Flashing lights, blurred shapes, limbs thrashing. His limbs? He wasn't sure, he couldn't feel them. Couldn't feel anything but the cold.
Jack woke up covered in a cold sweat. The same dream, as always. No surprise there, though he was surprised he had gotten to sleep at all. With a sigh he rolled out of bed, glancing at the alarm clock as he gathered his clothes for the day. Three in the morning. Hurray for two hours of sleep.
His shower was almost as long as the one the day before. He went down stairs as quietly as he could, making sure not to wake up anyone she went. He walked into the kitchen and jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder. He almost screamed his shock, but cut himself off at the last second, turning the sound off into something that was definitely manlier than a squeal (or so he would claim whenever asked).
He spun around quickly to be met with mischievous green eyes and a familiar grin. "A bit jumpy today?" Hiccup asked his friend. Jack let out his pent up breath and slumped a bit with his relief. "Dude. You want me to die don't you? Welp, here you go, I had a heart attack. Now I'm a ghost, you are talking to a ghost. Happy?" The younger teen laughed quietly. "I came to see if you wanted help with breakfast. It's a bit early though… Why did you get up at hell o'clock in the morning?"
Jack shrugged. "Couldn't sleep. So I figured I would get up early and make pancakes." Hiccup looked like he was warring with himself over wanting to call out his friend out, but also like he didn't want to damage his chance to get at some pancakes. In the end he settled for asking, "Want some help?" Jack grinned, "Sure. Pancakes are kind of annoying to make so help would be…" He trailed off, trying to think of the right adjective. Hiccup didn't wait for him and supplied the word as he drug the pale boy towards the pantry. "Helpful. Help would be helpful. And ya know, I'm willing to help out more around here. Soon you will need to start thinking about getting a job or trying for scholarships, when that happens I'm next up in the responsibility line. Might as well start asap."
Jack gave the auburn haired fourteen year old a confounded look, even as his hands started to mix up the ingredients. "You have really weird timing." He stated. The other boy looked curious, "What does that mean?" Jack shook his head trying to find the best way to voice the concerns he had battled through the night, "I was told yesterday that I could join… An after school program thing.. That would help me with school stuff." Hiccup looked excited, knowing that the well off school Jack was in had a really large scholarship program. "Dude, you have to do it! If you can get into college that would be so cool!" Jack shrugged. "I don't know, it's a difficult program thing… and I'm not sure I could get the Director to approve it."
Hiccup shrugged. "What? A couple of extra classes too much for the brilliant Mr. Overland? And just have your social worker approve it first, she can bully Mr. Zaragoza into almost anything, she's scary." Jack chuckled, "That's true. But I'm not sure I should, I'll probably be out late most days, and the club's activities seem to be a bit… diverse… So I'm not sure if I will even do well…"
Hiccup snorted. "We will never know if you will be good at anything other than cooking unless you finally start trying to branch out a bit. Besides I like to cook, it's like chemistry." Jack laughed and spooned a bit of batter onto the heated pan. "And here we have the opinion of our resident scientist." Hiccup grinned and made another batch of pancake goo, they would need a lot of the savory/sweet treats.
Breakfast had gone well, the Director had seemed weirdly contented, something none of them had let themselves think about. But cleaning up had taken longer than Jack had estimated, even with some of the younger kids` help. So he was having to run so he could make it on time.
He was glad his bruises were healing rather quickly, or else he would probably be a lot more winded. As it was the run actually felt nice, his muscles were warming up and stretching out. And it was fantastic after almost a week on inactivity, between getting kicked out of his old school and starting at his new one, and all of the other things that had happened he had had no time to himself to go enjoy the outdoors. Enjoy as in practice his favorite hobbies, parkour and freezing random stuff out in the heavily wooded park.
He was a bit out of breath as he started getting into the nice side of town. He glanced down at his watch and groaned inwardly, he was still fifteen minutes away and class started in eight. He wasn't going to make it. He almost jumped out of his skin as a loud car horn sounded close behind him. He spun around sighed as he caught sight of a familiar Jeep. "What is with everyone and trying to scare the ever living daylights out of me today?" He rumbled as the vehicle pulled up beside him. Tooth, sitting in the passenger seat, rolled down her window and waved. "Morning Jack! Looks like we are all running a bit late, why don't you jump in the back? With North driving we might actually make it in time!"
Jack looked at her, then his watch, then the Jeep. "Fine. But just this once." North laughed and exclaimed something about everyone and sleighs as Jack jumped into the Jeep, surprised to find himself sliding into the seat next to Aster, who looked terrified. "Crikey!" The australian exclaimed as his russian friend caused the red car to peel out. He gripped the edge of the seat hard enough that Jack figured there would be permanent dents in the upholstery foam forever more. Jack grinned as he realised the other boys fear. He quickly rolled down his window and half stood to hang his body out of it a bit, keeping an eye on the road ahead of them so he wouldn't be taken by surprise if a random street sign appeared.
"Hey Aster look at this!" He exclaimed, pointing excitedly with his left hand to draw the dark haired boy's attention away from his right, which reached up and grabbed the tie rack up on top of the Jeep. "This is so-" He cut off and he jumped through the window, trying is best to make it look like he lost his balance. He let himself swing back, and used to momentum to help himself lightly onto the roof. He smothered his chuckles as he heard Aster exclaim in panic and stick his head tentatively out the window. Jack grinned devilishly. "Awww." He crooned loudly, as Aster whipped his head around to see the illusive prankster. "You do care." He could see the amazement on the Aussie's tanned features turn to irritation and he prided himself on a prank well pulled. "Aw rack off you show pony."
As Aster pulled his face back into the vehicle Jack swiveled himself into position to swing and slide back through the window. With the ease of years worth of practice in the woods and alleyways of Burgess he pulled off the move flawlessly. His grin widned as his prankee hurried to turn away once he was safely seated. In just another minute they were slowing and pulling into the parking lot, North finding a parking spot four aisles away with an eagle eye and making a beeline.
As he parked they all jumped out, dragging their bags with them as they all hurried to class. Jack and Aster made it to their homeroom just as the bell rang. Their teacher raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. The boys made their way to their seats and pretty much collapsed into the plastic chairs in exhaustion. The day had started so well.
OOOOOOkay. So please don't try any parkour stunts mentioned in my stories at home. Jack is a quasi professional. Or something. I am not responsible if someone gets their head busted ok? ok. Please tell me what you think guys!