A/N: This is the last fully edited chapter I have, so I can't guarantee that the next one will be put up on schedule. I didn't get this one up on schedule. But you are all lovely people, so I'll do my best. Enjoy a little more Hicstrid-induced Hiccup angst. And foreshadowing. There is actual foreshadowing that hints to a real plot.

Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon. I do own an assortment of OCs, a few of whom are trying to make me regret creating them.

How to Train Your Marching Band

Chapter Nineteen: First Day Jitters

Summer in the Midwest was an exercise in endurance. Other places might experience just a few days of blistering heat -- days where the sun was blazing and the heat intense, but after a bit, it was a distant memory. The Midwest stretched those blistering days over several weeks, where the best thing you could do was stay the fuck indoors as much as you could.

On Wednesday morning, the sun was positively blistering the roadways and Hiccup thought his tires were melting. The dog days of summer were in full swing, with muggy humidity, and they weren't going anywhere for the next few weeks.

"The Eye of Sauron is upon us!" Jack cried as he dove into the passenger seat. "Quickly, Mister Frodo! Bade this mechanical carriage onwards! Ah, sweet air conditioning..."

He jerked the door closed.

"What, your new fan doesn't work anymore?" Hiccup questioned.

"It stopped working as soon as I turned it off." Jack said, making himself more comfortable in the seat. "Y'know, the one downside of turning off the fan."

He glanced back to the kids lingering at the bus stop and flashed them a smug grin. They were snot-nosed middle schoolers convinced the world revolved around them and everyone was there to kiss up to them and they wanted to look cool and grown up. One of their favorite hobbies while waiting at the bus stop had been to pester Jack with questions. Usually the same set of four or five questions, every morning, and they never cottoned on to the obvious fact that Jack was not about to change his answers just to suit their stupid expectations. When Hiccup had first swung by in his car, with his newly-minted driver's license, Jack had never been more amused by their envious expressions.

Now he was smug because they had to wait in the ridiculous heat for the school bus to screech around with its complete lack of anything resembling air conditioning.

"And the hoodie?" Hiccup questioned, give the blue hoodie a sideways glance as he pressed on the gas.

"We all have our vices." Jack said sagely. "Besides..." He patted the green hoodie on the seat between them. "Haven't got much room to talk here, buddy."

"I'm not wearing it right now." Hiccup pointed out.

A long-sleeved item of clothing was absolutely vital to getting through the school day. Touchstone High could not regulate the internal temperature for the life of them and the school was either cold or too cold. Inside the school it was an icebox, even on the warmest days.

"What are you doing for your birthday on Friday?" Jack wondered

"No idea." Hiccup shook his head. "I know Dad isn't making any plans. He never does, I know, but there's a Thunderdrum sitting pretty in Berk River and we've got Screechers moving back towards town, so he's busy."

"Oh, that would explain that hellish echo I heard the other night. I thought a train was crashing."

"Yeah, they sound like that."

"Oh that reminds me..." Jack dug into his backpack and withdraw his class schedule, already a little crumpled around the edges. "Where's yours?"

"It's in my binder." Hiccup inclined his head to the back seat, where his new backpack was.

There hadn't been much to his school shopping. New folders and notebooks and loose-leaf paper. Brand-new binder, pens and pencils. He had found the backpack on sale and had also succeeded in finding a decent lunch bag for competition days.

Jack compared their schedules. "I think we have Drawing II together." he said. "Yeah, with Mrs. Gates. I think that's the only class we have together. This semester, at least. I think we'll have Econ next semester."

"Wow, I have classes with like, no one this year." Hiccup commented.

When they came to the light just before the bridge across the river gorge, he glanced over to Jack's schedule to see what was on it.

"Ew! You're taking Geometry and Algebra II at the same time? Jack, you poor bastard." Hiccup shook his head in sympathy. "Y'know, Marie took a compressed Geometry course this summer. She passed it too."

