time for me. Then I noticed Gobber the Belch, the former Dragon fighting trainer, now the dragon training instructor, peering at a book in the center of the table.


  "Why don't you join us?" asked Astrid, waving an arm for me to come over. So, setting down my bag and flipping my bangs, I did.


  "Who's that?" asked Tuffnut loudly and obnoxiously. Oh yeah. He's gonna be a prime example of a Viking when he grows up.


  His sister, Ruffnut elbowed him in the gut. "She's the server girl, idiot, are you blind?!"


  "No, but you're about to be!" Tuffnut tackled her and they fell off the bench, rolling on the ground.


  I stared at them in silence for a while. "Are they always like that?"


  "Uhh, h'yeah, pretty much." admitted Hiccup. Astrid rolled her eyes.


  Snotlout leaned towards me. I could smell everything I cooked just by getting a whiff of his breath. "So you work here? I've seen you around. Tonight's meal was delicious, by the way. You should come over to my place sometime. I moved into--"


  Seriously? He was FLIRTING with me? With ME? Part of me was disgusted, and part of me was....no, actually, I was just completely disgusted.


  Astrid shoved him out of his seat and took his place across from me. "Don't mind them."


  Gobber the Belch looked up from the book in the center of the table where Fishlegs was absorbed in a page (and also a leg of lamb) and noticed me. I'm getting noticed a lot lately. "Well, what have we here? A new recruit, eh?"


  I stared at him. "Uh, what?"


  "I dunno. I guess she has some potential." Hiccup observed, looking me up and down like I was a shiny hunk of metal he could turn into a masterpiece.


  "And we need all the help we can get, with the Helm missing." Astrid added.


  "Potential? For what?" I asked, turning my head from Astrid to Hiccup to Gobber to Fishlegs, who had now joined the circle of faces around me. Snotlout sat up. Tuffnut and Ruffnut were still wrestling around on the floor.


  "Dragon training, of course!" Astrid explained cheerfully.

   I thought I was going to throw up.


  How could I get out of this?! I couldn't work so close with dragons, I'd wet myself before I even entered the arena! But who doesn't want to be a dragon trainer? Well, me, but how could I tell them that without giving away my fear?


  Maybe try the casual approach.   "Um, no thanks guys, it, er, really isn't my thing."


  Gobber squinted at me. "Too tough for ya, eh?"


  "Well, it's just, uh...." I trailed off, and Astrid interrupted me.

  "Oh, come on! Who doesn't want to work with dragons?" she was still going for the friendliness deal. She's a lot more cheerful than she was when we fought dragons.


  "Yeah!" Fishlegs chimed in. "You only get slightly scalded, and after you fall off a flying dragon a couple times, you get numb to it and it's easy. Sort of."


  "You'll really benefit from seeing me in action. I think I have a way with--" began Snotlout, but thankfully, Hiccup cut him off.


  "Okay, guys, not helping!" he scoffed, holding out his hands. They all turned to me. "What d'you say, Arabella?"


  There was silence, except for the sound of Ruffnut and Tuffnut grunting and yelling at each other on the ground.


  I began to tap my foot and chew my lip, which are both things I do when nervous. "Ummm..."


  They were all so nice! Well, I mean, Astrid and Hiccup, and Fishlegs and Gobber, at least. How could I turn them down? Then again, I HAD to turn them down! I'll faint if they even let a Gronkle near me. I'll be totally humiliated! I've got to tell them no. Better safe than sorry.


  So...why did I say, "Ummm....o-okayyy...." reluctantly? Well, maybe it was peer pressure. Maybe I went crazy and forgot for two seconds that I'm just the cowardly kitchen girl.



  Or maybe I'm sick of being so lonely and I'd rather have these guys be my friends for whatever time I have before they find out what a wimp I am.


  "Excellent!" crowed Gobber. "But first, you need to learn about the many varieties and classes of dragons. You won't last two minutes out there unless you know at least the basics."


  I was thinking, Pfft, forget two minutes, I'll be changing my pants within the first five seconds. But I tried to swallow and nod.

  Astrid had come over to sit beside me. "Don't worry about Gobber, he always tries to scare off new recruits."


  It's working.

  Hiccup pushed the book they had been studying in my direction. "We were just going over the Book of Dragons. We've all read it, but we thought it might help with whatever dragon took the Helm of Vladnir. You should read it, though."


  Fishlegs drew his arms in and bounced excitedly. "It's awesome! It has everything you need to know about dragons, like the Whispering Death, and the Typhoomerang, or the Changewing, Ooh, or the--"


  "Yeah, okay, we get it!" groaned Snotlout, shoving the nerdy boy.


  "Ye'll need to read all of it by tomorrow evening, where you'll meet us at the arena to train the new arrivals." Gobber swallowed a drink from his mug and went to the counter to refill it. The Twins were heckling each other towards the door. The other kids were getting up from the table.


  Hiccup nodded to me as he headed out. "Welcome aboard!"


  Astrid put an arm around me. "Oh, don't worry! You'll do fine. We'll all be right there watching."


 Yeah, watching me screw up.


  "See you tomorrow!"


  As the others left, I put my head in my hands and stared down at the Book of Dragons, which had given me nightmares the first time I tried to read it.


  All I could think was, what did I just get myself into?