Penpals - Chapter Seven

Author's Notes: This is seriously late. Over two weeks late, actually. I'm so sorry about that. I don't have any particular reason for it being late outside of sheer laziness and the lack of motivation to just get it done. :/ Again, sorry about that. I'll do my best to get the next one up by next Friday like I'm supposed to!

Chapter Seven - Snack Size

Pairing: Hijack

Word Count: 2120

Warnings: None...well, I did imply that Google wasn't perfect, so...

I do not own any rights to the characters from How to Train Your Dragon, Rise of the Guardians, or the Guardians of Childhood series.

Jack's POV

Jack rubbed his eye with his sleeve lazily as he walked into the media center. He glanced over at the librarian still on duty, but she didn't seem to notice he was there. That worked for him, though. He just needed to check his e-mail real quick before picking up his sister from school.

Jack slid his backpack off his shoulder and dropped into the floor, leaving it in front of the door before stepping into the computer lab. He walked up to the nearest computer along the wall and wiggled the mouse, not bothering to sit down. He leaned over the pushed-in chair and logged in to the school's server, and then his school e-mail soon after.

Sure enough, Hiccup's reply was waiting for him in his inbox. Jack looked up at the clock on the wall. There wasn't enough time for him to read and translate the message before school tomorrow. Without even giving it much thought, he hit the Print Screen button and sent the e-mail to the printer.

At least, this way, he'd have some homework to do tonight.

He logged off and stepped over to the large printer, grabbing the only piece of paper it had printed out. Jack quickly folded it up and shoved it in his hoodie pocket and walked back to the door, picking up his backpack and pushing open the door to get out of the media center quietly.

Jack dashed across the street, dodging the stray kids and adults walking in the opposite direction along the crosswalk. He skidded to a stop, looking around for his little sister. A tug on his sleeve made him turn around and he smiled down at the familiar brunette.

"Hey, kiddo!" he smiled, out of breath.

Emma pulled back her hand and placed her hands on her hips, sternly remarking,

"You're late."

Jack bit back a laugh at her ridiculous expression.

"Yeah, I know," he replied, rubbing at his neck. "Sorry. I just had to get some homework after school."

Emma's face softened.

"Oh, yeah?" she asked. "What kind of homework?"

Jack stepped around her, hastily taking out the now-crumpled paper from his pocket as they started walking back home.

"Uhh, it was just Hiccup's letter."

Emma smiled wide and reached out for the paper.

"Ooh! I wanna read it!" she exclaimed.

Jack held the paper up above his head with a smirk.

"Well, too bad," he teased, "I gotta translate it first!"

"Let me try and translate it! I bet I can do it!" Emma laughed as she jumped up and grabbed onto Jack's arm, pulling it down and snatching the letter from him. Jack simply rolled his eyes.

"Go right ahead," he remarked. "I hate translating those things."

Emma unfolded the paper, replying,

"It's probably not even that hard."

Jack scoffed,

"Well, let's see you just pick up another language that nobody even knows-"

"Hey, I can read this part!" Emma interrupted, scrunching up her nose and staring closely at the paper as she read aloud, "...fall...fall down a lot? That is a sport I am good at! See?"

"What?" Jack deadpanned, "Give me that!"

He furrowed his eyebrows, reaching over and taking the letter back from her. There was no way in Hell his sister knew how to read Icelandic.

"I saw the word girlfriend on there, too," Emma added, turning to her brother as he scanned the letter in disbelief. "What were you guys talking about?"

Jack's eyes widened. Halfway down the page, the gibberish language turned to perfect English. Well, not perfect, but better than Google could do, anyway.

"This..." Jack let out a laugh. "Pfft, it switches to English, like halfway through!" He turned the letter around to show his sister and pointed near the middle. "Like, right in the middle of the sentence! Look at that."

Emma giggled,

"That's funny," she smirked before asking, "Does he already know English, Jack?"

"I don't know..." Jack responded, holding the paper back up to his face. "I guess I'll have to ask him in my next letter, though, huh?"

This was unexpected, but it didn't take him long to realize what this meant. With the language barrier gone, he could start talking to Hiccup more freely, and that meant he could try making this cool, foreign guy his new friend sooner than he'd planned.

Jack grinned. He liked the sound of that...

"Hey, North?" Jack asked, picking up the stack of plates waiting to be placed on the table. "Can I borrow your laptop? I just need to write Hiccup back and I can't get into my e-mail from mine-"

"You can have computer after dinner, Jack," North replied, stirring a wooden spoon in the pot on the stove.

"Cutting it a little close this week, aren't you?" Tooth noted from beside North, pulling out the silverware drawer and taking out a handful of forks.

"Hey, there's a delay between continents," Jack smirked, balancing the plates and using his back to open the swinging door to the dining room. "It's not like it could be my fault."

He heard North chuckle as Tooth followed him into the other room to set the table.

"How are you doing with the project, anyway, Jack?" Tooth questioned curiously. "Is Finnish too hard for you?"

Jack grimaced.

"It's Icelandic," he corrected. "And, no, it is not!"

"Yeah," Emma chimed in, scooping her homework off the table and into her backpack, "'specially when it's not in a different language!"

Tooth raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

Emma snickered, continuing,

"Jack said that his pen pal wrote in-"

As she turned to look at Jack, he dropped the last plate onto the table and put his hand over his sister's mouth.

