LEARN TO TRUST YOURSELF

PROLOGUE

"My name is Howard "Hiccup" Haddock. I am 18 years old with serious self esteem issues, more medical problems than you can shake a stick at and absolutely no way of stopping everything I set my sights on, going wrong. The phrase; "everything that can go wrong, will go wrong"… well simply put it seems that I define the phrase. One last thing before I go, talking to myself in the mirror feels like a damned stupid idea."

I sighed as I left the bathroom and entered my bedroom next to it for the last time for the foreseeable. I was leaving for university today, and not for some high end university which needs you to be a genius from the age of three to attend. No, I'd barely scraped into a foundation year way up in the north somewhere, "turning over a new leaf", as mum keeps saying. It's one of her more annoying phrases but I've never had the heart (or the balls) to say that to her.

"You've packed everything haven't you Hiccup! We're not doing a 500 mile round trip next week because you forgot your undies!"

That's mums voice calling upstairs to me. I swear to whatever gods are out there that if she takes a day off housework (she never stops, not even on weekends) then the country would fall. I always wonder how the house functioned when she had a proper job, now that she doesn't go out to work anymore there's always something else to clean or gardening to be done. Regardless she actually did most of the packing for me, so if anythings been forgotten it's more likely to be her fault than mine.

"I'm pretty sure you packed those yourself mum, alongside everything else!" I yelled back downstairs to her. Not hearing a reply, I hefted my day sack over my shoulder and took one last look around my room just in case I had actually missed anything obvious. There was my already bare bed to my left, the wall sockets next to it devoid of any chargers or plugs. At the foot of it was my main storage space. It was a bit of furniture out of Ikea which had 2x4 slots in it and some boxes used to store stuff. Nothing to see here either. Finally I looked at my desk and couldn't help feeling sorry for the object lying on top of it. Externally she looked like a normal computer. Fairly small though, 3.5" wide, 13 long and 11 tall. Except she'd been gutted, she'd served me well for years now. It was now bare except for the power supply, I was hoping to build a new one from some of the parts at university over the approximate 5 years I'd be there.

I let loose a loud groan. 5 years! What was I even thinking! To study aircraft engineering and use it as leverage to join the air force as an engineer…pah! That wasn't going to happen now…

"HICCUP COME ON, I'VE GOT TO MAKE SPACE FOR THE ONE I'M LETTING YOUR ROOM TO!" Came a sudden and thunderous voice up the staircase. That is dad now getting on my case. Still trying to be funny and still failing to do so. There's got to be something weird about a man who's large enough to bench press the family car, but is constantly cracking bad jokes and wouldn't harm a fly unless his family and friends were being threatened. Not that that's a bad thing I suppose.

"Alright, coming down now!" I shout over my shoulder out the door. Looking back into my room now and slowly backing out of it I whisper; "well see you around bedroom, it's been nice-HOLY MOTHER OF-" There was suddenly something solid behind me where there shouldn't be anything solid.

"Saying yer final words are we lad?" I'd leapt forwards and spun round quicker than anyone would have thought possible with my tall, gangly and distinctly muscle-lacking build. "Hahaha!" The wall cackled in deep amusement, "it gets you every time!"

"Gobber I wish you wouldn't just creep up on me like that! Its weird how you move without making a sound when you make so much of it at the smith! Or do you just make loads of noise there to make up for the lack of sound you make here?"

"Whoah calm down laddie, I'm just here to check you've not left anything."

"Great" I roll my eyes, "because clearly everybody in this house has vast amounts of trust in my ability to look for things."

"Right because clearly we trust things like this to the half blind members of the household, right Hiccup?" Gobber responds with a dry tone.

"Gobber, I have my lenses in you know, hence why I've not walked into any walls yet" comes the automatically sarcastic reply from me.

At this point Gobber is crawling along my floor as though I'd managed to miss an item in amongst my carpet. "Ye'd best be careful with this sarcasm habit ya've got Hiccup, we're ok with it here (I snort at this) but not everyone enjoys this way of life."

"Have you finished checking my carpet fibres for anything smaller than a grain of rice that I may have missed…?" I ask in an enquiring tone.

Bolting upright and standing up; "right, we're done here boy. Lets get downstairs before yer dad goes redder than the red death…"

With me huffing slightly, we make our way downstairs where mum and dad are just standing in the hallway, talking quietly to each other, dad towering over mum by at least an entire head, and she's not exactly small either. Gobber and myself get noticed at the bottom of the staircase and mum breaks the conversation she's having and walks towards me with open arms, with dad quickly interjecting; "'Bout time son! Beginning to think you'd gotten lost in amongst that computer you labour over so much."

"Well let's be honest here, it's not like anyone would really miss all of this (gesturing to all of me) if I got lost inside that thing would they?"

"Shush you!" And here comes the light backhand to the head from mum. "Don't talk like that"

"Val, would you mind letting go of him now, we need to get going. Traffic is still a thing" dad says, almost bored now.

"I will not be seeing my son for months on end, forgive me if I'm making up for lost time now!"

"Mum please, struggling to breath here…" I say, waving my arms about behind mother so as to prove a point."

She releases me quickly and looking hurt sharply says; "okay okay I give in, everyone been to the toilet then?"

"'Ah won' need a toilet fer a month once this is over" Gobber says quiet enough so that only I can hear, "Neve sin yer mum this worried."

Sensing an opportune moment to go and sit in the car to get away from everyone, I make a feeling for the front door and open the car on the right side behind the drivers seat (1). The Citroen people carrier is packed full of bags and unbuilt Ikea furniture, barely enough space left for dad and Gobber.

It's another couple of minutes before everyone else gets into the car. I check my phone, 97%. "Bloody thing" I mutter. "Unplugged for less than 5 minutes."

Dad gets into the drivers seat in front of me, Gobber to my left and mum in front of him. It's a quick affair, as I'm the only one with any real amount of kit to carry.

"All right last call for forgotten items and toilet"

"Mum for at least the tenth time now, I'm packed and I'm pretty sure the bathroom is sick of seeing us today"

"Right then. Lets go!" Dad roars, resulting in mum hitting him in the head and scalding him for startling her.

So. I'm actually off to university.

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(1) - I'm English, so I'm going to be using English cars and laws.

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So the other story I've started! I'm releasing this chapter with the first one from the Metroid universe. Is this chapter too short? Too detailed? Boring even? Let me know and I'll (attempt to) do better in later chapters!