I poured some bird feed into Stormfly's bowl. "There you go, girl"

Stormfly screeched happily as she made her way over to the bowl and began eating. I locked her cage before picking up my backpack from the floor and heading out.

As I stepped out into the nippy January air, I found Eret's car, parked in my driveway. A smile spread across my face as I made my way over and was met by a broad smile as I got in.

"Hey babe" Eret planted a soft kiss on my cheek. "Did you sleep well?"

I shrugged. "I suppose I did, what about you?"

"I suppose I did as well" He said as the car rolled out of the driveway and onto the road.

The ride to school was silent, which it usually was. When you spend so much of your time with another person, you eventually end up feeling pretty comfortable around them, which can lead to the two of you being able to sit together in absolute silence for more than an hour before it can get awkward.

Eret followed me to my first class, but right as I was about to go in, he grabbed a hold of my arm.

"Wait, there's something we need to talk about" My blood went cold. Was he breaking up with me? Had I done something wrong? The paranoia was slowly taking over my brain, negativity seeping into my every thought.

I swallowed hard, like I had gotten a meatball stuck in my throat. "About what?"

"I can't pick you up after school today"

It was like a heavy weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I could feel my shoulders sink as my lungs filled themselves up and all the paranoia was washed away. "Thank the gods!"

"Wow, am I really that boring?" Eret asked, furrowing his brows at me.

A wave of confusion washed over me, just before I realized what I had said must've sounded like. "What? No! I just thought you were going to break up with me, and was relieved when you didn't!"

"Oh okay" Eret cleared his throat. "Anyway, the guys and I are going out after classes, so that's why I can't pick you up. Will you be okay?"

"Me? Yeah, of course!" I assured him as I stood in the doorway of my classroom. "Just go out and have fun, I'll manage! It can't be that hard to find a ride home, right?"

As it turns out, finding a ride home wasn't as easy as I had originally though. Heather was going out with Fishlegs, Ruffnut was sick, and some of my other friends either had practice or no car at all. Fantastic.

By the time lunch rolled around, I had yet to find anyone I could carpool with. My time was running out.

As I entered the library, I found Hiccup sitting in the exact same spot he had been sitting in the other day, typing away on his laptop. This time, I decided to slide into the red plastic chair next to him.

"Hey" I said as I let my backpack have the seat beside me.

He glanced over at me as he finished typing a sentence. "I see you finally decided to show up"

He took of his jacket and hung it over the chair he was sitting on, revealing the green t-shirt that he had been wearing underneath, confirming that he was in fact not as scrawny as I had thought.

I suppressed my annoyance with him as I glanced up at the clock that hung over the entrance to the library. "I'm only five minutes late, calm down"

He sighed as he wiped his brow. "How much work have you done?"

I hesitated for a minute, in fear that his reaction would not be a good one. "A paragraph?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose before mumbling something under his breath. "Please tell me that was a joke?"

I glanced over at the librarian, who had gotten a thousand times more interesting where she sat, typing away at her computer.

"Great, there goes my lunch" Hiccup exclaimed as he threw his hands up in the air before sinking back down into his chair.

The rest of our lunch break was spent starting off on our presentation. The one thing I could not muster was why Hiccup wanted us to get so much done the first week, seeing as we had a little over a month to finish it all up.

The next class I had on my schedule was P.E. I usually had P.E. with Ruffnut, but since she was sick today, I was stuck all alone with Snotlout, and of course some other kids who are irrelevant to the story.

After changing into our P.E. uniforms, Coach Grimborn made us run laps around the gym. And before you ask, no, our English teacher is not our P.E. teacher. Our P.E. teacher was Mr. Grimborn's older brother Ryker. Coach Grimborn was taller and had a more athletic body than his younger brother.

His bald head was covered by a white cap with red lines making him look like a baseball player. He wore a white polo with red buttons, and a pair of white shorts with red detailing. His shoes were white trainers and red socks stretched all the way up to right beneath his knees.

After running twenty laps around the gym, the class gathered around Coach Grimborn. "Alright, kids, now that you've finally finished your laps, it's time for you to do some actual work!"

Loud groaning filled the gym, but I couldn't see what they were all complaining about. I for one loved P.E., and I always had. In my younger years, I did gymnastics, but I ended up quitting when I turned 15 after twisting my ankle. My gymnastic skills never faded though, and all the trophies I gathered through the years are still mounted on the wall in our living room.

Nowadays I work out at the local gym every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. But seeing as they were closed some days of my Christmas break, I had to make do with some practical exercises at home.

"Let's start with some push-ups, shall we?" Coach Grimborn said, bringing me out of my trance.

We all dropped to the floor and followed his orders. Seeing as I was so fit, I decided to be a bit of a show off and do one-arm push-ups.

