Not Quite A Fairy-tale
Chapter 1: Setting up decorations
Mary Margaret Blanchard was a big believer in what was known as 'true love'. She always had been, ever since she was a young girl who had no clue about the world around her. She had always firmly believed that true love was working on each person, pushing you in the direction of the person whom you were meant to be with, guiding you on your way to them. It didn't always happen right away, she knew that, but in the end, everyone would get that one special person that was destined for them.
You might say that she believed in true love as a source of comfort, to ease her sadness when dates went horrifically wrong as it gave her faith in the new coming day. And honestly, you might be right. However, as she woke up that Friday morning, her head fresh with thoughts of her diastrous date with Dr Whale, it was her belief in true love that cheered her up.
Of course, barely seconds later, after a satisfied smile had creeped it's way onto her face, did she remember that on that particular day she was taking her class to the hospital, to set up their decorations and take part in the volunteer outreach programme. And of course, the hospital, was where Dr Whale worked.
Sighing heavily, she sat up in her bed, and glanced towards her clock, which was on the right of her; it was time for her to get ready for school.
Mary Margaret loved working as a teacher. She taught 15 wonderful, behaved children (of course, some less behaved than others), and teaching was the only thing that had ever came natural to her. She had skimmed over the idea of becoming a vet, or a doctor, seeing as she was fairly interested in science, however, her heart had been taken by teaching, and she had always been taught to follow her heart.
There wasn't a child in her class that she didn't love; they were all amazing and talented in their own way. But, if she was being honest, young Henry Mills did have a soft-spot in her heart. He seemed to go out of his way to make sure that everything was going well, and, he seemed one of the few children in her class that seemed to care about her as more than just a teacher; he saw her as a person. He was also very bright (when he wanted to be), and she had learned the hard way that she under-estimated him quite a lot; him stealing her credit-card and running off to Boston to find his birth-mother made her realise that.
She wasn't surprised when she arrived to school that morning to see Henry already sitting in her classroom, editing the banners that had been made the previous day by him and other pupils.
"Good morning Henry," she said, closing her door and walking round to her desk. The young boys head shot up; apparently he hadn't heard her come in.
"Miss Blanchard!" He exclaimed, his cheeks going slightly red. "Sorry, I just wanted to finish, and you weren't here, and the janitor must have left the door unlocked.." He trailed off, looking at her catiously, as if frightened he was going to get told off.
"It's fine," she told him, with a smile. "As long as you're just working on the banners, it's alright."
"Okay," he said, looking relieved. "I've nearly finished, I didn't have much left to do, but I didn't want to leave it with no color."
"I bet it looks amazing," she told him honestly.
At 8:45, she ushered in the rest of her class. Many of them seemed very excited about their trip to the hospital, but that was probably because they were going to be missing a day of school.
The class arrived at the hospital at around 10:30-11. They had spent an amount of time going over how to act at the hospital, what they were going to do, and how to behave. Henry didn't think he needed to hear all of it. He knew that their were patients coming in and out of the hospital, people with injuires and diseases, and he didn't need to be told not to shout or run. He didn't complain though. He knew Miss Blanchard's words would benefit a few of his classmates, and he had too much respect for her to question her decision of explaining rules.
Before they set up their decorations, they had to endure a 'brief' talk with Dr Whale. Henry didn't like Dr Whale much. He acted fake, treating them as if they were small children who didn't understand anything and had to be talked too in soft, child-like voices; Miss Blanchard never spoke to them like that.
Miss Blanchard, it seemed, agreed with Henry, or so it seemed. Her lips were in a thin line when Dr Whale was talking, and she didn't seem too impressed. It was rare for his teacher to be annoyed. She was standing next to where Henry was sitting, her hand on the back of his chair. Every now and then, when Dr Whale bored him or went off topic, he glanced towards his teacher, seeing what she thought, and was happy when her face matched what was going on inside his head.
"Miss Blanchard," he whispered, out the corner of his mouth.
"Yes?" She whispered back, her eyes tearing away from the Dr and looking down towards him.
"When are we going to put the banners up? This talk is kind of boring now."
