It's Hard to Explain

by Sarah the What

Jack is a boy suffering from memory loss who would be willing to do anything to remember his past. Hiccup is his new friend who would be willing to do anything to forget his. During their many adventures involving dangerous bikes, cute girls, and protective parents, both boys learn through each other that they can't continue living their lives in the past.

9. A Lot More Than Expected

Ahh, sorry about the cliffhanger and long wait.

This chapter just really didn't want to get written. And me getting back into the mood for playing Sims 3 nonstop certainly didn't help matters. Oh well. It's here now, the longest chapter of them all (so far).

Waaaaaaarning: there's some minor hints at Frostbite/Rainbow Snowcone here, so BE WARNED if you're not into that ship. It's nothing drastic; just kinda there, y'know.

Enjoy!

.

---

.

The last thing I see before allowing my eyes to close is Hiccup's face, his green eyes lined with worry, but his lips holding a reassuring smile. He lets out a laugh as I slur out my words about being home to say goodbye to Emma, and that's when I allow myself to be taken in by the darkness. I know I shouldn't give in so effortlessly, but the pain in the back of my head is throbbing to the point of nausea and it's becoming hard to ignore. Maybe if I just close my eyes - even just for a moment - the strain I'm feeling will go away.

Allowing my eyelids to droop, I hope that my friend will know what to do, will take care of me for the time I'm drifted off. As I hear Hiccup say my name one more time, followed by words I can't make out, my eyes finally shut, enveloping me in pitch black.

I'm wrong about the pain. It only worsens as I drift further and further away from consciousness. The soft touch of Astrid's thighs against my head and Hiccup's fingers on my cheek disappear and are replaced by claws tearing away at my back, my friend's kind words masked over with harsh hisses.

It's when everything's at its darkest that the hooded figure that's haunted so many of my dreams makes its appearance. Its face is nothing but a pit of dark shadows, no features present, but I can still hear it beaconing me forward, whispering words to me that I don't want to hear.

She was better off without you.

They'll never see you as one of them.

It's all your fault.

You shouldn't even try.

So much for just giving in to the darkness. Even if I do willingly allow it to take me over, this hooded figure will still slither its way into my mind, just like it does when the darkness takes me over against my will. No matter how many times I shout at it to leave me alone - even breaking out of my comfort zone and getting feet away from its cold form - the figure won't take a hint. It only continues to taunt me, it's hooked fingers waving me forward.

I decide that I've spent enough time in this living Hell. Though I may not have anyone in the outside world here to assist me, I know that I can trick myself out of this nightmare; I did it before while in the hospital, so I know I can do it again.

Blocking out the unwanted sound of the darkness' words, I think of the brightest things in my life; anything that will ward away this growing pain.

The gleam that dances across Hiccup's bike.

The glint of light that shines off of Tooth's necklace

The glow on Emma's face as she finally beats me in a game.

I know I picked the right moments to picture, because, before I know it, I'm looking up at a white, popcorn ceiling that I can only recognize as my own.

My name is Jack Overland.

I am seventeen-years-old.

I live in Berk with my parents and sister.

My best friend's name is Hiccup Haddock.

Phew. Good. I still have my memory.

"Jack?"

I turn my head slightly, blinking several times as my eyes adjust to the light above, to see my father, a grin slowly appearing on his tired face.

"He's awake, Mary! He's awake!"

The sound of footsteps heading towards my room meets my ears as my father helps me to sit up in bed, leaning my pillow against the wall to support me. I'm about to ask him what had happened when my mother bursts in, not hesitating a second as she strides up and wraps me into a hug.

I'm startled at first by her sudden and unexpected touch, but then I remember that this is what I've wanted all along. I return her hug, closing my eyes and burying my face into her shoulder.

"Oh, dear God," she sighs into my hair as I feel her fingers digging into my back. "We thought we had lost you again. We thought you were never going to wake up."

"I'm fine," I whisper, my voice hitching as the words come out. The dryness of my throat becomes apparent to me then. I wonder how long I've been out. It may have only felt like moments to me, but who knows how much time has really passed.

"Well, it's good to see you can talk this time around," my father says with a laugh after my mother releases me from her firm embrace. She turns quickly towards him, giving him a sharp look, and I can't help but smile at this exchange, despite the fatigue I'm feeling.

"Whether you can talk or not, we're just happy you're alright," my mother tells me, squeezing my hand in hers. Her skin feels so coarse against mine, something I hadn't expected. "We were so worried about you, C- Jack."

"How long have I been out?" I ask. "And what happened to me?"

A tense silence engulfing the entire room is followed, and I see the smiles that had previously been on my parents faces disappear. My mother doesn't seem to be able to look at me anymore as she removes her hand from mine, which only makes me want to reach out and grab it again. I had only just gotten her to open up to me; it's too earlier for her to retreat again.

"It's only been a couple of days," my father tells me slowly, looking down at the ground. "And, well… these two boys brought you to us. They said you'd been in some sort of bike accident while racing some other boy. I… I felt like I recognized the boys from somewhere though, but I couldn't put my finger on it. One was a bit bigger and the other..."

"Had a prosthetic leg?"

My father raises an eyebrow at me saying this, but nods nevertheless.

"You meet… well, saw them while at The Ring a couple of weeks ago," I explain to him. "They were the two boys that asked me if I wanted to hang out."

"Which is never going to happen ever again."

My head snaps in the direction of my mother, still sitting on the side of my bed. Her face looks stern and solid, so I know that the words that had come out of her mouth were meant to be heard. At realizing this, I get the feeling that something is being drained from me. Be it the tiredness or something new, whatever it is, it's overwhelming.

"W-What do you mean?" I manage to stumble out.

"I don't want you seeing those boys again, do you hear me?" she continues as she lifts herself from my bedside, still sounding as rigid as before. "Whatever happened to you, they were involved, and there's no way I'm going to allow my only son to be accompanied with such… such…"

"But they're my friends!" I shout. Judging by the way both my parents jump a little, it had been louder than I had intended.

