CHAPTER 9: I'VE HAD A BAD DAY

A/N: GAH! I need to just buckle down and write this thing! This isn't as long as the last chapter, but I wanted to update as soon as possible. And yes, this is a bit of a filler chapter, but things will pick up in the next one.

How to Train Your Dragon belongs to Cressida Cowell and DreamWorks

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Hiccup's POV

My dad and I pulled into the garage at 1:15. I jumped out of the car and went inside before he could say anything to me. Toothless had been waiting for me, but before he could tackle me I grabbed his collar and attempted to drag him towards the living room. It didn't work, I was so much weaker than him, so I kept my hand outstretched, forcing him to walk alongside me without jumping me. I realized I was chilly, and took my hoodie off the couch and put it on over my sweater. Just as I sat down and clicked on the television, my dad came inside.

He walked into the room, but I didn't look at him, so I couldn't see his expression. We had a Wii that we had our Netflix on, and I opened it up and found an episode of Orange is the New Black that I hadn't seen in a while. My dad was still standing behind me.

"I'm going to go call the doctor's office, then make us some lunch, okay?" he said. I turned my head to watch him walk into the kitchen.

"Why?" I asked.

"Um, I'm just going to tell them that you... how you got in a fight, so they won't be surprised by your black eye," he said carefully.

"And what else?" I said, not fooled by his cover.

"Well, I am going to tell them about your weight," he said more clearly.

I sighed and turned back to the TV, leaning up against Toothless and starting an episode. I tried not to focus on my father and to listen to the show, but I heard a few words such as 'bruised', 'fight', 'school', 'thin', 'ninety-one pounds', and 'worried'.

With the hand not rubbing Toothless, I slowly traced the valleys in between my ribs through my clothes. Am I really that skinny?

Suddenly, a panicky thought popped into my mind. What does Astrid think? She saw my chest and stomach, and now she probably sees me as some kind of freak. Her text about "caring" was just a bunch of bullshit.

She just doesn't understand that I've always been this way. Nobody does.

"I'm making us grilled cheese sandwiches!" called my dad from the kitchen.

"Okay," I said.

Ten minutes later, and there was the rich scent of food wafting over me from behind. It simultaneously smelled amazing and made me want to puke.

"Lunch is ready!"

I paused the episode, slid out from under Toothless, and reluctantly stood up. My dad was setting the small table that separated the kitchen and living room. I took a seat and stared at the food in front of me: grilled cheese sandwich on white bread, potato chips, and a glass of chocolate milk. When I was little, around eight or ten and younger, if I'd had a bad day, my mom would make me the exact same thing. I was shocked that my dad remembered it.

"Everything okay?"

My head flew up and I gaped at my dad, trying to figure out what to say. "Ye- yeah, I was just... Mom used to make this for me."

He nodded. "I thought, y'know, after you'd had a rough time..." He tried for a smile, which I returned weakly.

I reached for a chip and brought it up to my mouth. I took a small nibble, then an actual bite when I realized my dad was watching me. I stuffed the whole chip in my mouth. I took one half of the sandwich in both hands and tore a large part off with my teeth and chewed it around in my mouth. It tasted so good, and when I swallowed it made my stomach feel warm and comfortable. The sensation spread throughout my body, and part of my mind told me to just eat the damn thing. But another part of me said that I shouldn't. Come to think of it, it does taste kind of weird. When I set the sandwich down and gently dabbed at my lips with my napkin, my dad spoke.

"Hiccup..." he began carefully, "Son," he cleared his throat, "Do you... do you have a problem with eating? Is that why you're underweight?"

All of the breath was sucked out of my chest and I looked at him like he was crazy. "No! Of course not! Why— why would you think that?" I gasped defensively.

"I'm sorry, it's just, I was just noticing how you were—"

"Can we just eat and not talk?" I snapped.

"Sure, as long as you eat," he snapped back. My dad hated it when I got mouthy. But his outburst was actually followed by a small look of guilt.

