(A/N: I'm really jazzed because I'm one review shy of 100. Thank you all so much for following, favoriting, and reviewing my story. I really do appreciate each one. Here is your next dose of Paradise. A critical dose, I might say. Enjoy!)

If I could just reach a little further, Rapunzel thought to herself as she stretched her arm as high as she could towards the corner of her ceiling. It was Saturday morning, and Rapunzel opted to study with Jack at her house since her mother was out of town. She was so excited she could barely dust correctly.

The weekends were practically the only time anyone could venture into her house. Her mother was not one for guests (she preferred the company of her one and only daughter and made sure it stayed that way while she was present at home). But when she was away for work-related travels, Rapunzel had free reign over the house. She never invited too many people, but she always had a friend over whenever her mother was gone. She never liked to be lonely, and she trusted that her closest friends would not move, touch, or do so much as breathe on any of the items in her house.

During that open period on Tuesday morning, she made a plan for Jack to come over on the weekend for a math study session since her mother was going to be out of town on a work-related trip up north. After she got his number (nearly fainting at the sight of it as he walked away) and sent him a few quick text messages that afternoon (which she will probably never erase), she made a plan for immediate house cleaning the second her mother left that Saturday morning.

Rapunzel finally caught the dust in the high corner after she grabbed a few boxes to stand on. There! All done. She wiped the sweat off of her forehead and sat on top of her bed. She looked around and saw the spotless room…but something seemed amiss. I feel like I'm forgetting something, she thought to herself as she stood and scanned the room once more. Nothing seemed out of place. She double and triple checked the living room and the kitchen area, and she knew that everything was in order. What had she forgotten?

She heard the sound of footsteps outside. How…odd. They sounded quite close to her window. Rapunzel's brows drew together. She looked up at her clock. 12:30. She wasn't expecting company for another half hour. And Jack couldn't possibly think he could enter from the back of the house (she was pretty certain the fall of the footsteps were coming from behind the house). She locked eyes with a small frying pan she kept in the corner of her room and immediately went to grab it. She took a deep breath, her eyes roaming her room. Whoever it was in her backyard was in for a rude awakening. The click of a window confused and terrified Rapunzel even more. She held her grip tighter on the pan as she heard her window open.

"Hey!" A voice called from the window. Rapunzel finally saw the familiar bushel of red hair and a giant grin underneath. Merida. Rapunzel dropped her pan immediately with a sigh of relief, until she realized what she was forgetting. Oh crap! I forgot she was coming over!

"Hey!" she tried to put a smile on her face. "What are you doing here so early?"

"Thought I'd show up to hang out with you." She climbed over and sat on the windowsill. Rapunzel tried to appear as neutral as possible.

"Oh. I actually have someone coming over. Two people, actually. We're prepping for a math test."

Merida seemed a bit perplexed, but soon she grinned and stood up. "Well, why didn't you tell me?" She threw her leg over the windowsill, "We both have Black. I could've brought my book."

That's not what she wanted. That is definitely not what she wanted. She knew how Merida felt about Jack. She's going to murder him! "Merida—" she started. But it was too late.

"Don't worry, I won't bite them." With both legs out of the window, Merida began to climb down the side of the house. "I'll be back."

Great. This is exactly what Rapunzel needed. Another mess to clean up in her house. Just when she thought she was out of the woods…

Merida arrived back in little to no time at all. Living within a mere block from her home was one of the few perks of being best friend with the blonde. She approached the backyard and hopped over the fence. She jogged to the window and clicked it open. Merida heard the murmur of two different voices. Looks like they're here, whoever they are. She threw her leg over the window sill and slipped inside of the room. "So, who are we studying with?"

But when she turned around, she saw the last person she wanted in the same room with her. The pearly white grin and high lift in his cheeks made her all the more disgusted with his presence. She noted further just how much the set of glimmering white teeth he flashed nearly blinded Merida. Ugh, stupid smile.

Rapunzel cringed and tried to put on her best smile. "Surprise," she said halfheartedly.

The ginger closed the window, "You're kidding me."

His grin faded into a giant smirk as he sneered, "Well, look who's here! Mary Jane!"

She nearly exploded and rushed toward him, "It's Merida, you twit!"

He tilted his head, "Do I really look like I care anymore?"

The blonde saw her friend's hand knot into a fist. She flew to her spot and stood between them, making sure to extend her hands. "Guys! Please, be nice to each other."

"He started it!" she shouted.

Jack rolled his eyes, "Way to sound like a five-year-old."

She took a step toward him, "Way to sound like an asshole."

Rapunzel re-extended her arms, hoping that Merida didn't take another step. She suddenly felt an oncoming headache and immediately regretted the decision of her mother going out of town this weekend. "Oh, boy. I knew this was going to turn out awful."

