Hey guys! This is my RotBTD High School AU fic, based on shadowpiratemonkey7's work of art, which you can find on her deviantArt entitled "Request: High School AU". Anyway! I hope you enjoy, and even if you don't, please R&R! Here you go!
Hiccup fidgeted nervously in his chair, pulled at his collar, and checked his watch for the umpteenth time. He looked over at his cousin, Astrid, who sat with her arms crossed, boredly watching a fly. He could hear the voices of his father and the principal in the room across the hall, and could just barely make out what they were saying.
"He's a gentle boy, very introverted—"
"I understand that, Mr. Haddock, and I can assure you that our staff will keep a close watch on him. This is a safe, nonjudgmental environment where your son can flourish."
Hiccup almost snorted. That's what the last three schools had said, but suffice it to say that he was not in a new school halfway through his sophomore year because he was tired with the decor of his last school.
He blew his bangs out of his eyes and swallowed a dry heave.
Astrid finally looked over at him, her pale blue eyes seeming to see into his soul. "Hiccup. Chill. It will be better this time. Just relax."
He nodded, taking her advice and slumping over in his chair, but immediately perking up again when the door to the principal's office opened. Stoick, his large, burly father, squeezed out of the small doorway, followed close behind by Mr. Moone, a smaller man in a midnight blue suit. Stoick smiled widely at them, but Hiccup could see the pained expression in his eyes. Mr. Moone also smiled, but his was a genuine, enthusiastic smile full of love.
"Hello!" Mr. Moone shook Hiccup and Astrid's hands, still beaming like the moon he was named for. "I'm Mr. Moone, your princy-pal—" he chuckled at his own pun, "—and on behalf of everyone here at Arendelle Academy, I would like to welcome you into our family here at school! I don't want you to think of this place as a prison, or a purgatory, or even a school, really. I want you to think of this place as your second home!" Hiccup inwardly groaned. "Now then," Mr Moone continued, "here are your schedules, locker combinations, and a pocket-sized map of the school, just in case. Would you like an escort to your classes?"
"No thanks," Astrid immediately piped up. "We can figure it out."
Speak for yourself, Hiccup thought.
"Alright then! It's nearing the end of second period, so I'll send you on your way! Have fun!" Hiccup nodded a forced smile and turned on his heel, stuffing the papers into his messenger bag and following Astrid down the hall.
The pair walked down the hall of their new school, Hiccup looking around nervously, Astrid striding confidently, her blond braid swinging behind her. "Do you think there's a vending machine around here?" Astrid asked. Hiccup shrugged. "What about a drinking fountain?" Hiccup quickly scanned the hallway and spotted one by the stairwell to the first floor. He pointed her to it.
As she drank, Hiccup heard voices. He looked around like a hunted deer, and pinpointed the source: the stairwell. He grabbed Astrid by the sleeve and drug her down the steps, stopping a step from the landing and peering over the wall that separated their half of the stairs from the voices' half. What he saw surprised him.
Three teenagers about his own age sat on the bottom three stairs. They were all in uniform, sky blue ties with clean white shirts. They looked like normal kids, not the juvenile delinquents Hiccup had expected. One, a girl with short brown hair, said, "He's not that old!"
Another girl, this one with a long mane of frizzy red locks, said, "He's, like, four years older than you!" Her Scottish accent, one that matched his father's, surprised Hiccup.
"And in the grand scheme of things," the brunette retorted, "that's not a lot!"
A boy with shocking snow-white hair said, "He's, like, a sophomore in college! You're a sophomore in high school!"
"Whatever," the brunette again, "you're just jealous of him!"
"I am not!"
"You are too! You like me, admit it!"
A blush painted itself onto his ivory skin. "I do not!"
The ginger chortled. "You might as well have just admitted it, Frost!"
He sourly smiled at her and playfully punched her on the arm. "Whatever."
The brunette laughed. "Well, I have to go. I can't be late to Mrs. Bennet's. She's a b—" the ginger raised her eyebrow with a smirk, "—it… of work." She caught herself. "She's a bit of work if you're late."
"Ooh," the boy sing-songed, "Rapunzel Corona, goody two-shoes of the year!"
The girl apparently named Rapunzel stuck her tongue out at him and stood up, pulling up her mismatched pink and purple knee socks. She dusted off her black, pleated skirt and gathered up her books, saying, "Shut up, Jack." She chuckled. "Jack Frost, jealous guy friend of the year!"
His blush returned. "I am not jealous!"
Rapunzel and the ginger gave each other a look and immediately burst out singing, "Jack Frost, Jack Frost, sitting in a tree! Kissing some dolls that look like you and me!" He kicked them both. They all laughed.
Rapunzel looked over her shoulder as she began to walk away and waved. They waved back, smiling still. The click of her heels slowly faded out of earshot, but not before Jack and the ginger had started a new conversation.
