Inside a bathroom stall, Jack struggled to hold a flashlight between his teeth as he unscrewed a plastic bottle in the dark. Not to risk being caught out of bed after curfew, he had stuck layers of tape to the flashlight's head to keep the light to a minimum—just enough to ensure that he would not trip down some goddamn stairs and break his neck.

He emptied the bottle's content in the toilet vase, the splashing sound echoing loudly in the eerie darkness, and then stirred it with the wooden rod he had procured in the gardening shed earlier that afternoon. Satisfied with the consistency, he tapped the excess of water out and headed to the next stall, pulling a new bottle from the bag slung across his shoulder.

He had lost count of how many times he had repeated the same steps, but he had done it enough times for his mind to feel comfortable going into autopilot mode without him realizing. Damn, he was so tired. He blinked repeatedly, eyes keeping shut for a little longer each time. His eyelids felt heavy, and Jack had to resist the urge to lean against the stall's door. He was pretty sure that if he gave his body the tiniest bit of rest, he would end up dozing off, and down the drain, the plain would go. Quite literally.

Jack was about to open the next bottle when the screeching of the bathroom's door opening made him stop in his track. He immediately snapped awake, his bloodstream being bombarded with a sudden rush of adrenaline. He clicked his flashlight off and got up on the toilet, holding onto the opposite walls for support. He decided not to risk closing the door the rest of the way and held his breath, listening carefully, wary of any action outside his stall.

A flash of white light crossed the space, and footsteps tapped against the tiles as someone walked inside. He was doomed.

Panic overtook him, and Jack had to close his eyes as he felt his frantic heartbeat in his ears. He tried to come up with background stories that would explain him being out of bed, but his brain was too much of a mess to come up with anything good. The cliché of somnambulism came to his mind, but he quickly crossed it out. Ghost hunting? Nah. Being too shy to use the bathroom in front of the other kids? No one would believe that one. Explosive diarrhea? Gross…

The steps got closer and closer, and then they stopped right on the other side of his stall, flashlight projecting shadows from the gap under the door. Explosive diarrhea it is, Jack thought as the door slowly opened and clarity nearly blinded him.

"There you are," a familiar voice said, and a turmoil of emotions hit Jack in the face. Anger, surprise, relief, confusion...

As it turned out, in the middle of his panic attack, he hadn't realized that there were actually two sets of footsteps approaching him, nor that one of them was always followed by a subtle metallic clank.

"WHAT THE—"

"Shhh!" Hiccup's hand rushed to cup Jack's mouth and stop the silverhead's yell. He whispered, "I know you're not that smart, but do you really want people to find us?"

Annoyed, Jack pushed the other guy's hand away from his face and slid off the toilet. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack, dumbass?" As the first shock ran off, he clenched his jaw, and his eyes darted between the two standing in front of him. "What the fuck are you two doing here?"

"Please." Andy rolled his eyes as he turned around to inspect the contents inside the bag Jack had hidden under the sink. "Like we would let you have all the fun by yourself."

"Yeah, what's with the sneaking out behind our backs, Frosty?" Hiccup asked, crossing his arms. "Kind of hurt our feelings there."

Jack threw the bottle's content in the toilet, not wanting to waste another second entertaining the other two. He grunted. "You made it pretty clear that I was on my own."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," he heard Andy grumbling. "Can you stop being such a drama queen?"

Jack glowered at his friend, pointing the empty bottle in Andy's direction. Their eyes met through the mirror. "I am not a drama queen. And you have no business being here right now, so get the fuck out."

"Come on, Jack." Hiccup sighed. He had gone to the next stall and proceeded accordingly, splashing the goopy content inside the toilet. "We're a team. You can't kick us out."

Andy nodded. "Best buddies for life."

Jack snorted. "You should've thought of that before you fucking ditched me."

"For the last time, we didn't ditch you!" Hiccup cried, throwing his arms up in the air. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed, then he added quietly, "We're sorry, okay? Can we please move on?"

Jack crossed his arms, eyes skeptically narrowed and lips pressed together tightly. "Fine." He rolled his shoulders back and watched the other two curiously. "How did you find me anyway?"

Andy let out a snort as the boys divided themselves between the remaining stalls. "Did you forget, Frost, that I was the one who outlined this operation?"

"I could've changed routes," the silverhead said with a nonchalant shrug, and their conversation stopped for a moment as each boy took care of their own businesses.

"You could," Hiccup conceded, coming out of his stall. "But you know Andy drew the most efficient routes for us to take, and you would not risk ruining the whole plan, no matter how pissed at us you were."

Andy picked the bag on the floor and started preparing a new load of the liquid mixture. "After we established that, it was all a matter of estimations and some trial and error."

"You were a very trackable prey," Hiccup admitted with a snort.

