Hiccup rested comfortably on the lush leather couch that resided among a cluster of six others. The unrecognizable banter that was produced by the ravenous creature called "Third lunch wave" waffled down the hall and provided a modicum of comfort.
it's easier to concentrate when ambient noise is present. He didn't know why, maybe it help break up the tumult of thoughts that usually get jumbled together into one single incoherent...
There he goes again, and here is the sound of starving teens lulling him back on topic. He isn't what you would call a nerd, or a geek. He wasn't entirely an outsider either, he was someone that people noticed, but kept to themselves about.
He was one of those particularly rare cases where he really didn't give a damn about what others thought of him. Yes, there have been cases where rumors where spread about him, but a single word to the right person and the rumor are gone by the next day.
Hiccup could say he is proud of his status. Unbound by a social dominance, untethered to popularity cliques, he is a mercenary, a free lancer. Others come to him when they need information on another group, or person. Ironic really, he prefers distance, and it his dethatched relations to the student body that keeps him chained down like the rest of them.
It is the beginning of his senior year, not even two months into school, and he already has a request for information. The clients name...Undisclosed, but he is the brother of Ruffnut Thorston.
Hiccup chuckled to himself as he entered another line of binary code, but deleted it and rewrote it with a trained eye. The idiot of a senior has a certain football brute-of-friend, that is interested in knowing if there are any girls that like him.
It's just another petty who's-with-who tactic. He couldn't give a shit less about who's dating. There have never been a girl that caught his eyes, usually they're only looking for someone to...satisfy their cravings.
Why go around fucking an endless amount of woman when you can find that one person that files you with more joy than what a thousand of these scanks could provide? Hiccup minimized the screen of computer script and switched to another window.
The program was beginning to run a diagnostic using the newly entered information, but he was interrupted by a presence, sagging the opposite end of his couch. Closing the lid Hiccup's eyes fell on Snotlout, A.K.A, football brute-of-friend.
"So, what have you found out?"
"It depends, who do you want to know about?"
Snotlout snorted impatiently.
"Look, I just want to know who has an eye on me."
Hiccup rolled his eyes, then with a rehearsed tone, explained that there were several girls "checking him out", as he would put it. However, most of them are already in stable relationships and he is nothing more than eye candy to them.
However, there are about six girls that did find him slightly attractive and wouldn't mind getting...acquainted with him. Although, out of those six, only a few where fairly attractive.
"And you found this all out in one night?"
Snotlout asked in a disbelieving tone.
"About the price."
"Well, I suppose you did hold up your end of the barging, alright, two tickets to the pink Floyd concert in the Wolf Den. Three weeks from Thursday, but I am curious to know who you're taking."
Hiccup snatched the tickets and slipped them into his backpack's front pocket before zipping it up. He then waited to see if there was anything else, and when he didn't say anything more, Hiccup returned to what he was doing previously
He brightened when he saw that the few lines of script made a visible improvement to the gyroscopic sensor Array, but the timing in the four propellers where still off, and he would have to find a way to tweak that, without throwing the forward weight distributer off.
Switching back to his script, Hiccup began entering what would appear to be lines of jumbled letters, and symbols, but a trained eye could clearly see what his project was.
Despite his near straight "A" standing, and almost perfect attendance record. Hiccup still enjoyed having a little fun every now and again. The tickets he just received held little interest in his mind, but he knew of at least thirteen couples that would pay a pretty penny to get them, and he could probably double that money if he waited until the last minute.
"Having fun?"
Hiccup looked up to see the one person in this god forsaken school that he actually enjoys hanging out with.
"Hey Fishlegs, what's up?"
"Not much just got back from physics. Mr. Paterson sure knows how to strain a kids brain."
Hiccup just chuckled, knowing all too well Paterson's reputation for his college level labs, and next day reports that have to be a minimum of six pages, and has to be done exactly how he wants it, or the paper is an automatic F.
"How's it going with this?"
