So this updated faster that I thought... I guess you guys can thank writer's block on another one of my stories for this. Well, that and the fact that I couldn't get this chapter out of my head until just about now... This is where POV will start to alternate between Jack and Hiccup, so have fun with that.
Thanks for all of the favs/follows/reviews that the first chapter got. I didn't expect anyone to actually like this so I'm pretty happy. I hope you guys can figure out who the newly introduced characters in this chapter are. I think they're both pretty obvious, but if you're confused I'll clarify in a PM or something.
And, I've said this on my other fics, but I'm also reachable on Tumblr. My URL is the same as on here, Purplerose128. Go check out my blog if you want to.
A week had passed since the white haired library assistant first met the Henrika- correction, Hiccup. Honestly, Jack didn't really see a need for her to have a nickname; he thought her name was really interesting and… pretty. It confused him from the moment she stated it and left before he could give a response to her request to call her as such. Even more, still, that her nickname of choice was the same as the main character of the book she'd checked out the previous Thursday. There must have been some kind of story behind her using the name of a fictional Viking hero instead of her own.
Jack was certain that he'd find out more about Hiccup the next time he'd see her. That brief exchange they had shared was nothing compared to the enthusiasm in her meadow irises and the crooked smile that winked onto her face in waves of joy. This girl had so much more to talk about and Jack was determined to hear even just a fragment more. She really seemed like a person that's fun to talk to, no matter the subject.
Unfortunately, he still hadn't seen or heard from her in that whole seven days of staring down at his cell phone and waiting for a new number to appear; just so that he could pick it up can talk to her some more. Jack tried to stay optimistic about this fact. Maybe she was just really busy and didn't have a chance to call yet. Maybe she was so into the book that she forgot entirely and would be reminded when she turned the last page and saw his phone number waiting for her.
But the passing days made it harder to stay that way. Jack started to think that she wasn't interested and didn't want to break it to him, so she was avoiding the library and, therefore, avoiding him. But he couldn't really blame her. It is kind of weird for someone that you never met before to practically throw their phone number at you. He had come off the wrong way or something. That's why she didn't try to even call him.
Then, that seventh day, all of that worry disappeared. Hiccup walked through the doors about an hour after Jack had started his shift. And the first thing she did was come up to the counter and smile at him, braces showing obscurely. Jack thought it must have been those things that kept her from smiling any bigger.
"Hi, Jack." She greeted.
"Hey, Hiccup." Jack answered "I was starting to think you forgot about the place or something."
Hiccup giggled "No, I just couldn't get a ride. Stuff's been a little crazy at home this week." She adjusted the strap of her shoulder bag, making a few of the key chains cling together. "Oh." "She opened the bag and pulled out the book she borrowed from it "I finished it."
She handed it to Jack, who gingerly took it. "How'd you like it?"
"It was adorable. I really like Hiccup."
"That makes two of us." Jack chuckled. He took the book and put it on a nearby cart before registering that it was returned.
Jack was about to ask her about her nickname before another voice uttered it. "Hiccup!" A loud, almost squeaky whisper sounded.
Hiccup turned to the source of the voice and smiled a little wider "Hey, Felix."
Jack's eyes widened Felix…?
A boy that was bigger than Jack in both the height and weight categories waddled into view. He had messy blond hair and a backpack slung over his shoulders that looked like it would burst any second from being over-filled. "What's up?" He asked her.
"Just returning a book." Hiccup replied "Felix, this is my new friend Jack. Jack, this is Felix." Felix casually waved and Jack nodded. "Well, I came here to study so I'm going to do that." She stated and walked towards an empty table. She sat and sifted through her bag until she found the notebook that she was looking for. Jack could see from where he was that it had been drawn on all over.
Felix watched her for a moment before following suit and sitting across from her, taking out some of his own school books. If there was one way for Jack to describe how that kid walked, he would say that kid walked like a fish that just grew a set of legs. The way he carried himself seemed to be on a high-strung end, either like he had too much energy and no way to let it out or that he was just nervous about something.
