Being a socially awkward teenager nervous about his first day of school after his father insisted on transferring him here after the semester had already started was perfectly normal, Hiccup assured himself. At least that was one thing normal about him.
He adjusted the heavy backpack on his shoulders, like a physical metaphor of his enthusiasm to be here. He should probably peel his sorry butt off the wall and look for his classroom. Navigation was so much harder with moving obstacles blocking your sight and impeding your ability to walk in a straight line.
“C’mon, Hiccup. Just a little more than a year until you graduate and then you can hole yourself up in your room and be a disappointment until Dad kicks you out and makes you work like an adult,” he told himself sarcastically. The pep talk had started out with a genuine intention to boost his self confidence, but when his self-esteem issues met the concept called positivity, his brain didn’t compute.
Room 308. He just had to get to room 308 and sulk in the back until the end of school. He craned his neck over the crowd of heads. He had really shot up over the summer, and could probably even be considered tall, but was used to walking with his head down, and wasn’t familiar with being able to look over people’s heads. It didn’t help anyway; teenagers were leaning against classroom doors or walls and lockers and it made it hard to read the room numbers. What did that door say? Room -
“Ooof!” he collided with a body in front of him, knocking his chin against something hard - a cheekbone, maybe? Or a nose. He frantically tried to regain his balance, thankful no papers had gone flying. His chin smarted and he began to babble.
“Odin I’m so sor-”
“Watch where you’re going!” the person snapped. Oh, great. This someone was annoyed. He sighed and looked up at them, and every thought eddied out of his head in an instant.
Standing in front of him was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. She was a couple inches shorter than him, his chin must’ve hit her forehead. Her arms were crossed and she was glaring at him with mesmerizing blue eyes, the color a mix of turquoise and sapphire. She had golden blonde bangs swept to the side of her face and a thick braid down her back. Her arms were crossed over her chest, obscuring the large, loud design of a graphic skull on her shirt. A short red skirt with spikes followed on top of ripped black leggings. He quickly cast his eyes back up to her face so she didn’t think he was ogling her; her deepened scowl told him she’d already thought so. Her round face was perfect, with no makeup except for some drastic eyeliner wings.
The angry slant of her brows and the fearsome scowl on her face were the most attractive expressions he had ever seen.
“I-I’m really sorry, I’m new here-” she raised her brows.
“New to the school or new to being able to watch where you’re going?” she asked sarcastically.
Holy Helheim this girl was funny too. Hiccup was practically in love. Oh no, he was probably staring at her stupidly.
“First days are never fun,” she conceded, like she was irritated with having to show sympathy. “So I’ll show you where to go wherever you need to go and give you some pointers so this never happens again. I don’t like to be bothered by other kids.”
“Okay,” Hiccup agreed happily. Anything to spend more time with her. And she was talking to him, without him having to try and start an awkward conversation first! This was more than he could’ve hoped.
“Where’s your homeroom?”
“Uh, 308.” Her exasperated face fell into annoyance.
“Great,” she muttered, half to herself. “We have the same homeroom.” The day was just getting better. He was starting to like school. She huffed and started walking down the hall, not bothering to check if Hiccup was following her yet. He stared after her for a minute.
