Seasons of Youth (RotBTFD)

Spring ✿ Part 2

Merida looks out the window. She watches as the leaves on the tree tops move with the wind.

"Miss Dunbroch", Mr Callaghan calls one more time.

"Oh, yes, I'm here", she stares at him.

"Well?", he stares back.

"Well what?"

A suppressed laugh is heard around the classroom. Mr Callaghan looks at everyone and silence falls again.

"What is the value of X?"

"X..."

Again, the laugh. It made her a little angry this time. She didn't like being laughed at.

"Yes, Miss Dunbroch", Mr Callaghan says, impatiently. "The value of X in the equation on the board. The one you were supposed to be solving in your notebook for the last fifteen minutes."

"Of course. You see, the thing is, I sort of didn't get to a conclusive result"

Mr Callaghan raises an eyebrow at her.

"That's fine. Why don't you come at the board and show us how far you got on this problem?", he smiled, coldly.

"I'd rather not."

"This isn't a request, Miss Dunbroch. Come." he hands her the chalk.

Merida looks at everyone in class. A few hold their mouths as not to laugh out loud again. Others smile at her, daring her to go. Others pity her position.

Pity.

"Nope.", she states.

"What?" Mr Callaghan's smile turns into a deep frown.

"No."

Mr Callaghan takes a deep breath and walks up to the classroom door.

"You leave me no choice, Miss Dunbroch. You don't pay attention in class, you fail to complete basic equations and you refuse to take the simplest of orders."

He opens the door.

"I think you should go have a chat with Principal Black."

- ✿ -

Astrid sits on the far end of the class, back against the wall, on the corner, where she has a view of everyone and everything. She waits patiently as Mr Belch hands everyone their tests. Mr Belch, or Gobber as he insists to be called, is a chubby old man with a few loose screws on his head. Although insane, Gobber makes a fine Science teacher, and he is very passionate about his students. And also about blowing stuff up. Astrid watches each classmate's reaction as they see their grade. Surprise. Disappointment. Fear. Pride.

She watches that Haddock kid. He's always nervous, sitting in the front, looking at Gobber like he's bound to give him the worst of news. But he always gets good grades. Not always the best, like her, but good. He should have more faith in himself. Gobber steps in front of him.

"Mr Haddock!" he says before handing him his test, almost giving the guy a heart attack "Congratulations on the best grade in class!"

Astrid can't believe what she's hearing. If Hiccup got the best score... Then what did she get?

She looks over at him, his silly smile, all happy about his stupid test score. She gets so distracted she didn't even realize Gobber had just handed her her own test. She looked down at the paper in her hands. C-.

A freaking C-. How in the world did that happen?

She must have stared at the paper so hard she lost track of time. The next thing she knew, class was over and everyone was leaving. Stupid Hiccup Haddock was still there, though. He always stayed behind, because he always carries too much stuff and has problems sticking it all back inside his pack.