As it turns out, I was wrong.

Avoiding Hiccup at school was no easy task.

After being dropped off by Eret, I had managed to make my way over to my locker, so that I could gather all the books I would need for the day, seeing as I did not want to bump into Hiccup as I was about to switch my books.

I quickly stashed the books into my backpack, making sure to keep an eye out so that he couldn't sneak up on me. Unfortunately for me, Fishlegs' locker was near mine, so there could be a chance that he was there.

I shut my locker and rushed to my first class of the day, which went quite smoothly might I add. Then the time for me to go to my English class came, and things proved to be a little more difficult than I had originally thought them to be.

Seeing as Mr. Grimborn forced us to sit with the partner we had on the presentation, there was no way that I was going to be able to avoid Hiccup in English, therefore I made the only logical decision that came to mind in the situation I had been put in. I skipped class. (I don't recommend doing this one, folks)

But where does one hide when they're skipping class? The forest behind school was a big no-no for me, and so was the backside of the school in general.

The librarian watched over the library like a hawk and all the classrooms were in use. So yet again I made the only reasonable decision that could be made in that situation, I sat in the girls bathroom for an hour, praying that a hall monitor wouldn't catch me as I scrolled through my Instagram feed. I had no ambitions of spending another week in detention.

Then came the moment I had waited ever so patiently for, the moment when the bell rang, informing the whole school that class was over and it was now lunchtime.

I got out of the stall that I had been sitting in and made my way over to the sinks. I stared at myself in the mirror, thinking that I looked like I needed to sleep for a week straight. I had gotten so mentally exhausted from the stress that I couldn't think straight.

As I was busy yelling at myself for being so stupid, the door opened and in walked Heather and Ruffnut, laughing at something the other had said. When they finally noticed me, they jumped three feet up in the air.

"Astrid!" Heather exclaimed as she cautiously began nearing me. "We've been looking for you everywhere, where have you been?"

Concern had taken up their entire faces, so I made the decision not to hold anything back from the two of them, my best friends. "I've been in here for the last hour, skipping English"

"What" Ruffnut blurted out, clearly surprised by what she had just learned.

Heather exchanged looks between the two of us. "I'll do you one better, why?"

I shrugged as I let out a deep sigh. "I've been avoiding Hiccup"

The two of them just stared at me, as if they're were waiting for me to elaborate.

"I... I suppose my emotions have just been all over the place lately, and I'm really confused about them, so I thought that maybe..." I struggled to find the words to describe my thoughts. "I thought that if I avoided Hiccup or just kept to myself for a short while, I might've been able to piece together this puzzle in my mind"

Ruffnut and Heather stared at me, completely silent, until Ruffnut decided to voice her thoughts. "So what you're telling is that you have a crush on Hiccup and for it to go over you have to stay away from him?"

"Yes, exactly!" I exclaimed as I grabbed both of Ruff's shoulders and gave her a quick shake.

"Logical" Heather muttered. "But onto the reason why we wanted to find you in the first place, we've talked to the guys and decided that we'll all go up to my cabin next weekend"

I quickly went over the little schedule I kept in my head, not seeing anything that would keep me from going with my friends. "I think I'm free that weekend, so my parents will probably let me go"

A smile spread across Heather's face as she wrapped her arms around me, giving me a tight squeeze,which literally took my breath away. "Amazing! We'll all have so much fun!"

***

I was watching tv when I heard my phone buzz from the other side of the couch. I let out a low groan as I wrapped my blanket tighter around me, trying to set my focus back on what I had been watching since Eret had taken me home from school after lunch.

Yes, you heard it right, I had skipped the rest of the day. Yes, I knew that was bad, but it was getting real boring, just sitting in a smelly bathroom stall for an hour. I know that wasn't really a valid reason for just skipping the rest of the day, but it was the best excuse I could come up with at the moment.

I managed to ignore my phone for two more minutes, before it buzzed again to tell me that I had still not read my message. I glanced over at it, guilt washing over me for not answering the text. I let out another groan as I eventually gave in and checked out who as texted me.

New Message From : Hiccup Haddock

"Hey, didn't see you at school today, r u sick??"

