Hello everyone~!
I know, I was a bit of a stinker last chapter with what I did to Jack but I took too much pleasure in having him fail once to really care. Sorry :P
I'm making up for it this chapter, though, I swear. I even have an extra thousand words or so in this one than I normally do. I hope you like it! :D
"What do you mean you messed up?!" Pippa exclaimed a little louder than she should have "How do you mess up saying something as simple as 'Hiccup, do you want to go out with me?'"
Jack shrugged at the girls sitting on his couch and sunk lower into his father's favorite armchair "I don't know… her dad was waiting for her outside."
"THAT stopped you?" Cupcake moaned.
"Have you seen her dad?" Jack questioned them, sitting back up again "He's a freaking mountain and he hates my guts!"
"He's met you once." Pippa reminded.
"Think about it; I bet every dad gets protective when his teenage daughter has male friends over." Cupcake mused.
Pippa gave her taller friend a sly grin and added "Kinda like how your mom thought we were dating when I showed up early to your birthday party last year." She playfully winked at the boy.
"Ugh, don't remind me." Jack groaned "She was going on and on about it for a week before I finally got it in her head that we're just friends." He turned himself upside down on the chair and propped his feet on the headrest, hoping the blood going to his head would help him think more clearly.
"He's probably just looking out for her, ya know?" Cupcake got back on-subject "Making sure no one'll hurt her." Jack nodded at the reasoning and threw the brunette a quick smile.
The red-headed girl piped in "Anyway, what are you gonna do now? You're still gonna ask her out, right?"
"Of course I am." Jack grumbled "I just don't know how; that's why I called you two."
Pippa looked at Jack quizzically "Why not ask your sisters?"
"Because whenever I bring Hiccup up to them, they just squeak about how 'cute' the whole thing is to them." He ran his hands down his face in frustration "At least you two try to help."
The girls exchanged a smirk and a giggle before turning their attention back to their friend.
"Okay." Pippa chirped.
"We'll do our best." Cupcake added.
"First of all," Pippa leaned forward in her seat "when are you gonna see her again?" Jack opened his mouth but she interrupted "Besides the library."
"Why not the library?" Jack questioned.
Cupcake butted in "Because you'll procrastinate it until she's about to leave again and choke when you take too long… again."
The other girl added "If you're gonna do this, you have to be somewhere with her alone and where you can't keep putting it off."
Jack groaned and sat upright again, his head red as an apple and no good ideas to show for it "Why do you think I'm putting it off? I tried once."
"Because we know you, Jack. You're a terrible procrastinator." Pippa reclined back against the couch, putting her heads behind her head and kicking one leg over the other. Cupcake nodded in agreement and giggled at the other girl's actions.
The white-haired boy huffed "Yeah, yeah…"
"When are you gonna see her again besides work?" The brunette questioned, trying to get back on-subject.
Jack started to nervously fiddle with his hands "She invites me every weekend to go bowling with her and her friends." He stuffed his hands in his pockets in an effort to stop the fidgeting.
"Do you go?" Cupcake continued.
"When I'm not working and don't have to watch Emma, yeah." He shrugged.
Pippa uncrossed her legs and sat upright again "Okay, we're getting somewhere now." She commented.
Cupcake leaned forward in her seat "When's the next time they're meeting up for it?"
"Tonight."
"Can you go tonight?"
Jack thought over his schedule for a moment before replying "Unless Ana magically gets plans tonight, yes." Emma wasn't quite old enough to be left home by herself, so the two older Overlands tended to pick fights over who had to cancel their weekend plans to watch her. It was basically a miracle if their mother was home before nine at night, long hours at the office keeping her from coming home any sooner.
"There you go." The red-headed teen declared.
"What?" Jack stammered "Her friends are gonna be there; how is that 'getting her alone?'"
"Simple." Cupcake claimed "You pull her aside and ask if you two can talk alone."
"Or you tell her friends what's going on and ask if they can, ya know, make themselves scarce for a few minutes." Pippa interjected.
"Then ask away." The pudgy brunette finished.
Jack nodded along with the advice "You two make it sound easy."
