Guardian Chapter 11

    Hiccup awoke breathing hard, his hair plastered to his head, wet lines ran from the corners of his eyes down the sides of his face onto his pillow. The too familiar images of his nightmares rapidly fading from his mind left nothing behind but the usual sense of helplessness and guilt. He took several deep breaths and squeezed his eyes shut, drying them on his blanket. He tried to focus his mind on the coming day, which wasn’t much help as he remembered that he was returning to school today. Yay. The faint light creeping into Hiccup’s room through his blinds told him that trying to go back to sleep wasn’t an option. He glanced over at his clock, 6:12; well at least he only beat his alarm up by eighteen minutes today. Usually when he woke up from a nightmare it was in the middle of the night which meant he was doomed to spend the rest of the night staring at the ceiling.

     He stretched, tensing his entire body, except his right arm which wasn't as easy as it sounded, and gave a small yawn. Toothless jumped on his lap as he sat up and he scratched the cat behind his ears. "Hey bud, you seem pretty awake, how about you go to my classes today and I'll run around the house and hide my slippers, that sound good?" Toothless kneaded Hiccup's leg before curling up on his lap and closing his eyes, purring. "Good thought bud, but I don't think 'my cat was sleeping on my lap' counts as a valid excuse for not showing today."  Sighing Hiccup pushed Toothless off his lap, much to the cat’s displeasure, and forced himself to get out of bed. He moved through his usual morning routine on auto polite, the only part that required any effort was the re-bandaging of his arm which ended up causing a lot more trouble then he thought it would, requiring him to completely start over several times. As a result of the delay he was running later then he would have liked by the time he slipped his shirt on over the bandages. He would probably be on time for class, but he wouldn have to skip breakfast.

    His father was already gone for the day when Hiccup got downstairs, as was usual; however unlike usual there was a note taped the font door. Hiccup grabbed it as he knelt down to slip his shoes on. 

    Hiccup, hope you are feeling better today. Hope school is ok, let me know if you need anything. I’ll bring home some takeout for everyone on my way home. See you tonight

    -Love Dad.

    Well that was unusual. His father seemed to be taking this whole "being there for him thing" seriously, at least for now. Hiccup wondered how long it would take for him to withdraw like he had before, and then he felt guilty for thinking that because his father was really was trying and a negative attitude wasn't going to help the situation any. Hiccup continued brooding as he slipped on a thin jacket, threw his backpack over his shoulder, and headed out the door pausing only to lock it behind him.

    A weak Autumn sun was trying its hardest to shine through the overcast sky which lent a gray tint to the world as Hiccup made his way to school. The air was cool with that occasional gust of cold that promised winter was around the corner. All in all Hiccup rather enjoyed the walk, the fresh air was nice and it felt good to be out of the house after so long spent cooped up. Aware that he was running late Hiccup walked faster than he usually would, nearly breaking into a run as he approached the school. Even with his efforts he still arrived late which meant he would have to go in through the school’s office entrance, something that he had hopped to avoid. He set his path toward the large arched entrance to the old building when, passing the entrance students used before the school day started, his attention was grabbed by frantic motion in one of the large windows next to the double doors. Doing a double take he saw a familiar shock of white hair; Jack was waving both his arms trying to get Hiccup’s attention. With a quizzical look Hiccup walked over to the door which Jack opened for him.

    “Good morning.” Jack said with a smile.

    “Morning,” Hiccup returned the smile “shouldn’t you be in class?”

    “Yeah, but my class is just down the hall from here, plus the teacher is kind of used to me being late. And…I hadn’t heard from you yet today so I just wanted to be sure you made it okay.” Jack looked a bit self conscious as he spoke but Hiccup just smiled. Part of him was aware of the potential for a stalker joke here, but he honestly found Jack’s concern for him too sweet to make light of.

    “I’m here now so you should probably get to class, and so should I.” Hiccup said after a second of silence, aware that he still had to stop by the office to sign in as tardy.

    “Yeah, I’ll see you after school I guess?”

    “Yeah, I’ll meet you here and we can walk to my house together.”

    “Sounds good, have a good day Hiccup.” Jack leaned in to peck Hiccup on the lips but Hiccup leaned away swiftly, looking left and right down the empty hallways. He bit his lower lip when he met Jack’s slightly hurt expression.

    “I’m sorry, Its just-” Hiccup started to explain hastily but Jack forestalled him with a wave of his hand.

