Chapter 13: Making the first cut.

Hiccup's POV

I have been staying at home for the past couple of days following my trip to the hospital for my rib injuries and it stills hurt like hell despite being on the pain medication.

My dad called me yesterday. He was of course was concerned about me and asked me if I wanted him to come home. I told that I'll be fine and that he should focuses on his job. He didn't really object to it but he did show some sort of concern before he hung up on me.

I don't like the help I am being given, but I do appreciate it. Astrid stops by my house to drop off the homework that I needed to do. Gobber makes sure that I had something to eat. I don't like depending on them, but it's not like I have that much of a choice.

I spend most of my time in my room working on my art pieces for the art showcase next week. I found out that my dad is going to be home by next week, so if he wants he can come to my showcase. But I doubt that he has interest in it.

I sketch my next piece for the showcase. It shows a girl flying in a cloudy sky as she transcends into a dragon. But it's not a scary dragon. It's a beautiful blue dragon with sunset orange wings. Her transforming claws are red. The girl hangs her head as she looks towards the ground while her wings/arms are stretched as far as it can be. Her feet are poised like a ballerina. The dragon girl was the goddess of the sky.

I hope this is something that Mr. Kieser will like for the showcase. Already I feel so much pressure of what's going to happen. I just don't know what I am going to do.

I get up from the chair and walk over to the mirror in the bathroom to look at myself. I hate the girl I see. I just want her to be gone. I just want her to disappear.

I then hear knocking on the door. I carefully make my way downstairs to see my dog wagging his tail excitedly. That's a sign that Astrid is here.

I open the door to see her holding a bag.

" Hey." She smiles.

" What up?" I asked.

" Well I decided to come over to drop off a few things." She said. " Mainly this."

She gives the bag over to me. Luckily it's light since I'm not allowed to lift heavy objects for the next few weeks.

I look in it and see something familiar. It was the suit I tried on when I was at the clothes store the other day. I feel the soft brown material between my fingers.

" You got this for me?" I asked in shock. No one has ever gotten me something since two years ago.

" Well you were feeling down since the injury so I wanted to make sure you were going to the dance. I also know how much you like that suit." She said.

" Thanks." Was all I could say.

" I also got mine." She said gesturing to her backpack. " Speaking of which. Can I use your bathroom?"

" Go ahead." I told her.

She nods in appreciation as she goes up the stairs as I collapse onto the couch with my dog lying beside my feet. He looks at me and starts to whine. He whines when I don't pet him. I wish I could but I can't really bend forward without feeling excruciating pain in my chest.

" Sorry bud." I said before I hear some footsteps coming the stairs. I look up and my mouth drops.

Astrid comes down the stairs wearing a simple starlight grey pantsuit with a royal blue dress shirt underneath and shiny black shoes. She has no tie or anything, but she really doesn't need one for the suit she is wearing Her hair was braided over her shoulder as usual, but she had a grey ribbon laced through it to make it look nicer.

I have to say. She looks good. Really good. I think I may have blushed in response If I haven't if she wasn't in a dress, she still looks great in it. She's the type of person that will look good in anything and I mean anything. She can even pull off a potato sack if she ever was forced into one at one point.

" Whoa." Was all I can say to this.

" I have to admit. Wearing a suit is sure a lot more comfortable than wearing a dress. Ruffnut helped me pick it out. I figure though that it wasn't a good idea to change at my family's house since my dad would flip." She admits as though I didn't react to her coming down the stairs as she sits down next to me on the couch.

" Luckily my dad isn't going to be home for the next week." I said to her.

" Thanks for letting me change here." She tells me.

" No problem." I shrugged. " It's the least that I can do."

" You still up for the dance?" She asked.

I have to admit though. My ribs still hurt like hell and I have never been to a school dance before in my life. If I had the choice, I wouldn't go. I would stay right here and no one would have to see me over there. Especially if Dagny is there. I don't want to be where Dagny is at the moment.

But of all things I wanted to say to Astrid in truth, I ended up with this, " Yeah. I can go."

" Great." She smiles. " You should go get changed. The dance is going to be in less than an hour."

I nod as I take the bag that has my suit in it with me up the stairs to get changed. When I lock the door, I used my privacy as a way to let my feelings out

" Arghhhhhh!" I groan. " Why didn't I just tell her the truth?!"

