Hiccup's smile on Monday morning brightened the overcast day. It instantly pulled up the corners of my mouth and sent a pleasant flutter through my stomach. He looked so good doing it, his cheeks were red from the cold, which only made his eyes seem to shine more. I hoped it wasn't obvious how smitten I was while staring at him, but I definitely was. At least Jack and Elsa didn't seem to notice as they walked toward me next to Hiccup, they seemed blind to that kind of thing anyway.

Elsa hugged me as usual and murmured a good morning into my ear, while Jack smiled and greeted me too.

"Having Mrs. Coleman first thing on a Monday is pure torture," said Elsa, slipping Jack's arm over her shoulder and snuggling into him as they walked down the colorful halls.

"She'll be gone soon," said Jack, kissing the top of Elsa's head, which made her smile.

I looked away. As much as I liked the two of them, both individually and as a couple, sometimes it stung to see them so close, knowing I'd never have that with Hiccup. He was still too attached to Stacy, it was obvious even though he kept walking really close beside me. He needed to let go of that naive idea about her having a good side and finally move on.

"She brought it on herself," Hiccup said as we climbed the stairs to the second floor. "She treated students like crap and made up ridiculous rules. It was only a matter of time before she got kicked out." He looked at me from the side as he said it.

"How she ever became a teacher is still a mystery to me," Jack said over his shoulder to us.

"She probably bribed her examiners with sex," I replied, which made all three of them burst out laughing.

"Who would even want to see her naked?" Elsa said, falling in step beside me as we finally reached the second floor. "I don't even want to see that woman in winter with three layers on."

We kept joking about Mrs. Coleman all the way to the biology room. Jack and Elsa took their seats in the back row and Hiccup and I sat in the second row. The nerd wanted to sit closer to the front, which meant Mrs. Coleman had me in full view and loved calling on me even when I didn't raise my hand. Lately though, she seemed to be realizing that I usually knew the answers and her fun in trying to embarrass me was fading. I, on the other hand, felt great every time I managed to get one over on her.

That was largely thanks to Hiccup. He'd helped me rebuild my confidence. I felt safe around him, and even if I messed something up and called myself stupid, he'd reassure me that I wasn't and that I could do it, I just had to keep trying. It was one of the reasons I'd started to like him.

"Who's that?" Hiccup whispered, snapping me out of my thoughts about him. I turned to the door to see who he meant. A tall young woman with blue-dyed hair and a Star Wars Episode IV T-shirt walked into the room. My grandparents would've liked her instantly.

"Good morning, everyone," she greeted us in a bright voice, a friendly smile on her face as she dropped her backpack onto the desk. "I'll be your new biology teacher from now on, because as you may have heard, Mrs. Coleman was fired for her extreme misconduct."

A wave of surprise spread through the room and our new teacher laughed. A warm, genuine laugh, the kind Mrs. Coleman had never produced. With her, it was always a grim expression. "Seems like you hadn't heard yet. Anyway, I'm Ms. Martinez and I hope we'll have a much better time together and maybe even enjoy biology."

I liked her. She was nice, you could tell she cared about our education. She set achievable goals and assured us that no one had to be perfect or know everything. Her smile barely left her face and she worked with us, not against us. She was a model teacher.

"How cool is she?" Elsa said excitedly as we left the room at the end of the lesson.

"That was the first time I didn't want to throw myself out the window in bio," Jack added with a grin.

"She's really nice," I added to the compliments. "We'll probably do better than ever with her."

Hiccup and I split from the two of them at the stairs since we had to head in different directions and we didn't see each other again until lunch in the cafeteria. As usual, half the football team was there too but didn't really pay attention to us as we sat down.

"I just had an idea," Elsa said before I'd even had the chance to take off my backpack. "What if the four of us study together this week? We all have to take that biology test so Ms. Martinez knows our level. Then we can help each other."

I looked at Hiccup, who looked back at me and just shrugged. "Fine by me," he said.

I turned back to Elsa. "Tomorrow at my place?"

She nodded with a big smile. "Then we'll finally find out how you two really spend your time together." I showed her my middle finger for that comment, which only made her laugh. I skillfully ignored her amused wink.

❁

The next day, the three of them stood at my door at exactly half past four. Apparently, Hiccup had picked them up, even though it was out of his way, and they'd taken the bus together and walked from the stop to my place. He could've just given them my address, but that would've been too easy, of course.

After a brief round of introductions, my dad disappeared into the living room to continue watching his CSI show. I had no idea which of the hundreds of versions it was, but he seemed to watch all of them anyway. CSI Miami was his favorite. In the dining room, I explained to Jack and Elsa why no one was allowed to sit at the head of the table and they respected it without question, immediately taking the seats across from Hiccup and me.

"It's kind of nice that you do that," Jack said, then turned red. "I mean, of course it's not nice that your mom died, that's not what I meant. I just think honoring her place at the table is kind of ... um, yeah ... nice."

I had to suppress a grin. "I know what you mean. Thanks."