"Jack, this is for your own safety," my father pitches in, even though I can tell the words he's saying don't seem to fit properly in his mouth.

"But they didn't hurt me!" I fight back. "Neither of them were even there when I got hurt!"

"Did one of them teach you how to ride that bike though?" my mother asks.

"Huh?"

"That bike, Jack. You didn't know how to ride a bike when we first moved here, and suddenly you do. One of them had to have taught you how to ride that dreadful thing."

I'm cornered - I know it - and the frantic feeling inside of me is beginning to grow at a rapid pace. My mother is giving me this look that tells me she already knows the whole situation, but she wants me to tell her for myself. The earlier feeling of her hands pressed firmly against my back, her face buried in my hair as she made an effort to comfort me, evaporate and are replaced with rage. If I tell the truth that Hiccup taught me to ride that bike, then there's no way that she will ever allow me to see him again, and I hate her for this.

"Yes, he taught me how to ride it," I confess. "But that doesn't mean-"

"From this moment on, you're not allowed to leave this house without one of us accompanying you, do you hear me?" my mother interrupts before I can explain myself. She lets out a sigh, turns towards my father, and says loud enough for me to hear, "The kids here are so dangerous, Will. Maybe we should just homeschool him. I think it'd be for the better. He'll be-"

"You can't do that!" I yell at her. "They're my friends! They… they didn't do anything!"

"You need to get some rest," my mother says sternly back to me as she turns and walks to the threshold of my door. "You look exhausted, and yelling at me is just going to make your more tired." My father, shooting me a sympathetic look, picks himself up from the chair beside my bed and begins to follow her out of the room.

"They didn't do anything! It was my fault, not theirs!"

"Rest, Jack."

"This isn't fair!"

They close the door behind them, the click the door leaves behind echoing against my walls.

A whole next week somehow passes without me seeing another living being besides my parents. My father is away at work most of the time, but I discover that my mother had taken to working at home just to keep an eye on me to make sure I don't try and sneak out. She delivers meals to me the first day by tray, but I never touch them, in an immature way of rebellion against her. Hunger starts to get the best of me though by the second day, so I venture downstairs on my own to solve this problem. My mother is furious at this, since she's told me several times already that she wants me to stay in bed, but she leaves me alone as I prepare my own food.

For the first time ever, I experience the emotion of boredom. Since seeing Hiccup has been marked off the list, Emma would be my first escape from this prison my parents have trapped me in. The precious girl's away at summer camp though, so there's no one to play board games and hopscotch with. The sound of her laughter makes my stomach ache terribly, and I wish for her to come back home - even just for a day - so I can ruffle her hair and poke her tiny, round nose and say goodbye and that I hope she has fun while she's away.

On the fourth day, I hear the murderous sound of a lawn mower rip through the air, and after running to my window and peering out, I see a familiar auburn head of hair going back and forth across my lawn, his big, blonde friend whacking away at the hedges. That day is the first day I try to sneak out of the house, but my mother catches me even before I can get to the stairs - curse this house's creaky floorboards! I stay in my room for the remainder of their time there, watching them through my window as they diligently work. It isn't until right before they leave though that at least one of them notices my watchful eyes; Hiccup's just finished rolling the lawn mower into the back of a white van when our eyes meet. His hand moves into the air, his fingers slightly waving in my direction as he hesitantly gives me a skittish smile. I lift my hand in response, copying his movement and grin. Then, before I can even pull my hand back down, he gets into the van behind Fish, and is gone.

I wonder if he misses me. To be completely and brutally honest, I have to admit that I don't even know where exactly I stand with him when it comes to our friendship. For all I know, I'm just that kid that he was forced to teach to ride a bike, nothing more. He could absolutely despise my guts, never want to hear my voice ever again, but he could just be hiding it as to not hurt my feelings. I know I shouldn't be thinking these things, but for some reason, the thoughts won't leave my mind. The longer I stay locked away in my room, the more I want to walk right up to him and ask him if he even likes me.

It's the day before it's been a week of solitude from the outside world that I get my first visitor. My mother calls down for me, but I don't budge from reading on my bed, propped up against the wall. If she needs to tell me something, she'll have to come up here and tell me for herself, because I've decided that if I can't leave this house, then I'm not even going to leave my room. She only calls my name once though, and then her voice is replaced by footsteps making their way up the stairs, coming towards my closed door. I prepare myself for the worse, only to get the best.

Tooth is the one that slowly opens the door as I put my book down. She's wearing this pink and white dress that makes her eyes stand out against her dark skin, and for the first time, her hair is down, barely touching her shoulders. At noticing her outfit, I become strongly aware of the fact that I'm wearing a ratty, old shirt with a ketchup stain on the collar that I wish I could magically change out of.

"The Tooth Fairy's here to collect any of your missing teeeeeeth," is her sing-song of a greeting to me. I find it rather hard to not allow a smile to peel across my face at this, which feels weird, since it's been awhile since I've smiled. "Have you lost any teeth lately, mister?"

I shake my head. "Not that I'm aware of, no."

She lets out a giggle - that I will admit is actually rather adorable. "I, uh… I heard what happened. How ya doing?"

I shrug. "I'm alright."

"You sure? I heard you took quite a nasty fall." She takes a seat on the edge of my bed, resting her hands in her lap and shooting me a knowing look. "Were you wearing your gear, like last time?"

I recall the time she almost ran me over, and let out a laugh. "Yeah, I'm sure. I'm still in one piece, aren't I? No need to worry."

"Then how'd you get that?" she asks, scooting towards me a little and reaching out for my cheek. I feel her delicate fingers touch the healing scars on the side of my face, causing an odd feeling to travel down my spine. She moves her hand away, and I have the urge to reach out and grab it again, but I resist.

"A helmet only protests the top of the head," I tell her, "not the face."

She laughs. "True."