Jack rolled his eyes, mumbling, "Kid has a girlfriend for one day and already thinks he's a hunter."

Hiccup frowned. "I—that's not what I was talking about at all."

"Also, not an okay analogy." Andy shook his head. "Never an okay analogy."

"The girls would take turns killing you if they heard you say that."

The silverhead groaned, taking the bag from Andy and making his way outside. "Give me a break," he grumbled. "I've been functioning on autopilot for the last hour. My brain is fried."

The other two guys went after Jack, and in a low voice, Hiccup said, "Well, you're lucky you have us to watch your back."

"Is this the last bag?" Andy asked with a frown. The math probably wasn't adding up inside his head.

Jack snorted. "You wish. Left the rest of the stuff on the fire escapes. In case you didn't notice, I was flying solo, and there's so much I can carry on my own."

"Good thing we found you, then. Should speed up the operation substantially."

They went to the nearest emergency staircase, and Jack handed each of the guys a fully-packed backpack. "You both know your routes, right?"

Hiccup nodded. "We text each other if we run into trouble?"

"Let's avoid casualties, shall we?" Andy sighed, adjusting a second bag on his shoulders.

Jack took a moment to meet his friends' eyes. "Proceed with caution," he said with a serious voice tone. "Rendezvous back in our room."

He stretched out a closed fist and waited as Hiccup's, then Andy's bumped into his in the center of their circle. The smirk on his lips was mirrored by the other two's, and it was the boost of confidence he didn't realize he had needed the whole night.

"Godspeed, boys."

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead," Elsa heard Astrid saying, and turned just in time to watch a pillow flying across the room and hitting the tangled mess of dark hair, blankets and pillows that was Violet.

The brunette girl groaned, shifting in her bed and curling into a ball.

"Wake up, Violet," Elsa said, picking her toiletry bag and making her way to the door. "You don't wanna be late on your first day back to school."

Violet groaned some more but gave no signals of getting off the bed.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Just don't say we didn't warn you when you get a detention for tardiness."

Closing the door behind her, Astrid and Elsa made their way toward the bathroom, and as they walked side by side, the girls soon noticed how unusually loud the corridor was.

"What the fuck is going on?" Astrid wondered as she tried to look over the sea of girls blocking their way. The line to the bathroom didn't seem to be moving, and whatever the setback was, it apparently had been holding the line up for quite a while.

The entire corridor was a mess of impatient girls pushing one another, and not just in a 'beginning of a new year, back-to-school, we forgot what it was like to wake up this early every damn day' kind of way, but in a 'Houston, we have a problem, there's definitely something out-of-place with this picture' way.

Elsa frowned. "Come on. Let's see what this fuss is about."

Despite the other girls' reluctance to open passage, Elsa and Astrid made their way through the crowd, receiving nasty glare and less-than-pleasant words as they advanced.

"Student Council coming through," Elsa would repeat calmly. "Make way, please—"

Just as Astrid would snarl ferociously, "Out of the fucking way—do I look like I care? Find a goddamn bush and pee behind it!"

With effort, they finally reached the bathroom door, just to find out that their dorm supervisor was already there, and that the facilities had been, in fact, interdicted.

"Ms. Tooth," Elsa called. "What's going on?"

Tooth sighed with relief at the sight of the two blondes. "Oh, girls. We have a bit of a situation."

"What kind of situation—" Astrid had barely spoken and Tooth was already pulling them toward the nearest stall.

After exchanging a confused glance with Astrid, Elsa peeked inside the toilet, and confusion crossed her face as she found a translucent, radioactive-green, gelatinous substance sparkling inside the toilet where the water was supposed to be. She frowned as she tried to make sense of what she could only guess was an alien's shed skin.

She heard Astrid sucking in a breath beside her.

"What the—is that jello?"

Violet did indeed end up late for class. But if asked, she would tell anyone that it was definitely not her fault. Who in their goddamn mind would imagine that the school bathrooms would become some sort of biohazard zone overnight?

She had dragged herself out of bed and pushed and shoved her way to the bathroom just to find it blocked with tape like it was a murder scene in the middle of a criminal investigation. She found Astrid and Elsa trying to take care of the situation and learned that the bathroom had been pranked and that all toilets had been clogged with multi-colored gelatin. She would later find out that their dorm hadn't been the only one targeted, but that the bathrooms of the entire campus had been jellified as well.

So really, she should not be blamed for being late.

On the bright side, the whole school's routine had been put off track, and as she headed to her classroom, she could see both faculty members and students rushing to their responsibilities, so technically, she wasn't even late.

Violet stormed down the hallways, grumbling profanities under her breath, shoes clicking loudly on the floor as she made her way to her first class. She threw the door open abruptly, making it hit the wall and ricochet back, took a look around the classroom and darted toward her target.

She picked the seat in front of a silverhead, glaring at him as she threw her backpack on her desk.

