Hiccup continued to make his way down the hallways without looking up past every's waist. He didn't want to meet anyone's eyes, or see them staring. It made dealing with the new burden that had been placed on him easier. In classes, he could feel the people around him staring at him as he made his way inside the rooms on his crutches. As the week progressed through, people were approaching him or leaning over in their seats closest to him asking, "What did you do?"
"I fell," he said. It was all he would say. People he didn't know or talk to would just come out and ask. There were no conversations leading up to them asking. They would just tap him on the shoulder, or somehow make eye contact and ask him.
He was able to control his anger easier with his peers than he was his father. He didn't want to cause a scene at school, and even if he did, he knew if they became mad and got defensive, trying to start an actual fight, he couldn't take them. He knew he couldn't take them beforehand, let alone on a set of crutches.
On Thursday, he watched the clock dreading his early dismissal from Mr. Brice's room. Everyone always watched the person moving freely around the room, while everyone else was practically chained to their own desks listening to the teacher. Once five minutes until two came, he silently began packing up his English book and his notebook. After situating himself with his back pack, he leaned down and grabbed his crutches, and started to head out of the room.
"See you tomorrow, Hiccup," Mr. Brice said to him after Hiccup gave him a courteous nod, and he began to head out the door.
Approaching the doorway, he felt something smack against his shoulder, colliding with his head. It didn't hurt, but it took him by surprise, and he had to regain his balance for a moment. Before he realized what happened, he heard Mr. Brice yell, "Mr. Jorgeson!"
"What?" Snotlout said suddenly. "I didn't do anything?"
Hiccup glanced over at Snotlout, who turned to make contact with him now. Hiccup was given a look, and Snotlout raised his chin at Hiccup, threateningly. Glancing down at his feet as he opened the door to leave the room, Hiccup realized Snotlout had thrown his notebook across the room at Hiccup. Biting the inside of his lip, he headed out of the door and down the hallway.
What Mr. Brice did to Snotlout for tossing the notebook at him across the room, Hiccup didn't know, or care. Anger was building up inside his chest, overpowering him. He shook his head trying to will it away, but it wasn't going away. The farther down the empty hallway Hiccup went, the more emotional he felt. Instead of turning the corner and heading to the front office, Hiccup found himself leaning against a row of lockers, trying to regain his composure.
"Why do I let him get to me?" Hiccup asked himself very quietly. He wasn't sure, really.
That afternoon, after his physical therapy appointment, Hiccup sat talking to his counselor, did he realize why Snotlout was the one that got to him so badly.
"He's the first one of your peers that pointed it directly out to you," Kim said to him. "And, didn't you say you and Snotlout had a history?"
That was true. Hiccup had known Snotlout for years. They'd been in the same school their whole lives, really. Snotlout was almost always a brute, especially the older he became, the larger he became. He had power over the people. He practically ran the group of bullies, both physical and verbal. More than once, he'd tried to shove Hiccup in a locker, that was until he hit a growth spurt their freshman year, and Hiccup could no longer comfortably fit.
"Your head's too big," Snotlout said to him this time last year when he had tried. Since then, Hiccup hadn't been one of his main targets for getting picked on, but he still made Hiccup's stomach cave a little each time Hiccup saw him.
"Hiccup, you've been on medication for over a month now," Kim said to him. "Do you think it's helping you at all?"
Hiccup weighed his thoughts a little bit. "I think so, more so than I thought it would. Especially the newer medication."
"I can talk to your doctor and see if he feels the dose needs to be increased-"
"No," Hiccup said suddenly. "Please."
"You don't like medication, Hic-"
"Kim, up until this point in my life, I've been relatively healthy. I don't routinely take medication."
Kim gave him a kind smile. He liked talking to her. But, she had this way of calming him down when internally he was screaming. She also didn't always speak right a way. She would mull over what she was thinking, and she was soft spoken, and calm.
"This doesn't have to be forever, Hiccup," she said. "At some point, we might want to try lowering your dose, and slowly begin getting you off of the medication completely. We can see how it works out. But, for right now, let's just take one day at a time with it. I think it has helped you a lot, and you agreed."
Nodding at her, Hiccup accepted this.
"My nightmares don't come hardly at all anymore. When they do, I've been able to manage better."
"Are you able to go back to sleep easier?" Kim asked him.
"Yeah, after a little while. Not long. Fifteen, twenty minutes. Sometimes almost as soon as my heart starts to slow down."
"That's good," Kim said gently to him.
...
Friday Hiccup missed his bus again. He had stopped at his locker to stop off a few of his books so that come Monday he didn't have to drag them back home. He only had some math homework to finish, and some reading for English. School hadn't been out for more than five minutes, and the bus was gone. He wasn't the only one, either. A freshman boy he recognized was sitting outside on the bench, looking at his phone and texting, most likely for a ride.
