It's 11:51 PM where I am right now, so I'm updating on time. HA.

Don't have much to say about this chapter. Um...

Thanks for all the reviews and love and stuff! All your lovely comments are keeping me writing!

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"Hiccup Haddock, you are such a liar."

I let out a heavy sigh, putting down my cheese burger that I haven't even had the pleasure of taking a bite out of yet as I hear the sound of skates roll up behind me. Once I turn around in my seat, Fish across from me looking up momentarily from his meal, I come face to face with a rather unpleased looking Astrid, one hand on her hip and the other holding an empty tray.

"May I ask what exactly I'm being accused for?" I say in a sarcastic response, shooting her a smile meant only to piss her off more. And it works; as soon as my good vibes get to her, she narrows her light blue eyes.

"You're being accused for lying, you wimp. You said you'd race against Lout this last Saturday, but when I got there, you weren't there." She flips the tray upright and placing it on our table before taking a seat next to Fish. "Can't say I wasn't surprised to see you decided to not show, but still. Why weren't you there?"

"I thought you said you weren't racing," I remind her. "Something about your precious Deadly Nadder being in the shop getting new wheels, right?"

"I didn't race. I was there to watch you clobber Lout. And don't change the subject."

"I never made any promises," I tell her, putting my hands up as to surrender. The last thing I want to do right now is to have an argument with Astrid over a promise I never even made to begin with. I mean, Fish's and my mowing job today was already pretty brutal in itself: this woman was very persistent about allowing her dog to roam free as I mowed her backyard, only making it a thousand times more difficult to get the job done without seriously mangling the stupid mutt.

"He's right, Astrid," Fish backs me up, bless him. "He said he'd try to go, but if he coul-"

Astrid shoots him a hard glare, and he stops talking instantly.

"Hey, that's not fair," I snap at her.

Astrid turns her attention towards me again. "What's not fair?"

"You're using your infamous death glare on my co-worker as he tries to defend me. That's an unfair advantage."

I can tell Astrid's trying to not let a smile cross her face; the corners of her lips are fighting to move upward, I can see them, but her cheeks are pushing against it, determined to keep her scowl stationary. In the end, however, a small smirk makes its way through, signaling that I'm, hopefully, off the hook - at least for a little while. Fish notices her smile too as he lets out a small sigh, a satisfied grin on as he goes back to his burger.

"Yeah, well…" Astrid goes on, leaning forward and crossing her arms on the table. "You need to get some new battle maneuvers. You're gettin' rusty, Haddock."

I let out a laugh. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"But in all seriousness - which I know is hard for you to be, but please bear with me."

"Hey."

She just waves me off, dismissing my disapproval. "Why weren't you there Saturday?"

"My chain broke the day after we talked about it."

"Wow. 'Bout time," I hear Fish cut in through bites.

"Yeah. Surprised it took as long as it did for it finally have enough. It was pushing almost three thousand miles."

"Well, did you get a new one?" Astrid asks, looking briefly over at the ordering station. I notice an older girl - probably college age - behind the counter with a crazy amount of red hair on her head shoot her a weird look, but Astrid chooses to just ignore it.

"Yeah," I tell her. "Took more time than I expected, but I got the stupid thing on."

"And have you tested it out yet?"

"Geez. What's with all these questions?" I tease her, resting my chin in my hand, giving her a playful smirk. "You're beginning to sound like you actually want to help me or something."

She returns my remark with an eye roll. "In your dreams. Now, did you test it out?"

"Yeah. I was… able to find a reason to leave the house."

I notice Fish out of the corner of my eye give me this concerned look that makes me look back at Astrid without a second thought. After knowing me since we were both five, he's one of the few people in town that knows that me finding a reason to leave the house means that there was a good reason for me to leave the house in the first place. He doesn't say anything though, most likely not wanting to bring this up with Astrid in our presence, so he just goes back to munching on his burger.

Astrid opens her mouth to reply, but she's abruptly cut off by the girl behind the counter calling out, "Hofferson! We're not payin' ya to talk to our customers! Get back to work!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Astrid shouts back, waving the girl off as she gets up from her seat, snatching up her tray in the process. "I swear, you two are going to get me fired again."

