Hiccup Haddock's eyes opened slowly to a ray of sunlight through his bedroom window, which was strange as he usually woke up before the- Crap! realized Hiccup, I overslept! Hiccup jumped out of bed and frantically threw on his school uniform. He sprinted into the bathroom, double-checking his shirt was buttoned properly, and quickly wiped his toothbrush across his teeth. The boy in the mirror was tall for his age, with unkempt black hair, an abundance of freckles, and verdant green eyes. Quickly Hiccup ran a comb through his bedhead hair until he was satisfied that his appearance alone wouldn't make him more of a social pariah. Satisfied, Hiccup dashed back to his room for his bag and down to the kitchen to grab a bagel. Scarfing his breakfast as fast as possible, Hiccup threw his shoes onto his feet and sped out the door.

The college town of Berk was small, with many of its inhabitants working in the school system. As Hiccup had lived here his entire life in the shadow of the Berk College President, almost everyone knew him, if only by reputation. "Good morning, Hiccup!" "Hiccup, you're late again!" "Hiccup, never where he should be" Those were the neighbors; of course, they would notice how late he was. Running past manicured hedges and well-trimmed lawns, Hiccup dodged around people he'd known all his life. Berk High School was only three blocks away from his house, so he arrived in under three minutes. Hiccup checked his watch and was relieved to note he still had five minutes to class.

Hiccup burst through the school doors and quickly walked through the strangely empty halls to homeroom, his first period. Filled with an unidentifiable dread, Hiccup opened the door. Twenty students were studiously circling answers on what looked like a pop quiz. "Nice of you to join us, Hiccup," said Mrs. Peterson. "Your test is on my desk." Hiccup, cheeks red, walked to the front and picked up the quiz. Checking his watch to see how much time he had left, Hiccup noticed he still had five minutes before class started. Great, spoke his internal monologue, My watch is dead.

Quietly, Hiccup sat in the one empty chair and scanned the front page. It was, to his horror, not a quiz but a standardized test. These tests were his father's idea; they compared Hiccup's scores to those of the rest of the school. How could he have forgotten? Da, da-da! Now I'm dead too. Quickly he turned to the relevant section of the question book and began filling in bubbles on the answer sheet. Unfortunately, most of the questions made no sense. That one about the capital of the Norma Empire was ludicrous; there never was a Norma Empire. It didn't help that the answers weren't always in letter order. The question about the Norma Empire had four answers labeled C, C, C, and A. Hiccup filled in the C bubble; one of those C answers was probably right. Thankfully, after that question, Hiccup knew the following few questions. Hiccup hoped he could get enough questions right to get a good grade in the history section. It won't be the highest score, but hopefully, I can make dad proud.

Before he could move on to the second page, Mrs. Peterson stood up and announced, "Your time is up. Everyone drop your pencils and close your books." Hiccup deflated. So much for a good score. That had been the history section, and history was one of his better subjects. Now it would be his lowest grade; he'd answered less than ten questions. He must have been much later to class than he thought.

The rest of the test session went predictably. Hiccup tried to answer the questions, but predictably, only a few questions made sense. Hiccup felt he barely scraped by. At one o'clock, everyone got a break for lunch, which Hiccup spent poking at his overcooked pasta at his solitary table while everyone else chatted with their friends or crammed for the next test session. Hiccup was mentally planning a project for after school when three people approached his table.

"Hiccup, you were late to class today by 17.58 minutes; are you trying to set a record for the slowest student?" Hiccup looked up at his smart-aleck cousin Snotlout Jorgenson and his two friends, Tuffnut and Ruffnut Thorston, who immediately added their comments

"That's seventeen and twenty-nine fiftieths" announced Tuffnut, who was immediately interrupted by his sister.

"Don't use mixed fractions! They're improper. The only proper fractions are improper fractions. Say eight hundred and seventy-nine divided by fifty, not that other horror."

Snotlout cleared his throat, which forestalled another twin debate. "Focus, you two. We're talking to Hiccup; speak in terms he can understand. Now Hiccup," Snotlout turned back to his cousin. "I just wanted to ask, out of concern for my cousin, how many questions were you able to answer?"

The cafeteria had steadily grown quieter as more people turned to watch. Hiccup felt like a cornered animal, surrounded by attackers on all sides. "Enough," he muttered, trying to ignore his cousin.

"Did you say something? Or can stupid Hiccup not talk." Leered Snotlout.

"I said enough!" Hiccup shouted, pent-up stress and frustration making his voice echo about the dead silent room.

"Hiccup Haddock!" Great, now he was in trouble with Mrs. Smith for shouting. The teacher strode over to his table, causing Hiccup's three tormentors to scurry back to their table. "You know the rules, no raised voices in the cafeteria."

Hiccup hung his head. "Yes, Mrs. Smith," he mumbled into his noodles.

"I would expect you to be a model student; your father is on the school board and an upstanding citizen. Try to be more like him.

When did he not? Hiccup spent his whole life in the shadow of his brilliant father. As captain of his prize-winning quiz team and president of Berk College, Stoick Haddock expected great things from his only son. "Yes, Mrs. Smith."

"I'm informing your father about this misconduct. I'll let him be the one to discipline you."

"Yes, Mrs. Smith," sighed Hiccup as the irate teacher strode away. And here he thought this day couldn't get any worse.

Author's Note:

And thus begins my first fanfic. I would love criticism. There are a few things I want to point out. First, many characters are going to be slightly OOC. This is because I want to flip the reason why Hiccup feels so inadequate and has tensions with his father. And honestly, writing nerdy twins is a lot of fun. The names Mrs. Peterson and Mrs. Smith are placeholders for now. I might replace them with cannon characters, but as I have no plans for either of these OCs, it might work to leave them as is. I'm also not entirely sure where this story is heading. I have an ending planned out, but the means of getting there may change. Also, as I'm busy with many other things, this story probably will sit unfinished for a while.