I ask her how she's been doing lately, and if I didn't find this tiny girl so interesting in the first place, with her multicolored highlighted hair and tooth necklace, I think I could say I would've gotten a little weirded out by the way she just keeps on talking and talking. There's something about her voice though - the enthusiasm behind her words as she tells me about her intern job at her dad's dentist office ending and how she's now babysitting these two little kids - that makes me want to tell her to keep on talking, even if it's nonsense, just so I can hear her voice.

"And what have you been up to then?" she asks once she'd done going on about herself. "I haven't seen you around town or anything lately. Have you just been locked away in here for the past week or something?"

"It's not as bad as it sounds, really," I lie, even though it is as bad as it sounds; not being able to interact with another human being, I've discover, is one of my major weaknesses. "I mean, I have tons of books to read, so it's not like I have nothing to do."

"But, I mean… have you even seen anyone lately?"

"I'm seeing you right now."

She lets out a laugh, her cheeks bunching up under her pink eyes. "Besides me."

Shaking my head, I see the smile on her face fade a little.

"Has… has Hiccup not even come to see how you're doing? I mean… he's, like… your best friend… right?"

"My parents won't let me see him," I tell her quietly, breaking eye contact for the first time and looking down at my hands.

"And why's that?"

"They think he's to blame for the accident."

"Well… is he?"

I shake my head quickly, not wanting her to misjudge Hiccup. "It's my fault, really. It was stupid for me to race to begin with."

"Then why'd you do it?"

I shrug.

"Well, I honestly just think you need to get out of this house," Tooth tells me after I feel her study me for a moment. She gets up from my bed, placing her hands on his wide hips as she looks around.

"And how are we going to do that?" I ask, getting up with her. "My mother doesn't want me leaving the house because she's afraid I'm going to fall and scrap my knee or something."

Tooth doesn't reply right away, for she has this expression on that I assume means she's trying to think of a solution to my problem. After a moment of being in thought though, she snaps her fingers and turns towards me, a warm smile on her face.

"I got an idea," she tells me.

"And that idea would beeee...?"

"Remember how I said I'm babysitting those kids?"

I nod.

"Well, they can be somewhat of a handful. The older boy is nine and can take care of himself most of the time, but the girl's four and is still pretty demanding. She has to take naps and I have to make sure she eats all her lunch, especially when she doesn't like it."

"Tooth, where are you going with this?" I ask her, running my hand through my hair. As much as I love that she can just ramble on and on about something for days on end, right now really isn't the time; she's gotten me all excited about this said plan of hers, but what she's telling me right now doesn't seem at all relevant to the situation.

She puts her hands up, motioning me to be patient. "I'm getting there, I'm getting there!" she laughs. "Just bear with me a sec. So, those two kids really aren't that bad to have to deal with. But my little sister - Aly, remember? - she just got released from this summer camp thing, so she needs someone to look after her."

"Aaaand I'm assuming that someone's going to be you?"

"Right. But now that I have to look after Jamie, Sophie, and her, my job's going to get tough."

"Wait, wait, wait," I interrupt her as she says the familiar sounding names. "Are you babysitting the, um… oh, the Bennett kids? The ones that live down the street from here?"

A smile peels across her face. "Yeah! You know them?""

"Hiccup and I bought lemonade from them a couple of weeks back!"

"Huh. Small world."

"There's only five hundred people living in this town, Tooth."

She rolls her eyes at me, a smile on her face as she dismisses my comment. "But anyways. Aly's a real handful, not gonna lie. Having to look after her and Sophie is going to be a real challenge."

"What are you saying?"

She puts her arms out in front of her, like she's inviting me in for a hug. An even larger grin than before makes its way on to her face as she says, "You can help me babysit!"

I honestly don't know to react to this suggestion. It's not that I don't have anything against babysitting, considering that's all I've been doing for Emma the past five weeks, up until she left. Babysitting for different kids, though? I can't even picture that. Emma and I had fallen into such a good sync of doing things, had gotten so used to each other, that looking after a couple of new kids doesn't seem like something I would be able to do.

"I don't know, Tooth…"

The small girl walks up to me after I make it obvious that I'm having second thoughts about her plan, and gently grabs my shoulder. "Jack, you need this," she tells me sternly, but still with care in her words. "You say you're okay with being locked away in here, but I know that no one would be totally okay with that. And you seem like someone who likes interacting with other people, so I know this must be hard for you, not being able to see your friends."

I look down at my feet, because I know everything she's saying is true. It's like this tiny girl standing in front of me was somehow able to look right through me and read my thoughts.

"Just give this a shot," she eggs me on. "You already know Aly, and Jamie and Sophie are really good kids. You'd like Jamie. You remind me a lot of him."

I look up at her. "Really?"

She smiles back at me, removing her hand from my shoulder. "Ooooh yeah. Definitely."

"How are we alike?"

"How about you just come over tomorrow and we find out, hm?"

It's at that comment that I can't help myself from shooting a smile down at her. She's got me cornered, but I can admit that I really don't mind. No, I'm not one hundred percent sure that my mother will give in to this plan, but I know that I should at least try, for my sanity's sake mostly. Besides. If I can't hang out with Hiccup… well, at least I can hang out with Tooth, right?

.

---

.

I really, really, really hate to admit this, but not being able to hang out with Jack every day definitely is taking its toll on me; a lot more than I had expected, anyways.

Fish, Astrid, and I had delivered an unconscious Jack to his house - Astrid stayed in the car, claiming she didn't want to have any part in this - and his parents pretty much exploded at the sight of him. Well, mostly his mom. Before either of us could even manage to get out a simple sorry, she warned us to never even think about interacting with her son ever again, and then slammed the door right in our faces.

I thought she had overreacted, not going to lie, but I don't blame her for behaving so extreme. I decided to give the Overland's a day to cool down before venturing back out to their house to see if Jack was doing better. Even after that wait though, Mrs Overland made it pretty clear to me that I wasn't welcomed anywhere near their property. From knocking politely on their front door to throwing stones at what I hoped and prayed was Jack's window, she shooed me away, her tone rising with each attempt. After she threatened to call the cops, I decided it was about time to call it quits.

