A/N

I know, it's been a while, but here I am again! I've got nothing to say, actually, so I'll just skip to the part where I thank people... :P

Thanks to:

- ArabianDragon

- BelieveInYourDreams

- Jaffa Amazing Cakes

- Phoenixofmyth

For reviewing, and thanks to those who have favored/followed/read this story so far!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Mistakes. Everyone makes them. But what defines a mistake? Could everything be a mistake? I sometimes wonder if people just call things mistakes to make themselves better, or if they truly believe they made one. But what is a mistake?

"You can do it Hayden, I know no-one more stubborn than you. Well, maybe your father, but that's beside the point." Up till now Astrids pep-talk wasn't really helping. I lost months of school, and everyone expected me to pick everything up again like nothing happened. Well, I'm sorry, but things did happen.

Okay, calm down. Listen to Astrid, you can do this. Thinking off Astrid helped me relax. She kept her promise, and had visited me every other day, bringing me homework from school to fight off the boredom. I got to learn the real Astrid, and it turned out I really liked her. I mean like like her. Yes, how much of a cliché can it be? The school loser has a crush on the most popular school girl. Wonderful. And I knew that she was dating Steven "Snotlout" Jorgenson. Way to go, Haddock.

I took a deep breath, and walked forward. In the beginning, it was hard, walking with a prosthetic. But soon I got the hang of it, and now, one could barely see me limping anymore. My dad had been proud, Astrid had even baked a cake to celebrate, and I finally forgot the accident for a moment.

When I walked in the halls, I could see from the corner of my eyes people watching me, whispering to the person they were standing next to. Probably about what happened to me. I ignored it all, held my head high. In some ways, the accident made me more sure about myself. Not everyone could say that they had almost died, but survived with a limb less. I wasn't physically strong, but mentally I was. Nothing could get me.

Except for the sight of Snotlout and the twins standing near my locker. Okay, forget the whole "I'm tough"-stuff, I thought. I found comfort in the fact that Astrid was still with me, not saying a word, but calming me in a silent manner.

"Look who's back?" Snotlout said, not having seen Astrid behind me. "It's Useless! I wonder where he's been?" he asked the Twins. They looked at him questioningly. I could almost hear their brains crunching in exercise. I could see them thinking: We don't care about him, do we?

"Maybe he was crawling to mommy, crying his Useless heart out?" That hurt. A lot. It felt as if a hand was squeezing my heart and wouldn't let go.

"Steven!" Snotlout's eyes widened in surprise, and was that fear? Astrid came from behind me, fury blazing in her eyes. "How dare you! How dare you say that?"

Snotlout gulped. "H-honey, it… it was just a joke-"

"A joke!?" Suddenly her eyes widened, and she took a small step back. "This is what you have done every time you were 'hanging' with them," she said, and she pointed at the twins. "I can't believe you! Are you such a loser that you have to pick on somebody else to feel better? To beat them?" She was now standing right in front of Snotlout, and I could see that he was beginning to be very frightened of Astrid. I knew I would be.

"I -I'm sorry! It was a mistake!"

So all the pain and humiliation I went through, it was all a mistake? Or did he mean that I was a mistake? I couldn't help but feel disappointed. This was all he could come up with? It made everything seem like it was nothing.

"Don't you dare trying to get away with this!" Astrid yelled. "You know what? I should have done this months ago. I'm done, were through, it's over!" she said, and with that, she punched him right in the face. A crack seemed to echo through the now silent hallway, and I couldn't help but feel satisfied when I saw Snotlout's bleeding nose.

No one moved. Everybody was stunned at what they had seen. I was sure that I could hear a pin drop.

"Miss Hofferson, Mr. Jorgenson, with me please." Mrs. Riggs made her way through the crowd, and beckoned Astrid and Snotlout with her hand. Astrid complied, after giving me an encouraging look. Snotlout clearly didn't know what to think. Should he be relieved that Mrs. Riggs intervened, or should he be afraid to be in one room with his now ex-girlfriend?

I watched them leave, along with everybody else. The silence remained for a few more seconds, and then like a wave, chatter broke loose.

I just stood there, awkwardly like I always was, before I went to my locker to get my books.

"Hey," a voice to my right said. I turned and saw a boy of my age, although he was big. He wasn't particularly muscular, but it wasn't all fat on him.

"Hey," I said while I closed the door of my locker.

"You're Hiccup, right?"

"Hayden."

"Oh, right. Hayden," the boy nicknamed Fishlegs said while he shuffled his feet a bit. "I'm Fredrick, but you can call me Fred." Huh, I wouldn't have thought his name to be Fred, I thought. It just didn't suit him. Then again, I wasn't the one to name him.

"So… How are you?" Fred asked after a short silence.

"Fine, I guess…" I said. I wasn't exactly thrilled to be back in school. No offence, I liked learning and stuff, just not the people I was learning with. Well, except Astrid then. And this boy, Fred, seemed nice too. I wondered why I had never seen him before.

"I transferred here a month ago, and I don't think I've seen you here before," Fred said. Aha, that explains it.

"Nice, where were you from?" I asked.

"Well, I never really had a permanent home. My parents like to travel a lot, and I went with them. They home-schooled me. My father had an accident, and now he can't work like he used to, so they decided to settle here," Fred explained. He looked at me nervously, and I could see that he was a bit nervous to talk to me, but also wanted to very badly.

"That's really cool," I said. "Have you managed to settle here a bit?" I asked, while wondering how long Fred would be talking to me before he realized who I was and where I stood in the school rankings.

"A bit, I guess," Fred said, but he cast his eyes downwards.

"That's great." I hoisted my backpack I little higher, and went to go to my first class.

"Wait!" Fred said, and I stopped in my tracks. "Which class do you have?"

I took my schedule, since my old one had changed, and saw that I had History now. Why I hadn't looked earlier was a mystery to me, and I was glad Fred stopped me before I could make a fool out of myself and walk into the wrong class.

"I have History," I answered. Fred's face brightened, and went to walk beside me.

"Me too," he smiled.

Together we walked towards the class. Once we arrived, the students already there stopped their conversations when they saw me, and then started talking again, only now with me as their subject.

I sat down at my usual desk, and Fred went to sit at the vacant desk behind me.

"Why are they talking about you?" he asked while trying to ignore the stares that everyone was giving me.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell Fred everything, so I just settled with a brief overview. It was enough though to have Fred send my sympathetic glances.

"Hey Fishlegs, finally found someone low enough to hang with?" Tuffnut asked when he entered the room.

First, I had no idea who he was talking to, but then it became clear to me that he meant Fred.

Ruffnut, who had entered after her brother, snickered and went to her desk.

I turned around to face Fred again, and he looked almost fearfully at me, probably afraid I was going to ignore him now I knew he was being bullied. But I only smiled. "Just ignore them," I said, and then went to face the front of the room again.

I couldn't help but grin. I decided I liked the feeling of making new friends.