=Astrid's POV=
{Wednesday, October 13, 2021-12:15 pm}
(Archian Preparatory)
"Guys…Don't do it," I warned Eret, Gruffnut, and Thuggory when I overheard them talking about how to get Hiccup removed as our Dragon Class trainer.
"Come on, Astrid. I don't care how good he is…" Thuggory muttered.
"He's only seventeen, and shouldn't be qualified to teach a course," Eret grumbled. "We won't do anything that will get him killed, or seriously injured," he added. I groaned, sighing.
"You better not, and if this goes sour…I'm not involved," I remarked, going back to eating my salad and drinking the water bottle beside it. This had been going on for eight days since we returned to school after learning that Hiccup lived at Berkian Estates because the property belonged to his family, and had for centuries. My friends hated that Hiccup had all he did, especially that they basically got rejected by Hiccup when my group asked him to join us as one of the popular crowd. According to Hiccup; he didn't want fake friends, which all of us took offense to. In Hiccup's eyes; he had real friendships with Snotlout, Fishlegs, Heather, Minden, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut. Also, Hiccup insinuated that my friends would toss one of us aside if we no longer fit in with the group. Of course, we denied this allegation, but unfortunately, there was hesitation when the others said that Hiccup was wrong.
So, Monday the 4th; we all met in the library to put together that history report. Hiccup made an excellent presentation folder for it, then put everything in order according to the timeline bit he gave is to work on. Hiccup turned it in first period, and we got our grade by Thursday, the 7th. Shockingly enough, we ended up with an overall score of eighty-nine. However, my friends were still trying to give Hiccup a hard time. All last week was bullying him more than usual, and just him too, not his friends. Gruffnut, Thuggory, and Eret would take their chances to shove into him, which would make his books fall to the ground, or they'd just make comments during the classes we all had together to try and set Hiccup off. Though, it didn't appear to do all that much because Hiccup had one hell of a lid on his temper if he had one at all. I've never seen the guy get mad about anything. Honestly, I think that's why my friends are trying to do; piss Hiccup off.
Today, the girls seemed to be on board with Thuggory and Eret about getting Hiccup removed as the teacher for Dragon Training. There had been a change there too. We had finished Tidal Class last Friday, and now, Hiccup changed our next classification from doing Strike to Stoker. We began that on Monday of this week, and today should be the Monstrous Nightmare. I overheard the plan too; they wanted to rile up one of the dragons to get aggressive with Hiccup and show Principal Meatsen that Hiccup wasn't qualified to handle the class if he couldn't even get a dragon under control. Somehow; I had a feeling this would go horribly wrong, and I didn't want to be on the receiving end of the consequences when it did. Hiccup might be a sarcastic, know-it-all, but he's a good guy, I mean, come on; Hiccup is wealthy but doesn't let it go to his head. Hiccup has a girlfriend who he's been with for two years and a daughter. Hiccup can sing, teach, game, and work a full-time job on top of attending High School. Also, I didn't mind Hiccup as the trainer; he's very good at it. Personally; it was impressive that Hiccup was our age and knew all this information about dragons.
No. I would not be getting involved in this sabotage.
. . .
{2:25 pm}
(DT Field)
Half-way through class, I saw my friends start getting ready to put their plan into action. As expected; we were working with a Monstrous Nightmare, male, that was red, little orange, and black with a white under-belly. According to Hiccup; Nightmares were cocky, and extremely aggressive just like most of the Stoker Class dragons. This is how Hiccup did his course with us; we'd be in one classification, and working on each dragon from it through the week. Sometimes we could do one dragon, or occasionally; it would be two. Hiccup would spend the first half of the hour teaching us stats about the dragon, and the second would be a little more hands-on. Stoker Class had eleven dragons, technically it was twelve but according to Hiccup; there would be one dragons we couldn't see other than assumed drawings. Red Death is a Stoker Class, and it's a massive beast that lives inside the corona of a volcano. Apparently, it can create some homing signal to control lesser dragons under it.
So far, we've done five out of the eleven, and when we finished Nightmare; it would be six. Hiccup hoped we'd be done with Stoker at the earliest of next week, then we'd be moving on to Boulder. After that was Sharp, and finally, Strike. Hiccup needed us done with these classifications by the end of December, because as soon as we came back from Snoggletog break; it would be Midterms, and all of this was going to be on it. Midterm Week would be January 3rd to January 7th. Each day would hold about two exams per. Except Dragon Training; that was one day, unknown which yet, where we would be with Hiccup all day to get through the midterm as it involved a written and physical test. As I said, Hiccup is a good teacher, and I didn't think changing trainers when we're this close to finishing is a good idea. I cast my friends one more glance, almost pleading them not to do it, but they only grinned. I knew I could stop this if I warned Hiccup, but what would that do to my relationships with Camicazi, Ragna, Nadia, Gruffnut, who isn't in this course, Thuggory, and my boyfriend, Eret? It would ruin everything, so I just have to hope that this didn't come back to haunt me.
"Now, you are each going to get a chance to come over here and earn this guy's trust," Hiccup instructed. I bit my bottom lip as we all got up to move from our seats and get to see the Nightmare up close.
"I'll go first, Hiccup," Ragna offered.