To put it simply, I don't know what to do. Fish always acts like he doesn't know who I'm talking about when I bring Jack up, and Astrid won't even give me the time of day anymore because of what happened. Talking to my dad about it isn't even an option, and as awesome of a feline friend as Toothless is, a cat won't be able to give me any helpful advice. The only other person I can think of to talk to is Jack, but then that just leads us around full circle, doesn't it?

I see him for the first time that following week when Fish and I are told by Gobber that we're to take care of the Overland's yard. As Gobber drops us off, I notice that what I assume is his mom's car is stationed in the driveway, telling me that trying to find a way to contact him would be pointless. I keep my eyes on the grass as I move back and forth across the lawn, trying to ignore the fact that the very guy that I wish I could see is only fifty yards away, somewhere inside that house.

Two hours slip by pretty quickly, but that's probably only because I focus on Fish's hedge clippers snipping and my mower's motor growling for a large duration of the time I work. Before I know it, Gobber's white van is pulled up to the curb, the back doors swung open for me to stash the lawn mower back inside.

"You comin' or not, Hiccop?" Gobber asks me as he slams the van's back doors. "Got one more house to do before I can let ye go, you know."

"Yeah, I know," I sigh, slipping off my work gloves and stuffing them into my short's back pocket. As I look back up at Jack's house, I see a set of piercing blue eyes topped with a tuff of white hair peering out the top window down at me, catching me completely off guard. I wonder how long he's been sitting there, looking out of his window.

I have the feeling that Mrs Overland is going to come bounding out of the house any second now, yelling at me for even locking eyes with her son, but she doesn't. Instead, I raise my hand and wave up at him, trying to get out the best attempt of a smile that I can manage. I notice through the glass him raise his hand as well and smile, only it doesn't look like it usually does. It looks weak, defeated even, like he's trying to tell me he did put up a fight, but his parents wouldn't budge.

"Hiccup! Come on!" I hear Fish yell back at me. I turn and jump into the passenger side of the van, not looking back at my trapped friend.

The next house is pretty much about the same as Jack's, only I don't have his house right there in front of me to taunt me. This makes it so much more bearable, but only but a bit. I keep thinking about what I'm going to do once I've finished working, and when the idea of going and biking with Jack pops into my head on several occasions, I feel like bashing my head against the lawn mower's handlebar.

Finally, the two hours are up, and Gobber drops me off at my house, telling me to get some rest. I'm about to tell him I plan to, when I notice the car that I can only associate with Bertha sitting in our driveway. Great. This is the last thing I need to deal with right now.

Not wanting to have to encounter my dad and Bertha, I decide to slip through the backyard, hoping that opening the back door won't be too hard and that my mad dash to the stairs won't be too noticeable. My plan is foiled however when I close the back gate and hear a high voice yell, "Wow! You look really gross and sweaty!"

I turn away from the gate to see Cami standing up in my long-forgotten tree house, her normally wild, blonde hair pulled back into an even crazier pony tail.

"Good to see you too, Cami," I tell her with a sigh. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I have to go shower away all this sweat and sorrow." I make a beeline for the deck stairs, but I'm stopped when I see Toothless sitting on the top step. He meows up at me as I pat his head and ask him how he got out here.

"I wanted to play with him, but he's meeeeeeeeeean," Cami whines from up in the tree. "All I did was try and carry him up into this tree, but then he got all upset and started hissing at me."

"Why do you need Toothless up in the tree?" I ask her, taking a seat down next to the black cat. He crawls eagerly into my lap, rubbing his head against my chest, something he does when he wants to show me that he missed me while I was gone.

"His name's Toothless?"

"Yeah."

"But he has teeth!"

"He didn't when I got him."

"Why?"

"He was a kitten."

"Oh. Well… now that you're here, you can get 'im to play with me!"

"I was actually gonna go inside and take a shower," I tell her, grabbing Toothless and beginning to get up from the steps. "I had a hard day at work, so I'm feelin' a little worn out."

"But I wanna plaaaaaaay with someone!" Cami protests, running her hands down her cheeks all dramatic like. "Mom's too busy being all gross and romantic with your dad, and that cat's all I got!"

"What exactly are you playing?" I know that there's no way that I'm going to go out there and actually play pretend with this girl, especially after having to experience that extremely weird scavenger hunt she sent me on only about a week ago. Maybe though I can give her some suggestions on keeping herself busy, something I've become a master at, since being an only child can get pretty lonely.

"Dragons!" she tells me throwing her hands into the air. "I'm the evil Dragon Knapper, and Toothless there is the last dragon I need to have captured every species of dragon known to man! But he's being a paaaaaain and not cooperating!"

"Well, I think that may be for the better," I tell her with a laugh. "I'm not so sure I want you capturing all the dragons. They deserve to be free, you know. Especially Toothless here."

"Too bad! I already have all of them stashed away up here! See?" She disappears back into the tree house and returns holding a small, purple, plush dragon, its long tongue dangling lazily out of its opened mouth. "This is just one of hundreds too! I have them all up here, locked in cages!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, that's not good, is it?" I go, scratching the back of my neck.

"Nope!" she says with a toothy grin. "And what are yoooou gonna do about it?"

I know I said I wouldn't fall into this trap and start playing with her, but man, I just realized that I could really use a good pretend game right about now. If I were to just go inside, shower, and try to take a nap, all I'd be able to think about is Jack not being able to see me, Astrid not wanting to talk to me, and my dad and Bertha downstairs doing only the Gods know what. Playing this weird, little game with this weird, little girl seems like the better option to me at the moment. And not to mention that I never really played that many pretend games growing up, considering my complete lack of friends, and when I did, I always ended up played the character I didn't like. Maybe this is my chance to finally play a decent game of pretend with someone, even if it is a good ten years too late.

"Well, I may just have to go up there and free all those dragons," is how I respond, a smirk on my face as I take the work gloves from out of my back pocket and throw them to the ground.

"You wouldn't dare," Cami hisses.