We sat there in silence for the next twenty minutes until I only had three chips and a few chunks of crust left on my plate. I stood up from the table, dropped my napkin on top of my remaining food, and carried my plate and glass into the kitchen. As I placed the dishes in the dishwasher I heard the sound of a chair moving across hardwood floor, meaning my dad was getting up, too. When I started to grab my backpack and head toward my room, his hand on my shoulder stopped me.

I straightened up and looked at him. "What?" I said with a little snark, still a bit ticked off, although my remark was half-hearted.

"Hiccup," he said. The concern in his voice made my irritation soften. "I..." He pulled me into a tight hug. "I love you so much, I hope you know that."

I care about you.

I love you.

Ugh, what is it, National Feelings Day?

I hugged him back.

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Astrid's POV

I stared at the car floor and thought about the day. The twins and I left Berk High at 4:30 (Tuff had had a football meeting and Ruff and I tried out for volleyball) and we were going to their house. It had been hard to focus during the tryouts with the events of lunch hour on my mind. I'd always hated Heather's brother, but I didn't think I could hate him that much. He was kind of crazy, they called him "The Berserker" on the football team, and he was extremely overprotective of his younger sister, which made for a bad combination. Thank god he hadn't been at the Thorston's birthday party, or he would've murdered me and fed my body to wolves if he saw me slap Heather himself and hadn't heard about it when it was too late to do anything irrational.

Hiccup didn't deserve any of that. He had never deserved any of that. I mean, God, everyone had been total jerks to him his whole life. What had he ever done to anyone?

"ASTRID ARE YOU EVEN FUCKING LISTENING TO ME?!"

I jolted backwards when Ruffnut's voice screamed at me from the front and I hit my head on the seat. I looked up to see her turned around from the steering wheel, glaring at me.

"HOLY SHIT, SIS, WATCH THE ROAD!" Tuffnut leaned over from the passenger side and grabbed the wheel, directing the car and saving us from swerving off of the pavement while Ruff kept her foot on the gas. A car in the lane next to us honked and the driver flipped us off. I held onto the seat in front of me for dear life.

"OH MY GOD, RUFF!" I screeched.

"What? You weren't listening to me," she said calmly, still turned around.

"TAKE THE FUCKING WHEEL!"

Ruffnut sighed, then twisted back and elbowed Tuff (who had been steering) out of the way.

I sighed in relief. I've done a lot of crazy stuff with the twins, and had some fun, but the one thing I can't stand is their insane driving methods.

"Okay," *another sigh*, "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"Are you gonna listen this time?" Ruff chirped shortly.

"Calm down, Ruff, it's just... been kind of stressful day."

After the nurse had kicked me out of her office, I had considered just standing outside the door and waiting, but ultimately decided to just go to class before I was late. I had texted Hiccup over and over, but he hadn't replied to me. Then, the teacher had seen me texting and had taken my phone away, telling me that I could come get it at the end of the day. The moment the minute hand reached three o'clock and the bell rang, I rushed down to the science classroom and took back my cell. Hiccup still hadn't replied.

I was worried. When the nurse pulled up his shirt, I had been... shocked. I mean, I knew he was skinny, but I didn't know he was that skinny. Skinny actually didn't even begin to cover what was beneath his clothing. In ninth grade history, we spent an entire semester studying World War II and the Holocaust. Hiccup looked like one of the starved prisoners in the pictures and videos we viewed in class. I flashed back to the Wednesday of the previous week, when Heather had said that Hiccup looked like he was anorexic. Could he be...? No, of course not.

Ruffnut's lips pursed and she glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "I know, sorry. That's actually what I was talking about. I heard that Hiccup insulted Heather, then Dagur freaked out."

"Yeah."

Ruff whistled. "That guy may insane, but he is one hot-"

"Anyway," I said, keeping her from sinking into a (nother) glazed-eyed rant of the attractiveness of Dagur Collins.

"What? I have a healthy sexuality and I do not feel the need to hide it."

"Isn't that what you told Michael Aaronson?" Tuff's voice came out from the passenger's side, followed by an ow! when his twin's fist collided with his well-developed bicep.

"Speaking of romantic interests, what are you doing with Fishlegs Ingerman?" Ruff had watched him closely at the football tryouts and had been flirting with him ever since.

