At first, Giselle seemed unruffled, but then she turned to Hailey, who stared in open-mouthed astonishment at the jagoff. “I’m never doing this again,” she said bitterly.
Hailey rested a hand of solidarity on Giselle’s shoulder. “Somewhere,” said Hailey, “there’s a ‘jack’ who’s lost his ‘ass’.” She jabbed a thumb at the back of the bus. “Guess what? We found it.”
Giselle’s scowl softened, and Hailey sighed happily as she stared out the window.
“How is your hair so…pretty?” Giselle asked in a snooty voice.
That sounded suspiciously like acompliment.
Hailey turned to her roommate, one eyebrow quirked, and she tipped her head to the side. “You know, your hair really is turning blonde,” she marveled. “And Iwillhook you up with my hairstylist when we get back, that’s a promise.”
Hailey had to bribe Giselle to get her to come to the hockey game, and the banshee had no idea that Hailey’s secret hairdresser was actually Tomas the albino poltergeist. She couldn’t wait to see how things played out between the two of them.
In the arena, the girls sat near the glass and watched the game—Giselle with a disturbing eagerness to see fists fly, and Hailey with serious zeal, fully expecting a fire-breather or levitating goalie to appear at any moment. But the Yetis and the Ice Picks flew up and down the ice, colliding, fighting, and bleeding within all the laws of physics, and much to her disappointment, Hailey realized it was just a regular game of hockey.
Giselle on the other hand was delighted.
Fin spent a lot of time in play, and hewaspretty good. So good, that the most gigantic of the Anchorage Glacier College players made it his mission to repeatedly chase Fin down, slam him into the glass, and punch him in the face—scuffles that Fin seemed to thoroughly enjoy. He took several blows to the head and more than a few shots to the ribs. At one point, no fewer than three of the Ice Picks had him pinned to the glass right in front of her, and as they beat the snot out of him, he managed to glance up and see Hailey’s look of horror.
He gave her a mischievous grin. Then he pushed himself away from the glass and landed a nose-breaker on the giant goon. He flew out of the corner in time to get a quick little shovel pass from Sidney, his teammate, and then he fired the puck at the goalie. It ricocheted off the goalie’s pad and bounced into the net.
The crowd went wild.
And the pace of the game only picked up. It was constant action. Hailey saw three fights (all of which involved Fin), five goals and at least one tooth get ejected—all before the third period even started.
“It’s just…regular hockey,” Hailey concluded with a frown during the final intermission.
Giselle, using no more than her disgusted expression said, “No kidding, dumbass,” and then she squinted.
“There’s something different about you,” said Giselle. “Did Asher curse you?”
“What? No,” Hailey said quickly then she frowned. “Well, I don’t know. He finally kissed me again.”
“How was it?”
“Terrifying.”
“Told you,” said Giselle, and Hailey twisted her lips to the side.
“Anyway, after he kissed me, he told me I’d be able to detect evil.” She looked up at her roommate. “I don’t feel any different, though.”
Giselle stared straight ahead, so Hailey changed the subject. “Has a guy—or a non-human or whatever—ever kissed you?”
“Do I look like something any guy would ever kiss?” she spat.
“You will once my hairdresser gets through with you.” Hailey had an epiphany. She’d been waiting for an opportunity to bring up the Christmas dance. “And if you want, he can do your hair up for Seven Trumpets…”
“Nobody is going to ask me to the ball!” she yelled, and she turned her back on Hailey.
“What about David?”
Giselle didn’t respond, which was actually a good sign, and Hailey was encouraged. Now all she had to do was convince David to invite the campus banshee to be his date at the Christmas dance. How hard could it be?
She spent the third period of the game working out her strategy as she watched her favorite bartender bleed, heal, bleed again, and then score yet another goal. He actually was phenomenal.
By the end of the game, she couldn’t wait to see Fin…neither could the twelve female “reporters” who waited for the all-clear outside the locker room door with her.
When the door swung open, Hailey let the gaggle of giggling girls file in. Then she hesitantly peeked inside and saw a few of the visitors chatting to some of the players. Most of the men were already showered and partially dressed. A few wore only a towel, and one sang loudly in Russian from the shower.