"How much you wanna bet?" I place Toothless down beside me, and he looks up, his green eyes staring as he meows and paws at my shoes. I crouch down to his level, grabbing his small snout in my hand, and ask, "You ready, bud?"

He lets out another meow, yanks his nose out of my grasp, and starts running towards the tree house at full cat speed, his black tail held high behind him. I follow suit, peeling my hat off my head and tossing it on to the deck steps.

"They're attacking! They're attacking!" Cami yells, running back into the depths of the tree house. "Prepare the fireballs!"

"The what?" I ask, and I get my answer not in the form of words, but rather the form of tennis balls being launched at me from above. My arms automatically go up to protect the top of my head and face as I duck underneath the tree house, away from Cami's fire. Looking down at Toothless, standing at my feet, I yell, "Where did you she even get those things?"

"They're mine!" I hear Cami sing from above. "I collect them so I can throw them at people that make me angry!"

I'm about to start climbing up the makeshift ladder installed on the side of the trunk, but then I notice that the door has been nailed shut. "No wonder this girl's got no one to play with," I say mainly to myself and Toothless meows in agreement. Crouching and placing my hand on the top of his head, I whisper, "We need to formulate a plan, bud. Got any ideas?"

The cat moves out from underneath my hand and darts to that wooden picnic table we never use anymore only a couple of yards away. I look up as Toothless lands on the top of the table and notice that if I were to stand on it, then I'd probably be able to climb into the tree house's window.

"Good idea, bud," I praise the cat with a smile, and he meows back happily.

I count to three under my breath before sprinting for the picnic table, almost tripping as my prosthetic leg manages to snag itself on a root poking out of the ground. As soon as my sneakers land on the wooden surface with a loud thud though, I hear Cami scream from above, "ATTAAAAAAACK!" and I'm being pelted at again by countless tennis balls, causing Toothless and me to have to retreat to the safety of under the tree.

"You'll never get your dragons back, Dragon Conqueror! Hahaha!" I hear Cami laugh from above.

"Who said anything about me bein' the Dragon Conqueror?" I ask, panting heavily. This is actually proving to be a lot harder than I thought it'd be. I thought I'd be able to somehow just climb into the tree house without having to really try, but man, this girl's got this place fortified.

"That's why you wanna get all these dragons back, stupid!" Cami tells me, like I should've already guessed this. "These are all the dragons that you already conquered, and I stole them from you, so you're trying to get them back!"

"But that sounds just as bad as what you're doing! I don't want to be a conqueror of dragons!"

"Well, then what do you wanna be?"

I look down at Toothless for any suggestions, but he just cocks his head back up at me; he's probably wondering why we're not attacking the crazy, little, blonde girl anymore, since he seemed to have been really enjoying himself doing just that.

"Can I be a… I dunno. Dragon trainer?"

Cami doesn't say anything at first, which surprises me, since this girl always seems to have an immediate response to everything I say. Then she yells, "But where's the fun in that? Being a conqueror is a lot more cooler than being a stinky, old trainer."

"I beg to differ," I say back, bending down and grabbing some of the tennis balls lying at my feet. Talking about my role in this game, I've realized, is a pretty good distraction; may as well start preparing for my next plan of attack. "Trainers, I think, have it much better than conquerors. A conqueror is feared by the people he conquers, and I don't want the dragons to fear me like they fear you. But to be a trainer, the dragons have to trust me, which means that they probably like and respect me too. So I'd much rather be a dragon trainer over a dragon conqueror."

I hear Cami make a "pfft" sound from above, followed by her saying, "Dragon Conqueror or Dragon Trainer, no matter what you are, there's no way you're ever going to get your dragons back!"

I run out from under the tree, Toothless close at my heels, and start pelting all the tennis balls I had managed to fit in my arms up at her. She lets out a piercing shriek, yelling, "COUNTER ATTACK! BRACE YOURSELVES!" as she dunks down out of view, giving me my chance to attack her fortress with her defense lines down. Toothless, the poor little guy, is already trying to push himself up off the ground and towards the window, but he's too small of course to reach. I continue to throw the tennis balls at the tree house, making my way quickly towards the cat as I hear Cami yelling inside, "This isn't fair! This isn't fair!" Dropping the remaining tennis balls and pulling myself clumsily through the window, Toothless meowing up at me loudly in encouragement, I'm somehow able to make it into the tree house in one piece. I fall against the wooden floor with a loud thud, making Cami give out a small yelp at seeing me. Our eyes meet as I sit up on my knees, and I all I can think of doing is letting out a smirk as I move over towards where I can see she has all her stuffed dragons stashed. Before I can reach them though, the small girl pulls out what appears to be a plastic sword, pieces of duct tape wrapped around several parts of it, keeping it together.

"Prepare you meet your maker, Dragon Trainer!" she yells at me, pointing her sword in my direction.

"Now that's not fair!" I say, putting my hands up as to surrender. "I didn't know we were allowed to have weapons! I would've totally already killed you if I knew that!"

"Yeah, well, too bad! I win this-" she begins, drawing closer to me with the dull point of her sword nearing my nose, but then she's cut off by the sound of who I think is Bertha calling for her, telling her it's time to head out. Now that Cami's distracted, her head turned towards the window and her sword somewhat lowered, I take this as my opportunity to win this thing once and for all. In one quick movement, I dive towards the dragons, wrap my arms around as many as I can, and before Cami can even fully turn back towards me, launch them all through the air and out the window, yelling, "Fly away my children! Be free!"

Cami runs to the window, leaning out and looking down at the stuffed dragons littering the grass. "Mooooooooooooooooooooooom!" she groans as I get up from the floor, a smile on my face, no doubt. "You distracted me from killing Hiccup, and that led to him winning the game! It's all your fault I lost now! Thanks a lot!"

I hear both my dad's and Bertha's laugh from outside, my dad's heavier and much louder than her more feminine one. "Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear that, sweetheart," I hear Bertha say, "but we need to get going. We have plans for dinner, remember?"

Cami lets out another groan and turns back towards me, giving me a stink eye. "You win this round, Dragon Trainer." I pretend to tip my hat to her, and she sticks her tongue out at me.

