Hey again guys! (P.S. I have a shoutout to give! Thanks to theabyssgazesback98 for the first comment! Yes, this does mean l'll do shoutouts.) Here's another chapter for you all to enjoy. Now, where were we again? Oh yeah…
The change that Harold had noticed was a rather peculiar one. It seemed that his father and friends had almost started to ignore Harold. He later deduced that this was because it seemed easier to erase him from their minds than to help him through his tough times. He also suspected that his father blamed him for the death of his mother, which would explain the icy, cold attitude he always had when Harold was in the room. Stoic, Harold's father, would always ignore his son or give him the hairy eyeball. The change in his 'friends' was quite the opposite, in fact. Scott would now shove him around and pin up against a wall while the two troublesome twins, Rachel 'Ruffnut' and Tom 'Tuffnut' Thorsten would rob him of anything he had on his person. Astrid wouldn't exactly join in, but she would always find something else to do. This came as a particularly harsh blow to him, as he and Astrid where really close friends. He eventually became extremely self-isolated and Scott, for the majority, had stopped his attacks on Harold. Life continued on, people moved on, the world kept its orbit around the sun. Harold still thought about this sometimes and it still bought tears to his eyes. But, unbeknownst to everyone around Harold, he had stored this information deep down in his gut. The combined feeling of reject and bullying had created a deadly concoction of pressure, like a bomb with a timer. And this timer was about to run out…
Astrid dumped her school bag on the table and proceeded to nab a muffin from the bench, shuffling over to where her mom, Lilly, was sitting on the sofa, reading.
"How was school, Dear?" said Lilly
Astrid swallowed before replying with "It was okay, I guess."
"And how are your classes? Anything in particular?"
"Well, they were all ok, except for Lab, where I saw Hiccup sleeping at the back of the room, again."
"You should really use his real name, Dear. How is he? It's been so long since we had him over, ever since the crash… Do you want me to invite him over someday? Maybe you two could reconnect or something."
"N-no thanks mom, I don't think he can come over. He has a lot of school work to do, I expect."
Astrid KNEW he didn't need to study, after all, how can you score 120% on the hardest exam when all you do during school is sleep? This fact also pissed her off because she had been top of the class before Harold came along and bumped her down to second. Plus, she knew the amount of emotional stress and confusion she had caused upon him. How could she go back now? She often saw him plodding down the hallways with his head downcast, books tightly crossed across his chest. On the surface, Astrid hated that boy, and all his stupid grades. But deep within the depths of Astrid's heart, there was a tiny voice that was always sending guilty vibes all through her fit, lean body (Astrid was the best gymnast and swimmer on the team, also head Prefect.) and causing her to shiver.
"Ah well, maybe some other day. Now, don't you have some essay to complete?" said Lilly
"Oh yeah, better get that finished." responded Astrid, temporarily forgetting the Harold issue.
As Astrid bolted up the stairs, her mom called after her: "Dinner will be at seven thirty, okay Dear!?"
"Sure!"
Astrid studied hard that night, for she was determined to beat Harold in at least one test. Little did she know, she was about to get a lot more familiar with Harold than she had originally intended, all the while the time bomb was ticking down to zero. Tick… tick… tick…
As I'm sure you are aware, COVID-19 is sweeping through the world, and my school has been shut down. Therefore, you can expect 1-2 chapters daily, as I have a lot of free time on my hands. Anyway, stay strong, and hang around for the next chapter. Bye!