"Well, we kind of know how girls work." Cupcake smirked.
The smaller girl gave her friend the same expression back "Trust us, Jack. It is as easy as we make it sound. People just blow it out of proportion because of what they see in movies-"
"Or because people think Romeo and Juliet is the most romantic thing ever to exist…" The larger girl mumbled.
"Ugh, here we go…" Pippa complained.
"What?" Cupcake inquired "It's not."
Jack opted out of getting involved in the girls' bickering, so he just stayed silent as it went on, eventually tuning them out all together. The last thing he caught was Cupcake declaring that Romeo must have been a complete idiot to kill himself because the girl he met less than a week ago was dead.
His mind traveled elsewhere, back to his failure at the library the night before. He'd been beating himself up about it since he got home that night and it seemed that only getting advice from his friends successfully consoled his thoughts. He may have screwed up last night, but that in no way meant that he couldn't try again.
From the moment Hiccup left the library the previous night, something about Jack's conversation with her just kept bothering her. She didn't really know what it was but it seemed… strange for him. Why'd he have to pull her aside just to say that he did well on the test she helped him prepare for? It wasn't like people in a library would care if she was tutoring him or anything; people went to the library to learn, didn't they? It didn't seem like that big of a deal to her yet Jack made it sound like what he was going to tell her was something bigger than just 'I got an eighty on my test because of you.'
There had to be something more to it, something that Jack was trying to make subtle or that he just chickened out of saying all-together. Hiccup could hear in his voice that he was nervous too, even a bit anxious. He did well, she was proud of him for getting the grade that he did and she would have expressed that better if her dad hadn't been blaring the horn in the parking lot at the time.
She might even be seeing him later that night for bowling with everyone else. How was she supposed to fix this confused atmosphere around them if she didn't even know what was wrong in the first place?!
Hiccup huffed and sat up on her bed, only just remembering that Toothless had splayed himself across her legs to keep her from moving away while he was taking his nap. She cracked a smile and giggled as she scratched the Great Dane's ear "Bud, you gotta move." The dog let out a sigh, which she returned with her own "I know; your life is such a challenge, huh?" He opened one eye for a brief moment before closing it again and nuzzling his nose into the crease between her legs. She pushed him away "No. Toothless, get off." Still, he refused to listen.
Okay, I need to change tactics She reasoned, scanning the floor and surface of her bed for some kind of a solution. Her eyes landed on his fish-shaped squeaky toy beside her bed and scooped it up. "Hey, Toothless~!" She sang. His head immediately perked up as she squeezed the toy and it made the noise that every dog loves. Hiccup waved it around and his head followed it wherever it went "What's this, huh? This your fish?" She taunted. His powerful tail started thumping against the mattress and his ears stood upright, senses keen on what was about to occur.
"Go get it!" Hiccup threw it into the hallway and Toothless bounded after it, allowing the brunette to finally get her numbing legs back to herself. Squeaking resonated outside her bedroom and Toothless came running back to her with the fish in his mouth, squeaking it with his jaw as he went. "Tricked you, bud." She smirked. A slobber-covered plastic fish was dropped into her lap and Hiccup gave a disgusted look to the canine "Really?" Toothless sat down and his tail started wagging as fast as an airplane propeller "Alright, alright." She grabbed the fish with two fingers and flung it into the hall again. Toothless quickly followed it and tried to catch it as it moved on the ground, causing him to bang his head against Scott's bedroom door across the hall.
Hiccup couldn't help but laugh at the sight "You okay, bud?"
Toothless shook off the impact and sneezed before trotting back to his favorite human and resting his head on her lap. In response, Hiccup started stroking him and her mind wandered back to her previous train of thought.
Could Jack really have been trying to do what she thought he was doing? Sure, the two of them held each other's gazes for a little longer than normal and the older teen did freeze up every time the girl hugged him, though that could have been just a reflex or something… people did that, right? But that didn't mean that Jack felt something more for her, did it? People could just be really close or share intimate moments without being a couple. Hell, she did that all the time with her friends. There was one time some guy thought Hiccup and Astrid were lesbians because they shared an ice cream sundae at the mall once. They only knew that because he was enough of an idiot to walk up to them and say "So, is there room for one more?" Well, it was safe to say that after that comment, Astrid knocked whatever weird kink that was out of him… along with all the air in his lungs.