    “I know, its okay. I’ll see you later Hiccup.”  Jack gave him a smile as he turned and headed down the hall to his class; Hiccup wasn’t completely sure, but the smile seemed just a bit too wide. Hiccup shook his head in irritation as he headed to the front office. He would worry about whatever had just happened later, preferably after he’d slogged his way through the school day. He got a pleasant “welcome back” from the lady in the office when he got his tardy instead of her usual “Punctuality is important Mr. Haddock” which he guessed had something to do with the puffy white bandage just visible pocking out of the right sleeve of his shirt. He hurried on his way with a mumbled “thanks” as he headed to his locker to load up on his books for the day and then rushed to his first class, chemistry II.

    The teacher turned to the door as he slipped into the room, looking like he was about to make a comment about interrupting class when he paused and just said “Welcome back Mr. Haddock. Please take your seat, and see for a moment after class if you would.”

    “Yes Sir.” Hiccup said, his cheek’s flushing as the entire class turned to look at him while he nearly sprinted to his seat at the edge of class and sunk into it. To Hiccup’s surprise he was actually able to follow along with the lessons pretty easily. There were some things that he didn’t understand, but on the whole he was a lot less lost than he thought he would be and before he knew it the bell was ringing and the class began to shuffle out. He quickly made his way to the front of the room to talk to the teacher like he’d been asked.

    “Welcome back Hiccup, I hope you’re feeling better.” He said as he walked over to his desk Hiccup following behind him. Not knowing how exactly to answer Hiccup remained silent and the teacher spoke again a moment later. “I know you only missed three days of class, but a lot of this beginning material is essential to understanding the material later in the semester so its understandable if you need some help catching up,” he said with a sympathetic smile smile.

    “It wasn’t actually as bad as I was worried it would be,” Hiccup replied truthfully “I was able to follow along today pretty well.”

    “That’s good, of course you were always one of the better students. If you do find that you need help at all please come to me and I can meet with you to go over whatever confuses you or assign you a tutor to help for a bit.”

    “Thank you sir, I’ll be sure to do that.”

    “Good. Then there’s just the matter of the work you missed.” Hiccup grimaced as he was handed a depressingly large packet of paper held together by one very overworked paper clip. “That’s everything you missed. There is a quiz in there just fore review since I’ve already handed back graded versions it just won’t be factored into your grade at all, but the rest of the assignments please try to get in a soon as you can. I expect you will have work from you other classes as well so just try to get this in within the next couple weeks, alright?”

    “Of course sir, I’ll do my best.”

    “I know you will. Be sure to focus on healing up too of course.”

    “Thank you Sir.” Hiccup said as he put the make-up work into his backpack and hurried out the door to his next class.

    Even with the delay in his previous class there was still a couple minutes left before class began as Hiccup approached the door to the art room, not that he was overly worried anyway; their art teacher Miss V was never on time for class. She was Hiccup’s favorite teacher; sure she was a little bit out there, but then most art teachers were in Hiccup’s experience. He saw that he was right as he entered the room, students filled most of the desks but Miss V was nowhere in sight as Hiccup took his usual seat off in the far corner of the room.

    “Well look who it is!” Hiccup turned in his seat to look at Snotlout who was sitting a row back form him. Hiccup sighed; He had been quit dismayed at the start of the year to find out that he would be sharing this hour with Snotlout. They weren’t actually in the same class, Hiccup was taking an independent art study this hour because he had run out of actual art classes to take while he assumed that Snotlout was taking the Art for Beginners class that actually met this hour because he needed something from the “The Arts” section of the course book to flesh out his schedule. At least that was why Astrid was taking the same course.

    “Go away Snotlout.” Hiccup mumbled as the large boy stood and walked over to him, a sneer on his face. Hiccup did feel a bit of satisfaction at the large angry purple bruise that covered most of his left cheek.

    “I hear you actually managed to fail at offing yourself? I gotta say that’s pretty impressive, even for you Fuckup!” Hiccup just sighed and rolled his eyes. He stared resolutely at the chalk stained blackboard.  “Don’t let it get you down though, after all you know what they say. If at first you don’t succeed, try try aga-aaah!” his words were cut off by a choking sound. Hiccup spun around to see Astrid standing there holding Snotlout firmly in a headlock. She leaned her mouth close to Snotlout’s face and hissed something that Hiccup couldn’t hear but he was pretty sure he could guess the basics of it. Astrid had on that face of hers that terrified him and he genuinely almost felt bad for Snotlout. Almost. A couple of Snotlout’s friends had stood from their seats when Astrid had grabbed him, however the confrontation was over before they could do anything as Snotlout nodded his head furiously and Astrid let him go. He retreated back to his desk in defeat and Hiccup found himself fighting the sudden urge to throw him a little wave, he resisted the temptation though as Astrid sat down in the desk closest to his.