Jack carried on with his work, taking care of transactions and restocking books, but every few minutes his eyes would gravitate towards Hiccup's table. He was looking for something, anything that would tell him exactly what their relationship was. Were they friends? Was he her tutor or something? Or were they dating?
That last one would explain why she didn't call and tried to keep their recent conversation brief. But… their behavior wasn't adding up to that theory. For the most part, they kept to themselves and only made any form of contact when one of them had a question about whatever it was that they were working on. Once or twice, they carried on a conversation but they didn't last very long and fell victim to their studies. Since Jack was having a problem pegging their relationship, he just left it at friends. But it bothered him that he wasn't sure of it.
Though, there was one thing that eased his mind some. On one of the runs to return the returned books to their shelves, Jack once again came upon How to Train Your Dragon and flipped to the back cover. When he did, the only thing that he saw was the list of previous borrowers and check-out dates. His phone number was absent. That meant one of two things. Either she threw it away or she took it out and kept it somewhere for later.
Would it be bad to say that Jack was relieved when Felix was packing up his books? But, hey, this meant that maybe he could finally talk to Hiccup some more without any outside interference. If the guy had to go for that to happen, so be it.
Hiccup seemed neutral about her friend leaving, offering him a miniscule smile and a feeble wave goodbye before staring back down at her notes and nibbling at the end of her chewed pan cap.
A few minutes after her study partner left, Hiccup walked up to the desk with How to be a Pirate, the second book of the young Viking hero's books. Jack checked it out for her and she slipped it inside of her bag.
"Hooked on the series now, Hiccup?" Jack smirked.
"Yeah…" She bounced slightly on the balls of her feet "I think you have someone to talk about them with now."
"So…" Jack played with the frayed end of his blue hoodie "does that mean you're staying?" He made the observation that the table she was sitting at was now cleared; all of the stuff that littered it was probably all back in her bag.
"No, I can't." Hiccup sighed sadly "My brother's here to pick me up."
Jack froze with a blank stare "You have a brother?"
"Yeah." Hiccup shrugged "I shouldn't keep him waiting either. If he gets too bored, he might ditch me." She walked towards the door "I'll see you later, Jack."
Hiccup exited the library and scanned the sides of the street until her eyes met a familiar red truck with black pin striping along the sides, not that she couldn't hear her brother's obnoxious music blasting from the old thing's stereo.
Hiccup approached the vehicle to see the too familiar sight of her driver with his feet kicked up on the aging dashboard and passionately playing the air guitar. His head banging to the beat ruffled his usually stationary, wiry brown hair. She rolled her eyes and opened the passenger door to climb in, which went unnoticed.
"Scott!" She shouted, closing the door behind her.
Upon hearing the disturbance, Scott jumped and banged his arm against his window. He grumbled something under his breath and started rubbing it. "Ugh, Henrika…" he muttered "I could have broken her window."
"I'm so sorry that I almost gave your precious car another ding." She sarcastically apologized.
"Whatever." Scott scoffed as he put the truck in gear and started their trip home "What were you doing here, anyway? Dad only said to come get you."
"I did some studying with Felix and got another book." Hiccup stated.
"Just Felix? No Astrid this time?" Interest was suddenly in Scott's voice.
"She couldn't come." Hiccup responded "The girls had lacrosse practice today." She looked over at her brother "Why?"
"You know why." Scott claimed.
"Dude, I've told you before, she's not into you." Hiccup proclaimed.
"Well how do I know that until I try?"
"She told me so." Hiccup pretended to be interested in her overly bitten fingernails "She caught onto your little crush months ago."
"You're lying." Scott declared.
"It's the truth, Snot Face."
Scott groaned "Yeah, yeah… Hiccup." He smirked. There was a pause before it faded back into a little scowl "Ugh, we have to stop doing that. What if those names stick for life?"