I can tell Fish is about to talk back to this comment - tell her she was the one that started a conversation with us, not the other way around - but before he can, she's already said "see ya" and is gliding over towards the kitchens, her braid trailing behind her as she goes to get her next meal to deliver.

"She really does love putting the blame on us, doesn't she?" I say with a laugh, watching her go. I look over at Fish for his feedback, but all I get from him is that concerned look from before.

"Hiccup-"

Breaking away from his stare, I pick up a fry and soak it in ketchup. "I don't want to talk about it."

"C'mon. What happened?" Fish goes on anyways, ignoring my plea. "Was it your dad again? What'd he do this time?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it, Fish."

"Yeah, well… you need to talk about it, okay, Hiccup?" He lets out a sigh as I hear him crumble up his leftover burger wrapper. "And, you know… I'm here if you want to."

I take a bite off the fry and chew it in my mouth slowly, allowing myself to let out a soft, "Thanks," but that's as much as Fish is going to get out of me on this topic. He knows I'm not the biggest fan when it comes to talking about my dad and his dream of me taking over the family business. Sure, I'll talk about any other aspect of the old man, since, not going to lie, my dad's a pretty decent guy. He may act reserved and overly serious about everything a large majority of the time, but I've seen the guy lighten up on several occasions; it's actually really easy to make him laugh I've discovered, especially if you've somehow managed to get his mind completely off of work. He's a good man, my dad, and I'll admit that I think he's done a more than decent job at raising me these last couple of years without having my mom around, but sometimes… sometimes he's just so narrow-minded and stubborn, especially when he believes he's right about something. And those two traits, when it comes to getting me to follow in his footsteps, are a huge pain the in ass.

"Let's get out of here," I hear Fish say, interrupting my train of thought. "It's getting kinda hot out. Maybe we can find somewhere cool to hang for the rest of the day?"

"Yeah. Good idea," I say. Crumpling up my burger wrapper, I toss it towards the trash can a couple of feet away. It misses, of course, falling on to the ground right next to the metal container, and Fish lets out a series of snickers as I fetch it.

We walk out of the eating area and into the parking lot, listing places we could go with blessed air conditioning. We've just stepped off the curb of the parking lot when I can't help but notice an oddly familiar looking car rolling in. I feel like I've seen the vehicle somewhere before - and recently too - but I can't seem to put my finger on it. As Fish says something about maybe going and getting our bikes so we can hang out at the indoor skate park around here, I watch as an older looking man with dark sand colored hair steps out of the driver's side, not aware of me observing him. He doesn't look familiar, but then again, if I don't recognize him right away, that can only mean that he must be new to town, which can only mean-

Fish nudges me as he notices the young boy with snow white hair getting out of the passenger's side of the same car. "Hey," he goes under his breath, leaning towards me, as if to make sure the boy won't hear him. "There's that white haired kid. The guy that just moved into-"

Fish isn't able to finish his sentence because Jack notices me before he can, making it plainly obvious that he recognizes me. As our eyes meet, a smile appears on his face, his blue eyes standing out like a sore thumb against his pale complexion. He raises a hand, waving it a bit, and calls out my name.

"Hey! Hiccup!"

Fish grabs my arm, pulling me to a stop as I wave lazily back to Jack. "Wait… you… you know him?"

"Yeah," I say softly. "We talked once, like, a couple of days ago. I helped him outta a tree."

"You what?"

"Let's not talk about it, okay?"

Next thing I know, Jack's jogging up to the both of us, looking cautiously both ways before crossing the parking lot. The older man - whom I assume is probably his dad - gives him a quizzical look as he approaches the entrance to The Ring, but Jack just waves him off with his hand and a smile. The man doesn't seem to protest by the way he nods and heads to the ordering station in the shade.

"Hey," Jack greets me again, now standing in front of us. I register that this kid's about the size of Fish, if not an inch shorter, which sucks, since now that means they're both towering over me.

"Hey, Jack," I greet him back. "Uh… I don't believe you two have met?"

Jack shakes his head as Fish gives me a curious look.

"Fish, this is Jack. He just moved into Mildew's old place outta town," I explain. "And Jack. This is Fish. We're, uh… we're friends."

