Saturday morning. The house was clean, my dad was working, and Astrid was coming over to study. I put on a blue t-shirt and some pale jeans. I looked in the bathroom mirror to see half my hair matted down and the other half sticking out at odd angles. Not even an entire bottle of my dad's styling gel could fix this mess. I grabbed the comb and ran it through my hair.
Better. Possibly. I step downstairs and into the kitchen. And there is Toothless...
"TOOTHLESS! NO DON'T EAT THE BREAD!" I frantically said and tried to grab his front feet off the top of the fridge. This is what happens when you have a Great Dane. I took Toothless in, he was a stray. We had a lot of strays. We weren't a very pet friendly town, especially to strays. But I took in Toothless, a massive, pure inky black Great Dane with a few teeth missing. And I kind of fixed the whole 'Strays are bad let's put them down' issue we had.
'Ding Dong!' The doorbell. Astrid, she was here... Early. Toothless darted to the door, and I ran after him, slipping on the floors as I did. I grabbed Toothless's leather collar and the door opened. Astrid's terrified face was suddenly on the ground staring up at me as Toothless pounced and growled at her.
She slings her book bag at him and he jumps back. I slip between them and push Toothless away. "Woah!" I say and shove Toothless's shoulders. His head comes up to my waist. He is so large I can ride him and it doesn't bother him a bit. So shoving him away is more like nudging him.
"WHO is THAT!?" Astrid says in a very loud tone. I blink and then place a hand on the dog's head. "Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid." I introduce them and she lightly pets his head.
"Okay, um, let's go inside." I mutter and head into the house. They follow. Toothless veers into the living room to go sleep on the entire couch, and Astrid follows me into the library.
I push some books off the sofa and pull the table closer. She sits down and pulls out her books.
"So, what do we start with?" She asks and smooths the red skirt she's wearing over her black leggings. Why does she have to look so hot?
I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and open her textbook up to the bookmarked page. "Do you understand these passages?" I say and gesture at the book. She nods and then shakes her head. "I'm awful at physics. And engineering. I pretty much suck at learning these."
I stood up and weaved over to one of the bookshelves. I pull off a book, it was a book on engineering I used. I grab the notebook jammed in next to it and hand it to her.
"Okay, I had this older textbook when I took the classes a couple years ago. This is an entire notebook filled with my notes. I had simplified everything in the book down and used drawings to demonstrate things in the book and in class that I learned. Read my old textbook and if you get stuck use the notebook, it will make it so much easier studying. But let's work on these pieces here." I said and pointed to a passage in her textbook.
We worked for a while until I heard a knock at the door. Before I could even stand up I heard footsteps dashing down the hall. And suddenly two pairs of eyes were inches above mine.
"Ruffnut, Tuffnut, is there a reason you are breaking into my house and crashing this study session?" I said and pushed them off me.
They were panting and I raised an eyebrow. Tuffnut's dreadlocks were pulled back into a ponytail and Ruffnut's short pixie cut was flying everywhere.
"Sorry Hiccup, we just need your help." Tuffnut said and wiped sweat off his face.
"What do you need?" I asked and glanced at Astrid. She was thumbing over the drawings in my old notebook.
Ruffnut fixed her vest. "We need cash. Tuffnut can't finish his sewing project and finish his class until he has the money to buy some more supplies. Making wedding dresses isn't cheap apparently." She said and gestured at her brother.
Tuffnut was going for a sort of Textile Arts degree, he was great at sewing and planned to open his own clothing store.
"And why did you come to me?" I asked him. He smiled and then smacked forehead. I'm glad he was good at sewing, because he wasn't close to being a genius.
"I came to you because your dad won't loan us anymore, but we know you won't let me fail." He said and shoved his hand in his pocket. "OW!" He yelled and pulled it back out. A sewing pin was sticking out of his palm. He plucked it out and sucked on the blood coming out of the wound.
I rubbed my temples and sighed. I went to my bedroom and returned with my wallet.
"Here. This is three hundred dollars in the form of a check, cash this as soon as you leave and then buy what you need." I said and handed them a check. Tuffnut nodded and darted out. His twin stood for a second and then gave me a little salute. She smiled and followed after her brother.
Astrid glanced at me, "Where'd you get the money?" she asked as she paused to read something in the notebook.
"I earned it at the flower shop" I said and she didn't reply.
I sat back down on the couch and looked up at Astrid. She was staring intently at a page in my notebook. "Why is there a drawing of a girl's hair?" She asked and snickered at the picture. I lunged for the notebook and she pulled it out of my reach. "I was bored. I wanted to draw. Simple enough answer. Can we move on?" I said and let her continue to hold the notebook close.
"Sure. I need help with th-AAAH!" She shrieked and jumped onto her feet. Toothless had nudged her with his cold black nose. I held back laughter and called Toothless over. He trotted the few feet over to me and licked my face. "Oh! Toothless no!" I said and felt his large tongue licking my head. I finally pushed the dog back and as Toothless settled down on the floor I looked over to see Astrid silently laughing.
"Your, hair!" She said and my hand instantly went to my head. My hair was wet from slobber and was sticking out and laying flat at the same time.
She was laughing so hard that all I could do was nervously try to escape the room. But she grabbed my arm and shoved me back down as I started trying to walk away.
"Nope! You have to sit like this for the rest of the lesson!" She said and I blushed a little.
We finally managed to finish working on the textbook and she gathered up her books. "I will see you next Saturday, same time." I said and she nodded.
Astrid walked out of that house as fast as possible. She had walked here to save some money and she was trying to avoid everyone so that they didn't see her at the mayor's house. Only Ruffnut and Tuffnut had been in there, and they wouldn't say a word about it.
Why did she do that. The study session wasn't that bad, but being around Hiccup, that was hard. He was fairly attractive, skinny and not too big, but he was attractive. But he was gay! She had grown used to being around attractive men, giving them tattoos, but being around an attractive gay one? That was a new and bizarre experience.
I cleaned up the library and Toothless followed me out. I went to the kitchen and poured myself some coffee. I needed it after a day of sitting there with Astrid looking so hot, not even aware of how much I like her.
So. Here is the next chapter. I hope you guys are enjoying this, if you are I'd love to see some reviews and such. But anyway, the next chapter will be posted sometime eventually, but before the end of the month for sure.