We got off on a good start and I've been updating quite speedily. I tend to have a burst of inspiration when I first start a story, and for this story that burst has lasted particularly long. I'm maintaining my 2-3 chapter buffer quite well at the moment and I want to keep it that way so you will likely see chapters coming out a little slower as my writing takes a little more time.

Enjoy!

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone climb a tree that fast," Astrid hyped moving her arms around dramatically. "You guys should've seen it, this guy is seriously athletic, I'm surprised I've never heard anyone talk about him around campus."

Ruffnut nodded. "He was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome."

"He was really tall," Astrid confirmed while nodding.

I tired to look indifferent. "How tall is he anyway?"

"I think he said he was six-five."

I felt deflated. I was pretty tall myself, it was the one thing that I had over a lot of the other guys around Astrid, but my six-one meant nothing compared to his six-five. The mystery basketball player had everything going for him, and overnight he had swooped in and impressed Astrid. Did she like him like that? I couldn't do a back flip or climb trees with ease or walk around on my hands or even just play basketball. I couldn't compare, I wasn't even close.

"Hiccup, we weren't the only ones who met somebody right?" Astrid asked smiling at me. "I saw you talking to that girl, she was cute."

"Uh, sure."

"No way," Snotlout smacked me on the back. "Nice job, did you get any action?"

I rubbed my back tenderly. "No, I did not get any action, it's not like that with her, we just talked a bit."

"Don't be such a nice guy," Tuffnut said jokingly. "You should've got her number at the very least."

"She did give me her number actually," I shot back, regretting it immediately.

"No shit?" Tuffnut asked staring at me grinning. "The nerd has moves!"

Snotlout gave me another hard smack on the back. "My man!"

"Are you going to ask her out?" Astrid asked smiling enthusiastically at me. "We could give you some pointers, or clothes."

I looked down at myself. "What's wrong with my clothes?" I shook my head before she could reply. "Wait, no, it doesn't matter, because I'm not asking her out alright? Can we please just talk about something else?"

"You don't have to be embarrassed, Hiccup," Astrid said.

"I'm not-" I let out a frustrated sigh. "Look, I've got a lot of homework to do, so if you guys could just, you know-" I said gesturing towards the door. They all looked at one another before slowly filing out of the room reluctantly, leaving me and Fishlegs alone. He looked at me from across the room. "I don't want to talk about it."

"You should just tell her."

I turned around and glared at him. "Are you kidding? She practically has a greek god for a boyfriend, she wouldn't give me the time of day, there's no way I'm going to tell her anything."

"They're not dating," Fishlegs pointed out. "But that might not last long unless you do something about it."

"Oh please," I flopped belly first onto my bed. "As if I could do anything about it."

Fishlegs shrugged. "Just learn how to do a back flip."

"You and I both know that is never going to happen in a million years," I growled into my pillow. "Am I just doomed to always get second place because I can't do a handstand? Is that really what's most important to girls?"

"No, Ruffnut said he was good-looking too," Fish said.

"Thanks."

"You know I didn't mean it that way," he walked over to my bed looked down at me. "I'm not going to act like I'm any better, but you can't sit around too scared to make a move, and then get angry when she finds someone else."

"Yeah," I muttered. "I wish I had a time machine so I could just go frackin' dancing like you wanted to in the first place."

I sat at the cable pull-down machine and re-tied my shoelaces. "We should leave Hiccup alone about the whole thing with that girl he was talking to, we obviously misread him."

Ruffnut put down her weights and shot me an exhausted look. "There is no way we misread anything, did you see how he reacted to us asking about her?" she wiped sweat away from her forehead. "Why would he get so emotional if he didn't like her? He's just embarrassed."

I shrugged. "I don't know, maybe because we're harassing him about it?" I replied sarcastically.

"Fine, we can leave it alone," Ruffnut grabbed her water bottle and took a swig from it. "But I still stand by that he has it bad for her, speaking of which;" she wiggled her eyebrows at me. "You going to call that guy back?"

"I don't know, he was cute and all, it's just-"

"It's just what? He's too perfect for you?"

I sighed. "You know, if you think he's so great, why don't you call him?"

"First of all, he gave you his number, not me. Secondly, I prefer bulky men, and most importantly, I'm not the one in a rut," Ruffnut said setting her bottle back onto the floor.

I frowned. "I am not in a rut."

"Uh-huh," Ruffnut cocked her head. "Tell me the truth, do you just enjoy being the unattainable girl, who gets flirted with all the time but always turns them down, or are you seriously that picky?"