"Wow," Jack goes with a laugh. "Does everyone in this town have weird names?"

I'm almost completely blown away by this remark, since I honestly can say I did not see it coming. Fish though, thank the gods, takes it all in stride.

"It's a nickname," he tells Jack with a shrug. "Childhood nicknames die hard, you know?"

Jack nods, but by the look on his face, I can tell he doesn't know.

"So, uh… what are you up to then?" I ask, trying to keep the conversation flowing. I notice his dad at the ordering stand, pointing up at the menu as he probably places his order with the young girl behind the counter. "I've never seen you, like, in town before."

"My dad took me out shopping!" Jack tells us, sounding rather excited about something so mundane. "I mean, it was for, uh… hardware I think it's called? Hammers and tools and stuff like that. Is that kind of stuff called hardware?"

Fish nods his head, telling Jack he's got the right word, but I can't help but wonder how this guy could possibly not know the meaning to the word "hardware". Last time we had talked, it had been about what a predicament was, which was understandable, but now he's asking what hardware is? Geez. I wonder what this kid's problem with words is?

"But now we're out getting lunch," Jack continues to explain, running his hand through his hair. "He said he heard something about this place having really good hamburgers from someone at his work. Thought we'd try it out."

"And that is so true," Fish confirms. "I highly suggest the number five, if your dad hasn't already ordered for you. It has juuuuust the right amount of everything on it, so it's really great."

"He orders it every time we come here," I add in.

"Well, then I'll definitely try it out," Jack says with a smile. "Have you guys already eaten?"

"Oh yeah, we just ate," Fish tells him. "But now we're thinking of heading over to the indoor skate park around here. Wanna join?"

I can't help but give Fish a side glance, trying to get through to him that inviting this guy along was most definitely not something I was encouraging him to do. All he does in return though is give me a confused look, like he doesn't quite understand why I wouldn't want to invite Jack along. Now that I think about it, I don't blame him for thinking this; only moments ago, I was introducing Jack to him like the two of us were on good terms, which I'm not saying we aren't. It's more of just that I don't know him well enough to consider him even really an acquaintance. And, not going to lie, I still get this uncomfortable vibe from him. Be it from his awkward tendencies or some other weird reason, but whatever it is, I can't seem to shake it.

"Really? You want… you want me to come along with you guys?" Jack asks us, appearing not to have noticed Fish's and my little internal exchange. By the toothy grin that occupies his white face, I can tell that Jack really is just as excited and honored to be asked to join us as he sounds.

Fish just shrugs, obviously not noticing Jack's enthusiasm, like moi. "Sure. I mean, why not? You're new here and we've both lived here our entire lives." He nudges me in the side, maybe to tell me to lighten up a bit. "Who's more qualified to show you around than us?"

Jack, honest to the gods, looks like he's about to erupt with happiness any second now. "Okay! Okay! Yeah! Let me go ask my father if it's okay and… and yeah! Stay right here!" Before Fish can even get a simple nod out in confirmation, Jack is sprinting across the parking lot and towards the ordering station, where his dad is now waiting for his order.

"He's quite the excitable one, isn't he?" Fish asks as he chuckles at the white haired boy.

I shake my head, pinching the bridge of my nose. "You don't even know."

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After confirming with my father that I could go out with these two boys for the remainder of the afternoon, the bigger, blond boy that goes by Fish tells us we should split up so that him and Hiccup can go gather their bikes. Because this place these two keep referring to as a "skate park" is closer to Fish's house than Hiccup's, they suggest I tag along with Fish, so I won't have to walk as far as a distance, seeing as I don't have a bike to ride.

Fish is a pretty respectable conversationalist I discover; there isn't a moment where neither of us aren't talking. He does a larger majority of the talking however, but I really don't mind. What he talks about mostly is the history of the town Berk and little facts that I assume strike him as interesting. He even tells me that his father runs a business not far away from the skate park we're heading to.

"He's a travel agent," he explains as we turn on to a street that I assume is his.

"What's that?" I ask.

Before answering, I notice him give me this inquisitive look, like he doesn't know whether to believe the fact that I don't know what this "travel agent" occupation truly is. I want to tell him about my situation, that new words escape me easily, so he won't think… well, anything negative towards me, but he answers before I can speak up.

