Chapter 3 – Something in Common


When we got to tutor Sir introduced Lloyd (I heard a lot of the girls whispering about how good-looking he was) and let him sit next to me at the back of the class. Then we got our timetables and I discovered that Lloyd was in pretty much all of my lessons. We had science first thing, and I had to show Lloyd around. I felt privileged that they trusted me of all people. He sat next to me in every lesson, and my day was actually not going too badly.


But at lunchtime everything changed. Lloyd and I queued up together; he had been talking to some other guys in our music class and because of him I now actually had a few friends. I still didn't trust him enough to tell him about my daily visits to the music room at lunchtime yet though. Anyway, we queued up at the hot food bar and each bought the main meal (we have an online pay system now so Snotlout and his cronies can't steal my lunch money! Yay!) which just happened to be one of my favorites; chicken and bacon lasagne. We then made our way to my usual table and sat down. We were just eating and talking, but then someone came up to the table.

"Fishbone has a friend? How can this be?" it was obviously Snotlout, and he was cracking up.

Lloyd turned round and said, "Oh it's you again. Spencer, isn't it?" Snotlout's mates laughed. So did Lloyd and I.

Snotlout clenched his fists. "Shut up. It's Snotlout to you." Then he turned to me. "And what are you laughing at, Fishbone? Huh?" he said and picked me up by my hair. Everyone turned and watched. I could see Astrid sat with her friends in the centre of the hall. She wasn't laughing, she just watched with her arms folded, with a displeased look on her face.

"Hey, Snotlout, I said this morning; leave him alone. What's he ever done to you?" Lloyd jumped to my defence again.

"Oh, I don't know, exist?" was Snotlout's retaliation.

"We both know that's not a legit reason." Lloyd said.

"Are you starting?" Snotlout said, dropping me and I landed on my prosthetic and it gave way and I landed on the floor, knocking over my chair in the process. Everyone laughed. Then Snotlout turned on Lloyd. "You wanna fight me, new boy?" he said loudly, to get everyone's attention.

"I really don't think-" Lloyd started but he was cut off by the entire hall shouting "Fight, fight, fight, fight!"

I struggled to my feet, shoved the last piece of lasagne on my plate into my mouth and, feeling traumatised and embarrassed, walked out of the hall before Snotlout could turn on me again. I felt sorry for Lloyd, but he seemed to have things under control.


When I was out of sight to anyone, I power-walked down the corridor and out onto the school grounds. I took my usual route across the playground, into the other block, where the music room was located.

When I got to the music room, the door was ajar. I looked through the tiny window in the door to see if Miss O'Brien, the music teacher, was in there. She wasn't. I pushed the door open quietly and pushed it to behind me. This routine had become regular to me now. I opened up the cupboard and sure enough, at the bottom of the cupboard an acoustic guitar was leaning. I picked it up and dragged a chair to the centre of the room. I sat on it and positioned the guitar on my knees. I played a few chords and a couple of scales to tune it a little, then began to play the first few notes of Let Her Go.

I needed to do this every single day at school. It just helped me to forget the trauma of whatever had just happened in the canteen. I wasn't upset today, I was just really angry, and I walked out before anything else happened. Lloyd was probably not going to forgive me for leaving him in there.


Lloyd POV

Snotlout was still squaring up to me in the hall, and just as I was about to duck and run, Mr Bates just happened to intervene. "Enough!" he shouted and the whole room fell silent. "Now what's this about?"

Snotlout didn't give a proper answer, just said, "Nothing, sir." And walked back over to his mates. Mr Bates turned to me. "Anything I should know, Lloyd?"

I almost told him that Snotlout was squaring up to me because I was defending Hiccup, but I figured he wouldn't want me to tell a teacher. I had no idea how long this bullying had been happening, and Sir would surely want to know. So I said, "No, sir."

He looked suspicious for a moment then said, "Alright." And nodded. Then he turned to the rest of the canteen. "Nothing to see here! Just carry on." And walked away. The chatter came back and everything seemed normal. Only when I looked opposite me I saw that Hiccup was missing. Oh God, poor guy, he must have been mortified.

I headed out of the canteen, and stared around me, wondering where on earth he could possibly be. I was new; I had no idea how to get around this school.

But then I had a brainwave. I had seen him in music class today; I had seen how comfortable he was and how happy he seemed to be. It was one of the only places I knew how to get to, so I legged it across the playground to the music block.

When I got to the music room I put my head up to the little window in the door and, sure enough, there he was, sat on a chair playing the guitar. He was playing a familiar song, and I couldn't work out what it was until he started singing:

"Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go"

I loved this song; I played it on my guitar at home a lot. I pushed the door open and stood in the doorway and watched him play the guitar with skill to rival my own. Though saying that, he was probably better than me. He sang the words with such feeling, like he actually meant every word. Something I found really hard to do.


Hiccup POV

When I had finished, I jumped when I saw Lloyd stood there. "How long have you been stood there?" I asked, embarrassed.

"The whole song, basically." he replied and he grabbed a chair and dragged it to the middle of the room. The door shut itself behind him.

"I'm sorry I left you in there..." I said.

"No probs. Bates intervened in the end. Snotlout didn't even answer back to him."

"Yeah, those two hate each other. Always have." I replied. He wasn't annoyed with me!

"Yeah I get that. But mate, that was amazing!" he said, bringing the conversation back to the song.

"Oh, it's nothing really, just something I do to help myself through the bullying."

"That was not nothing, my friend. That was something else! How do you play so well?"

"I don't really know, I've been playing for about three or four years, and this was the first song I learnt to play." I said truthfully. I was happy he liked it.

"Wow. I mean, I can play that song as well, but not as good as that!"

"How about you come over to my house tonight?" I said for the first time ever. "I have a better one of these," I indicated the guitar, "at home. I also have an electric guitar." I didn't tell him about the violin and keyboard, I'd let him find that out.

"Hey, mate, that would be awesome!" he said and I got up and put the guitar in the cupboard, and we were just dragging the chairs back to the side of the room when the bell went.

"We'd better go." he said and we grabbed our bags and left the room, leaving the door as it was when I got there. "What have we got?" he asked.

"Geog." I said and we left the block to head over to where Geography was.

"Lloyd, why are you friends with me? I mean, not that I'm complaining, but I've never had a real friend before, and there are so many other cooler people in this school you could be friends with." I said as we were walking over.

He turned to me and smiled. "You were the first person to be friendly to me in a new school. And as for the cool thing; I think your guitar playing says otherwise! I bet the majority of the guys in this school can't play like that."

I smiled. It was amazing to finally have a friend. I didn't know how long it would last, but I was happy at school for once.


So there we go. He finally has a friend. Find out what happens next in the next chapter, up soon!