"Uhh, wh-what she means is..." He glanced down at Emma and then back at Tooth, both giving him confused looks. "Uhm, Hiccup-you know, my pen pal-wrote to me about...uhh...parkour! Yeah! But since that's, like, an English word, he used it in English instead of Icelandic, you know? So, yeah, we were talking about it and he knows all about it now. It's cool."

Jack cringed at his own lame excuse. Was that really the best he could do?

Tooth continued to eye him a moment, but she soon smiled warmly, beaming,

"Oh! Well, that's great to hear, Jack! It's nice to see you making a good friend."

Jack let out a nervous laugh and glanced back down at his unamused sister.

"Haha...yeah," he looked back at Tooth. "Just, uhh, excuse us for a second."

He then dropped his hand, only to pull Emma through the door into the foyer.

Emma pouted instantly.

"Meanie!" She grumbled, tossing her backpack against the wall and watching it slide to the floor. "What'd you do that for?"

Jack ran a hand through his hair anxiously.

"You can't tell Tooth about the whole thing with Hiccup writing in English," he told her, getting straight to the point.

Emma tilted her head to the side, asking,

"Why not? It's funny!"

Jack knelt down to look his sister in the eye.

"I get that," he replied quietly, "but it's supposed to be my homework to translate what he says to English, and they might...I don't know, change the rules or make me do extra work, or something, if they find out that Hiccup already writes in English."

Emma frowned,

"...but," she tried.

"Please, Emma?" Jack pleaded. "No telling Tooth, or North, especially not Bunny-no telling any grownups. Okay?"

He didn't know for sure what would happen if anyone found out, but he couldn't help but assume the worst, based on past experience. The last thing he wanted right now was to screw up this new potential friendship with someone who actually knew he existed, and if that meant pacifying his sister to do it, then so be it.

Emma looked displeased, but she just nodded rigidly.

"...okay," she huffed. "But I wanna play Mario Kart tonight."

Jack grinned. Mission accomplished. Now, appeasement he could handle!

"You got yourself a deal," he told her, standing back up.

"And I get to be Yoshi this time!" Emma added quickly.

Jack rubbed his chin thoughtfully, remarking,

"You drive a hard bargain...but I accept."

Emma giggled, skipping a little as she swung open the door back to the dining room.

Jack let his head fall back against the wall in his room. North's clunky laptop sat in front of him on his bed, his completed e-mail still on the screen.

This was-what?-his third letter to Hiccup he'd be sending, right? Should he really be pushing the friendship thing right now?

Jack shook his head. That was how it was supposed to work, so there was nothing wrong with just outright asking...right?

Jack shut his eyes, groaning pathetically to himself. Why was making friends so hard? This guy was almost 3,000 miles away and yet Jack still couldn't make a solid connection with him.

What was wrong with him? Maybe he was just defective...especially in the friend-making department. That would make sense.

But this was his chance, right? If he could hit it off with this Iceland kid, he could start opening up and maybe making friends closer to home, too. And then, in the end, everyone will want to be his friend and he'll have so many, he won't even be able to remember any of their names!

Jack felt himself smile.

"Yeah, that'll be the day…" he muttered to himself.

The door creaked and Jack tilted his head back down to see it open and his little sister peek out from behind.

"Hey, Jack?" She called cautiously, looking around before finally noticing him on his bed.

Jack sat up, responding quickly,

"Oh, hey, come on in. I was just finishing up, then we can plug the game in..."

He leaned forward and moved his finger on the touchpad to click Send. Oh, wait, he hadn't spell-checked that yet. Well...too late now.

"You're still doing your homework?" Emma asked, seeming surprised.

Jack chuckled and closed the laptop.

"Not anymore."

Emma giggled and walked into the room, and Jack swung his legs over the bed and stood up, stepping over to the small TV to set up their game.

He pulled out the Wii console and plugged the cord into the back of the tube TV and then leaned back to press the Power button on the television and the console simultaneously.

"There we go," Jack said as the TV lit up, displaying the Nintendo logo. He picked up the two Wii controllers from their chargers and handed one to his sister, plopping down next to her with a grin.

Emma grabbed the controller, and then glanced up at her brother curiously, asking,

"So, what did you write to Hiccup about this time?"

Jack flipped through the menu screens, pursing his lips in thought.

"Uhh..." He started, still looking at the TV, "well, I talked to him about running and parkour, that sort of thing."

Emma smiled.

"I think Hiccup is a good friend for you, Jack."

Jack turned, eyeing her a moment.

"You don't know anything about the guy, Emma," he stated bluntly.

How could she be so certain of something like that? He was never that blindly optimistic when he was her age... Then again, he didn't have any friends back then, either.

"Well, neither do you!" Emma retorted, pressing the buttons on her controller to pick her character.

"Yeah, but I actually get to talk to him," Jack smarted at her, but she seemed unfazed.

"And I think if he likes it when you talk about your boring racing stuff, I think he is gonna be your best friend forever!" She added, turning to smile up at him.

Jack blinked. She did have a good point there. Hiccup didn't seem like he was dreading talking to Jack. In fact, he almost seemed excited to talk to him. Maybe Emma was right; maybe Hiccup would make a good friend for him? Man, he certainly hoped so.

Jack smirked, elbowing Emma in the shoulder as he joked,

"So, you think racing is boring, huh? Well, I'm just gonna have to prove to you how not-boring it is!"

He clicked through to the next screen on his controller, instantly selecting the Rainbow Road track.

"Ahhh! You can't start on that course!" Emma whined, elbowing Jack back.

He just laughed and pressed Start.

I hope I never have to use the word "English" that many times in a chapter ever again…