"It's someone who, like… helps other people decide where they're going on their travels. Like, how they're going to get there, what they'll do there. Stuff like that."

I nod my head, happy that he was willing enough to explain and not question me on not knowing what I guess is a pretty simple term. "And what about Hiccup?" I proceed to ask. "What does his father do?"

We come to a stop in front of a cozy, two-story home, a wooden porch with matching swing surrounding the front and curling around the side. There are no cars in the driveway, and all the lights inside the sheltered looking home seem to be off, so I assume no one is home at the moment.

"He runs his own business. Started it right out of college waaay back when," Fish explains as we make out way towards the adjoined garage. "He's a car rental dealer. Rents cars out to people who are vacationing around here."

"People vacation here?" I ask. Don't get me wrong, Berk is a pleasant place - charming sunsets every evening and even an acceptable excuse for a beach - but I just can't see someone wanting to vacation in a place like this.

"Sometimes," Fish tells me with a laugh, most likely understanding why I ask such a question. As we approach the garage door, he presses four keys on a little pad positioned next to closed door, and after a beep, the door begins to rise. "They're mostly just people passing through that need to car for, like, a day or something. He has pretty good business though, surprisingly, so I guess that's all that matters, right?"

We step into the crowded garage, boxes on top of boxes in every corner, almost reaching the popcorn ceiling, a weird smell of oil and some foreign scent crawling into my nostrils. As I take this place and all that's in it in, Fish wanders over towards the back where I see a bike rack stationed, holding four bikes of every size.

"Which one's yours?"

He places his hand on the medium sized gray bike with light brown and purple stripes on it. "This beauty right here," he tells me, taking it down from its place on the rack and on to the ground. "I call her the Gronckle. She's a mountain bike, so she does better on rough terrain, but she can manage street biking pretty well too."

As he puts on some weird gloves with no fingers, I walk up and touch the handlebars of this bike he calls the Gronckle. They're tougher than the bike I have back home, but that may be because they've been put to more use than mine has.

"Have you seen Hiccup's bike yet?" Fish asks me, now flexing his gloved fingers.

I simply nod my head, vaguely remembering the smaller black bike Hiccup had been wheeling around on a couple of days prior to now.

"Yeah. He calls it the Night Fury," Fish goes on, motioning me to follow him with his bike out of the garage and into the empty driveway. "It's a racing bike, so it goes a lot faster than, say, my huge lug of metal here. But that's okay. I'm not much into racing."

"I take it heis though," I say as Fish presses another button on the key pad and the garage door begins to close.

"Oh yeah. He loooooves to race. Did more of it back when we were in middle school, but then he got in this nasty accident one day and he stopped biking altogether."

Wait… what?

Hiccup was in an accident?

"But he bought the Night Fury sometime during freshman year from a scrap yard, and ever since then, he's just been fixing it up to race again." Fish doesn't seem to notice me pondering over his earlier words as he continues on. "Now all he can manage to think about it-"

"You said he got in an accident," I interrupt, not being able to hold back any longer; the curiosity of what happened to the smaller boy is eating at me for some reason, and I don't know why.

Fish suddenly looks like he regrets his chose of words. "Um… yeah," he says slowly, not making eye contact with me anymore. "Back in seventh grade. I… I don't know if, uh… if I should-"

To my dismay, Fish isn't able to finish his explanation, because Hiccup rolls up on his bike at that very moment, asking us if we're ready to get going. I can tell that Fish is relieved to not have to explain what he meant earlier to me, and I try, to my best efforts, to not let that bug me.

After a good ten minutes of them biking slow enough for me to keep up - and several occasions were Fish asked if I was sure I didn't need a ride - we finally arrive at the skate park. It ends up to be just a monotone brick building with worn out letters I can't even read on the side, but the two boys assure me that the inside is a lot more satisfying than the outside, so I follow them through the glass door, out of the torturous summer heat and into relieving air conditioning.

