A Promise To Keep

The Weekend Getaway Part 1

The month of February rolled by, with the snow now melting away and the temperature starting to rise. On top of that, it was close to the school's February half term, with only a week to go. It was the weekend and Hiccup was at home, lying across the living room sofa, watching TV while Toothless was lying on his chest, whom he would stroke from time to time.

His dad was out, doing shopping, while he was initial doing his homework. Once he was done and with nothing else to do, he decided to relax for a bit. He preferred to normally watch documentaries, as he liked to be informed on things as much as he could. He would sometimes watch a serial show, but it was rare occurrence.

As he was focused listening about the lives of the animals living in Africa, his phone, which was located on the coffee table, began to ring.

"Alright, bud. Time to get up." he told Toothless as he sat up from the couch, which made Toothless jump off his chest. Once he sat up, he reached for the phone looked at the screen. His eyes grew at the name on the screen – Astrid.

Except for a trip to a pasta café, the two of them hadn't been hanging out as much for the past few weeks. They couldn't hang out during school since that would only increase the rumours more so than it already had. She did text him a few times outside school, which was why it threw him off that she was calling him now instead of texting. 

But weirdly, whether it wanted to admit it or not, he sort of glad to see her name on the phone. That deep down, he missed hanging out with her. Removing himself from that sudden thought, he answered the phone, as well as putting it on speaker.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hey, Hiccup! You're alright?" Astrid replied cheerfully.

"I'm OK, I guess. How... about you?"

"Super! Can you guess?"

Hiccup raised his eyebrow at the question. "What is it?"

"No! You have to guess first." Hiccup sighed as he ranked his brain for any idea as to why she was gleeful this afternoon.

"Umm... You... no longer have the illness?" he guessed unenthusiastically.

A big laughter came through the phone. "That would be a miracle, but no. Give up?"

"Yeah?" he shrugged his shoulders. 

"OK. I...have found.... our weekend trip!" she exclaimed.

"You found a place?" he confirmed.

"Yep! How does Dragon's Edge sound?"

Hiccup's eyes grew. "Dragon's Edge?"

"Yeah, have you heard about it?"

"A bit. But... isn't it... far from Berk?" Hiccup had barely gone out of his house during the weekend, let alone going outside of Berk for a weekend trip, so this idea surprisingly felt daunting to him, though his voice didn't show it. 

"About 2-3 hours long by train." Astrid explained. "But it has a colourful atmosphere, very appealing for tourists and a super fancy and affordable hotel we can stay at."

"Oh." he simply said.

Astrid chuckled. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to book a room with two beds. I'm thinking of booking for next Saturday. Will you be free then?"

"Well... I don't have anything to do for half term except homework, so..."

"Awesome! I'll send you all the details once I get them. I'll see you later!"

"Uh...yeah, bye." And with that, Astrid hung up the phone, leaving Hiccup stunned. Apart from his dad, no one else would ever call him since he didn't have friends, and yet Astrid was the first to do so. It was like how he felt when she texted him for the first time. It was something outside his confront zone that he had built for so long, along with this weekend trip.