Jumping at the sudden noise, Jack slowly raised his eyes toward her. Yawning lazily, he greeted the girl, "Morning, Vi. How's it go—Ow!" Violet had suddenly attacked him, hitting his upper arm with a textbook. "The fuck are you doing?"

"Do you know how fucking long I had to wait to use the bathroom this morning?" Violet snarled, grabbing the silverhead by the tie and hovering over him.

He crossed his arms. "I'm assuming by your joyous demeanor that it was a while."

"People were worried all that gelatine was gonna blow the plumbing up," she continued, bringing her face closer to his. "So they had to get rid of that gunk one fucking vase at a time."

"Yeah, I heard something like that—"

Violet glowered at him threateningly. "And you know how many bathrooms had priority over ours?"

Jack carefully slipped his tie from her hands, moving one tiny inch at a time until the garment was released from the girl's grasp. "I feel like that was a rhetorical question, but by my own personal experience, I would say they were a lot."

"Damn right they were!" Violet punched his arm.

"Stop that, you crazy woman!" Jack grabbed the brunette's wrist to stop the assault. "Why are you hitting me?"

"Why do you think, dumbass?" She used her other hand to slap him on the top of the head. "The whole thing reeks of you! You and your dumb friends—"

"Reeks of me?" Jack spat indignantly. "What does that even mean?"

Violet seethed. She gritted her teeth and hissed, "This is all your fault. Admit it."

For a moment, Jack watched her with narrowed eyes. Then, he let out a sigh and pointed at her. "I'm taking a big risk trusting you here, Vi, so this gotta stay between us. Not a prep, okay?" He leaned back on his chair, smirking. "We did it. Took us the whole damn night, but we did it. Wadja think?"

She slapped him again. "You could've warned me, dingass—"

"Stop hitting me!"

"That would've saved me a lot of trouble!" Violet shouted, throwing her hands up displeased.

"Oh, my God, can you stop being a diva for one second?" Jack groaned, then he sat up straighter as a frown formed on his face. "Wait a minute… I see what's happening here."

She shorted. "You're realizing you made a big mistake, that's what's happening."

He shook his head. "You're jealous."

"What?" the girl spat in disbelief.

"You wanted to be a part of the operation, and you feel left out," he added, snapping his fingers.

Violet stared at him skeptically. "Did you sniff some of that jello powder?"

He smiled apologetically at her. "You know I love you, Vi, But that was something the boys and I had to do on our own. It's our little back-to-school tradition—"

"Your head is seriously damaged if you think I would be jealous of not being part of your stupid prank."

"I'm really sorry, Vi," he continued as if he couldn't hear her. "And I promise you will be invited to our next operation."

"Shut the fuck up, dumbass!" She hit his arm again.

Jack grabbed the hand that had attacked him and pointed at the girl with his free hand. "Okay, you may be upset, but you gotta stop that."

"I. Am. Not. Jealous," Violet said, enunciating each word very carefully.

He winked, grinning at her. "You don't need to hide it, my darling. And if it makes you feel better, you're already a part of the team."

"Oh, my God!" Violet groaned, ridding herself of his grip. "I hope Astrid and Elsa find you and make you pay!" She slapped him again. And twice more for good measure.

"Seriously, woman!" Jack cried, flinching away from her range. "You're catching Astrid's bad habits!"

Andy and Hiccup shared a desk in the back of the lab and waited for their teacher to show up. As soon as they had made it to the classroom, Hiccup had dropped himself on his seat, pressing his face against the surface of the table. He seemed to be snoring ever so slightly, and Andy could only feel envious of the auburn-haired boy.

Fighting his own sleepiness, Andy kept staring at nowhere with his head propped up with one hand and one foot bouncing under his stool. It was as if his eyelids weighed like lead, and he struggled to keep his eyes open.

"Ah, if it isn't our two legends!" someone said, and Andy looked up to find Hiro approaching their desk.

"Hey, Hiro," Andy greeted with a yawn. "Aren't you looking excited today?"

"You bet your sweet ass that I am, Davis," Hiro replied with a laugh. "The main question here is: why aren't you?"

The sound of Hiro's voice seemed to have stirred Hiccup awaked, and the auburn-haired boy shifted in his seat, slowly lifting his head from the table. "We barely had time to go back to our rooms, let alone have some sleep," he grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

Hiro hummed, crossing his arms and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "I wonder why would that be?"

"Funny. I find myself wondering the same thing, Hiro," the boys heard Elsa saying as she and Astrid walked to their group. "And I'm sure the question had an even more interesting answer."

Hiccup immediately sat up, his back cracking as he did so. He seemed startled, eyes wide, shaky hands, shallow breaths, and any traces of his sleepiness had disappeared from his face. Truth be told, Andy shared similar feelings of wariness, and he did his best hiding it behind a wall of nonchalance. He brushed a hand through his hair and attempted a smile at the girls.

