(A/N) Yay it's 2018! Only a year and three months to go before HTTYD 3! Also Thanks to those of you who review and follow! What's your new years revolution btw? Mine is to break my habit of threatening people who make me to upset (Long story short when I went to a few mental hospitals I had very little strength and so used threats to catch another girl on my unit off guard so I could run and let a staff catch her. I always had to use really deep and detailed ones so the person raising a fist to me would be shocked and taken back. Simply threatening to hit them wouldn't have done anything. I've recovered and don't go to the hospitals anymore, but the habit still remains. I still threaten deep stuff when I want someone to get away from me and can't fight them. This year I'm going to stop doing that)
First period was child development, a class Hiccup still questioned. Common people could learn how to raise a child from books and experience right? So why in the world was he and a few others stuck in a class where they had to state their beliefs on the subject of parenting in front of a crowd? School was weird I'll tell you that.
Walking into room 509 which was Child Development/home economics room depending on the class period, Hiccup sat at one of the round tile tables near the white bored where he always liked to sit. His other fellow students who never listened walked in to. One girl sat in a been bag chair in the corner beside her friend who was a hyper, unprepared teenage boy. The boy was a freshman like Hiccup, the girl was a Junior.
The two Sophomore boys who always sat at the table near the door walked in with their over sized backpacks and phones in their hands. Finally the last girl, a senior who always slept through this necessary in at least one of your years chosen classes sat at the table near the closet, laying her head down for her morning nap.
The door opened again just as the first bell rang and Ms. Maylene, a substitute they always had entered the room. Ms. Maylene treated her students like she would her grandchildren, spoiling them with things such as candy or coffee in their first period class.
Ms. Maylene was a substitute, but was almost always in this class. The original teacher, Ms. Shoots, was only here maybe two days a school week. Reason being was because her toddler daughter was in the hospital, diagnosed with the dreaded blood cancer leukemia. Students in her class were always making cards for the fighting three year old known as Emily.
"Alright class. Are all of you finished with your assignments Shoots gave you?" Maylene asked, going over the notes in her binder the teacher had left her. Every other kid in the class looked surprised, apparently forgetting they had a sheet or two of some sort of homework this week.
Hiccup on the other hand was fine. He seemed to have so much free time he got his work done. Grabbing his printed papers, Hiccup turned in an essay they were supposed to write, a mini poster bored project they had to do, and three stapled together pieces of typed writing. The last thing was originally supposed to be answering a couple questions based on interview you had with some sort of parent. Hiccup on the other hand typed all the answers and questions along with some extra writing to summarize his one sentence answers. Teachers, though given extra work, liked the fact Hiccup was so in depth with his answers and often time gave him extra credit. This meant that on the days Hiccup didn't want to do class projects or answer public questions, he always had his paper grades and extra points to keep him at all A's and B's.
"How do you find the time do all this Hiccup?" Ms. Maylene asked, admiring Hiccup's detail and A+ answers. "I just like to write." Hiccup said simply in a quiet voice with a smile. He sat back down, watching videos on his phone since he was so caught up.
Eventually English came, then Biology, then PE, then Activity, then history, and finally lunch. Hiccup sat at a corner table, eating a simple sandwich and fruit cup. He was used to sitting alone at lunch, the twins unable to function right in the cafeteria and Fishlegs having fourth period lunch do to being in tenth. Most Freshmen and the occasional Sophomore had 5th period lunch, but Fishlegs just wasn't one of them.
Deciding he wasn't hungry Hiccup stood up and threw his plate away. Once sitting back down he pulled out his Journal to go over the obstacle course moves him and Toothless could use in their race at six. Suddenly Hiccup felt the presence of someone beside him and pulled out his earbud headphones which he was using to listen to his playlist.
"Hey Hiccup. What you up to?" Astrid asked, looking over Hiccup's journal curiously. Hiccup smiled, remembering Astrid was coming to his race with him. "Just going over some moves me and Toothless can use on likely obstacles during our race today." Astrid's face lit up as she remembered the race was only a few hours away. She'd never been to a live one before and it was clear she was excited.
"Am I still coming with?" "Only if you want to." Astrid nodded a bit to quickly despite not being one to show others her more jittery, excited, undisciplined side. Hiccup couldn't help but chuckle, and he suddenly felt the eyes of other girls on him.
"Wait can I come to?" "Why does she get to be your guest." "I have way more of the looks that deserve you than she does. Astrid's just a...tomboy." Comments were thrown their way, and Hiccup found it hard to keep up.
