*Claps hands together* Alright. So... two more new characters this chapter... I hope it's easy enough to tell who they are. I know I'm tossing so many people in this fic really quickly, but I needed some filler and I really hate introductions so I'm trying to get as many over with now as I possibly can. Besides, most of them are just secondary characters, anyway...
I swear I had no clue what I was doing for half of this chapter and you guys have been waiting long enough for an update, so I figured I'd give you this. I don't even know, I'm in this part of the story where it's hard for me to make progress without fearing I'm going too fast or too slow... Ugh, writing!
Feedback, please... and thank you...?
The ride back home with Jack was simply a continuation of the banter they had been engaged in before Hiccup had decided she should get back to the house. She mostly ranted to him about Scott, but it fell on understanding ears when the white-haired boy commented about his sisters in reply. Hiccup couldn't help but laugh when Jack told her about how his older sister, studying to be a dentist, has been poking her fingers into his mouth since his baby teeth started falling out and how his younger sister is currently going through that same phase with her, only the oldest Overland sibling was much more professional this time around.
Almost no time passed between the two of them before they found themselves pulling into the Haddock's driveway. Hiccup noted that, judging by the noise she could just vaguely make out, that Scott was home and taking full advantage of being left alone. She sighed and wondered exactly what he'd been up to while she was out but also had a sense of dread stirring within her. He was never one to throw wild parties or anything, but it would be nice to come home and not find him doing something that they'd later agree not to let their parents know about.
Hiccup unbuckled her seat belt "So, uh… thanks for inviting me out…"
"Yeah." Jack glanced from her to the steering wheel "No problem. I had a lot of fun today."
The brunette smiled "I did too; we should definitely go do that again sometime."
"Sure." The older grinned, showing off his near-perfect smile "I'd like that."
Hiccup tucked a lock of hair behind her ear "So, uh…" She quickly leaned in and hugged him. Slowly, she felt Jack's arms wrap around her back "See you later, I guess." She pulled away and climbed out of the car.
"See ya'…" She heard Jack call back, almost like he was in shock. Well, she did hug him a little quickly; he might not have seen it coming. She just shrugged it off and stepped inside, praying for the best to be on the other side of the door.
What she was greeted with was… better than expected, anyway. The house looked like it was in one piece, excluding the three extra sets of discarded shoes in the landing and the distant shouts emitting from the living room.
Toothless must have heard the door shutting amongst the noise, as he darted down the hall and jumped on her, resting his massive paws on her shoulders and licking her face with his equally large tongue.
His owner giggled "Hey, Toothless, I'm glad to see you too, bud." Hiccup took the large dog's paws off of her and let him fall back to standing on all four legs "What happened while I was out, huh?"
The dog ticked his head to the side, as if he was trying to understand what his human was asking of him. He let out a small woof and wagged his tail, nearly knocking over a lamp on an end table with the thing. The brunette moved a few steps over to keep his tail from breaking anything and laughed "Let's go see what Scott's been up to, bud."
Hiccup wandered to the doorway, Toothless on her heels, and peeked into the living room to see Scott, Derek and two of her brother's other friends crowded around the TV, her brother and his best friend getting way too into the football game that was on. Her eyes locked on two half-eaten boxes of pizza sitting on the coffee table, along with barely full bottles of soda and a pile of used paper plates and napkins.
After some screaming about how a false call was made, Scott finally turned his head enough to see her "Oh, hey Henrika…" He awkwardly greeted "Whe~re'd you go?"
"I went to the arcade with a friend." She replied "What's going on here?"
"Derek and I invited Ruth and Terence over to watch the game." Scott gestured to the set of twins on the sofa, who appeared at the house almost as often as Derek did. Both were tall and skinny and had the same shade of sandy blond hair.
Terence had his shaggy hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, as usual, and was lazily sipping at his soda with his feet up on the coffee table. "Hey, Henrika…" He muttered.
Ruth was watching the game more intently than her brother, her long twin braids swinging slightly and she leaned closer to the screen. "There's a seat open, if you wanna watch with us." She offered without looking away from the screen, pointing in the general direction of the empty armchair on the other side of the room.
Hiccup chuckled but declined "I'm fine; I have some things I have to do."
Scott took a bite out of a slice of pizza in his hand "Oh, and," He continued with his mouth full "you don't have to worry about dinner." He swallowed "Maybe you could thank me for taking one chore off of your list, sis?"
She playfully scoffed in reply "Yeah, right. Like I'd give you the satisfaction." She added a smile the purposely showed her metal mouth.
Scott stared at her in confusion for a few seconds before his eyes widened at her "Right. Braces." He looked from the pizza slice to her "I forgot about that."
"I figured." Hiccup rolled her eyes "I'll just heat up some leftovers from the fridge, I guess."
