*Drops off a really short and bad chapter over a month after last update like nothing happened* I'm sorryyyyyyy I'm in colleeeeeeege

She took her hair out of the scrunchie, shook it back to its usual shape, and sighed, "Tuesdays suck."

Astrid knelt beside her and opened her own locker. "At least we're past Monday."

Everyone seemed to always say Mondays were the worst, but Merida couldn't agree less. "On Mondays I've gotten two days to forget this place. By Tuesday I remember how much I hate it, but have to come back again."

"Well, only six hours left today, then we're almost halfway through our third week of a nine month school year." She started untying her tennis shoes and added, "Oh, and heads up: I think Snotlout likes your socks. Maybe ditch them. He gets creepy."

Well, the idiot had been trying to talk to her. She snatched her jeans from the locker."Whatever. If he tries talking to me, he'll regret it."

Astrid smiled, said "Glad you're learning", and pulled her shirt off. Merida had seen her do it close to ten times now, but it still felt a bit weird to be surrounded by a dozen girls carelessly stripping to their underwear (some of them changing bras) when she had never needed to change around others her age before. It's why she wore only baggy shirts now, and kept them on for every other class. Not out of embarrassment, just unfamiliarity. Like every other day, she swapped her shorts for the jeans as quickly as possible, then saw Astrid was wearing a blue dress.

Lacing her shoes up again, Merida asked "Why do you dress girly like that?"

Astrid looked at her own outfit, asking "Why not?"

"Well, you aren't that girly."

"I'm not?"

"In a good way. I don't like it when girls are whiny and prissy. It's why I don't get along with them."

"You do know most girls aren't actually like that, right?"

Her tone was beginning to sound a bit less friendly, so Merida stood and replied a bit more quietly, "Well, I-guess I didn't know a lot of girls. I'm usually just around my brothers. And now Kevin and Callum."

"I thought you were friends with Steven too." Ugh, Macintosh... The two started for the hallway.

"No, he just annoys me. So cocky. The others have good enough sense to not try flirting."

Astrid sighed, "That's the annoying part of being friends with guys. You know Hiccup, imagine /him/ flirting with you." Merida shuddered for a second, trying /not/ to imagine that.

Astrid must have seen her cringing face. "Not anymore. He knows we're only friends now."

"Were you not always just friends?"

"We just kissed a couple times last year, that's all."

"Ugh, why?" She blurted in recoil. "I mean, he's just so..."

Astrid nodded understandingly."I know, he's a little weird. But he's nice once you get to know him." Right. Even if she decided he wasn't so bad after all, she couldn't see why Astrid would kiss him, much less admit it. With a small wave, Astrid disappeared down on of the crowded halls.

Class after boring class, her thoughts kept turning in circles. It was such a small thing, but strange. Everyone seemed to know and like him, and she couldn't even tell why. Stupid... Arrow... Forest... Skinny idiot... Arrow-

An ending bell rung her out of a trance. When looking at her notebook to see what class she'd ignored so intensely, she found it covered in scribblings so deep in the pages they wrinkled and tore. Every day, she was just getting angrier. Hopefully she'd find a way to not kill everyone around her before at least the semester ended.