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Chapter 8:

The next day, I dreaded going to school. What would I do? All I could remember were Jay's frantic, searching eyes, the way he took comfort in my name. The vulnerable Jay. Then my traitorous mind would remind me of the way he had pressed against me, how he had said my name, and I would fumble what I was doing and flush red.

When I arrived at school, though, nothing had changed. I don't know what I had expected to be different, but the only evidence that I had not dreamt the whole thing was the wink that had the girls in the vicinity swoon (DEFININITELY not including me), and a note Jay slipped me. Sighing, I unfolded the [piece of paper and read the message inside.

'I'm sensing Deja vú. Meet me same place, same time after school, and this time, O fair maiden, don't run from your Prince in Shining Armour ;)'

All through maths I stared at him, along with with the majority of the female population, as well As a few of the male. Jay was either oblivious to the attention, which I highly doubted, or just ignoring it. Even though he was paying attention to the words of the teacher, he appeared rather bored; playing with a pencil and tapping his foot impatiently. Of course; Hiccup had been the smartest in class. Eyes tracked his movements, including my own. The way is slim fingers played with a pencil, then brought it to paper at he sketched something. His eyebrows furrowed as he stared at his drawing, tilting his head to the side in an animalistic gesture, before bringing the pen to his mouth. I watched in fascination as he sucked on the end of the pen in concentration, before coming to some conclusion and sketching in a detail. His tongue peeked out to wet his lips and I found myself unconsciously copying the action, moistening my own.

After a while, my traitorous mind connected the image of Jay with the events that had transpired the evening before. The way he had pressed against me had let me feel every part of him, especially in his biking leathers which were sent from either a God or a devil. I was starting to think it was the latter.

The rest of the period was spent remembering the sensation of Jay's breath on the shell of my ear, as was the period after that, and recess, in which Jay continued to stay elusive. Then it was PE again.

To my despair, I realised that in my rush this morning, I had packed my older, smaller uniform. But I decided to use that to my advantage. Operation: Catch Jay's Attention, commence.

I may or may not have spent a couple of minutes extra in the change rooms, trying to make the uniform do what it's best at; catch eyes. When I left, I could feel more gazes land on me than usual, and smirked, knowing I had succeeded. I always despised girls for doing the sort of thing I just did, mentally calling them names and wondering why they would want to look like a piece of meat, all wrapped up with a bow. I hated the attention I got from all the boys and told myself I just did it to look pretty, but deep down I knew I wanted to attract the attention of a certain auburn-haired young man. Sauntering up to the stairs, I took a seat next to Ruffnut, just below Jay and turned to face Gobber as he explained the lesson for today; the obstacle course.

Unlike last, however, this activity proved uneventful. It was a simple matter of climbing through tunnels, up rope ladders, across balancing beams, and many other obstacles. I, along with many others, kept a sharp eye on Jay for any extraordinary behaviour, but today he blended in with the rest of the class.

Finally, it was my turn, and I started with confidence. It was pretty easy, especially for an athletic girl like myself, and I breezed through with little trouble. As I neared the end of the course, I peered through a tunnel at the faces of my class, staring expectantly at me. I got onto my hands and knees, sighing, and proceeded to crawl though. But the new position must have finally been enough for my old uniform, and with a rough ripping sound, it split down the seam. With a cry, I staggered out of the tunnel, clutching the remains of my shirt to my chest. The action just caused it to tear further, the material falling away to reveal my sports bra. I could see the inner conflict on everyone's faces; the urge to laugh, fear of what I would do if they did, and slight pity. I was frozen, as was everyone else, until a girl pressed against Jay and said in a whisper that carried around the silent room, "See THAT'S the most popular girl in the school. Just ignore her, sit with me instead." She winked. Everyone started laughing, and Eret stood up, pointing at me.

"Pathetic! No wonder her mother left her, who in their right mind wouldn't?"

My face was on fire, and I ducked my head in shame, fighting the tears pricking at the back of my eyelids. Hoffersons didn't cry. So, I missed the low growl and look of distain Jay shot the class, as he stood up and fetched something by his feet. The next thing I knew, a warm jacket was draped over my shoulders and I looked up to see his emerald eyes looking at me softly.

"It's all right," he murmured. "Come on, let's get out of here."

His hands wrapped his jacket tighter around me and he started leading me from the room. I followed numbly, vaguely realising that everyone had stopped laughing, but all I could do was cling to Jay as he pulled me close and words whispered in my ear. I didn't want his pity, but as the dull roaring in my ears slowed down, I heard his words, crooned over and over again.

"I understand."

With a jolt, I realised I was in the changing rooms, the cold metal bench biting into my bare thighs. I was pressed against Jay's side with his jacket wrapped around me, covering my ruined shirt. 'Pathetic.' 'No wonder her mother left her.' The words echoed in my head, and I couldn't hold it in any more. I burst into tears. The warm liquid flowed down my cheeks, but Jay just hugged e tighter and rubbed soothing circles across my back. My tears soaked into his shirt as I buried my head into his chest, but he didn't seem to mind. He sat there, offering his silent support.

"I'm sorry," I finally choked out. "Y-you must think I'm weak, a-and-" I broke off with a hiccup, and finally looked up into Jay's eyes. He just smiled.

"It's all right. You feel better?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

But then my eyes burned again, and I choked on a sob. His hand began rubbing my back again.

"Crying is not a sign of weakness, you know. I used to think it was. But then I left, and discovered many new things, about everything! It's natural to cry, and you'll feel better afterwards."

Guilt coursed through me as I remembered why Jay would have cried.

"I'm sorry. For everything."

He just smiled his soft smile and pulled me closer until I rested y head on his shoulder. I don't know how long we sat like that for, but I felt safe. Looking around, I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"This is the girls' changing rooms."

"How observant of you." His dry humour was familiar, and I huffed a laugh, before pouting.

"You shouldn't be here."

"I shouldn't."

"Are you going to leave?"

The room? Probably. You? Never. You're cute when you pout, you know."

My cheeks heated for what seemed like the thousandth time today, and I punched him in the arm. My fist hit solid muscle and I reigned in a curse, resisting the urge to shake my hand out. How did he become so strong?

"Am not!"

He just smiled. "There's the Astrid I know. I'll see you this afternoon, okay?"

Before I could protest, he stood up and slipped out of the door. There was the pounding of feet and Heather came running into the room, shouting something over her shoulder to Ruffnut, who appeared behind her. Blocking out their concerned questions, all I could do was stare at the spot Jay had just left.

A/N: Hey guys, I'm so sorry I didn't update sooner. I know I promised I would, and I've been really late. I made this chapter a bit longer because of it and will try to upload again by next week. Keyword: try. I'm not really happy with this chapter, I don't think I got Astrid's personality right, but I couldn't help writing some sappy Hiccstrid. In earlier chapters, I focused on how Hiccup/Jay has changed and how cool and hot he is and blah blah blah, but then I realised I was almost taking away the part why we all love him; his dorky, sarcastic kindness. So please please review. As I said in the A/N I uploaded last, a close friend of mine has recently passed. You all don't know how much it means to me for all the encouraging responses I received, thank you so much. I mean it. The challenges now are not going to be trivia, but more personal. ish.

Challenge #1: What is your favourite thing about Hiccstrid? I would like to try and focus on what you think is important in their relationship.

Challenge #2: I'm really curious about the age group of everyone reading my fic, could you tell me your age? It can be specific, vague, or you don't have to if you don't want to. I realise it might be a little personal.