Hiccup and the Soup Bowl 5

While walking to the isolated bench he so frequently sat at, Hiccup passed by the table where the other viking teens sat. Shyly, he shot very quick glances at them. It looked as if they had already finished eating and were just hanging out. Hiccup longed to be a part of their group-----or at least have his existence acknowledged by them, other than being the "runt" at the blacksmith shop that they tossed their weapons at to repair or any of an endless list of derogatory names they called him whenever their paths crossed on the streets of the village.

"Maybe one day," Hiccup thought to himself, "they'll let me join them."

And he had tried to join them in various ways. Once he sat down at the same bench as them during a dinner. He put on his most charming smile and quietly sat listening to the ongoing conversation. And everything went well for about a minute until Snotlout realized that he was there and promptly lifted Hiccup up by his vest and threw him across the room, half way to his usual bench. Hiccup winced remembering how painful the landing on the stone floor was. Worse, Snotlout kept Hiccup's food and leisurely ate it while Tuffnut and Ruffnut laughed.

Then there was the time that he thought he would impress them with a new invention that contained numerous tools---all in one simple sheath! By pushing a spring-loaded button, a different tool would pop out. Hiccup demonstrated his new device to the viking teens and received a lot of "Oos" and "Ahs" while he cycled through the various attachments----until he got to the knife. For some strange reason, the knife was apparently not fully connected inside the device, and when Hiccup pushed the button, the knife shot out of its casing and flew straight toward Tuffnut! Thanks to Tuffnut's viking reflexes, the wayward knife missed it's unintentional target, but in the panic, outrage, and laughter that followed, once again Hiccup was pushed away from the table in complete humiliation.

On this evening, like so many past, Hiccup quickly studied each of the teens and made mental notes of them as he walked by their table. Ruffnut and Tuffnut sat next to each other, persistently pestering one another. Nothing unusual there. Snotlout sat facing Hiccup, staring forward with glazed-over eyes, as if his lethargic gaze went straight through Hiccup's body and to the wall on the other side. Hiccup wondered to himself if Snotlout was actually asleep with his eyes open. That would certainly explain a lot of the blank, vacant expressions that so often decorated Snotlout's face. And then there was------

Hiccup turned his head ever so slightly to scan the far side of the bench. And by Thor, there she was! Over to the side! Just out of the corner of his eye, Hiccup could see the most enticing and dangerous vision of beauty he could imagine: Astrid. He didn't want to make direct eye contact with her, but he stretched his peripheral vision to its limit to inconspicuously admire this viking wonder!



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