Part 22

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TWENTY TWO:

The rest of the week settled into more of a routine. Snotlout remained a presence in the Hallway, his crowd of hangers-on diminished but-as Tuffnut pointed out-there were always kids lonely or stupid enough to want to listen even to someone of Snotlout's faded glory. What was telling, though, was that Eret, Thuggory and the rest of the Football team blanked him, even when he attended practices 'for support' and to offer unnecessary advice. The Coaches watched the interaction but they allowed him to continue to attend, since they had been asked by Spitelout and they hoped that peer support for the injured team member may help him with his adjustment to not being a team member any more. Stubbornly thick-skinned, Snotlout ignored their blanking of him and continued to pretend he was still one of the Team.

More and more eyes turned to the remaining members of the 'Queen Bee' club and Heather, Astrid and Ruff stepped up as leaders of the year. Astrid, especially, had won a lot of admiration for her decisive actions and compassion in the 'Staircase Incident' which had showed her true leadership qualities. A number of younger girls had approached her timidly and asked how she had learned to care for the injured students and how to react in a crisis, and she had honestly explained how she had gathered the information. She spared time for anyone who wanted to ask for advice and was garnering a lot of admiration for her style as well. Heather was more relaxed and mirrored her friend's support for younger girls. She was a little more sparky and her witty and dry remarks won her a lot of friends. Ruff was Ruff-idiosyncratic and smart, devoted to her brother and friends and a demon with hair, make-up and completely off-the-wall styles. And there was definitely a section of the female population of the school who wanted a role model who wasn't conventional and idolised the female twin.

Hiccup, Fishlegs and Tuff remained who they were, offering tutoring and following their own interests-though they relished time with their friends. Fishlegs had asked Heather out on a proper date to the pizza and they had a wonderful time over a vegetarian pizza and six orders of garlic bread. Hiccup had also tried a date with Astrid, choosing to take her to the latest 'action' movie where they had managed to grab a back-row pair of seats and split a large bucket of sweet'n'salty popcorn. They had tried to lose themselves in the story but every so often, they would pick out something from the production that they recognised from 'Son of Odin' and they had started giggling. Especially when in the final climactic scene, there were some major continuity issues with the heroine's hair style that changed three times during the course of the action. There had been various shushes and looks but they had tried to smother their laughs.

"You remember how Helga the hairdresser was so anal that every hair was in the same place?" Astrid had whispered. "She was obsessive about her polaroids..."

"I wouldn't know since all I had to do was the 'dragged through a battle backwards' look, which I use every day anyway!" Hiccup replied with a grin, scooping the few remaining kernels at the bottom of the bucket. She swatted his shoulder.

"It looks good on you," she murmured. "Unlike that ridiculous 'do' they have for Mr Hero here..."

"SHHHH!"

They shared a look and smothered another giggle, snuggling close for the remainder of the film. But afterwards, they had walked out, hand in hand and Astrid had looked thoughtful.

"What do you think they'll say about us?" she murmured. Emerald eyes flicked over to inspect her troubled face.

"What do you mean?" he asked, already guessing.

"Will they be laughing at me, pretending to be a Valkyrie?" she asked him softly. He stopped and forced her to look into his face.

"Astrid-I can say without hesitation or any fear of contradiction that you ARE a Valkyrie. Really. There was no one there who would disagree, no one who wasn't blown away by your performance. You were amazing-as you are anyway, just wanted to get that in for the record-and you were so good that Dane-not Finn-insisted on bolstering your part because you had such screen presence." He reached up to cup her cheek. "These guys are professionals. Your Uncle's Production company, Fearless Films, has a hatful of awards and they wouldn't jeopardise a multimillion dollar production just to make you feel good. They wanted you because you were so good. And soon the entire world will see what I and they saw: that Astrid Hofferson is the Valkyrie!"

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