Chapter 9

Hiccup's P.O.V.

"So, uh, what did Heather mean when she called you Stormfly?" I ask Astrid and she starts to do her push ups at a faster pace. "Astrid?" I say and she does one final thrust, pushing herself into a standing position.

"None of your business," she says curtly before she jumps onto the bicycle. She starts pedaling, powering the fan which made her hair flow behind her in the most beautiful way you could imagine. I decide to try something.

"Stormfly," I say and she pumps her legs faster. "Stormfly," I repeat and the fan picks up speed, telling me her legs are doing the same even though they looked like they're going the same pace. "Stormfly," I say one more time and a few seconds later sparks shoot from the machine, causing Astrid to jump off the back in surprise.

"Look what you made me do!" she snaps before grabbing her phone and turning the music off. I stammer in confusion before I see that she's calling someone and I stop, so she can talk to who ever. "Great, now I have to tell dad, and then he's gonna ground me from PE," she mutters to herself. I heard you, I thought with a mental evil smirk.

"How would he ground you from PE?" I ask. She then freezes as she puts the phone to her ear.

"Um....he's tight with Coach," she says nervously.

"That's a l-" she cuts me off, starting her conversation with her father.

"Hey, Dad, uh, I may or may not have broken the bicycle in the schools weight room," she says quickly. She bites her lips and her eye, that's closest to the phone, squints. "I-I know dad, I...uh...yeah...no, no, th-that's fine. No, I'm not gonna do that," she says her parts of the conversation and balances the phone on her shoulder as she puts her speaker away. "Dad, it's my-," she pauses, leaning against the counter and holding the phone with her hand again, "But, dad! It's my bike! I can't sell it!....Yeah, I'll admit that it hasn't gotten much use since the crash but as soon as I figure some stuff out, I'll be riding it everyday! ....No......Dad-.....but-....Can I get a word in?!" She pauses before yelling in frustration and slamming her phone on the counter.

"What was-" I start but she runs out before I can finish. I run after her and chase her down the length of the gym. "Astrid!" I call but she runs into the girls locker room before I can reach her. I go to the boys locker room and change before thinking back to the old days.  If there's a trace of the old Astrid left she'll go to the bleacher for an hour after school. I go to the door near the gym and wait through the announcements. Once they're done, and the bell rings, I run outside and to the bleachers of the track and football field. I wait for a few minutes before I hear a door slam open and look in the direction to see Astrid storming towards her hang-out. She starts climbing the bleachers and pauses as she sees me. She then sighs and walks the rest of the way up the benches to the top corner. I grab her ankle as she passes me and she rips it free. 

"What?!" she snaps. 

"Whoa, okay, so you don't like playful leg grabbing," I chuckle and she scowls before storming the rest of the way up the bleachers, stomping so hard she makes the metal creak. 

"Ugh, stupid leg!" she mutters. 

"What's wrong with your leg?" I ask, turning to face her.

"Nothing," she snaps.

"Then why is it stupid?"

"Ugh, are you unable to mind your own business?!" she asks. I rest my elbow on my knee, placing my chin on my palm. 

"Yep," I pop the 'p' and she scowls. She sits down and I stare at her, waiting for her to realize and crash her lips to mine. My stares tend to make girls not able to control themselves. Instead of looking at me, though, she takes out her phone and plugs in some music, I'm guessing. She puts her headphones on and keeps her right hand on the right speaker as she nods her head to the beat. Hm....she's....not...what? She swings her legs onto the bench and lays down, still nodding her head.

"B-bring em back," she murmurs. I don't think she heard herself. To her, she probably lip-synced. I watch her for a while, waiting for her to see that I'm still here. After about an hour, I stand up and climb to her, surprised when she still doesn't notice. How loud is that music? When I reach her side I see she has her eyes closed; that must be why she did't see me approach. I sit at her head and slowly move my hand towards her headphone speaker. I touch it to slip it off and her fist shoots towards my face, too fast for me to respond. Her rock hard knuckles collide with my eye and the momentum makes me fall backwards.

Astrid's P.O.V.

I listened to my playlist, currently on Tag You're It. My fists shoots upward and collides with something as I feel something touch my headphone speaker. Or more like...someone. Not today Haddock. I stretch casually and take my headphones off. "What's up Hiccup?" I ask sweetly as I see him applying pressure to his eye.

"What the heck you just punched me!" he shouts.

I shrug, "Teach you to try to make out with me when you think my guard's down." He give me a pained "Really?" look.

"Is your guard ever down?" he asks and I laugh.

"Like I'd tell you that!" I go to stand up but a splitting pain shoots cross my head as a wave of dizziness and nausea washes over me. I try to find my balance and control my pain but I'm too close to everything to not run into something. I try to stay still but everything's moving in front of my body and I was falling forward. Suddenly, I feel something hit my face. Something hard and cold with a metallic smell. Bleacher. My vision finally clears but the pain and the sickening rock in my stomach shows no sign of ceasing. I clutch my head as my brain throbs against my skull. Great, now I'm gonna be an even bigger laughing stock. I press my head to the cool bench as Hiccup kneels behind me.

"Astrid? You okay?" he asks, rubbing my shoulder. I hold my breath as my lungs start to constrict. The pressure finally leaves and I exhale deeply as the pain finally leaves. I then roll off the bench and lay on my side as Hiccup shouts, "Astrid!" He gets on the other side of me and pulls my hair out of my face as I open my mouth and a spasm passes through my abdomen. Stomach acid comes up my throat and pours out of my mouth, falling through the air and landing on the ground with a disgusting 'splat'. A few spasms pass through me until there's nothing left. Tears slip down my cheeks as the acid stings my esophagus. I sit up and rest my head back on the bench. My eyes droop and my vision blurs. "Astrid? Astrid?" Hiccups voice echoes in my head.

"Hm?" I hum tiredly. 

"You okay?" he asks. I'm shocked out of my "leg" to hear the concern in his voice. This Play Boy, this Girl Cheater, this-this....this Jerk, is worried about me?! (I don't want to use worse language.) I shrug his hand from my shoulder and stand up, drowsily. 

"I'm fine, I gotta go," I say and stumble slightly as I make my way down the bleachers. I hear Hiccup start after me and pause. "Follow me, Haddock, you'll end up in the hospital on life support," I warn and his foot steps stop. I glance at him to see him sitting in defeat, before I continue to walk to my car.

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