes and most popular boys, found one of her letters. He started breaking into her locker to read the letters every time there was a new one. He grew concerned about her and wanted to protect her, he wanted to know why she was so broken and who hurt her, he wanted her to know he was there for her - be her shoulder to lean on. How would this friendship work out with Annie being as shy and quiet as she is, never getting close to anyone? How would this friendship last if Annie came to find out the truth about Leo stealing and reading her personal letters?

Cheryl has been obsessed with Carlson ever since they were kids. When she realized she couldn't pursue her dream of becoming a hockey girl, she decided to become a journalist instead. But her obsession with Carlson only grew stronger. Her journal became a collection of fantasies—filled with the intimate moments she imagined Carlson sharing with her. It was her deepest secret, something no one was ever supposed to find... until her sister discovered it. Celeste is the golden child—the daughter their parents truly see. Determined to bring Cheryl down and make sure she never gets close to Carlson, Celeste decides to sabotage her sister by exposing the journal and humiliating her. Carlson doesn't date. He's been set up with half the girls on campus—including Cheryl's own sister—and he's never shown interest in any of them. To him, Cheryl is simply his analyst, the one who breaks down his game footage so he can focus on one thing: being perfect on the ice. But everything changes when Cheryl uncovers a story that could launch her journalism career while destroying Carlson's reputation. She discovers he's been using banned substances. She proposes a fake relationship to protect them both, but what begins as a fake romance soon turns into something far more complicated. What happens when her sister will do anything to claim Carlson for herself? When their family is determined to tear them apart? And when Carlson's entire career hangs in the balance? Will their relationship survive it all?

At the start of graduation season, my boyfriend took more than two hundred photos of Madison Vale. Chase Whitman was president of Westbridge University’s photography club. He knew how to find flattering light and how to coax people out of stiff smiles. Madison stood beneath the maples outside the library in a white dress, her graduation cap tucked under one arm. “Am I taking up too much of your time?” she asked. Chase checked the last few shots and smiled. “You make my job easy.” When it was finally my turn, he barely looked at me. “Stand by the tree.” He clicked the shutter twice and lowered the camera. “Done.” I stared at him. “That’s it?” He turned the screen toward me. In one photo my eyes were half-closed; in the other, a branch shadow slashed diagonally across my face. “Can we try again?” Chase sighed. “Avery, you always tense up. Fifty more takes won’t change that.” Ten minutes later, my phone buzzed. He had posted in the Westbridge Buy: Twenty dollars for someone to spend ten minutes taking a few graduation photos of my girlfriend. Nothing fancy. She just needs something usable. Half an hour later, a stranger replied. I sent him my location, then added: Just so you know, I’m not very photogenic. His answer came almost immediately: That usually says more about the photographer than about the subject. When Rowan Hayes arrived, he looked at Chase’s two photos and said, “He didn’t even try.” An hour later, he sent me the raw files. No filters, no heavy retouching. Just me on the library steps, my hair loose in the wind and my eyes brighter than I remembered them being.

Ellie Harper came to Crestwood University to reinvent herself and for a while, it was working. Gone was the awkward, prank humiliated girl from high school. In her place stood a sharper, prettier version who’d somehow caught the eye of Kyle Thurlow, popular hockey player. Their relationship was a secret his idea but tonight, her eighteenth birthday, he promised to change that. He didn’t. What Ellie found instead was Kyle tangled with Lisa Voss the cheer captain, in Ellie’s own bed on her birthday. Humiliated, furious, and a little drunk, Ellie does the most reckless thing she’s ever done: she lets Nathan Black buy her a drink. Nathan Black, hockey team captain, campus legend, and the one man every girl wants.