"Morning," Andy greeted the newcomers.

"Oh, hello, ladies," Hiro said, his voice a mix of forced friendliness and conspiratory amusement. "How was your summer?"

"Terrific," Astrid snarled, her eyes narrowing as she scrutinized the pair sitting on the other side of the table. "Now get out of the way, Hamada, we have business with these two idiots."

Hiro recoiled, carefully treading out of the girls' path. "Don't mind if I do—"

Hiccup pointed a finger at the Asian-American boy with a frown. "Whoa—where do you think you're going?"

"You heard the girl," Hiro replied matter-of-factly. He headed back to his seat as he continued, "They have business with you. I'll talk to you losers later?"

"Yeah, sure," Hiccup mumbled.

"Always the loyal friend, Hiro." Andy rolled his eyes and putting his most pleasing smile on, looked back at the girls. "What can we do for you lovely ladies?"

"Oh, save it, Davis." Astrid crossed her arms, lifting her chin up.

Andy blankly stared at the blonde, faking confusion as cold-sweat ran down his neck.

Elsa sighed, and, with an arched eyebrow, she asked, "Is there anything you would like to tell us?"

"I don't know." Andy shrugged. "What have you heard already?"

"Nothing more than what we've seen ourselves," Elsa said. "I was hoping you would enlighten us on the matter."

"Can't," Hiccup explained. "Plausible deniability and all that."

Astrid groaned leaning over the lab table and threw a punch on Hiccup's chest. "Plausibly deny this, asshole!"

"Ow! What the hell, Astrid!" Hiccup cried, arching over and pressing his hands to the spot the blonde had just hit.

"Spill it, Haddock," Astrid snarled with a murderous glare in the boy's direction. "Or you're getting another one."

"Uh…" Hiccup looked over at Andy, but the latter only mirrored his distress with a gaped mouth. "You… look beautiful today?"

Elsa covered a chuckle with a hand at the same time as Astrid's eyes narrowed even more.

"Try again, smartass," Astrid growled.

"Maybe it's the hair," Andy suggested with a smirk.

Hiccup snapped his fingers. "That's it! Your hair! Did you do something with your hair? It looks nice—I mean, it always looks nice—"

Astrid threw her head back. "Geez! Shut the fuck up!"

Elsa smiled fondly, looking from the girl beside her to the auburn-haired guy. "You guys are adorable—"

Astrid clenched her jaw. "Shut up, Elsa."

"But as much as I'm enjoying watching you two broaden the limits of your new relationship, I am much more interested in hearing about the jello prank you boys pulled today."

The boys engaged in a hasty conversation with their eyes, and Andy gulped down the knot that had started to form in his throat. "As far as I'm concerned, we're innocent."

Astrid let out a snort. "Of course you are."

"So we can't blame you for what's clearly your doing?" Elsa asked.

"Probably not," Hiccup answered.

"And you're not turning yourselves in?"

"I highly doubt we would." There was a silence as the words sank in, and as the moment grew quieter, the boys grew more anxious.

At last, Elsa sighed, shaking her head. "Well, that's a pity," she said, and for the most part, she looked like she meant it. But there was a hint of malice in her voice tone that gave her true feelings away. "Then I guess we will have to find unofficial ways to punish you boys, won't we?"

Hiccup frowned and jerked his head back in confusion. "Uh… What?"

"They're replacing the gym's equipment, so the place will be closed for the next few weeks," Elsa explained with a polite smile. "Which is very upsetting to students like Astrid, who like to exercise regularly. Is it not, Astrid?"

Astrid nodded. "Indeed, very upsetting."

Andy chuckled, faking nonchalance. "Come on, guys. We were just trying to have some fun."

"Oh, yeah," Astrid snorted, exchanging glances with the other girl. "The whole thing was so much fun, right?"

Elsa smiled that controlled, intimidating smile she had perfected in the past year of presidency, and the iciness of her eyes sent chills down Andy's spine. "It's only fair that we return the favor."

"Nah, don't mind us, girls. You don't have to go out of your way to—" Hiccup's mouth closed at the reprimanding glare Astrid sent his way.

Andy cleared his throat, straightening up. "Mind if I ask what you two have in mind?"

Astrid laughed mischievously, throwing her head back in delight. She looked at him with an arched eyebrow. "Why, Andrew, and ruin the surprise?"

At that moment, their teacher started ushering the students to their places, and Elsa looked from one boy to the other one last time. Casual smirk still on her lips, she said, "Enjoy your day while you can, boys. We'll be sure to notify you of the details soon."

And as the girls took their leave, Hiccup nudged Andy in the ribs. In a stage whisper, the auburn-haired boy asked, "You think it's too early to pull the boyfriend card yet?"