Jack's heart pounded in his ears, banged against his rib cage and tried to shove itself up his throat all at once. His intestines were playing jump rope while his brain screamed at him to say something. Finally obliging, Jack stood, smiled again and held out his hand.
"Hey. Nice to meet you."
Hiccup's eyes were wide with confusion, as if he was trying to figure out a very hard puzzle. He looked like he wanted to run up to Jack and hug him, but didn't know why. It was kind of a relief, knowing that Hiccup at least was starting to remember. The confusion left his eyes as he realized he still needed to respond. He shook his head and reached out to take the other brunette's hand. The moment their skin touched, it was like an electrical zap. Neither pulled away, but let the contact linger while forrest green eyes stared into chocolate brown. Moments past, when Penda cleared her throat. Hiccup jumped away and avoided Jacks eyes.
"S-sorry.." He murmured, rubbing at his arm.
They both sat down at the table and waited in silence as Penda fixed Hiccup's pancakes. Both heads spun, questions raging and confusion stirring one way or another. Soon enough, Hiccup was digging into a mound of pancakes set before him. Jack had become rather interested in a newly discovered hangnail. After too much silence, Penda sighed and grasped each boy by the shoulder,
"Right. Well, work isn't going to do itself around here." She pointed towards the back door, "There's a couple of rakes out there, and a whole bunch of leaves in the picnic area. That should explain itself." She patted there shoulders and headed towards the stairs.
The two boys got up and stood awkwardly for a bit. Jack finally found his cool and shrugged. "Alright, newby, let's do this." He strode towards the sliding door, only to come in contact with the screen covering the frame, and stumbled backwards. Hiccup rolled his eyes, went to the door and opened it, grabbing one of the rakes leaning against the outside wall. He'd dealt with these kind of guys before. Know it alls. Airheads. Whatever this guy was, his looks were probably the only thing going for him. A negative way of thinking, but he couldn't get his hopes up. The guys at his school were cute too, until they shoved him into a locker and laughed when he actually fit. Hiccup rolled his eyes once more and started towards the picnic hill. Jack followed after, grabbing his own rake and rubbing his nose that had hit the screen.
Hiccup had really bad experiences with people in general. He was a little socially awkward, (maybe a little more than a little), and had never really gotten close with anyone before. He had tried, of course. He'd had a best friend, like any normal person. Riley was her name. They had met sitting outside on the playground about fourth grade, and found out they had been crying for the same reason. With unusual names and differences from everyone else, they decided to be outcasts together. They visited each other often, shared stories of their pasts, as good friends do. Hiccup smiled as memories rushed back. Playing video games in Logan's basement, (getting his butt kicked, frankly), going to the skate park to watch her do tricks (because Hiccup couldn't touch a skateboard without a strong chance of losing another leg), making snowmen in the winter, water gun wars in the summer, reading in her library when it was raining outside..
Tears then pricked at Hiccup's vision at the one memory he didn't want to be reminded of. He pushed it out of his mind before he could think of it, and shook his head as he finally reached the hill. He tried turned to Jackson but avoided eye contact, then cleared his throat,
"I'll get this side with the picnic tables, if that's alright."
Jack just smirked and nodded, heading over to his side. As he raked, he snuck looks over at Hiccup. He just wanted to run up to that lanky brunette, hold onto him and never let go. Though, Jack figured that would be kind of creepy, considering Hiccup didn't have the faintest idea who he was.
