Chapter Two: Different

Henry had never been much of a morning person. Or an afternoon person. Or a night person. He groaned as his alarm switched on to radio 100.9. It was 6:45am and he was annoyed with the fact that it was a Monday.

It should be illegal for tests to be given out on Mondays. Maybe I'll tell dad that, he thought to himself. It would be completely pointless to try and tell anything to his congressman father.

Stoick was never much of listener to anyone. Maybe that's why his mother left all those years ago.

He slowly got out of bed, trying not to wake up his huge black lab Toothless. But of course, Toothless could sense anything and quickly sprang out of bed and walked to the door, waiting for his master to come open it.

"Good morning to you too, bud."

As he opened the door, Toothless quickly ran downstairs to get food, no doubt. Henry slowly walked down the hall of the house, big enough for four families, to get to one of the ten bathrooms in the house.

He picked up the toothpaste bottle and squirted some toothpaste onto his toothbrush. When he was about to start brushing his teeth, he noticed how clear the toothpaste was. Only it wasn't toothpaste. He had actually just put Toothless's shampoo on his toothbrush.

Hiccup groaned as he hit his head against the wall. He was extremely tired from the night before. He wasn't tired from the studying he should have been doing for his tests in Calculus and AP Physics, but tired from catching up on his favorite show on Netflix.

He didn't need to study things he's known for a long time. Even the new things, he just absorbed them like a sponge. There was no need to even stay awake in his classes anymore. It was pointless.

Thinking about classes got him thinking about the one girl who has been in almost every single one of his classes this year, and the past two years. Her blonde hair, stunning blue eyes, freckled nose, and beautiful pink cheeks.

Astrid Hofferson.

The girl who had lived two houses down the street for the past 17 years. Henry was told that her parents moved in when her mother was pregnant with her. His father told him how her mother had left when she was five and how much it affected her father.

Henry wished that he could comfort her and he thought that since both of their mothers had left them, they would become friends. But wishes never come true.

She never really noticed him. She only acknowledged him when she absolutely needed too.

He wasn't surprised, really. She quickly became a part of the popular group in school. And in 9th grade, Scott had asked her out. A part of him hoped she would say no, but she said yes. He supposed it made sense. A popular guy and a popular girl. It only made sense.

But he hated how out of all the guys in the school, the girl of his dreams went out with the guy who had bullied him from the start. The guy who had given him the only name he is recognized by. Hiccup.

Henry didn't really hate the name, per say. He just hated the meaning behind it. The screw up, the useless, the fishbone, the hiccup. He wouldn't care if Astrid called him that though. Anything to get her to talk to him.

As Henry walked out the house after bidding Toothless goodbye, all he could think about was Astrid. How she wasn't necessarily mean to him but not exactly nice to him. Sure she'd never called him Hiccup before, but she never really called him anything at all.

As he sat down on the bench waiting for the bus, he glanced over his shoulder, hoping that the girl of his dreams would come down the bus stop and sit on the bench by him and talk to him. It would be a dream.

But dreams never do come true. So he decided to catch up on some sleep.

It wasn't long before he was jolted back awake by a girl. A girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles.

Oh God, Astrid Hofferson was standing in front of him.

She told him to scoot over, which he did. And she sat next to him.

"What time does the bus usually come?" Her tone was slightly bitter. He hoped that his presence didn't aggravate her. But it probably did because he was, well, Hiccup.

"Around 7:30. But sometimes he is really late." He didn't know what to say next, so he went on his instinct and started rambling. "He says that there's traffic but there never is traffic here. I think that he just doesn't like teens and tried to milk the amount of time he has before he has to actually pick us up and take us to school without us being late. I don't blame him too much since the bus is really packed and –"

"Look, I would really appreciate it if you didn't talk because I have a huge headache and I am not in the mood for any talking. So shut up." God it must be his presence. The Gods hate me, he thought.

Then she spoke up again.

"Look, I didn't mean for it to come out like that. I've just had a long night and my boyfriend is being a dick right now." She didn't exactly apologize because Astrid Hofferson does not apologize to anyone, but she felt that she needed some reconciliation to the one person that's different.

"Oh. Sorry to hear that. I'll shut up."

Henry was silently cheering to himself that she called her boyfriend a dick.

The silence wasn't awkward after that. She thought of it more as peaceful, if nothing else.

He was right, she thought as the bus came in 15 minutes later than he said it usually did.

When they got to the bus, he looked over his shoulder to her standing behind him and he slid aside to let her go on first.

"Go on ahead."

She didn't respond to that. She couldn't really think of anything to say. That had never happened to her before. Sure, some guys would hold the door open for her, but she could feel their eyes on her back as she walked past them. Hell, even her boyfriend did that on the rare occasion he would do something like that for her.

But this time was different, he didn't look at her like she was some object, but then again he didn't look at her at all. She figured he must be nervous, because that kind of thing just doesn't happen. Right?

She was so confused by his action that she just took the first open seat near the front of the bus. She ignored all the people she knew and considered as "friends" who were calling for her to come sit with them at the back of the bus, which was far too crowded for her liking.

She didn't even feel his eyes on her back when she got on the bus, unlike all the other guys who had been staring at her chest from the back of the bus. Yeah, he has to be nervous. There's no other explanation for that.

There's no way that he's just genuinely that nice and respecting to her. Those guys just don't exist anymore. At least from what she's seen from her view at the top of the food chain. She frowned when he got on the bus. She couldn't figure him out.

She could figure most guys out. They usually fell into one category of the other: Gay or staring at her ass. But he wasn't either of those.

He looked around the bus for an open seat, and she looked back and saw how everyone had placed their bags in empty seats to keep him from sitting there. Jerks, she thought.

"Hey come sit here," she said. He looked at her with wide eyes and his jaw dropped, then over his shoulder as if to check if she was really talking to him and then back to her. He looked so shocked.

"Come on, if you just keep staring then I'll let someone else sit here." She waved her hand and gestured for him to sit next to her.

As he sat down, all he could say was, "Thanks."

Astrid smiled to herself because she could hear the genuine gratefulness in his voice for not making him sit on the floor.