I have no words other than thank goodness I finally got this chapter cranked out because of stupid writer's block and stuff's finally happening.

Enjoy the chapter. :)

The following Monday, Jack was more than grateful that his morning had an easy start. Gym was pretty welcome to waking him up first period, as always. Now that it was getting colder out, he was really enjoying having to run the track or whatever with North and Eli in the chill, though Eli absolutely hated it. Wimp.

Jack loved the cold and he loved winter; it was his favorite season of the year. The only real shame in it was when PE moved inside as the snow piled up and the temperature dropped below the freezing mark. Thankfully, it wasn't there quite yet but it was definitely coming. It was strange, being a little warmer than normal this year. Not that he was complaining or anything; he just missed the frigid weather way too much.

On top of Gym, History was mostly just Ombric passing back their tests and going over them. Apparently, the old man with a long, curly beard gave them the test for both a grade and as a way to study for their upcoming midterms. He put a lot of things that he claimed to be on the exam on it and wanted to ensure everyone corrected whatever they got wrong for this purpose. Jack got an 80 on the test, which he was more than happy with. It was much better than what he thought it would be without Hiccup's help. He'd have to thank her later for that…

As the class went over the questions, Jack more or less paid attention, scribbling down brief answers to what he didn't answer right. But he mostly just fiddled with his pen and his mind wandered back to the green-eyed girl with matching braces. He was interested in his train of thought, but it was also starting to get pretty annoying. It seemed all that he could think about was Hiccup lately.

The whole weekend after bowling with Hiccup and her friends again, Jack's mind never seemed to stop working. His thoughts kept him from focusing on anything else, so he wished he could just daydream about something else for a few minutes. He'd lie awake into the wee hours of the morning just pondering and thinking of all of the possible outcomes of his new-found desires. His ever-growing interest in her was starting to haunt him.

But what would happen if he surprised those lush meadows and made them bigger than he'd ever seen them before? What would it feel like to take that freckled hand into his own and hold it tightly? What would Hiccup's lips feel like against his own, and what would it be like to just hold onto her waist and feel her body pressed against his in a long embrace?

These thoughts have been there for awhile, of course, but it was only then that the teen had actually started to consider acting upon them. Until this point, it was just some silly crush. Something he'd get over in a matter of time and the two of them would just settle into being friends and nothing more. That's what he expected, anyway.

Because that's all he'd ever heard about teenage romance. That it never lasts. That most of the time the feelings that his classmates mistake for love are nothing more than periods of infatuation; something that feels good while it lasts and is later tossed away for another. He'd seen his classmates travel from person to person, dating someone new every month or so, or even couples that lasted for longer durations breaking off and never seeing each other again. Jack didn't want that. It's one of the reasons he never sought after a relationship before now.

But Hiccup… Hiccup made him think that maybe, just maybe, opening himself up and acting upon his adjusting hormones wouldn't be so bad. He thought that it was possible to have a bond that would mean something with her. That it wouldn't be just a simple fling to calm the chemicals coursing through his blood.

Maybe it was teaming up with her on Friday night. Maybe it was seeing her friend Clueless and learning that Felix wasn't the only male friend that the brunette had, besides himself. Or maybe it was just his concealed emotions overflowing inside of him and wanting nothing more than to just burst out. Whatever the reason, Jack knew that North and Eli were right. Hiccup wasn't a mind reader. And she sure as hell wasn't just going to fall into his lap. But, if he didn't act soon, she could very well get swept into someone else's.

So it was at the tone of the bell allowing classes to transition that he decided that he was going to ask Hiccup out.

There was only one problem with this sudden confidence boost. He'd received a text message from Hiccup on Saturday night, telling him that she wouldn't be able to come to the library at all for the next week or so. Apparently, her brother tried to fix a ticking sound coming from the motor in his truck and managed to break the vehicle even more than it already was. So, the Haddock siblings were condemned to taking the school bus until they could get it back from the repair shop.