"Hmmm... not sure yet. I thought I'd let him dangle for a bit before I reel him in." Tuffnut plugged his ears with his fingers.

"So you do like him?"

"Well, he's different. I mean, yeah, he is on the football team now, but he's not a meathead. He actually understands what I'm saying when I talk about... well, y'know." I was really the only one who knew that Ruff's dream was to be a marine biologist. Whenever anyone asked why she was taking AP Biology, she brushed it off and changed the topic. Even though she seemed like a wild party-girl (which she was, anyway), once you got to know her, she was pretty smart and had her own unique brand of wit. Unfortunately, her intelligence didn't stretch as far as choosing a boyfriend. She had already had six, each one slimier than the previous.

I leaned forward, resting an arm on each of the front seats. Tuff still had his ears covered, going la la la la la. "Ruff, you are my best friend. If this guy is smart, funny, makes you happy, and won't break your heart, go for it. Just don't go breaking his." The tall blonde was silent and stared straight ahead. I tapped Tuffnut ont the shoulder to tell him we were done. He really was an idiot, but deep down loved his sister and was considerate enough to not mess with her personal business.

"Tuffnut, you're Snotass's best friend. What's his deal right now?" When I had stood between Dagur and Hiccup, I had noticed that he had been off to the side, and it had been bugging me.

"Don't call him that, Astrid." He actually sounded serious. "This stays between the three of us," he pointed warningly at me and his sister, "Snotlout came to our party with Heather because he really likes you, Astrid, and was trying to make you jealous."

I scoffed. "Seriously? He stares at my ass, points out my bra strap when it's showing, and calls me 'babe'."

"Well, yeah, but those are kind of like, I don't know, covers or something. And then you show up with his shrimp cousin, who you hang around with all the time now. How d'you think that makes him feel?"

Ruff came out of her silence bubble and stared at her brother incredulously. "What the hell have you been smoking?"

"I'm pretty sure Snotlout doesn't feel, Tuff," I snorted.

"Mmmkay," he said obnoxiously, and we were quiet as Ruffnut swerved onto the dirt road leading to their house. My mind stuck on the word shrimp.

Ruffnut pulled into the old two-car garage. There was a silver Jeep inside, meaning that Erika and Adam Thorston were home. They were the kind of parents that wanted you to call them by their first names and believed that their children should get all their wildness out of their system when they were young, as long as they used a condom and had a designated driver for drunken times.

Tuffnut went down to his "bedroom" (pull-out couch, Xbox, an old TV, and an indoor coop to keep his pet chicken) in the basement, while Ruff and I went up to her room, saying a quick greeting to Erika and giving their two Labradors, Barf and Belch, a quick rub as we went through the living room. The second floor of the Thorston's home had only a bathroom and two bedrooms. Their parents slept in one, but when Ruff and Tuff were eight the family renovated the attic and the twins moved up there. When they turned twelve, Tuff moved three floors down to the basement.

I had been to their house so many times that I was barely a guest when I went over there, I was more like a member of the family. I pulled down on the trapdoor string and the ladder unfolded. We climbed into the small, slanted-ceilinged, two-windowed room. I walked straight over to the creaky bunkbed, plopped face-down on Ruff's bright green comforter, and moaned into the pillow while she opened the shade on the skylight.

I turned my head and watched as she sat down on the old, fraying blue armchair.

She frowned at me. "What's wrong?"

I shrugged.

She squinted at me. "Is this about Hiccup?"

I rolled over and sat up, leaning back against the wall to face Ruffnut. I drew up my knees and hugged them to my chest.

"I texted him about a billion times and he hasn't responded," I said, admitting the worry that had been torturing me all day.

"Wait, is he okay? Like, did he have to go to the hospital or something?"

"I don't know! The nurse kicked me out of her office." I banged my head against the wall behind me.

Ruffnut criss-crossed her legs and frowned. "Was he really hurt?"

"Um, I don't think so..." I was trying to decide if I should tell her about his ribs. I changed the topic quickly, "So, anyway, how do you feel about Fishlegs?"

"We were talking about you and Hiccup."

"And now we're talking about you and Fishlegs."