Next came sit-ups, and I once again did it with ease, something which must've been very annoying for my classmates to watch. The rest of the class was spent doing various exercises and playing some basketball, whilst also socking Snotlout in the jaw for staring at my butt.

Then came the dreaded moment, the end of the school day. I stood on the steps that lead up to the main entrance, looking up at the sky that was growing darker and darker with every passing second.

"How cliché" I mumbled to myself as raindrops started falling from the skies and onto my head.

I eventually made my way to the entry of the school parking lot, where Eret would drop me off if he didn't have time to follow me inside. Oh, how I wished for Eret to pull up in his red Honda and rescue me from getting soaked in the rain.

I crossed my arms and attempted to wrap my leather jacket tighter around my torso. Suddenly, a hand was resting on my shoulder. I followed the hand to its place of origin and found no other than Snotlout Jorgenson, standing right beside me.

He winked at me as a cocky grin appeared on his face. "So what do you say babe, wanna get out of here?"

"Snotlout, I swear to the gods, if you ever want to see your mother again, you better remove your hand from my shoulder right this second" I threatened him.

Snotlout's eyes widened as his hand disappeared from my shoulder and he ran faster than the speed of light to his car.

And then I was all alone, once again. How I wished my parents didn't work so far away so that they could come pick me up, but that wasn't the case. Both my parents work an hour away from Berk, so none of them could come get me. Neither could Eret. Neither could anyone.

I let out a sigh as I began walking. Hey, at least walking wouldn't do me any harm, right? Damn, how I wish I had said yes to that car my parents wanted to get me for my birthday.

When I was almost half way home, I noticed a stark black Ford with tainted windows, driving ominously slow behind me.

I felt goosebumps appearing all over my skin as I tightened every muscle and clenched my fists, preparing myself to jock someone in the jaw.

I sped up a little, as if to see if the car was really following me, and to my disappointment, it sped up as well.

'Great' I thought to myself. 'Today is the day I get kidnapped, killed and chopped up into bits, can't wait!'

I began running, but to my surprise the car stopped. My curiosity got the best of me though, so I ended up stopping and turning around to see what would happen.

As if on cue, the door on the driver's side opened, and out stepped none other than Hiccup Haddock himself.

"Astrid?" He asked, clearly unsure if it was really me he was seeing.

"Yes?" I responded quite bitterly as the rain kept on pouring down on me.

"What are you doing out here?" His hair was getting wet in the rain, making it stick to the sides of his face. A small colony of butterflies suddenly appeared in my stomach, but they only stayed for a second or two before disappearing as fast as they had appeared.

"Well, obviously I'm taking my daily afternoon walk, what do you think?" I replied sarcastically as a raindrop got in my eye and I had to turn away from him to get rid of the irritation it caused.

There was a moment of silence between us before he broke it. "Want a ride?"

I debated for a moment, right before remembering that I did not fancy getting soaked in the rain. "Sure"

I slipped into the passenger seat, dripping water on his carpeted floor as I waited for him to drive. We sat there for a short moment in silence.

"So... what happened to your usual ride?" Hiccup asked, his foot far away from the clutch.

I glanced at him before shifting my focus back on the road. "He's busy"

The rest of the ride was silent, and after what felt like forever, Hiccup pulled up in my driveway.

I furrowed my brows, how could he have known where I live? Was he stalking me or something?

"I bet you're wondering how I know where you live?" He asked me, making me 110% sure that he could somehow read my thoughts. I set my gaze on him as I waited for him to answer his question, which I assumed was rhetorical, seeing as I had no plans on answering him.

"Middle school" That was all he had to say for the puzzles to fall into place. I may not have been able to remember much from those days, but he did, something that bothered me quite a bit.

"Thanks for the ride, it was nice of you" I told him as I got out of that car faster than you can say 'yeet'. When I was halfway to my front door, I felt a buzz in my back pocket.

I picked my phone up and opened it, resulting in a smile from me as the rain continued to pour.

New Message From : Eret

"Hey babe, sorry about not being able to pick you up today... saw the weather, hope ur okay?"

"I'm just fine, hope you had fun with the guys?"

"Astrid, are you okay?" Hiccup had gotten out of his car, and was now standing in the rain, his brows furrowed.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I asked him as I stashed my phone back into my pocket.

He shrugged. "I don't know, I thought that there might've been something wrong seeing as you just stopped before reaching your door"

My hair and clothes were getting soaked in the cold rain and so were his.

"Why are you still here, Hiccup?" I was getting real sick of this guy right now.

"I had to make sure you made it home safely" He responded as he straightened up, like he was some kind of knight in shining armor for bringing me home.

"What could've happened to me on the way from your car to my front door?" I asked him as I wrapped my jacket tighter around my body.

"I don't know, perhaps you could've gotten beaten up, kidnapped, killed so on so forth" He suggested.

I sighed and continued my quest to get to the front door.

"Goodbye, Hiccup" I waved at him as I slipped in through the front door.