Once we've both successfully navigated our ways out of the tree house window and back on to the safety of the ground - when she jumped from the window and into my arms, my prosthetic almost completely gave out, which would've been a real problem for the both of us if I hadn't caught myself somehow - Bertha asked why we didn't just use the door. I explain as we clean up the stuffed dragons that Cami here had nailed it shut, guaranteeing that I wouldn't have an easy way of getting into her secure garrison.

"She nailed- oh Gods. Really?" Bertha goes, running her hand through her dark hair. "Was that really necessary, Cam?" She turns towards my dad, giving him an apologetic look, but he just waves her off, a smile on his face. I notice that the smile he has on is one that I haven't seen in a really long time - as in, like, several years long time.

Cami nods her head as she stuffs her last dragons into her turquoise backpack. "I had to make sure he wouldn't get in, Mom! That kinda stuff's important!"

Bertha laughs at this, mostly because she's probably just glad to see that my dad's not upset about her daughter nailing our tree house's door shut. "I don't doubt it is. Now come on. We gotta head out. Don't want to be late, now do we?"

My dad and I walk the two ladies to their car out front in the driveway, Toothless trailing behind us with a forgotten blue, stuffed dragon in his mouth. I take it from him, thanking him for finding it, and run to Cami as she's buckling herself into the car, our parents talking over what sound like business plans near the hood.

"Toothless found this," I say, passing it through the opened window towards her. "He musta fell into the bushes or something."

"Tell Toothless he can keep 'im," Cami tells me with a smile. "He's a really smart cat. Are you sure he isn't part human or mutant or something?"

I laugh. "Nah. I'm pretty sure I'd know about it if he was."

"Alright. Just making sure."

Cami rolls up the window as her mother tells her it's time to head out for real this time. Before she ducks into the car though, Bertha turns towards me, smiles, and says, "Thanks for keeping her entertained, Hiccup. I know she can be quite a handful sometimes."

Not sure of how exactly to respond to that, I just shrug; my dad's standing right there, looking at me along with Bertha, and for some reason, I feel like I'm being put on spot. "It's no problem," I tell her though, trying not to look too awkward just standing here with this weird, plush dragon in my hands. "I had fun."

I hear Cami knock on the window and she sticks her tongue out at me again. I do the same back.

They back out of the driveway, Bertha throwing the two of us a wave before pulling out into the street. Once they're gone, I'm about to tell my dad I'm going to head inside to take a shower, but before I can, I feel his large hand land on my shoulder, his finger squeezing a bit. He doesn't say anything when I look up at him; just gives me a small smile, lets go, and heads inside.

.

---

.

By some miracle, my mother agrees to letting me babysit with Tooth at the Bennett's. Tooth tries to assure me that it's because my mother really does want me to get out of the house and make some new friends, but I know my mother better than Tooth; it's probably more of because she knows that, if I have my hands full with looking after small children, then there's no way I can possibly go and see Hiccup. Though this thought angers me, I decide to let it slide, because at least I'm being allowed to leave the house for the first time in a week.

The next morning, I leave at around 8:45 so I have enough time to walk from my place to the Bennett's. Tooth's familiar car is already positioned out in the driveway when I arrive, alongside a decrepit minivan that I assume is Ms Bennett's. Tooth had told me that she would probably be home to explain "the basics" to me, whatever that means.

Once I knock on the front door, the first thing I hear is the barking of a dog from somewhere inside, then a woman's voice shouting words I can't make out. After a moment, the door is opened and there stands a curvy woman with her brown hair pulled back into a loose bun, black glasses framing her caramel colored eyes. A smile appears on her face when our eyes meet.

"Ah, you must be Jack," she says, putting out her hand towards me, her other holding on to the collar of a gray and white dog, bearing its teeth at me. "I'm Ms Bennett, but please, call me Margo."

I introduce myself, extending my hand and shaking hers briefly, something I've seen my father do with other people several times when we're in town shopping for supplies. I don't know quite what to think about calling this grown woman by her first name though. I once called my father by his first name, and my mother snapped at me for it. I just assumed after that that calling someone older than myself by their first name was against the rules.

As Ms Bennett is scolding the dog to be quiet - referring to it as Abby - Tooth makes her way into the foyer, holding the hands of whom I both recognize instantly as Aly and Sophie, both of them wearing what appear to be fairy wings on their back. Both of their tiny, round faces breaks out with toothy grins when they see me, and Sophie even starts singing, "It's an alien! An alien!" as she lets go of Tooth's hand and runs up to me and grabs my hand, the wings mounted on her back flapping behind her.

"Jamie! The new babysitter's here!" Ms Bennett calls up the stairs, still holding on to the collar of the dog. "Sorry about Abby here. She isn't very fond of strangers. I'll go put her out back real fast."

Tooth gives me a questioning look as Ms Bennett leaves, and I scoop the winged, blonde girl into my arms, noticing instantly the extreme weight difference between her and Emma. "Do I even want to know why she's referring to you as an alien?"

I shake my head with a smile as Sophie wraps her pudgy arms around my neck.

A grinning Aly lets go of her older sister's hand and comes skipping up to me, showing off the two missing side teeth that are just now beginning to grow back in.

"Hiiiii, Jack!" she sings. "Remember me?"

"Oh, but of course I remember you!" I laugh. "It's little Baby Tooth!"

The young girl gives me a confused look. "Baby what?"

"Jack here nicknamed me Tooth, Al," Tooth explains to her little sister before I can. "I guess, because we look so much alike, he's decided to call you Baby Tooth now." She sneaks a peek up at me, sending me a smirk that I can't help but return.

"Hm… Baby Tooth…" the little, winged girl goes, seeming to be thinking over this new name I've given her very hard. "Hey! I actually kinda like that!"

"Well, good," I say back. "Because that's your new name, okay?"

"Okie-doie!"

