"Have fun picking up everything, Useless!" Snotlout sneered.

"Yea Hiccup, better hurry up, it's going to get dark soon. Then you won't even be able to see what you have to pick up." Tuffnut added.

Them and the rest of the baseball team laughed as they left the field to go to the locker room. They had just finished a round of batting practice, and none of them bothered to help pick up the balls that they had hit, leaving Henry to pick up everything on his own.

Normally, coach Gobber would make the whole team pick up after batting practice, but today was one of the few occasions when he had to leave before practice ended to take care of some business in the school.

It doesn't matter to Henry, it's just another way for them to pick on him, among numerous others. You see, Henry is a sophomore, and he has tried out for the baseball team both this year and last year, only to not make it. It hurt both times, but he is determined to make the team before he graduates high school. He knows that if he were to make the team, and even possibly do well, that he might finally get his father to look at him like he wasn't a mistake. He knows that if he does well on the team, that his dad might even tell him that his proud of him, and that's all Henry has ever really wanted. He wants his dad to look at him with pride for once, instead of the normal scowl he has on his face whenever they are in the same room.

You see, Henry's father is something of a town legend, hero even. In this small country town of Berk, sports are everything, especially baseball. Henry's father Steven, known throughout the town as Stoick 'The Vast' for the distance he would hit the ball, along with his stoic nature, is the only person in the town's history to make it to the major leagues. He was the superstar of the high school, and still holds most of the hitting records at the school. His most notable records are his home run records. His record for total home runs throughout his high school career is over 100, but the one that people love to talk about is his single season record with 45 homers in one season. It was unheard of, to hit 45 home runs in a 30 game season. The closest anyone has gotten to touching his record was when his future brother in law Sebastian Jorgenson, known as Spitelout for some reason, hit 22 in one season a couple years after Stoick graduated. That didn't even reach half of Stoick's recorded, proving how amazing the feat truly was.

When Henry was born, Stoick had high hopes of his son following in his footsteps, never realizing how massive those steps actually were. Still, Stoick was going to push his son to be the best, teaching him that the, but he never expected his son to be so….. different from him. His son grew up to be small, lanky, and extremely clumsy, tripping over his own feet at times. After time, Stoick started to lose hope that his son would ever be a great star like he was, but he didn't stop trying to make his son better.

It wasn't until his wife, Valka, died in a car crash, that Stoick just stopped trying to help his son. In fact, Stoick barely even looked at him after the accident, throwing himself in work trying to forget his pain, but he forgot that he had to be a father too. He just focuses on his job as mayor, and coaching the local college's baseball team. That's why Henry is so determined to prove himself. He hopes if he is able to prove himself on the baseball field and make Stoick proud, maybe he could get his father back. Until then, Henry is stuck with the few times he sees his dad at home, and being taken care of by Gobber, who is like a second father to Henry.

Now, while Henry hasn't made the team yet, Gobber kept him around as an equipment manager of sorts. His hope is that if Henry is around the team every game and practice, he might learn a thing or two and improve his skills. Unfortunately, all it has really done is make him a target for the team to exploit; making him clean stuff unnecessarily, breaking equipment and blaming him, purposely throwing and hitting balls at him when Gobber is not looking, and that's just what they do to him while they are on the field. His life is even worse during school without Gobber there to keep an eye on him.

The main reason for Henry's pain and suffering is none other than his own cousin, Shaun Jorgenson, who makes people call him Snotlout for some reason. Something about sounding tougher, or family trademark. Either way, Snotlout is Spitelout's son. (I guess that's the family trademark) Spitelout ended up marrying Valka's sister after high school, which is how he ended up as Stoick's brother in law, making Henry and Shaun cousins. The worst part for Henry is that Stoick always praises how great a player Snotlout is, like he could do no wrong in life. Snotlout first started bullying Henry in middle school, which happened to be shortly after his mother's accident. The first time Henry came home with a black eye and told his father what happen, Stoick blamed Henry for not being tough enough to fight back. After that, Henry never bothered to tell his father anything anymore, not even the fact that he constantly gets straight A's. He knows his father wouldn't care anyways, so what's the point. The only time Stoick ever asks about anything is when he asks if he made the team at school. When the answer is no, his father doesn't even bother saying anything else, before either going to bed or making some excuse to go to work.

When Stoick had to retire from baseball due to injury, he landed the coaching job at Berk University, the only college in Berk. He spends most of his time during the season coaching there, and on the off-season, he focuses on his duties as mayor. This leaves little to no time at all for taking care of his son, leaving Gobber to check up on Henry. He doesn't do it because Stoick asked him to, in fact he never asked him to, he does it because he knows that Henry needs the support. Gobber even got him a job working under him at his mechanics shop, fixing cars, mainly to help keep him out of trouble, but Henry loves it there. It's one of the only places that he can relax and mainly be his normal sarcastic, witty self. Even with Gobber doing everything he can to help the boy, he's still a grown man that has his own things to worry about, so the majority of the time, Henry is left to fend for himself.

Determined to make himself better, he spends most of his time practicing his skills, trying to improve them. When he isn't doing school work, drawing, or playing with his dog, he's training. With this season almost over, along with the school year, Henry has the whole summer to solely focus on getting better, and that's exactly what he plans on doing. All he has to do is make through this last month, then he's home free.