"That is not what this is about, and I'm not picky," I defend shaking my head. "I'm just not into the dating thing, I'm still young, why do I have to seek out guys all the time? I just want it to be, I don't know, spontaneous."

"What, and the basketball guy wasn't spontaneous?" Ruff asked. "By the way did he ever tell us his name?"

"That's a completely different kind of spontaneous okay? It's not the same thing," I brushed my bangs away from my face. "I just want to get to know someone without the pressure of dating, you know?"

Ruffnut raised an eyebrow. "So let me get this straight...you want to not date them and then date them?"

I sighed and turned away from Ruffnut in frustration. "You're twisting my words around that's-"

"You should have gone off with him, I would have been fine on my own," she said interrupting me. "The last thing I wanted to be is the third wheel."

"You were not the third wheel."

Ruffnut scoffed. "Maybe not to you, but to him I was just a cock-block."

"It's not like I was going to have sex with him anyway," I said scowling. "We just met, I'm not a one-night-stand person, you should know that."

"I know, I know," Ruffnut said flopping a hand around at me. "That doesn't mean you can't call him back," I glanced off to the side and crunched up my mouth. "Oh come on ."

"I'll think about it, it's just-Hiccup?" From through the gym's large front window I could see Hiccup and the raven-haired girl standing across the street chatting with one another. "He's with that girl again."

Ruffnut stood and looked out the window. "Where?"

"There, across the street," I said pointing.

Ruff walked over to the window and looked out at them. "Ooh, she is pretty."

"I know, I've seen her before," I said walking over to join her at the window. "Maybe you're right, I mean it hasn't even been one day and they're already talking to each other again."

"Of course I'm right," Ruffnut proclaimed proudly. "I'm always right."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," I looked out at Hiccup and the girl. "I should go over there and meet her, if I'm friendly and chill about it maybe he won't feel so embarrassed."

"You think he's embarrassed about it?"

I shrugged. "That's my best guess, she's his first semi-girlfriend, they're both probably still in that awkward middle school phase."

Ruffnut snickered. "People our age seriously still go through that?"

"Don't make fun of him," I said jabbing Ruffnut in the side. "People making jokes like that are probably the reason he's so embarrassed about it to begin with."

"How do you know showing up unannounced won't embarrass him more?"

"I don't," I pulled my jacket out of my bag. "But he can't hide from his friends forever, it's better if everyone finds out now, there will be less gloating, and next time it won't seem so scary."

"What makes you so sure he won't stick with this one? Nerds nest man," Ruffnut said.

I stuffed my phone in my pocket. "Nobody sticks with their very first girlfriend, take my bag back when you leave."

"What?" Ruffnut yelled after me as I left the building. "How long are you going to be?"

The creaking sound was very unsettling, anytime someone even tapped on the TV the stand it would wobble around and make irritating sounds. Snotlout and Tuffnut were not as gentle with it as they should have been, but it didn't seem to bother them at all. I don't know if it was actually worse today or if my stress had heightened the wobbling and creaking. Either way it had been driving me to insanity for nearly an hour.

"I can't believe Astrid's going for a basketball guy," Snotlout grumped. "He wasn't even that good-looking." Squeak

Tuffnut rolled his eyes. "You never saw him." Squeak

"I have a pretty good imagination," Squeak Snotlout sighed. "You think they did it?" Squeak

"Oh totally." Squeak

I just wanted to play some games and keep my mind off of he who must not be mentioned, but the stupid TV stand had it out for me, and Snotlout and Tuffnut wouldn't stop talking about the one thing I didn't want to hear about. Sex hadn't even crossed my mind, and I wished that they hadn't planted the thought in me. I didn't want to think about Astrid doing it was someone else, but now the question seemed to echo in my mind. Did they do it?

"They told us what they did, Ruffnut was with her the whole time," Fishlegs interjected.

Tuffnut scoffed. "As if she'd tell us about it." Squeak

"Maybe they had a threesome," Squeak Snotlout laughed at the thought. Squeak

"Gross dude," Tuffnut said wincing. "You're talking about my sister, I did not need that image in my head." Squeak

"Do you think it was just a one time thing?" Squeak "Or do you think they're going to be a thing?" Squeak

Tuffnut shrugged. Squeak "They'll probably be a thing," he said nonchalantly. Squeak "She seemed pretty impressed by him." Squeak

"That's it," I cried out, springing up from the floor. "I'm getting a new TV stand," I stormed out of the room before anyone could say a word. Shopping, shopping, think about shopping. I hated that basketball guy, I hated him even though I had never met him, I hated him because he could do a backflip, I hated him because he was taller than me, I hated him because he seemed like a nice guy, and more than anything I hated him because he was turning me into a petty, bitter, loser. I wanted so badly to believe that Astrid didn't sleep with him that night, but I was full of uncertainty and it only made me hate him more. I stomped along the sidewalk heading towards the nearest bus stop when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hiccup, hey."