Gods, she didn't even know if Jack liked her that way, why was she getting her hopes up? For all she knew, he was just being friendly and… awkward… but Jack was kind of a dork anyway, even if he wouldn't admit it himself. Oh well, he was a cute dork, at least. And she was one too, so how could she complain?
Ugh, maybe she needed another mind to help her sort this out. She stood and went across the hall, knocking on her brother's bedroom door before entering the space.
"Hey, Scott?" She found the cluttered room in its usual state of disarray that Scott preferred to call organized chaos. But its owner was nowhere to be found inside. He must have gone to the garage, then… Hiccup reasoned.
She descended the stairs, Toothless on her heels, and swung the corner into the kitchen. She could hear the bass line of music vibrating on the floor as she approached the door to the house's attached garage. Yep. Scott was in there.
She opened the door and was hit with the sounds of wailing guitars and beating drums to match words that she didn't care enough about to understand. Hiccup slowly pressed farther into the space and found her brother and Derek both reclined in his truck, with their feet on the dashboard. She rolled her eyes before screaming "Scott!"
Scott cracked his eyes open upon hearing his name "What?!" He shouted, in an effort to be heard over the blaring rock music.
"You guys busy?!" Hiccup yelled back.
"Kinda!" He grunted as he sat up a little straighter, hitting Derek on the knee for him to do the same before he turned down the volume of his truck's radio "What do you want?"
"Well… I have something I could use a guy's perspective on." She claimed "But, since the only ones around are you and Derek, you two'll have to do."
"Ha ha." Scott climbed out of the truck from his side. "Very funny, Hiccup." He came around to meet his sister while Derek just stayed in the truck and turned to face them.
The older of the boys rested his arms on the open window "What's up?"
Hiccup kept her gaze on her brother as she asked "You know Jack by now, right?"
"Who?" Derek questioned.
"Ugh, one of her friends." Scott lazily filled in.
The older boy was silent for a minute before something seemed to click in his head "The kid with the white hair you told me about?"
"Yeah." The younger male sighed "What about him?" He asked as he crossed his arms and leaned on the hood of the truck.
"He was acting weird last night. It was almost nothing, but I can't stop thinking about it."
The older Haddock suddenly became more interested "Weird how?"
"I was talking to him until Dad came to get me." Hiccup explained "And he was locking up, since it was closing anyway. He kept me back for a few minutes because he wanted to tell me something." She looked away and started fiddling with at strand of her hair "But then Dad kept honking the horn and texting me before he could and then he told me about how well he did on the test I helped him study for. And he looked kind of like…" She stopped playing with her hair and settled for waving her hands around as she spoke instead "like that wasn't what he meant to say but… went with it, I guess? I don't know, it just was weird for him, ya know?"
The two boys looked at each other for a minute before Derek smirked "Dude, you owe me ten bucks."
Scott groaned and pulled out his wallet, taking out a ten and giving it to his best friend "Fine, you win. Happy?"
"Very." Derek confirmed "My lunch is on you now."
Hiccup looked from one to the other in confusion "What are you guys talking about?"
The scruffy brunet gritted his teeth before replying "He and I made a bet."
"He was complaining about you and Jack hanging around so much so I bet Snot Face here that he wouldn't be able to scare the guy off for shits and giggles." Scott slapped his friend's shoulder at hearing the nickname, to which Derek just chuckled.
Hiccup gave a confused look "Why would you-"
"Oh my god, are you that blind?!" Scott moaned.
His sister's eyes widened at his rising voice and she took a tentative step back "…What?"
"Oh my god." Scott hit his head on the side of the truck in frustration.
Hiccup looked to Derek who sighed and shook his head, black curls bouncing at the action "Jack's got a thing for you, Henrika; you can see it on his face."
The brunette's focus turned to Derek at the statement "He does?"
"Yes." Her brother angrily grumbled.