The older Haddock opened his mouth to say something else but was cut off "Oh, come on!" Derek shouted, standing up and throwing up his arms in exasperation "That was a foul!"
"I swear," Ruth added "someone paid off the refs."
"This is just what we get for rooting for the Vikings." Terence drawled "They've only won one game so far this season."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Scott defended, throwing himself back into the conversation "It's been pretty close a few times."
"I'm just saying that the one time you put money on them winning is when they're gonna do nothing but lose." Terence carried on "If you want your team to win, don't jinx it by betting on them."
Hiccup's brows knitted together quizzically "You bet on the games?" She asked, genuinely surprised "Since when?"
"Since dad let me in on the pool going on where he works." Scott admitted.
Hiccup lightly shook her head "You're an idiot." She patted her thigh and strode down the hall, Toothless following her as she went "Alright, bud, I'll feed you first." The dog perked up at the words and barked happily as his human pulled a bag of dog food that was half her size out of the hall closet and snagged the dog's food bowl from its place on the kitchen floor. She filled the bowl to the dog's usual amount and placed it back where she got it, Toothless instantly jumping on the opportunity to feast on his dinner. While he was busy with that, Hiccup re-filled his water bowl and put it down next to his food. "There ya' go, bud."
Leaving Toothless to his meal, Hiccup opened the fridge and sifted through the leftovers inside of it. Finding some of Thursday's macaroni, she popped it in the microwave and sat herself at the table after it was heated up; a great accomplishment, considering the plate came out twice as hot as the food did. A few minutes of silent eating passed before she heard the clacking of Toothless' nails on the hardwood and feeling him plop down next to her chair. The brunette glanced at the dog and found him staring at the area of the floor around her. He was obviously hoping for her to drop a few scraps, even though he'd literally just eaten.
"Go lie down, bud." She commanded. The dog stood and decided that planting himself on the floor after taking two steps away from his owner was good enough. Hiccup giggled at the canine "Yes, guard me from the people screaming at the football game." She softly laughed.
With Toothless exchanging his gaze between Hiccup and the doorway, she finished her dinner, slipped the plate in the sink and made her way upstairs to her bedroom. It took a minute, but she eventually heard the Great Dane following her once again, like the shadow that he was, and assuming his place on Hiccup's bed as she sat at her desk and finally started to work on the last assignment she'd been procrastinating all weekend. Might as well try to stay on Mildew's good side, right?
Jack stumbled through the front door in a bit of a daze. He'd gotten plenty of hugs before in his lifetime, but none have had an… energy like Hiccup's did. Her touch was like a tiny electric shock down his spine, heating his skin and giving him an embarrassingly delayed reaction to her good bye… He'd kick himself about that later, though. If anything, this confirmed that the boy really did have an attraction to the girl with eyes like a summer meadow.
Great… Jack sighed, collapsing on the couch the second he turned the corner Now what do I do with this…?
He stayed motionless on the sofa, his face pressed into the cushion, for a few minutes before he felt a gentle hand start to rub a circle on his back "So," It was Anna, no surprise there "how was your date with Henrika?"
"I told you, it wasn't a date…" The younger Overland muttered into the couch.
"The question still applies." Anna claimed.
Jack sighed and rolled onto his back so that she could understand him better "It was great… fun. I took her to the arcade and then we went to The Frozen North and North gave us a discount on ice cream."
"Okay, then why are you mopey?" His sister questioned "Sounds like your day went really well."
"Because…" Jack pondered his wording for a moment "what do I do now?"
"Stay friends for awhile, like you wanted." She told him "Spend more time with her before you decide what you wanna do." Hearing her brother sigh again made the dental student roll her eyes "And make sure she's not dating anyone else before you do anything major?"
"Yeah, yeah…" Anna twisting her nimble fingers through his bleached locks gave a small calming effect to Jack "This is a mess."
"I know." Anna giggled "I know."
Well, that job was done in about a half an hour. Hiccup had to think of something else to do, now that all of her chores and school work for the day had been completed. With no better options, she decided to join the group of upperclassmen for the remainder of the game. She wouldn't call herself a football fan, exactly, but the men of the house had a passion for it so she and her mother had picked up on the rules and the best teams over the years. But when your house was the one that threw the annual Super Bowl parties and you had to listen to father and son rant about which teams would make it to said event every season, you'd pick up some tidbits too.
It wasn't as fun as the video game competitions that the older teens would let her in on, but it still entertained her nonetheless. Terence's jinxing theory was proven wrong when the Vikings pulled through with a win. A slim one, but still a win. It looked like Scott wasn't going to lose all of his money in the pool, anyway. And the guys and Ruth all gave a shout of joy at the victory while Hiccup just admired the scene with a growing smile.