"No, no, it's okay." Jack raised his hands in surrender and continued on in making himself comfortable. He tossed his bag onto the floor, "We'll behave ourselves. Right, Merida?"

"I'm not the one you should be worried about." Her grimace deepened. How dare he make this her fault? He was the one pretending to be something that he wasn't: a friend.

He unzipped his bag and pulled out his notebook. "Anyways, I hope you don't mind that I brought along my friend."

Rapunzel smiled, "No, not at all."

Merida immediately saw the odd backpack that sat next to the entrance. It looked familiar but she couldn't pinpoint from where. But seeing as how it was someone that Jack knew, he couldn't be anyone too special.

Merida decided to get in her share of snide remarks while she could. "Oh great, more people like you." Somehow, she struck a chord, as she saw the immediate glare he gave her; she smirked in satisfaction.

Jack, on the other hand, only made it sound like he was mildly irritated. "Actually, he's going to be very helpful. Thanks for letting me invite him." He sat in the chair placed at Rapunzel's vanity.

The blonde squeaked as she saw both her glass horse and chameleon rock on the vanity. She immediately ran over to it, "Just as long as no one touches anything." She put the glass figurines in her drawer next to her bed as she continued, "I don't want my mother to...lose her trust in me for bringing my friends over."

Merida raised her brow. She knew good and well that her mother did not have house guests at all. Rapunzel was risking her life inviting these hoodlums in, especially since her mother wasn't present anywhere in town. But, she let that comment pass. It'll probably come up later.

"Who'd you bring, the Street Rat?" the ginger continued her streak of burns. Rapunzel turned around and gave her a disappointed look. Merida, on the other hand, gave her back a sly smile. She was thoroughly enjoying this. That is, until she heard a familiar voice talk from outside the room.

"Not quite, but I'm glad you think so highly of me."

Merida turned her head and was surprised to see a head of mouse brown hair and a crooked smile. "Hiccup?"

The soft side smile threw her a bit off guard, because it was one of the few times she's seen him smile in a long time. He walked into the room, "I thought I recognized your voice."

She followed him with her eyes, and it wasn't until he sat down next to the jock that it registered in her mind what was actually happening. "You're friends with Frost?" she asked with her brows furrowing in confusion.

Hiccup gave a slight shrug, "In a way, yes." In fact, Hiccup was still surprised himself that a person like Frost was even welcome to share the same space as him, let alone call him a companion.

The white-haired boy raised an eyebrow and shifted his eyes between the two. "You two know each other already?" While he's been able to spot the ginger for all four years of his high school career, he has never seen Hiccup before the first day of school those few weeks ago. He was eager to hear their explanation.

Merida looked at Hiccup, asking for permission to speak outright. He gave her a nod. She took a deep breath, "He's my cousin."

Rapunzel's response was the one that Merida expected to be the most boisterous. "Wait, what?"

Jack was mildly surprised yet again. Then again, the ongoing sarcasm from Hiccup and the biting remarks from Merida were very similar in tone, so it's not so out of the blue for the two of them to somehow be related. He let out a small chuckle and turned to the brunet. "You never told me Raggedy Mary-Ann was your cousin." He saw the Scot's expression out of the corner of his eye and held back a bubble of laughter.

"I'm going to pummel you for that one later!" she exclaimed at him.

Rapunzel held the crook of Merida's elbow and leaned in to her. "How come I didn't know about this until now?" Merida locked eyes with her, and she knew that Rapunzel was mildly perplexed.

Merida sighed and spoke in a low tone, "I don't...I'm not allowed to talk about the other half of my family." Merida was not quite sure what to say other than, "Our fathers aren't the nicest of people towards each other."

"That's an understatement." Hiccup muttered.

Merida rolled her eyes and continued, "It's a long story that I can't tell you in one sitting." She took her hands and placed them on Rapunzel's shoulders, "Just, trust me on this one." Merida felt horrible for putting Rapunzel in such an awkward position. She keeps very few surprises from Rapunzel, and she never likes it when she does; but this is a story that has been kept under wraps for quite some time.

Rapunzel knew she wanted answers, but she also knew that this wasn't the time for an intervention. It was a time to study with her friends. So she let this slide back under the rug for now. "…Okay, I trust you."

The ginger smiled, "Thanks." The pair relaxed and notice the silence that fell between the four of them.

Hiccup decided to break the ice by plopping his textbook down on the ground. "...All right, who wants to do some math?"

"Sounds good to me." Jack continued, wanting the moment to pass. He opened his notebook (as did the others) and dived right in. He took a moment to look up at Merida, making sure she seemed composed and wasn't shaken up from what just happened. She spotted his gaze and gave him a cold stare, immediately breaking it and listening to Hiccup clear up a few things about graphs and functions. Jack sighed and chuckled to himself, wondering when he would see the nice side of the ginger that her friend seemed to rave so much about.