    “I really hate that guy.” Astrid growled, anger still clear in her voice.

    “Try not to let him get to you.” Astrid hurumphed.  “Just be glad that Miss V didn’t see you.”

    “Oh yeah, cause she’s such the disciplinarian.”

    “Fair enough.”

    “You get any make up work yet?”

    “Ugh, yes. Take a look at this.” Hiccup pulled out the packet from his chemistry class.

    Astrid stuck out her tongue like a child being offered a vegetable “Yuck.”

    Hiccup nodded in agreement “Pray for me.”

    At that moment Miss V swept into the room and gave her customary greeting “So sorry I’m late children. Now if you would all take out the rough sketches you’ve been working on we will continue on them today. Remember were just exploring right now. If you do think you found something you would like to focus on for your first project let me know and we’ll work it out. As usual let me know if you need help with anything.” With that she walked over to the large 5 CD stereo system she had set up in the classroom and turned on some music for the class to listen to while they sketched. Then she turned her attention to Hiccup. “Oh it’s so wonderful to have you back in class Hiccup! This class just hasn’t been the same without you here.” She gave him a rib-cracking squeeze before ducking into one of the doorways that led to the other interconnected art classrooms. She came back a minute later with the large lump of partially formed clay that Hiccup had been working in before. “I’ve been spraying it every day to be sure that it was ready for you when you got back.” She said happily.

    “Thanks Miss V, I’m glad I don’t have to start over.”

    “Oh you know I’d lever let that happen! I’m just so happy your back,” She said again, giving him another hug. “Let me know if you need anything dear.” She said as she turned to do her usual walk around the room, peering over the shoulder’s of nervous students and giving encouraging comments and bits of advice every once in a while.

    The rest of the class passed uneventfully. Astrid and Hiccup chatted idly as they worked, Hiccup continuing to shape the lump of clay before him, Astrid trying to sketch out random object and cursing at the results. Occasionally Miss V would pass by them and comment on their work, always patting Hiccup lightly on the shoulder when she did so. Soon the music was shut off which marked the end of the working time in the class and, after a few minutes of cleaning up, the actual bell rang marking the end of the class. Hiccup and Astrid walked to their next class together which Hiccup was glad was study hall.

    They sat in their usual corner and Hiccup broke out the packet of Chemistry work and started on it. He had to reference his book several times but by the end of the period he felt he had a pretty good grasp on the new idea, and he had finished two of the worksheets.

    Their next class was Physics, which had Hiccup much more lost than Chemistry, but luckily Astrid was here this time and was able to whisper basic explanations that kept him on track enough that the class wasn’t a total waste. Like in his Chemistry class Hiccup was called to the teacher’s desk at the end of the class where he was welcomed back and given a packed of work even larger than the previous and asked to complete it as he could, the sooner the better. Lunch was also uneventful as Astrid and Hiccup sat at their usual table, the other kids giving them even more space than usual. Astrid tried to bring up Jack but Hiccup silenced her with a “not here” and she respected that enough to let it go, at least for the time being.

    Soon the bell was ringing and Astrid was off to English while Hiccup was off to his ‘independent study for shop class’ which was really just him following around the school’s janitor/handy man Mr. Adder and helping him fix stuff when it broke. Hiccup enjoyed it though, it was fun getting to work with the various machinery that kept the school functioning properly, and he was good at it. He had always enjoyed working with his hands, and working with mechanical things in particular, so when he had exhausted the school’s offered shop classes his junior year he had been afraid he would not be able to do anything in that field anymore. He had spoken to the school’s academic adviser about it and having aced all his previous shop classes was able to work out setting up the independent study. There was not much that needed fixing today and so after welcoming him back and wishing ‘his favorite helper’ a quick recovery Mr. Adder gave him the period off. Hiccup again broke out his homework packet and had a couple more assignments done by the end of the period.

    His last two classes followed the same general pattern, he was welcomed back and then given the assignments that he had missed while he was absent. The final bell rang and Hiccup hurried from the classroom after being given one more packet of make-up work. The day had gone just about how he had expected and while he definitely was not looking forward to getting home and starting on the depressing stack of papers currently tucked away in his backpack, there was one thing about going home that he very much was looking forward to though. He stopped by his locker briefly to drop off his English book since he had no intention on starting the English make-up work that night. Throwing the soul-crushing weight of his stuffed back pack over his shoulder Hiccup headed off to meet up with Jack.