He gestured to the open laptop, and the graphic interface that currently displayed the information for his prototype.
"Better, I managed to fix the Gyroscopes, but now I have to tweak the forward sensors so that I won't flip in mid flight."
"How about two separate parts, instead of writing it all together, then trying to tweak it later."
Fishlegs motioned for the computer, and Hiccup tentatively handed it to him. Fishlegs then opened a new prompt screen and began entering the formulas for what he had suggested. Hiccup felt his excitement rising as he began to understand where he was coming from, and what how this would improve his idea.
Handing the computer back, Hiccup took it and examined the new information eagerly. His idea is sound, and could work in fixing the problem, but he would have to redefine a bunch of variables to make this work properly.
Fishlegs saw the way his friend light up, smiled with a self-satisfied smirk. He knew from the blank stare Hiccup was giving his computer screen that it could work, and he was thinking about how he could apply it to his program.
"So, have you seen anyone yet?"
"Excuse me?"
"Don't act like that, surly there's someone you have an interest in?"
"In a schools where the two main sports are football, and sex, not really...besides, in my position, I am required to know what is going on in any one group at any given point of the day..."
Hiccup looked around with a disgusted look, then shuttered, earning him a fulhearted laugh from Fish, and a slap on his shoulder.
"I suppose so, but that doesn't mean..."
He stopped with a mild grin when Hiccup snapped around and glared at him. Fishlegs just threw his hands up in mock surrender.
"Alright, fine, but if you don't find a girl friend soon then everyone's going to think your gay."
"And who's the only person, ever seen with me?"
Fishlegs tensed and glared patronizingly at him. Hiccup only chuckled and began closing down his system when the bell rang, singling that lunch is over, and they all need to continue to their last class of the day.
"So, you're going to robotics?"
Hiccup closed his bag, and flung it over one shoulder before turning to Fishlegs to answer his question.
"Ya, our teacher, Mr. Healy is going to help me with the prototype."
"How are you going to do that? I didn't know they made part small enough."
"Well not the entire assembly, just the actuators, and the drive shafts."
"All right, hey, I'll text you later, maybe we can go to the mall?"
"Sounds good."
Luckily, the robotics lab was right down the hall, so he was able to avoid the hoards of veracious looking teens. In addition, there was something about confined corridors, filled with the smell of spaghetti medley Tuesday, combined with the stench of body odder that he finds a bit more than repulsive.
Hiccup pushed through the unnaturally heavy wooden door, and stepped into the familiar wood-floored workshop that he grown so fond of over the last two year.
"Mr. Haddock, nice to see you."
Hiccup smiled politely to his robotics teacher, who was leaning back in his chair, flipping a pen around his fingers. That was one thing that always intrigued Hiccup. Maybe it was because he didn't have the reflexes, or coordination to do that himself, or to give a simple answer, it just looks plain cool.
"Thanks, I fixed a few issues from last time, would you like to take a look?"
"Set it up in the back, I have to wait for the rest of class."
With his, bag in hand, Hiccup made his way through the storage closet, and found an empty table in the back corner. As he rebooted his laptop, Hiccup went over to the storage locker and using his key, unlocked his project, then placed it next to his computer.
Last year he approached Mr. Healy with his concept, at first his teacher thought he was joking, but when Hiccup approached him the next class with a three-dimensional Model of what he was planning, Mr. Healy leapt at the chance.
He thinks it's because Mr. Healy is one of those few teachers who actually want you to succeed, and take immense pride at seeing his students graduate.
Hiccup looked up when he heard the next room begin to fill, then Mr. Healy reviewing the instructions for this class, and asking what was accomplished.
"What..what is that? How is that an I don't know? Honestly James, an orangutan has more commonsense."
This was followed by immense laughter produced by the group of kids that took this class as an easy "A". If there is one thing Mr. Healy is known for, it's his unique sense of humor, and absolutely zero tolerance for stupidity, which results into what he just said next door.