Hiccup was taken aback by her brother's behavior towards the whole idea and she only became more confused, her face scrunching up and her lips perusing into a flat line "What's your problem?"
Scott just grumbled and Derek decided to take over for him "He's just mad because his little sister gets more action than he does."
"I am not!" The dark brunet protested.
Derek's dark brown eyes rolled up to the ceiling and his face relaxed into a soft smile that appeared to be holding back a chuckle. "Sure, sure. Just like how you're not mad because Heather shot you down last week-"
"Can you shut up?!" Scott's voice cracked somewhere in that last outburst. He turned his attention back to his friend with anger clear on his beet red face.
Hiccup snickered at the mentioning of a girl's name "Oooh~" she teased "Who's Heather?"
"None of your business." Her brother retorted. He stomped towards her and pushed her towards the door, his big hands leading her by the curve in her back "You got your answer; just go."
"Come on," She playfully continued "Throw me a bone here. Do I know her? Does she go to school with us?"
Scott shoved her forward until she was beyond the threshold of the door "No and no." He growled "Now leave us alone." He slammed the door shut without another word. Hiccup could hear the door lock from the other side and the music turn up loud again not long afterwards.
Toothless was laying down on the kitchen floor, tail thumping against the tile when his master's gaze fell on him once more. Hiccup just stood there for a moment, listening to the muffled song playing in the background and her dog's occasional grunts and whimpers for attention. But it all faded into the back of her mind as one thought repeated in her head again and again. If what they were saying was right, Jack did have feelings for her. Feelings that… she could probably return. But she wasn't totally sure. This felt different than any other crush or relationship she'd ever had. She was uncertain and scared but, if she was honest with herself, she really did have some kind of feelings for Jack. She loved being around him and listening to his jokes and silly stories featuring his antics at school or home. And, plus, she'd be lying if she said that she never wondered how his lips would feel against hers or just how contagious the scent of pine on him really was.
There was no denying it anymore. No avoiding it. No deeming that the reason for these thoughts and feelings was her misreading signals. She liked Jack and she had to do something about it. Tonight, she'd talk to him. She'd make sure she was correct and, if she was, she would ask him out. If he was going to fumble like an idiot to tell her how he feels, she'd do the same and try to show that his message got across; no matter how choppy it was when she received it.
Yes… this was going to happen. Tonight, she would put all of these itching thoughts to rest.
When Hiccup hopped in Val's car to be taken to the Bog Bowler, the sun had long since gone down and the chill in the air had dropped into a frigid cold. It was one of the things that she hated the most about the winter. Nearly all of the time where it was light out was spent in school. In some cases, she was even in classrooms that had no windows to remind her that the sun had, in fact, not completely retired. Gods, she hated having classes in the school's basement. It just felt even more like a prison than school did normally for her. She loved learning and all, but she just wished that she could have fewer distractions and, well, less idiots wasting class time, for lack of a better word.
For the most part, the car ride was silent. Hiccup's mind was focused on what she'd be attempting to do later that night, hoping for the best. After all, the worst Jack could say to her was 'no.' But, according to Scott and Derek, that didn't seem likely to happen. They weren't the most reliable sources in the world but whatever. Maybe it was time she took a little risk and stuck her neck out.
It wasn't until they were almost at the bowling alley did the silence become interrupted "So, who's gonna be there tonight?" Her mother piped up "Usual crowd?"
Hiccup shrugged, not letting her eyes stray from the window on the passenger side "Yeah, Clueless has been back at school for a while now."
"Is Jack going to be there?" Val questioned.
The girl's attention turned to her mother in confusion "Yeah, why?"
She shrugged back "Just wondering, that's all. You two have been hanging out a lot lately." There was a pause before she added on "He's really cute too."
"Mooom!" Hiccup groaned as she leaned back in her seat, freckled cheeks starting to heat up.
Val giggled "What? He's not around to hear."
"Can you just not?" Hiccup let her head fall into her hands.
She felt a gentle nudge on her left shoulder as her mother continued to laugh "Okay, okay." It was quiet for a moment before the car came to a stop "Here we are."
