Astrid looked around the table. Gobber was telling her mother and Stoick something about how her dog nearly burned down her workshop, making them laugh. Meanwhile, Hiccup, she was giving her cat small pieces that had been left from dinner, something that the cat enjoyed very had been delicious, like all the food Gothi prepared. And very grateful after such a long day and with so many things to do, and those that remain to be done. The empty plates and containers were thrown on the table, though Astrid knew there was still dessert, one of Gothi's specialties.
And as if Gobber had read her mind, she got up and went to the fridge. From there she took out a large, square package with the emblem of the Gothi restaurant and the blonde already imagined it was.
"This is from Gothi" Gobber put the box in the middle "As an apology for not being able to come."
When Gobber opened the box, everyone started to dribble. Inside it was one of the most famous cakes of the old woman, the "Terrible Terror". It was a three-layer brownie cake, filled with white chocolate cream, rum cream and topped with a butter topping. In less than a second everyone had served a large piece of cake and in the next few minutes all that was heard were the sounds of chewing and the small exclamations of happiness that were heard every now and then.
As she ate, Astrid noticed Gobber. Throughout dinner he had kept giving Hiccup nervous glances, like when you want to say something to someone, but you don't know how the other person is going to reactfggf. But it seemed that just at that moment the old mechanic had decided to speak.
"So Hiccup, your father told me that this senior year of high school you are going to attend high school in Berk."
"Yes, I'm going to miss Midland High School, but since it's the last year before college, I want to spend it here, it will be easier, besides, Dad was excited" he commented as he ran the spoon over the plate, scraping the few pie scraps left.
Astrid was very curious to hear this. She suspected that Hiccup had to be attending another high school, especially since she did not remember seeing him the last few years at Berk High School but she did not know that he had been going to Midland High School.
Midland High School was an educational center that was located in Dumbroch, a neighboring city to Berk, being further south. It had a lot of fame, not only because it was a good place, but because many boys and girls from different cities in the region used to go there. Astrid had gone several times to play games or small events.
"I suppose you will miss it" Gobber replied.
"Of course I will, the truth is that there was very good, not to mention my friends, but dad was excited that I graduated from Berk High in my last year" Astrid's curiosity grew, she wondered what kind of friends would have the mayor's son.
"Well what can I say son? Stoick said as he helped himself to another piece of cake." I know you liked where you were, but I really like the idea that you graduate from the same high school as me.
"I know dad, besides as I said before, I can go see my friends whenever I want and it will make everything a little easier for me during this last year." Hiccup got up as he gathered up some of the things from the table and went to the sink.
As Hiccup began to wash the dishes and dinner things, Stoick nodded at his old friend, as if telling him to continue talking to the boy.
"Well, I had thought that since you were going to go to high school here in Berk, maybe you could go back to work in the workshop with me after class." Astrid could tell Goober's nervousness saying that.
Hiccup stared at the sink for a few seconds before turning off the water and turning around. His gaze went first to his father, with one of those glances you throw at someone when you know they are up to something.
"I really appreciate it Gobber, but the truth is that I'm going to be very busy, not only with classes and preparing for university, but also with other projects that I have underway with different friends" Gobber looked down, somewhat sad. Whatever Stoick and his friend had planned, it seemed that the old mechanic was excited that Hiccup would work with him again.
"But from time to time he might come by to help me out" Gobber's face lit up at this. "In exchange for being able to use the forge from time to time, store some things and give me a hand from time to time."
Gobber ran up and hugged the boy tightly as he spun around. He looked very happy, but Astrid was a bit confused.
It seemed that there was much more behind the scene that she had just contemplated, especially when she saw the looks that Stoick and Gobber had shared or the exaggerated reaction of Gobber to Hiccup's response.
Astrid was already in her room, Gobber had been gone for a while and after collecting everything, the blonde decided that it was time to rest a bit, she had also arranged to video chat with Heather and Ruffnut in a short time and and she didn't want to connect too late.
While waiting for the message from her friends that they were ready for the call, she decided that she would take the opportunity to finish putting things in her bathroom. She grabbed a small box with some toiletries, her towels, and headed to the bathroom.
When she turned on the light she could not be stunned again, and not only because it was a beautiful and cozy bathroom. She would always love the Hofferson house, every corner, the kitchen where she and her mother had burned down many times (the berk fire chief wondered how they had done to set fire to a pot of water), the great room where she and her mother they had spent many nights in front of the fireplace watching movies or when their friends came to sleep. Or her room, where she had spent a lot of time with herself and a good punching bag.
But Astrid recognized that her mother had been right, she loved Hofferson House, but she recognized that she was tired of things breaking every two by three, having to heat water in pots to shower when the boiler broke or when the cables of the light returned to annoy among many others. It was going to be nice to be able to enjoy her senior year of high school without having to play handyman, something she wasn't good at.
For the next 20 minutes, the blonde dedicated herself to placing everything and doing that bath a little more hers, until she noticed her phone vibrating in her pocket. Looking at him, she saw that it was the announcement from her friends to start the video call. She went into her room and sat at her table, Hiccup had done an incredible job installing her computer and several of her electrical appliances, she felt very comfortable, especially not having a mess of cables as always happened to her.
Astrid turned on her computer and soon received a video call notice. Upon accepting her in front of her, the faces of hers appeared in front of her, two best friends of hers, Heather Berserker and Ruffnut Thorston.
She and Ruffnut had known each other their entire lives, ever since they went to kindergarten together. Already in her senior year of high school, Ruffnut Ruffnut was tall, with a slim figure, her blond hair was tied in two ponytails and an evil smile adorned her lips. She and her twin brother Tuffnut were well known and feared by the citizens of Berk, especially for the pranks and explosions they caused, sometimes leaving a post-war stamp.
