Face Value

Part 7

SEVEN:

"How was School?"

It was the question that Astrid had been sort of dreading for she really wasn't sure what to say. But her Mom was smiling and looking much better and she felt her own mouth stretch in a smile as she felt Ingrid's hand tighten around her own. Having her Mom looking and sounding much more like herself was a blessing and she knew that as she improved, Ingrid would get bored.

"Okay, I guess," Astrid admitted as her mother's blue eyes narrowed at the tone.

"But...?" Astrid sighed.

"Since you were taken ill, since I came back to School, people have been...much nicer to me," she admitted, Ingrid said nothing. "Most of them people who spent the last few years-well, being bitches." Ingrid gave a small cough.

"Maybe this has made them think differently of you?" she suggested. "And if they are talking to you, maybe they will realise what a wonderful person you are, Astrid."

"I guess."

"But...?" Ingrid leaned forward and her daughter sighed.

"It isn't real," Astrid admitted. "I mean, don't get me wrong-it's really nice to suddenly be included once more. To have people to talk to and laugh with and...and be with. But..." She sighed. "I think it's fake. I think they saw Uncle Finn collect me when you were taken to hospital and I guess they recognised him."

"You think they've befriended you because they think they can meet him by being your friend?" Ingrid asked.

"The boys are more obvious than the girls," Astrid admitted thoughtfully.

"Boys?"

"The jocks-the popular sporty guys that most of the female population would bite your arm off to be friends with-are all swarming around me," Astrid admitted. "It's kind of creepy, since they were calling me a nerd and threatening to put me in a dumpster on Monday. Yet when I came back, they were all 'looking good, Hoff' and 'how are you?'. It's so obviously false."

"Maybe they actually felt sympathy for you, my love," Ingrid said thoughtfully. "After all, they all have mothers and maybe this brought home that you are a person, just like them..." Astrid frowned, her nose wrinkling as she considered.

"Nope," she said at length. "It's obviously premeditated. Snotlout is a sleaze, smarming up to me while making his girlfriend feel uncomfortable, Eret is a swine and Thuggory is so in love with himself that I'm surprised he hasn't already eloped!" Ingrid began to chuckle.

"That's my daughter," she commented.

"And the girls aren't much better," Astrid continued, her frustration suddenly venting. "I mean, Atali deliberately isolated me in Freshman Year when Dad died and now she's all wanting to be friends? It's clearly false."

"And the others?" Ingrid asked her. Astrid sighed again.

"I want to believe Heather because she was my friend forever and she was still secretly my friend a little bit," the girl conceded. "And I find myself wanting to believe Ruff as well."

"Ruff?"

"Raquel Thorston," Astrid explained. "Her twin brother is a definite outcast but she won't allow a word against him. But not so sure about Mindy. I mean, she sometimes looks at me like I'm trying to steal her place and the fact that Snotlout, her boyfriend, has been flirting with me hasn't helped."

"And you've discouraged him?"

"Yup. Forcefully," Astrid said with a smug smile and Ingrid laughed again, though that set her off coughing. Astrid gave her some water and waited until she had settled. "Sorry, Mom," she said. Ingrid clasped her hand.