"Okay, first of all, since when am I the person who cares about looks? Second I can only have one guest. Third, Astrid's been more nice to me for who I am than any of you who don't know a thing about me." Hiccup tried to answer every girl best he could, and eventually decided to take Astrid's hand and go to the library.
Upon arriving at the library with twenty minutes of lunch to spare, Hiccup and Astrid sat down on a been bag chair near a corner. The library was small, but books, computers, and posters were everywhere. Honestly Hiccup still questioned how he managed to spend a lot of his time here, it was crowded to say the least.
"I'm sorry about them Astrid. I don't think a lot of people get that I don't race for the popularity." "Don't be sorry Hiccup. Some girls are just like that." Astrid thought for a moment before adding on "Why do you love to race anyways?"
This caught Hiccup off guard, but he quickly recovered. "It's just a passion, helps keep my mind off things." Hiccup replied, decided to grab a mystery book off the shelf and start reading on it. Astrid frowned, somehow knowing he was hiding something deeper.
"What kind of things?" Hiccup looked up at her, and for a moment he thought about how much he could trust her with. Astrid wasn't one for gossip, and she seemed genuinely kind. Hiccup hardly shared his personal life with anyone though, and decided he didn't know enough about Astrid to trust her...yet.
"Just family stuff." Hiccup shrugged, grateful when Astrid decided not to push him. Eventually the bell rang, signaling it was time to go back to the second half of fifth period class. "So...see you around six?" Astrid asked. "Well if your going to come as my guest I should probably pick you up earlier. Why don't me and Toothless meet you in the town park at 5:00?" "Can you do 5:30?" Astrid asked and Hiccup nodded. "Don't see why not." With that they both separated, secretly excited to see each other in Algebra and Spanish.
"Great Job bud! Let's try that one again." It was around four PM, and Hiccup along with Toothless were getting in some last minute training. From loop de loops to dives, to separating from each other to avoid collision, the two were in perfect sync. Perhaps that's why they had a winning streak and hadn't lost since Hiccup started racing. People from around the world would come with their dragons just to try to beet the champion racer. Thing is though, Hiccup was the only one with a night fury which was the fastest dragon with wings and good maneuverability. Now their were speed stingers and stuff, but they didn't qualify as racing dragons just like a miniature horse can't race in horse races.
Toothless roared in excitement, listening to his rider laugh. Hiccup hardly ever showed his happiness and laughter wile on the ground, never really being close enough to people to have this much fun with them. Toothless on the other hand...he was Hiccup's best friend since they were both younger adolescents. When flying on his night fury, nothing could keep Hiccup down in the dumps.
They flew for what felt like five minutes but was actually an hour or so. After landing and making sure Magnus and Jacob knew where he was going, Hiccup went inside to change into his black riding suit (Like the armor in HTTYD 2). After changed into gear, Hiccup and Toothless took off for Berk's town park. Astrid would be waiting at 5:30, so why not try to be a little early?
After arriving at the park, Hiccup was surprised to see Astrid had arived early to. She was shooting baskets at the basketball court there, a deadly Nadder shooting with her. "You didn't tell me you had a Nadder." Hiccup said, surprising Astrid and causing her to miss her shot.
"Yeah. My Uncle Fin gave her to me as a hatchling. He was a veteran and wanted me to have a dragon that could help me grown strong and independent. Stormfly and I have been best friends since." Hiccup was taken back a second, and he silently wondered what Astrid meant by was a veteran. Perhaps he was just retired?
Astrid caught onto Hiccup's look, a sigh escaping her lips. "Yeah, yeah not every soldier survives the war. He died nobly though." Astrid held her basketball in her hands, a sad smile on her lips as she traced the black markings. "And that's what he always wanted. To die a soldier and a hero." Suddenly Astrid realized what she was doing and looked at Hiccup, masking her feelings with a confident look wile spinning her ball on her finger.
"Sorry about rambling on. I'm sure you need to get ready for your race so we're not late." Astrid said with her usual strong, confident, and honestly sort of sassy voice. Hiccup raised his hands, waving her words off. "Nah it's fine." He shrugged, catching her gaze. "A lot of people have been their and need someone to talk to." Astrid was now the one who had that curious yet afraid-to-ask-anything expression on.
Hiccup smiled, looking down. "Yeah...your not alone." Astrid nodded, passing him the basketball. "Who was your hero?" She asked, glad she had someone who had a similar experience. Hiccup caught the ball, shrugging his shoulders.