"But seriously," he said, "Eugene is too old for her. Doesn't he classify as, like, a pedophile?"
"I guess, if you want to think like that. I mean, really, it's not that weird. Once she turns eighteen, he'll only be twenty-two. Think about it this way: When she's fifty-two, he'll be fifty-six. When she's eighty, he'll be eighty-four."
"I don't wanna think about Rapunzel at eighty."
They laughed. Hiccup was entranced by this group of kids; upon looking over, however, he saw Astrid once again following a fly with her eyes. Every once in a while, she would look over boredly at the group, but ultimately, she was looking at cracks in the wall, the sun glaring in the window, or specks of dust on the tiles.
Jack stood up and Hiccup got a good look at his front. His tie was undone, hanging loosely from his neck, and his feet were bare. He had icy blue eyes that Hiccup could see even at the distance he was from Jack. Jack began stretching as he and the ginger continued to talk.
"Does he really even love her? They say it every night, but I think he's just a perv."
"I think you're a perv."
"Again: shut up. And they don't even have the same interests! He's all eco-goth, save the earth with black makeup on, and she's all—"
"Save the earth with normal makeup on?"
"I was gonna say she's all sunflowers and snickerdoodles, but yeah! She's the radiant sun, he's… The Underworld."
"You're being blinded by jealousy. He's not that bad. He wears black eyeliner occasionally, but you'd never be able to tell he's eco-goth."
"What about that band he's in?"
"The Riders? I like their music!"
"You would."
"Oh, lighten up, Jack! He loves her! Now if you want her, hike up your skirt and tell her!"
"I don't—" he sighed defeatedly. "But she loves him. How can I compete with a college guy?"
"You're Jack Freaking Frost! Coolest guy around! Class clown that makes everybody laugh! Badass at everything he does!" Jack smiled sheepishly and kicked at the ground with his big toe.
The bell rang. Jack began retying his tie and putting on his socks. The ginger stood up and shook out her mass of copper curls. She tossed her head back and Hiccup got his first glimpse at her face.
Oh. My. Gods. She was beautiful. He only got a glimpse at her roundish face, but it was enough to make him fall head over heels for her. His jaw dropped and he followed her disappearing form as the halls began filling with students.
"Well. They were… Interesting." Hiccup whispered. Astrid looked mildly surprised. It was rare for him to speak.
"They were weird. Stay away from people like them, Hiccup. I gotta get to weights. See you at lunch."
She walked away, but Hiccup was still transfixed on the group. He tried to fight it, but he began to daydream. He saw them, the four of them all together, running through a meadow of sunflowers as best friends, and although it was cheesy, he really enjoyed the feeling of friendship, even if it was a wisp from a dream.
He could get used to that feeling.
"Mr. Haddock, please stand." Hiccup grumbled and stood up. So far, he was really hating Mr. Black. "Class, this is Mr. Hiccup Haddock. Our new student. And apparently, he hasn't heard of the word uniform." The class snickered. "Tell us about yourself, Hiccup."
Hiccup shook his head.
Mr. Black narrowed his golden eyes. "Fine. Make this harder. What's your favorite color?" Hiccup pointed to his olive green sweater. "Favorite number." Three fingers. "Where are you from?"
Hiccup scanned the room, walked over to a map of the country, and pointed to Berk.
Mr. Black raised his chin. "Fine."
Hiccup returned to his seat. A few of his classmates smirked at Mr. Black. One clapped Hiccup on the shoulder. "It's not every day someone outsmarts Pitch," he whispered. Hiccup allowed himself a proud and smug grin. Maybe he could learn to like psychology class, if it meant he could gain some popularity.
An hour later, the bell rang again. Hiccup checked his schedule and began making his way to the trigonometry room.
He froze as he entered the room. He was probably the youngest one there. Everyone else was a lot older, Juniors and Seniors. He backed out of the room and checked his schedule again. Trigonometry with Mr. Bunnymund, room 109. He checked the door. 109. He checked the time. 4th period. Yes.
Hiccup bit his lip and closed his eyes, trying to control his breathing. He reached under his shirt and grabbed ahold of his lucky dragon talisman, thinking about his mother. Okay Hiccup, he thought. You can do this. You can do this.
He took another deep breath and walked into the room again. There was a seat open in the front row, one seat from the end, and in that seat next to the open one was...
YES!
Hiccup made his way to the open seat, ignoring the older kids, and sat down next to Rapunzel. She was turned in her seat, talking to a pretty girl behind her with platinum blond hair and cold blue eyes. They chatted about things teenage girls would chat about, and Hiccup eavesdropped to try and figure out Rapunzel. "Well, I just don't think it could've happened!" she said.
"Well why not?" the other girl asked.
