Chapter 6

Hiccup was up early on the day classes started, showering and dressing in his finest nerdy engineer gear, his light-brown khakis pressed and his favourite Einstein T-shirt carefully on under his shirt. Despite the fact he had apparently aced his LSATS, he was incredibly anxious about the classes, wondering if Heather was typical of the students he was likely to run into or if they would just accept him for who he was.

Astrid had been amazing-teasing him when she realised that he was feeling self-conscious and a little out of his depth and she had treated him to a cinnamon Danish as well as the coffee, talking to him like an old friend instead of a beautiful woman he had never seen before and likely, would never see again. And he had slowly relaxed and explained that he had come because of Heather and that she had dumped him and was now blanking him when he had earned his place on merit. And though she had listened carefully, she hadn't been at all judgemental when a sane person would have asked him what he was thinking about doing such a stupid thing with his future. Instead, she smiled and gave him her cell number-in case he needed someone to talk to.

But now he was at the door of the classroom, peering in and seeing Heather seated on the third row, talking to a pair of lanky blondes, male and female who looked so uncannily like one another that they had to be twins. And on her other side was a husky guy with a round, amiable face, kindly green eyes and short blond hair. He gulped and ducked back again.

"You won't learn anything from out here," a voice said behind him, the clipped accent making the words very clear and precise. Hiccup stared into a tall, elegant woman in a black shift dress and coat, her strawberry blonde hair cut in a page cut, her green eyes calm. He almost jumped.

"I...er...was just biding my time..." he said desperately.

"Until what?" she asked him pointedly. He looked back at her and realised.

"Um...until you arrived...Professor Queen?" he mumbled. She nodded.

"I think you should take your seat now, Mister...?"

"Haddock," he said, blushing fiercely. "Hiccup Haddock." She nodded and he opened the door and slinked in, taking the nearest seat at the end of the front row and ignoring the curious stares he garnered. Everyone else was neatly dressed and the girls had all definitely made an effort to create the right impression. He suspected he had created an impression...though maybe not the one he was hoping for. The woman walked in behind him, stopping and facing the room full of new students.

"Good morning, class!" she said clearly. "I am Professor Mala Queen and I am the Freshman Year Tutor as well as your lecturer and module lead for Litigation and Contract Law." He looked around. "I see many fresh faces. Some of you will be successes, some of you will fail and leave, or transfer to other, lesser courses. I have no time for those who are not interested in the subject or who imagine Law is an easy ticket to a career in Politics or Public Life. It is not. It is a noble and ancient profession, the arbiter of what is right and wrong, the defender of the innocent and prosecutor of the guilty. Lawyers control your property, your personal life, defend your rights, avenge wrongs done to you and prosecute you if you harm others. Aristotle said that the law is the application of Reason without Passion. You must learn to be dispassionate, even-handed and just. If you cannot do those things, do not waste my time."

She stared at the assembled students and Hiccup felt she was talking just to him. He could hear Heather whispering and sniggering and he caught her gesturing to him.

"Turn to page 35..." she snapped and they all flipped through their textbooks to find the right page. "Now for your first lesson..." And Hiccup flipped his pad open and began to write.

But once the lesson was over, Hiccup sat back in his seat, his shoulders cramped and head spinning. He had been doing AP level course for over a year and the lesson they had sat through was far above that level. Professor Queen hadn't been in any mood to compromise and every student had felt the sharp edge of her tongue as she precisely exposed their complete lack of knowledge and failure to complete the recommended reading prior to the start of the semester. He knew what he would have to spend the evening doing.

But he had got up, stretched a little, causing his neck to crack, and had turned to the door when he almost collided with a very solid shape. He blinked and mumbled an apology-until he realised that he was facing the husky guy who had been sitting by Heather. Close up, the young man had a very amiable face and was dressed in super expensive casuals with a light brown angora sweater tied loosely around his neck.

"Sorry," Hiccup mumbled as Heather walked forward-and scowled at the shape of her former boyfriend.

"Can't you ever leave me alone?" she sighed and husky man frowned slightly.

"Heather?" he asked. "Is there a problem?"

"I doubt it," Hiccup mumbled.

"He won't leave me alone," she huffed, her green eyes gleaming. The husky guy missed the sideways glance she cast at Hiccup-but the intended recipient saw it plainly.

