Boy Crush /Boy Crushed by Jake Olsen

 White curtain, blue walls.

Chalk rustled against the surface of the blackboard.

Propping her chin in the palm of her left hand, Debby watched the tall fair-headed classmate

scribe some kind of equation.

- "Now, Mr. Olsen. What is the answer?"

Another obnoxious "sch-k" - a sleeve of his shirt now covered in chalk dust. Jack stands

unwavering, his eyes gaping at the problem in front of him as if he sees it for the first time in

his entire life. Or, maybe, he does. Regardless, the teacher grows restless.

- "Did you find the "x" already?"

Jack Jr. doesn't respond, instead furrowing his eyebrows even more while biting his lower lip.

He seems to be completely submerged into some sort of thought process. Debbie hesitates

for a bit but ends up leaning closer to him, bending over her desk.

- "Psst, Jack!"

The blonde boy completely ignores her whispering, continuing to stare at the blackboard with a blank expression. Deborah feels a surge of embarrassment coming to her cheeks, yet she still attempts to help him out.

- "Hey, Jack! The answer is 21! Look! It is right there! Ahh…"

No reply.

- "Jack! Jack! The "x" is 21!"

No reaction whatsoever.

- "Jack! 21!"

She yanked at his jacket, which, this time around, was effective enough to bring the guy back to reality. His eyes fluttered wide open as he glanced back at the girl and then at the teacher.

- "Oh yah! Yah. Yep. It's twenty-one, sir Hendrickson."

- "Sir who? I am mister Mitchell."

Mister Mitchell raised an eyebrow at his student, who stood frozen with his mouth open from surprise.

- "Ah, mister Mitchell! Yup. My bad!"

- "Good. The answer is correct, though. What has gotten into you, Jack?"

Debbie let out a heavy sigh of relief when her classmate had finally sat down at the desk beside her. As the teacher went on to explain the new topic, she shamefacedly turned her head towards him, eyeing him up.

- "And so the problem can be solved…"

Everything the teacher says is a blur. Debbie is the one oblivious to her surroundings now, completely glued to her friend's features. He bites at the tip of his pen, hand gripping his fluffy fringe. She thinks that it never gets more adorable than that. She wonders if he feels the same.

Jack's mind, however, is preoccupied with one thing and one thing only.

"Hendrickson…"

At the library he holds a grammar book, tugging at the pages absent-mindedly and muttering the name again and again, while his brothers roam around, throwing paper balls at each other.

 At the gym he keeps doing push-ups with surprising speed, his long, beak-like nose almost hitting the floor each time. A group of students surrounds him, watching in awe.

 "Hendrickson… Hendrickson".

At the history lesson, he trips on his shoelaces before entering the classroom, falling headfirst into the room, right in front of the teacher. He gets up as quickly as he falls, greeting the teacher with a shy smile while brushing the dust off his shirt.

- "Good day, sir He-... Salo."

A day goes by and every single time Debbie catches a glimpse of her friend, he is suspiciously tense and worried, with the same name on his lips at any given instance. In the end, her curiosity grows far greater than any high-school girl her age can bear, so she decides to interrogate Jack's younger brother about the deal.

- "Hey, Steve!"

Steve's super interesting routine of eating sugary toasts and gazing at the seniors at the table before him suddenly came to a halt, as he was approached by the bubbly fellow student.

- "Hi… Debs."

- "Who is this Hendrickson person!?"

Somehow, the words spilled out of her mouth on their own. Steven brushed a hand against his lips, putting the food down and giving Debbie a confused look.

- "Ah, I am sorry, Steve… It is just…"

She turns around to face Jack, who was sitting at another table with the same concerned face all over again. Her voice has gotten softer and a bit more earnest than the last time.

- "Your brother is kind of… Obsessed with whoever that is. Or so it seems to me."

- "Yeah, he certainly is. Annoyingly so."

Jeff, who was just passing by with a huge bag of chips, poked his head in between them,

adding his 5 cents as he usually would.

- "Haha, almost like he has a crush, amirite?"

The girl's heart skipped a beat.

At that moment Deborah could feel herself falling through the ground as her head started filling up with all sorts of nonsensical thoughts. She put a hand over her mouth, shaking her head in disbelief.

- "Ow, ow, no… So… "

- "So what?"

- "Is h-he like, going on a date today or … something."

- "You could say that."

- "No way…"

Tears welled up in her eyes as she lowered her head, completely defeated. Steve let out a small chuckle, shaking her by her shoulder.

- "Debs! C'mon! What's wrong with you? You jealous? Or something?"

- "N-no! W-why would I be jealous! Let him date whatever stinky, mean, ugly girl he likes! None of my business!"

- "Yeah, alright. Makes perfect sense."

- "Oh, hey! That's just evil, Steve! Ahaha, hah!"