If I were into biking as much as Fish and Hiccup are, I can honestly say that I would've loved this place at first glance. The main room, that I assume makes up the entirety of the building, is spacious and empty, minus the obstacles that have been placed out for the skaters and bikers - little humps and metal bars aimlessly placed ever so often around the floor, a large wooden structure that resembles half of an open pipe near the back, and an open bowl imprinted right in the center. Several other teens - mostly boys I notice, but a few girls as well - are already occupying the space, darting in and out of the bowl and dodging one another as the glide across the concrete flooring.

"No bike for Jack?" I hear Hiccup ask Fish beside me as I take this new scene in. I take it that Fish shakes his head to his friend, because I feel Hiccup poke me in the arm and say, "You okay with just watching?"

"Oh. Yeah. No problem," I answer, only half hearing what he asked me. A small laugh escapes his lips before he darts off into the chaos, Fish in his wake.

Watching the two maneuver their ways around everyone else is something like watching Emma make one of her card towers; even though I feel like I shouldn't be impressed, I truly am. It may have something to do with me not being able to remember anything, therefore making pretty much everything impressive in my eyes, but I don't question it. I enjoy being easily impressed.

Hiccup though. He definitely knows what he's doing on that bike of his, that's for sure. Watching him drop in and pop out of the bowl, his tongue sticking out of his mouth as he does so in concentration, makes me believe that biking is as easy to him as breathing is to someone like me. I can't help but notice his prosthetic leg though - that's what Emma told me it's called, after I questioned her about it - and wonder how; how is he able to bike with a piece of metal replacing his real leg? Can't he not feel anything with it, therefore making it more difficult to do, well… anything really?

I find my way over towards a rake supporting a good dozen of bikes instead of dwelling on all these questions I know I probably can't get answers to right now, their owners all resting on a bench against the wall a few paces away, taking sips from water bottles and chatting it up with one another. One of the boys - a larger one with wiry brown hair - is the loudest of the bunch though, spitting out words so loud I'm sure I could've heard them from outside the venue.

I look away from the boys and see Hiccup pedaling his way slowly up to me, his body risen off of his bike's seat. "You sure you don't wanna try this out?" he asks, whipping his auburn bangs out of his green eyes. "There're some bikes and skates and stuff in the back for people that don't bring anything. I'm sure I can convince Dagur to let you borrow one. I mean, for a price, but y'know."

As much as I seriously want to follow up with his offer, I shake my head. "No, that's fine," I assure him. "It's fun watching."

He gives me a skeptical look, like he's seeing right through my smile. "You sure?"

"Yeah," I assure him. "Don't worry about it."

With nothing but a shrug, he turns on his bike, making his way back over to where Fish is attempting to do some weird move on one of the pipe structures. As Hiccup bikes passed him, he raises a hand and Fish slaps it with his own, a large smile on his wide face as he pulls his bike into the air and on top of the pipe, only to clumsily stumble off of it, nearly falling off his bike. Hiccup, who's already made a reasonable amount of distance from his friend, sees this and bursts out laughing, yelling something to Fish that I can't hear.

Now that I think about it, I probably should've taken Hiccup up on his offer. Despite the fact that I've never actually ridden a bike before, I'm sure I wouldn't embarrass myself too badly, right?

I back up more against the wall, and in the process, manage to nearly trip over my own feet. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but it suddenly becomes a problem when I accidently make contact with the bikes in the bike rack, causing the first to fall sideways and on to the one sitting beside it. It's horrible to watch, each bike knocking the next one over, like a game of Dominos. As they all crash, voices become hushed and heads begin to turn in my direction.

I don't think I've ever wanted to become invisible more than right now.

"Hey!" I hear someone shout from my left. My head turns in the direction of the sound, and there's that large boy with the wiry hair, marching over towards the rack, his eyes wide with horror. He bends down and surveys the last bike in the row, now lying on the concrete floor. After a moment of looking it over, his head snaps up at me and he lets out a loud, "What the hell, man! You ruined my paint job!" The boy gets up, practically throwing down his bike as he makes his way towards me. I back up, nearly tripping over my own darned feet again as his arms are coming up from his sides to grab me. I'm in shock, unaware of what I should do before this guy lays his hands on me, but then his hands recoil at the sound of a bike skidding to a stop and someone yelling out, "NO, LOUT!"

