Chapter 6
After hiccup and Astrid's weird confrontation in the gym, hiccup decides to continue the search for his ball he walks across the hardwood floor and heads to the back exit, astrid on the other hand grew tired of waiting for gobber, but what else is there to do, on a sunday? If not for training all of her plans are just the same old stuff, hanging out with scott or watching a movie at home and she'd rather not go to both. She just exhales in complete exasperation, right now even the least popular guy seems interesting, but she scoffs at the thought of further talking with him she wanted to get even with him for beating her every year but revenge can wait. So she settles for a nap instead, she's still quite frustrated at her coach for making her wait for almost an hour, but she reassures herself that She'll get even with gobber somehow. She closes her eyes, resting her head onto the wall near the bench she was sitting on, she could feel herself slowly relaxing, it's obvious she's still sleepy, she needed a break, but breaks aren't included in Astrids dictionary, to her taking breaks doesn't get you where you want to be. She's starting to drift off when a loud thud noise wakes her back up again she stands up looking at her surroundings and spots hiccup sitting on the floor and who's infront of him none other than her coach
"Oh sorry lad.. Didn't see you there" he says while scratching his neck with his hook. Hiccup regains his balance and stands up, brushing whatever dirt got on the back of his pants
"Oww.. Why do i always.. end up on the floor whenever i bump into you?" he says with a hint of frustration in his voice, astrid just looks on in curiosity, why does coach know that dork and why does that dork know coach, and why is he calling him by his nickname
"Nevermind that, where the hell have ya been? I've been looking all morning for ya" he says
"What? I've been here the whole time?.. You said i can't skip practice.. so here i am" he says
"Oh right.. I forgot all about that" he says while scratching his head, after hearing his answer astrid gets even more frustrated. Finding out that the reason she waited so long in the gym was because of her coach completely forgetting about their one-on-one training, and why's that? All because he was too busy trying to find some nerdy kid, she stood up with a loud step and quickly enters the conversation
"Oh! coach gobber? Why in the world would YOU be here?" She exclaims with a sarcastic and irritated tone of voice, gobber finally noticed astrid as she was walking towards the two of them, his eyes shot wide open, and suddenly it dawned on him they were supposed to have a private training session every sunday
"Astrid.. Was it sunday already?.. I-i almost for-" but before he can finish his sentence astrid cuts him off
"Forgot? Forget what coach?" She asks sarcastically but stares at gobber who just stares back
"Ok.. i get it, I'm sorry lass i was busy-" astrid cuts him off again but raises her voice this time
"Busy!? I just heard you talking with that nerd!" she points her finger at hiccup who looks ar it and gulps suddenly fearring for his safety
"Oh.. Really? W-what did ya hear?" Gobber asks fearing whatever she's about to say next
"Nothing much.. mostly bout you forgetting our training, and letting me wait here for an HOUR!" Astrid nearly shouts, hiccup and gobber both flinch at the girls loud declaration
"Relax I'm sorry lass, but I'm here aren't i?" He gestures to himself "and look what i just found" he says giddily while gesturing his hands to hiccup
"Great.. You discovered a nerd.." She says while looking at hiccup and scoffing, clearly she wanted to piss hiccup off. She sets aside her anger towards coach for another day atleast, she wanted to focus on the main problem infront of her and that was hiccup. All she wanted to do was make fun of hiccup, but she genuinely looked half disgusted and half curious at Gobber's words. hiccup on the other hand looks at her and notices her stare. He knew right away what she was trying to do he just stares back and fakes a hurt expression, placing his hand on his chest and grasping it.
