Face Value

Part 3

THREE:

Hiccup was watching out for Astrid because he knew how hard it was to lose someone. Not that they were friends or anything-no, he had been rebuffed by her on enough occasions to get the message that she really didn't want anything to do with him. After all, until the fire, he had been a prize asshole.

He shifted his weight slightly more onto his right leg, bending his left leg slightly at the knee and feeling a sharp twinge in his stump. He probably was still an asshole-just one down a leg and pretty much all of his former friends. Leaning back against the wall of the main hallway, he cast his emerald gaze over the trickle of students who were relatively early for school and sighed. It had been dispiriting to watch his former friends plot to befriend Astrid-a girl they had demeaned and isolated until three minutes earlier-simply on the basis of who her Uncle was.

He rested his bag down on the floor and sighed. Astrid had been an outsider, for Berk High was fed by several Elementary and Middle Schools and while he and his friends had all arrived as a group, Astrid had only known a handful of people when they all started. And pretty much a week or so after the year had begun, her father had become ill and died. He could recall how Atali had moved in and taken over the Popular girls while he had been in with the Jocks. And his quick brain and well-off family had meant he hadn't lacked for friendship anyway. He was the one who had suggested putting Astrid in the dumpster when she had refused to help the boys with their homework-he had purposely never offered himself-and he had regretted that throwaway comment every day since. He had instantly told the guys that it was stupid and not to do it-because it had been mean and horrible and honestly, he had never expected the idiots to actually go through with such a mean thing.

But they had. And while he believed that his friends were good guys, who joked and gamed and went out for pizza like normal teens, they also acted as if they were owed an easy ride by the world. There was very much a 'them and us' attitude that was common to many sports teams and while Hiccup had been on the Athletics team, he had been friend material. But after that night...well, he suddenly became 'them' and found out just how rigid the guys were in their view of the world.

He sighed. It had come as a shock to Hiccup when he had escaped from the fire, having rescued his faithful mutt Toothless, that his friends had come round once, realised the extent of his injuries...and bailed. He was no stranger to hardship-his mother had left his father and little Hiccup when he was a year old as well-but the isolation had hit him hard. His father travelled almost constantly in his role as Managing Director of Berk Co, the organisation he ran that was dedicated to advertising their small town and attracting in business and investment. His godfather-the two-limbed meathead that he was-wasn't that suitable to cheer up the lonely boy and when he had returned to school, he had definitely joined the Outcast ranks.

But he wasn't alone. Beyond the Jocks and Populars and the Cool and Emos there were the outcasts, many of them nerds. Hiccup was willing to admit he qualified easily as a nerd and had found two good friends. Finlay Frederick 'Fishlegs' Ingerman was a husky blond lad with strangely short legs, a kind heart and a passion for botany that was probably wasted on northern and largely snowy Berk. He was exceptionally bright and excelled in Math, Biology and Geology. Tyler 'Tuffnut' Thorston-who was Raquel's twin-was probably a certifiably crazy prankster with surfer-dude long blond dreadlocks, a long face that was incredibly mobile and a passion for art, interior design and Chickens. He was also the inventor of at least three new explosives that had demolished various parts of the school or-when necessary-bullies' cars.

But Astrid had intrigued Hiccup for a long time and he knew she was brave, determined and organised. As their names were adjacent in the register, they had worked together more than most on various projects through the years and even when he had been a popular ass, he had always done his best and pulled his weight in the task. Since he had become an outcast ass, he had hoped she would warm to him a little but it seemed that the drag factor of his former deeds was a little too much.