She was gonna explode. She was hyperventilating, and she was about to explode, and there was no one to help her, so Astrid or Elsa would have to find her cold corpse when they came back to their room. Was she exaggerating? Maybe, but just a little.

Violet paced back and forth, repeatedly circling the entire area of the dorm room as that scene kept playing in her head. She was so trapped inside her own head that, at some point, she tripped on an uneven tile and almost fell on her face. Groaning, she dropped herself on the bed and hugged a pillow to her chest. She closed her eyes, previous happenings flooding her mind.

"What the fuck?" she had hissed as she and Jack spied on Hiccup and Astrid from behind the wall.

"Yes!" Jack had thrown a fist in the air in triumph. "You go, Hofferson!"

Violet couldn't believe her eyes. Had she missed something? Why was she the only one surprised there? "She kissed him."

"Fuck yeah she did!" Jack roared in laughter.

"You knew she was gonna kiss him, didn't you? That's why you all been acting so weird."

"I did not. I mean, I was hoping there'd be a kiss. Wasn't expecting her to be the one to do it, though." They peeked from behind the wall again, and things seemed to have progressed greatly between the entangled lovebirds. "Whoo, you get her, tiger! YES!"

Violet straightened up, shaking her head. "You're an idiot. I need someone with a brain to talk to."

"Now that's just rude."

"I need Elsa."

"Wait—where are you going?"

And so she had left the idiot and had returned to her room in hopes of finding her friend—but Elsa wasn't there! The blonde's bags were nowhere to be found, and her side of the room remained pristinely untouched, which meant Elsa hadn't arrived in the Academy yet.

So Violet found herself alone with all those emotions eating her insides and making her head spin. She had an overload of frantic energy and no outlet, and she felt like she was gonna explode.

Thus, her pacing.

She was losing her goddamn mind, and in her panicked state, she started to wonder if she should go look for Jack. The company of a dumbass like him was the tiniest bit better than being stuck alone with her thoughts. Yeah. She made up her mind. She would give Elsa another ten minutes, then she would go find Jack.

Ten minutes.

She checked the time on her phone and waited. And waited. And waited, and waited. The ten minutes passed, then fifteen, then half an hour… but no sign of Elsa. She screamed into her pillow until all the air left her lungs, and her ears started to ring. She lost track of time.

Not soon enough, she heard the door opening, and Violet almost fell from her bed in a panic.

"WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?" Violet shouted as she watched Elsa wheeling her luggage inside.

"Oh, forgive me," Elsa said with a mocking glare in the brunette's direction. "I wasn't aware my arrival was supposed to be scheduled."

Violet crossed her arms. "Now's not the time for you to get sassy with me, missy."

Elsa chuckled as she made her way to her side of the room. "How was your vacation, Violet?"

"Elsa! Be serious!"

The blonde stared at the other girl with raised eyebrows. "What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing." Violet rolled her shoulders back. "But you're not gonna believe what's gotten into your friend Astrid." She frowned as she considered the words that came out of her mouth. "I mean her mouth. Into her mouth... Ew."

Elsa looked at her as if Violet was demented. And in hindsight, Violet couldn't blame her friend for thinking that. "What in the world are you talking about?"

Violet closed her eyes and breathed in slowly. Carefully, she said, "Try to guess what happened today."

"You found out you have superpowers and your parents are actually undercover heroes?" the blonde suggested, making the other groan.

"Yeah. That's exactly what happened." Violet threw her arms in the air exasperatedly. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Elsa chuckled, shaking her head. "Sorry. What is it?"

She added a dramatic pause for good measure, then announced, "Astrid and Hiccup kissed."

Elsa's reaction wasn't what Violet expected. Sure, Elsa looked surprised, and her eyes widened, and she bit her lips for a quick moment, but everything was so… dull. Definitely not the appropriate amount of shock she expected after such a bombastic revelation.

"Really?" the blonde asked.

"Yes, really," Violet hissed. "Your dear companions who you've known for years—do the names Astrid Hofferson and Hiccup Haddock ring any bells?" She rolled her eyes. "Your fucking friends were swapping saliva in the middle of the hallway in front of the entire school, and that's your only response? Really?"

Elsa's eyebrows furrowed. "Can you drop the snark?"

"Can you at least pretend to be surprised?" She snarled, then realized what the off-putting-something in the situation was. "Wait, why the hell aren't you surprised? You knew about it too?"

"I didn't," Elsa replied. "... 'Too'?"

Violet waved the question off with a nonchalant hand. "Frost knew something was happening, but he was all secretive about it."

"Was he now?"

"Yeah, I think Hiccup asked him to keep"—she gestured with her arms—"whatever was happening a secret."

Elsa hummed, sitting on the edge of her bed. "And our maiden-in-love dear? Where is she?"

"Probably making out with her new boyfriend somewhere. I had to share the news with you, so I didn't really stick around."

Elsa giggled. "Thanks, I appreciate your consideration."

And as if her name had been summoned in a pagan ritual, the door slowly opened, and Astrid walked in casually. "Hey, Elsa. Welcome back," the girl said, going to her desk.