The wave of excitement didn't have much time to dissipate away, though. Five minutes after the game ended, a booming voice called out from the kitchen "Who won, son?!" It was their father, Stefan. Right, he had to miss the game to spend time with Val today… he didn't mind at all, don't get him wrong on that. But every time he'd come home from an outing with her after a game, he'd be shouting for Scott to tell him who was the winner.
Scott shouted back "The Vikings pulled through at the last minute! We're not broke!"
Stefan's tall, muscular form came through the doorway excitedly "Really? It's about time! I thought the losing streak would have kept going."
"Someone finally called out the refs on a false call." Derek explained "After that, it was smooth sailing."
Stefan chuckled "Maybe we should have listened to Ruth sooner."
Said girl threw her arms up for effect "I've been saying that for weeks but nooo, you guys didn't wanna listen."
Hiccup decided to make herself scarce from the sports rant ensuing in front of her and slinked back into the kitchen, deciding to go back up to her room. On her way, she found Val putting her jacket on the coat rack and Toothless watching her intently.
She turned and greeted the dog "Hey, Toothless~." He ran towards her and received praise in response. Val turned her gaze to her daughter, Toothless now distracted "So, you and Scott behave yourselves today?"
"For the most part." Hiccup shrugged "Unless you count the football frenzy…" The two shared a humorous look, each shaking their head. Let's just say that having friends over at random became a regular thing for the Haddock house… "What'd you and Dad wind up doing?"
"Same old, same old." Val smiled "What'd you do today?" She casually asked, gently tapping Toothless to tell him to go away.
Hiccup shrugged in response "Eh, not much. Scott took me out for lunch and then I hung out with Jack-"
"Jack?" Her mother repeated, suddenly becoming more interested in the conversation.
"Yeah." Hiccup confirmed "Why? Is that a problem…?"
"Hmm…" Val twirled a lock of her auburn hair around a finger "No, it's not. But… didn't he go bowling with you and your friends last night?"
"Yeah, why?" Hiccup repeated.
Val smirked "I think you know why, Henrika."
Hiccup mulled over the comment before realizing what her mother meant by it "Wha-, uh, no." She sputtered "No, we're just friends. It's nothing like that."
"You sure?" Her mother teased, gently shoving her arm.
"Mom, I've only known him for a few weeks." Hiccup pointed out "I barely know him."
Val seemed to be thinking about what to say next, leaning her elbows on the counter and tapping her nails on the surface. Then, the tapping stopped "Can you tell me a few things you do know about him?"
"Do I have to?" Her daughter moaned. A nod from Val clarified that she wouldn't be left alone until she spilled some details "Okay…" Hiccup thought about the white-haired male for a moment, trying to think of what to say about him "Well, he's a few inches taller than me… about a year older than me… he dyes his hair white for some reason…" Val encouraged her to go on, leaning in a bit closer with a smile "He likes to play games and he gets really competitive over them, even though I beat him almost every round."
Her mother laughed at the comment "Is he cute?" She poked.
It took Hiccup a moment to process the question, to which she answered with a shrug "I don't know. He's not bad-looking or anything but…" She shifted her weight from one foot to the other "I don't know…"
Val giggled "You don't really care about that, do you?"
"Not really." Hiccup honestly replied "He seems like a nice person, so I'm hanging out with him. It's as simple as that."
"Okay," Val giggled as she stood up straight again "I'll stop torturing you."
"Thank you." Hiccup sighed, seizing the opportunity to retreat back up to her bedroom. Though, with more difficulty this time then last. There'd always been this problem with the door to her room that everyone had been procrastinating getting fixed. Sometimes, when she closed the door, it would stick and take a pretty hard yank or two to re-open. She'd gotten used to it over the past year, but it was an annoyance nonetheless. She was sure she'd get her father to fix it at some point… when he actually had some free time on his hands.
Oh well, it wasn't that big of a deal. She was probably getting some muscle from forcing the door open regularly, anyway. Glancing at the clock, Hiccup decided that it was a decent time to slip into her pajamas and did just that, an over-sized dragon t-shirt and sweatpants sufficing as such. Then, she packed up her backpack for school the next day and, when she got to the book that she'd probably finish during school tomorrow, decided that she'd stop by the library and visit Jack again. Maybe they could talk for a bit, if he wasn't too busy.
Laying in bed that night, her mother's questions and demand for details raced through her mind. It was innocent enough that the two of them liked spending time together, right? There wasn't anything that suspicious in two people hanging out together. But… she did know one thing for sure. That she really did like spending the weekend around the older teen.
She was just confused about why others seemed to think that there was something more to it than that. There was nothing wrong with a boy and a girl being friends, especially when she already had quite a few male friends, some thanks to Scott always having people over and letting her get involved in what they were doing. But… why did people think that Jack was any different? They spent most of a weekend together, sure. But they were just friends.
…Right…?