Both our heads, along with everyone else watching, turn in the direction of the voice, and there's Hiccup, jumping off of his bike and running towards me. By the way Lout meets him half way, his anger showing in every one of his heavy steps, I can tell that these two boys know each other already.

"He ruined my bike!" the bigger boy yells down at Hiccup.

"Oh, he didn't ruin it," Hiccup says back nonchalantly, rolling his eyes. "He probably just chipped the paint. No big deal."

Fish pedals up then, stopping besides Hiccup's abandoned bike, looking worriedly at his friend. I begin to wonder if I should feel worried for him too.

"No. Big. Deal?" the boy yells back, his hands forming into fists. At seeing this, a tugging feeling begins to form in my stomach. "Do you have any idea how much that paint job cost me?"

"Way more than it should've, no doubt."

The boy's hand darts up and jabs Hiccup in the chest, causing him to stumble back, but luckily he catches himself before falling backwards. "He's here with you, isn't he?"

"Well… y-yeah. What of it?"

"He's gonna have to pay, you know."

"Okay, fine," Hiccup sighs, whacking the boy's meaty finger away from his chest. "How much does he owe you? It couldn't have been too-"

"Not with money," the boy says, looking over towards me and narrowing his small eyes.

There's a brief silence, until I hear Hiccup firmly state, "No way."

I suppose this guy isn't used to be being told no, because he looks shocked as his head snaps away from me and back down at Hiccup. "What did you just say?"

"I-I… I said no," Hiccup repeats himself, not sounding nearly as confident as before. "He can't fight you, Lout. I-It wouldn't be fair."

"Who ever said anything about it being fair?"

I have the sudden impulse to step in and defend myself, since I can see that Hiccup is losing his firm footing with this boy he calls Lout. As I step towards the two of them though, Hiccup shoots me a side glance, warning me not to make another move. Something in his eyes, the pure urgency of them, makes me stop what I had been planning on doing.

"Let him race you," I hear Hiccup say, looking back up at Lout. "That way it'll be fair."

Lout seems to actually be considering this, turning his head slowly towards me and looking me up and down. This awfully devilish grin appears on his face, and I feel my stomach turn inside of me again. I want to speak up - tell Hiccup to stop what he's doing - but I can't get the words to come out.

"Fine," Lout spits down at Hiccup. "Next Saturday. Usually place. Or do you need to be reminded where we usually race, seeing as you haven't been around to race lately." Two blonde haired twins - one a boy and the other a girl - still sitting on the bench against the wall let out loud snickers as Lout's smirk grows.

"No, but thanks anyway," Hiccup spits back, sarcastically. "I remember where it is."

"Good." As Lout turns to go back to his beat up bike, he bumps shoulders rather aggressively with Hiccup, almost causing the smaller boy to lose his balance completely. I dart over towards him, Fish doing the same, as everyone listening in on the earlier argument disburses and goes back to skating.

"You alright?" Fish asks his friend, patting him on the back.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about me," Hiccup replies, rubbing his shoulder. "I'm used to him pushing me around. We just need to worry about you now." He looks up at me, letting out a slight sigh. "At least I know you have an awesome racing bike, so the chances of you getting slaughtered by him are in single digits."

"Uh… about that…" I say slowly, not being able to make eye contact with either of them all of the sudden. "I, uh… I didn't tell you guys something that I, uh… probably… should've mentioned…"

I notice the two exchange looks out of the corner of my eye.

"Aaaand what's that?"

I heave out a large sigh, closing my eyes as the words escape my mouth.

"I don't know how to ride a bike."

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The entire time I bike Jack back to his house, him trailing close behind, it feels like I have something caught in my throat. Luckily for me, Fish does me a favor and talks with Jack for the first half of the trip, filling him in on who Lout is and what he's going to need to do now that he has to race against him. Once we reach Fish's house though and he leaves our little pack, it's just Jack and me alone for the long ride to his house.

I hadn't known that challenging Lout to race Jack was going to led to this. I mean, the kid's got a bike - and freaking amazing racing bike at that - so naturally I assumed he already knew how to ride it. I guess I assumed wrong? I thought what would end up happening is that I would help Jack a little by giving him some tips - easy stuff about speed and stuff like that. But then I discover the kid can't even ride a bike. Dang. Now I'm just lost on what to do.

