Chapter 5
The Berk High School library was quite huge if you counted the poorly low school budget.
It had two floors and was full of shelves, both recessed and individual placed like a domino with almost no space between them.
There was a study area with tables lined with old green lamps, almost all of them broken or flickering in the farthest area, separated from the view of the librarian; a short old man with bad temper and gray hair as if he had just been struck by lightning, although, it was good that he was half deaf.
Astrid struggled to grab the seventh book on botany from one of the higher shelves. With a little jump and an awkward thump of her arm against the wood, she pulled out the heavy book and dropped it on the table she'd been working on, now littered with half-open papers and books scattered all over the place space.
Normally she wasn't that messy, but there was so little information about Berk's stupid greenery in that library that she was freaking out.
She flopped into her chair with a tired breath, her back hurting and her eyes heavy, and she had a bloody headache since she spoked to Hiccup Haddock.
Astrid growled softly at the memory as she opened the botanical bible with a heavy thump. She began to idly turn the pages without really knowing what she was looking for, her mind still on the indident of a few hours ago.
Thor, the boy really had a knack for getting the shit out of her.
Okay, she'd said things, he'd said things ... but heck, they weren't eight years old. They were about to come of age and there they were fighting like two stupid kids.
A part of her mind doubting if the boy was going to show up. Ha! What nonsense.
She didn't know why the hell he got so mad when she told him she was going to do the work alone.
You think the rest of us are worth shit
In any case Astrid thought exactly the opposite.
Of course he wasn't going to show up, why would he? She called him asshole and told shit about him in front of his face, with the reputation of tje troublemakers, it surprised her that the boy hadn't shut her up with a punch.
She rubbed her eyes dazed and her head dizzy from the subject.
With Haddock in her head that afternoon went to hell, now she would have to retrieve the entire study from today tomorrow.
"Damn it..." she cursed to herself under her breath.
She kept looking in the book at Berk's section, nothing. This little town in the middle of nowhere that probably didn't even appear on the maps wasn't that important!
She closed the book with a frustrated slam.
Willing to leave it for the day and thinking tired that she would have to go to work in a few hours, she began to pile the sheets around her just when she heard a knock in front of her.
Confused, she raised her head to meet Haddock himself.
The auburn didn't even look at her. He dropped his bag at his feet and with a careless movement pulled the chair across the table from her and dropped in it.
Astrid froze. Was she supposed to say something? Should he say something? Shit shit. What the fuck was he doing here? Had he come back to deliver that pending punch? Why wasn't he looking at her?
The girl's mind stammered, searching for a sharp, sarcastic comment to make, but she couldn't even open her mouth.
"What are you looking at?" the boy asked at last looking at her.
Astrid opened her mouth and closed it like a fish out of water.
There was no malicious or annoying tone in his voice, that just made her dizzy.
Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her, confused and slightly curious.
How surprised was she to see him? Gods, like it was the first time he had stepped on a library. Well, in the last three years.
He looked at the girl, still staring at him as if she were seeing a specter.
He wasn't used to seeing Hofferson like that, that confused and bothered him, he didn't know how to act with that Hofferson.
He rolled his eyes trying to lighten the mood and rested his arms on the table, smiling softly, he leaned back on his chair.
"I know I'm attractive, but could you control yourself during this hour blondie? We are in a public place" he commented dripping amusement.
He saw the girl blink and start working again.
She rolled her eyes loosening her posture and leaned against the table with a sharp gaze.
"You wish"
He hided his smile from her strangely relieved to see her again in her usual sarcastic and sharp attitude.
Astrid looked back at the closed book, reopening it, not knowing why she was more relaxed now, as if the two of them couldn't function without insults and sharp comments.
"Why are you here?"
Hiccup looked at her. There was no accusation or annoyance in her voice.
He raised an eyebrow and replied naturally. "You told me to come here"
They both knew it wasn't exactly like that, but Astrid didn't say anything.
"Unless you prefer me to leave and let your perfect mind do all on its own without my stupidity involved" Hiccup added with a shrug, suddenly annoyed and nervous for what she'd answer.
Astrid looked at him for a few seconds in silence that seemed eternal to the boy.
She finally lifted her book in front of him, and with an ease that surprised the boy by how heavy it seemed, she slid it across the table in one smooth motion. The book landed in front of him with a small noise.
Hiccup looked at it as if two heads had popped out. The girl rolled her eyes.
"Didn't you want to do something?" she asked rhetorically. She looked away from him and picked up another book next to her opening it "Find a section of Berk"
She notices his eyes on her a few seconds before, surprisingly, he concentrated on the book as she said. Well, she didn't expected that.
It was a few minutes before she heard a groan and the sound of a book being closed. Astrid raised her head to Hiccup, who with an annoyed look was pushing the book away.
"You finished it?"
"Yeah"
Astrid straightened up. "All of it?"
Hiccup rolled his eyes in annoyance. "What part of yeah didn't you understand? There's nothing about Berk in this one"
The girl already knew it, but of course, because of her fatigue and headache, she
wouldn't have read it right. Something should have gone beyond her in 2000 pages.
Before she could order him anything, Hiccup got up from his unkempt seat and walked to the bookshelf after him. She watched him look really concentrated among the natural sciences section, bending down to look at the lower shelves and reaching for the higher ones. Astrid stared at him, not knowing why she didn't continue with her own book.
She saw Hiccup pick up a book thats he managed to see that it was about Berk and sit back down as he perused it.
