Astrid's P.O.V.

I sat still as everything happened: the passengers fighting to get to their seats, trying to shove their giant luggage in the overhead spaces, flagging down an attendant to order a fresh glass of champagne. I was on the plane, waiting patiently for it to take off. My grandfather's funeral was depressing but I wasn't that close to him. My mother sat next to me, her hand clutching mine. "Since that mishap on our first take off, I've been dreading this flight," she says with a light chuckle. 

"We'll be fine mom. It was just a little low on gas," I tell her.

"Still, imagine if it had been a full on crash," she said.

"I don't want to," I say.

"Have you heard from Hiccup recently?" Mom asks, grabbing a magazine.

"No, we don't keep in touch. I'm sure he's having fun at boarding school, though. Snotlout says he's doing fine," I tell her.

"Oh, that's nice," she says distractedly.

"You gonna miss Grandpa?" I asked.

"Oh, of course I will. But I am glad that his suffering has finally ceased," she said. Then, a flight attendant came up to us. He looked really young, like, my age young.

"Can I get anything for you ladies?" he asked politely.

"She'll have a Shirley Temple," Mom says, quickly, as if she was scared he'd leave without looking at me. I simply rolled my eyes. He nods before walking to the planes mini bar.

"Mom!" I hiss when he's out of ear shot.

"What? A guy can tell a lot about a girl from her drink. A Shirley Temple tells him that you like to look hot while enjoying a beverage, and that you aren't an alcoholic. No one likes an alcoholic," she says.

"Mom, you don't even know if he's single!" I snarl.

"Who cares? There's no harm in trying," she whispered before the boy came back and sat my drink on my trey.

"Thank you," I said to him and he nodded before walking up the aisle. "Even so, I'm not looking for a guy right now," I say to Mom before taking a drink.

"You're just gonna spend your life alone, aren't you?" she asks in exasperation.

"That's what I was planning, yes," I said, then remembered what Hiccup told me before he moved.

Flashback

I closed my locker and looked at Hiccup as he fumbled with his words. "Hiccup, you have something to tell me so just tell me," I say to him and he paused before taking a deep breath.

"Astrid, I love you," he said before visibly preparing for pain. I was shocked. Too shocked to tell him that I shared his feelings. So I didn't. I just grabbed his collar and gently connected our lips. He was stiff but soon melted into holding me by my waist. When we pulled away, he paused. "So is that a go away?" he asked jokingly and I laughed lightly.

"If only we told each other sooner. We'd have longer than a week," I said before everything started to fade from my vision.

I let out a sigh as the plane flew above the clouds. "Mom, when did you and Dad tell each other you loved each other?" I asked.

"Where's this coming from?" she asked.

"I made a mistake that I wish I could take back," I tell her.

"What'd you do?" she asks.

"I told him I loved him," I say.

"Did you?" she asks.

"Yes," I say.

"Do you still?" That made me think. He might've changed.

"I don't know," I say...

* * *

I ran down the track, my lungs burned and my legs were close to noodles. It was still dark out. I had woken from my dream around 3:00 and went to the track to get my mind off it. I turn off the asphalt as I pass my section of bleachers before climbing to my bag. My heart was racing and crashing into my rib cage. I dug through my replacement bag and took out my refill of pills that my dad had gotten me yesterday. My regular bag was still at Hiccup's. I swallowed two of the pills and waited for them to kick in. I check the time and sigh when I see that it's 5:50. The events of yesterday still played in my mind and I could barely process what was going through my thoughts. I layed on my back and stared at the sky until something licked my cheek.

"Hey, Storm," I murmured as I patted her head. Then, I realized what happened and shot up, screaming, "Stormfly!" What was she doing here?!

"Astrid, I thought we agreed that you'd leave a note," my dad said as he climbed the bleachers form the parking lot.

"Sorry," I muttered as I grabbed my bag and stormed toward him. My dog just had to be a tracker.

At school during school hours

I sat at my table, rubbing my head tiredly. I saw Hiccup walk by and he glanced at me while I avoided eye contact. He sat with his friends and stared at me all morning. I finally couldn't take his gaze anymore and went outside. "Excuse me, are you Astrid Hofferson?" a voice says as I leaned against a tree. I turned around to see a young man, around 20-21. 

"Can I help you?" I asked.

"Oh, my Thor, I'm Lucas. I've been your biggest fan since I heard about you on the news!" he says in a rush, lunging forward to shake my hand.

"I think you might be my only fan," I say with a chuckle.

"That's not true. In my town, we have a whole support club for you. Every day we meet and talk about how awesome you are and send you distant mental moral support," he explains.

"Moral support?" I repeat.

"Yeah, your friends posted online that you had a mind condition that makes you unable to show what your really thinking. They said you've suffered from it for years, even before the accident," he says. Heather.

"What do you guys talk about?" I ask.

"Well, mostly you and how much of a fighter you had to be in order to survive the plane..." I listened to him go on and on about how much he and the club admired me. I couldn't say I agreed with half of the statements he was making and I kinda wanted to stop him to tell him he had the wrong person. But he just seemed so excited. I couldn't bring myself to say anything.

"Lucas," I said when he was finished, "Disband the club. I'm not someone to swoon over. I'm just a teenage girl, who lost her leg in a plane crash. A thousand people go through stuff like this every day." His face fell from a beam to a sympathetic frown.

"You have no idea how big of a deal this is do you?" he asks.

"It's not a big deal," I insist. He then pulls out his wallet and shows me a picture. "Who's this?" I ask, looking at the smiling girl who seemed so happy to be alive.

"That's my girlfriend. She got hit by a bus and lost her leg. She was about ready to give everything up. She was gonna break up with me because she wanted me to be with someone who I could share my passion of dancing with. When she heard about you, it completely changed her attitude. Astrid, I love that girl. If she'd broken up with me, I wouldn't be talking to you right now. If she hadn't heard about you, she would have dumped me. If it wasn't a big deal, she wouldn't have heard about you," he explains and I look at the picture one more time before giving it back to him. "Keep it," he orders, "I would like you to look at it from time to time. And let it remind you that you could have given up. But because you didn't, people in your situation, who are thinking about giving up, are staying strong." He smiled at me before getting in a car and driving away. I looked at the picture one more time and put it in my pocket as I walked inside and went to class. Did I really help his girlfriend? Or was he just saying it to make me think I was worthy of a fan club?