A/N: Hello again lovely audience! That's right, Matt's back and it's time for chapter two! I hope you enjoy!


Chapter 2: Reverie

Merida DunBroch was boiling with anger.

No… There were better words for how she was feeling.

Merida DunBroch was livid. Practically steaming out of the ears. She felt like the guy with the fiery red hair in that one Disney movie that Rapunzel had forced both Hiccup and herself to watch. The one about the really strong Greek guy. (She couldn't exactly remember the name of it due to her absolute anger. Though she did remember that there had been lots of singing, and the guy with the fiery hair was really sassy.)

In fact, she would have yelled, quite loudly to be specific, if she hadn't been in class. That didn't mean that she was actually paying attention to what her chemistry teacher was blabbering on about. It mean that she was simply sitting in a burning silence. It just meant that if she was called on in class she was just more likely to yell an angry, incorrect answer than anything else.

And she was clenching her fist around a pencil so tightly that the chances of it breaking were incredibly high.

Or at least Rapunzel, the blonde sitting in the seat to her right, thought so.

Rapunzel Corona had been keeping a keen eye on her best friend ever since she and Hiccup had whispered to her what the plan was. She had a few notes on the current predicament of Merida DunBroch's emotional state of being:

The girl's horribly angry face was the same color as her hair.

Merida had been hissing a variety curse words under her breath, and Rapunzel had been gasping slightly every time she heard a particularly terrible word.

But now… She had gotten eerily quiet, quiet to the point where if anyone were to attempt to talk to her now, she would probably scream.

Well… The list was ongoing.

And, in a way, Rapunzel couldn't blame her.

Merida's issue had to do directly with her (and Hiccup but… Mostly her).

According to the message that Hiccup had accidentally sent to Merida instead of Punzie, Jack Overland Frost was entirely onboard with their plan. Mister Frost apparently loved the idea of tutoring Merida achieve her dream of becoming a football player and playing in the Powderpuff game. He even looked forward to it. Hiccup had thanked Rapunzel for her pep-talk and said he was looking forward to informing Merida that afternoon.

That hadn't gone according to plan. In fact, the fact that they had achieved such an accomplishment without consoling her made the redhead even less happy than she already was.

A particular fact that the redhead was incredibly unhappy about.

If Merida didn't love them as much as she did… Well, they would probably have been dead by now.

Rapunzel tried to pay attention to their teacher, her eyes fixed to the whiteboard. Though, in all honestly, she was not paying attention. She was too worried that Merida was going to snap, turn around in her seat and proceed to strangle Hiccup who was sitting in the row behind them.

Rapunzel glanced down at her friend's knuckles, which were white as a ghost. And then up at the clock that was counting down the seconds that the three of them had until school was out. The clock that was counting down the seconds until her immediate destruction.

Carefully, the Punzie tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her right ear and glanced quickly back at Hiccup who was seated, incredibly still, behind them. There was a muscle in his jaw that was tightened much more than usual. His eyes were staring directly ahead of him though he didn't seem to be focusing on anything in particular. (Though... Perhaps, he was just focusing on staying alive.)

It had been his mistake, after all, that had caused this entire event of Merida's anger to be necessary.

The bell rang, stinging Rapunzel's ears. It had always been a horrible sound, or at least she thought so. Much too piercing and aggressive for a school, let alone a group of children. At the same time, Merida snapped the pencil that she had been squeezing in her hand, and one of Hiccup's books fell off his desk onto the floor.

The blonde swallowed and watched the brunette scrambled to gather his fallen books. Both were waiting for the shot, the metaphorical gunshot that would release their friend's unavoidable anger. The redhead carefully brushed the splinters off her hand and got to her feet. People were exiting the classroom, their chattering voices blending together in the background. Unaware of the bomb that was Merida DunBroch that was going to go off any second.

"Ye tois. Wi' me. Noo."

The funny thing about Merida DunBroch's accent was: it only truly came in full when she was angry. Her words became harder and harder to hear as the color of her face grew to a horrible pinkish-red. (On the phone one night, Hiccup had told Rapunzel that he didn't think she knew it was something that happened when she got angry. He said it was her Scottish blood. Rapunzel had disagreed, she said that Merida put on a sort of act just to scare people when she was angry.)

But now? Right now, she couldn't tell. Perhaps they were both right. It was both her Scottish blood and her desire to scare the two of them.

Merida had grabbed her backpack, slung it over her shoulder and was halfway to the door when Hiccup whispered the translation. He had always been the one able to understand Merida's thick accent out of the two of them.

"She said, 'You two. With me. Now.'"

"We should go then." Rapunzel had pulled her backpack over one shoulder, and was beginning to reach for half of Hiccup's stack of books.

"Probably."

The walk from their desks to Merida's locker was practically a death march. The duo could see her flaming hair bounce as she walked, backpack slung haphazardly over her shoulder. She stuck out like a sore thumb. Merida had such a rather punk sense of style: lots of plaid fabrics tied about her waist, jeans or tights with shorts, and baggy, loose, faded t-shirts. Her style was like punk threatening someone to question if it was punk or not.