"Ouch, that stings I'm right here.. You know" he says while looking at astrid, gobber stops what he thinks was already an argument between the two
"Ok, ok.. I know he's not much" he looks at hiccup and hiccup just sighs hearing gobbers assumption of him
"Really gobber? Not much" astrid snickers and gobber goes on with his sentence
"Let me finish lad" gobber says and hiccup sighs again nodding, signalling him to move on
"Ok, where was i-" astrid eagerly answers his question and says "you were saying he's not much" and hiccup looks at her again feigning the same hurt expression he made earlier. gobber disregards hiccups reaction and resumed his speech
"Oh Right, ..cough.. i know he's not much BUT.. He makes up for it with outstanding effort" hiccup laughs a bit
"So you're saying I'm practically useless but you're giving me an A for effort" he says sarcastically while giving himself a facepalm, astrid lets out a short but rather loud snort, in a laughy kinda way not in a piggy kinda way, that catches both hiccup and Gobber's attention but mostly hiccups. Hiccup was shocked, in his head he was thinking that in some weird turn of events he actually made her laugh but nah.. it's probably nothing it's not even a full laugh it was just a snort barely even a laugh. He looks at astrid who notices his gaze and in an instant the slight giggle that she let out turned into a death glare followed by a verbal counter
"What!? I can't laugh anymore?" she says angrily, hiccup in response raises both of his arms in a surrendering fashion
"You were laughing?" Asked gobber "more like snorting" said hiccup correcting his friends words. Astrid on the other hand was not pleased at all who was he to make fun of her, a lowly nerd teasing astrid the whole thought just aggravates her. Astrid grabs hiccups shirt with one of her fist and pulls him down slightly just enough so her other fist could reach his face but first she looks him straight in the eyes and exclaims
"Who the hell do you think you're talking to?" Hiccup shocked at astrids rough actions had nothing to say probably because of her overall intimidating presence knocked the sarcasm out of him, even though he's visibly taller than her it kinda feels like she's staring down on him. But here comes gobber to the rescue, he brakes them up
"Woah, Let go of him astrid" as he pries her hands off of his shirt astrid reluctantly lets go but is still visibly frustrated
"It's his fault for being so damn irritating" hiccup regains his senses the moment he's not staring face first at her anymore, he snaps back and says
"Me!? You're the one being so violent all of a sudd-" but before he can finish his reply astrid lunges at him again
"Ok that's it augh!" but is stopped by gobber midway, hiccup can't help but be thankful gobbers in between, if he wasn't here he would've probably gotten a black eye and a few broken bones or something. He takes a few steps back; probably figuring out that safety should be his first priority when starting a conversation with astrid. Gobber successfully holds her off
"Alright, alright! Already" astrid stops fussing and pushes gobber away from her, gobber just sighs in complete exasperation
" ..sigh.. Great, it's nice to see you two already getting along soo well" gobbers says with an obvious sarcastic tone to which both of them eagerly replied
"She/He started it!" Followed by another simultaneously answer
"Me!" And once again astrid lunges for him but once again gobber gets in between them he pushes astrid enough to make her back off for a few seconds and exclaims
"Enough! I've had it with you two!" The large man shouts, astrid tries to answer back
"Coach he's the on-" gobber stops her "you! shut yer mouth, and start running 20 laps aroung the field" he points at the door and looks at her clearly he was dead serious astrid tries to reason with him but if a proper conversation is out of the picture then a good stern shouting might do the trick finally some authority coming from gobber
"But-" befor she can even finish the first word gobber already answers her "Now" then he turns to hiccup and says
"You! Start timing her" hiccup doesn't even try to protest and say anything back he already knew what the answer is anyway so he says it for him instead in a low voice trying to imitate gobbers husky accent but falling quite short
"Yeah, yeah i know.. NOW" but gobber just stares at the boy which hiccup takes as a sign to stop
"don't test me boy" gobber hands hiccup his stopwatch and off hiccup goes to the field, as soon as hiccup leaves gobber relaxes and smiles
"yeah, that's right" clearly boasting the fact that he just set two teens straight and one of them was astrid, his stubborn as hell student. Maybe she's starting to learn how to respect her coach.. Finally. gobber held his head high, proud of his recent accomplishment, he walks towards the door and exits the gym he immediately spots astrid running obediently but strange where's hiccup? Gobber looked around the field and there he was, infront of astrid running with her, oh wait.. He was running away from her.. He lets out a big sigh he should've known better, it's astrid after all. He waits for the two to get closer to him, and when they did gobber grabs astrid and hiccup drops to the ground panting and out of breath, astrid just realizes that gobber was there all along, so she just smiles at him and says
"What? You said i should run 20 laps right? 5 more and I'm done" she tries to break free from his grasps but gobber only held her tighter
"I did, but why did he have to run to?" Gobber asked with a serious expression
"Like i give a crap bout him, i was just minding my own business, he just started running infront of me" astrid said while looking at the boy and then looking at gobber who gives her a disappointed look "what did i do?" Then hiccup tries to speak but fails as he catches his breath between his words
"Lies ..heavy breaths.. She was ..heavy breaths.. Gonna ..heavy breaths.. Kill me" the boy said while heavily panting trying to regain the much needed oxygen that he lost running from the hostile teen. Astrid scowls at the boy but immediately turns to face her coach, putting on an innocent smile. Gobber on the other hand stares at the sky for a few seconds and then takes a quick look at both of them
"Oi.." He says in complete exasperation "this" while pointing at the two in a collective manner "has to stop.."