The younger Haddock picked her head up and let her hands fall back into her lap. She saw that they were at their destination and smiled at her mother "Thanks, Mom."
Her mother nodded "I'll pick you up at ten, okay?" Hiccup nodded back before climbing out of the car "Tell Jack I said 'hi!'" Val laughed again as her daughter moaned, shut the car door, and walked inside the building.
"Thank the gods she doesn't hang around on bowling night…" She mumbled to herself as she entered and walked up to the shoe counter "Hi, Mulch." She greeted.
"Evenin', Hiccup." The man replied. He turned around to the shoe cubbies behind him and started looking for the girl's size "Anything new? Maybe a growth spurt since last week?"
Hiccup scoffed "Yeah, like I'm gonna get any taller. I've been the same size in everything since seventh grade."
Mulch grabbed a pair of shoes "You can always hope. I mean," He plopped the shoes on the counter for her to take "you could just be a late bloomer."
"I am in everything else." She grumbled as she took the shoes "Thanks, Mulch."
"No problem."
"Hiccup!" Astrid hollered from the table she and Cam were seated at. When she gained the brunette's attention, she waved and Cam quickly joined her sister in doing so.
The brunette made her way over to her friends, taking a seat across from both of them before starting to switch out her shoes "What's up?"
"Nothin' much." Cam folded her arms on the tabletop and rested her head on them "You?"
"Is Jack coming tonight?" Astrid added.
Hiccup tied her shoes as she spoke "Yes, he is. And… I kinda wanted to talk to you two about something."
The scraggly blonde perked up a bit at the statement "What about?"
"Um…" Her laces were tied, so she lost the thing that was keeping her hands busy until this point. So, they trailed to the hem of her green and black sweater "I was thinking… after maybe one round or two…" She bit her bottom lip and started to blush "I was going to take Jack aside and uh… ask him out?"
The Hoffersons' faces both lit up, Cam's head lifting from her arms and her untamed locks falling back into place.
"Really?" Astrid gaped.
"Yeah…" Hiccup whimpered "But, if it's busy tonight, could you like… make some excuse to leave for a few so I can?"
The twins looked from one to another, a faint smile showing on Astrid's face.
"I don't see why not." Cam claimed.
"Same." Her sister agreed. They both turned back to the brunette "No problem, just tell us when okay?"
Hiccup nodded "But I don't know when he's coming so, if Jack gets here before Felix, fill him in?" She pleaded.
"Of course." Astrid assured.
"Thanks." Hiccup smiled softly at her friends.
"Sure." Cam lazily waved her hand around "Jack's cool…" She pretended to inspect her chipped nails "for a boy, anyway."
The brunette snorted "I guess."
As usual, Jack was the last one to get to the Bog Bowler. Bertha had just brought out their dinner when he sat down. She was apparently trying to make her own corndog recipe and she was using the group of teens as her test subjects. Along with the slew of corndogs sticking out of something that looked like what held cotton candy at carnivals, there was the usual giant basket of French fries and surplus of condiments to go with them. And, Jack had to say, they corndogs were pretty damn good. Though, he had more fun putting the condiments on them than anything. Cam caught on when she noticed Jack drawing a smiley face on his in ketchup and followed suit. She drew on a smiley face too, but she added on a shirt and tie with some mustard. Then, the two started joking about eating brains when they took a bite out of their corndogs' "heads." Astrid just shook her head while Hiccup smirked at the two of them, being the next to make a corndog person with relish for hair.
Once the five teens were all full, they opted to start their first set of the night. This time there were no teams. Or, rather, it started out having no teams. Somewhere around the fifth round in that set, Cam snuck over to Jack and decided that the two of them were going to gang up against the other three to try to get a new high score. Of course, the older boy agreed for that sake of having a little fun. About two rounds later, Astrid, Hiccup, and Felix caught on and decided that they were going to be a team against the two of them and whoever had the highest combined scores would be the winners.