The small, brunet boy I remember serving Hiccup and me lemonade only week prier bounds down the stairs then, his eyes that are identical to his mother's widening when they land on me. I know he remembers exactly who I am when he slides on his socks up to me and asks, "How's the part robot doin'? Has he bruised anybody's shins lately?"

"You know it," I tell him with a laugh, glad to hear that he remembers our earlier conversation from what feels like ages ago. "The kid just can't help himself when it comes to kicking people in the shin, you know."

Ms Bennett walks back into the foyer before Tooth can ask me what on earth we're talking about, the faint sound of Abby barking in the distance. "Well, Miss Ana here already knows everything about these kids that needs to be known," she tells me. "But I guess I should just tell you the basics then. In the mornings, the kids are allowed to watch one hour of television, and Jamie's only allowed one hour of video games as well."

I nod my head, wondering what exactly this thing called "video game" is.

"Try and have them eat lunch sometime between noon and one. Jamie's got diabetes, so he needs to eat something then in order to keep his blood sugar normal. Ana can explain all that to you, since I really don't have the time to."

I nod my head again, curious as to what "diabetes" are and how exactly they affect a person when it comes to eating lunch.

"And please try and keep them away from anything sugary. One, it's not good for Jamie's diabetes, and two… well, they just don't need the extra energy. So just try and stick to anything healthy. I have a whole variety of food in the fridge, and you two are welcome to use whatever you want. Oh, and once you're all done eating lunch, Sophie's also got to take her nap."

Sophie moves in my arms and hides her face in the crock of my neck. "No naps! No, no, no!" she cries, her pink wings almost hitting me in the face.

"Sophie hates taking naps," Ms Bennett tells me with a laugh, "but she needs them or she gets really grumpy and becomes almost impossible to deal with. Getting her upstairs and into bed is a challenge sometimes, but once she's tucked in, she's usually out within minutes. After that, you guys can really do anything you want to do until I get home, which will be around five or six. Only an hour of television and video games though, so maybe take them outside, play a little. Anything you two are up for."

"Do you have board games?" I decide to ask out of the blue.

Jamie nods his head. "Oh yeah! We got a whole closet full of 'em!"

"Sweet," I go, hoping they have the same games that Emma and I used to play. "I love board games."

"Well, sure, playing board games would be great," Ms Bennett tells us with a smile. She looks down quickly at her watch and grimaces. "Ah geez. I gotta head out." She picks up a black purse from the kitchen counter beside her, pulling out a shiny set of keys from within it. "If anything happens, Ana, you know how to contact me. If I'm going to be home later than usual, I'll give you two a call, okay?"

Once Ms Bennett's out the door and down the road in her car, Tooth tells me what I need to know about the care of Baby Tooth, which really isn't that much; more or less the same things as Ms Bennett had told me about her own two children, minus the nap and diabetes thing. The entire time though Tooth is filling me in on everything Ms Bennett left out for time sake, Sophie is pretty much inseparable to my neck, and I notice that Jamie keeps looking up at me, a toothy grin on his face. I haven't even spent half an hour with these kids yet and I already love them.

For the remainder of the morning, the five of us mainly just hang out in the living room area. For the first hour, Jamie shows me all his impressive video games, many of which are just fighting games where you and your opponent select a character and battle to the death. At first, I have no idea what I'm doing; I somehow get by by just smashing every button on the peculiar looking device that Jamie tells me controls my character on the screen, who I keep getting confused with his. We have to pause on several occasions so Jamie can explain to me what each button does, and even after that, I still get mixed up with which button does what. I catch Tooth, sitting on the couch playing a game called Uno with her sister, sneaking me smirks and giggling when I die or mess up badly. I stick my tongue out at her at one point, and she giggles, shaking her head as she places another card down in front of her. Jamie asks me in a whisper if Tooth is my girlfriend, which I just shrug to, since I don't know what exactly a "girlfriend" is.

Once one hour of video gaming is up, Tooth unplugs the console without warning us, making Jamie groan with irritation since we were in the middle of a very intense battle. Tooth tells us to chill and that we're welcome to join in on Baby Tooth's and her Uno tournament, Sophie playing with her dolls as she just watches, since apparently she's too young to understand the rules. It takes some time, but Tooth, Baby Tooth, and Jamie are able to explain to me the rules of the game, since I've never played it before. Jamie wins a nice handful of rounds, claiming that Uno's his favorite game and that he's the master at it, but Baby Tooth breaks his streak once when she surprises him with a unexpected skip card that she had been hoarding just to make sure he loses, allowing Tooth to take the win for herself. I don't win one round, but I really don't mind, not really. Watching the three of them argue and get so into the game makes me forget that I'm even trying to win.

When lunch rolls around, I let Tooth do the food preparing, since the only thing I know how to make are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She somehow pulls out all this healthy food from the fridge, things like carrot sticks and apple sauce, and puts them all on plastic plates as I help Sophie and Baby Tooth wash their hands in the kitchen sink. As the girls are eating, Tooth assists Jamie with what they call his "insulin pump", Jamie explaining the basics of what each button does and how he has to check it regularly to make sure his glucose levels are normal. I don't ask too many questions, mainly avoiding the obvious ones at all costs, because I don't want either of them - mostly Tooth though - giving me weird looks like Hiccup used to give me.

Once the plates are mostly cleared - we tried unquestionably hard to get Baby Tooth to finish eating the rest of her carrot sticks, even going to the extreme of making it appear like her stuffed rabbit, Bunnymund, had taken a bite out of some of them to encourage her - we begin our mission at getting Sophie upstairs and into her bed for nap time. Tooth and I spent a good five minutes chasing the young girl around the house, her wings seeming to become somewhat of an advantage to her since she was somehow able to outrun us, and then the next ten minutes are spent with us searching under every piece of furniture and behind every door to find that little stinker. Jamie was the one that ended up finding her stashed away in the incredible cramped laundry hamper upstairs, and I had to be the one to carry her screaming and kicking body into her bedroom, Tooth closing the door and holding it shut to ensure that she wouldn't escape once I put her down in her bed. Once I had her under her blankets and snuggled in with all her stuffed animals, despite wearing a frown the entire time, she eventually drifted off into a deep sleep, much to Tooth's and my relief.