Yep, smooth timing there, Jack. He sighed as he made his way to his locker All of this sudden motivation and you can't even use it.

At least she'd be back to her normal schedule soon. Or, at least, he hoped she would. One thing was for sure, work would be a lot more mundane now that he didn't have the freckled girl sitting at her table. Now what was he supposed to do when shifts were dead? Hell, it would only be any bit entertaining if he had another shift with Sandy, which he was pretty sure he didn't have.

The white-haired teen switched out his books and spent a little extra time just staring into his locker. This week was going to be hell, he could just feel it.

"Hey, Overland!" A silky voice beckoned. Jack looked over his shoulder and saw a familiar tall, slender figure with jet black hair and pale skin advancing towards him "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

A semi-forced smile crept onto Jack's face "Hey, Pitch." He closed his locker and faced the other teen "What's up?"

Pitch lazily waved a hand and glanced around "Oh, nothing out of the ordinary, same old same old." Bright hazel eyes flicked his way "I was actually going to rig a prank during fifth period. That is when you've got your study hall, right?"

"Yeah, it is." The shorter male confirmed "But why do you need my help?"

"Oh, I thought you'd never ask!" The taller exclaimed jovially "I need you because, well, you always know how to make a mess, don't you?"

Jack shrugged. It wasn't true, but it wasn't exactly false either. He had a bit of a history of getting into Pitch's pranks whenever the lanky teen invited him to do so. Sure, the guy was a bit of a dick and he had a pretty lengthy track record (compared to Jack's, anyway), but Jack loved to just enjoy a good laugh every once in awhile and Pitch always provided it. Besides, maybe if he made the guy think they were friends, maybe Jack would be spared during his apparently "unbeatable" senior prank that he had planned for next year. He didn't know much other than it involved… root beer, he thought it was? Or was it bubble wrap?

The white-haired male pondered the rest of the day, deemed it too bland without a good prank, before he replied "Sure, I'll join in."

"Excellent!" Pitch cheered "Meet me by the locker rooms as soon as you can get out of the lecture room." He started to walk away, but turned around suddenly "Oh, and make sure no one follows you, hmm? The whole gag'll be ruined if anyone sees us." After that, he sauntered down the hallway, his black trench coat moving behind him like a robe.

Jack had to admit, Pitch wasn't the best person to hang around with, but man was he smooth.

It wasn't all that hard for Jack to sneak out of the lecture hall during his free period, mostly because the proctor hates the "you have to ask to go to the bathroom" rule because, come on, they were all juniors and seniors in high school. The guy believed that if these kids had to ask before doing something like that, how were they expected to have their futures planned out? This philosophy allowed the teen to just slink out the door without as much as a second glance.

After that, the walk downstairs to the locker rooms went without incident and he found Pitch's figure casually lounging outside the girls' locker room. He looked pretty relaxed leaning against the wall, but something in his face made Jack think that he had just had some fun messing with whatever group of girls happened to have PE this period.

"That was faster than I thought." The taller teen commented.

"It's kinda easy to sneak out when you have a proctor that just lets you leave whenever." Jack replied "So, what's this prank idea of yours anyway?"

"Right." Pitch pushed himself off of the wall "Follow me." He led Jack down the hallway and stopped in front of the door to one of the science labs. He glanced around again before he whispered "I hope you're not afraid of mice."

Jack stared up at him, eyebrows knitting together "What?"

Pitch turned the doorknob and wasn't surprised to find it locked. He took a bobby pin out of his hair and started to wriggle it around inside the lock. Seconds later, the door was open and the two boys slipped inside.

"There." The black-haired boy pointed out "That's our latest prank, Jackie." Jack rolled his eyes at the nickname before he locked them onto a glass tank filled with white lab mice "The psychology students are planning to use them for an experiment. Too bad they'll have to catch them all again first."

