Guest 1 (April 8): Thanks for pointing out. I really need to work on my English. I'll work to correct any future and further mistakes. Oh, and thanks for the positive review :D

Guest 2 (April 9): Oh, I definitely will continue working on it.

afternoonmilady: It's nice to hear that. Thank you :)

Chapter 3: Helping Book

Hiccup

Oh, this is just so fucking great.

Alvin Treach had just ordered me to sit in front of Astrid Hofferson. And she's supposed to keep an eye on me.

Tossing my sketchbooks into the drawer as I cleared it off any waste – mainly used foolscap paper, I let out a sigh.

"This is such a shitty place to sit. Definitely shitty luck for me."

I felt a pair of eyes glaring at the back of my head, and I swear if that certain pair had heat vision my hair would be singed by now.

"Get your facts right. I'm the one who has to sit behind you. Right behind you. So you better stop your stupid stunts or else…" Astrid surely sounded irritated.

An exasperated snort escaped my throat, but I never bothered to turn around to face her. "Excuse me, missy, just because you're the bloody honour student doesn't mean you get to be the boss of me."

I felt the back of my chair getting kicked, and my ears caught the sound of a low threatening growl. "I'm warning you, Haddock."

So here's the thing: I know Astrid Hofferson since we were both in elementary school, BUT one being the all goody-two-shoes-and-so-called-fierce-Valkyrie student and the other being the I-do-whatever-the-fuck-I-want student means we don't get along. Well, we never acknowledged each other's existence. That conversation we just had is pretty much the longest conversation that's ever occurred between us.

"Okay, okay, you two," Eret started, clearly trying to diffuse the situation, not that it's working. "Don't you think things are a little bit too tensed?"

"That's what she said! HAH!" Tuffnut cheered next to me. Eret and I glared at him. Astrid probably did join in glaring at him too. Grey-blue eyes widened with innocence. "What?"

"Dude, just shut the fuck up," I told him and watched him shrug his shoulders as he continued decluttering his new desk. After Al ordered me to sit in front of Astrid Hofferson, Tuffnut had started laughing, which probably prompted the big old goof to have Mr-Idiot-Twin to sit in front of Eret, next to me.

There was a brief silence before Tuff opened his mouth again. "Well, don't come looking for me if you want that new edition of Asian Babes next time."

My face turned into a small scowl as my left hand was raised lazily to point the finger at him, and I heard him snigger. The rest of the day passed quickly, boring as expected since I got this new seat. Didn't stop me from zoning out of classes as usual, though, nor did it bloody stop my chair from getting kicked every time I fucking doze off.

oOo

"Yo, H?"

My eyes were glued on the road, not looking at Eret. "What?"

I heard him sigh. "You gotta stop giving Astrid a hard time."

"The fuck?" my head snapped as I turned to look at the tall and buff Sami kid. There was concern filled in his eyes. "I haven't done any-fucking-thing. Yet."

"No? Day one sitting in front of her and you two already argued in the first five minutes. Don't forget that time you two almost went at it again when you disrupted Heather."

"That wasn't me, Thor-damn-it. Blame my nitwit of a cousin. I just sat my ass on his table that's all."

"Then why –"

"She probably smacked me in the head with that dictionary 'cause I was the closest between the two."

"H, you know what I mean." This time I could hear Eret's voice being extremely low. Thor, he was serious about this.

"Okay, okay." I raised my hands in surrender. "For fuck's sake, you're as naggy as her. No promises, son of an Eret."

"Bleurgh, don't call me that." Eret's face twisted into a grimace and made a gagging sound. "Ruff calls me that all the time and it's disgusting enough."

"You do know she likes you a lot. You should consider going out with her. Maybe some explosive, psychotic girlfriend can make you more fun than the Super-Matured-Brown-Dickhead you already are."

"Oh fuck you, too, H." Two middle fingers raised up and were pointed at me as I watched the big bulky figure make a left turn into the road leading to his neighbourhood.

oOo

"Mum?!" I cried loud so I hope my mom could hear from the kitchen. No response. Maybe louder. "MUM?!"

The sound of ceramics clattering and a soft 'Comin' dear' followed by muffled curses could be heard a few seconds later. Immediately I prayed to Thor that Mum hadn't caused a wreck in the kitchen again.

"Yes, son?" She said as she walked in. "HICCUP! WHAT DID YOUR CLOTHES DO TO YOU?!"

Alarmed by the exasperated tone, I snapped my head around to look at my mom and realized that a confused look was etched on her face. I noticed her eyes darting from me and towards my left, and turned towards that direction, and noticed the mountain of clothes on my bed.

"Oh. That's just me searching for my GameBoy. Did you so happen to see it anywhere lately?"

"Don't you think it'd be weird for it to be in your wardrobe?"

"I couldn't find it in my side table, so…"

"It should be there."

"I checked it like five times."

I watched mom walked towards my brown side table, pull out the drawer and after a brief ten seconds fish out a blue portable console with a smug look on her face.

"You were saying, son?"

Trust me, I've scoured the whole table, and that bloody GameBoy wasn't there. Well, come to think of it, mom has the tendency of finding things that are mysteriously hidden in places that I have tried looking at numerous times. And believe me, when I say I have no idea how she does it, I really have no idea how she does it.

"Son."

My mom and I turned out heads to look at the giant figure standing at the door. Dad's flaming hair touched the top of the door casing, and he could barely fit through – being seven feet tall and weighing four hundred pounds does that to you, I wonder how he hasn't had diabetes or high blood pressure with his size. The mysteries of Haddocks.

"Yeah, dad?"

"The school called this afternoon." He wasn't happy. It was the same disappointed scowl on his face - like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich. "They said ye caused an… unwanted disturbance."