Once I make it out of her room without waking her, Jamie is rushing into his room across the hall, telling me that Tooth is getting something called a "slip'n'slide" ready for us to play on outside. I'm about to ask him what he's talking about, but his bedroom door is shut before I can.

Going out into the backyard, I see Tooth blowing up some odd piece of colorful rubber with this pump device as Baby Tooth, now wearing a bright pink and green stripes bathing suit, drags the gardening hose over towards her sister.

"Oh, there you are, Jack," Tooth greets me when she looks up. Abby, who's lying down next to her, begins to get up at the sight of me, a low growl escaping her mussel, but Tooth grabs her collar and settles her down. "I totally forgot to mention yesterday that I told the kids that we could play on the slip'n'slide today. Do you mind getting your shorts wet at all?"

I shake my head. "Nah, it's not a problem. Anything I could do to help?"

Tooth gets up, letting Abby's collar go. Surprisingly, the dog continues to lie on the ground, staring up at me with narrowed eyes. "Not really, no. Just have to wait for this thing to blow up, then we can put the hose on it and start our slippin' and slidin'!"

Jamie runs out a moment later, now sporting sky blue and white checkered swim trunks and interesting goggles that look like shark eyes. As the slip'n'slide is about done getting blown up and Tooth is setting up the hose, he shows me this cool transforming robot toy he has that has wings that pop out with the touch of a button and glows in the dark.

"Slip'n'slide all set up and ready to go!" Tooth announces as the hose is turned on and water's beginning to flow across the rubbery surface. Jamie's the first to get to the head of the slide, placing his goggles over his excited eyes. Baby Tooth standing behind him does a count off, and once she hits three, he runs, launching himself on to his stomach, and the glides gracefully down the slide, letting out a loud, "Woohoooooo!" until he reaches the end, now drenched in water.

Tooth takes a seat next to me on the lawn chair, watching the two children slide one after another, making the water splash up and threaten to soak the both of us. I wonder, as I watch them, how something that appears as simple as sliding through a blanket of water could be so enjoyable, but then again, I've never slip'n'slid'd before, so what would I know.

"Come on, you two wimps!" Baby Tooth calls over to us as she gets up from her stomach, drops of water falling from her soaked hair. "We need some bigger people to do this so we can make bigger splashes off the sides!"

I look over at Tooth. "Want to?"

"Only if you'll do it."

"I'm going to do it."

"Well, I guess that means I'm gonna do it too."

Both of us get up as Jamie dives on to the slide again, causing a splash of water to fall over the side and on to the grass. I peel my shirt off of my back, and as soon as I toss it on to the lawn chair, I'm suddenly all too aware of my body and how uncomfortable this feels, not having something on to cover my torso. Jamie's been running around for the last couple of minutes though without a shirt on his back, so I guess this troublesome feeling is just me not being used to doing something like this, so I decide to shake it off.

"You can go before me, Jack!" Jamie offers, stepping back from the start of the slide, whipping his wet bangs out from his goggled eyes. As I approach him, looking over at the slide out of the corner of my eye, I feel a pang of uneasiness run through my body. "You okay?" Jamie asks me. "You look a little scared…"

I decide to be honest with the boy. "I've never done this before."

Even though those weird shark eyes are blocking out his real eyes, I can see them widen at these words. "What? You've never slip'n'slide'd before?"

I shake my head.

"Well… you just run at it at full speed, right? And when you're about to reach it, you just, you know, fall on your stomach. It's kinda scary the first time, but once you're going through all that water and get to the end, it's awesome and toooootally worth it!"

I focus on his last words - awesome and totally worth it - hoping repeating them in my head will give me the courage I need to run forward and slide. As I turn towards the obstacle in front of me though, my eyes land on Tooth, still standing over at the lawn chairs, wearing nothing but a one piece that looks identical to her sisters, only it's blue, green, and yellow, to match the streaks in her hair. She doesn't see me staring at her, the rate of my heart in my chest increasing for some unknown reason; she's too busy pulling her short hair back into a stub of a ponytail, her arms up over her head as she gracefully maneuvers the bright pink hairband around her wrist, down her hand, and around the thick clump of hair. I've seen girls do this before - Emma did it just like Tooth is doing it when she put her long hair back when we were playing outside together - but never has this action looked so… so… elegant.

"Jack?" I hear a distant voice ask. "Are you gonna go or what?"

Tooth's eyes meeting with mine is what snaps me back into reality. I look away, mentally punching myself in the face and screaming it's not polite to stare, it's not polite to stare, IT'S NOT POLITE TO STARE as I nod my head down at Jamie and begin running at full speed towards the slip'n'slide. I do as Jamie instructed me and fly down on to my stomach right before my feet come in contact with the wet plastic, and the next thing I know, I'm gliding - no - flying it seems, water flowing and splashing in all directions around me.

My exit isn't nearly as graceful as my entrance. Not having been told how to stop, I continue to slide on to the wet grass, my body sticking, almost making my lower half flip completely over myself. As I fall back, feeling a sharp pain on my chest, I hear someone let out a loud laugh.

"Laugh all you want, Farry," I say as I get up, rubbing the spot where the grass had made direct and painful contact with my chest. "Let's see you do better."

"Is that a challenge, Overland?" she retorts, a cute smirk on her face as she crosses her arms.

"You better believe it was."

"Then challenge accepted."

For the rest of the time we spend at the Bennett's residence, Tooth and I compete to see who's the better slip'n'slider, Baby Tooth and Jamie squeezing their turns in every once and awhile; mostly they just stand off to the side though, allowing the waves of water we create with our sliding to engulf them. Tooth eventually calls a time-out and goes inside to get Sophie up from her nap, bringing her out later in a little, orange swimsuit and matching goggles on her head. We continues to slide until Ms Bennett gets home, and even as she's making dinner inside, we continue to slide, because why go to a boring and lonely home when you're having so much fun right here?