The runaway Valedictorian(HICCSTRID)

4 Finding Out More

The morning after the previous chapter:
Astrid POV:

    I woke up, cold and sweating like crazy. I had another nightmare. Another nightmare about Hiccup. It always happens when I asked if there was any news about him. Always.
    In the nightmare, nothing really happens to me, but what I see and hear kills me. Hiccup, being tossed and hit around by all his bullies and then him laying on the floor beaten to a bloody pulp, in a pool of his own blood. Then it changed to him being run over by that truck. His screams of agony and pain were always clear like I was living it.
    And then it finally changes to the part where I left him. Standing in the rain in front of the high school, with a red rose in his hand and a heartbroken face. Tears were streaming down his face as I told him that I don’t want to talk with him anymore and then I just left him there. Alone in the rain.
    And as I walked down the hallways his voice always taunted me, “Why did you have to leave?” “I was in love with you and you just left me to be popular?” “What did I do wrong?” “Please tell me why did you leave?” “Why did you leave, Astrid?” “Why? Astrid?” “Astrid?” “Where are you?”
    I blinked back the tears and sat up in my bed. I stared into the darkness of my room and tried to forget about what happened. Tried. But nothing worked. Stormfly must have noticed that I woke up, because she came from her sleeping mat and climbed on my bed. She then crawled over to me and nuzzled into my hand. I smiled a bit and scratched her chin.
    “It’s ok, girl,” I said and took a deep breath, “It was just a bad dream.” I couldn’t really see her face, because I didn’t turn the lights on, but I guess she was staring at me concerned. I scratched her chin a bit more and then said, “Come on, girl. Let’s go for a run. That will clear up my mind.”
    I couldn’t really tell, but I could see how something was waving in front of me. Probably her tail in excitement. I smiled and said, “Ok, girl. Let me just get ready.” I leaned over and switched the lamp next to my bed on.
    The light provided a soft light that didn’t blinded my eyes, but still gave enough light that illuminated the howl room. I got out of my bed and quickly got into some workout clothes and put my hair in a messy ponytail and got Stormfly’s leash and my flat’s keys. I quickly put the leash on her and then walked out of my apartment. I quickly locked the door and then started to run with Stormfly down the pavement next to the street.
    And slowly but surely I started to forget about the nightmare. The coldness of the morning air, the quietness of the surroundings and the morning light that were shining over the mountains, all helped to dull the pain. Stormfly and I jogged at a good pace, with her to the left of me always.
    We took the route we have been walking every day, since we came here, and after a 5 minute jog we were there. I didn’t really know the streets too well, so I decided to just jog around the park a few times and luckily it was a good 1 mile around it.
    After ten minutes of just jogging and watching how the sun slowly started to rise over the mountains and how the sky turned a beautiful pinkish-orange colour, Stormfly and I were both starting to breath heavily. But I knew we could keep this pace for a long time, so we continued to jog. But then someone came out of one of the streets and started to do a lap around the park about twenty yards in front of us.
    This person and the all black Husky, jogged at quite a fast pace. The husky was running with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth and it was actually quite funny and cute, but I didn’t laugh, because of the person.
    I could see he was lean and quite tall. He had messy auburn hair and had workout clothes on. But what got my attention was his legs. His left leg to be precise. Just under the right knee, the person had a prosthetic running leg.
    Once I saw it, I felt guilty again about Hiccup. I sighed and was about to turn and make the run towards my apartment and finish, but the person and dog turned to the left, down another road.
    But as they turned I saw a glimpse of his face. He was quite handsome and green eyes, but my eyes still widened. It was Harper. My Ceo. Wait, what?
    I don’t remember anything about him losing his left leg. How did that happen? When did it happen? How come I have never known about it? I Had so many questions, but had no answers. And Harper was already gone. But that made me more curious about Harper.
    I decided Stormfly and I could still run for a bit, but after twenty minutes we entered our flat, breathing heavily and sweating like dogs. Well Stormfly is a dog. I quickly filled her bowl with water and then jumped into the shower. After a few minutes, I came out. I got dressed in some jean shorts and a Blue T-shirt. I then made me some porridge and filled Stormfly’s bowl,
    I started to eat, but couldn’t stop thinking about Harper. There were just so many things. How come I never remembered him? How did he lose his leg? Why is he single and unmarried, when he is so handsome, kind, caring, smart, funny, understanding and loyal. Everything I woman dreams their boyfriends or husband should be. And then he was the owner of a huge company so he was also wealthy.
    While I was still eating my porridge, I pulled my laptop out and searched if there was ever news about Harper losing his leg, but founded nothing. Just some reports of people seeing him on a morning run, with his dog and photos of them and Harper prosthetic running leg. But nothing of how he got it. Just some silly rumours.