"Well, I am on this course, Heather, so you're gonna have to deal with seeing me in lectures and tutorial groups, since I'm not going anywhere," Hiccup replied with surprising firmness. The husky guy scowled.

"And just what reason do you have to..." he began.

"What? Attend Harvard Law? Let me think? Got a 174 in my LSATS, killing the admissions essay and having three extremely supportive letters from my tutors in High School. How's that?" HIccup snarked. "You remember my tutors, Heather?" The husky guy frowned now.

"Sorry-you know each other?" he asked, confused.

"We were at the same High School in Berk," Heather leapt in swiftly, her eyes shooting Hiccup a warning. Hiccup took a deep breath.

"Aww, Heather-have you forgotten already? We went out-until you dumped me two days before Graduation!" he replied. Giving a false laugh, Heather slid her arm through the husky guy's.

"You are a joker," she told him lightly, moving her hand to show a huge diamond ring gleaming on her finger. Hiccup's eyes widened.

"Wow. You upgraded. And so soon, Heather. I'm disappointed," he managed. The husky guy glanced between the two and then stuck out his hand to the auburn-haired young man, a cheerful and determined expression on his face.

"Finlay Neville Ingerman III," he introduced himself.

"Son of Senator Ingerman," Heather murmured smugly as Hiccup felt his heart drop about a foot below his stomach. Yet he wasn't going to be impolite to the man. He gave Finlay a firm handshake and then turned back to Heather.

"Well, you definitely upgraded from an auburn engineering nerd," he shot back. "I mean, I was never going to be the son of a Senator-Dad's only the Mayor, after all. And I can see the engagement ring is definitely large enough to feature on a geological survey in its own right. I could never compete with that..." Heather smiled at Hiccup's scowl.

"You're finally getting the message," she murmured as Finlay Ingerman frowned.

"Heather?" Finlay asked. "He said..." She snuggled against him then.

"Ignore him, Fish," she advised him silkily. "He's just jealous. He always imagined there was something between us but we were only ever friends-nothing more..." Hiccup stared at her.

"Wow-did not see that coming," he managed, almost rocking back on his heels.

"So there's no reason for you to hang around like a bad smell, Hiccy," Heather told him smoothly. "So maybe you want to transfer to nerd school now and..." His fist clenched.

"No, Heather," he said with more dignity than he had realised he could manage. "I am here on merit. I earned this place. I want to be a lawyer and I think I can be a good one. The question seems to be-can you be dispassionate and even-handed? Can you deal with the fact I am here-and here on merit? I know my GPA was higher than yours and I know that you had to ask seven tutors before you could persuade three to support your application because Mr Svenson told me." She scowled. "So how did you get in here, Heather?"

"Her father called the Dean," Finlay offered calmly. "I mean, all her family are lawyers and she wanted to join them so they just called in and offered a generous donation to ensure her application was supported..."

"Shut up..." Heather growled under her breath.

"But Dagur isn't a lawyer," Hiccup commented.

"Oh, the brother?" Finlay asked. "Black sheep. I think her father was very glad she was keeping up the family tradition...at least that's what her parents said when they introduced us in April..."

Hiccup stared.

"April?" he mouthed. "As in when we were still going out?"

"It's very sad," Heather cut in, steering Finlay past the suddenly heartbroken Hiccup. "He's been obsessed with me for years-ever since we were forced to work together on some stupid High School project. And since then...well, I'm afraid he's just been obsessed with me. He's photoshopped a whole host of pictures of us 'together'." She made air quotes as she sneered the word. "And he even tried to propose to me...as if I would ever go out with such a sorry specimen..."

Hiccup stared at her, his face bloodless and eyes filled with hurt.

"I'm never going to be good enough for you, am I?" he asked quietly. "I was never mean, never rude and always generous and considerate. I came to Harvard as you suggested. I got here on merit. And you still treat me like dirt, as if I am beneath you." He took a deep breath and gathered his bags.

"I hope you are happy together," he said bitterly and dashed for the door, almost mowing down a familiar blonde shape who was walking into the room. Astrid started in shock as he paused, looking down and clearly extremely upset.

"Hiccup?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

He looked up, the broken expression in his emerald eyes causing her to glance at the raven-haired girl and the husky blond man.

"M'fine," he lied thickly. "I gotta go..."

And with that he dashed from the classroom, leaving Astrid to catch Heather's parting shot.

"Some people just aren't fit for Harvard Law."