"Yeah, she told me about that. I thought about signing up for it but I didn't and I should have and I'm stupid and I now I have to take two math classes if I want to keep the Core 40 diploma. Think she'll let me borrow her notes?"

"I'm sure if you ask real nice."

"Oh yeah, I had to drop out of Art History too."

"Oh, dammit."

"I know, but it came down to Algebra II or Art History and my parents would kill me if I lost the Core 40." Jack pointed out. "I made a sacrifice. I'll probably suffer for it, but it's keeping my parents off my ass. You're kind of lucky your dad isn't up your butt about your classes."

"All he wants me to do is graduate. He doesn't care what classes I have to take to get there." Hiccup said. He was very glad his dad wasn't trying push, poke, and prod his way into his son's academic life the way the Overlands were.

"Like I said. Lucky." Jack nodded. "But wait 'til you see Merida's schedule. She's going for the Honors diploma and she has to take Physics and French to fill out her credit requirements."

Hiccup shuddered. "Yeah, I think I'm going to stick with my two art classes."

The light turned green and they crossed the truss arch bridge spanning the Berk River Gorge. Touchstone was a few miles north from Paramount. The road between the gorge and Touchstone was heavily wooded, the trees stretching their branches out over the strip of pavement. Here and there, if you were looking for them, there were houses set back from the road and deep in the trees.

"I hate this road." Jack said out loud.

"Why?"

"I keep thinking all the trees will catch fire one day and we'll have to drive down it."

"You need to stop thinking about stuff like that." Hiccup told him, but he could see it too. All the trees being engulfed in flame and having to barrel down the road at ninety miles an hour with all its sharp curves and steep hills. The worst obstacle course in the world, dodging around all those spikes and breathing in nothing but superheated air and the exhausted muscles working overtime to compensate for--

"Hiccup!"

A hand grabbed his arm and shook it. Hiccup blinked and where the hell did that jeep come from?! -- and stomped the brakes so hard he heard the entire car groan in protest, straining with effort. The driver ahead of him accelerated to avoid the potential fender-bender, pulling away from the would-be accident while the little green coupe came to a halt in the middle of the road.

For a few seconds, they just sat there, trying to remember how to breathe. Hiccup was clutching the steering wheel, Jack's hands splayed between the oh-shit handle and his friend's shoulder. There were white knuckles all around. Above them, the tree branches creaked heavily like something large had just landed on them.

"What the hell was that?!" Jack demanded, loosening his fingers from Hiccup's shoulder. There was a kind of liquid fire in his pale blue eyes. "Seriously, I do not want to die on my first day of senior year, much less at all!"

"Sorry, I don't- That was weird. I dunno what that was." Hiccup managed to say, letting his arms go slack. He breathed out a heavy sigh of relief and pushed his hair off his forehead. "I think I just- had a moment."

"Don't have moments when you're driving. Especially when there's someone else in the car." Jack requested, looking paler than usual.

Behind them, there was a beep of a horn and familiar green truck pulled into the other lane and beside them. Hiccup lowered the window and Fred, Marie's red-haired brother, hung halfway out the open window of the truck.

"Hey, you guys good?" he asked, brow knitted in concern.

"Yeah, peachy." Hiccup replied, while Jack waved. "There was a squirrel."

Fred rolled his eyes, his expression. "Fucking squirrels, man. Marie says don't crash. See you at school." he relayed, then pulled himself back into the truck cabin as the vehicle started to pull ahead.

"Yeah, they live on this road." Jack remembered.

"Just passed the driveway, probably." Hiccup added, rolling the window back up.

"Squirrel." Jack said, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"That's the story. Squirrel." Hiccup nodded, while ignoring the concerned chirps audible from overhead.

Jack shrugged. "Doubt anyone's gonna ask."

"If they do, squirrel." Hiccup asserted. He took his foot off the brake and tentatively pushed down on the gas. The car pushed forward with a small lurch.

