Author's Note

Hey guys! Thanks so much for all reviews, follows and faves! And now... Chapter 4! Full of messy high school boys, sassy and manipulative cats, math confusion and unforgettable green eyes. Here we go! :D

Disclaimer: I'd be a rich little writer if I owned How To Train Your Dragon and all its characters, but I don't. :(

He was an idiot.

Always causing problems, always running away from them.

Hiccup always knew he was an idiot, but he never knew he could really have been that stupid enough to tell Astrid Hofferson she's pretty.

He could take pride on his apparent confidence, but he really knows it's just impulsive stupidity.

And... Astrid's beauty. And confidence. And her fierce attitude and-

Aah, he had to pull himself together, No more Astrid Hofferson.

Well, he was going to see her next Friday, which was really bad.

A whole hour, he groaned.

Maybe he could just not show up?

Well, this is Astrid's grade we are talking about, don't want to ruin her because you can't control yourself.

He had a point.

Besides, he thought he was past running away.

Ah, his mind contradicted, But not showing up isn't the same as running away, right?

Hiccup nudged a whiny Toothless away, taking his frustration out on the cat, before replying (to himself), Idiot, literally! Not showing up is 'running away' from my problem!

"Devil's advocate..." He accused with a grunt.

Hiccup also declared himself officially werid.

Like, who talks to himself and blames his infernal thoughts on something else when that 'something else' is actually him?

Honestly, he's way past striving to be normal.

He just wants to sane, okay?

Toothless purred with pretend sympathy and snuggled near Hiccup.

"Seriously, Toothless? You just had dinner, you are not getting any more Kenny's Kibbles, okay?"

Toothless was a stubborn little thing, so he whined and used his adorable charm to try to convince his owner.

"Toothless! You don't even like me. You torture me, you just whine all the time for food, you're so selfish and... Are you even listening?"

Toothless ignored Hiccup, as usual. (Toothless knows he's awesome. Haters gonna hate.) He just continued to purr and prance over Hiccup's textbooks.

And finally... the adorable-eyes-like-I'm-abandoned-and-abused-by-my-owner-please-help-me trick.

A little stare contest went down, but it was obvious who won.

"Gah! Works every time..."

Hiccup glared at the cat, then eased off his bed, grabbed his prosthetic and attached it to his, uh, stump.

Holding on to the railing, he thump-tha-thumped down the stairs with his clunky metal leg and a cat trailing victoriously behind.

He made his way to the kitchen, yanking the bag out of the closet with a scowl. Toothless was curled up on the floor all innocently, like he never manipulated Hiccup to get food. Hiccup was about to pretend to kick the little scoundrel, (that often keeps Toothless in line) when-

Click-click

Keys...

Shoot! Hiccup screamed interally. He gave himself about 5 seconds to clean up a house that took a week to get to this point, when Stoick (The Vast, Hiccup often takes the liberty to add) came through the door.

"Uhhh... hi dad... the trip was okay?"

"Yes, son. How were you this week with it?" He nodded vaguely at Hiccup's leg, but he knew what his father meant.

"It was, uh, good. Well, I mean, it wasn't good, I hate it, but yeah... I sort of got the hang of it, kind of, depends, really," Hiccup watched his dad hang up his coat, "Stairs are still pretty challenging, especially at school, just, you know, well you actually don't know, you never lost a limb." Hiccup gave his trademark lopsided smile.

"Well," Stoick ruffled Hiccup's hair (What, is he three or something? Ugh. Awkward son/father moments),totally ignoring the potential humor, "glad to see your adjusting."

There was an awkward silence, once again reminding the both of them that they had nothing to talk about.

Hiccup scooped up Toothless (oblivious to the saddened eyes of a very hungry cat as he stuffed the food back into the closet) the second his father turned his back.

I gotta get out of here, I gotta get out of here, I gotta get out of here, I gotta get-

"Hiccup! Why are your things, inventions, whatever they are, all over the house!" Stoick bellowed from the living room.

"Is that your gym bag? And... cat food?! How many times do I have to tell you, keep that cat in your room! Potato chips, sweatshirts... Hiccup!?"

Hiccup gulped.

Ah, shoot, he's caught.

x

"Astrid. Come 'ere."

