I'M BAAAAACK! Yup, it's me, Cass, awoken from the death sleep called school. This story's been dormant for half a year. HALF A FREAKING YEAR. I'm sooooo sorry about that.

But one or two guest reviewers really made my day a couple of weeks ago, when they still wished for more. I get so happy when every now and then I get reviews from people still wanting more. You guys really make me believe in this story, so thank you for that. You've reignited my spark!

More at the bottom! Enjoy!

Chapter 15: Jack

"Okay, listen up, Folks!" Hans shouts over the ice, obtaining the team's attention. "The last game of the season is in a week. Practice is every day now." I rest my head on the end of my hockey stick, trying to listen to Hans' ramble about tactics and game strategies that we were to practice harder, if we should win. Which, of course, we should. According to Hans, at least.

"Haddock! Frost!" At the mention of my name, my head awkwardly glide off my hockey stick, and it falls to the icy ground with a loud pluck!

"You two take the lead throughout the first half of the attack, you play each other, where Bunny will be coming from the corner, ready to finish the goal. Got it?"

"Yes, Hans." Hiccup only mumbles like me, obviously also in a daze. Hans sends us a gaze.

"Look alive, girls! Don't want to ruin the game next Saturday, do you?" I growl slightly, before shaking my head. I cannot see Hiccup from where I stand, but I can only imagine him agreeing.

Right now, I just need this practice to be over already. Elsa's waiting by the tree.

Hiccup

I'm one of the first guys to rush towards the exit, once strategy-talk is over.

"No, Haddock!" I hear Hans shout, "I need to talk to you, personally." I curse, my fingers automatically following suit. I've spent too much time with Astrid, lately. The duality in speaking with the deaf and hard-of-hearing community is rubbing off on me. Not that I can spend too much time with Astrid. Actually the opposite is the case…

"Haddock, I've observed you these last couple of weeks in training. Ever since the party at my place, You've been… unfocused. Your technics have become sloppy, and you're losing speed. Is there something I should be worried about?" My eyes widen at his rather concerned voice. Is he actually serious?

"Ehm, there's nothing wrong, Hans. Just… Stressed? I can't give you an exact explanation for what's going on, really." My gaze carefully avoids his hardening look.

"Really? I could come up with a few reasons. One major one is blonde, braided hair, fair skin… shall I continue?" My head snap up at his description.

"What do you know about Astrid?" My voice come out a tat more threatening, than I wanted, only making Hans smirk more viciously.

"Oh nothing much, Haddock. All I know is that she's been waiting around the athletes' grounds way longer than the rest, only so that she could walk home with a certain player of mine… Is that correct?" My slightly squinted eyes and tight lips must have answered his question perfectly, for he continues, "Oh my, it is. Why, how marvelous. I see you've set your heart on the low-lives? Well, I guess it's your tragic childhood, that's finally surfacing, reclaiming you. I'm not really surprised. You were difficult to pull out, but it can be so easy to fall back in. All it takes is a single person to rearrange your position in the high school hierarchy. Do you want to rejoin the low-lives? To be kicked off the team and ill-looked upon by the rest of the school, runt?" The very last word leaving his lips, had my hands shaking. I press my lips even tighter together, wrinkling my nose in rage.

"I'm not a runt, Hans. Not anymore. That was years ago."

"It truly was, Hiccup, but as I said. All it takes is one person to drag you down. And do you know who that person is?" My eyes burn into his, Emerald fighting forest green.

"If you say Astrid, I swear, I'll…"

"You'll what? Beat me up? Break my arm? You can't hurt me, Hiccup. There's nothing you can do to me. I'm too powerful, and way above you. But because of my popularity and influence, I can make your life a living hell, or I can pretend this has never happened. All I need you to do is dump that girl, like the disposable garbage she is, and return to the team. Rejoin the life of unobtainable fame and girls all around you, swooning at your every move…"

"You're making me choose between hockey and the love of my life?! Well that's the easiest question of the millen…"

"No no, Harold. I'm making you choose between your current life, and your old life of complete solitude and disowning. Your call." And with that, he turned to leave, not seeing my entire being shaking with rage.

I only slightly hear the door to the lockers slam, before my scream in frustration roars across the ice.

Elsa

"No you goof, I meant after the ice cream, we could go skating. You know my saying; never skate on an empty stomach." Jack's open smile and vibrating Adam's apple, makes me smile a little myself. How I wish I could hear his voice, his laugh, just once.