"The brakes are in good shape." Jack observed.

"Dad believes in regular maintenance." The sixteen-year old huffed out a calming breath. "God I hope that wasn't omen."

They cleared the trees a minute later with no further incident and no further conversation, both a touch rattled by the near fender-bender. Hiccup felt a little better when they were out of the woods, when the landscape opened up into broad sloping fields leading down to Touchstone.

By far Touchstone was the larger of the two towns, both in terms of population and footprint. Paramount pulled inwards towards the center of town whereas Touchstone sprawled outwards, long house-lined roads creeping out like feelers into the unpaved countryside. The historic clock tower was the tallest structure, rising to precisely one hundred feet in the air, and the bells that hadn't been replaced since the fifties still chimed out the hour. The elementary, middle, and high schools were all located on the edge of town with the high school pushing out furthest from the road, into the shoulder-deep corn fields.

Touchstone High School was the aesthetically unappealing block shape that schools tended to come in. No flairs in the architecture, no designs that really caught the eye. Construction on the school actually hadn't been completely finished when it opened its doors for the first time. Many of the classrooms were still enclosed by what should have been temporary walls that were the architectural equivalent of cardboard. Throw a body against them hard enough and they would wobble alarmingly. Despite the walls' forty-year old age, at no point in the remodeling had a push been made to replace them with something more permanent.

They had probably spent all their money on the commons.

Hiccup's assigned parking space was towards the back of the student parking lot, but right next to the access road between all three schools. That would make getting out at the end of the day a lot easier and quicker, instead of having to wait on the buses and deal with the idiots who didn't have the first clue about driver etiquette.

Jack predictably groaned when he had to leave the air-conditioned comfort of the car for the heat outside. Hiccup had to admit that the transition wasn't a comfortable one. The air felt thick enough to swim through.

"How did you survive a week of this?" Jack asked as they make their way up to the side entrance.

"Actually, the humidity wasn't that high. I guess this is pay-back for that rain we got Saturday." Hiccup shrugged. "Don't worry, it'll get cooler by the end of the month."

Jack's expression was a perfect 'man are you shitting me?'. It was only the second week of August, meaning that they were looking at another two weeks of this hell on earth.

It wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't have to spend any time out in it, which made Hiccup feel very sorry for the freshmen who still had to take a gym glass. They would probably stay in until the weather became bearable again, but they would still be hustled out onto the track today to run the first mile of the year.

"Hey, Hiccup--" came the greeting just as they stepped onto the sidewalk.

"Aagh!" Hiccup's shoes slipped on the curb and he jumped into an equally startled Jack.

Astrid blinked. "Um..."

"Sorry, sorry--" Hiccup waved his hand, recovering himself. "That road-- and there was a squirrel. I'm still a little wound up."

"A squirrel." Astrid repeated, frowning like she didn't believe him.

"Do you ever drive country roads? Do you know how squirrels cross roads?" Hiccup questioned, determined to defend his fake story. "Squirrels are little bastards who have no sense of object permanence so they forget the car is there every time they get off the road and decide it's safe to go back and then see the car again and they're like 'nope!' Squirrels are evil, Astrid."

"Yes, devious with their little peanut-sized brains." Astrid said, nodding absently.

"Okay, you guys can melt out here if you want to," Jack put in suddenly. "But I'm going in before 'baked Alaska' takes on a new and tragic meaning."

Then he scurried on ahead for the blessed relief that lay beyond the closed doors. But when Astrid wasn't looking, he turned around long enough to flash a grin and a thumbs-up at Hiccup. 'Go for it!' his expression was saying.

I have to get him away from Marie. Hiccup realized. She told him. She told him-- oh god, she told him that I should ask Astrid on a date! Why the heck did I tell Marie in the first place?! I've got to stop communicating her if it doesn't involve band or school!

"Yeah, it's boiling out here. Let's get inside." Astrid agreed, flipping her thick braid off her neck.