"Are you mad at me?"

I almost put on the brakes he catches me so off guard. Turning my head back and to an angle, I'm able to see him walking behind me; he has his hands stuffed into his shorts pockets, his head held in a downcast so I can just barely see the blue of his yes.

I let out a sigh. "Kinda… but not really, no."

He looks back down at the ground after making brief eye contact with me, making his face turn from a dark white to an even darker gray. "Sorry…"

Pressing on my brakes, I'm glide back to where I'm not too far ahead, making it easier to talk with him. "No, no. You of all people shouldn't be sorry."

"But I knocked over the bikes. I'm the one at-"

"And that was an accident," I tell him before he can finish. "And, y'know… people make mistakes sometimes. I mean, if you don't, then you're probably not human, right?"

"I… I guess…"

"Lout's just a jerk who thinks he has something to prove," I breathe, edge in my tone. "And… and besides. If anyone's to blame here, it's me. I got you into this mess by challenging him." I sigh again, looking away from Jack's sulking figure and down at the ground slowly rolling beneath my feet. "Gods. We should've just walked away when we had the chance. Now we're in this mess."

"It's not your fault either," I hear Jack tell me in a quiet voice. Looking away from the ground and back up at him, I see that his blue eyes are locked on mine. "You… you didn't know I couldn't bike."

Something about him saying those words - the words that have led us into this dilemma in the first place - makes me feel a little uneasy. I can tell he feels the same way as well by the way he drops his gaze and looks back down at the ground, kicking a rock with the bottom of his shoe. I want to say something, words of encouragement and how he's going to do fine, but I know to attempt this would be useless. We both know that there's physically no way that he could possibly win a race against Lout.

Jack's house comes into view and I'm about to say my farewell, when Jack turns towards me in and jerky manner, looking a little bewildered about something I apparently haven't thought of yet.

"What is-" I begin, dropping my feet to the ground, but he answers me first.

"What if… what if you taught me how to bike?"

Uhh…

"What if I what?"

"Think about it," he goes on, his apparent excitement growing with each of his words. "Fish tells me you're a really good racer, so who better to learn from than you?"

"Jack, I… I dunno…"

"And Fish told me that the track you guys race on is made of dirt, so this road right here in front of my house could work perfectly too!"

"Jack…"

"You could teach me! This could actually work, Hiccup!"

He stops walking right before approaching his mailbox, this big, goofy grin on his face as he probably searches mine for some reaction. All the emotion that I can manage to feel however is that same uneasy feeling from before.

I mean… I guess I could help him learn to race. It means we'd have to start from scratch though, which also means I'd have to put a lot of time into teaching him, because racing someone with as much skill and determination as Lout isn't going to come naturally, I can already tell. Putting that much time into this may be a little tricky too, considering work and just personal time for myself. Now that I really think about it though, I probably owe this to Jack. Yeah, the kid's a little odd and socially awkward, and I still get this weird nervous feeling whenever I'm around him, like I don't know if I should expect something to happen, but I was the one that got him into this mess anyways, despite what he says about it not being my fault, so I should at least try and do something to make this easier on him.

Meeting his eyes again, I lean forward and rest my arms on my handlebars. "Well… if we're going to do this… when should we meet up?"

The look on his face is priceless as he literally begins to glow and does a quick, lame attempt at a fist pump in the air, managing to get a smile out of me. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank yooooou!" he cheers. "And, uh, what about tomorrow? Does tomorrow sound good?"

"I… guess tomorrow would work fine," I say. "But I'd have to do it sometime in the afternoon."

"Why?"

"Work."

"Ah. Right."

After some discussion, we decide on two tomorrow afternoon. That way, I'll have some time after getting let out from work to eat, shower, and get some rest before heading to his place. We don't worry about what bike he'll be using either, because that must should be obvious.

"Guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" he goes as I place my feet on my pedals, ready to head out.

"Sounds 'bout right." I turn my bike back towards home. "Get some rest, okay?"

He shoots me one of his smiles, showing off all of his pearly white teeth as he starts heading towards his house. "Alright. You too, Hic."

