Chapter one
She heared constant loud metal noises from her right and turned her head away from her locker. There was a crowd of people at the other end of the hall, although she couldn't hear exactly what was going on, in any high school in the world you could identify the family chorus of "Fight, fight, fight!" cheered on by dumb teenagers. Astrid closed her locker with a careless thud and a blank look.
By Thor, it was the first day of school, and it was 7:45am on a Monday. They hadn't even time to find a reason to fight!
The always cold and indifferent girl sighed annoyed by the noise that didn't exactly help the headache with she had woken up. She grunted under her breath, ready to turn around and go to her class, when she identified disheveled blond heads in the last row of the circle of milling people.
Without thinking long before she regretted it, she dodged the curious students who were approaching the entertainment of the day and went after the blondes who noisy as always cheered along with the others between jumping and waving their arms.
Astrid bit back a sharp cutting comment to herself and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Guys"
"Yeah, break his head!"
"-With the FACE!"
The girl shifted the weight of her leg and narrowed her eyes in annoyance.
"Guys..." she repited " Yak heads!"
The two teenagers turned comically at the same time with their absurdly long hairs bumping into their faces.
The twin girl widened her eyes in recognition, an enthusiastic glint in her pale eyes, and she smiled broadly at her.
"Ast!"
"Could I know what you guys are doing, Ruff?
Ruffnut snapped obvious.
"Seeing the best thing of the day, duh"
Tuffnut, his twin brother, smiled identically at her.
"You should join Ast, with luck this time there will be more blood!"
Astrid rolled her eyes accustomed to the "quirks" of her friends.
"I worry about you sometimes" she commented "What's going on anyway?"
The twins have already turned to the chorus of cheering people and responded without even looking at her.
"Populars vs Troublemakers"
"The epic fight we have been waiting for since first grade!"
Astrid tryed to not show her mild surprise. Normally high school fights were just two idiots fighting over who had it bigger. She knew the enmity between the football team and the group of "troublemakers", as the twins liked to call them.
Sure, they've given eachother a few insults here and there, but never anything serious like this.
Before she could even ask how it all happened, Astrid was dragged by both arms held by the twins to the front row.
"This has to be seen in the first person!" she could hear Tuffnut laugh amid the hubbub of screams around her, until they were literally spat on by the mass of students.
Astrid staggered on her tongue to keep from blurting out something not very pretty to her friend. She sat up, smoothing her blonde bangs and pushing them out of her eyes before remembering why she was there. She turned her head in front of her and was greeted by a hideous crack of a fist hitting skin. Astrid narrowed her eyes, that must have hurted.
The red-white coat boy fell to the ground on all fours from the impact, holding his red cheek with his hand. Astrid could see a trickle of blood draining from his lower lip, before staring at the other boy. His mocking, triumphant smile with uneven teeth and disheveled black hair slightly damp with sweat.
Astrid winced in recognition.
Scott Jorgenson.
Of course it'd be him...The leading member of the "troublemakers", a ridiculously short boy, muscular, but not from exercise, with his hair in a dirty black mane, who called himself "Snotlout " Seriously. "Snotlout" Astrid couldn't differ on how accurate the name was.
The cheers around her deafened her, especially her enthusiastic friends's who were stricking with eachother head. Astrid knew they didn't really give a yak who won if there was a fight. She rolled her eyes for the fourth time in the last twenty minutes and bored reached into the pockets of her jeans.
While the group of troublemakers, basically four guys dressed in leather, black and too much guts mixed with stupidity, celebrated with obvious vanity, two of the football team picked up the falled boy glaring with a murderous look at his "staunch enemies"
Astrid made a grin. What was this all? A stupid low-budget Disney Chanel cliché movie? The troublemakers, who, not as she'd thought, didn't celebrate so enthusiastically, except for Snotlout, who was practically kissing his "muscles" in front of the crowd that soon began to disperse after the fun ended. The two boys and the only girl in the gang only smirked at the athletes who began to limp away as well.
