{Hunter's POV}

I expected such a reaction like this, I actually expected it to be worse but honestly it was pretty standard to see my friends sitting there at the lunch table in shock that I was standing there with Heather after we'd been gone for two years until today when we returned to Berk Academy. A lot had happened in the last two years and no one outside of the Haddock household knew the truth except a few select people. I knew it was coming, the inevitable question of where we'd been the last two years. For now, all I saw were there shocked faces of disbelief. What I didn't expect was to get punched in the arm by Heather, I rubbed my arm now. "That was such a cheesy return line, Hunter..." She rolls her eyes at me.

"It was on the fly..." I mumbled to her. I looked back to the friends, I noticed Eric right away. Why was he sitting there, didn't he hate all of them and me? Okay, clearly a lot had changed on this side of things too. I'd have to ask about the Eric thing later. "So...What? I come back after two years and I get no hugs, no high fives, no fist bumps...No scolding or a welcome back. Man, guess I wasn't missed after all." I said pretending to act hurt.

"Is it...really you?" Rylee said to me.

"Yes? It's really us...? Why are you all acting like we died and came back from the dead?" Heather questioned now.

"Um...Maybe because you two just...disappeared from the face of the Archipelago for two years without a word to anyone..." Shaun mentioned. I rubbed the back of my head a bit, that was what I was expecting.

"Yeah...About that..." I began, I watched Astrid get up from her chair. Without warning I felt her fist connect with my stomach, I doubled over panting. Fuck man, I forgot how hard she hits. That was going to bruise, I could tell she was pissed.

"You son of a bitch!" She yelled at me, I winced. Okay. Yeah, I deserved that. "How dare you disappear for two years without warning, then suddenly come back with again no warning and act like everything is fine!" I stood up straight again to answer her but all I saw in those blue eyes were tears threatening to fall and her lip quivering. My eyes softened meeting hers as she just wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her face against my chest. I blinked almost, Astrid never acted like this. I felt her hug me tighter as I looked to the others for some kind of answer. I saw Rylee mouth a simple,'She missed you, stupid'. "Do you have...any...idea how worried we've all been...How worried I've...been, Hunter...About you, both of you..." She whimpered.

Feeling like I could do nothing else, I just raised my arms and wrapped them around her in an embrace. I closed my eyes with a sigh. "I'm sorry, Astrid..." I whisper to her, she finally pulled back and I saw the tears falling.

"Where...have you been all this time? Your houses were boarded up, your phones disconnected, no one...knew where either of you were...What happened that day after you came back from your vacation...That's when everything changed...And we...never saw you again." Astrid asked me.

"I'll explain everything." I tell them, Astrid sat down as Heather and I took the two free seats left at the table as everyone was watching us, and I mean everyone. My eyes narrowed a bit facing the others in the room. "Hey, mind your own will ya!?" I snapped, they all went back to eating and avoiding eye contact.

"Hunter...Tell us what happened." Shaun said calmly. I didn't want to do this and it was this situation of why I didn't want to come back to high school but my father didn't give me a choice when he took the new principal position here. But here I was and there was no way they were ever going to let Heather or me out of their sight again. I felt Heather put her hand on my shoulder and offer a smile.

"We have to tell them big brother." Heather says, I watched all their faces go to shock at what she said.

"BROTHER!?" They asked.

"Will you calm down...Its a lot to explain." Heather mumbled. "You guys...remember that Hunter is my cousin because our dads are brothers, and my mom...was always sick?" Heather began looking down sadly.

"Of course but then why did you call Hunter your brother?" Travis questioned.

"My mom...got really sick and...she died two weeks later." Heather closed her eyes.

"Oh...my Gods! Heather, I'm so sorry..." Rylee said quickly with a frown.

"That's why our replies got really slow and stopped, between the funeral and all the legal stuff...We just didn't have time. In the will reading...Heather if a minor goes to the next family member and in this case its my dad since he's her uncle...My parents had to adopt her and that took a while to happen. But after a few months, she was adopted into the Haddock family and became my sister." I said hugging Heather with a one armed hug. She smiled a bit.

"I moved out of my parents out and with them but we soon found out that we didn't all fit there so Violet and Samuel got us a new house. And that's...where we've been the last two years." Heather said.

"But if that's true then...Why didn't either of you just...let us know what happened, or come back to school?" Fredrick asked slowly.

"I...didn't want to face anyone. So Violet and Samuel...let me do homeschooling..." Heather looked down.

"And I did the same...We're back now because my dad took the position as the new principal for the school, and he couldn't home school us anymore." I added in.

"But that doesn't tell us why you didn't tell us! We're your friends for Thor's sake...We would of given you your space..." Astrid said now.