Raising an eyebrow as he walks off, I can honestly say I'm a little surprised at him slyly putting that nickname in there after just knowing me for… geez, how long have known each other anyways?

As I bike home, I give myself the pleasure of being able to enjoy the scenery rather than over thinking everything that's happened today. I pedal quickly pass Astrid's house, not even bothering to see if her bedroom light is on or not. On arriving home though, my leisured ride is cut to an end when I see an unfamiliar car sitting in the driveway. As I walk pass it and into the driveway to put my bike away, I remember my dad mentioning that someone was coming over for dinner sometime this week earlier last week. Wish I had known it was tonight; I wouldn't have stayed out so late. He's probably going to give some quiet lecture about it later as our guest is off in the bathroom or something.

"Daaaaad?" I go, opening the door leading from the garage and into the kitchen. There's no reply, but I hear Toothless scamper down the stairs and towards me, meowing like crazy. "I know, I know," I go, scooping him into my arms and allowing him to rub his mane against my face. "Sorry I'm home so late, bud. Won't happen again, I promise."

"Hiccup?" I hear come from the backdoor. I turn, and there's my dad, poking his head through the slightly opened sliding glass door. "Ah. Thought that was you."

"Hey, Dad," I greet him, setting Toothless down. "Sorry I'm late. I had to walk someone home and it took some time. Whose car is that out in the driveway anyway?"

"Oh. A, uh… a colleague of mine," he explains walking into the kitchen, keeping the door open behind him. "Do you, um… want any dinner? I picked up some brisket from the store before coming home. Thought you might want some."

"Sure, yeah, but I, uh…"

I'm not able to finish what I was trying to say because a woman, maybe around my height with thick, light brown hair, appears in the opened door. Her eyes are locked on my dad as she opens her mouth to speak, but when her eyes land on me, her eyes widen along with her smile.

"Oh, you must be Hiccup!" she says, announcing her presence to my dad, who jumps a little at her sudden voice. "Your old man here's told me so much about you."

"Oh, uh… hi…" I say back, not quite sure how to respond to that.

"Hiccup, this is, um… this is Bertha. Bertha Bog," my dad fills me in as the woman squeezes her way into the house. "We just hired her a couple weeks ago. Thought I'd, uh… have her over for dinner. A welcome to the neighborhood greeting of some sort."

"Which was so kind of your father, if you don't mind me saying," Bertha laughs, patting my dad on the shoulder playfully.

Okay… that's kind of weird.

"Well… if you want to join us, we're eating outside then," my dad tells me as Bertha sneaks her way back outside. "We're mainly talking business, so it may be good for you to listen in. May learn a thing or two."

I see exactly what he's trying to do, and there's no way in hell I'm playing into it. "Nah, that's okay," I tell him instead, grabbing a plate from the cupboard. "I had a long day. Thinking of just eating, then going to bed. Thanks though."

My dad's mouth opens slightly and I can tell he wants to say something that'll make me have to join him outside, but he doesn't say it. Instead, all that manages to come out is, "Ah. Okay. Well… 'night then, son."

"Yeah. 'Night, Dad."

He wanders back outside, sliding the door shut and even closing it a little harder than I think is necessary. I try to not let this action bother me, like me skipping dinner to avoid talking work with him is obviously bothering him. Piling a few slabs of brisket on my plate, I can still hear the two adults exchanging words outside, and even see them for the most part out of the window.

Toothless rubs up against my calf, purring and looking up at me with those big green eyes of his that always win when it comes to him begging for food.

"Ah, fine," I give in, cutting off a slab of brisket and allowing it to fall to the kitchen floor. Without a second hesitation, Toothless is all over it, looking up at me afterwards, asking for me to drop another slab. I bend down, stroking the back of his ears and head, and he meows like he's telling me this will have to do for the lack of seconds.

I stand up, about ready to head upstairs and call it a day, when I make the grave mistake of glancing over at the window peering outside. Right before my eyes, I see this Bertha woman - this woman I've never seen before in my life until today - lean over and kiss my dad right on the kisser.

What in Thor's name…

I don't even bother to wait to see how my dad will react. Without a second thought and having almost tripped on the way up the stairs on my prosthetic leg, I head upstairs and lock myself in my room for the rest of the night.