The two teams were twenty points apart in the last round, with Hiccup's team in the lead. That was when Jack and Cam's competitive sides really came out and they aspired to make as many strikes as possible so that they could win. Cam went up first and managed a spare with another seven pins tacked onto it. Then, all of the opposing team had their turns, landing a strike, a spare, and another twelve points between the three of them. It would have been more if Felix hadn't gotten the dreaded seven-ten split and only knocked down one of the pins on his second try. Jack was thankful for that. Otherwise, they might not even have had a chance at winning.
Then, it was Jack's turn. He had to get at least a strike and a spare in order to pull ahead of them and win this game. He took a breath and told himself that it wouldn't be that big of a deal to manage as he stepped up to the ball rack and took his dark blue bowling ball into his hands. He threw the ball down the lane and downed eight pins. Thankfully, the two he missed were right next to each other. So it was no problem for him to knock them down in his next turn and get a spare. He took another deep breath as the pins were set back up and his ball rolled back up the rack. Come on, Jack. You can do this. Give me… He rolled the ball down the lane a strike!
He stood still as a statue as the ball became a blue blur flying towards the pins. It was moving down the center of the aisle, which was exactly what Jack was hoping for. All it had to do was hit the pins just the right way and then…
The exhilarating sound of the ball colliding with the collapsing pins resonated in the alley and Jack jumped up shouting "Strike!"
Cam cheered and ran up to her teammate "I knew ya could do it, Overland!" She playfully punched the boy in the arm before she started whooping for joy again.
Jack couldn't help but smile at the sight, especially since the alley was almost dead xo not many people were bothered by Cam's screaming… or her bragging to her twin about being victorious. Felix counted up the numbers and Cam and Jack did, in fact, win. Though, it was a narrow win. Had he and Hiccup not had a few bad turns at the beginning of the game, he was convinced that they would have won for sure. Slowly, the noise started to die down but Jack's smile didn't leave his face. This is why he loved coming here to hang out with them. They were just so much fun, even if it was a smaller crowd than he was used to. They sure made up for it with their personalities and energy towards everything. It was just enjoyable to be there and… he really wanted to keep doing it every chance he could.
"Hey, Jack?" He turned around to the sound of Hiccup's voice "Can I, uh… can we talk for a minute?" He noticed that she was fiddling with her hands and nervously tapping her foot against the hardwood floor.
Jack's concern through, though, when his eyes met hers. Those meadows that Jack had come to adore were wide and glazed over just a bit, like she was scared of something and trying to face the source anyway. They weren't as bright as they normally were, probably another side effect to whatever she was feeling at that moment. It almost hurt to see them like that, filled with concern and worry. He lowered his voice from its previous high and it filled with exactly what he was feeling "Yeah, sure." He stepped towards her as she stood from her seat "Are you okay; something wrong?"
She seemed to be caught off by the question but shook it off "No, just… something's been on my mind all day and… I wanted to talk to you about it." Her freckles started to vanish under a dusting of blush flaring on her cheeks. Jack couldn't help but find the sight adorable, even though he only saw it for a moment before her back turned to him and she wandered towards the empty arcade room near the front door.
Jack followed her at a speed walk until he caught up with her. As the two entered the dimmed space, not a word was said by either. Then, Jack made a realization and turned to the shorter teen "I actually wanted to talk to you too."
Her eyes flicked up at him "You did?"
"Yeah." The older confirmed "I uh… I didn't get to say…" He stuffed his hands into his pockets and rocked on his feet "when I saw you yesterday."
The younger stopped in front of a racing game with a chair attached and sat in it "Oh?"
White hair bounced as he nodded "But, uh, you can go first."
"No, no, you go first." Hiccup insisted.
"Okay, um…" He walked to the chair designated for a second player and let himself fall into it "I've been thinking about this for awhile now and… talking it over with my friends and uh…" He shook out his hair before finally looking at her again "I was wondering if… if you'd- if we could…" He groaned and leaned back in the seat in frustration, chilled hands combing through his hair and his arms covering his eyes.
Hiccup leaned on one of the arms of her seat "What is it?"
Jack untangled his hands from his hair and laid them to rest on his knees, sighing "If you'd like to go out sometime… on a date?"
Hiccup's eyes widened and he saw the beginnings of a smile forming across her face.
*Sits back and waits for people to scream at me*