So… I'm back. :) I wasn't supposed to write any kind of continuation for that oneshot but all the positive feedback motivated me to do so. The initial idea of posting it, was to check if my writing is any good and I want to thank all the people who read my story and liked it.

Sonochu: Thank you for your advice regarding my story and I hope that I'll get better. To be honest, comma placement is my problem not only in English, but in my native language as well. That's just something I need to work on. :) I was confused, when you wrote that everything is in bold, because I checked it on a few computers and everything seemed to be fine, but then I checked it on my phone and BAM everything was the way you said it was. I don't know how to fix that yet but I'll try to work on that too.

I also want to thank Midoriko-sama for placing my story in favorites. I absolutely love your stories as you and a few other writers inspired me to write something of my own. I adore your writing style. It means a lot to me and it's a huge honor.

Thank you for all the other reviews and I'm really glad you liked it.

Disclaimer: I don't own How to train your dragon – books, movies, nor TV series.

Without further ado – enjoy.

BETTER THAN EXPECTED

"And she really did that?"

"Yes, Fish. I already told you that five times." Hiccup groaned inwardly and walked faster to his locker. His chubby, blond friend trotted behind him.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just… I'm really surprised." When the auburn-haired teen raised his eyebrow, Fishlegs, as that was the other boy's nickname, continued. "It's not everyday my best friend goes on a date with Astrid Hofferson."

"It wasn't a date, Fredrick." Hiccup rolled his eyes and opened his locker. He still couldn't believe what happened yesterday. He always dreamed of spending some time with Astrid (he had a 'not so secret' crush on her since middle school) but the two teens seemed to be living in two completely different worlds. She was popular, beautiful, funny, smart, just overall perfect – the complete opposite of him. Hiccup was, well, a hiccup. Always messing around, breaking stuff and just generally getting in the way. And yet, she seemed to have enjoyed his company yesterday. But it wasn't a date – why would she want to go out on a date with him, anyway?

Ridiculous.

"Really?" Unfortunately, his friend didn't seem convinced. " Then what was it, then?"

"A casual, platonic meeting of two 'not-strangers'." Hiccup responded dryly with his head behind the locker's door. He picked out the books he needed and closed it. He was met with Fishlegs' unimpressed face.

"Not-strangers?" he asked with his eyebrow raised. "I swear, you're unbelievable sometimes, Etran."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Hiccup rolled his eyes slightly.

"She said 'go out', right?" When his friend nodded hesitantly, Fishlegs looked at him smugly. "And usually when a girl and a guy 'go out'," he made quotation marks in the air. "it means they're going on a date." Hiccup groaned and banged his head into his locker's door. Fishlegs could be so persistent at times.

"You know, 90% of the people are looking at you now." The bigger teen pointed out.

"90% of me doesn't care." Hiccup mumbled, barely audibly.

"Even if one of those people was Astrid?" The auburn-haired teen snapped his head upwards and looked around. Not seeing the girl anywhere near, the boy turned back to his friend. Though he was really questioning, if Fishlegs still deserved to be called that.

"Very funny." He deadpanned.

"I was being serious, actually." Fishlegs grabbed Hiccup's shoulders and turned him around. Astrid was, indeed, there. She was standing by her own locker with her friend Rosalina, or as everyone called her – Ruffnut. The two girls were engrossed in their conversation. Suddenly, Astrid turned towards him and sent him a smile. She waved her hand slightly and Hiccup returned the gesture. He felt a nudge.

"Go to her." Fishlegs said from behind him.

"No, no. I shouldn't. She's with her friend…" He saw Ruffnut saying something to Astrid. Whatever it was, it made Astrid's face a bit red. She said something back to her friend, who only laughed in response. After that, Ruff disappeared in the crowd, leaving her friend by herself. Fishlegs looked at the blonde girl and then at his friend pointedly. Hiccup took a deep breath and nodded to himself.

"Right, right." He told himself, repositioning his backpack. Fishlegs gave him a reassuring smile and Hiccup started walking towards Astrid.