"Setting mice loose in the school?" Jack summarized before smirking "Dude, they might even let us go early for this if we're lucky."

"I doubt that." Pitch responded "But there's no doubt it's possible. Probably only if enough girls scream bloody murder, though." He strode over to the tank "Help me with this thing."

They each gripped one side of the top of the tank and set it down behind the glass barrier. Jack glanced at the mice inside "So you wanna just dump 'em or what?"

"It won't be much fun if they're all trapped in the basement." Pitch explained "So we'll both grab some and let them loose on the upper floors. Or, at least, the main floor." He chuckled.

Jack nodded "Got it." He reached inside the tank and scooped up a handful of the mice. Pitch did the same and they split up, Jack taking the main floor and Pitch remaining in the basement.

The white-haired boy wandered a distance away from the stairs before he knelt down and let a few of his mice go. They scampered off and Jack moved again. He let a few loose every five or so steps, to make sure they all didn't just run off in a giant group. When he was done, he went back into the basement for more and released that group on the first floor as well.

He was actually surprised that this was going off without a hitch at all. Usually, they'd have to cleverly excuse what they were doing to some kid who didn't want to be in class or forgot a book or something. It was always a pretty bad cover, but it was amazing what some kids would buy. Last year, some girl caught them rigging buckets of glue and sparkles above the boys' locker room door and told her that this was all part of a "prom-posal" that they were helping a friend with. Neither were sure if she saw the glue bucket or not, but she bought it nonetheless and skipped off. They just went back to work after that, snickering about how the football team will look once they get their little "makeover" before practice.

Everything was going just as well as that time. No fuss, no technical difficulties, and no one got busted… yet. That, however, was quickly trumped when Jack was descending the stairs again and he heard an adult male's voice shout "Hey, Overland!"

So, it turned out the prank was more than safe. Contrary to what Jack believed, the teacher who flagged him down only yelled at him to get back to whatever class he was supposed to be in. Guess he saw a flash of the white hair after another trip up and down the stairs or something. Oh well, at least the plan wasn't discovered at that moment in time.

No, that satisfaction came later in the day. It was the start of sixth period and everyone was just getting settled into their next class. That is, until some screaming sounded from downstairs and the principal made an announcement that the lab mice had somehow gotten into the kitchen. Jack heard later on that some wound up in other classrooms, but it seemed like a lot of them were just hiding from all of the noise that made up the high school. He couldn't say he blamed them, though.

That kept Jack grinning and laughing to himself for the rest of his classes and even on the way to work. But the moment he saw the big, old building, he just wanted to turn around and take a detention instead.

Just like he predicted, the shift was pretty much dead. Just a handful of people had come in so far and they were all either borrowing a book or returning one. Eventually, Harry came out of his office and ordered him to put all of the returned books back where they belonged. And then, because he apparently saw how bored Jack was, he told the teen to organize the romance section.

He internally groaned because God, of all the sections in this whole library, the romance section was the most unnecessary and boring of them all. Hell, even the history section was better! At least in there you could read about interesting things like the Holocaust or Genocide.

… Wait, were those two the same thing…? They were, weren't they? Ugh, maybe he should stop while he was ahead and just do the damned work before he said something embarrassingly stupid out loud.

So, he did. And Jack had to admit that organizing this section was more fun than he'd ever anticipated it to be! Just reading the titles and looking at the covers made him want to bust a gut laughing. If only he didn't have to be so quiet at work… that was the only way this could have been made any more perfect. Come on, titles like "The Fallen Petals" and so many cover image of people almost-kissing had to be funny to someone besides him.

Though, that little flicker of interest grew when Jack dropped one of the books in a stack he was holding and it fell open on a random page. He put down the rest of his pile and plucked the book off of the ground. His eyes began to scan over the page, out of curiosity. There had to be some reason girls liked reading these so much, right? This novel seemed to be about the daughter of a priest and Jack guessed the problem was her father didn't approve of whoever she'd been seeing. The only thing that really stood out to him was how flowery the writing was; comparing her crush's eyes to "sparkling pools of blue" and his hair to "flowing strands of chocolate." Seriously, what moron described features like this?!