Shaking his head, Hiccup began gathering the necessary components to continue on his prototype. Well, in truth it's less of a prototype and more of a guideline for his actual project.
By the time, all the other students began trickling into the room, and retrieving their projects, Hiccup already had his reassembled, and was working on the two-stage drive shaft.
"Let's see this flying death trap."
Hiccup had to suppress a humored grunt, and opened his laptop. He could see Healy examine the interface with interest, then hiccup showed him the virtual simulation.
"It looks like your rotors are out of sync."
"They are. But I have a plan to fix that."
"How are you going to do that? You can't mess around with the stabilizers; otherwise it'll throw off your balance and well..."
"I'm going to separate it into two commands. One for the front and one for the back, then by have them linked by a separate command which will control the speed at which they spin."
"That...could work."
He simply nodded and attached the last actuator hose, then held up his completed design.
"Your father will be proud of you Hennery."
"He's too busy to have time for this. But I am looking forward to seeing his face."
"That's the spirit...Alex! What did I tell you about burning the table?"
Hiccup looked over to see the one called "Alex" holding a soldering iron, with a belittled expression, as he hung his head, more shame at getting caught, than actually doing the foul deed.
"Looking good, Hennery, I'll get back to you."
He gave a simple nod before plugging his contraption into his computer, and coping his command prompt over to it.
"Here goes nothing."
He whispered, and hit enter. The propellers immediately spun into action. He increased the power slowly until it began to wobble. This was a promising sign, happy with the test; he decreased the power, and initialized the secondary command.
The actuators now buzzed as they pulled the cylindrical rotors up into place, then a loud click alerted him that they are locked down. Exhaling a nervous breath, Hiccup increased the power again.
"YES!"
He exclaimed when the entire contraption began to role forward. This is the most progress he's made in the entire time he's spent working on this project. Using the arrow key, Hiccup tested its turning radius, and was beyond satisfied with the results.
"What's going on over here?"
Hiccup looked up to realize that everyone had gathered around him to see what all the commotion was.
"It's just a remote controlled car."
One of them said, Hiccup only shook his head with a nervous chuckle. Placing the contraption back in front of him, he initialized the flight controller, and he heard a few gasps as the wheels maneuvered outward, then tilted down at ninety degrees.
With a determine smile, hiccup began increasing the power again so that the wheels aced like rotors, and began to lift the object into the air. But the moment it left the table, it began drifting to the right, and up.
He cut the power and caught it before it could crash into the table.
Satisfied with the results, Hiccup placed it down in front of him and began incorporating Fishless idea into the script. Everyone gradually dissipated and returned to their previous assignment.
"Hiccup, what will you do when this is completed?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I can think of almost twenty industries, and at least five branches of government that can use this."
Hiccup stopped when he began to understand what he meant.
"Well then, maybe I should make a call."
Healy simply nodded his head, then returned to his class. Hiccup merely continued drumming away on his key board, testing his design every time he entered a new piece of information.
Finally after about an hour of fine-tuning, and rewriting, he finally had it the way he wanted. With his final test, the object spun to life, and rose steadily into the air.
Hiccup exhaled a sigh of relief, then with hurried motions began to unplug everything, and pack up.
"Mr. Healy, is it okay that I leave early?"
He waved him off, not even bothering to turn around.
"Wait, why does he get to leave twenty minutes early?"
Someone whined.
"Because unlike you, Hennery actually does his work."
"Hennery, I thought his name was Hiccup."
This was the last thing he heard before exiting the classroom, and rushing down the hall, out the front doors. After fishing his keys out of his Pocket, He quickly found his car in the back parkinglot.
His pride and joy, a nineteen sixty-nine Buick Skylark, he got it as a pile of junk for his sixteenth birthday, and was told that if he could rebuild it, then it was his. Well it took him two years, and every penny he made from his patents to restore it.
More time spent in learning about mechanics, than actually working on it.