He didn't get far, though, as someone slammed him into one of the lockers.

Astrid was in a very good mood when she arrived at school. She entered the high school's walls with a smile on her face, which was quite unusual for her. It didn't go unnoticed by her best friend, Ruff. As soon as the other blonde saw her, she flooded her with questions.

"So, how was your date yesterday?" Ruffnut nudged her friend. She knew how much the Jorgenson boy annoyed Astrid. Since she found out her friend agreed on a date with him, she haven't stopped teasing her about it.

"It was great… because it wasn't with Snotlout." Astrid sent her friend a mysterious smile.

"Wait… what?" Ruff asked, confused. Astrid debated whether tell the other girl about yesterday's events or not. On one hand, Ruffnut was her best friend and who, if not her, should she tell about her dates and possible crushes (if she could call it that)? On the other hand, Ruff and her twin brother Theodore, by friends called Tuffnut, were also some of Hiccup's old bullies and even though they didn't do that anymore, it still made the situation quite difficult. But Hiccup deserved a second chance and Astrid was willing to risk it. She had a wonderful time with him and she hoped they could repeat that someday. The blonde girl didn't know if he saw it as a date or not, and that was another matter that troubled her. She opened her mouth to answer, but she was interrupted.

"Hey Babe." The over-confident voice of Steven Jorgenson made her groan in annoyance. The stocky teen tried to sneak an arm around her waist but the girl swiftly grabbed his hand and twisted it painfully.

"I told you not to call me that." She drawled harshly as Snotlout started massaging his hand.

"But you're my Babe. How else am I supposed to call you?" he looked kind of confused by that. Astrid frowned.

"I'm no one's Babe. Get it to that thick skull of yours." She crossed her arms over her chest and shot him a challenging look. Snotlout slapped his face.

"Right, you're angry for yesterday…" he scratched the back of his head. "Don't worry about Hiccup. He's an idiot." He waved his hand, but Astrid narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"Actually, we had a great time together." Both Snotlout's and Ruffnut's eyes went wide at that.

"You went on a date with Hiccup?" the female twin turned to her friend, clearly surprised.

"It wasn't a date." Snotlout quickly interjected. "He just drove her home. As for our date, though…" he trailed off, wiggling her eyebrows at Astrid. The girl felt herself throwing in her mouth a little. What persuaded her to agree to that, anyway?

"You lost your chance, Snotlout." Astrid shrugged. "You didn't even send a text to apologize for standing me up. At least your cousin was nice enough to take me out for something to eat and not let me freeze to death."

"But… it wasn't my fault. Hiccup was supposed to tell you-"

"He did. Don't worry about that." She looked at her watch and felt somehow relieved. "Look, I need to go get my books. We can talk about that later." Snotlout's face was a mix of anger and disappointment.

"Fine." He answered gruffly. Astrid gladly pulled Ruffnut along with her and went towards her locker. Fortunately enough, Steven's one was in a different part of the school. When they arrived, Ruffnut was smiling at her strangely.

"What?" Astrid asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Hiccup, huh?" her friend said in a suggestive tone. The girl rolled her eyes.

"His name is Etran."

"Someone has a crush." Ruffnut teased her friend. Astrid was kind of glad, though. As long as it was teasing and not insulting- let her be. Even though Astrid wasn't sure what her feeling towards the certain green-eyed teen were, just yet. She was about to respond, when she saw the boy in question standing by his locker with his blonde friend. What was his name – Freddie? Frank? Something like that, anyway. Astrid sent Hiccup a warm smile and waved her hand. He responded with a shy smile of his own and waved back.

"What are you waiting for? Go to your boyfriend." Ruff said, chuckling. Astrid felt her face heating up at the words.