Perhaps that was what both Hiccup and Rapunzel liked about her.

She was different and special and interesting.

She wasn't willing to give up without a fight. Without one final call to action. Against her mother, father, teachers, friends. Anyone. It didn't matter to Merida DunBroch who she was fighting, it only mattered that she won.

Hiccup glanced over at Rapunzel's frightened face. He gently pressed his hand awkwardly to her shoulder, trying (and failing) to comfort her. She smiled back at him.

"Let's get this over with, shall we?"

"The sooner the better." Rapunzel swallowed and walked headlong into the storm.

Merida did not have to turn to notice that they were standing behind her.

No, she took her time. The redhead had opened her locker by the time they arrived to stand in uncomfortable silence behind her. She traced her forefinger upon the titles of the ratty, old textbooks that were stacked within the messy abyss of her locker. Figuring out what she would need for homework. There were crumpled papers stuffed in the spare areas between the books and the metal, old assignments, bad test scores, the lot.

(Rapunzel could have sworn she saw the legs of a spider but, she didn't say anything.)

But on the inside panel of the door to her locker, there was a photograph of the three of them. It was in ninth grade, just after they had first met. Rapunzel remembered the photo perfectly. She had been the one to ask for it, after all.


It was the third week of freshman year. And the sun had filtered down through the clouds, as if to create the perfect lighting for a memorable photo. They had been standing in the freshman locker hall. There were large, perfectly spaced, nearly floor-to-ceiling windows that let midday light in. And it was the type of light that if one spent too much time looking out out the windows, it would make the indoors difficult to see.

Summertime light. Magical light.

Little Henry, his face still pudgy from adolescence, was carrying three textbooks in his arms, and checking his phone by tilting his head to look at his wrist instead of the other way around. He looked awkward to be seen with two rather strong-willed young ladies. He was wearing a brown sweater-vest, with a green button down underneath it. And his freckles didn't even bother to hide the slight blush he was sporting on his cheeks.

Whether it was from embarrassment or nervousness or something else entirely, it was difficult to tell.

Little Merida, her long, bright hair tied back in a perfectly elegant ponytail at the top of her head, did not have any books in her arms, in fact she barely had anything in her backpack at all. Her unruly curly hair had been straightened (per her mother's request) and fell perfectly down her back. She was leaning up against the lockers, watching both Henry and Rapunzel.

Little Rapunzel was fiddling with the camera that Mother Gothel, her caretaker while her actual parents were away, had bought her. Gothel had called it a "polaroid camera" and had told Rapunzel that it was "incredibly expensive" and "not to break it". However, she had completely forgotten to mention how to use it. So, the little blonde girl stood by the window, desperately trying to figure out how to work her camera (as well as not embarrass herself in the process).

"Do we have to take a photo?" Henry's voice hadn't dropped yet-that happened sophomore year-so it squeaked and squirmed as he spoke. "Class is going to start really soon and I really don't want to be late!"

"What's so bad about being late?" Merida raised one vibrant eyebrow, questioning the brunette.

"I want to make sure my teachers have a good impression about me, that's why!" Henry would have put his hands on his hips, (rather regally, he might add) if they weren't full of books. So instead, he proudly raised his chin upwards. "Don't you care about what your teachers think about you, Merida?"

"Of course not. My teachers can believe whatever they want to believe about me, that doesn't change who I am." Merida offered the both of them a toothy grin. "Besides, it's a lot more fun making them angry."

Rapunzel giggled at Merida's statement and nodded. "It might be fun getting them all mad but… I'm going to have to agree with Henry on this one. I really like having good grades."

"Grades over fun? I can't believe you two!" Said Merida. But she laughed, and her hair bounced as she did so, making her look much more lion than girl.

Rapunzel had then accidentially snapped a photograph of a rather unattractive below angle of her face. The photo came out the top of the camera and her two new friends crowded around to watch the image develop. It was a slow process but all three were completely enthralled by the image as it took its time appearing.

It slowly faded into the white frame, all at once. There were no particular sections that appeared darker or more vivid or anything. It was just all, slowly, carefully… There. It eventually appeared within the white square eventually and the trio leaned in a little closer to take look. There was a flash of color in the corner of the picture, which was Merida's blurry hair. And a smudge of dark that must have been Henry's hair. But, what took up most of the image was the rather unappealing angle of the young Rapunzel's face.

Henry snorted. "That's quite the shot. You're quite the photographer, Rapunzel."

Merida grinned brightly, catching the hint of his joke. "Your angle really speaks to me, Punzie."

"Thank you very much, you two!" She did not catch hint of their joke. "I think I've finally figured out how to use the camera!" Rapunzel, clasping the developed photograph between her thin fingers. It was a memory (a very weird memory) that she would treasure forever.

"Wait… You didn't before?" Henry raised his eyebrows.

Rapunzel shook her head. "Nope! This is the first camera that I've been given. Ever." She paused, looking at their surprised faces. "Is that shocking? Did you have cameras when you were younger?"

"Always!" That was Merida. "My father couldn't get his camera out of my face until my brothers were born."

"You'd be surprised how many baby photos are in my house, Rapunzel. It's really embarrassing." Henry chuckled. "Did you never have baby photos taken of you?"

