On the Ice (Stick Side, #1)

by Amy Aislin

John looked up from his laptop. “Mitch.” He waved Mitch in. “Have a seat. I’m glad you came.” Mitch perched on the edge of a folding chair and held up his assignment. “I noticed there’s no grade on this.” Maybe not the way he should’ve started this meeting, but if John was going to fail him, he might as well cut to the chase, right? “Is it because it’s worse than an F?” John let out a gust of laughter. “No, not at all. The reason I didn’t grade it is because your short story didn’t follow the assignment guidelines. Technically, yes, I should’ve failed you, especially since your assignment didn’t have any of the short story elements that we talked about in class, but…” John tapped his pen against his desk, appeared to think something through, then said, “Mitch, why did you take this class?” “My academic advisor recommended it. And I still need my general electives, so…” “What’s your major?” “Kinesiology with a specialty in sports science.” “I thought you might be a science major,” John said. “Your story reads more like a lab report than fiction.” Mitch winced. “Listen.” John came around his desk and sat in the chair next to Mitch. “I really hate to fail my students, which is why I wanted to give you the chance to revise and resubmit.” “I appreciate that,” Mitch said. “Really. But if it was a piece of crap the first time, I don’t think writing it a second time is going to make it any better.” John took Mitch’s assignment out of his hand. “We’ll go through my comments, one by...