"Then just kick his butt back home and let's get started with my training already" she says while looking at hiccup in a smug fashion, hiccup finally composes himself and was breathing normally. He stands up from his kneeling position and agrees with the girl
"Yeah, she has a point, clearly neither of us want to see each other soo.. Can i?" He says pleading with the one legged man
"NO, no one's going anywhere, you're both staying here wether you like it or not" he says with every bit of his authoritative face and voice, both of them did not find the idea the least bit appealing and visibly their faces were showing disappointment and frustration, well hiccup was disappointed and astrid was obviously frustrated. Hiccup tries to plead his case
"Cmon, gobber while I'm still breathing" then he walks up to gobber, carefully ignoring the sharp stabbing stares that astrids giving him and pulls him away from Astrid's side, he whispers something in his ear "please.. i don't feel safe when I'm near her, i mean just look at her, i bet she's planning something to get rid of me the moment you turn your back"
"Then face her like a man, stop being such a wuss hiccup" he responds and the two of them are now engaged in a silent conversation, to which astrid isn't a part of. Astrid sees the two whispering to each other and takes it upon herself to listen; she invites herself and walks slowly towards the two. Meanwhile the two men were too focused on their conversation to notice astrid was already a few feet behind them eavesdropping on their little talk
"Are you crazy, you know how violent she can be.. she'll freaking break my arms off, YOU talk to her your her coach afterall" he says
"Aye, if only it were that easy, the girl's as stubborn as a mule and as violent as a dragon" gobber says and astrid is once again pissed off, she taps gobbers shoulders, and says "what was that?" Both of them stiffen up at the sound of her voice, they turn around at the same time and both of them instantly instantly sees astrid, arms crossed and glaring at them. Gobber coughs loudly, trying to break yet another awkward moment. he then started to speak in a dignified manner trying to seem unfazed by her glare
" ..cough.. As i was saying, no one's going home" he then stares at astrid who is still quite visibly frustrated at him and says
"astrid run another 10 laps" this only aggravates her more she was already finished with warm-ups, she's not training to be a marathon runner for God's sake, she's a volleyball athlete so running another 10 laps doesn't make sense at all
"what!? I just ran 15 laps, I'm sick and tired of running.. let's start with some damn drills already!" She exclaims but gobber was unhinged in his orders, he just stares at her with a complete straight face
"Oh.. is that so, then make it 15 laps" he says sternly and Astrid's frustration rose even higher, she wants to beat him up but she can't just punch a teacher astrid knew better than that, besides hitting a cripple doesn't really sound too good for her so she settles for cursing instead "what the fuc-" but gobber stops her in her rant and offers another 5 laps
"Make it 20 laps" He says and astrid finally gives up and storms off into the track cursing at her coach "damn peg legged..."
"Is it safe to come out now?" The boy half-jokingly says and gobber just laughs with him, it was a rare sight for astrid to be so cooperative, yup that was astrid being cooperative. Gobber was glad someone was there to witness him flex his superiority on her, cause it rarely ever works. "That's how it's done lad"
"Bravo, you were amazing out there, the way you handled the situation" hiccup was already buttering him up for the big question, and gobber was just nodding in his own prideful glory then hiccup finally asked
"You deserve a coach of the year award.. Soo can i go now?" Hiccup looks on to where astrid was running and then looks at gobber just to see what his reaction would be. Gobber's smile turns upside down upon hearing his very persistent request, "Hell NO!"
"But-" hiccup tries to negotiate maybe it'll work but before he can submit an offer gobber flat out denies him, but he offers him something instead
"Do you like running?" He asks the boy knowing full well he'll understand his question and just shut up already but alas hiccup is a persistent nerdy dork
"Cmon gobber.. My ball's still out there, please.. Let me go look for it" he says while gesturing to the black forest right across the field, gobber just sighs in complete hopelessness
"Hiccup.. Understand this.. You'll have plenty of time to go on your ball hunt AFTER.. practice is over" hiccup just sighs i guess he can wait for a few more hours atleast he's not banning him from the forest like last time "fine.. I guess"
"Alrighty then, in the meantime start doing yer job already" hiccup is confused at his words he was the manager right? Then his job would be to manage the balls and equipment and stuff right? But there wasn't any balls around and the net was already set up inside the gym so what did gobber mean when he said do his job? Hiccup reluctantly asks Gobber "um.. By job you mean managing right, handling balls, bringing towels and stuff like that?"
"Well sorta like that.." Gobber sheepishly says and hiccup was not content with his answer he starts to worry, if he wasn't here to manage the team then why the hell would he be here in the first place, he asks gobber again this time being more specific
"Sorta like what? Gobber.. Why do i get the feeling you're not telling me something?" He asks looking all the more worried and slightly peeved at the one legged man for hiding something from him. Meanwhile astrid was already done with the 3rd lap, surprisingly jogging while angry really gets you pumped up and significantly faster, upon arriving at the starting mark where hiccup and gobber where talking, astrid notices them talking in private.. again, probably saying something behind her back, oh no they don't. She slows down her pace and slowly jogs considerably close to the two and overhears gobbers answer
"I may have forgotten to tell you a wee bit of detail concerning your job" gobber says maybe a little bit guilty for keeping it a secret up until now. Astrid hears gobber and was intrigued, the nerds job? Wait is he the new manager gobber wouldn't shut up about, wait team practice isn't until tomorrow so why the hell is he here? She couldn't figure out the current situation so she decides to stop jogging for a second and listen in on the two, both of them were too engulfed in their own worries that they haven't even noticed astrid wasn't running anymore. She arrives just in time to hear Gobbers confession "wee bit of detail?" astrid pondered on the remark, "what's he up to now?"
End of Chapter Six