"Because, time travel just doesn't happen!" Hiccup's ears perked up when he heard this. "Besides, it's only in the show! The actual copy doesn't have it!"
"But what if you COULD time travel? Theoretically?"
"Well, then, make sure to take a girl named Amy for him to fall in love with."
The ball rang again and Rapunzel turned around in her seat while a tall man with oddly bluish-black hair walked in. Hiccup suspected this was Mr. Bunnymund. "Alright, class!" he said in a deep voice with a strong Australian accent. "Today we are going to..." his spring green eyes locked onto Hiccup's. Hiccup looked away, uncomfortable, immediately. Mr. Bunnymund gave him a warm smile and continued, "Ahem, sorry. Today we are going to, ahm... Review! Just for those of you who may need to catch up!" A few of the students sighed in relief, a few of them muttering "thank you" and "God bless you, Aster!" Mr. Bunnymund grinned and drew a triangle on the board. "Now. You're walking up a five hundred meter hill with an incline of fifty-eight degrees. How many meters would you have to climb to reach the top? Use sine and round to the hundredth." Hiccup worked the problem out mostly in his head (with some help from his calculator) and put his pencil down. Within a few seconds, everyone was finished. "The answer?" Mr. Bunnymund asked the class.
"Five hundred-four point zero three," the class said in unison.
"Very good. That was a bit of an easy one, though. Try this one." He put a word problem on the overhead projector. A surveyor is measuring the distance across a small lake. He has set up his transit on one side of the lake 90 feet from a piling that is directly across from a pier on the other side of the lake. From this transit, the angle between the piling and here is 35°. What is the distance between the piling and the pier to the nearest foot?
Hiccup looked around uncomfortably. When he saw the other students writing on their papers, he wanted to cry. He was really hoping someone would raise their voice and ask the obvious question, but no one did. Hiccup bit his lip. Mr. Bunnymund noticed, and came over to Hiccup. Kneeling on one knee, he asked Hiccup, "Is something wrong?"Hiccup bit his lip. A few of the other students were staring at him, so he couldn't just come out and ask it. Instead, he drew a small circle and a question mark next to it. Mr. Bunnymund furrowed his brow. "I'm afraid I don't understand." Hiccup was almost ready to throw up at this point, so he wrote on his paper, Can I speak to you in the hall? Mr Bunnymund smiled and stood up, walking out of the door with Hiccup following him.
Hiccup closed the door when the had exited and turned to his teacher. He took a deep breath. "Is the lake a circle?"
Mr. Bunnymund looked amused. "Well, let me answer that with another question: Does it matter?"
Hiccup looked shocked. "Of course it matters. If the lake isn't a circle, the problem cannot be solved."
"So then, let's assume the lake is a circle."
Mr. Bunnymund began to open the door when Hiccup said, almost to himself, "Then the lake would be sixty-three feet across."
Mr. Bunnymund's hand froze mid-turn on the door handle. He turned to Hiccup. "What was that?"
Hiccup's eyes got wide. "Oh, uh... Nothing," he mumbled.
Mr. Bunnymund placed his hands on both of Hiccup's shoulders. "What is your name, mate?"
Hiccup stared at the ground and mumbled, "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock." As an afterthought, he added, "The third."
Mr. Bunnymund smiled and offered Hiccup his hand. "My name is Aster." Hiccup regarded the hand wearily, then accepted the firm, solid grip of his teacher. Aster pulled out his phone and showed Hiccup another problem. "Can you tell me what the answer to this one is?"
A building 200 feet tall casts a 90 foot long shadow. If a person looks down from the top of the building, what is the measure of the angle between the end of the shadow and the vertical side of the building (to the nearest degree)? (Assume the person's eyes are level with the top of the building.)
Hiccup stared at the problem for a moment, then said, "Twenty-four degrees."
Aster looked at him incredulously, scrolled down to the answer, and looked back at him. "That is...correct, Hiccup." Hiccup glared at his shoes, trying not to meet Aster's gaze.
"Don't tell anybody," Hiccup mumbled. Aster nodded. "As you wish, mate. C'mon, let's go back inside." They walked in and all eyes fell on Hiccup. For a moment, he was mortified that they had heard the conversation outside, but then all of the heads turned back to their papers. They were just curious as to who was walking through the door, Hiccup realized with a mental sigh of relief.
He took his seat next to Rapunzel, who looked over at him and asked, "Do you know how to do this problem? I'm stumped."
Hiccup blinked, realized she was talking to him, and said, "Yeah..."
But then the girl behind her said, "Aw, come on, Punzie! It's not that hard! You just have to think about it a little bit!" She then proceeded to explain the problem to Rapunzel and Hiccup was left deflated as he turned inward on himself.