Heather for her part was a little shorter than her and Ruffnut, but had more of a "physical" presence, to put it somehow. She wore her black hair down and wore black glasses. At first she and Heather didn't get along very well, they both started a little competition about their grades, sports, ect ..
But they became friends shortly afterward, after something Ruffnut called "the chemistry classroom disaster," something Astrid and Heather hoped to leave buried and forgotten.
"Hey, Astrid, how are you doing in your new homw?" Asked Heather.
"Yes, tell us. How is living in the mayor´s house?" Ask his other friend.
"Well, I can´t complain, the house is incredible"For the next few minutes she was telling the girls everything that had happened that day, since she and her mother left Hofferson House until dinner.
"And little more girls, before I got to you she was finishing putting some things in the bathroom and little ..." Astrid stopped when she noticed that the two girls were looking at her with somewhat wicked smiles. "Are you OK?
"Well Astrid" Heather started to say. "It's not that we're not happy for you and such, but we are somewhat curious to know if ..."
"Is the Haddock boy hot?" Ruffnut practically yelled that question, making Astrid's ears ring.
"What? What the hell does that have to do with anything I'm telling you?"
"Really Astrid?" Ruffnut looked at her incredulously. "Are you moving into the mayor's house, who lives with his son, and you hope we don't ask?"
"What Ruffnut is trying to say, in a non-delicate way, is that we are curious to know what the Mayor's son looks like," added Heather. "So, how is it?"
"Bah, sure he is still the skinny he was when we were kids" Ruffnut said this last, laughing a little.
This made Astrid stop to think. The Hiccup she had known that day had nothing to do with the one she remembered as children. This Hiccup was tall, muscular and confident. And it wasn't from putting flowers on herself, but Astrid knew the effect she sometimes had on boys, either they got very nervous or their hormones didn't let them think. But nothing like that happened to Hiccup, I speak to him calmly and without losing my temper. She had not realized it until now and the truth is that it was something curious, refreshing to be able to talk to someone of the male gender who did not start drooling.
"Astrid!" Heather's scream snapped her out of her thoughts. "What happenp? Wait, are you blushing?
"What!?"
"It's true, you're blushing!" Ruffnut couldn't help but laugh as she said that. "My God, when I tell Tuffnut."
"Say something to that brother of yours and you will never see the sunlight again."
"Well, if you don't want me to say anything you just have to answer a question" Astrid forgot that Ruffnut wasn't afraid of his threats. "Is Hiccup Haddock hot?
Astrid took a while to answer, thinking about how to describe the boy, but at the last moment she came up with something. "Wait here, now I come."
A few minutes later Astrid came back with a cell phone in her hand. "This is my mother's cell phone, she has spent all day taking photos so there must be some of it."
After a few seconds of searching, Astrid found what she was looking for, a full body photo of Hiccup that her mother had taken without him knowing when the moving truck arrived. Without saying anything I turn the screen of the mobile towards her computer and wait for the reactions of her friends.
"Ohhhh Mama like it" Ruffnut was the one to hold back when it came to expressing how she felt, like at that moment she almost started drooling when she saw the photo.
"Fuck" Astrid was strange to hear that from Heather, not that her friend was stunned, but she used to hold her posture, more than Ruffnut.
"Well, are you happy already?" Astrid kept the cell phone in her pocket and I hope that her friends answered her.
"... are you gona fuck him?" Ruffnut asked.
"What !? No of course no." The rest of the conversation went between joking about Hiccup and catching up on what they had done over the holidays. They might get on her nerves, but Astrid couldn't ask for two best friends.
Shortly after finishing the conversation Astrid went downstairs to the entrance of the house. Her mother had asked her to leave the cell phone charging there, so she would pick it up in the morning before going to work, but just as she walked past the kitchen she could hear voices inside her. With great care, the blonde opened the door a little and looked at who was there.
Hiccup and his father were sitting at the table and from the tone of the conversation, it looked like they were arguing over something. Being a gossip wasn't something Astrid did much, but the blonde herself couldn't help but want to know what her new housemates were talking about.
"... you know I don't like you doing this kind of thing." Hiccup looked really angry as he said that.
"I'm sorry son, but Gobber wanted to regain the relationship he had with you, I thought that working in the grarage with would serve for that, besides I thought you would like to help out in the garage, as a child." Astrid couldn't remember ever seeing the mayor seen like this, she seemed embarrassed or something.
"Well, to begin with, he should have come to tell me, not to make a pathetic excuse like that" Hiccup got up from his chair and approached the exit of the garden. "I don't know what has to happen for you to understand that I hate that. meddle in my things, or in my relationship with others, seriously dad, I thought you had finally understood.
"Son, I'm sorry, really, I just wanted to help Gobber, you know he has never been good at these feelings things and ..."
Hiccup turned suddenly and glared at his father with eyes full of fury, something that made Hiccup seem even more attractive.
"That is no excuse dad, how I carry things with others is my business, there is a reason why Goober and I lost contact dad, not to mention that I have my own things to do, my own projects.
"Well, why did you agree to go once in a while?"
"To be honest, I could use a place like Gobber's workshop and his forge for some of my projects, so I see it as a fair change: I help him and he lets me use the facilities."
You could see some pity on Stoick's face hearing this. "So you're not interested in getting along with Gobber again?"
"I don't know, really, that will depend on how things go with him, he will have to give me a good reason to trust him again, something that will not happen if you keep doing these things ..."
Astrid decided to stop listening, she left her mother's cell phone carrying where she told him and went up to her room. As she lay down on her bed, the blonde couldn't help but think about what she had just heard, after all during dinner everyone had been very cordial with each other. She found it difficult to think of what Gobber could have done so that Hiccup would not want to know anything about him. And with this thoug she fall asleep.