Hooray, new chapter~!

So, school, other things, blah, blah, blah, usual excuses. I'll save you the speech this time around.

But I did have some problems with this chapter because, well... I got to Hiccup and Jack being all "what do?" faster than I thought I would. So... I had to rethink pretty much everything from this chapter until the next big plot point happens. So, if this chapter's kinda awkward or anything... please bear with me. At least I sort of know what I'm doing for the next chapter now.

"Okay, but why are you telling me all of this?" Felix whined as he swapped out books in his locker for their next class "I mean, Astrid and Cam probably know a lot more about this than I ever would."

It had been about a week since Hiccup's mind had set her thoughts about Jack on replay; and she was beginning to think that her unorganized notes weren't going to go away anytime soon. She had to talk to someone about this…

"Because," She leaned against the locker next to his "Astrid would probably bust me more than help me and Cam probably couldn't care less; she just sees Jack as good competition for bowling nights."

"So, you turn to me?" He closed his locker "Why, exactly?"

The two started strolling down the hall "I don't know…" the brunette admitted "I guess I just knew you wouldn't laugh or brush it off." She shrugged.

"Look, Hiccup," the blond started "I'm just as blind to these kinds of things as you are. If not, more." A sigh from the girl prompted him to continue "But I do know that Jack likes hanging out with us. And… he gives me weird… looks from time to time."

"Weird how?" Hiccup pressed on.

"I've noticed that sometimes he looks at me like… he's watching me." He explained "At first, I thought he was just confused about why I was the only other guy at bowling night."

"You're not always the only one." She pointed out. She mumbled a cuss under her breath when they got caught behind a group of kids who decided now was a great time to stop walking.

"I know." Felix replied "But I also noticed that he does it more when I'm close to you, especially."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow "What does that prove?" She saw an opening in the crowd and decided to slip through it.

Felix cautiously followed her and found the shorter teen waiting for him on the other side of the clog "I'm not sure. But maybe he's trying to see if we're… ya' know… a thing…?"

Hiccup stared blankly at him "Really?" She spat back "Why does everyone think that?" She started to walk again.

The blond walked faster in order to catch up with her "… Do you remember middle school…?" He practically whispered in the brunette's ear.

"Felix, that was, what, three years ago?" Hiccup recalled.

"But people still remember it."

"I know." Hiccup mumbled "It was the talk of the school for a week…"

The pair saw their classroom coming up and walked a little slower "Besides, you know how rumors are. The story changes by the day."

She sighed "Yeah…"

"We'll talk about this at lunch or something, okay?" The husky teen stated. Hiccup nodded.

"Turning your homework in on time for once, Miss Hofferson." Mildew's voice was, as always, the first thing that they heard when she entered his classroom. She and Felix walked in on Cam turning in some homework, apparently what was due today.

"Yeah, I'm surprised myself." The messy blonde replied plainly before turning and taking her seat, right in front of the old man's own desk. "Hey, guys." She called when she saw the other two stepping inside the room.

"Hey." Hiccup responded. She slid a few stapled papers out of her textbook and placed them on the teacher's desk. Felix did the same.

"Thank you, Henrika, Felix." Mildew said with a rasp "You two never disappoint."

"Thank you, sir." Felix made a small, clearly forced smile before he made his way to his seat, one of the front corner desks.

Hiccup followed and slid into the one next to him "I swear, even him." She whispered "He puts us together every chance he has."

"Maybe it's just because we're good workers." The blond substituted "Ya know, so he has at least one good grade in his pile every day."

The brunette rolled her eyes "Maybe."

When Jack left school that day, he had a feeling that it was going to be a good shift. Because, for the first time in quite awhile, Jack had the same working hours as his friend, Sandy. He was in college, but he was so short that some have assumed that he's in either high school or even middle school. He often spiked up his bright blond hair, perhaps in an attempt to gain some height, and he had faint freckles on his cheeks. Sandy was always a happy guy, to say the least. He loved kids, especially, and enjoyed seeing them come into the library to poke around the bookshelves. It was easier to just say that he liked having the job much more than Jack ever has.

