Chapter 4

Astrid couldn't believe her ears. The words of "Haddock, Hofferson" that erupted from her chemistry teacher's mouth reverberated throughout her mind and sent chills down her spine. Of all the people in her class, she just had to get paired up with the most annoying, nerdiest kid in the class. This was going to be a long year. She almost opened her mouth to complain to her teacher, but then she realized who that teacher was. She had heard rumors from the other kids on her cross country team that she once sent a kid to the office for sneezing and disrupting her class. Astrid was not about to have her perfect discipline record tainted in her senior year. That nerdy kid was definitely not worth her reputation. "You're Astrid Hofferson, you can deal with this. You can deal with anything," she assured herself. Besides, he would probably be scared of her like the rest of Berk High School and leave her alone to go about her own business. Either that or he would try unsuccessfully to flirt with her. Just the thought of Hiccup flirting with her made Astrid shutter. As the blonde girl took her seat at the lab table and tied her apron around her slim waste, she caught sight of a sheet of paper, neatly typed and poking out from under Hiccup's arm. Instantly, she knew what it was. "Who does he think he is?" she thought to herself. "Does he think he's so much better than everyone else that I'm not capable of doing a pre-lab?" Astrid could feel the wall of anger rise inside of her, making its way to glowing power in her fists. Oh how much she wanted to punch something- punch Hiccup right now. Instead she snatched the paper from under his bony arm, making him lurch forward a little. Astrid waved the paper at Hiccup and yelled at him for getting in her way again. She saw him slouch back in his chair and the sight of his fear gave Astrid a flicker of joy, strong enough to make her say "let's begin." Her little moment didn't last long as Hiccup shot a sarcastic comment her way. He dared to smart off to her! Did he even know who she is, who he is? The anger boiled in her once again. How was she going to survive an entire year of Hiccup's smart-ass comments? She really, really had to try to keep her fists by her side. In order to keep Hiccup from angering her the least amount possible, she ordered him to clean the beakers. It's not like he could mess that up too badly, she thought to herself. While massing an amount of solid chemical, Astrid accidently looked at Hiccup's eyes, concentrating intently on making a beaker sparkling clean. They were bright green, as green as the forest, glimmering like a lush field of grass in the summer. She had never seen eyes that color before, nor had she seen eyes that gleamed with that much intelligence. What was she doing? She quickly retracted herself from that thought. Why was she looking at the eyes that belonged to this nerd? His eyes didn't matter, he didn't matter.

Astrid reached out a slim arm for a beaker that was sitting in the middle of the lab table. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Hiccup doing the same. She didn't care. She was going to assert her dominance and grab that beaker no matter what. Much to her relief, Hiccup's hand retracted back to his side. He said it wasn't clean yet. Of course, he couldn't follow the simplest of orders! But there was that sarcasm again. This time, she couldn't hold back her fists any longer. They had too much anger boiling in them that needed to be released. She felt her fist strike a bony arm. Her rage was still there. She then took that twig of an arm and twisted it in order to inflict as much pain as possible. She saw the scrawny boy sink further and further into his lab stool. At least she finally felt better now.

Astrid had never been happier in her life to hear the bell ring at the end of the day. It sounded like the bells of an angel welcoming her into heaven. She slumped to her locker to retrieve her cross country clothes and shoes. "Just kill me now. It's the first week of school and I'm ready to explode!" she fumed to no one in particular. At least she knew she would have a good practice today with all the anger and resent that had been boiling in her since the very beginning of lab.

After changing and walking out of the door of the school, she heard heavy footsteps behind her. Turning around, she caught sight of Scott making his way towards her. "Hey babe, where are you going off to?"

"I need to go to practice," she hissed impatiently.

"How about tonight? You going to the party at Ruff and Tuff's house? Cuz you know, you can totally go with me," the large boy pleaded, pursing his lips together in a fish-like manner.

"No, I'm good."

"But babe, you know you want to. You just seem way to tense. Once you come to your senses you'll definitely want to go with me."

"Go fuck yourself, Scott." Astrid didn't say anything else as she walked as fast as she could away from Scott. That encounter was definitely not what she needed today. She could feel the anger within her increase with vengeance. At least she knew she always had the best runs when she was angry; however, she just needed a few minutes alone in her car before she would be able to function in public. The skinny runner climbed in her back seat and pounded her fists into the leather seats, one after another. With each successive hit, she felt a massive weight being lifted from deep within her chest. Astrid got so caught up with beating the crap out of her car's seats that she lost track of time.

"Fur such a fast girl, yer always the last to show up ta practice," a large two-limbed man scolded Astrid. She muttered something under her breath that was inaudible to her giant coach. "Yev gotta tempo run on the track today," Gobber instructed. Tempo runs were Astrid's least favorite thing to do, especially on the track. She had sixteen dreadful laps seeing the same sights over and over again, with only her thoughts to entertain her. Luckily, it was still the beginning of the season so her pace wasn't too fast, well for her at least. Once again she would have to do the workout with the boy's team.

Sure enough, Astrid's anger propelled her little legs around the track with great intensity. She was well under her goal pace for the day and could see that Gobber was very pleased with her. After a short cool down, a wave of relief swept over her as she welcomed the weekend. However, the fact that she had to type up the chemistry lab report on her own sat heavily in the back of her mind. Astrid attempted to push away that thought and instead focus on the excitement of the party at Ruff and Tuff's house that night.