Touch My Heart

Chapter 20

Hiccup entered his class that morning and slumped himself into his seat at the back of the classroom. He had to hand in that project with Astrid later today, but he wasn't sure if he could face her after this morning.

Was he really jealous? Over that guy? No, no way. Hiccup sighed and tried his hardest to concentrate on the lesson.

Astrid meanwhile sat in her class, talking to Eret. It turns out that he had recently moved to the country and so had missed quite a lot while he wasn't in the country. He had apparently been in America for about 2 years before he had to move back here. Back home. Astrid had lived here all her life, but never remembered a guy named Eret before. Eret just told her that he had to study at home quite a lot so she probably wouldn't have seen him at school anyway.

When the bell went for lunch, Astrid waved Eret goodbye and headed off to the cafeteria in search of her friends. Eret, however, made his way outside to try and go over the notes he had missed. But realised that outside was probably not the greatest choice to be at peace.

"Hey, Astrid!" Heather called her over to their table. Astrid smiled and happily joined her and the rest of their friends. "I'm sorry about what happened this morning," Heather said, Astrid just shrugged and shook her head in response.

"It's okay, not something I've never dealt with before." Heather gave her friend a quizzical look but decided not to ask too many questions.

"I mean it mustn't have been all that bad," Elsa said, Astrid looked at her in confusion. "What with the incredibly hot guy saving you and all." She sighed as she clutched her heart dramatically. "You are sooo lucky..." Astrid just chuckled in response.

"Come on Elsa! He wasn't all that attractive." Astrid said, but all the girls just looked at her with a disbelieving look. She just smiled, "Okay... He was kinda hot." Heather squealed and pushed her friend playfully.

"Oooooo! My little Astrid actually admits something!" Heather joked as Astrid gave her a shove in return.

"What? I'm just stating the obvious!" Astrid laughed with all the other girls. As she laughed, her eyes momentarily met with a pair of stunning emerald eyes that seemed to pierce through her and make her laughter die down instantly. He soon looked away when a girl from the year below them approached him, whispering something into his ear and managing to lure him away from the cafeteria. 'Bitch' Astrid thought to herself.

Woah! Where did that come from?

She just shook her head in disbelief at herself and continued to eat lunch with her friends, pretending that nothing had happened with her and Hiccup when Heather finally asked about them. Their session in the library would always remain a secret between them. Astrid was kinda embarrassed about it anyway.

***

Science finally rolled around, which also meant the project deadline. Astrid sat beside Hiccup's usual seat and waited patiently for her partner to arrive, it had only been a few minutes since the bell had gone. He could still make it on time. Astrid hoped he would, otherwise, he's gonna wish that he had never been born.

"Sorry, I'm late." Astrid looked up, hoping Hiccup was tailing behind the teacher. But no. Okay, now he was really gonna regret making her wait. "Now, I know that you've all been working very hard on your projects these last couple of weeks. But now I am happy to announce that it's come to an--"

"Sorry sir!" A familiar voice called out into the classroom as an auburn male burst through the door and dashed over to his seat, beside a very unhappy looking Astrid.

"It's alright Hiccup, I was late too..." Hiccup smiled and nodded at the teacher as he collapsed into his seat. Astrid leaned closer and whispered in his ear so that only he could hear her.

"You look as if you've just had sex in a cupboard." Astrid looked him up and down once more. "And clean that stuff off your neck, it makes it way too obvious." With that, she turned back to the front of the class to watch the first presentation.

"Hey, it's nice to know that some girls actually want me rather than making me needy and offering me no chance to fulfil that need." Hiccup retorted quietly causing Astrid's cheeks to heat up. "Now that just isn't fair." Hiccup finished and sat back in his seat, trying to make himself look more presentable than he did when he first walked in.

The next couple of presentations went by and finally it was Hiccup and Astrid's turn. Hiccup felt his hands begin to sweat as he saw his drawings placed front and centre on the big poster board Astrid had created for their project with their little theory papers on either side of the large drawing. It hadn't been one of Hiccup's proudest drawings, but Astrid seemed to like it and that seemed like it was enough to make the presentation earn a few gasps from the class.

"Okay, so our project was on the idea of DNA, and how it can be seen as the building blocks of our human existence....."

Once they finished their presentation, where Hiccup barely spoke, the class gave them a small applause and the two returned to their seats. Hiccup leaned back over to Astrid when she had finally taken her seat beside him.

"I still don't know why you chose that drawing. Out of all the ones I had!" Hiccup complained as Astrid just chuckled.

"You wanna know the real reason I chose it?" Hiccup looked at her in confusion.

"What?"

"I chose it because I knew it would annoy you." She admitted proudly. "They were all perfect, but I knew that you hated that one the most and so I chose that one 'cause I knew it would annoy the heck out of you." She smiled cheekily.

"I hate you so much." Hiccup whispered and gave her a small stab with his pen as he leaned away from her to continue focusing on the lesson. Astrid let out a small yelp when the sharp(ish) object poked her thigh and caused her to give Hiccup a death glare.

"And I hate you too Henry," Astrid whispered back, crossing her arms and looking back at the next students.

Hiccup smiled as Astrid said his real name. He always hated people saying his real name after what happened with Camicazi, but somehow when Astrid said it... Hiccup couldn't help this warm sensation spread over his skin as he thought about the way his name fell from Astrid's lips.

It just seemed so natural. As if she'd been calling him that for years...