"He's not my-" Astrid stopped as she saw Ruffnut walking away, still laughing at her friend. She could be so unbelievable sometimes. Astrid groaned. "Uugh"

Should she go to him? She wanted to, but wouldn't it look like she was being pushy? Maybe he didn't want her to came to him? Astrid watched, as Hiccup had some kind of a conversation with his friend. Hiccup shifted his backpack and started going in her direction. A smile started making its way on her face, but it quickly disappeared as she saw Snotlout coming from behind him and shoving him into one of the lockers. The girl ran to the two boys, her bag long forgotten on the floor.

"…only suppose to drive her home!" Snotlout grabbed Hiccup by the collar harshly. Astrid quickly went between the two boys and stuck out her hands in both directions, making the stockier teen release Hiccup.

"What are you doing Snotlout?!" she clenched her fists angrily. Hiccup had his lips pursed tightly and his eyes were ice cold.

"He stole you away from me!" Steven shouted, furious, pointing to his cousin. Astrid felt her blood boil. "You're mine." Okay, now he crossed a line. She told him numerous times that she wasn't something to be owned but he still seemed not to get that. She raised her fist to give him a piece of her mind.

But she was too late.

Snotlout stumbled backwards, covering his nose. Astrid turned around, surprised, to see an equally surprised Hiccup with his right fist still in the air. He was so shocked, he didn't notice a fist coming towards his own face. He banged the back of head in the lockers behind him. A crowd of students gathered around them. Snotlout looked absolutely livid and his, obviously, broken nose was bleeding heavily. Astrid was about to kick him, but someone grabbed her from behind.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, trying to break away.

"Miss Hofferson, what is the meaning of this?!" she was released only to come face to face with the principal. He was looking at her, with his arms crossed and pursed lips.

Well, that's just great.

"Thanks." Hiccup mumbled as Astrid handed him a bag of ice. He hissed when he applied it to his swollen face. He was lucky he didn't get a concussion. They were waiting outside the principal's office. Astrid had already been inside and the principal, although not happy about the whole situation, gave her only two days of detention. Snotlout and Hiccup would probably end up with a much bigger punishment.

"Does it hurt a lot?" Astrid asked softly, looking at her hands.

"No, it's- it's fine." He shrugged and tried to smile but his face quickly turned into a grimace from pain. Silence came over them.

"Thank you." When he looked at her confused, she added. "for standing up for me."

"Sure, no problem."

"It's my fault… Snotlout must've snapped when he found out, that I went on a date with you instead of him." Astrid said and instantly clapped a hand over her mouth.

"A date?" Hiccup's voice cracked slightly. Oh God, why couldn't she just keep her mouth shut?

"W-wasn't it a date?" she asked uncertainly. Maybe he doesn't like her and was just being polite yesterday…

"I would want it to be a d-date. I didn't think you would." He looked at her from the corner of his eye. Astrid leaned in and softly pecked the cheek that wasn't swollen from the hit. The auburn-haired teen's face flushed red. Astrid smiled and tucked a loose strand of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"I think that answers that." The office's door opened and Snotlout came out. His face looked even worse than Hiccup's and Astrid felt kind of bad. Maybe he finally learned his lesson, at least. He didn't utter a word, just glared at the couple and walked away. The whole situation must've stung his ego badly.

"Mr. Haddock. The principal is ready to see you." The school's secretary said and Hiccup stood up. Astrid stood up as well and reached for his hand.

"Good luck." She smiled at him and squeezed his hand reassuringly. The secretary made an impatient noise and the girl let go.

"See you tomorrow?" Astrid asked hopefully. Hiccup leaned on the door frame and smiled.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

A/N:

There won't be any more to this, at least for now. As I mentioned before, this oneshot was written only to see if someone likes the way I write and if I was any good at it. I am in process of writing a story, a longer one this time. It's something I've been working on for some time now. I don't want to start posting it before I finish it, to avoid any kind of Hiatuses and writer's block, so you won't have to wait. I hope (I really do), that it'll come out in a month or so, but I have a lot on my plate right now and I hardly ever find time to write anything.

R&R

Till next time!

~InsertACreativeNameHere