"Happy to be back," Elsa said as the two girls carefully watched Astrid's movements.

Probably sensing the attention on her, Astrid turned on her heels and glared at her friends. "What are you looking at?"

"What do you think?" Violet grunted back. "How long do you plan to keep quiet about it?"

"Keep quiet about what?"

Violet groaned, going to sit on Astrid's bed. "Don't play dumb, Hofferson. You're a terrible actress."

Elsa chuckled and had to cover it with a cough at the death glares she received from the other two girls. Making her way to her friend's bed as well, she gently said, "I think Violet is asking about you and Hiccup kissing."

"And don't you dare deny it," Violet snarled. "I saw it."

Astrid's eyes narrowed even more. "And of course you already told Elsa."

"Don't try to make this about me, young lady."

Astrid let herself fall on her chair and leaned back, staring at the ceiling. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Did it really happen, or was Violet hallucinating?" Elsa wondered mockingly.

Violet hit the platinum-blonde with a pillow. "Hey!"

"Hm…" Astrid rubbed a hand across her face. "Not a hallucination."

"Ha!" Violet shouted triumphantly. "So what happened?"

Astrid shrugged. "You were there, you saw what happened."

Violet scowled with disgust. She lied down on the bed but continued to stare at the blonde. "Not what I was talking about. What I wanted to know was what led you to do it. Not that I'm judging you. I mean, sure, I have the right to after all the shade you threw at me after Wilbur but—"

"Didn't you want Astrid to tell her story?" Elsa asked, placing a hand on Violet's thigh to stop the brunette's rambling.

Violet closed her mouth, and the two looked expectantly at Astrid. The latter groaned, pulling her phone out and offering it to the others.

"It'll be faster if I show you," Astrid mumbled, staring at her shoes.

Violet took the device and looked at the message chat Astrid had put on the screen for them.

How would you feel if I tried to kiss you next time we met?

And she couldn't stop the laugh that came out of her mouth as she read the text. "Oh, wow. Looks like Hiccup has balls after all."

"Violet!" Elsa reprimanded indignantly.

Astrid snorted, rolling her head back. "Yeah, that's debatable."

"Hold on…" Violet's eyes were full of incredulity as she looked at Astrid. "How far did you two go already?"

"Oh my God!" Elsa cried, but Astrid didn't seem to understand the meaning behind those words.

"What do you—" And comprehension hit her a moment too late. "That's not what I'm talking about!" Astrid jumped up, mouth opening and closing flabbergasted. "I-I meant he chickened out and started mumbling a bunch of nonsense, and I got tired of it, so I shut him up."

Elsa frowned confused. "You shut him up?"

"I punched him."

Elsa gasped. "You punched him?"

"And then she kissed him," Violet added, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Yeah, that too."

Elsa leaned forward on her elbows and exhaustedly rubbed her temples. "Oh my God…"

Violet chuckled, watching the distress on her friend's face. "Well, I, for one, feel ecstatic right now."

Astrid looked at the brunette with an arched eyebrow. "About?"

"Our lovely Astrid enamored of Hiccup, the most adorkable person in the world."

Silence fell over them, and Astrid's eyes slowly narrowed. And then narrowed some more. The blonde let out a chortled breath, a hand brushing down her hair. "Fuck," she hissed and looked back at her friends.

"You think it's too late to take it back?"

Andy's eyes started to blur. All the numbers he had been scribbling in that piece of paper jumbled together, and he was having a hard time trying to make sense of them. He dropped his pencil on the desk and rubbed his eyes with a groan.

"I need coffee," he grumbled.

"Didn't you just buy one?" Jack asked.

Andy turned on his chair to glare at his friend. The silverhead was stacking dozens and dozens of hand-size packets in different piles on his bed.

"Do you know how long it took me to get here from my grandmother's house?" Andy asked. "Six and a half hours! I don't need you regulating my caffeine consumption right now, Frost."

"More like your caffeine addiction, Davis," Jack scoffed.

Andy pointedly rolled his eyes before returning to his hunched position over his desk.

"How is she, by the way?" the silverhead asked. "Your grandma."

Andy hummed as he ran his eyes through his notes. "Healthy as ever. She and Mom spent the first few days arguing because the old lady wasn't resting like her doctor ordered. But she's fine now."

Jack chuckled. "That's good to hear. You think we have enough ammo?"

Andy looked around at the small towers of paper boxes and the assortment of plastic bottles they had gathered. Their room looked like a damn recycling facility. "I guess," Andy mumbled with a shrug. "Honestly, how did you two idiots come up with this idea?"

"We wanted to use the pool, but Hiccup read that risks of drowning were high, so we had to settle for something less dangerous."

Andy snorted. Despite him not being able to attend their annual summer summit, he had been informed thoroughly of the two knuckleheads' ideas, and, being a vital part of their operations, had been put in charge of logistics. Which also meant that Andy was in charge of making sure that they were not caught, and that they didn't accidentally explode the school in the process.

"I don't know," Andy mumbled. "The danger of your updated plan still feels a little high."

"At least no one is drowning this way." The silverhead scowled. "At least I hope not."

