Gideon Matthey Gold was completely normal …but at the same time, he wasn't.
Nothing was wrong with him per say. To the prying eyes of Storybrooke, Maine, he was like any other teenager.
He was polite enough to all who approached him, but he regularly associated with only two other teenagers: Neal Nolan, who despite having to schedule his dates due to his intense popularity among his peers, was a perfect gentleman, and Robyn Mills-Hood, who used her edgy, sarcastic attitude to cover the scars she had earned in the raging battle between her eccentric mother and distant father.
He went to school at the local high-school with them, made slightly better-than-average grades as he had been reading college-level material since early high school, which made him the candidate for several scholarships as his senior year approached.
He lived with his infamous mother and father in the even more notorious salmon mansion just west of Main street, worked in his father's shop after school and weekends in the library with his mother.
No, Gideon Matthey Gold was an average young boy in an average town, and despite the occasional sneer at his parentage, no one thought less or more of him.
That is until the faithful September day when the first period bell of the new semester rang and it became abundantly clear to all who witnessed the morning's even that Gideon Gold was far from normal.
It was five minutes until homeroom. Neal Nolan was at his locker discussing the morning's mysterious events with Robyn Hood-Mills.
"So he just didn't show up?" Robyn inquired.
"He sent me a text saying to get a ride with my dad." He closed his locker, looking down at the redhead. "I don't know whether to be insulted or concerned."
Robyn scoffed and wheeled her wheelchair into the hall. Robyn Hood-Mills had been in a hunting accident that summer courtesy of her father accidently shooting her in one of her legs. The accident had furthered the malice between her parents, and put a damper on Robyn's senior plans.
"He say anything else?" Robyn pressed.
"No. Maybe his parents dragged him somewhere? He's been ditching us a lot lately."
Robyn shrugged. "Maybe now you have an excuse to beg your dad for a car?"
Neal chuckled, and just as he readied a retaliation, a burst of laughter down the hall.
"What can be so amusing this early in the morning?" Robyn deadpanned.
"Race you there?" Neal smirked.
Robyn wheeled ahead. "Fuck you, Nolan."
Neal shook his head and followed her into the crowd where their peers were jeering and taking pictures of the object of ridicule.
"Nice eyeshadow fag!" someone yelled.
"Rude much?" Robyn muttered.
Neal and Robyn squeezed through the front of the crowd and stopped.
"Oh my God…" Robyn gawked.
"Gid…?"
Before them stood Gideon Gold, fleshed out in full makeup: sunset orange eyeshadow, full eyelashes, blush on his sharp cheekbones, and dark red lipstick.
"Oh Gid…"