Hiccup sighed, and turned back towards the school. Digging into the pocket of his khaki shorts, he pulled out his phone and dialed his father. It didn't even ring, it went right to his voicemail.
Assuming his father had neglected to charge his phone the night before, he decided to call the office. After two rings, Katherine was the one on the other line.
"May I help you?"
Hiccup rolled his eyes before he spoke.
"Hello?"
"Eh-Katherine-"
"Yes?"
"It's-it's Hiccup. Is my dad around?"
"Ohhhhh," her voice was almost surprised. "Um-He's in Nelsonville meeting with a client-"
"Nelsonville?" Hiccup heard himself say. He didn't intend to say it so panicky.
"Hiccup, are you all right?" Katherine asked him.
"Uh-yeah. Can you do me a favor and have him call me when you see him? His phone is dead."
"I can, but-Hiccup, do you need a ride home?"
Katherine must have known he'd been cutting it close with his bus driver each time. He heard himself gasp a little bit.
"No," he said gently. "I-I'll call Fish-"
"Hiccup, let me come pick you up and take you home," Katherine said. "Give me ten minutes?"
"It's all right," he replied back.
"No-no," Katherine said to him. "Give me ten minutes, and I can be at the school. Right behind the building, correct?"
"Uh-yeah-"
"I'll be in a burnt orange Subaru, okay?"
"Oh-okay," Hiccup said gently. "Thanks."
"See you in a few."
Katherine hung up.
Shoving his phone into his pocket, he felt a little numb-or shocked. Hell, he didn't know what he was feeling at that moment. He had only met Katherine shortly after he'd had surgery on his leg when his father had taken him to the art store. The same day he had found out his father was seeing her. His stomach caved in when he thought of the kiss the two had shared. He hadn't seen her since then, and that was over two months ago.
He knew his father was seeing her still. Occasionally he could see the outline of lip stick on his father's neck. It must have been the only spot Katherine could reach on him to kiss if his father wasn't bent down to her level. Thinking about it made his stomach queasy.
Hiccup remained up at the entrance of the school while he waited for Katherine. He watched the freshman boy leave shortly after he hung up with her. The boy had snagged a ride with an upperclassman girl. He recognized her, and thought maybe the girl was the boy's older sister. After a few minutes, he remembered that the girl, Nina Hall, had graduated the previous year. She had been engaged in a lot of the photography at the school, Hiccup remembered moments later.
In a few minutes time, Hiccup watched the parking lot become almost deserted. One last bus came to pick up a few students. And then left. Hiccup glanced up from checking the time on his cell phone and saw that Katherine had just pulled up into the parking lot in her Subaru.
She wasn't joking, either. It was literally burnt orange. It stuck out like a sore thumb, not only because of the color, but it appeared as though bike racks were on top of the car. The Subaru was probably about three or four years old. For a moment he wondered if there would be room in the back for his crutches, thinking it might be a two door, but as the car approached he realized it was indeed a four door.
The car pulled up to the front of the building, and Hiccup slowly made his way towards it. He noticed Katherine put the vehicle in park, which he then anticipated she would emerge from the car insisting she help him with his things. But, she did not. She simply rolled the window down and gave him a kind smile.
"You can just put your things anywhere in the back," she said kindly.
Hiccup reached for the door knob and went to pull the door open, but his hand slipped. The car was locked.
"Oops," she said, and he heard the door unlock. He gently placed one crutch at a time into the back seats, then sat his bag into the back seat. Shutting the door, he hobbled towards the front. He didn't like leaning on her car, like he did his father's. In fact, it looked as though she had just freshly washed and waxed it that morning.
He grabbed the bar on the ceiling and gently let himself inside. He could tell my the smell in the car she had just had it detailed recently.
"Thank you," he said to her gently once he'd gotten the door shut.
"No problem," she said to him. She put the car in gear, and they were on their way.
Hiccup glanced down at the shifter, and was taken by surprise.
"You drive a six speed?" he asked.
"I do," she said politely. "I always have. I'm hearing manufacturers are doing away with them, though. No one really knows how to drive them-"
"Including my dad," Hiccup said gently.
Katherine seemed to have a small chuckle about this as she shifted into the next gear. "He can-he's just not very good at it."
Hiccup watched her for a moment in silence. He'd never actually seen someone shifting gears in a car before. At one point, he was able to tell when she needed to downshift the car just by how the engine was acting.
"Sorry," she said suddenly. "I did miss that one."
Hiccup watched her for another moment before he glanced back up, watching out the window.
"Your dad is supposed to be back to the office before we close for the day," Katherine said suddenly. "Did you want to go home, or go there-"
"Home, if you wouldn't mind," Hiccup said. "That's where I should be at."
Truth was, Hiccup really just wanted to go home because he didn't want to have to see everyone at the office. Especially without his father present. He hadn't been dragged to the office since he was in junior high. He was sure everyone inside would have been coming up to him asking him how he was doing, he was getting along, how school was-
"How was your day at school?" Katherine asked him.