"That's a book about Berk"
Hiccup replied without looking at her, opening the book. "Wow, you can read. Congrats"
Astrid made an annoyed face. "You know what I mean"
"Yes, but then where would the fun be?" he commented with an amused smile
"In the big botanical books you won't find anything about Berk. This hell hole is so little known that you would have to search underground and you would still not find anything" his tone strangely more formal but without losing its playful touch.
"That's why you have to look in the books about Berk" he said with an obvious tone as if it were something that everyone knows, while he raised the cover of the book a little in his hands to show it to Astrid.
The girl read "Nature of Berk: wildlife and vegetation" Well, she had to admit it made sense.
"Crap, why didn't I think of it? " she thought aloud.
Astrid heard a genuine laugh from the boy. She raised her head in surprise realizing that she said it out loud. Thor ...
Strangely, Hiccup didn't say anything else, just kept turning the pages of the book with a small calm smile. Astrid blushed against her giving herself a good mental slap and tried to hide behind the biggest book she could catch.
She really was an expert at making a fool of herself, and in front of Haddock himself, no less.
Hiccup saw a faint shade of pink on the girl's pale cheeks from the corner of his eye and it felt strange. He thought that the girl / ice drum was incapable of displaying human emotions, less of blushing.
It was strangely ... cute ...
Damn it.
He felt his cheeks heat up and he quickly refocused on what he was reading with a frown.
Gods, that quarter was going to be the end of him...
The rest of the afternoon flowed in a strange way.
The occasional sarcastic comment to annoy the other back and forth, but Hiccup actually helped her.
That was new. And fuck her, the boy was intelligent.
He knew things that she would have had to go through in a book several times, he catched things very quickly and easily and he was good at organizing.
Astrid had always known that the chestnut at least was not as stupid as his friends, who practically never set foot in a classroom.
Hiccup almost always appeared in class, and although she never saw him pick up a pen, he always kept passing the grade.
That boy was a total mystery to Astrid.
Ignoring the fact that Hiccup had turned out to be smarter than she thought, they managed to advance the work much more than Astrid would have done on her own, but of course, she wouldn't tell him. Like, never.
Hiccup found that miss perfect wasn't as bossy as he expected and she really let him participate. And most importantly, she wasn't that perfect at everything.
That made a goofy smile catch on his lips. He would be reminding her that for the rest of his days.
Except for some uncomfortable stomach heaves when something reminded them of the incident a few hours ago on the road, they managed to survive the rest of the afternoon without killing each other.
They continued working until the librarian practically kicked them out when the sun was already beginning to set in the sky.
They both left the high school confused by how quickly the afternoon passed. Not knowing how to say goodbye or if they should say goodbye, Astrid broke the awkward silence and acted faster.
"See you tomorrow Haddock"
Hiccup smiled back with a mocking tone "See you tomorrow Hofferson"
The boy saw the blonde start going down the stairs, he began to go down after her approaching his motorcycle in the opposite direction from the girl, when he heard a horn and a deep and rough voice from Astrid's side.
"You, girl!"
Both Hiccup and Astrid turned to the badly parked old green chipped van by the street. The boy saw Astrid make a grin and push her gaze away annoyed.
Hiccup, still walking, like Astrid, watched the big, muscular man, bald and with a long scar across his chin sitting at the wheel of the van, his dark eyes fixed on the blonde as did his frown frowning and impatient gaze.
Hiccup raised an eyebrow. He was the kind of stranger that parents told children to stay away from. Even the beat-up van fit the description.
He would have said something if he hadn't seen the recognition on Astrid's face. He was confused. Was that his father?
Because they weren't alike even in the whites of the eyes. Maybe a friend of her parents or something?
Astrid walked steadily and clearly annoyed toward the street. Hiccup didn't lose sight of her, a feeling of unease deep in his stomach for that man, as he reached for his bike and pulled out the keys.
"What are you doing here?" Astrid's voice strained and clearly not happy to see him.
He heard the man spitting out the window before replying in a careless and raspy voice "Isn't it obvious? Your mother sent me to pick you up, get in and stop complaining girl"
Then it was her father. Wow. Well, who was he to question genes when his father was his father.
"I told you not to stop by my school" he heard Astrid as she crossed her arms irritated, he could notice a tone of nervousness in her voice that made him stay in his place.
"Ungrateful girl" the man raised his voice impatiently "Get in the fucking car before I fucking kick you in!"
Hiccup widened his eyes, what the hell ...?
"No. You don't command me, Jerry, I'll walk back. I'm not going home anyway" she said with a firm tone starting to walk.
Hiccup connected the dots. The bad feeling starting to grow.
The man gave her a furious growl and opened the car door with a brutal movement that echoed through the street. The man stood next to the car, his face red and his muscles tense, Hiccup was a bit startled by how tall and pissed he looked.
"Don't talk to me like that bitch, GET IN THE FUCKING CAR!" he blurted out spitting saliva.
Hiccup made the gesture of going to Astrid inadvertently in case things started to get out of hand. Who the fuck was that man? How did he talk to Astrid like that?
To his surprise, before he could even get away from his motorcycle and cross the street, Astrid walked to the van with a withering look, yanked open the back door, and slammed the door inside.
Hiccup was stuck not knowing what to do. He had never seen the blonde obey like this. He didn't like it.
The boy watched as the man, Jerry, a little calmer, got into the car with the same door slam, until it started the car and the van began to disappear down the road.
Shit. Was he supposed to do something? Should he follow them? Astrid didn't look good, and neither did that man.
A feeling of guilt and nervousness fell over him like a heavy stone.
Damn Astrid Hofferson always confusing him.