    I then looked up at my phone and went onto the schools instagram and facebook page. I scrolled down to our year and then I looked at all the posts. It was mostly sport events and the football teams and the pavilion and me and the cheerleader team. Some photos, I was kissing Eret and that made me so angry that I removed my likes from the photos. And I continued to search through all the photos, but never saw him once.
    I figured that would happen since he said he was a quiet nerd, so he probably never came to any of the social events. It was just a small hope. After a few minutes I finally came to the last photo. I took a deep breath and scrolled up until I saw it.
    And sighed sadly. It was a photo of Hiccup on the stage, giving his speech. I haven’t read that post in quite some time. I opened the comments and read the first one:
    “We are going into the big world. And it might seem scary, dark and dangerous out there, but if we are kind, friendly and if we take care for the people around us, we will make it through the day and bit by bit we will make the world a better place and give ourselves a brighter future,” Hiccup Haddock III, Valectoridorian.
    Those words helped me a lot. It helped me to be a better person and motivated me to treat everyone better so that no one will ever feel like Hiccup ever did. I just wished I could have done something for him too and that I wasn’t too late. But I was.
    I sighed and shut my phone down. Ok, so there is no photo of him on the schools Facebook or Instagram page and I can’t seem to remember him. So what do I do next? One, call the school to see if there are any records of a Harper Harrison and see if they have a photo of him. But it is the weekend and no one will be at the office probably. And then there was the second option. Call someone who knew everyone at school. And there were only two people who could do that.
    One was Fishlegs Ingerman. He was a good friend at high school. He was really big, but was a sweet guy and extremely smart. I would like to call him and ask if he can remember if there was Harper Harrison in Raven Point, but I could see how that would turn out. He would flip out if he knew that Harper Harrison went to school and wouldn’t stop ranting on about it.
    So it left me with one other person. The class president of my year. Cami Burglars or Cami Meathead now. She and Thug got married after College and lived in Berk. Thug took over his fathers business and helped it to grow a little, while Cami helped him a little bit, but mostly worked on the Berk’s Great Hall’s council. And their lives were pretty good. One of the richest people in Berk and didn’t mind showing off how much they had. And that was one of the many reasons why I didn’t like them and Cami, especially.
    I still didn’t like- actually I hated the fact that she cheated on Hiccup, when he did nothing wrong. And then to blame him for that was a low move. And what made me even more furious is that I believed her. I was angry at myself that I fell for her little trick and believed her, when I knew that Hiccup was too good-hearted to do anything like that.
    I sighed in frustration and rolled down my contacts to find her name. Cami was the last person I ever wanted to talk to, except Eret, but unfortunately she knew everyone that was in my year.
    So when I got to her name, I hovered my finger over her number. I took a few deep breaths, before calming myself and pressing her number and putting my phone to my ear. It rang for a few seconds before it was answered and Cami’s voice came over, “Hello, this is Cami Meathead.”
    I took a slight breath and replied, “Hi, Cami. It is Astrid.”
    “O, hi Astrid,” she replied in a sweet voice, “How are you doing?” Her tone sounded like she cared, but I knew far well that the only thing she cared about was money and popularity.
    I rolled my eyes and replied, “I’m doing just fine, thank you.”
    I was about to ask my question, but she then replied, “That’s good to hear. O, have you heard the news?”
    What news? But the hint of mischievous in her voice, I could tell that I wasn’t going to like it. I sighed and asked, “What news?”
    “O, that Eret and Nancy are engaged and are getting married in a few months,” she replied, innocently.
    I gritted my teeth and clenched my hands so hard that I thought that I may break my phone. I could tell that she was playing with me and I wasn’t about to fall for her games. I took a deep breath and said, “Good for them. Actually, Cami, there is a reason for this call. I need to ask you something.”
    She chuckled a bit amused and then said, “Please ask, old friend.I am curious of why you are calling.”
    When she said old friend, I gritted my teeth. We were friends once, but now I regret every second with her. I took a slight breath and said, “You were class president of our year, so you knew everyone in our year.” I knew that she was going to say yes, so I just asked, “Can you remember a Harper Harrison in our year.”
    It was quiet for a few seconds, before she hummed and replied, “Not really sure now actually. How does he look?”
    “Quite tall, not skinny, but lean with auburn hair and green eyes,” I replied.
    She hummed a bit more at the information and then said, “Can’t remember a boy named Harper in our year actually. Not one that suited your description.”
    I sighed and said, “He also has a prosthetic left leg. I don’t know when he got it though.”
    She hummed a bit more, before chuckling evilly. It actually sent shivers down my back. She then exclaimed, “Oh, my gods, Astrid. You have found him.”
    I frowned at her. What was wrong with her? Who did I find? “What do you mean, ‘I found him’?”
    She laughed a bit more and said, “You found my pathetic excuse of an ex boyfriend. You found our little runaway Valedictorian. Astrid, You just founded Hiccup Haddock.”