In fact, Sandy was the one who talked Harry into hiring Jack in the first place. Sometimes he honestly wondered if Harry ever regretted listening to Sandy that day. After all, Jack was a bit of a trouble-maker when he got bored and he absolutely hated having to be as quiet as possible while he was working. But at least the guy hadn't fired him or anything yet.

Sandy actually seemed to have an advantage point that more than likely contributed to him getting the job. He was mute, making him near-perfect for working in a place where you're supposed to be quiet. Most of the time, he didn't even have to explain to customers that he couldn't talk. Normally, he just writes what he needs to say in a notebook that he always carries with him. Jack guessed that people simply thought "Oh, it's a library. He's being respectful of people trying to read" and left it at that. But whatever floats their boat, right?

Afternoons with Sandy in the library were much more entertaining than days where Jack was either by himself or sharing a shift with this guy named Querty. Jack never knew if that was his real name or not, really. He was an older man, assumingly a friend of Harry's that shares a love of books. He was a taller man with a bald head and a white beard decorating his chin. He always wore these glasses that just screamed "Harry Potter" to the white-haired teenager every time he looked at them. And, for some odd reason, he always wore a suit, or something close to one, to work.

It wasn't that Querty was bad, exactly; the guy usually kept to himself amongst the shelves. But it was kind of like working with two sides of a split personality; Harry being the tougher bookworm and Querty being the one that was easier to deal with; or maybe Querty was the butterfly to Harry's angry caterpillar... The only thing that really confused Jack about Querty was that he was always re-organizing the books after Jack had just put them away. So he didn't put them back in alphabetical order all the time; did it really matter that much? They were in the correct general area; people could still find them alright.

At least Sandy was fun. The two boys were playing rounds of Hangman and Tic Tac Toe in the mute's notebook when Hiccup came in and walked up to the desk.

"Hey, Jack." She greeted, smile partly showing her braced teeth.

Jack looked up from the book "Oh, hey Hiccup. I uh… I didn't expect you here so soon."

She gave a confused look and glanced at the clock on the wall "It's my normal time."

"Right, right…" Jack stammered "I just lost track of time hanging out with my pal Sandy." He gestured to the blond, who shyly waved her way.

Hiccup smiled at him and he turned the notebook to a clean page. After scribbling something down, he held it up. Nice to meet you. :) Another confused look from the girl prompted him to write more I'm mute. Can't talk.

"Oh." Hiccup's eyes widened a bit "Sorry, I-"

Sandy rapidly shook his head and jotted down another sentence It's fine, really. It happens all the time. Hiccup nodded, still appearing awkward from the exchange.

"So," Jack interjected "you picking up another book or are you just studying?"

"I have some homework to get done." The brunette explained "Maybe I'll pick up the next book afterwards."

"Which one are you on again?" He questioned.

"Um…" She bit her lower lip "A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons is the next one I need."

"I'll put it aside for you, then." The silver-haired boy responded.

Hiccup smiled "Thanks." And made her way over to her usual spot. Jack watched her until she was seated and had her books out in front of her.

Then, he felt a tap on his shoulder. His face was met with another clean page of notebook, Is she your friend or…? Being the only thing on it. Man, did Sandy need to learn to write smaller.

"Yeah, she's… just a friend…" Jack felt his face begin to warm.

A small cough emanated from Sandy's throat as he wrote again; that seemed to be how he laughed You like her don't you? He held up the notebook with a smirk.

"Huh?" The blond puffed out his cheeks and underlined like "Oh… uh…" Jack looked away "I might have a thing for her… I guess…"

The older boy rolled his eyes Yeah, sure. You guess.

The younger sighed "Okay, you got me. Happy now?" The smug jerk nodded "Go on, laugh it up."

After a minute of what Jack thought was waiting for Sandy to stop silently laughing at him, he felt another tap on his back. He turned and found Sandy's latest sentence read You can go hang out with her when your shift's almost done, if you want. I'll cover for you.

"You sure, Sandy?" Jack asked "I don't want to get either of us in trouble."

Sandy nodded happily It looks like you really like her. You should talk to her.

Jack just knew that he was blushing again "Okay…"

A few hours later, Jack's shift had only about an hour or so to go and Sandy waddled from the pile of books he was loading onto a cart and tapped Jack again. He pointed Hiccup's way, never taking his eyes off of his co-worker.

Jack looked from him to her uncertainly "What am I even going to say to her?"

