Another reader submission! When I posted in the first chapter of Growing Pains that I was looking for a co-author, I came up with a prompt to kind of get an idea of where anyone who wanted to help stood by way of talent and accuracy for the characters and their interactions. So I gave the prompt to one interested person and she come through splendidly! I did a lot of editing, mostly to add some dialogue to make it flow a bit better, but most of it is the same. I shall post the prompt itself in the author's note at the end of the story. Enjoy!
Spring Day
by waiting4princecharming
The sun was shining, Terrible Terrors were singing from the rooftops, and it was a beautiful spring morning. But Erick Larson wasn't paying attention to the sunshine or the warm temperature. On this particular day, his mind was focused on other, more important things. He had been looking for his best friend all morning in all their usual spots: Troll Bridge, the funny little cove they'd run across, the arena, the beach... but she was nowhere to be found. He wanted to surprise her with the small leather pouch he had made for her flower clips, but it seemed like all the work he had done last night trying to finish it in time to give it to her that morning had been for naught. And his voice was hoarse from calling her name all over the village. The Larson boy sighed, moments away from giving up and hoping that he'd see her skipping by his house by midday.
Discouraged, Erick walked back up the path to his house, kicking rocks away as he went. The sun was high in the sky, and the weather was unseasonably warm, with no clouds in sight. It was a truly rare day in Berk when it was spring and it wasn't raining. Pushing open the door to his house, Erick sighed again, unhappy that he couldn't spend the warm spring day with his best friend. Trudging into the kitchen, Erick spotted his father immediately. Olaf Larson wasn't hard to miss, though not for the most pleasant reason. Still, he didn't let his wheeled chair get in the way of his life. Today, he was kneading some dough. When he saw his son, he smiled amiably. The youngest Larson plopped into one of the old wooden chairs that sat around the worn table in the center of the room.
"Why the long face?" Olaf asked.
"I can't find Annie" Erick explained. "I've looked everywhere."
"I see. Nice day like this? I would have thought she'd be pounding on our door first thing in the morning." the Larson patriarch chuckled. "She's probably wandered off somewhere. That girl would lose her head if it wasn't attached."
"Maybe..." Erick put his chin in his hands. "You think she's avoiding me?"
"No!" Olaf exclaimed as if the statement had been in some way offensive. "At least she'd better not be. If you two stopped being friends, you'd never leave the house."
Erick made a kind of offended huffing noise at this statement. "I would! I'd need to go to the outhouse a few times!"
"You know perfectly well what I meant." Olaf narrowed his eyes at the boy and pointed a spatula at him. "You know, you could try putting that dragon of yours to good use. Don't Nadders have a keen sense of smell?"
"Well sure, but do you think he'd..." Erick trailed off. The suggestion had some merit. Actually the suggestion was so obvious, he was mildly annoyed that he hadn't thought of it. "Well I guess it depends on what flower she's wearing today."
"He'd find her. She's not hard to miss." Olaf waved the spatula as if attempting to make his son obey its movements. "Off you go, come back this evening with grass stains and a wild story about some new world you two made up. Any day that doesn't end that way is a wasted day for you two."
Erick grinned. "You're a lifesaver!" the boy slid off the chair and scampered over to his father, hugging him quickly and running out the door. "See you later!" he called as he bolted to the dragon pen.
Olaf chuckled and wheeled his chair back to where it was before, continuing his work on the dough mound and hoping that Adrianna would keep his son occupied for most of the day so he wouldn't realize his father was making his favorite cookies for dessert that night.
Erick was usually a quiet boy but he was excited so, naturally, he made quite a bit of noise as he bounded over to the pen and threw open the door.
Charger raised his head in surprise. "Charger!" the Larson boy yelled excitedly. "Want to go on a t-" He was rather abruptly interrupted when, picking up on his riders excitement, Charger had head butted him as he tried to get the saddle on. Erick flew into the side of the pen, groaning when his body hit the hard wood. "Charger! NOT helpful!" Preening, the dragon bounded in circles, avoiding his rider and congratulating himself on the excellent headbutt. "C'mon you useless reptile, I just want to find Annie."
Her name caused a funny little shiver to travel down his spine and linger in his stomach, making him slightly nervous again. The thought of her made him jittery sometimes, and he couldn't place why. It was still a mystery to him. Then again, he had worked so hard on her present and he really wanted her to like it. That had to be it. There was no other explanation that made any sense.