The captain of the team, Eret Eretson, if Astrid remembered well, dedicated a middle finger to them being held by another boy so he wouldn't jump against them before turning around.
Astrid smiled a little in amusement at the gesture.
Camicazi Bog-Burglar, the girl with the absurdly long unruly tousled hair of a dirt-dark golden blonde, with several hoop earrings in each ear, returned the gesture multiplied by two sticking her tongue out at him before turning around and fists bumping with a tall, muscular boy with a late puberty mustache excuse, curly tousled dark brown hair, and sunburned skin. Astrid couldn't remember what his name was, but she recognized him as one of those who covered the entire school with toilet paper last year.
The troublemakers started talking, but she couldn't hear what they were saying until her eyes fell on him.
His forest green eyes collided with hers for a few milliseconds, before Astrid jerked them away. She could almost feel the crooked, silly smile on his stupid face without even seeing him.
Astrid dropped her eyes to the ground before raising them to him again. He was now joining the other two, with his always relaxed and carefree posture, a clever smile and his hands in the pockets of his silly black leather jacket with the relief of a red dragon skull on one shoulder. Astrid frowned.
Hiccup Haddock
Agh
She had always been curious about Hiccup Haddock, she wasn't going to lie. He was the quietest, the most reserved, he would always just stand idly by while his gang went into action, and she only saw him engage in the scathing and absurdly intelligent comments before fights, and he always won them. Astrid didn't understand. Until she finally saw him in action. And crap, it was awesome.
It was about two years ago, when she didn't even know the names of the troublemakers. It was a quick fight, Hiccup was alone, his friends out of sight. Astrid was just getting out of the school looking forward to getting home, when she saw the crowd of people forming around the slim, athletic boy with unruly auburn hair, and a boy twice his size who looked like he had just come out of a bodybuilding contest.
Astrid stopped on the stairs, taking advantage of the highest place to see the whole scene among the people. She didn't even know why she stopped, but she didn't last long either.
The testosterone-boy lunged at the lanky auburn with a massive fist at high. Astrid held her breath without realizing it, when the auburn boy, without even taking his hands out of his jacket pockets, dodged him with a simple footwork to the right.
Before the testosterone-boy could even balance in surprise, the auburn turned on him and hit him with his left fist, Astrid noted, force practiced on his big nose.
The entrance of the school was plunged into shocked silence as the muscular boy fell backward like a freshly cut oak. The auburn just looked at him lying on the ground, unconscious and with blood coming out of his nose, putting his hands back in his pockets as if he had just checked the time on his watch.
Astrid looked at him in surprise. He knocked him down with a single blow. Who in helheim was this boy?
The crowd came out of their stupor and began to cheer for the auburn who was still staring at the boy on the ground.
"Someone bring him some ice" he said in a neutral tone to no one specifically before turning around, picking up his backpack from the floor to hang it over one shoulder and started to leave the entrance.
Astrid followed him with her gaze still shocked. She really had predicted a very different ending to that fight.
The boy began to walk down the street, when Astrid watched him turning his face sideways and caught her gaze, green eyes that she could even see from there. He catched her gaze before smiling smugly at her and disappearing towards the parking lots of the school.
She stood there for a few seconds before twitching. Did he just smiled at her? Who did he think-?! The blonde grunted through clenched teeth and fists. She went down the remaining stairs and decided that this boy was a complete idiot.
Astrid kept thinking that. She watched the troublemakers go, practically pulling on Snotlout who wanted to keep showing off his victory. The twins began to complain about how quickly the fight had ended on either side of her.
"What do you think Astrid?" she suddenly heard cloudy "Ast? Earth calling Hofferson!" Ruffnut yelled, shaking her hand roughly against her face.
Astrid blinked out of her stupor and gave her an annoyed scowl.
"That they are idiots"
The three boys, with Astrid silent, walked away in the opposite direction as the bell finally rang. A few feet away, Hiccup Haddock turned back for the first time watching them walk away before turning to his friends.