… Wait a minute… he did. Jack hung his head in shame at that realization. Crap. He scolded himself I've been doing that all along, haven't I? Okay, maybe these books were sort of realistic.

Jack's thoughts were cut off by the sound of the front door opening and inching shut. He looked in the direction of the front desk and saw a familiar head of blond hair waddle in on short legs. "Hey, Felix." Jack greeted as his friend turned to face him "What are you doing here? I thought you only came here with Hiccup."

"Yeah," The blond casually approached him "but I got to really like the place so I figured I'd check out a book or two, maybe hang out for awhile."

"Whatever you want." The older boy confirmed "I needed someone to entertain me today, since, well, you can see how dead it is in here."

Felix lazily waved the comment off "Come on, it can't be that boring can it?"

"Are you crazy?" Jack lowly hissed "Nothing ever happens and it's so freaking quiet!"

"That's one reason why I like it here." The younger teen admitted "It's a nice escape when stuff starts getting crazy, you know?"

"I guess you're right." Jack nodded "But I can't take this much quiet; do you have any idea how much noise I'm used to at home?"

Felix chuckled "I clearly don't." He glanced around and stopped on the book in Jack's hands "Any reason you're reading the romance section?"

"I was just organizing the shelves and…" Jack stopped as the other boy's face gave off disbelief "And this one fell open so I picked it up and… I don't know…"

The blond smirked and patted him on the back "Jack, trust me, if you knew some of the books I love to read, you'd think I'm weird too."

"No, it's not that! I…" The white-haired boy sighed before continuing. Might as well tell him the truth "Well, I was thinking about asking Hiccup out and-"

"Wait, really?!" Felix exclaimed, quick to lower his voice after the outburst "You're serious?"

"Yeah, I mean…" Jack nervously ruffled his hair, darting his eyes away from the other teen "she's really fun… and pretty and I-I really like her so I thought uh… why not try, right?"

A plump hand clapped onto his shoulder "Yeah, go for it." Upon seeing the older boy's smile grow, Felix leaned a little closer and cupped his free hand near Jack's ear "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Hiccup's got a little thing for you too."

Blue eyes widened and pale skin turned a flushed pink "Uh… Y-you're sure?"

"Yeah, she told me awhile ago." Felix affirmed.

"I-I didn't know she…" Jack cleared his throat "felt that way, how'd you know?"

"Oh trust me," Felix bragged "Hiccup's one of my best friends; she winds up telling me everything eventually."

"Hold on, did you say 'friends?'"The older blinked as the younger shrugged "Man, this whole time I thought you and her were a thing."

"Uh…" The younger stammered "Well, no. We're… we're just friends." He backed away and shifted his weight from one foot to the other "Is that why you kept acting weird around me?"

"Yeah…" Jack sighed and hung his head "Sorry, I was uh… trying to figure out if you were together or not before I…"He peeked at Felix through his bangs.

"Hmm…" The blond tapped his fingers against his thigh in pondering, dark green eyes flicking back and forth like a clock's tick "That makes sense now, actually."

"… It was that obvious…?" Jack gave a guilty smile.

"Well, yeah." Felix drawled "You were only glaring at me, like, every time I got close to her."

The white-haired boy lightly chuckled "Sorry, man. Guess I got a little jealous."

The younger teen smiled warmly "Water under the bridge."

Jack peeked over Felix's shoulder and saw Harry's skinny frame glaring at the two of them from the front desk "So, uh, I gotta finish up here. You go look around and, if you find anything you like, come to me and I'll ring you up, kay?"

"Will do." Felix walked past Jack and murmured to him "Seriously though, good luck with Hiccup." Then, he vanished as he turned a corner to go to another section. And Jack went back to his work with a small smile on his face.