"Sounds like a plan to me, Snowflake." His fingers lace themselves with mine, before dragging me through the main street of town, towards my all-time favorite ice cream shop. I just hope she's returned from her med. studies. Her, I can actually order to, myself.

The doorbell above us moves in accordance with the door, alarming our entrance to everyone in the shop. As my gaze focus on the counter, I can't help but squeal a bit. She is back! But I wonder why, though? It's way too early for her semester to be over… isn't it? She notices me and smiles widely at me, before taking a look at Jack beside me, or more likely, the tight grip he has on my hand. A blush creeps across my cheeks, finding the retro clock on the wall very interesting all of a sudden.

Jack continues to drag me towards the counter, and the smell of fresh cut chocolate and fruit sorbets makes me moan slightly in pleasure.

"Hi, Elsa! What can I do for you and this fine young man?" She smirks, as only her fingers move. The question is clearly only for me.

"Daphne, please! This is my boyfriend, Jack. Jack, meet an old friend of mine, Daphne." As I look up at him, his eyes are calm, his lips locked in his signature smirk, his hands free to converse.

"Hey, Daphne. Nice to meet you." His mouth moves along, but neither of us can hear him.

"A boyfriend, Elsa? Who would've thought that you would end up with such a cutie? I mean look at him! How long have you guys been together?" She only signs, clearly only targeted at me, once again.

"Long enough for me to understand every word you're saying, Daphne." Jack signs, while laughing out loud. Daphne turns her entire body towards him, an impressed look on her face. Me, I can't help but feel a little proud. It's been weeks in the making, but he's finally becoming sort of fluent in conversational ASL.

"Oh…" Daphne's apparent blush makes her stare down at the ice cream for a moment. "I see. Well, what can I do for you two?"

"Ehm… I'll have…"

"Can you make me a…"

"…triple Chocolate scoop, a Choco-mint scoop and a cherry scoop, please?" Daphne freezes for a second, trying not to drop her scoop-proportioned spoon.

"Oh, you two, could you just… get married or something? You're unbelievable!" Her signing is affected by the spoon, but also by her laughing bodice.

"What do you mean?" I ask, only slightly looking at Jack. He just signed something as well, it seems.

"Oh, there you go again! God, I wish I could record it for you guys to see! You're signing the exact same thing, at the same time!" She laughs off, before starting on making our orders. At her words, I start to immediately blush. Jack's hand snakes its way around my waist, pulling me in.

"You're cute, do you know that?" His one-hand signing had luckily also gotten a lot better. It made multitasking so much easier. I only smirk it off, poking him in the ribs.

"I didn't know you liked Triple Chocolate, mint and cherries together?" One ice cream was done, and Daphne quickly stuck a light blue spoon in it. Jack offered it to me, pulling out his purse from his pocket.

"Are you kidding me? This is a combination I order when I want to spoil myself completely."

"Me too! Wow, another thing we have in common. Who knew?" The second ice cream was placed on the counter, this one with a dark blue spoon. Jack takes it himself, and hurries to pay for the entire thing before I can object. I loop my arm through his, taking him out of the ice cream shop.

We have a rink to get to.

2 days later: Hiccup

"Hey Astrid. What's up?" When Astrid dialed me on skype, her beautiful face became far more interesting than the history project I was supposed to do. If only she could come over and hang out. Help take my mind off of things, just for a while.

I see you've set your heart on the low-lives…

Sigh… Hans' words have repeated themselves time and time again since his threat two days ago. But what am I to do? I don't want to become what I was before hockey, but there's no way I'm ever going to let go of Astrid! She's not disposable garbage; she's the most wonderful thing that has happened to me since I found Toothless. How could I even… I can't even think the words.

"Oh, I just wanted to see what you were up to this fine Saturday night? You see, my stepfather is gone for the weekend, and Elsa's working on some school project. So I'm all alone! Isn't it tragic? So I thought I'd call my handsome boyfriend, to see if he had a night to spare for a movie marathon? I just dug out a great series from the attic and I could come over in a while with it, and some popcorn?" I smile at the thought. Her lying perfectly wrapped in my arms, as we chill the night away in my room, laughing, talking… kissing…

All it takes is a single person to rearrange your position in the high school hierarchy…

But… I don't want to live that life again… What, what can I do? Appease Hans' whishes by breaking Astrid's heart? Or continue to be with Astrid, but then be thrown down to bottom of the school? Down the bottomless pit, down where I once thought of ending it all? I know I would have Astrid to support me through it, but the thought of ever having to be down there again… it frightens me. Call me weak, call me whatever you want, but I'm not going back down there. I… I…

I'm sorry, Astrid…

Maybe if I just do it gently over time? Then it wouldn't be harsh on her, but at the same time, I would appease Hans, by telling him it's over.