"Oh, they will." Hiccup teased "Even if we live on opposite ends of the world, I'll call your house and when you don't pick up, I'll leave a message for 'Snot Face' to call me."
"Please don't." Scott chuckled "I don't want to explain that to people."
"You already have to your friends; why does it matter?" Hiccup smirked.
"Fine, you win." Scott sighed as they pulled into the driveway "But only because we're home."
"You might win a round if you didn't just break half of the traffic rules to get home." Hiccup informed as she climbed out of the car.
Scott exited as well "You interrupted something very important, I'll have you know."
"Oh yeah?" Hiccup crossed her arms "What was so 'important?'"
"Fireworm needs to be waxed." Scott gestured to his truck "I mean, look at her."
Hiccup glanced at the car and back at her brother "Scott, the thing is ten years old and it's starting to fall apart."
"Don't listen to her…" Scott whispered, behind a cupped hand, to the truck. "Don't you have something else to do?" He spat at Hiccup before trudging into the garage. Not even ten seconds after he disappeared inside, the same loud music started blasting from yet another stereo of his.
Hiccup rolled her eyes at her brother's usual stupidity. She then sauntered to the front door. "I'm home!" She called as she opened the door and stepped inside.
Not a second later, large footsteps emanated through the ceiling. Hiccup looked down the hallway and watched a monstrously sized Great Dane speed towards her, bounding down the stairs with a deep bark.
"Hey, Toothless!" She cooed as she knelt down and nuzzled the dog's head to her own. She stroked his coarse black fur, right behind the ear "Did you miss me? Huh, bud?" She giggled when a giant tongue slid across her cheeks.
"Henrika?" A woman's voice questioned. Upon hearing it, Hiccup stood and walked down the hallway with Toothless in tow. She turned the corner and found the owner of the voice entering through the back door. It was her mother, Val. "Oh, there you are. I wasn't sure if you were home yet."
"You mean you didn't hear Scott start blasting his music from the garage?" She chuckled.
Val joined in on the acute laughter. "So, how was the library today?" She asked as she and Hiccup wandered over to the kitchen table and sat down.
"It was alright." Hiccup shrugged "I met up with Felix and we studied together for a few hours." Val nodded "Then I checked out another book and I left with Scott."
"Nothing else new?" Val rested her chin in one of her hands. Hiccup moved her hands like two sides of a balancing scale. "Really?" Hiccup nodded, leading Val to reach into her pocket for something "Then who's Jack?" she implored as she took the sticky note with Jack's number and placed it on the table.
Hiccup's shoulders sank with a quiet huff. "I was hoping you wouldn't find that…" she ran a hand through her somewhat tangled hair "Jack works there- at the library. We started talking about the book I checked out last week and he wrote down his phone number."
"And how old is this 'Jack?'" her mother inched closer.
She shrugged "About my age." She guessed "Maybe a bit older? I didn't really ask."
"Have you talked at all since he gave this to you?" Val tapped the paper with her index finger.
"He was there again today and we talked for a bit." She made a small smile "But then Scott showed up and I left."
"Have you called him yet?" Now some real interest was coming into the older woman's voice.
"No." Hiccup dryly replied "I've been too busy."
Val passed her the note "Maybe you should soon. Even if you'd rather be friends, you should tell him that."
Hiccup took the note "I guess…"
Val stood and patted her daughter's shoulder "That's my girl. You're free to go now."
Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief and retreated to her room upstairs. She threw her bag off of her shoulder and it landed by her bed with a quite audible thunk. She proceeded towards her bed and landed on it face first. She moaned into the sheets before rolling over, Toothless hopping up and lying down next to his favorite human. He rested his giant head over her chest, which she almost immediately started scratching in has favorite spot.
"What do you think Toothless?" She mused as she stared at smooth white ceiling "Should I call him?"