My parents were very nosy about my private life, always asking me exactly how my day went and if I had a crush on someone and when my period last was and if I liked my breakfast cereal and BLAH BLAH BLAH. Over the course of my existing lifetime I became quite good at spinning conversations away from myself, and Ruff was pretty easy to spin. However, I really did want to tell someone about Hiccup, I just didn't know if I should.

Ruffnut sighed. "What do you wanna know?"

"I wanna know how you feel about him."

She slouched down in the chair. "I dunno, he's nice and understanding and stuff, I guess... but he's not really my type."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, because dating your type has done wonders for you," I said, remembering the phone call I answered a couple months before. Ruff, sobbing on the other end, telling me about her monstrously nightmare-ish break-up with (the previously mentioned) Michael Aaronson and begging me to come over to watch old black-and-white movies with her while she found relief in the form of Hershey's chocolate bars.

She scowled. "You're one to talk."

"Ugh," I leaned my head back and stared at the bottom of the top bunk, "I'm just saying that you should try someone who makes you emotionally happy instead of physically happy."

Ruffnut snorted. "Okay, Oprah."

We stopped talking for a minute until I blurted out what had suddenly sprung into my mind. "I'm glad Heather's not here."

Ruff looked back up at me. "I know, me too. I mean, she was our friend, but..."

"A total ass-kissing bitch," I chimed in, finishing her sentence.

She nodded. "Ugh, how did we not realize it sooner?"

I shook my head. "No idea."

Abruptly, Ruff stood up and walked over to the trapdoor, pulling up the ladder and locking it. She then took a blue-handled flathead screwdriver out of a dresser drawer and began to pry up the loose floorboard that I knew contained a few bottles of red underneath.

"Sure you wanna drink right now?" I asked, somewhat surreptitiously.

She shot me a glare as she uncorked the wine and pulled up two plastic cups. "Yes, and so do you."

I puffed out my cheeks and breathed a deep sigh. I only ever drank when I came over to Ruff's house and had had a particularly rotten day. "Fine, but only this much." I held apart my thumb and index finger about an inch.

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Valka's POV

I sat down at the desk in my apartment at nine in the morning (nine in the evening, New York time) after taking a shower, opened my laptop, then Skype, and began a call to home.

"Val!" greeted my husband. I smiled when he popped up on the screen.

"Hello, Stoick," I replied, then frowned. "Where's Hiccup?"

"He's over here," came a nasal voice from offscreen.

I cocked my head. "What's going on..." I said slowly.

"Well, Hiccup got in a fight at school..."

I gasped. "Is he okay? Hiccup, are you okay?"

Stoick held up a hand. "Yes, yes, we just thought we should give you a bit of a warning." He had a strange expression on his face.

He gestured somewhere to his right, and my son slowly slid into the frame. I gasped again. Hiccup's left eye and the area around it were bruised.

"Hey, mom," he smiled and waved at me uneasily.

"Oh, Hiccup, what happened to you?" Stoick put an arm around him, and I desperately wished I could do the same.

"It was just a fight, mom, it's nothing," he muttered.

I frowned. "Was this... football team announcements came out today, was it because of that?"

"Um, no..."

"Did you make the team?" I asked hopefully, then mentally scolded myself. "It's perfectly fine if you didn't, though."

He shook his head. I sighed. "That's o-kay," I said, emphasizing the O.

"I know."

Half an hour later, the call ended. All Hiccup would tell me is that a senior punched him, even though I tried to squeeze more information out of him multiple times. They described the beautiful autumn Berk was getting, and how much the leaves had changed in only the four days I had been gone. Stoick told me some funny work stories and they brought Toothless, Skullcrusher, and Cloudjumper in front of the computer.

Then, it was back to getting ready for work in my empty apartment.

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A/N: So, Hiccup's worried about the future, Astrid and Stoick are worried about Hiccup, Ruff doesn't know what's good for her, and Valka misses her family. I was going to have Hiccup's doctor's appointment be at the end of this chapter, but it was taking too long to write, so it'll be in the next one. Hope you enjoyed this! Please read and review :D

Published: August 12, 2015