Chapter 1
This is mostly for me to practice writing, I'm not very good at narrative so bare with me, my story is usually better than my ability to write. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, will be mostly written in Hiccups point of view.
I will edit out mistakes if any are pointed out to me, thanks for reading :)
There was a grace and control to the way she ran, immediately blowing past the rest of the sprinters, she did it with ease, without any sign of discomfort. I could see her eyes locked onto the finish line, burning with determination, her blonde braid swayed with every bound and I could see her muscles contracting in her thin legs as they created dust clouds along the track.
"Hiccup."
I snapped my head around "Huh?"
"The dorm," Fishlegs pointed with his free hand. "It's this way."
I nodded, hiking my box of belongings higher onto my chest. "Right, sorry."
"You like sports or something?" he asked glancing back at me.
"No."
He let out an awkward laugh. "I meant watching, not participating."
I shrugged. "Not really."
"That's too bad, we're pretty much in the middle of all the athletic facilities here," Fishlegs stopped to point at a grey building not too far in the distance. "The dorm is over there, it's pretty much only populated by students on sports scholarships."
"How'd you end up here?"
"It was one of the cheaper buildings, and it's actually not too far from where most of our computer classes are held." I looked around at all the students ambling about, carrying their big duffel bags and sports equipment. "Plus, it's pretty close to the main subway line, it's one of the better low-cost buildings, my mom found it for me."
Toothless peaked his head out of my cardboard box and I quickly nudged him back in. "Just a little longer, bud."
"You know," Fishlegs began, throwing back another glance. "You can stay as long as you want. I don't mind sharing a room, and the extra money is always nice."
"I don't need long, just enough time to find a new place," I said shuffling the box around in my arms. "My dad wouldn't have let me move out if I hadn't told him I already had a place set up, and he probably would have found Toothless if I stayed much longer." Wrong. I didn't want my dad to find Toothless, that was true, but it was mostly an excuse, I thought I could handle school and my dad, I was wrong. I couldn't spent one more day hearing about the company, about everything he wanted me to do with it once I took over. Note the 'once' instead of 'if'.
"Oh yeah, I know," he said propping the dorm's doors open. "But you're welcome to stay, it'll be nice having someone I have things in common with around for once."
We lumbered up the stairs onto the sixth floor and squeezed through the sweaty muscle bound jocks and finally entered Fishlegs' room. It was small as expected with two beds on opposite sides of the room, each with a desk at the end. We plonked my boxes onto the bed with a sigh of relief.
"Aren't you a bit late to be moving in?" Two guys eyed me from across the hall as they leaned up against their door frame. "Classes started two weeks ago."
"I decided the dorms were better than home," I said avoiding their eyes.
The stocky guy looked over at Fishlegs. "Are you going to introduce us or what?"
"Oh, yeah," Fishlegs looked at me nervously while gesturing. "Hiccup, Snotlout, and behind him-" he pointed towards the slouching, blonde deadlock toting guy behind Snotlout. "He's Tuffnut."
"Howdy," I said flashing them an awkward grin.
Snotlout jerked his head at me. "You a computer nerd too?"
I narrowed my eyes. "Uh, yeah, I guess so..."
"Hah, I can see 'em from a mile away," he gloated clapping his hands together.
Tuffnut smirked. "I know right?" They high fived each other triumphantly.
I stepped towards them and grabbed the door. "Yeah, well, I need to pack so-"
"Hey Astrid-!" Snotlout turned away from me and wandered off. I leaned forward and glimpsed down the hall and saw 'Astrid' she was the track girl, in all her glory, glistening with sweat, just three rooms down. Her golden hair clung to her skin and her chest heaved in and out steadily, a group had amassed around her as she fiddled with her keys.
"Hiccup?"
I snapped my head around to look over at Fishlegs. "Sorry," I mumbled.
"It's weird right?" he said sitting down onto his bed. "Being around all the jocks, I thought so too, you get used to it."
"Right." I shut the door.
"Sorry about Snotlout, he's just like that, he bugged me a bit when I first moved in."
I pulled Toothless out and set him onto the ground. "Will I get used to him?"
Fishlegs laughed. "I doubt it, but he'll start ignoring you soon enough, it only took him a few days to start ignoring me."
"And..." I turned away and pretended to rummage through my things. "Who's Astrid?"
"Astrid? She's another sports scholarship student. Really popular, I hear she's one of the best athletes on campus."
I turned around. "Track right?"
"Uh, I'm not sure, I hear she does a lot."
Toothless purred and rubbed against my leg, I knelt down to pet him. I felt nervous, I tried to think about other things, school, my dad, anything, but my mind kept drifting back to Astrid. I knew the more I tried to stop thinking about her, the more I would. It was so dumb, getting the jitters over someone I didn't know, pathetic even. Self-pity, at least there's one thing I know I'm good at.