"Haha Yeah, really sick, flu season and all that, you know"

"Sounds bad, I'll come over with some soup in 10"

There was one part of me that was very flattered that he would go out of his way to do that for me, whilst the other part was desperately trying to remind me of my very 'logical' plan to avoid Hiccup.

"No, no, you don't have to do that, I'm fine, all right? I don't need soup"

"Are you sure? I heard the flu's really bad this year. And if you want to, I can even help you with your part of the presentation, seeing as you're sick"

"Please don't come here, I look horrendous"

"Horrendous is my middle name"

"Ha Ha, very funny"

"Astrid, I'm not kidding, Horrendous is actually my middle name. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III"

"I don't believe you"

"Let me come over with some soup and I'll prove it to you"

"No, but seriously, I'm really sick and I don't want to get you sick as well"

He never responded to my text, so I took that as an 'alright, I'll leave you be'. But of course, there is no such thing as luck in my life.

After about half an hour, there was a knock on the front door. I jumped at the shock, sending me flying off the couch, causing my hip to graze against the edge of the coffee table as I stood up.

"Fuck" I cursed as I rubbed my hip, attempting to relieve it of its pain.

I tip-toed over to the door, blanket wrapped tightly around me as I tried to make as little sound as possible.

Another knock came from the other side as I peeked into the peephole on the door and saw none other than Hiccup Haddock, standing on my porch, a plastic Tupperware box in hand.

"Astrid, I know you're in there, I saw you peeking out the peeping hole" He said loudly from the other side of the door.

Fuck, I thought as I simultaneously tried to figure out how to get him to leave.

"I really don't think you should be here" I said as I began fake coughing so loud my throat actually became sore.

"But here I am, so please, let me in" Hiccup practically pleaded.

He must've leant into the door or something, because just as he said that, my nose was filled by the most wonderful scent I had ever smelled.

It was like curry and chicken noodle soup had a baby, and that baby had been sprinkled with some angelic spice I couldn't name. Thor, how I wanted that soup.

I took another peek out of the peephole and decided to let him in.

A huge grin spread across his face as he handed me the Tupperware. "Here you go, this is guaranteed to make you feel better"

I gladly took the box and the second the plastic met my skin, I could feel the mild heat from the soup inside seeping into my hands. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to down that soup like it was a shot of tequila.

I thanked him with a quick smile before going into the kitchen to fetch a spoon for the soup, that I was very eager to try.

Hiccup hung up his jacket and followed me, something that sent shivers down my spine as a colony of butterflies fluttered in my stomach and my heart beat a little faster.

I snatched a spoon out of the cutlery drawer and sat down at the table, opposite of Hiccup. I peeled the lid off the box and the intoxicating smell from earlier was intensified by a hundred.

I dipped the spoon in, filled it and placed it in my mouth. The soup was heavenly, to say the least.

"Was it any good?" Hiccup asked me. As soon as he spoke, I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks as I slowly forgot every word I had ever learned. The only logical thing that came to mind was to nod.

We sat in silence as I downed the soup, but to my surprise, it wasn't a tad bit awkward. For some strange reason, I felt really comfortable around Hiccup. He must've felt pretty comfortable too, seeing as he sat with one arm over the back of the chair as he just smiled at me. Alright, that was kind of weird.

I narrowed my eyes at him, in an attempt to make him stop as I continued eating/drinking my soup. But he didn't stop, quite the contrary actually, he just smiled even wider at me, something I found very annoying.

"Stop" I said in such a cold tone that it could probably freeze over the Sahara desert, but still, his smile stayed on. "Stop"

He chuckled as I got up and stomped over to the sink. "If you keep mocking me, you'll be very welcome to leave"

"Calm down, I'll stop" Hiccup said as he got up from the chair, letting out another chuckle. "How was the soup?"

I gestured to the Tupperware box in the sink. "What do you think?"

"I'm happy you liked it" A smirk tugged at the corner of his lip. My heart began racing so fast that I almost believed that I was about to have a heart attack.

"Seeing as you're here and clearly have no plans of leaving, how about we work a little on the presentation, so that we have less work to do on Friday?" I suggested.

Another smile appeared on Hiccup's face. "You too sick for a race to your room?"

My lips bent up in a sly smirk. "Never"