The bell rang a half hour and 19 problems later. Hiccup got up, preparing himself for lunch. He followed the horde of students to the cafeteria and got in line. He felt like a loser and a loner standing amongst the chatting people and guffawing jocks. He bought himself a sub sandwich in plastic wrap and a bottle of water and looked around the room. Not a table was completely empty, not even almost empty, so Hiccup just walked out of the boisterous room to wander the halls. He wondered if maybe he could find the Unknowns (as he had nicknamed the three kids from this morning) at the stairwell they were at previously, but no such luck. Not knowing what else to do, he followed his map to the library. A desk sat unoccupied in the front, so Hiccup assumed the librarian was on their lunch break. He wound his way through the large maze of books to finally find a small table in the back of the library. He sat down and started on his sandwich.
He was no more than halfway through it when he suddenly heard voices. Very familiar voices. He scrambled out of his chair with his water and sandwich and dove behind the nearest bookshelf.
Jack led the way, sitting them down at the table Hiccup had been at moments before. Rapunzel and the ginger, whose name he still did not know, followed Jack. They were already talking about random nonsensical stuff. Hiccup was entranced.
"Maybe we could hire a hitman—" the ginger was saying.
"Merida, no!" Hiccup gasped. Her name was Merida. She was even more beautiful up close. Hiccup couldn't help but notice that her shirt was untucked from her pleated skirt and her knee socks were the same sky blue as the mandatory tie they all had to wear. Her small nose was dusted with adorable freckles and even her eyes were the same sky blue as here attire. She was breathtaking.
"We can't just kill him!" Rapunzel was saying. "Besides, I wouldn't want to kill him. He's a human being, and a human, no matter how much of a douche they are, deserves to live! It's not our place to decide when someone should leave this world."
"Oh boy," Jack said, rolling his eyes, "here comes the religious, eco-goth brainwashing from Eugene again!"
"Jack, these are my own beliefs."
"Oh, suuure they are!"
"Anyway," Merida interrupted. "I think you're missing the big picture here. It doesn't matter how we take care of him—just that we take care of him. He's a tyrant!"
"You got that right. Mor'du needs to go down." Rapunzel had a look of malice in her eyes that seemed so out of place amongst the "sunflowers and snickerdoodles" in her personality that Hiccup was kind of afraid.
Jack laughed and tickled her on her chin. "Ooh, little kitty is growing into a big lion! What are you going to do next, Nala?"
She slapped away his hand, laughing. "Shut up, Kovu!"
"Oh, that's hurtful!"
They all laughed. Hiccup's awe turned to terror when suddenly, he sneezed. The three friends froze, each slowly turning to the source of the sound. "Did you hear that?" Rapunzel whispered.
"OI! COME OUT AND FACE US, YOU SPY!" Merida shouted. Rapunzel shushed her while Hiccup desperately began to search for a way out. Jack slowly moved to the same crack in the books that Hiccup had been using. Hiccup's eyes got wide as he made a rash decision and ran for it. He clutched his bag to his side as he weaved in and out of the books, hearin Merida following him. He assumed Jack and Rapunzel were close behind her, but they weren't growling insults like a hungry hyena as she was.
Finally, Hiccup burst out of the maze of books and lept out of the doorway, breathing hard. He ran blindly toward a stairwell and climbed the stairs clumsily, slipping when he turned back to see Merida at the base of the steps. At the top of the stairs, he ran into a janitor's closet and jammed it shut with a wet floor sign. Looking around desperately as Merida pounded on the door, he noticed an air vent. He managed to get it off with one of his keys and climbed through it, securing it in place on the other side just in time as Merida burst through the door, shattering the yellow floor sign, her face red with anger. Hiccup held his breath as she surveyed the room, thankfully not seeing the air vent he was currently situated behind. Rapunzel entered as well and began trying to calm Merida down. Eventually, Merida let Rapunzel drag her out of the room, still fuming and shouting, "When you come out of there, I'll be waiting!"
Hiccup shakily released the breath he'd been holding and almost began laughing. He assumed it was either the adrenaline pumping through his veins or the beginning of hysterics, but he hoped it was his subconscious telling him he could get used to them.
As he began crawling through the airways, Hiccup's mind wandered to their faces. Jack had a perpetual lopsided grin on with very angular features and smooth, porcelain skin. Rapunzel had big, grass green eyes that always sparkled with laughter, even when she was angry. Merida's face was very round, and turned red when she got angry, Hiccup thought with a chuckle. He thought of their laughter, the way they seemed to harmonize with each other in all that they said and did. Hiccup thought of his own laughter, which normally he hated, and added it to theirs. Then he added his own face next to theirs and thought of his own lines in a conversation. He pictured them in a tangle of limbs, lying on each other, as they watched the stars.
Yep. He could definitely get used to them.
Aww! Hiccup! ...That's all I have to say about that. Please R&R!