"I Eh… I'm sorry, Astrid, tonight's not really good for me. I'm also working on a school project tonight. In history." Now that part wasn't a lie. I really don't like to lie. Especially not to her. As I sign my reply, her face crumples a bit, hurt, or disappointed at least.

"Oh, that's fine. I guess we can always find time, right? What about next weekend? I'm booked the entire week after school." I frown slightly. Oh why is this so hard? I've turned down several girls throughout the last few years, right?

Gosh that sounded wrong. What I mean is that I've politely declined other girls' interest in me, as I've only had my heart set on one girl. But as Astrid came into the picture… Now that I finally have her, my position orders me to drop her, or I'm finished. I writhe my fingers slightly, before replying.

"That's not really so good either, Astrid. The last game of the season is coming up, and I-I-I gotta focus. Hans says he's going to need everyday up to the game. I'm really sorry."

Once again her face crumples more and more as I continue, and it hurts me just as much as it does her to say it.

"Tha-That's Okay, Hiccup, I-I completely understand. Hockey's important to you, just as athletics are to me. I'd also tell you that I couldn't make it, if training ever got in the way. I'll just catch you at lunch, right?" A tiny fragment of hope blossomed in her eyes, as the possibility of seeing each other again appeared. I give her my signature lopsided grin – one I knew she loved.

"Of course, M'lady. See ya."

"See ya." I end the skype conversation, the word-document with my History project slamming itself in my face. I stare blankly at it for several minutes, while my brain turns itself around.

What the Hel am I doing?

Astrid

The weekend was a bummer. With the house all to myself, I had nothing much to do. I had my pug, Stormfly, to look after, of course, but when I had hoped to have a movie night with Hiccup, An entire weekend of solitude was a tat too depressing for my liking.

So now, it's finally Monday. Back in school, where the chance of seeing Hiccup is a bazillion times bigger, I have a tiny jump in my step all the way to class. Sadly, I don't share any morning classes with him, but he promised lunch, so I'll see by the tree as I always do when we do lunch together.

Elsa's sitting beside me in the first class, doodling snowflakes in her notebook.

"Morning, Elsa." I sign, sitting down next to her. She looks up at me, smiling as she sees it's just me.

"Morning, Astrid. Have you seen Punzie? I really don't hope she's late. Mr. North's accent is hard to comprehend to the fullest." I shake my head slightly, pulling out my own notebook, textbook and a pencil.

"Nope, I've not seen her. But I will admit I was a bit quick this morning. I might have simply just missed her on the way here." She turns her bodice towards me, one eyebrow raised.

"You? Quick? What's up? You're always lazy on a Monday morning." I blush slightly, fiddling a bit with my pencil.

"Well, I might have talked with Hiccup briefly in the weekend, asking him to hang out, but he couldn't, so he promised me to go do lunch today and I hoped I might catch a glimpse of him before then, just because I missed him the entire Sunday." My fingers have a hard time keeping up with the pace I want to tell her, but she seems to understand my ramble, if only the necessities of it.

"He couldn't hang out? Oh, but why?"

"He said he was working on a project this weekend, and because of the last game of the season on Saturday, He will have minimum to no time whatsoever to hang out this week. I just hope we'll still have the school breaks and stolen kisses by the lockers." both Elsa's eyebrows rise up under her bangs.

"Stolen kisses be the lockers? Since when have you stepped out of a High School Drama?"

"Ehm… I guess since I got a boyfriend last week? You'll be surprised how much one person can change you." Elsa only rolls her eyes, glad that Punzie finally had entered the classroom, along with Mr. North.

Lunch-time! Sadly I couldn't find Hiccup by the lockers between first and second period but he probably just went with Jack. I know they share morning classes anyway. I skip my way through the cafeteria, out into the warm spring breeze. From where I stood, I had an open view out over the school grounds, including the huge oak tree I'd come to see as refuge and secret date/hideout.