For a second, Hiccup wanted to stall because Astrid's hair looked really nice in the morning sunlight and that little hair flip had made it gleam perfectly, but there was already sweat forming under his arms and the air temperature was becoming considerably uncomfortable.

"Yeah, we should go inside." Hiccup agreed.

They hurried up through the side entrance and into the school, which put them on almost the exact opposite side of the school. They joined the flow of students making their way to the game gym for the beginning-of-the-year orientation. The freshmen gave the hallway a wide-eyed stare as though they had never seen a school before. The sophomores trudged along, stuck in the realization that the excitement of ninth grade was long past but they had three more years to go. The juniors seemed to be in a similar state, but there was a slightly more optimistic and hopeful tint to their expressions. Their fellow seniors approached the start of the year with a sense of relief, that they were finally beginning the home-stretch.

"Crazy to think about it, isn't it." Astrid commented. "This is our last year of high school. Next year we're off to college and getting real jobs."

"I have a job." Hiccup said.

"That's not a real job." Astrid informed him.

"But I get paid for it. I pay taxes on it!" Hiccup pointed out. "Do you know how hard it is to convince people to leave sun-bathing Terrible Terrors alone? They flip out if there's a dragon circling their house!"

He was apprenticed as a hunter under his father and it was a real job, as far as he was concerned, because he had been paying taxes for the past two years. His duties amounted to manning the phone, cleaning the equipment and making the occasional run for food. Manning the phone was probably the highlight. Some people got positively hysterical about the dragon that had decided to take an afternoon nap in their backyard. It could take up to fifteen minutes to convince them to just leave the dragon the fuck alone; it was just sleeping.

"I mean, that's like saying Marie's retail job wasn't a real job." he added.

"It wasn't. I think she just showed up one day and they started paying her." Astrid said, frustrated with the particular ease with which the other girl had gotten employed. She had been trying for the better part of the year to get a job, with no luck. Nowhere seemed to be hiring. Her parents gave her enough money to keep gas in the tank, but she really wanted more financial independence.

"Well, she quit this May, so stop grumbling about it." Hiccup suggested.

Astrid sighed. "I know. I'm complaining about something I can't change."

Students were clustering up outside the game gym where the homeroom lists were posted. Astrid and Hiccup squeezed their way up to the front of the crowd (the freshmen weren't exactly grasping the concept of getting out of the way after finding their names) to the senior home-rooms.

"Ah, I will be enduring the tender clutches of Mr. Voght for twenty minutes a day." Astrid said after finding her name. Mr. Voght was one of the geometry teachers and he was also one of the teachers you didn't want to spend any time with once class was over.

She glanced over at Hiccup who was staring at the list with a lost but still determined expression.

"Hiccup, are you having trouble finding yourself?" she asked. The print-size was adequately large. It was that Hiccup forgot he was supposed to be looking for his actual name.

"I'm in here somewhere." he said. Why was it so hard to find his last name? "Gimme a minute. I can find my own name, I swear."

Astrid scanned the lists. "You're right here in Mrs. Mohr's homeroom." she said, pointing out his name in the 'H's. Mrs. Mohr was the Jazz Ensemble and Music Appreciation teacher. Her passion for music was only matched by the size of her hair.

"Oh yay, crazy music lady with big hair." Hiccup muttered.

"You're already in band. You don't have the right to call anyone a crazy music lady." Astrid reminded him, moving away from the lists. Hiccup followed.

"No, but there's still a line and she's way over that." he said. "And the hair, god. There's a reason hair like that died out with the eighties. Anyone who goes for the big hair these days deserves to be called crazy."

Astrid nodded, conceding to that point. The era of big hair was long gone, but Mrs. Mohr's hair was so thick and voluminous that it gave Mount Everest a run for its money and she didn't dress like she was from the eighties. It was only the hair. There had to be something wrong with anyone who still thought big hair was fashionable.

