The Valkyrie and the Valedictorian

Part 1

THE VALKYRIE AND THE VALEDICTORIAN

Summary: Modern AU. Nerdy Hiccup Haddock is the Valedictorian of Berk High School despite being bullied and generally ignored by all his peers. Yet Hiccup has a secret that makes life as the bullies' best target bearable...and he really hopes she's coming to Graduation. Hiccstrid.

A/N: I felt like some Hiccstrid fluff. Unfortunately angst seeped in (aka 'Panthy darkness' according to my friend Vala411) but there is still fluff-enjoy.

A/N2: This was supposed to be a one-shot but it accidentally extended a bit. Oops. Consider it a one shot in 5 parts...

Disclaimer; I do not own How To Train Your Dragon. All rights remain with Cressida Cowell and Dreamworks.

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Graduation Day

He stared at the reflection in the mirror and saw a loser. A tall skinny auburn-haired loser with bright green eyes and not a lot of hope in his usually-optimistic expression, It was his High School Graduation and neither of his parents would be there.

Hiccup Haddock sighed and ran his hands through his tousled hair, making it look wilder and he groaned. His hair had always been difficult to control pointing in most directions simultaneously and now he was rocking the 'dragged through a hedge backwards' look an hour before Graduation. A Graduation he would attend with his father's best friend and the few people who would give him the time of day. For though he was sassy, kind, compassionate, sarcastic and far and away the smartest guy in the School, he was definitely a nerd, an easy target, an outcast.

He abruptly sat down on the end of his bed and bowed his head. He was eighteen, for Thor's sake and already down a mother and half a leg. His father loved him in his own generic way but he was so dedicated to his job as Mayor of Berk that when the Trade delegation from Japan had changed the timetable for their visit and the face to face talks, he hadn't protested and instead had given Hiccup the all-too-familiar talk about 'the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the one'. On the night before his Graduation, for Thor's sake. What kind of father rain-checked his only child's High School Graduation?

He ran his hands over his face. He was Class Valedictorian and was going to graduate Summa Cum Laude but not one of his family would be there to cheer him. Maybe his cousin, Simon 'Snotlout' Jorgensen, would care he had graduated, though Snot had a complicated relationship with Hiccup, first a bully then a mildly indifferent sort-of-friend. But no one else could be there...except Gobber Belcher, his father's best and oldest friend. And though Gobber was a sort-of Uncle and certifiably crazy, he was good-hearted and supportive in a raucous kind of way.

Then he remembered just what the plan was and unconsciously, his mind slid back...

Junior Year.

Another day of being tripped and jostled, another day of being teased in class and treated like trash. And why? Because he was skinny and auburn and smart. And maybe his sassy mouth wasn't the best way to endear him to some of the year but he only retaliated when they did worse. Thuggory and Dogsbreath and Meatfist had all decided on the first day of Freshman Year that the skinny runt Hiccup was their chosen target and they had made the last two years Helheim and it looked like they were shaping up to top it with Junior Year...though he had noted his cousin Snot hadn't been so happy to join in recently. Maybe it was the realisation that his little cousin, who had lost his Mom less than a year earlier along with the lower third of his left leg in that horrific car smash, was a decent person. Hiccup would always help anyone who asked and Snotlout had quietly and reluctantly asked for tutoring to avoid flunking his year. With Hiccup's help and hard work, he had scraped through, though he never mentioned it to his friends.