Elsa gave him a loving smile before dramatically opening her binder and steering the conversation to biology. We started with neurology, which Hiccup and I already knew well thanks to our obsessive studying. The other two were doing pretty well too, Jack just needed a bit of help with the structure of the neuron, especially with the term nodes of Ranvier. He had trouble pronouncing it, but at least he knew where to find them on the neuron afterward. Ecology and genetics were last year's topics and we were all somewhat familiar with them. Each of us was good at a different part of the broader topics and explained them to the others. That way, we didn't notice how quickly time passed until my dad came in just before seven.

"I think it's great that you're studying together," he said, leaning in the doorway, "but you all have school tomorrow and still need to get home. I'll give you a ride if you'd like."

"In a police car?" Jack asked hopefully.

My dad gave him an amused grin. "No, in my personal car. I'm only allowed to use the patrol car during my shift."

"Too bad," Jack replied, though his smile didn't fade. "I'll still take you up on the offer though."

They packed up their backpacks and put on their shoes and jackets. "It's actually really fun when you're not studying alone," Elsa said, hugging me goodbye. "Thanks for having us."

She let go and smiled at me. "Anytime," I replied.

"When's your next tutoring session?" she asked.

"Thursday," Hiccup and I said at the same time, which made us both grin.

"Well then, same time Thursday?" Elsa said, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure." That earned another smile from her.

My dad started the car and they filed out the door like ducklings. "See you tomorrow," I called after them.

"See you!" came the reply.

Before Hiccup got in the car, he turned around and gave me that special smile, the one that always turned my legs to jelly. It was gentle and affectionate, and I had absolutely no idea what he meant by it.

I felt my cheeks flush and hoped he didn't notice before finally getting in the car. They drove off, leaving me standing shyly in the doorway.

❁

Thursday flew by and on Saturday, Elsa and Jack were standing at my door again at eleven sharp. Apparently, they were actually enjoying studying together, because no one would voluntarily start this early on the weekend. Hiccup and I had no choice in the matter, but they did.

In the end, we all had a pretty solid grasp of the topics. Some details blurred together or got mixed up occasionally, but like Ms. Martinez said, we didn't need to know everything perfectly. It was enough to just do our best.

The test still felt easy, at least to me. I could see some students out of the corner of my eye struggling with the first question, but they probably hadn't studied three times that week, if at all. Hiccup, Jack, and Elsa didn't look crushed either as we left the room after turning in our papers.

"That's the first time I've felt good after a test," Jack said. "It's definitely because of the teacher."

"Sure," Elsa replied with a roll of her eyes. "It's absolutely not because we studied and you actually understood something for once."

Her sarcastic tone prompted Jack to start teasing her and it kept going like that the whole way. They joked, playfully shoved each other, and eventually walked arm in arm. Once again, watching how close they were sent a small pang through me, but I didn't let it affect me. Not everyone got to have a relationship like theirs, and apparently, I was one of those people.

"Were Stacy and I that bad?" Hiccup pulled me out of my thoughts. He was once again walking so close that I could feel his knuckles brush lightly against mine.

"What do you mean?" Hopefully, he didn't notice the slight tremble in my voice. My body always seemed to do its own thing when he was near.

"You know, public teasing, kissing in the halls, on the field, or sneaking around in the locker room. Did we make others uncomfortable the way they sometimes do?"

I hadn't really paid them much attention back then, Stacy or him. Of course, I'd seen them together in the cafeteria or around school, but I hadn't stared. I didn't want to know where or how much they made out anyway.

I shrugged. "No idea, I didn't really care much about either of you before we started tutoring."

He nodded. "Well, I hope we weren't like that. Nothing against Jack and Elsa, but sometimes it's a bit much."

I grinned. "Are you trying to tell me it's not totally normal to make out in the cafeteria for five minutes straight? With wandering hands?"

He seemed to catch my teasing tone, because a smile tugged at his lips too. "Just as normal as hooking up in the locker room before a football game."

My eyes widened. "No way!"

He laughed and nodded. "Oh, yes. Why do you think he's so good?"

I burst out laughing with him, not caring if people from our grade looked at us weirdly. "What a couple they are."

He glanced sideways at me, studying me in a way I couldn't quite decipher, but he didn't say anything else, so we walked the rest of the way to our next class in silence.

Later, after our last class ended, Hiccup and I stood at the bus lot again. His bus showed up first again, which meant I now owed him something since we'd been betting on whose would come first. He surprised me when he took my hand, which my face must've made painfully obvious.

"I just wanted to ..." he said, looking down at our hands but not letting go and looked into my eyes again. "I just wanted to say I'm proud of you. For sticking with studying, even without me pushing you. For letting us become friends. For letting Elsa and Jack in, too. It's nice to see you doing better."

I had no idea where this wave of emotion was suddenly coming from, but it made me happy to hear. It was more proof that he was a real friend, someone who cared about me, who wanted me to be okay. Someone who looked out for me when I needed it and treated me well.

I gave him the warmest, most genuine smile I could manage. "Thank you." That was all I could say, even though there was so much more in my head, but the tingling in my hand mixed with the warmth radiating from his was too big a distraction.

He gave my hand a quick squeeze, smiled at me in that gentle way again, then finally let go and headed toward his bus. I couldn't help but press my hand to my chest, thinking about how wonderful it had felt to have his in mine.