Face Value

Part 8

Astrid paused and sized up the powerful young man. Looking older than his years, Ryker was the tallest man in the room, very muscular and with his head shaven and a mere stripe of a beard straight down his chin. To Astrid, it seemed that must be some College fashion, because certainly she had never seen anything similar in Berk, a land of lush, full beards. His dark brown eyes were rather cold and he held himself as if everyone else was below his notice-though his eyes lingered on her for a moment too long and she felt as if she needed a wash. Of course, the other jocks were hanging around him in a starry-eyed gaggle of pretty obvious fangirling and their dates were trying to look interested as the famous graduate held court but it was clear Mindy wasn't happy that Snotlout was barely acknowledging her existence and Ruff was looking bored. Even Atali-who was hanging on Ryker's arm and soaking up the elevation in social status of being the date of the famous College Football star-was looking slightly bored as he talked Football.

The group nodded and greeted Dagur and Ryker leaned forward, taking Astrid's hand and kissing it with a small smirk, his deep voice greeting her insincerely. Resisting the desire to pull her hand away, she gave a tight smile and retreated to Dagur's side as Heather found Thuggory and he gave her a perfunctory kiss on the cheek, winding an arm possessively around her waist. In fact, the whole thing felt to Astrid incredibly forced and false, a charade for the benefit of the other students rather than a date with any meaning or actual affection. Heather smiled at Ryker and he granted her a slightly lecherous kiss on the hand as well.

"Drinks!" Atali announced, looking over at the group. "Astrid, Ruff-could you get us all some punch?"

No 'please', Astrid noted silently and nodded, turning away to the table. Ruff peeled away from the uninterested Eret and to her surprise, Dagur came as well.

"You need more hands than you two have," he murmured as they headed over to the buffet table set at the side of the Gym and Astrid began to spoon out ten glasses of what was optimistically called 'punch'. She sniffed-it clearly contained just fruit juice, or at least was meant to, though she could detect the edge of alcohol on the smell and knew it had been spiked. Finishing ladling out the glasses, she found Ruff had located a tray and they also gathered a plate of canapés before they returned.

"I thought you'd got lost," Atali said lightly, helping herself and handing Ryker a cup. He accepted it with a grunt, taking a sip and pulling a face.

"Rather weak," he commented disparagingly as he snatched a handful of the canapés while the others all grabbed their drinks as well. Snotlout grabbed another huge portion, almost clearing the plate before the blonde had a chance to take a single morsel.

And no 'thank you' either, Astrid added silently, her eyes sweeping the room. Pretty much all the Senior Year were there and as she looked around, her eyes alighted on a trio at the opposite side of the Gym, glasses of 'punch' on their hands. Fishlegs looked self-conscious in a dark blue Tuxedo, a velvet bow tie and a pair of too-tight dress pants while Tuffnut was looking odd in a loose Tuxedo and a bright orange bow tie. Beside them, Hiccup stood in a slim-fit black Tuxedo and black dress pants looking self-conscious, his auburn hair framing his face and his emerald eyes flicking up at just the right moment to meet Astrid's. He blushed and quickly looked away as she felt her lips tilt in a small smile. Dagur nudged her.

"You know, there is a dance where you can ask whoever you want to dance with you," he murmured, munching a mini spring roll he had rescued from the Snotlout onslaught. "I know I'm going to be asking my choice of dance partner." Dipping her head with a smile at the reactions of the rest of the group, Astrid sipped her punch and grimaced. It was probably far more alcoholic than it should be and by the way Thuggory and Eret were chugging the punch, things may get rather more amusing later on in the evening.