Finally succeeding at strapping the saddle to his dragon's back (it took a record ten minutes; clearly he was starting to get accustomed to his new dragon), he climbed on and they took off into the sky. Erick watched as the village got smaller and smaller, but Charger had no intention of stopping. He gave a little victorious trill at the thrill of being in the sky until Erick coaxed him back down so he could scan Berk for a little blonde head with a flower clip in her hair, a flowing, brightly colored skirt, and a cheerful gait. He finally spotted her and guided Charger down to the bridge she was sitting on, swinging her legs over the water. But something was wrong. For one thing, the girl wasn't at one of their bridges, which made him think that she might want to be left alone. For another, she certainly didn't look like she'd skipped over in the carefree manner he had always come to associate with her.
However, the most disconcerting thing was when he touched down. The girl didn't even look up. At all. "Annie?" he ventured carefully, knowing full well that the wrong words could shut her down completely when she was this upset.
"Erick." She wiped her eyes before looking up. "Wh-what are you doing here?" She asked with a sniff.
"I came to..." Erick shook his head. The pouch could wait. He sat down next to her as closely as he dared. "Doesn't matter right now. Are you okay?"
"Fine." she mumbled to her knees.
Erick usually could tell when someone was lying but he didn't need to think about it this time. Adrianna Haddock was a lot of things but gloomy was not one of them.
"What's wrong?" Erick tried again.
"You're not a girl" She said in a small voice.
"Umm... no. Is that a problem?" Erick furrowed his brow.
"No!" Adrianna exclaimed, now a little distressed that she may have inadvertently insulted her friend by insinuating that his gender was a problem. "But you wouldn't understand."
"Your skirt clashed with your shirt?" Erick quipped with a small smile. "Gods, that was a bad joke, sorry."
But Adrianna let out a tiny giggle, which made him feel rather proud of himself. "No. At least I don't think so. I'm not very good at... but no, that's not why."
"So... why then?" Erick scooted closer to her. "Come on, tell me."
Adrianna bit her lip and paused for a few seconds before spilling everything on her mind in one long exhale. "I was just out walking and I saw Morgan and Taryn and they were playing a game but when I asked if I could play, Morgan said no because I was weird and I'd mess it up." she wiped her face with the heel of her hand. "Am I weird?"
"No." Erick said in a very firm voice. "They're weird for not liking you."
"What?" Adrianna looked directly at him, the redness of her eyes making their emerald green color pop in a way it only did when she was most upset.
You're amazing." Erick said with conviction, blushing a little bit at the end. "And I don't say that about a lot of people. Actually..." he scratched his chin idly, "I don't say that about anyone except Dad. But I mean it. You're one of the most amazing people I know."
"Do you really think so?"
"Of course! You're my best friend." Erick said unabashedly. "And Charger likes you too." Right on cue, his dragon squawked and nosed her cheek, blowing into her hair. She giggled and hiccuped, a tiny smile returning to brighten her face once more and making the boy don his own smile at the sight. "You know what else?" Erick added, trying to see if he could make her smile more. "I bet they don't like you because you're so smart, you make them look stupid. I've never met anyone who could think her way out of a problem like you can. Like remember last week when the evil king cornered us and you thought of climbing the tree and knocking him out with a branch as he walked by?" he was, of course, referencing one of the many adventures they'd had in the past few weeks since spring had started. "Morgan and Taryn would have never thought of it! They're not smart enough."
Just as he'd hoped, Adrianna looked delighted. Suddenly, without warning, she leaned over and grabbed him around the middle, hugging him rather tightly. "You're the best friend anyone could have, Erick." She said cheerfully.
Erick's face reddened at the contact, but he didn't waste a second in hugging her back, closing his eyes and taking in every detail so he could ruminate on it next time his mother lectured him for some stupid reason. The way the soft breeze blew through the treetops and the way the water gurgled in the stream beneath his feet... every piece of the scene was logged in his brain. He tried not to pay attention to the way she fit perfectly in his arms but even that seemed to register in his mind, as awkward a thought as it was...
"You're my bestest friend too, Annie." he said, smiling into her hair. "And hey," he pulled out the pouch and let go of her just long enough to hand it to her, "this is for you. To store your hair clips." Don't blush, don't blush, don't blush!
"Erick, I... you..." Adrianna was lost for words, which was a rarity for a girl who was usually so charry. Suddenly she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."
Erick blushed.
As they began to talk about where they had left off in their previous adventure, the Larson boy's spirits soared. Maybe they could still enjoy the spring day after all.
Short and sweet, just the way I like it! Well, sweet mostly seeing as I don't mind long submissions in the slightest. Reading Growing Up Haddock material that I didn't write myself is one of the most fun parts of writing these fics, as all of my helpers can attest! Thank you SO much, waiting4princecharming!
Anyway, the writing prompt is simple: write a one-shot about your favorite ship for either twin and send it to me! I'll do some edits and post it here! I really hope I get some submissions because I'd love to know what you all think of these two cuties or perhaps Finn and one of his girls.
Don't forget to review!
~KateMarie999