But looking at her now, two-toned iridescent blue, with silver ghost flames on the hood, and sides, it was well worth the effort. Hiccup slid into the driver's seat, and started her up.
The drive back to his house was short as usual. And of course he loved turning people's heads as he rocketed by. One of the few things, besides engineering, that put a smile on his face.
When Hiccup pulled into his driveway, he noticed something different this time. The fore sale sign across the street was gone, and a moving truck was parked outside. Hiccup watched with surprised interest as people moved things off the truck and into the house.
So, the house was finally bought, this was a pleasant change of events. About a five months ago, the old residence just upped and left, the police said that they abandoned it. Pity, it's such a nice house, they probably couldn't afford the mortgage, he had a feeling that they were either drunks, or had a substance-abuse problem.
Hiccup was about to open his rear passenger side door to get his back pack and contraption, but he was suddenly caught off guard by something completely unexpected.
A beautiful girl, with blond hair, wearing a summer green vest, and sky blue skinny jeans, there have been girls in the past that caught his eye, but only for a second, and never where any of them worth a second glance.
But her, she was a different story all together, not even the same genre. She was in every definition, beautiful. Not obscured by thick layers of mascara, or any other foul powder that advertises its ability to turn the hideous, into something pretty.
Hiccup found that he could not look away from her no matter how hard he tried; everything about her was captivating, even the way she was looking at him...
He snapped back to reality and pulled his car door open. He prayed that she didn't see him, but of course he knew better, and now she probably thinks he's some sort of stalker.
Hiccup glanced out the rear windshield, relieved that she had gone back inside. Hiccup sighed a breath of relief and pulled himself out of the rear of his car.
"Hi!"
An all too friendly voice exclaimed, causing hiccup to jump a foot into the air and crash into corner of his car. Hiccup grunted as a jolt of pain shot from his hip.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, are you alright?"
It was her, the girl he just saw. She's here, standing with him, talking to him.
"I...Hi..."
"Are you always this smooth with the ladies?"
She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"What, no, just never met one worth talking to."
"And what makes the other percentage of the female race inferior to me?"
Hiccup couldn't help but grin at her witty sarcasm.
"Let's start over. Hi, I'm Hiccup"
"Astrid...Hiccup, that's an unusual name."
"It's a nick name, my actual name is Hennery."
"Hennery, that's a nice name."
He didn't know but there was something about Astrid that he finds deeply alluring, not her looks, not that she's not pretty, actually she's the most beautiful...
"I appreciate that, not many people call me that any more. But to answer your previous question. If you're going to Montville high, then you'll understand why I don't bother talking to any of the other girls."
She crossed her arms and leaned an elbow against the edge of the Skylark.
"What are you saying? That, because I don't go to Montville High, I am automatically worth your time?"
"In a school where the main discussion is football, and extracurricular activities actually mean getting laid, then a friendly face is a welcome change in deed."
"Well then, do you have plans tonight?"
Who is this angle, he hasn't even known her for ten minutes and she's already asking him out...but the way she made it sound, it's not a date, as it is a chance to meet someone knew.
"Tell you what Astrid. I am planning to meet my friend Fishlegs at the mall later. You're welcomed to join us if you're interested."
"That sounds nice."
She then produced a purple sharpie from her back pocket, then grabbed his hand and began writing something down.
"Text me when you're ready to leave, and I'll come over."
"O...o..Okay."
She gave him a wink before hurrying across the street. Hiccup just stared at the fluent lines that dominated his hand, coalescing into a phone number. Slowly he turned and walked into his house, ignoring the open door behind him as he held his palm out right, afraid that a single twitch would destroy the precious number, and render it lost to him.
Tossing his bag on the couch, and placing his robot, if it can be called that, on the kitchen counter. Using his free hand, Hiccup grabbed a piece of paper copied the number onto it.
Retrieving his phone out of his back pocket, Hiccup hit one, and waited as the line began to ring.
"Yo, dude, are we on for the mall?"
"Ya, we're on, and Fish...we're going to be having company."