"That's a conversation for another time my friend. So...were you and your uncle close?" Hiccup passed Astrid the ball who caught it with perfect reflexes. "Yeah. In all honesty..." Astrid passed Hiccup the ball quickly and he caught it with perfect reflex similar to her own.
"You kind of remind me of him. Nice catch though." Hiccup smiled, spinning the basketball on his own finger. "How so?" Hiccup shot her a fast ball to, trying to catch her off guard. Astrid caught it though, making Hiccup sigh in defeat. "A conversation for another time." Astrid copied Hiccup's previous sentence. "So...shall we get going? I can fly Stormfly home on the way, she hasn't eaten and needs to stay in her stall." Hiccup nodded as they both took off.
Astrid put Stormfly away and told her mother where she was going. After that she climbed onto Toothless behind Hiccup, exhilarated to be flying such a rare dragon. Hiccup and Astrid took off at full speed, and Astrid who wasn't used to flying with a racer had to hold onto Hiccup in fear of falling off.
Hiccup looked behind him with the corner of his eyes when Astrid tightly wrapped his arms around his waist. Patting his dragons head, Hiccup slowed their flight a little bit. He blushed when Astrid's grip tightened, her blue tank top under her open jacket causing him to feel the warmth her body heat. Hiccup was grateful he had his uniform on, not wanting to go into a...distracted mode right before a race, it would make him lose focus.
Her jean shorts caused Hiccup to become distracted once again because Astrid's long, thin, strong legs clinging to the saddle in an attempt to stay on. Taking a deep breath, Hiccup managed to think of Astrid and not her looks.
"Sorry...I kind of didn't take into consideration the fact your not used to racing speeds." Astrid freed one of her hands from around Hiccup to wave it off. "It's fine, just sudden. Stormfly can fly pretty fast but we're just not used to trying to break speed records." Hiccup chuckled, flying above the clouds into the sunset.
Astrid's fear diminished and was replaced by pure wonder. Her and Stormfly had flown in conditions like this, but never had she really just taken a moment to enjoy the scenery thanks to being focused on flying the right way after never having proper training to fly a dragon.
"Hiccup...this is amazing. He's amazing." Astrid reached around Hiccup to pet Toothless, but something about her voice and the way she touched him made Hiccup consider the thought that she was talking to Toothless about him. That was a thought he didn't feel like proving at the moment though. Instead they continued flying, eventually landing at the dragons racers entrance by 5:55.
"Ah Hiccup Haddock! Glad you made it! I was starting to worry, your usually so early." One of the guards who was close to the racers told Hiccup. His eyes went to Hiccup's hand holding someone else's, then to Astrid's excited face.
"Who's this?" The man asked, extending a hand to shake Astrid's. "This is my friend Astrid Hofferson. I was wondering if she could come as my guest." Hiccup explained, hoping he'd get the answer he wanted. "Well, most of our seating as taken, so why don't we save you the trouble and you can watch from racers stables? That way you can congratulate Hiccup after his race and perhaps get to know some of our other racers." The man said causing Astrid's expression to light up.
"That would be awesome!" Astrid suddenly realized her lack of composure and stood more strait, her voice growing quieter. "If that's not a burden of course." Hiccup and the guard chuckled at the sudden outburst and cover up, but the guard waved it off. "Never a burden to have a racers friend come along. Well Hiccup, ready to get set up?" Hiccup nodded wile letting go of Astrid's hand.
"Sure am. Mind leading me to our starting point and giving me some images of the track?" The guard nodded, pulling Hiccup away. Astrid smiled as they walked off, and looked to her side once she heard someone from school shout a wish of luck to Hiccup. Astrid raised an eyebrow, since when did Tuffnut Thorsten pay any attention to Hiccup? The guy didn't seem to like anyone. What really confused her was the fact he was their wish Fishlegs Ingerman and two other older adults. Fishlegs never liked racing, but seemed to support Hiccup.
"Probably friends of his." Astrid said to herself, accidently speaking out loud. Confusion in her expression, Astrid walked to where she would be watching the race from, deciding she'd question Hiccup later. Right now he had a race going on, and the last thing Astrid wanted to do was distract him.
(A/N) Hey fellow readers! How you liking it so far as the plot continues to climb? Leave a review to let me know! Also I just realized I said Astrid didn't want to distract Hiccup, but in all honesty she did that unintentionally on their romantic like flight :)