By the time Henry finally finishes picking everything up and fixing the field by himself, the sun had already begun to set.

"Shit, didn't think it would take that long. I better get going." Henry hated when the team did this. Since he was only 15, he couldn't drive yet, so he usually walked wherever he needed to go, but it wasn't exactly fun walking home in the dark. He hurried up and lock up the field and headed towards the parking lot so he could start his trek home.

As he makes it to the parking lot, he notices the familiar figure of the one armed, one legged coach known as Gobber coming out of the school towards him. Henry always feels a little pride whenever he remembers that he knows someone that not only fought for their country, but lost an arm and a leg while he was part of the Marines. The most amazing part is that he always seems so chipper. Like the fact he only has two real limbs isn't going to keep him from living a happy life.

"Wha're ye still doin' 'ere lad? Practice should 'ave been done an hour ago." Gobber asks in his thick Scottish accent when he notices Henry coming from the field.

"Oh, you know, just thought I'd get some practice in. Guess I lost track of time." Lies Henry. He never saw the point of telling Gobber how the team treats him when he's not there. He has enough things to worry about, without having to babysit Henry all the time.

"Ah, I see. Well let me give ye a ride home. Can't be havin' ye walkin' back in the dark now can we?" Gobber replies, always trying to look out for Henry.

"Yea sure, that'd be great. Thanks Gobber."

"No problem lad."

Henry's POV

The month slowly came and went, and here I am sitting in my last class of the school year, just waiting for the bell to ring to dismiss us. We were already done with our work in the class, so everyone was just sitting around talking about their plans for summer. Well, except me. I was just sitting in my seat with my head down, doodling in my sketchbook to pass time. That is until I hear a certain cousin of mine, and it makes me pause in my drawing.

"Yea, I was going off this year. I hit like 10 homers! Just you wait though, next year I'm gonna hit double that!" Snoulout boasted to anyone and everyone. I don't get what he has to boast about, the team didn't even make playoffs for the first time since before my father attended school here. Berk High has always been a powerhouse in sports, not always winning the championship, but they always did good enough to at least make playoffs. I tried to just block him out and continue on my drawing, but my cousin has one of those voices that's so loud and obnoxious, it's hard not to hear everything he's saying.

"After I'm done, they'll be singing my praises all over town. The great Snotlout Jorgenson, nephew to the great Stoick the Vast! I bet he's glad he has someone with some talent to watch play. Not like he'll ever see Useless over there get to play. Who would want to see that scrawny fish-bone play anyway?" He and the people that were actually buying this crap all laughed at that one. I'd be lying if I said that didn't hurt, but I'm resolved to not let it get me down and proving myself next year. So I just kept acting like I didn't hear them.

"Hey, Hiccup! You going to come out and make an embarrassment of yourself again next year?!"Snotlout sneered from across the room at me. I hate that nickname. He gave it to me in middle school, and now practically the whole school calls me it. He even got some of the teachers to call me it. I really just don't want to deal with this right now. It's less than ten minutes till I'm free from this place for summer. So I just keep my head down and act like I didn't hear him, but of course that didn't work as I see him get up and walk over to me.

"Yo, Useless, I'm talking to you!"

"What do you want Snolout?" I ask, exasperated. I just want to go home.

"We were just hoping that you were going to try out again next year. It's always fun to watch you fail and prove how useless you are Hiccup." I honestly don't know what he gets out of treating me like this, but my patience is beginning to wear thin so I respond even though I know it's stupid.

"Yes, actually, and I plan on making the team." Snotlout looks slightly dumbfounded by my answer like he wasn't expecting it, but he quickly recovers.

"How do you plan on making the team when you can't even hit the ball out the infield you're so useless?" All his buddies laugh at that one, and by this point I can't help but retort.

"Oh yeah, Shaun, if you're so good, how come this is the first year in over 20 years that Berk hasn't made it to the playoffs. Obviously someone as good as you claim to be would be able to lead a team to the playoffs." He was not expecting that. Hell! I wasn't expecting that, but I spoke up and I'm not going to back down now. Plus the flustered look on his face was worth it, until it is replaced with anger.

"First off, Useless," he spit that to make it as insulting as possible, "it's Snotlout! Don't ever call me that again if you know what's good for you. And second, it's not my fault my team's not good enough to keep up with my awesomeness. Not like you would know seeing how you couldn't even make the team."

"Alright, Snotlout. You do realize that baseball is a team sport, so you have to play as one in order to win. All you did all season was try to pad your own stats, not caring about whether you win or lose. You may have hit 10 home runs, but when you only have 15 RBIs, that just goes to show how little you actually did to help your team win." I know it's stupid to provoke him, and even stupider to think that anything of what I'm saying is actually getting through that thick skull of his. Maybe though, he might learn a thing or two about being a team player.

Before he has time to think of a comeback, the bell rings, and I quickly grab my stuff and slip out of the classroom, leaving a dumbfounded and slightly irritated Snotlout behind. Before I know I'm out of the school doors, and headed home for a long summer of training. Little did I know, a cute blonde hair blue eye girl was sitting two rows ahead of me, listening to the whole conversation.