The house of DunBroch was a fairly decent place to live. It stayed on the corner in a quaint and quiet part of the town, with very little traffic and blocks of luscious green lawns. The only ruckus you would possibly hear in the area was the loud crash in the afternoon when the triplets came home from preschool and decided to play hide and seek in the living room. Life seemed pretty put together for the family of six.

But sometimes (and the sometimes was very often), the women of the family would find themselves in steaming and tense predicaments. Like most family households with young women, mothers would make sure their daughters looked and acted their absolute best. And, like most households, the daughters wanted to make sure that those things never happened the way their mothers planned them.

Merida was rearing the end of her walk home. She looked down at her clothes and noticed the dusty dark powder on her cool grey jumper she gained from climbing into Rapunzel's house through her window. Her pants were dirty as well from climbing over the windowsill. Great, just what I need, Merida sighed to herself. She knew what was bound to come next. Before she made her way to the door, she turned away from the building and quickly dusted herself off. She got most of the powder out, but it was going to need washing. And her jeans didn't look any better. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her house. She prepared herself for the best and took the key out of her pocket.

Merida loved and hated coming home at the same time. On one hand, she loved to be greeted by the lovely archway of stone outside her house and the smell of home, walking in and feeling at peace with herself.

"Young lady, where have you been?!"

On the other hand, she hated when her mother interrupted her feeling of peace with her badgering tone.

Merida spotted her mother walking towards her from the hallway. "You were supposed to be home at 5 o' clock. It is now 5:15, and I haven't heard a word from you since you left."

She sighed, "I'm sorry. My friends and I were caught up in studying for a math test."

Elinor crossed her arms, "A phone call would've been nice."

"I'm sorry," Merida attempted to slide past her, hoping she didn't notice her clothes and make a big fuss about it. But no such luck.

Elinor grabbed Merida and placed her back in her line of vision. She tugged on the obviously dusty sleeve, "Your clothes are all dirty!"

Merida shrugs her shoulder away and begins to walk away again. "They're fine. I'm going to put them in the laundry."

Her mother placed her hand around Merida's arm, keeping her in place. "Merida, you shouldn't walk around with dirty clothes. It's not ladylike at all."

"Mum," Merida whined.

"Don't roll your eyes at me, young lady." The prim and proper mother released her grip on the ginger and placed both of her hands on her hips and lifted her nose in the air. "Put those clothes in the laundry immediately. Honestly, you look like you're homeless. It doesn't help that you're wearing such baggy sweaters. You need more fitting shirts."

Merida began to walk away, approaching the stairs to the second floor. "No, I don't. My clothes are fine."

Elinor was right on her heels, not letting go of the subject. "I'm buying you better shirts, and you're going to get rid of those old sweaters."

The teenager swung her body around, her expression priceless. "Mum, I don't want new shirts!" Merida was on the verge of screaming, but she knew that wouldn't help the situation one bit. It didn't matter. Elinor wasn't paying any attention to her. Instead, she was looking at the way the ill-fitting clothes were hanging off of her daughter's body.

"Oh shush." Elinor raised her daughter's arm and took in the baggy sweater, measuring her waist and ribcage. "I'm going to buy you some clothes that will make you look as pretty as a Scottish princess."

"But, I—ugh!" she snatched the fabric out of her mother's hand and stomped up the stairs, stripping herself of the dirty garments as soon as she reached the upstairs bathroom and tossing them in the hamper. Elinor stood at the bottom of the staircase. She sighed to herself and shook her head. I'm just trying to do what's best for her…what is so wrong with that?

"I don't understand. Why doesn't she listen to me?" The ginger walked side-by-side with the blonde on their way to first period classes. Rapunzel knew their situation very well. Merida talked often enough that she seemed to be an expert on the Scottish mother/daughter relationship.

"Because mothers aren't meant to listen." Rapunzel started, "They're meant to take care of their children. They want to make sure we're able to live out the absolute best lives and leave their homes without any complaints." Rapunzel thought about her relationship with her mother, and though they never argued about wardrobe, it was quite similar to Merida's. She was restricted and limited like her best friend and followed what her mother told her was right. After all, 'mother always knows best,' as she said.

Merida swung her backpack roughly onto her shoulder. "My kids will get to wear whatever they want. They can run around in their underwear, if that's what they want to do." Her grumpy tone simply added to the fact that this hostile subject was clearly more irritating than the basic problems she encountered at school.

Rapunzel took a peek at her face and stopped to face her. "Can I give you some advice?"

Merida stopped with her, "If you can find a way to help me through this, then go ahead."