Sandy sighed and pulled his notebook off of the desk You got off early. He glanced behind Jack's chair and saw his backpack Tell her you want to do homework together. Maybe ask for help? He shrugged.

Jack thought for a moment before his eyes widened "Sandy, you're a genius." he grabbed his bag and speed-walked to Hiccup's table, slowing down as he approached her.

Hiccup looked up from her work "Hey, Jack. What's up?"

"Well, I got off early today and I was wondering if we could study together?" He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

Hiccup smiled "Sure." The older teen sat down next to her and slipped a few books out of his backpack "What are you gonna work on?" She wondered aloud.

"History." He muttered "Might as well get it out of the way."

"I take it you don't like history that much?"

"It's boring." Jack complained.

"Maybe it's just the way that it was taught to you." The brunette inferred "I mean, my history teacher's not the best either. But he gives us really cool projects. Felix and I did a video project about the Vikings last year and we got the highest grade in the class for it."

"How long was it?"

"Ten minutes." Hiccup stated "We had a lot of ideas, so we wound up making it about twice as long as it needed to be." She smiled "Cam and Astrid even made an appearance in it for us."

"Sounds like you had fun." Jack confirmed.

"Maybe you can help us with the next project, depending on what it's about." She offered.

"Yeah, sure."

Hiccup turned back to her work, which was some kind of math that made Jack's head spin just looking at it. He returned to his own homework and quiet settled between the two of them for several minutes… and Jack did a grand total of one question in that time. Something about the Cold War starting or something. God, he hated history! And he hated the silence of the near-empty library even more when Hiccup was next to him and they weren't talking.

He glanced back at her, in some attempt to see if she was just as bored as he was. Hiccup was staring at the pages of the book, her eyes twitching slightly as they scanned the words and examples on them. She had her head propped up on her right hand while her left held her pencil up to mouth, allowing her to nibble on her dragon eraser's horns. …Now that Jack looked at the tiny dragon, it looked like its horns actually looked more realistic with the dents that Hiccup's teeth had left on them.

She looked… peaceful as she was, like she was more than content doing the work. Students like that had always baffled Jack. Like, how could they actually take some sort of pleasure out of doing more work after eight hours of doing the same stuff in school? Especially considering that he had a job; Jack avoided doing extra labor whenever he could. Meanwhile, Hiccup was breezing through her work and he couldn't find one sign that showed that she didn't want to do it.

But, at the same time… she was sort of interesting to watch. And he found himself looking her over while she wrote on, unaware of the older boy's sight being locked on her. Jack had never noticed that she was left-handed until then; Hiccup was the first person he'd ever met who was, believe it or not. And it turned out that she had more freckles then he thought, as he saw them decorating her hands as well. And looking closer at her face told Jack that she had a little scar on her chin. It looked sort of like a scratch, one that was probably put there in some accidental endeavor. There must be a story behind it…

Okay, so Jack was doing a different kind of studying. But at least he was learning something. One thing he didn't master, however, was what signs meant it was probably a good time to look away and pretend he wasn't staring.

Hiccup's eyes fluttered open and shut a few times, the meadows in her eyes getting a bit of focus back in them. Then, out of the corner of her left eye, her pupil landed on Jack "Hmm?" She turned her head his way, pulling him out of his trance with surprise "Something wrong?"

"Uh…" Jack stammered "The Cold War was in the winter… right…?"

…And that's when Jack mentally slapped himself in the face… He gave an awkward smile and hoped that she would just brush that question off.

After a brief blank stare, she cracked a crooked smile and shook her head "No. It happened for a lot longer than one winter."

"…Oh…"

She quietly laughed "Do you need some help? History's kinda… one of my better subjects."

"Uh, yeah, that would help." He chuckled.

Hiccup placed her notebook inside her textbook and closed it, so she wouldn't lose her page, and scooted her chair closer to Jack. "Okay. What do you need?"

Jack looked back at the questions "Um… why it happened." He claimed.

A sly look appeared on her face. It was probably one she hoped the older teen didn't notice because it was replaced with a blank expression before she replied "It was the United States and Russia having a contest to see who was the bigger dick and neither of them wanted to take off their pants." With the straightest face that Jack had ever seen and a tone to match, as if it was basic conversation.