But I knew why I didn't want to tell her the truth. In a way, I wanted to go to the god forsaken dance. She was going to be there with me. I wanted to be with her. But I also want to be with her as the person I want to be

I breath out in frustration as I make the decision to just put on the suit. It took a while because I had to carefully maneuver myself into the suit.

I finally button the last one on my brown vest and look at the mirror. My eyes met of those of a stranger who is someone I nearly wanted to be. I said nearly because I still notice one flaw in this image in front of me. My long brown hair.

I sigh in frustration as look down at the sink. That's when a shiny thing caught my eye. A pair of scissors. My dad's to be exact. He would use it in order to trim his humongous beard to keep it from being scraggly near the ends.

This gave me an idea. A crazy and insane idea.

I clenched my fist in contemplation of what I should do. Should I go for? Is it worth the fact that my dad will kill me if I did it?

But I can't seem to make up my mind in my head. My body seems to made the decision for me as I watched my small hand slowly grasp on to the scissors and pick it.

My other hand does the same thing as it picks up a front piece of my hair and lifts to meet the scissors. My breathing patterns become faster and more intense as the scissor becomes closer. I wanted to stop myself, but at the same time I just wanted to screw it.

My heart nearly stops as I made the first cut. It becomes slow as I watch the long brown hair piece that I got from my mom cascade down into the sink. I could not believe what I had just down to myself. Now I know for sure that my dad is so going to kill me when he gets home this week.

But that didn't matter anymore when I look back at myself in the mirror. For the first time, I didn't see a girl. I saw a boy in progress.

As hard as it was to make the first cut. It became a lot easier to make the next cuts on my once long hair. The more cuts I made to my hair, the more I was beginning to watch the girl in the mirror disappear as the boy was starting to come more alive. It was as beautiful as seeing the metamorphosis on a butterfly.

I finally make the last few trims to my hair and brush off the chopped hair that has caught onto my body. My head feels lighter after losing that bulk of hair and I felt a breeze on the back of my neck. It's strange, but I like it.

I look in the mirror again and I don't see an insecure girl. I saw a guy. A lean and tall guy with choppy chin length hair, but it actually looks good. I know I could use some few rounds in the gym to help myself look a little stronger, but not bad.

I could spend hours looking at myself after such a liberation, but I have someone to go to the dance with and I am not about to break my promise. I quickly swap on my beanie, my coat, and adjust my glasses before I come back downstairs.

Astrid was playing with the dogs when I slowly came down the stairs. It was an amusing sight to see Stormfly sitting on top of Toothless after quite a playful fight. What made me more interested though was seeing Astrid smiling widely. Which not a lot of people don't get to see all that much since she puts on a tough display.

She turns around to look at me and gawks at my appearance. I hope that's not a bad thing.

" You…. cut your hair?" She asked.

I breathed out loudly, " Yeah." Having no idea what she is going to think.

" Take off the hat." She told me. I did as she said and pulled off the hat before ruffling the remains of my hair.

She comes up to me and looks at it and then me in the face. I don't know what she is trying to make of it, but I don't like where this is going.

She finally said, " You look good."

" Really?" I asked.

She nods in sincerity, " Yeah. I can see more of your face. Your long hair tends to do that. You should have done this a long time ago."

I blush as I rub the back of my head. " Thanks."

" Ruffnut is going to have a field day with this one." She said as punched my shoulder hard.

" Ow!" I groan as the hit jostled my ribs a bit.

" Sorry." She apologizes.

" No problem." I breathed out.

Although showing my new look to Astrid was a big one. I know I have bigger judges to face in the future that I am so not looking forward to. This one tonight is the entire school.


Sorry it took me a bit to update. I had other stories. Some of them are recent pitches for what I am thinking about doing in the future. One of them that is becoming popular is The Messenger story that I am actually quite enjoying to do. I also am trying to finish another story called No Son Of Mine. I am actually going to try to have that one finished by Thanksgiving. This got shoved to the side a bit, so I apologized for the inconvenience.

Next Chapter is about the dance and a lot is going to happen. I won't mention what. But it's a mouthful.

Please Review and See You later.