All he could remember was her hair. It was bright orange like the tips of a flame. It curled in all directions, and if anything got in it's path, it pulled it into the depths of endless curls. This was all Hiccup could remember of the girl he had met many summer's ago. He couldn't remember her name, what her voice sounded like, or even what color her eyes were. All he could remember was her long, curly, and fiery hair. Now here he was at nineteen and standing in line at the supermarket trying to buy some milk for his cereal, behind the very same red hair.
She was setting her cans of Dr. Pepper on the conveyer belt and fumbling through her purse for her wallet. Her hand plummeted into the black hole that was her purse. Her voice becoming more annoyed as her hands couldn't grasp her wallet.
"Shit, I must've left it at home," she swore.
Her voice had a Scottish accent, he remembered. He couldn't understand her for almost the first two days of camp.
"Why do you talk that way?" he had asked,
"I don't know, why do you talk that way?" she had replied.
"Because this is how everyone in my town talks," he had answered.
"Well this is how everyone from my old home talks,"
"That's cool, I wish everyone in my town talked like you,"
He didn't talk to her again until the last day of camp. Not purposely, the campers were mostly split by boys and girls. It wasn't until some boys from the camp had tried to take his sketching pencils. She saw what was going on and demanded that they give them back. The boy threw his sketching pencils off the docks of the lake. In retaliation she had pushed the boy over and dived into the water to retrieve every last pencil. He remembered her coming out of the water. Her dark blue camp clothes soaking wet and her hair pressed against her forehead. It was even longer when it was wet. He politely said thank you, took back his pencils, and rushed off embarrassed for not having said more.
"I'm sorry miss, I'd usually let you just take the pack, but my manager is on shift and I'd get into serious trouble," the cashier said.
"I'll pay for them," Hiccup found himself saying.
The young woman turned her head in surprise. He could see her face. It was round and soft, her eyes were a striking blue, and small nose.
"You don't have to do that," she stated,
"No really, it's okay. A pack of Dr. Pepper's won't kill my bank account," he said.
She smiled, just a small smile. "Thank you, that's very nice of you,"
He got his wallet from his pocket and paid the cashier. They began walking out the door until they noticed they were heading the same way.
"Do you go to Berk University?" he asked.
"Maybe, why do you?"
He chuckled at her suspicion "Yes I do, that's why I'm walking this way,"
"Well how do I know you're not a weirdo following me?" she asked.
He pulled out his Berk lanyard. It's red background with black letters represented the colors of the University.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head "Sorry,"
"Now how do I know you're not a weirdo following me?"
She laughed, "Well I'd show you my lanyard but right now these Dr. Peppers are freezing my arms off,"
"Do you want me to carry them?" he asked,
"No. I can handle it..."
They had reached their dorm hall. It turns out they both lived in Wisp Hall. Hiccup unlocked the door with his scanner key and they walked into the lobby.
"Thanks again for the drinks," she said as they were about to go their separate ways.
"Thanks for fishing out my pencils at Lake Hooligan," he replied hoping she would remember that day.
Her eyes squinted in confusion, but slowly became wider as the faded memory travelled back to her.
"I remember that, I rode in the bus completely drenched for two hours." she recalled.
"Yeah sorry about that, but hey what you did really meant a lot to me. It made me realize I needed to stand up for myself, so thanks for that." Hiccup confessed,
She smiled widely, "You're welcome,"
"Well I guess I'll be seeing you around?" he asked,
"Yeah I guess so, my name's Merida by the way."
"I'm Hiccup, nice to finally know your name," he said
Author's note: Wow so I don't think I've updated in almost a year. As some of you know I'm in college now and I kind of got too busy. Also I'll be honest, I thought I was getting a little too old for this fandom due to my age. However, I realized this is where I started writing and I think it's a good outlet for me to refresh my ideas and practice writing, so who knows? Maybe this will be a comeback. Hope you all enjoyed the story. Thank you to all my followers who supported me even though I wasn't really on here. Love you guys.
