Astrid had been off her game all day. Each time they past each other - which was more often than Astrid had realized - she blamed Hiccup for giving her coffee, a morning ritual she wasn't used to. He always ducked his head and grinned, apologizing in a sarcastic tone.
"You know, he totally used to have a crush on you," Ray teased from behind thick sunglasses that afternoon when Astrid told her about that morning's events, instead of studying, in the library.
Astrid rolled her eyes. "You don't know that. And even if he did, he doesn't anymore."
"Is that disappointment I hear?" she brought the glasses down the bridge of her nose and peered over the rim.
"No. I mean, he's sweet, but," she let her voice trail off, unsure of how she had planned on ending that sentence.
The smirking blonde across from her shoved her dark shades back up and leaned forward, twirling a finger idly in her hair and smacking nonexistent gum. "But he's tooootally cute, right?"
"So you date him," Astrid pushed her friend away and stared at her papers.
Speak of the devil, an out of breath Hiccup entered the library, scanning the room for a table. He lit up at the sight of his friends and threw his books down on the table, receiving a few glares. "I'm failing English." He informed them under his breath. The boy ran his fingers through his already mangled hair.
Astrid blinked twice, confused, and Ray nudged her in the side, giving her a Look that merited a swift kick.
"So you can retake it next semester? Big whoop." The twin shrugged, rubbing her shin.
"I uh, no, um..." he sighed and hid his face in his hands. "It's more complicated than that."
"God, Hiccup, you're such a drama queen." Astrid scoffed, shuffling through his books, marked English 101. "Without the attitude," she teased, "Tell us why you so desperately need to pass English."
"If I don't I'll lose the Dragon Academy." He groaned, ignoring her as he put his head on the table. "My dad said I have to get the credits I need to take over his job or he'll stop funding the Academy."
"Wow," Ray whistled. "You really need a tv crew to film your life."
Hiccup lifted his head long enough to toss her a glare. "It's barely surviving as it is. His money's all that's keeping me afloat. I figured I could make enough money to be able to make it on my own, but the entire English language sucks."
"I like it," Ray shrugged.
Astrid nodded. "Boys are just automatically bad at it."
Hiccup looked up to grin at her, then sat up properly and stared at the books in front of him. "I've been talking for seventeen years, why is it still so complicated?"
"It's not so bad," the bird owner next to him laughed. "There are just forty-two million rules that you won't actually put into practice in your day-to-day life unless you have a job as a writer or editor."
The boy scoffed and opened the book dramatically. "Do you think Fisher would tutor me?" he moans, giving up after a minute of staring at the nonsensical words that seemed to swim on the page the longer he squinted.
"What, a girl can't do it?" Ray made an offended noise.
"Uh, no offense, but I've seen you try to help the person next to you in class before, and Astrid, you're really stubborn. I can't imagine you'd have the patience for teaching me English." He wriggled his nose when she stuck out her tongue.
"Actually, Astrid's a really good teacher." The girl across from them interjected. "She helped me when I was failing math."
"Can't imagine that was easy," Hiccup teased, and chuckled at Ray's harrumph.
"It wasn't," Astrid replied, grinning when her friend poked her. "But she passed. Don't be so prejudice, Dragon Boy."
Taylor joined them quietly, no one noticing him but his sister. "Yo, guys, can you ease up on the sexual tension? I'm trying to breathe here."
Astrid looked indignant at the remark, and Hiccup stumbled over his words to come up with any clever counter argument. Ray quieted her brother with a thump on the head and he laughingly said he was sorry, though it was probably the most insincere apology Astrid had ever heard.
"Fish and Scotty are gonna come here in a little while," Taylor told the group, sniffling. "Figured we could train together."
"It's not training, dumbass, it's studying. Why aren't you failing English?" His sister scoffed at him.
"Because I rock." he reminded her loudly, earning a glare from the librarian.
A half hour passed accordingly until the aforementioned duo made their appearances. Scott regaled them with tales about their previous class.
"Chemistry rocks," he finished. "I can't believe there's a class about how to blow things up."
"It's supposed to be how not to blow things up." Fisher grunted, irritated.
"That's sooo not what I learned. Anyways, nerd, what's so fun about not blowing things up? Nothing."
"The chemical reactions are interesting!" The boy cried defensively.
"Riiight. So what are you ladies gabbing about?" Scott turned his attention to the rest of the group.
"Hiccup might lose the Academy funds if he doesn't figure out how the English language operates." Astrid grinned cheekily.
"Astrid's gonna tutor him." Ray winked, and Taylor cooed, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Scott looked from Taylor to the two he was mocking. As Astrid and Hiccup exchanged embarrassed glances, he scowled. "That's a horrible idea." he claimed, startling his classmates. "You should just raise the money by yourself."
Hiccup shrugged, "That could work, too."
Don'T worry. Although it might not seem like it, I do have a plan heheh. Two updates in one day will probably be rare.
And no, Hiccup and Astrid aren't in love (yet), I just think Ruff and Tuff would go to town on them about every little thing (shippers, man.)
Also, I really hope I didn't make Snotlout seem too mean. He only wants attention! :)
Review? I love you! ouo