"I didn't do anything…"

His brows furrowed together and eyes narrowed. "Ye do realize yer results aren't like they used to be. Now they're all near the bottom percentile. Have ye been so busy thinking about girls ye abandoned ye studies?"

I let a huff escape me. "I'm not interested in girls." Seeing both my parents had their eyes wide, probably in shock, I quickly added. "Not into guys, either."

A few seconds of awkward silence loomed over us, and mom broke it by saying that food will be ready in another 15 minutes, then both of them left me alone in my room.

oOo

The routine in class was pretty much the same: 1. Class starts 2. I get bored 3. I doze off 4. My chair gets a violent kick. 5. I turn to see blue eyes glaring at me 6. I point a lazy middle finger and turn back in front 7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 until one of us had enough of the other.

One day, our History teacher, Mrs Ack walked in with a face as shitty as… well, shit. No one knows if she lost money in the stock market, or she was on her period, all we knew was that she looked like she wanted to kill someone.

"Let's begin the class immediately. Take out your textbooks."

Odin's butt, she even sounded like she was going to kill someone. Anyhoo, I heard shuffling behind me, and turned around just enough to see Astrid Hofferson searching her drawer, most likely for her History textbook. Her face was pale with worry.

I felt a smile crept on my face as I turned around to look at Tuff, who was also smiling. I thought it would be a lot of fun to see the Oh-So-Great-Astrid-'Honours-Student'-Hofferson make a blunder in class, then I noticed Mrs Ack's eyes narrowing at Astrid's direction.

"Those who didn't bring their textbooks, stand up now."

Like I said, I thought.

Just as I heard the sound of the chair behind me move, I quickly slipped my textbook behind, and got off my own seat with a smug look plastered on my face. Mrs Ack's face, however, was the hundred eighty degrees version of it.

"Mr Haddock," her teeth were gritted tightly. "It's almost 2 months since school started. And you didn't bring your textbook?"

I kept the smug on my face as a reply. Seeing that, she continued. "You do know that fees are expensive, and that your parents are the ones playing for it. What the hell do you come to school for? Lunch?"

"Well… I am a talking fishbone… so lunch is essential to become a Viking… just not as big as you" there were sniggers around the class.

"You think you're so funny? Don't you have any shame?!"

Pretty much everyone's worried eyes were on me now, and the smug was off my face this time. She must have caught me swaying left and right a little. "DIDN'T YOU HAVE BREAKFAST THIS MORNING?! WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT SMARTMOUTH?! GET YOUR BUTT OVER TO MR TREACH'S OFFICE NOW!"

I pushed my chair behind and started walking over towards the exit, picking up pace when Mrs Ack shouted "MOVE FASTER!" as some of the students flinched.

Taking a look through the window one more time, I caught sight of Astrid keeping her head down. She probably had the entire time. Her eyes were locked onto the history textbook sitting on top of the other books on her table. Looking up and seeing Mrs Ack about to shout again, my legs carried myself as fast as I could towards Alvin Treach's office.

oOo

Why the fucking Jotunheim did I do that?

When the principal saw me entering his office for over the nth time, he sighed, motioned me to sit on one of the chairs and keep quiet. Having made sure that I did as told, he went back to the paperwork in front of him, his big round glasses making him look goofy as he studied each page with a lot of concentration.

Sitting there, doing and saying nothing really gave me time to think. I don't understand why I did it. Covering for Hofferson, that is.

It just didn't feel right, her getting into trouble.

But she forgot to bring her own book, she should get punished.

She's Astrid Hofferson, she's the honours student, she can't make a blunder like that.

But she's annoying, and arrogant, and sticks her stinking nose into every single thing not relevant to her.

She's your friend, you've known her for years.

But were we ever friends?

I shook my head off the thoughts, and reality hit me. I just remembered History class was supposed to learn about the 'History of the Dragon Riders', and I had doodled on the drawing of the black lizard and its rider while scribbling 'Astrid is kinda cute… if she wasn't so bossy' at the first page of the chapter. Ah shit, what if she sees that?

I mentally slapped myself. I never cared how Astrid thought, nor how she looks. Why the fuck am I panicking now? Ugh if this is some idiotic hormonal teen reaction, I'm definitely NOT touching myself tonight.

The sound of the bell ringing snapped me back to reality, and I looked up to see Mr Treach looking at me. "Off ye go, boyo. Try not to get into trouble anymore."

I got off the blue chair, stretched myself after sitting uncomfortably on it for over forty minutes, and turned towards the door. Twisting the knob and opening the wooden door, I turned my head towards Mr Treach and gave him a lopsided smile.

"I try, Al."

Next time on Crushing On You: "Do the highlighted questions 3 times. Pass it to me tomorrow."

A/N: HEYYY GUYSSS. Sorry for the late update. Studying for Finals has really caught up with me, so I'm pretty sure I won't be near a computer anytime soon. Doesn't mean I'm dumping my stories though. Seeing those reviews and followers, ESPECIALLY THOSE REVIEWS, gives me the motivation to continue writing. I may be a little slow on the updates lately… so bear with me for now please.

Also, this is for clank2662 who asked about the line 'Next Time on Crushing on You: "I'm not interested in girls"' and got confused by it. It's a "quote" that would be spoken by one of the characters in the following chapter, and usually serve as a way to give an idea of what will happen there. Or maybe, just because I wish to keep the plot of the chapter a secret, they are just lines that will appear but does not really affect the overall plot whatsoever. Hope this clears things up. :)

I'll try to start replying to other reviews in the next chapter. Just leave a review and I'll type down the reply when I'm working on the story xD

Love you. XOXO

-LaidEffect