I turned around trying to hold back my anger. "Oh, Heather."

She smiled at me bashfully clutching a notebook to her chest. "You seem like you're in a bad mood? What's wrong? ...Parent's birthday?"

"Well I-" I furrowed my brows. "Yeah actually...my dad's is coming up on November thirteenth...that's freaky, how'd you know that?"

Heather shrugged. "Good guess? My mom's birthday always stresses me out, we don't really get along most of the time."

I sighed. "Yeah, I don't really celebrate my dad's birthday."

"That bad huh?"

I forced a laugh. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Why are you on such bad terms?" she asked. "Has it always been like this?"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "He's always been an awful listener, so yeah. I think his brain is programed to filter out anything I say that he doesn't want to hear."

"Did he push you into programming?"

"Uh, not exactly," I looked around. "What are you doing here? The literature campus is over on the east end isn't it?"

"I was just meeting a friend," she said.

I nodded. "Right, well I should get going, I have to get a new TV stand so…" I could hear the sound of light footsteps steadily approaching me from behind, and I turned around to see Astrid jogging towards me.

"Hey Hiccup," She said taking her final steps toward us. "This must be your friend from the party, I'm Astrid, nice to meet you."

"Heather."

Astrid seemed overly enthusiastic, but I tried not to look at her. "I saw you guys from the gym over there," she said pointing with her thumb. "I thought I'd run over and say hello. So, Heather, what major are you?"

"Literature, you?"

"I'm political science," Astrid said smiling at Heather. "Do you live on campus?"

Heather smiled back. "No, I live with my parents. Are you Hiccup's-?"

"No!" Astrid answered a little too quickly and a little too forcefully. "No, we're just friends," she finished with a laugh.

I began slowly shuffling away. "Well, I really ought to be going now."

"Well, it was nice meeting you Astrid," Heather said turning to leave. "Bye, Hiccup."

I continued walking but Astrid followed after me. "I was going to invite her to grab a bite," she sighed. "You should've talked to her more, she totally likes you, you know."

The scowl across my face deepened. "I'm not really interested."

"Why not? She's so nice and pretty."

"Is that what you think is most important to me?" I asked without looking back.

Astrid put a hand on my shoulder to stop me, and walked into front of me. "Of course not, you know that," she looked into my eyes and I turned away fighting back a blush. I felt stupid, despite everything, I was still blushing like an idiot for her. "I'll tell the guys to stop bugging you about her, they don't mean any harm, that's just how they encourage each other."

"I know," I sighed. "I'm sorry for being so moody."

A look of relief washed over Astrid and she pushed her hands into her pockets. "Don't worry about it, I know better than anyone how they can get under your skin," she moved out of my way. "Where are you going?"

We continued walking. "Ikea, I need to replace the TV stand."

"Oh, the wobbly one?" she laughed at the thought. "Did it break?"

I shook my head. "I want to replace it before that happens, the squeaking was starting to drive me mental."

"Can I tag along?" Astrid asked. "I can help you pick the colour," It was incredible how profoundly Astrid could affect me in both such a negative way and a positive way. All the insecurities and anxieties I had felt moments ago, washed away as we wandered through the showrooms talking and laughing. "Hey, I want to show you something," she said grabbing arm, as I clutched onto the box that contained my new TV stand. Astrid lead me up onto the second floor parking lot, it was deserted with only a few cars and stray carts scattered about.

"Wow. This is exciting."

She smacked me, and grabbed onto one of the flat carts for furniture. "Get on."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "...Why?" I asked cautiously.

"You can't really tell by looking, but the ground here is wavy."

"...I don't like where this is going."

Astrid pushed the cart over to me and sat me in it by pushing down on my shoulders. "It's really fun, trust me," She took the box from my hands and sat it by the door. "You might want to hold on."

I gripped onto the cart. "Maybe you should-" Without warning, Astrid began running at full speed, which was pretty damn fast, pushing the cart across the parking lot. She was right, there were waves, I could feel them as we went up and down on the asphalt. Suddenly Astrid jumped onto the cart and let out a triumphant cry as we sped forward. When we slowed she jumped off the back and stopped the cart. "Astrid, do me a favour."

"What?" she asked breathlessly.

"Give me a turn to push."