"Maybe this situation just needs some objective thinking…" She knew she was steering in troubled water, but she just had to take a shot at it and try to make things better between the ginger and her mother. "I think you both need to put aside your pride for a moment and see the story from each other's point of view."

The redhead felt herself stop breathing for a moment. She felt the need to comment, but didn't know what to say. What exactly was her tiny blonde friend trying to tell her?

"You just can't force people to be on your side if you don't even bother to look at theirs." She saw her friend become more frustrated and she placed a hand on her shoulder. "Just think about it. You don't have to do it, but it might help…You'll get through this. I promise."

Merida sighed. She didn't know what to do. So, she simply left it at that. She'll save the problem for another day. They both said their goodbyes and separated. As Merida strolled to the door of her first class, she noticed a familiar boy walking into the same room. Something seemed a bit off about the King of Fun today. His hair wasn't as vibrantly white as it usually was, and she could see dark circles under his eyes, probably from a lack of sleep. He seemed completely out of gas, with the way he's dragging his feet into class. And, for the first time, Merida finally noticed that he was acting…human. Huh…it looks odd on him, she wondered.

For some strange reason, as Merida saw him, she didn't feel the usual fury she had for Jack Frost. She felt…empathy. She had been in that position many a time; she knew what it was like to come to school wiped out after pulling all-nighters for art projects and composition papers. She understood him, for the first time.

She walked into the classroom and took her usual spot next to the white-haired boy. She took another glance at him and truly noticed just how tired he was. Seeing as how they both shared most of their math study over the weekend, whatever it was must've really used up all of his energy. She then wondered, how would she have treated him if she was oblivious to his lack of energy? Suddenly, Rapunzel's words began spinning in her head: people can't be on your side if you don't even take the time to look at theirs. Maybe I have been a bit too harsh on him. She opened her notebook for the daily lesson, but she knew she wouldn't be able to pay attention. Somehow, she knew by the end of the class she would have to talk to the boy sitting next to her about their issues.

The time for the class passed by, and suddenly, Merida was putting her notebook and pen back into her bag. She looked across from her and saw the boy, busied with his own belongings. She got up out of her seat and faced him, swinging the backpack onto her shoulder.

"Rapunzel told me a while ago that I needed to give you a chance," she started, "so I'm giving you a chance."

Jack paused what he was doing, but eventually continued to shove his folder into his bag and zip it up. "Am I supposed to be flattered?" His voice sounded tired, but the sarcastic tone in his voice totally made what little energy he had sound ten times bigger.

Merida was not in the mood to butt heads with him today, so she bit back her intended revolting response and replaced it with her traditional comment towards the pale-faced boy, "You truly are an ass, you know that?"

"So you've said many times before." He finally looked up to stare at her dead in the face.

She hiked up her bag again onto her shoulder and looped the other arm through the slot. "Look, you can take it or leave it. What'll it be?"

He continued to stare at her for a moment until a small smirk appeared in the corner of his mouth. He lifted his bag onto his shoulders and asked her, "Have you started reading the book yet?"

Merida's brows furrowed, "1984? Why do you care?"

"Well, since we're partners, I thought it might be a good idea to get together and go over the stuff we're supposed to learn from the book." He slowly started to step away from the desks. "You know, a study session?"

Merida followed him toward the door. "It's only two or three chapters a week. Do we really need a study time for that?"

He stopped pacing and turned to face her, the smirk now a small smile. "I kind of like working together with people on things like this. I study better when other people are around. People I can bounce ideas off of, at least."

Merida felt the sincerity in his voice and she began to feel a bit warm. She squirmed, wringing the straps on her backpack, "You really want to work with me?" She looked up at him, with the nervousness in her voice seeping through involuntarily. She never liked to show her vulnerable side, but she seemed quite anxious when others wanted to be in her company, even if it is for school-related projects.

"Yeah. Plus, we can study other stuff together." He walked with her by his side out the door, "I'm pretty good with Economics, and I know you have Pre-Calc with Black."

Is this real? Does Jack Frost actually want to work together with someone that wasn't on his social status level? He seemed to be genuine. Merida decided to take Rapunzel's advice; this was her chance to take a look into his point of view. She looked around, hoping that no one would heard what she was about to ask next. "...Are you free on Friday afternoons?" she asked in a murmur.

His eyebrows rose, but the smile stayed on his face. "I can be."

She asked for his phone and typed in a phone number and an address. She handed it back to him, "Come by after 4. I'll be home by then." She stalked away, hoping to run into her next class without anyone noticing the exchange that just happened between her and a jock.

She didn't see the smile that widened on his face when he looked at the new information he had on his phone.

She also didn't see the little blonde pixie down the hall that witnessed the entire scene play out in mild disbelief.