"I don't know," she mumured, frowning. "He said it was going to be brief. I don't think you need to hear why washing your hands is important; you are all 11 after all. Then again.." Her eyes glanced towards a few pupils in the front row. Henry coughed to cover up a laugh.
Eventually, they began to set up the banners and posters. Henry dragged his first one towards one side of the hospital lobby, planning to hang it up above the window. However, he couldn't reach. He looked around awkwardly for his teacher, but saw that she was helping a girl with sticking up a poster, and so he decided that he would just have to do it on his own; he didn't fancy asking Dr Whale, who was currently ignoring all his classmates.
Unsure of what else to do, he grabbed a chair, and hauled it towards the window. He then took his banner and some tape in his hands, and stepped up onto it. Stretching of his tip-toes, his fingers reached where he wanted his banner to go. He bit his lip as he awkwardly tried to stick one side of his banner up.
"Come on," he muttered, balancing on the edge of his toes. "Come on!"
"Need a little help?"
Henry jumped, losing his footing slightly; the person who had spoke to him gently put their hand on his back, stopping him from falling, and helping him re-gain his balance.
He turned; standing behind him was a tall, blonde, blue-eyed man he had never seen before. The man reached out, taking the banner from his hands, and hung it above the window.
"Pass me some tape?" The man asked.
Henry nodded, tearing a bit off with his teeth, and handing it to the stranger.
The man took the tape off of him, and stuck one side of the banner above the window, in the place Henry had wanted it.
"Here's some more," Henry said, tearing another piece of tape off and handing it to the man, who stuck up the other side of the banner.
"There," the man said, admiring his work, before turning to Henry. "That alright?"
"Yup, thank you," Henry replied.
"No problem," the man said, offering Henry his hand and helping him off the chair.
"I'm Henry, are you new around here because I haven't seen you before, and I remember eveyone, and I don't remember seeing you," Henry said quickly, looking at the man with interest.
The man chuckled. "My name is David, David Nolan; and yes, I'm new here, I moved here about a month ago from New York."
"New York? Awesome." Henry replied, before frowning. "Not that I'm judging you or anything, but you don't really look like a doctor, so where're you hurt?"
"I, er, had a car accident about a week ago," the man, David Nolan, replied awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I hit my head and was knocked unconcious, so I came here this morning for a check up. Gotta keep my stitches in for a while longer."
"Oh," Henry replied, his eyes locating the cut on the side of the man's head. "I hope you feel alright; I cracked my head open once and had to have stitches and it was terrible. I did get a cool scar out of it though."
David grinned. "I'll be alright; do you have any more banners I can help you put up before I go? I don't want you to go breaking your neck or something."
"Erm, yeah, I have another one, if you don't mind," Henry replied. "It's just over with my teacher, I'll go get it."
"Okay; let's hang it above the door, it'll look good there."
Mary Margaret had been avoiding talking to Dr Whale since they had arrived at the hospital; she had said hello, and greeted him with a not-so-real smile, but since the kids had rushed off to put up their decorations, she had tried to stay a good way away from him; it seemed like her class knew she was trying to avoid him, as every time he started coming in her direction for whatever reason, one of her pupils called her, thus making her move away from his presence.
The next student to 'save her' was Henry.
"Miss Blanchard!" He called, snapping her out of her daydream; Dr Whale was walking in her direction again, and she happily got out of his path.
"Yes Henry?" She asked, greeting the young boy with a smile.
"Can I have my other banner? I wanna stick it up above the door," he explained.
She sighed. "Henry, you can't reach up there, and I can't either, there's no way we can get it above the door."
"Yeah we can," he told her. "Mr Nolan's gonna put it up, he's tall enough."
"Mr Nolan?" She asked, wondering who on earth he was. She knew no one in Storybrooke with the last name Nolan.
"Yeah, he's over there, he helped me put up my first one," Henry explained, pointing towards the other side of the room.
A young man around her age (give or take a few), was leaning against the wall. He was tall (hanging a banner up above the door would be an easy task for him) and slim, his hair a golden shade of blonde. He was very good-looking, and she found it strange how she had never seen him before.