They walked into the gym for orientation, which was never anything special. The new staff members were always introduced and sometimes there was an announcement to make. This year, the big announcement would definitely be the completion of the remodeling.

Like no one had noticed.

As they took their seats in the bleachers with the rest of their class, Hiccup glanced sideways at Astrid and the angle caught the lights at just the right time. Just as the lights were shining through the wispy flyaways that had escaped restraint. For a second, until she leaned forward, Astrid seemed to be outlined in a halo of pale gold. In that moment, she was absolutely gorgeous.

Ask her on a date.

And then it was awkward.

Oh boy... Hiccup shifted uncomfortably, nervousness sweeping through him. He'd had a crush on Astrid for ages and he had no doubts that everyone could see it. But acting on it? Stepping out of that comfort zone and making that soft fleshy part of his heart vulnerable to someone he'd gladly give it to?

He wasn't sure he could do that.

He had gotten through the last two practices by just ignoring Astrid; a task made easier and less insulting by the amount of time they didn't have to interact. Having declared them sufficiently recovered from Band Camp, Gobber had kicked the week off with a massive amount of fine-tuning the charts; making those tiny little adjustments to clean up the form. Tedious work that didn't leave you time to do much else. That and having to go Alpha Asshole on Ashlyn some more, who had decided that she was allowed to backslide now that they were out of band camp.

But now that they were back in school for the year, ignoring Astrid would not be quite so easy.

Dad's crazy. I can't just ask her on a date. Not just like that. It doesn't work like that. Hiccup told himself furiously. This is Astrid Hofferson. It really doesn't work like that.

But there was nothing else to do except try.

Hiccup cleared his throat.

"A-Astrid?"

Astrid turned to him with half a smile. "Yeah?"

God, her eyes were so blue. A lovely sky-reflected-in-the-ocean blue and twice as mesmerizing.

Hiccup rallied his courage.

"H-How was... your sister this morning?" were the words that tumbled out of his mouth instead.

Wait, what? Did I just...?

That was not what he had meant to say. He ground his teeth together. It was all he could do to keep the spasm of frustration off his face. That was not what he had meant to say!

"Oh, she was fine." Astrid said, but she looked oddly disappointed like she too had expected him to say something different. "I think she was nervous, but it also looked a lot like excitement. She kind of only has two modes anyways."

"Good!" Hiccup nodded frantically, praying she wouldn't notice that he had actually flubbed. He felt like he had just waded waist-deep into manure. "As long as she was looking forward to it... School's a big step."

"Well, it only takes up the next twelve years of your life." Astrid added in agreement. She swiped a thumb under her nose and turned to face the gym floor where the principal was fiddling with the microphone. She glanced back at him like she was still expecting to talk, but it was a fleeting glance.

All of Hiccup's words had dried up. His courage had run off behind the pole-barn to take a smoke break and all he could do was stand there, feeling himself sinking into that proverbial mire of embarrassment.

He'd asked after her sister instead of asking her on a date.

His father would shake his head in disappointment with a 'son, where's your Viking guts?'

Jack would alternately laugh at his misfortune and be sympathetic, because he had an idea what it was like to crush on someone who didn't seem all that aware of your existence, but he didn't pine after Elsa the way Hiccup pined after Astrid and his attempt at sympathy would fall short of the mark.

Rapunzel and Merida would try and give him helpful advice, but Merida wasn't dating anyone and Rapunzel had literally gotten lost on a three-day camping trip and had turned up with a boyfriend in tow and while nearly drowning in a river had worked for them, it probably wouldn't work for Hiccup and Astrid.

Marie had already told him that he was on his own.

And he had screwed it up.

He had screwed it up and school hadn't even started yet. And for the next three months, he would basically be seeing Astrid every day and he would have to live with the fact that he had screwed up asking her on a date.

And thinking that she might have expected him to!

Hiccup Haddock, welcome back to the Stupid Pit.

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