"Hey Astrid-!" I didn't have to look, I knew who it was. As soon as I heard his voice I yanked my keys out and started looking through them. Snotlout leaned against the wall nonchalantly and wiggled his eyebrows at me. "You coming to the common room tomorrow? We're throwing a little soiree, just down the hall at the end."
I shot him a quizzical look. "Do you have permission to do that?"
"Baby, I don't need permission."
"Right," I scoffed, sticking my key into the door and unlocking it. "Good luck with that then."
He shifted as I entered the room. "It's at six, I'll see you there!"
I shut the door behind me and sighed, throwing my bag onto the floor. "I know you heard us, why didn't you open the door?"
Ruffnut sat on her bed texting away. "Busy," she grinned at me. "Plus it's amusing, you going to his little party?"
"It won't be so funny when he starts hitting on you," I said grabbing some clothes from off of my bed. "And no, I'm not going."
She looked up from her phone. "You should, it won't just be him."
I pulled my tank top over my head and threw it into my hamper. "Duh, that doesn't make it much better," I put on a clean t-shirt, and started pulling down my shorts.
"Most of the building will be there," Ruff said stuffing her phone back into her pocket. "I bet there'll be a lot of hotties."
I slipped into a skirt. "I don't know, I might have to study."
"Oh come on," Ruffnut rolled her eyes. "Do you hear yourself? Try to have some fun, all you do is workout and study, school barely even started."
I opened my laptop and sat on my bed. "Maybe that's what's fun to me."
"C'mon, don't make me go by myself," she said giving me her best pouty face.
I sighed. "One hour, that's all I promise."
A little voice in my head told me to ignore the noise as I walked up the stairs, the yells and hoots and chatter that emanated from my floor. I should have turned around the instant I heard it, I should have gone to the library or the park or anywhere. When I reached the top I could see the door to the common room ajar. Don't bother. It isn't worth your time. Of course I looked, everyone always looks when they shouldn't. I peered in, the tables and chairs had been messily rearranged and various bottles and bags were scattered around the room. In the middle of the room Snotlout and another beefy looking sports student sat on opposite sides of a table, arm wrestling.
"Hey, it's the new kid," Snotlout said looking over at me. Everyone turned their head to ogle at me, this must have been taken directly from my nightmares, a group of hulky jocks all staring at me. "Join us, you can go next."
It took me a few seconds to understand, but when the realization hit, it hit hard. "Oh, no, I'm fine, I mean, I don't really arm wrestle."
"Don't be a wimp, it's not that hard," Tuffnut said pushing me into the room.
My brain was thrown into full panic mode. "No, I really don't-"
"What are you guys doing?" I thought that it couldn't get much worse than this, oh boy was I wrong. I turned and there standing behind me, was Astrid.
"You made it," Snotlout beamed, and the girl standing beside Astrid glanced around the room and nudged Astrid in the arm.
"What are you doing?" she repeated.
Snotlout shrugged, trying to act cool. "Just arm wrestling, but chickenshit over here is trying to weasel out of it," he said gesturing to me.
I knew what was going on, Snotlout was trying to look better in front of Astrid by making me look worse. Was this going to be her first impression of me? Chickenshit boy? The coward who wouldn't even arm wrestle? My brain was racing a mile a minute, would it be more humiliating to wuss out or to agree and lose? Because there was no doubt in my mind that I would lose. "I'll do it." Regret, immediate regret. That's what this whole fiasco has been, regretful actions with a side order of poor judgement.
They all cheered and hooted. "Who will be our challenger?" Snotlout roared.
I hoped for the biggest bulkiest most muscular guy they could find, someone who obviously couldn't be beaten, maybe that would dull my humiliation. Maybe Astrid would consider me even a little brave for taking him on, "Hey Astrid, do you want to take a go?" or maybe not. Every time I thought my situation couldn't get any worse the gods wanted to prove me wrong. So I sat at the table with her trying to think of any technique or strategy that would help me seem less pathetic and weak. I had never arm wrestled, I didn't even know how to position my arm properly let alone any good techniques, I decided to lock my arm in place. I knew I wouldn't win, so trying to push her arm down would be pointless, I just wanted to last as long as possible. We grabbed each other's hands and waited for the go ahead. My failure was immediate. She slammed my arm down before I even knew what was happening, bad right? You don't even know the half of it. As soon as my arm hit the table, in the midst of the cheering and laughter I felt a surge of pain in my shoulder. I winced and grabbed it with my left hand. "Ouch!"
Astrid retracted her arm. "Did I hurt you?" she asked.
"...I think you broke my arm." Everyone roared with laughter.