She turned around and opened her mouth in protest.

"I'll do better, I swear. I'm getting help in math. My grade will go up. Just don't take me off the team."

Surprisingly, Gobber laughed.

"If I take 'ou off tha team, I ruin tha whole chance ou' team got! I just want to make sure you're tryin' to get better.", He paused, then said in a low voice,"I'm makin' an exception fo' yeh. Don't disappoint me."

Astrid set her head in a quick nod, and he was off.

She made the team. Her speed was the quickest, which made her captain. But she knew that math grade would be lurking around the corner.

But, she was taking care of it.

Her thoughts drifted back to that Friday while she packed her bag.

That boy.

She'd been thinking about him a bit more than she'd like. Hiccup- he stuck. He just stuck his stupid life into hers, and all she wanted was help in math.

Well, Astrid vowed, I'll set him straight and make him stop being so...

Her vocabulary failed her. She doesn't even know him, for Thor's sake, and he's just so... different.

She pushed through the front doors and headed home.

Astrid doesn't really care about what he mumbled anymore. It's how he reacted. Most people would just cower and do what she wants, and he just, well, ran away.

Was he scared of her?

Stop it, Astrid. You have a life to be focused on. Forget him, whatever, just think about the next math test.

x

"Uh, hey. Um... sorry about being l-late."

Stop mumbling, idiot, you'll ruin any chance, his thoughts hissed.

"It's fine." she says almost too nicely, shuffling papers around the desk, but without eye contact.

Hiccup tentatively set his backpack on the floor, sat down and stared at his foot while waiting for her take a paper out of her folder.

"You have exactly 8 minutes to explain. I'm not wasting any more time on this, but you're not getting away with it."

Ah, shoot.

His instincts told him to play dumb, it wastes time, that should work...

"Um, I ha-have no idea what you're, uh, talking about, um, Astrid. Do you mean the, uh, math problem?"

Suddenly, she whipped around and stared at him with her (stern) crystal blue eyes.

"Seriously, Hiccup. I want to be done with this. Tell me the truth."

x

The truth.

Astrid wanted the truth.

She wanted to know why he was so different, why did she think about him even though they only met last week, why did she start noticing him everywhere, why did she find herself avoiding him, why was he so confusing-

He's my stupid math tutor. But why does he create problems instead of helping me solve them?

But she would die before she actually asked all those things.

"Oh gods, I knew this would come back... I'm cursed..." Hiccup mumbled and looked down.

Why did he always avoid eye contact?

Add that to the list.

Astrid glanced at her watch. 5 minutes left. She had to get him to talk. Now, that's when her good old friend violence comes in...

"Gods, Hiccup! What's so hard? Seriously! Just spit it out before I-" She was cut off by a glare from Mrs. Duncan before continuing in a whisper that was just as threatening,"Before I kick your sorry excuse for a leg."

Only because that's the only thing she can get away with in a math classroom.

Thank Thor for desks, she laughed internally.

x

Hiccup saw an opportunity for humor.

He was good at that, right?

"Haha... you got that right. I do have a lousy leg..." He laughed weakly and tried to sound casual about it, "I don't have a left leg. It's a metal prothesic now. Lost it in a car crash about a month ago."

Her face changed from vicious to dumbfounded the second he said car crash.

He knew that was going too far. You don't tell people awkward personal stuff like that after the second time you see them. Now she's really going to think he's weird.

Great, just great.

x

"... car crash about a month ago."

Car crash? Last month?

Her thoughts whipped back to the first day of school.

It was a boy.

With auburn hair.

With a nasty looking leg.

Astrid could hear herself on the phone that day from her thoughts, "... his leg is hurt really bad..."

She thought he'd be okay-

"Wait... Last month, you're sure?"

"Astrid," He deadpanned, "You think I'm so incapable, I'd forget the life-changing day I lost my leg? Anyway, why does it matter?"

Astrid glanced at the clock, it was way past 8 minutes now.

Screw math, she was getting to the bottom of this.

"I was there, I called 911 for you," She examined his unforgettable green eyes, "Oh my gods, it was you..."

Author's Note

Yay! Cliffhanger! Finally, Astrid reconizes Hiccup :D Remember to be awesome and drop a review. See you guys next chapter!