Of course. Well, to be fair, she was the only one in the car. And, she was probably just making small talk.
"It was all right," Hiccup said to her.
"The weekend's here again," Katherine said. "Personally, it's nice to get away from the office. So I'm not chained to my desk."
"What do you do on the weekends?" Hiccup asked her.
"Well, my daughter and I go biking. She went to college last week, and-I don't know when she will be home again to do that."
Katherine actually sounded a little disappointed for a moment. He knew that Katherine had a daughter, but didn't realize that her daughter was older than he was.
"You planing on going to college, Hiccup?" Katherine asked him.
"Uh-" Hiccup was taken aback for a moment. "Yeah-just not completely sure what for yet."
"Heather isn't sure either, but she decided to take a few different classes that she was interested in to see if she could make a decision. She was weighing between physical therapist, possibly, or maybe even teaching." Katherine gave a weak laugh. "Although, if she had it her way, she'd teach karate."
Hiccup nodded in reply, indicating to Katherine that he was listening, but he didn't necessarily know what to say. Right now they were just making small talk.
Katherine was turning into Hiccup's neighborhood a moment later. She pulled up in front of the house, and turned to him after she placed the car in park, pulling up the e-brake.
"Thank you again," Hiccup said gently to her.
"More than welcome," was her reply. "Do you need any help getting inside?"
Shaking his head in reply, he said, "Thank you, though."
"Anytime," Katherine replied. "I'll let your father know to give you a call later, okay?"
Hiccup nodded, then started to get out of the car. He gathered his things in the back seat, slowly, but he did. Then, he closed the back door, and made his way into his home.
Settling into the house. Hiccup changed and pulled on a pair of basketball shorts and a different shirt to wear. As he was slipping on his tennis shoe again, he noticed how rough his left hand seemed. Looking down at it, he touched the heel of his hand gently. He hadn't really noticed it until then, but the heel of his hand had a blister forming just under the surface of the skin. He knew it was from his crutches.
He'd been feeling a little sore in his shoulders, mainly due to his back pack and having to swing himself on his crutches during the school day. He wasn't used to being this active on his crutches, and physical therapy wasn't touching on this kind of task. He was there to keep the muscle in his leg healthy. His doctor didn't want his thigh to shrivel up to nothing since Hiccup wasn't using it.
"You need to keep the muscle strong for your prosthetic," he had said to him multiple times already. When he would be getting his prosthetic, was the question.
Hiccup settled himself on the couch a little while later, after he fed Toothless his dinner. He turned on the television after feeling no desire to read, write, or sketch. Typically, he'd do his homework, but after feeling the onset of a headache, he laid down, and fell asleep on the couch listening to the news.
...
He woke up when he heard his cell phone ding. Groggily, he reached for it off of the nightstand, and gave it a quick look.
It was six-thirty, and his father had text him.
6:29 PM - KATHERINE AND I ARE GOING TO HIBACHI. WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME?
Hiccup sighed. As much as he did like Hibachi, or anything involving white rice, steamed rice, brown rice, or everything soaked in soy sauce, he decided to pass immediately. He didn't want to be a third wheel on his father's potential date with his girlfriend. And, he didn't want to be out with people after dealing with ignorance all day at the school.
Giving a strategic pause, Hiccup got up off the couch, reached for his crutch, and carefully made his way towards the kitchen, avoiding the blister forming on his hand. He opened the fridge, and reached for the OJ. It was sweet, and it was something he could take with some pain reliever for his growing headache.
Swallowing the OJ straight out of the half gallon, he gulped down four large swallows, then replied to his father.
6:35 PM - NO THANKS. HAVE FUN.
A hot shower sounded nice. Heading towards the bathroom, he grabbed a towel out of the linen closet, and pulled his clean shirt over his head. His phone dinged again.
6:41 PM - WOULD YOU LIKE ANYTHING TAKE OUT?
Hiccup replied back.
6:41 PM - I'LL MANAGE.
Starting the shower, Hiccup felt the temperature of the water, noting it was still a little chilly for him, but it would do until he was able to get into the shower and adjust the temperature. As soon as he was in his birthday suit, and about to hobble into the shower, his phone dinged again.
Okay, now his temper was short. Typically his father would have left him alone by this point. Hiccup reached over to the sink and grabbed his phone, and read the message.
6:43 PM YOU HAVE TO EAT.
Frustrated, and angry out of no where, Hiccup threw his phone across the room and into the wall, where it bounced and fell down to the ground, multiple pieces flying in all sorts of directions. As soon as the pieces scattered and settled, Hiccup collapsed onto the floor, and allowed the tears to flow freely down his face. He wasn't sure what had set him off. Throwing things was more in his father's character, not his. What he did know was that he felt lonely and afraid. And, honestly, not hungry at all.
...
Another chapter...DONE!