Jeff sat down next to Debbie and handed her a napkin, which she gratefully accepted, going on to blow her nose with a sound that resembled an orchestra trumpet. He patted her on the back and pointed at Jack in the distance.

- "Look over there, gal. See this moron? He is completely nuts, I tell ya. He wants to fight Hendrickson."

- "T-to fight…?"

- "Yeah. Andy Hendrickson. That guy is also completely nuts, a big scary fella. Six feet tall, weights like a truck, and hits like one. Rumors are that he broke some poor kid's jaw with no remorse."

- "Oh…"

- "He likes going after finesse players, y'kno, the ones that can't usually put up a fight."

- "So that's what it's about… And Jack wants to…?"

- "Teach him a lesson. Tonight we are facing Aurora's at the Miner's arena."

Deborah suddenly hugged Jeffery, wiping her tears off with the back of her hand.

- "Thank you, Jeffie, thank you, thank you! I was thinking about ending all of this and moving into another state, changing my name, and becoming a lonely old lady with 12 house cats, but it was you who saved me!"

- "Oh, haha, you are welcome! Although 12 house cats don't sound that bad…"

Steve, who was quietly snickering the entire time, received a tiny slap across his face.

- "And you are super mean AND stinky!"

***

The fateful evening approached quite unexpectedly. The arena was bustling, the ice was milky-white, the teams were lined up against each other - one row of navy blue uniforms and another - of scarlet red. The sportscaster's voice resonated throughout the building.

 - "Tonight's starting lineup is…"

Jack shuffled on the heels of his skates, standing alongside his two brothers with whom he has always played as a line. They were called "a wild bunch" and there was pretty good reasoning behind such a nickname.

At the other side of the rink stood the subject of Jack's recent intense thinking himself - Andrew Hendrickson. He was a senior student at the Aurora High School who was indeed quite big and generally menacing-looking.

- "Andy Hendrickson, number 9, right-wing for Aurora High! A tough guy on the team, he has hardly ever scored a goal…"

Olsen stares at him chatting with his teammates. At some point, he smirks and glances back.

- "Andy was suspended for quite a while after the unfortunate accident involving Pete Fern. Oh, that poor thing...Yes, now Hendrickson is back to wreak havoc and hopefully lead his team to a glorious victory…"

Jack feels his blood starting to boil. He tightens the grip inside his gloves, already anticipating the fight he was planning to start this entire week. He could hear Andrew mock him and his brothers, calling them names, yet he couldn't care less for his stupid chirping. He knows what is about to happen. And he knows what he is about to do about that.

- "Hey, Olsens! You are a bunch of wicked ugly losers, so you better give up already. You are just wasting everyone's time."

Jeff clenched his teeth hard like an angry pitbull, putting his fists up. Noticing this, his younger brother jerked him a bit behind, giving him a sign to wait.

- "Let him talk. It's isn't the time yet."

"Tonk"! The puck was dropped and the game officially began.

- "From Steve Olsen to Olsen… Jack? I think it's Jack… To Thomson..."

The blue team has won the faceoff, with Steve quickly snatching the puck for himself, and quickly passing it to his brother. He was a very skilled skater, smaller than his brothers and more agile, he has led his team in scoring ever since he's gotten on board. He hated fighting and was remarkably bad at it.

Tonight he was a perfect target for the renowned Aurora High goon. 

Just like Jack has predicted, Hendrickson slammed Steve into the borders as soon as he had an opportunity. The youngest member of the Olsen trio let out a pained groan as he was pushed to a corner by a bigger guy, who immediately dropped the gloves and started pummeling him. Steve could do nothing better than to cover his head with hands and wait until it was hopefully over.

The sharp sound of blades scratching against the ice, and here comes the older brother. Jack has waited patiently for this exact moment - he was finally ready. 

- "Let him go." 

Hendrickson turned his head sideways to face the guy while holding Steve by his jersey.

- "Fuck you."

A huge blow to the head followed - to Andrew's head, that is. He loosened the grip on Steven's shirt and the boy was finally able to break away without sustaining any serious injuries.

- "What the fuck!? What the fuck you think you're doing, blondie?"

Another hit followed, the two big guys clashed together, each trying to push another to the ice. Jack's helmet flew right off his head, yet he continued to stand his ground, tugging at the guy's uniform and punching him. It was a tough fight - both of them were very strong, very stubborn, and worst of all - very angry.

However, a few moments later, Hendrickson finally gave up and collapsed to the ground with Olsen on top.

Jack could feel his heart jump out of his chest, as he was trying to collect his breath. The linesmen skated over and separated them, each one going to the penalty box. But just before he was taken away, Olsen shouted: 

- "You don't do that, Andy! We should have honor! Hockey honor!" 

That day the Blues lost to the Aurora's with a score of 3:5, yet to Jack, it didn't matter much.

He was completely content with the outcome of the game.

And so was the boy with a bandaged face, who sat in the first row.