"Very well then," Hiccup nodded. Ragna worked on gaining the Monstrous Nightmare's trust as Eret got ready to strike. However, Dagur was lurking around the group, watching us closely and Eret knew he couldn't do anything with Dagur so close. Ragna did fine, stepping back after the dragon was calm with her. Next up was Fishlegs, then Heather. Camicazi and Snotlout were after those two. Eret got his chance, then Minden, Nadia, and Thuggory. Finally, it was my turn just as the clock was going on 2:45 pm. "Come on, Astrid," he invited. I made my way towards the dragon, stepping slow with my hands up to show I didn't have anything I could hurt him with.
"I can't get a clear shot with Dagur around," Eret groaned.
"We'll take care of him," Nadia stated as she stepped closer to Heather, fake-tripping to make Heather fall.
"Ow! What's your problem?!" Heather scolded. Dagur went to help her as Eret pulled back his slingshot and got the Nightmare in the head with a rock, small, but I knew what they were going for, then quickly hid his weapon. The Nightmare growled and snarled, flaming up and staring right at me.
"Idiot!" Thuggory smacked Eret. "Astrid's right there!"
"Shit," Eret gulped. I stood frozen in fear almost as I saw the Nightmare prepare to fire at me. Without warning, I felt myself get shoved out of the way and hit the ground. I heard Hiccup yell in pain as I quickly looked to see Hiccup over me.
Did he save me? I wondered. I saw Hiccup breathing heavy as if he were trying to work through the pain. Then I remembered the Nightmare had been about to shoot his fire out. My eyes widened. Was Hiccup burned?
"Dagur! Get these guys back!" Hiccup called, getting up from the ground. I quickly scrambled back as Hiccup tried to calm the dragon down. I saw the back of his uniform. Scorched, and slightly burned through leaving slight marks on his back. My friends really fucked up this time; it was going too far to do this, and I should have stopped it. "Alright, easy now big guy…" Hiccup attempted. The Nightmare snarled at him, trying to snap his jaws over Hiccup's hand. Thankfully, Hiccup pulled it back in time. It didn't appear that Hiccup was fairing so well in his usual methods. I watching Hiccup get tail-whipped by the Nightmare into the wall of the stables. Hiccup got the wind knocked out of him and seemed out of it slightly. Hiccup shook his head, forcing himself to try and get up.
"Hiccup! You alright, man?" Dagur asked quickly.
"Y-Yeah…M'fine…" Hiccup managed with a hand on his head, then rising to his feet. I glared at my friends; they promised Hiccup wouldn't get severely hurt, and it didn't appear this Nightmare was backing off or calming down. Hiccup faced the dragon, who tried to repeat the same move by whipping his tail to knock Hiccup back, but Hiccup jumped over it. The Nightmare slammed his head into Hiccup's front, causing the back to hit the stables hard again. I saw Hiccup wince in pain, cringing at how it felt. Hiccup's hands moved to the dragon's horns as he tried to push them back so he could get himself out. Three more times the Nightmare slammed Hiccup into the wall; it began to splinter as Hiccup hissed at the pain and the last one was hard enough for Hiccup's body to seemingly go limp.
"Oh, my Gods! Hiccup!" Heather nearly cried. It was this moment that my friends realized what their so-called simple idea had done. Enraged a Monstrous Nightmare into such a state that Hiccup couldn't handle, and now, he was hurt and appeared unconscious. However, what we didn't expect was to hear grunting and heavy breaths being taken. Our eyes snapped to the stable where Hiccup was using brute strength to push the Nightmare's head back and away from him. While doing this, Hiccup got his feet flat on the wall; using this to drive the head back more until he was holding the horns and glaring down at the Nightmare. Hiccup bent his knees, then shoved off the wall, pulling the Nightmare's horns to the ground.
Instantly, the Nightmare's fire-encased body powered down and the dragon laid there entirely calm once more with his tongue sticking out of his mouth. Hiccup panted hard as he released the horns and struggled to hold his balance. Hiccup's hands were burned, he was cut, and looked to be in a lot of pain. Hiccup's arm wrapped around his midsection. I could tell he was hurt. Hiccup's knees buckled slightly as Dagur ran over and caught Hiccup before he hit the ground unconscious.
"Hiccup?..." Dagur asked, then shook Hiccup a little. "Hiccup?!" No response. Hiccup was out. Snotlout went over to help as Dagur got his cell phone, dialing three digits, then pressing it to his ear. "I need an ambulance at Archian Preparatory's Dragon Training Field for the who was severely injured against a Monstrous Nightmare, and currently unconscious," Dagur said. I felt my heart clench up. "Thrown into a wall, hands burned slightly scratched and cut up, slammed against the wall four times…And yes, he's still breathing," Dagur informed. "I'll stay on the line until paramedics arrive," he added, holding the phone between his shoulder and ear.
. . .
I don't know what happened to Hiccup after 3 pm; the last thing I was able to see when the bell rang was an ambulance reaching the field and three paramedics, plus Thuggory's dad rushing over to Hiccup, who was still unconscious. My friends and I entered the parking lot, worried. I hoped I'd find out more tomorrow, but for now, this day was over, and all I could do was pray that Hiccup would be alright, and it wasn't anything severe or my friends were going to be in serious trouble if it ever got out that they planned this entire thing.
"Yo, what happened?" Gruffnut asked, coming beside the group.
"We fucked up," Thuggory said.
"Yes, you did. And I told you not to go through with it. I get you wanted to make him look incompetent, but you went too far. Now, Hiccup is being taken away by ambulance because he's actually hurt, and we don't even know how bad. You better hope and pray Hiccup is okay, and that no one saw what happened or we're all in trouble." I got in my car and drove off to leave the grounds. I watched the ambulance zip by, instantly feeling nervous about the situation.