Jack wanted to laugh so hard; he really did. He wanted to burst into a laughing fit and roll around on the floor clenching his stomach. But, uh… he'd probably get kicked out and fired pretty quickly if he'd done that. So, he settled for folding his arms over his books and letting out his amusement on the fabric of his hoodie "What?" He somehow said in-between sputters and suppressed laughs into his sleeve.

"That's basically what it was." Hiccup declared, a few miniscule laughs slipping from her lips as well.

After a few deep breaths, Jack managed to regain enough self control to speak again "I don't think my teacher'll accept that on my homework." He chuckled.

The brunette let out a final giggle "I guess not."

The next hour progressed in the same general manner, with Jack asking for questions he couldn't find the answers to and Hiccup giving some kind of joke before explaining the real answer. It seemed that Hiccup's jokes took on only one of two forms: silly or dirty. It actually made Jack wonder how such a nice-looking girl knew so many puns that would be better suited to come out of the mouth of a teenage boy. But, then again, he'd already learned that Hiccup wasn't exactly the stereotypical mold for a fifteen-year-old girl awhile ago.

Even so, the more Jack got to know her, the more he liked spending time with her. Hiccup was smart, amusing, funny, and, of course, really nice to look at. And every time that Jack learned something new about her, it seemed like there was another reason to find her interesting. It was almost like digging in the sand and finding a cool-looking sea shell or a trinket that someone had dropped who-knows-how-long-ago every time he decided to take his shovel and make another hole.

The slacking library attendant glanced up at the clock and noticed that it was 9:00. Well, at least he didn't have to worry about being yelled at for slacking work anymore. But then he thought about it some more… shouldn't Hiccup have gone home, like, a half hour ago? That was when she usually left, anyway. If not, earlier.

And, as if the universe knew exactly where he was going with that thought, he heard the library door open and heavy footsteps coming further inside. Jack peered through his bangs at the strange boy. He was clearly taller than the silver-haired teen; Jack could tell that even from a distance. He had scraggly dark brown hair, a nose that kind of reminded Jack of a pig, and muscles that screamed "don't mess with me."

At first, seeing the guy didn't bother him. Lots of different people come into the library, after all. What made Jack a little uneasy was when saw his head turn their way "Henrika."

Hiccup looked up from her papers and gave an awkward smile "Hey~, Scott. Uh… what are you doing here?"

The guy reached the table and leaned closer to eye level with her, resting his elbows on the table "Oh, just taking in some scenery, reminding you of what time it is, that sort of thing."

Hiccup looked at the clock and then back at Scott "Oh crap, I'm so sorry, bro. I lost track of time."

… Bro…? Wait a minute… this guy is her brother? They looked nothing a like; how could they be siblings?

"Let's just get home before mom thinks you got kidnapped or something." Scott ordered. He then turned his gaze Jack's way "Who's this guy, anyway?"

"Oh, uh," She started slipping her books carelessly back into her bag "this is Jack; I was helping him with history. Jack, this is my brother, Scott."

The muscled teen glared down at Jack, looking him over carefully and nodding occasionally. Great. Not only was her brother huge, but now he was trying to figure out if the smaller boy was any kind of problem.

"Hi…" Jack practically squeaked. He went to hold out a hand but Scott simply nodded with a firm expression. It was pretty clear he wasn't gonna shake Jack's hand…

The two continued to stare at each other. Scott's pale blue eyes mixed with Jack's bolder shade, robin's egg mixing with the bluest of waters, until the taller was interrupted by a shove to the chest.

"Hey, you're the one who wants to get home so fast." Hiccup poked him again.

"Right…" Scott turned his stare from his sister to his current target.

"See you tomorrow ok, Jack?" The brunette smiled back at him. Looking back at her brother, she caught his grimace and flicked his arm. The two walked away, Scott looking over his shoulder one more time before Hiccup whispered "Be nice."

Oh, and for those who don't know who he is, Querty is the human version of a character in the Guardians of Childhood books. Basically, he's a bookworm who eats all of the knowledge in the world off of books. He later becomes a cocoon and turns into a butterfly-like book. In this form, he's able to turn his pages from blank into whatever story he needs to remember or tell and new information can be written down on them as well.