"He just moved here about a month ago," Henry explained, answering her un-asked question, probably seeing her confusion. "Anyway, can I have my banner?"
"Oh right, your banner," she replied, turning away from the stranger; she ruffled through the bag of decorations she was carrying, before pulling out Henry's other banner. She handed it to him, and watched as he ran back off to 'Mr Nolan'. Frowning, she followed him, feeling slightly worried that Henry was talking to a stranger, but curious about who he was too.
"Yeah, just there I think," Henry was saying when she reached them.
"Tape?" Mr Nolan asked, holding out his free hand.
"Here," Henry replied, handing him two strips.
"Thanks," Mr Nolan said, stretching up and sticking one side down. He then used the other strip to stick down the other side. "Done and dust-"
His words died in his throat as he turned around and saw Mary Margaret standing behind him. He hadn't expected to see anyone other than Henry, it seemed. His eyes, blue and somehow warm, locked on hers, and she shifted slightly. He continued to stare at her.
"Mr Nolan, this is my teacher Miss Blanchard. Miss Blachard, this is Mr Nolan, the man who has been helping me put my banners up," Henry said, causing both of them to move their eyes onto him.
"It's David," Mr Nolan replied, giving Henry a grin. "'Mr Nolan' makes me sound like my Father."
"Oh, okay. Miss Blanchard, this is David," Henry said, introducing them for a second time.
"Nice to meet you," David said, offering her his hand, and giving her a soft smile.
"Pleasure," she responded, taking his hand and shaking it. His hand was incredibly large against her own, small hand, yet suprisingly, their hands seemed to match. She wasn't sure why.
She pulled her hand out of his own, smiling slightly. "Henry said you're new in town?" She asked, placing a hand on Henry's shoulder.
"Yeah, I moved here about a month ago," he said nodding, burrying his hands in his pockets. "Got an apartment, got a job down at the animal shelter, and then, well, nearly got myself killed last week." He chuckled nervously.
"What? How?" She asked, her brow furrowed.
"Car accident," he admitted sheepishly. "It wasn't that bad, my car just skidded off the road and I hit my head on the windscreen; no damage to the car luckily, but I was not so lucky and was knocked unconcious. Needed stitches."
Her eyes glance to his head, seeing his injury. "Ouch," she said, wincing.
"Miss Blanchard! Miss Blanchard!"
She glanced around and saw one of her pupils struggling with a pair of sissors.
"Looks like I'm wanted," she said, taking her hand off Henry's shoulder and looking into David's eyes. "It was nice meeting you David."
"You too, Miss Blanchard," he said smiling, and she realised she hadn't told him her name.
"It's Mary Margaret," she said, tucking some of her black hair behind her ear.
"Well, nice meeting you, Mary Margaret," he corrected himself. "I best be off, if you don't need me anymore," he said, turning to Henry.
"No, you can go," Henry said, giving his approval.
"Well, bye," he said, smiling at Henry, and then looking up to Mary Margaret. "I hope you two have a nice day."
The end of the day came, and Mary Margaret had managed to avoid Dr Whale completely. Well, after meeting David she had given up on the whole avoiding thing, and forgot about Whale entirely. The last time she laid eyes on him was when she was saying goodbye and leaving through the hospital door, escourting her class back to school.
They arrived back to school 5 minutes before the day ended, during which she gave out homework (which was just to write up a brief explanation of what they had done that day) and cleaned up the small amount of mess.
When the end of day bell came, she said goodbye to her class, wishing them a happy weekend, which she was desperate for. Henry helped her bring her bags to her car (which she was very greatful for), and then he set off on his way home.
She arrived at her apartment, leaving her things in her car (she'd come and get them some other time), and entered her home. It felt lonely. She thought about the offer she had given Emma the night before, offering up her spare-room; she didn't ask just for Emma's benefit, she'd asked for her benefit too. Having a friend, someone important in her life was something she craved. And at the moment, the only friend she seemed to have was an 11 year old boy, which was very depressing. Then again, she thought, as she collapsed on the couch and switched on the television, that David Nolan certainly did seem nice.