And, as luck would have it, a certain auburn-haired boy had already arrived, sitting on one of the branches, working on something. Probably a sketch, or something.

I walk straight to the tree, seeing Hiccup, indeed, deeply engaged in a sketch of a sort. His left hand moves frantically across the paper. He doesn't even see me coming. Which only make me smirk. I sneak up behind him, laying my hands around his eyes.

"Guess who it is?" I whisper into his ear, making him shiver slightly.

"Imma take a wild guess. Is it you, M'lady?" His hands let go of the pencil so he could answer.

"You bet ya." I quickly give his cheek a peck, before sitting next to him, packing out my lunch from my bag pack.

"So watcha drawing?" I ask, taking a closer look at his notepad.

"Oh, just some ideas, you know. Different kinds of designs and such. I'm trying to be innovative and such. I have to, if I ever want a chance at engineering." He explains as I look at the rather complicated sketch. I don't understand much of it, but that may also have to do with his scribble for a handwriting.

"Hm. Pretty cool. So, excited for the big game? I hear it's going to be pretty epic."

"Yeah, it is. The last game of the season. We're competing against our all-time rivals, the Wild Dragons. They have this insane leader as a captain, and we've had a pretty hard time keeping up with them. They're fearless, a little bit brutal, just within the rules of how much they can damage their components."

"Ugh. Sounds tough to me."

"Yeah. That's why Hans is so obsessed by every player being there 200% of the time. That's also why I don't have time these days. I'm really sorry about that, Astrid."

"Nah, it's fine. I get it. I know how hard it can be juggling between a social life and a time consuming passion. Just, can you at least reserve the lunch breaks for me, Elsa and Jack? Then you can glide away on the ice to your heart's content." He gives me his lopsided grin, and snakes a rather careful hand around me waist, only pulling me slightly towards him.

"Sure. The lunchbreaks are…"

Hiccup's head snap up in horror. His gaze travels across the school grounds, over by the bleachers, where Hans and his gang of ice hockey players sit and chill, assumingly talking about the game on Saturday. Hiccups face cringes and he looks back at me.

"Astrid, I'm really sorry… I-I-I gotta go… They need me right now."

"But… Our lunch date…"

"Apparently that's not today. Goodbye Astrid." He packs his stuff, stands and leaves, only very subtly glancing over his shoulder at me. His lips move but I cannot comprehend whatever he said.

What the Hel just happened?!

Hiccup

"HADDOCK! GET OVER HERE!" I snap my head up in terror as Hans' insisting shout crosses the lawn, over from the bleachers.

"IF YOU'RE NOT HERE IN TWO MINUTES YOU CAN KISS…" I quickly turn around to Astrid. My Gods, am I actually going through with this?

"Astrid, I'm really sorry… I-I-I gotta go… They need me right now." Her shoulders fall down, her hands dropping in her lap, before signing,

"But… Our lunch date…"

"Apparently, that's not today. Goodbye Astrid." I gather my stuff, stand up and turn to leave. As I've taken five or so steps away from her, I slightly look back at her, whispering,

"I love you…" And with that, I left her sitting at the tree, all by herself.

And if I hold my current life dear, it was the last time I spoke to her.

What the Hel are you doing, Hiccup? You screwed up big time, you mess.

Ahh THE DRAMA!

But seriously you guys, we're entering unknown waters now, and is about to go neck deep in trouble. Don't you worry, you'll get your drama, your action, maybe a heartbreak, but definitely and ultimately THE FREAKING FEELS!

A few of you have asked about Hiccup missing his leg like I he does in the first movie. Don't you worry about that, I've spun up the perfect scenery for that, and it has been planned since before Hiccstrid went on their first date.

Again, so sorry for not updating. I've really lost track of time this year, and I've been very close to take a break from school because of stress. BUT!

Summer is in THREE WEEKS! (for me anyway) And from then on I have every single day to work on this story, because, we. Will. See. The. End. Of. IT! I just also have to work on a drawing portfolio for animation school. I'm applying February next year, and they expect at least 40 drawings in total. Geez, it's tough.

But I'll always, somehow, find time for updating this story, don't you worry.

Who knows, maybe I'll update once more these next three weeks?

See ya!

BONUS! Virtual cookie to whoever caught the cameo in this Chapter! hint: Her name is Daphne (;