"There was...a lot going on and I hit a bad depression. I'm sorry...Its...my fault." Heather lied. Although I knew it wasn't. Her mom actually had died but the breaking contact was my fault not hers. Heather and I were hiding a huge secret from them but it was one I wasn't ready to tell. For now, they'd just have to buy this and I'd take the repercussions later on when the truth came out of what else happened that summer. Heather was only covering for me now, more so because I begged her when she found out. I didn't know how long we could hide it now that our friends were back in our lives but we were going to try as long as we could.

I watched as our friends relaxed seeing Heather get upset and apologize. "Its okay...We forgive you both for disappearing, we know it must have been hard. But you're...back now so everything is okay and we're here for you." Rylee said softly. Oh thank Thor.

"We appreciate it..." I reply with a nod and small smile.

"So your dad is here too?" Shaun asked.

"Yep, in the main office so you better behave." I chuckled a bit. The bell rang signaling the end of lunch, we all got up. "What class you guys have next?" I asked curiously moving to the exit of the lunch room with them.

"Dragon Training." They replied. "What about you?..." Astrid asked now.

"What a...What a coincidence...We do too." Heather said quickly.

"Wait, really? But you...never completed the courses in 10th and 11th grade..." Eric blinked.

"We did our training in another location. We've been cleared for the training and riding course." I stated now and I had a feeling it was going to be really hard to hide one of the secrets Heather and I had. Slowly we all made our way past the gymnasium and to the back fields where the dragon stables were and huge training course. Standing in the main area was a larger man, bald head and blond mustache hanging almost down to his shoulder.

"Urrie up lads and lasses, don't got all day now." The instructor called to us. We rushed over before him now, "Good! Welcome to dragon trainin. The last 3 years you've been workin with yer Terrors, and now...You get to train with the big boys and girls. I'll be yer teacher for the rest of the year for this course, my name is Gregory Borgeson. You can call me Gobber or Mr. B. Don't really care which." The man said.

"Yes sir." We all replied. He pulled out a sheet of paper.

"Alright then...Small class, only those of yew who passed the other courses made it this far. Works for me, lets get started." Gobber said. "How many dragon classes are there?" He asked.

"5?" Travis replied.

"Wrong." Gobber rolled his eyes. I raised my hand and he pointed to me.

"7." He nodded to me.

"Name them." Gobber states.

"Stoker, Boulder, Sharp, Tracker, Tidal, Mystery, and Strike." I reply.

"Very good...?" Gobber questioned, obviously looking for my name.

"Hunter. Hunter Haddock." I answer.

"Sam's boy?" I blinked and nodded. "Hah. I haven't seen you since you were the height of my knee lad." Gobber laughed. "Good work, Hunter." I smiled, how could I forget about Gobber. He's dad's best friend since high school, can't believe I didn't realize it sooner. Wouldn't dad get a kick out of this when I told him who our dragon training teacher was. "Who can give me an example of a dragon from each class?"

Heather put her hand up. "Monstrous Nightmare. Gronckle. Deadly Nadder. Rumblehorn. Scualdron. Hideous Zippleback. And...Night Fury."

"Excellent work, Miss...?" Gobber stopped again.

"Heather Haddock." She replied, his head tilted.

"I didn't know you had a sister, Hunter..." Gobber said.

"She's...technically my cousin sir. Heather is my Uncle Scott's daughter..." I state.

"Then...wouldn't her last name be...?"

"When my mother passed away two years ago...I went to Hunter's family, adopted as a Haddock." Heather replied softly.

"Ah, I see now. Well then lets keep going shall we." Gobber smiled wide, I chuckled. So easily amused he was. He continued asking questions which would all of been review then he had us call our Terrors. The others and Heather had theirs. Mine was being stubborn as usual. I grumbled. "Hunter, where is your Terror?"

"Gimme a minute..." I sigh as I curved my middle finger and thumb to the corners of my mouth and let out a loud whistle, I watched the people around me cover their ears at the sound. From the roof of the stables, my green Terror flew into my arms licking my cheek. "Hey Sharpshot..." I smile.

"Good work, Hunter." Gobber chuckled now. For the next 20 minutes we practiced with them, and then Gobber announced it was time for our first lesson. He motioning for us to follow him towards the area where the dragons were, we reached a ring and dragons in the holder stables. "Leave your Terrors out here." We gave them the signals to sit outside the ring. Gobber didn't follow us inside and then we heard the gate shut locking us on. Oh no... "There are many different kinds of dragons in here. First lesson, calm the dragons down." Gobber said.

"Wait, aren't you going to teach us first?" Shaun asked quickly.

"I believe in learnin on the job." Gobber grinned. All of us gulped as he pulled the lever releasing all the dragons at once. Oh hell! This crazy old man was going to kill us!