"My parents were never around enough to take them." She shrugged. "And then I've never been to a real school-like this one. I've only ever been homeschooled. Well, until now, that is."

There was a slight pause. Neither the young brunette or the young redhead knew what to say. They had only just met this girl and she was practically spouting her life story to them. Neither were as open as the blonde girl standing in front of them was.

"But anyway…" Rapunzel had continued. "The lighting is so perfect right here, and I really think we're going to be best friends… So, let's take a picture!"

"Best friends?" Said Merida. "But we've only just met!"

But they took the photo anyway.

Rapunzel was to the far right, holding the camera as far away as she could manage. She was sporting a winning smile of bright white teeth. Henry was in the middle, making a weird face due to the fact that he had (rather inconveniently) gotten the hiccups only moments before the photo was taken, and had hiccuped in the middle of it. Earning his lifelong nickname. And Merida was at the end, her red hair pulled back to a thin ponytail but, there was one, unnoticed curl that had gotten free and had curled down upon her forehead, showing the world that the reckless, wild Merida still lay within.

The three of them looked, for once, truly happy.

It was a picture that Rapunzel knew, right at the moment it was taken, she would always remember, even years after she graduated. Years after she got her first job. Years after she was known worldwide for her paintings. Years after she got married. Years after everything. She would still have that same photo, that same memory of the two people who changed her life for the better.


Rapunzel blinked out of her reverie.

"I'm really sorry, Merida."

That was Hiccup.

His voice was low and almost raspy now. And his eyebrows were knit together in worry. He was starting out softly, testing the waters of her anger.

"This is our fault. We didn't listen to what you had to say and we just wanted for you to do something that you could end up liking. And… We're sorry. We won't go behind your back like that anymore."

Hiccup certainly made it sound as if he and Rapunzel were Merida's parents.

The redhead slowly turned to face them. The anger that had glowed off her face had certainly faded several notches, and she sighed towards the two of them.

"I'm really sorry Merida…" Rapunzel chimed in, and she opened her arms slightly, as if suggesting that they all go in for a group hug.

The redhead smiled at this. It was cheesy, sure but, it was just the right amount of cheese. It wouldn't help to stay mad at them forever. They were her closest friends, her only friends. What she would do without them… She didn't know. She couldn't survive the summer, that was for sure.

Besides, they had understood that they had hurt her feelings. And the chances of either of them making the same mistake again was incredibly low. They were both smart like that. That was another reason why she liked them. Not just tolerated but liked.

They weren't anything like her mother who, if given the chance, would continue to disagree with Merida until the world ended. Or her father, who meant well but, forgot people existed if they weren't staring him directly in the face.

So… A hug sounded like a good idea.

No matter how cheesy it was.

She grabbed the right side of Hiccup's shirt, and the left side of Rapunzel's jacket and pulled them towards her.

Now, back in ninth grade, she had been the tallest of the trio. Merida DunBroch with her tiny, awkward, freshman goons. Now, after both Hiccup and Rapunzel (who was only an inch and a half shorter than the brunette) had had their growth spurts, it was Merida's head that knocked into their shoulders. And it was both the blonde and the brunette who got mouthfuls of Merida's fiery mane. Merida Dunbroch now had her tall, lanky goons.

Their scents mixed. Rapunzel, who had a tendency to smell strongly of garden soil and freshly baked goods, and Hiccup, who always smelt of a mixture between the ocean and laundry detergent. It was strange. Together the two smelt like freshly washed soil and bread from the ocean. But, in a weird way, it was a nice smell.

At least, Merida thought so.

It was the smell of friendship. Her friendship. Their friendship.

But… There was something else.

It was barely detectable but, she could smell something else. (After all the years she had spent dealing with her brothers' antics, she could smell certain scents from a mile away. Especially if it involved their father's deodorant in any way, shape, or form. The memory still gave her nightmares-She couldn't get the stuff out of her hair for weeks!)

It wasn't her father's deodorant but, it must have been the same brand. Something with the title "fresh blizzard" or "mint storm". Something obnoxious and quote on quote, "manly" like that. It wasn't that it was a bad smell, it was just strong, and ridiculous. Nobody needed deodorant to smell like that, anyway.

She felt Hiccup's shoulders tense slightly, something he did whenever he realized something had gone wrong. And Rapunzel's breath catch in her throat, like it always did when she saw something she wasn't expecting.

Merida felt her stomach drop. She had put the pieces together. The obnoxious deodorant, her friends' body language. There was honestly nobody else it could be.

The redhead slowly dropped her arms and turned to face the newcomer.

"Never pictured you as a 'group hug' type of guy, Henry. But hey, you know what they say: 'you learn something new everyday'." Said Jack Overland Frost, a sly grin lingering on his pale lips. "Anyway… Who's ready to play some football?"


A/N: That's all for now! I think my plan for this story is to write a chapter each week and post on Wednesday. Due to the fact that my finals are this week, I'm posting on Tuesday but I think this will be the only exception. Please don't forget to favourite, follow, and review! I'd love to hear what you think about this story!