"Gross," Andy mumbled disgusted. He waved the piece of paper with his annotations and asked, "By the way, are you sure we don't need to ask Hiro for help? Feels like a lot of work."

Jack shook his head. "No. The more people we have wandering around campus at night, the easier it will be for us to get busted." He leaned back on his arms. "Besides, Baby Hiro would rant about our incompetence and would not stop complaining about dirtying his hands."

"He could also come up with a way to synchronize all toilets to flush at once with the pressing of a button."

Jack let out a snort. "Yeah. Where's the fun in that?"

Andy sighed, leaning back on his chair. "You know, practicality doesn't always have to equal fun—"

The door clicked, interrupting their conversation, and Jack cursed under his breath as he and Andy rushed to hide their preparations. They hurriedly threw a blanket over the silverhead's bed and jumped over it, trying to look casual as edges of cardboard pierced their bodies.

Andy grabbed a notebook from the nightstand and flipped it open, pretending to read as cold sweat ran down his spine at the imminence of being caught red-handed. He held his breath as he watched the door slowly sliding open, and a sigh of relief left his mouth as the beautiful face of the one and only Hiccup Haddock came inside.

"Oh, it's just you, Third," Jack mumbled, letting himself fall on the bed.

Hiccup rolled his eyes as he walked toward the other two. "Good to see you too, asshole."

Jack propped his chin up by his hands and grinned at the auburn-haired boy. "Hey there, handsome."

Hiccup narrowed his eyes with suspicion. "Hi…" With a bit more warmth, he turned to his other friend. "Hello, Andrew."

"Hey, Hics." Andy chuckled and casually added, "Word on the street is that you kissed the girl."

Jack scoffed. "Yeah, and it only took him what? Six years, all his pride and a whole lot of scheming."

Hiccup pulled a chair and sagged down on it while sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, and Andy shook his head reprimanding. "Don't be an ass, Frost."

"Sorry." The silverhead winked, jumping on his feet and hooking an arm around Hiccup's neck. "I'm legit happy for you. My beautiful boy!"

"Cut that off, dumbass!" Hiccup cried, shoving the silverhead away.

Jack laughed, throwing the blanket off his bed and dragging an empty bag to the bed's end. "I can't help it, I'm so proud of you."

Getting back to work, the three boys started organizing the packages inside the bag like the perfectly oiled machine that they were.

"Is this everything?" Hiccup asked as they finished stocking their last bag.

"Pretty much." Jack looked around with his hands on his hips. "Get ready, boys. We strike tonight."

"Whoa—tonight?" Andy asked with a frown. "Why the rush? Can't we do it tomorrow?"

Jack rolled his eyes and threw a glare full of contempt in the other guy's direction. "No, we can't, Andrew. Because this is our senior year, and we're gonna start it with a bang."

"Yeah, and I'm all up for going along with the plan," Andy revealed exasperatedly. "Just not today. I'm beat and could really use some good hours of sleep."

Jack's eyebrows furrowed confused. "What are you talking about? We've been working on it until now."

Andy sighed. "Look. You wanted this to be a three men operation—"

"So you're blaming me—"

Andy pointed a finger in the silverhead's direction, shutting the latter up. "You put me in charge of logistics, and I'm giving it to you. Now shut up and listen."

As Jack glowered at him in silence, Andy cleared his throat and continued, "Hitting all locations is gonna take hours. Not only they are many and widely spread, we also have to move with caution. This is a stealth mission, and honestly, I don't even know if we can do it in one single night!"

The silverhead burst out laughing. "Slow down, Captain Glass-Half-Empty." He exchanged glances with Hiccup while pointing at Andy with his thumb. "Can you believe this guy?"

"Actually, Jack, I agree with—"

"Not you too…" Jack grumbled, tugging on his hair and shaking his head. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Hiccup flinched. "Hey, I think you're being dumb, but I'd still do it tonight—"

"Then why, you traitor?" Jack snarled, crossing his arms.

"Violet told me to meet her after dinner."

Jack's eyes narrowed, and he said through gritted teeth, "Tell her you'll meet her tomorrow."

"She said it was non-reschedulable."

Andy snorted. "Are you in trouble, Haddock?"

Hiccup shrugged. "Not that I'm aware of—"

"You two can go fuck yourselves, you assholes!" Jack shouted, kicking the nearest bag and spreading its content across the floor.

"Will you calm down?" Andy pleaded, shaking his head. "It's not like we're abandoning you."

"Yeah, we're just postponing it. And one day can't even be considered postponing—"

"Third, you better shut up right now," the silverhead hissed, "or I'm punching your pretty face."

"Jack, please," Andy tried to hold the other guy's arm, but Jack pulled himself free as he made his way to the door.

"I'm done with you two," the silverhead roared.

"Where are you going?" Hiccup asked.

"Out!"

With his ultimatum, Jack slammed the door after himself, leaving the other two guys trapped in unsettling silence.

Letting out the longest sigh possible, Hiccup dropped on his knees and started collecting the packages scattered across the floor. Andy immediately joined him, and together, the two boys finished cleaning up their friend's mess. They worked quietly, their minds occupied with their own thoughts.

After Jack's leaving, neither of them managed to utter another word.