I own no one but my own people
"Can't even buy a drink at the pub. What kinda bloody country doesn't let adults drink? Makin' you wait 'till you're twenty-one, that's not bloody fair is it?"
"We're in America now, we have to live by their rules."
"Since when were you a rule follower?"
"Since I became a father."
"You mean since you became a bloody bore."
Robin Locksley rolled his eyes at his step brother Will Scarlet as the two eighteen-year old sat at the table, their breakfast consisting of cold pop tarts seeing as how they haven't dug out their toaster out of the moving box yet.
"I'm trying to be a better man for my son."
"Even the best o' men have a pint every now and then…"
"Not until you're twenty-one."
Both Robin and Will turned at the voice that belonged to their father, Tuck Locksley, holding his grandson Roland in his arms.
"Oh, come on, Pops, you can't be serious! I was only able to get a drink for six weeks, Robin got four months!" Will protested as Tuck set the one year old in his high chair.
While Tuck may not have been his father, he had raised Will since he was six years old. Robins mother had died when he was just five and Will had never met his birth father. When the boys were thirteen, Wills mother, who had become Robins as well for all intents and purposes, had abandoned her family with a kiss on the cheek and a promise she was just running out for milk.
It was the last time any of them saw her.
That was why, after Marian died leaving Robin a single teenage parent and his eldest son had been arrested for shoplifting, Tuck had packed up his two sons, left London, and moved to the small sleepy town of Storybrooke Maine. To try to put all the pain in all of them behind them.
To give them all a second chance.
"I caught you and your bother sneaking ale when you were fifteen years old, don't give me that codswallop about you only drinkin' for six weeks."
Robin and Will looked at one another and shrugged before turning back to their father who was trying to hide a smile.
"But enough arguing about drinking ages, you two have your first day of school, you don't wanna be late and give a bad first impression."
"Oh don't worry, Pops, the bad impression will come eventually," Will told him as he and his brother stood up from the table and grabbed their bookbags.
"Gotta agree with him there," Robin said as he made his way over to Roland and gave him a kiss on the top of his head. "I love you, my boy," he whispered to the one year old.
Tuck just chuckled and shook his head, "You boys are gonna be the end of me, I swear it."
"Can I get the apartment when you die?" asked Will.
"Only if I can get your record collection," added Robin.
"Both of you out, now, go to school…"
With a final kiss to both Roland and their father the two brothers walked out of their humble two-bedroom apartment on the rougher side of town, got into the truck the small family shared and headed to Storybrooke High.
…
Regina Mills sighed as she looked in the large mirror attached to her vanity. She almost wanted to laugh when a photo of her just a year ago hanging on her wall caught her eye.
In the picture she was wearing simple natural looking makeup with a light blue top that showed off just a hint of cleavage with form fitting light colored jeans. Her hair, which she had cut short after… after what happened, was pulled into a single plait.
Her arms were wrapped around a man with brilliant blue eyes and dark brown hair, both smiling wildly at the camera. Even though it was only a year ago it felt like a lifetime since she had seen him, since he had showed up at her locker at the last period and kissed her, sealing the promise that Regina was going to sneak out of the house and meet him at their spot under their tree at Storybrooke park later on that night.
That was the last time she ever saw him alive.
She missed Daniel. So much. Regina didn't know how she was supposed to move on and live when every waking moment she thought about him. Especially since Regina had to see HER every day; smiling, loving life, being happy… It wasn't fair.
Regina pushed back a piece of perfectly styled hair and triple checked her outfit for the day, a pair of black skinny jeans with a black top with strips of dark red lace on both sides as well as a strip of lace framing her breasts which, thanks to the cut of the top, were as exposed as possible without her nipples being on display for her classmates.
Her makeup was as far away from natural looking as it could be with a deep red smoky eye and black liner and obscenely long lash extensions. A pair of black leather boots with a 4-inch dagger heel completed the dark ensemble.
Before she lost Daniel she never would have dreamt of wearing something like this, but this was her armor now. It gave her the confidence she needed to face the day with her head held high and her shoulders back, daring anyone who thought to cross her to do so.
Daniel would have laughed at her new wardrobe and makeup choices, but she didn't care. He would understand why she changed.
She touched up her lipstick, a deep red, grabbed her bag and headed down into the kitchen of her family's large mansion.
"Morning, sweetie," Henry Mills greeted his daughter with a smile as he set down the newspaper he had been reading.
"Morning, Daddy," said Regina with the only genuine smile she probably would wear throughout the day, giving him a kiss on his cheek. She went over to the cupboard and grabbed the box of cereal along with the milk and sat down at the table beside her father.
"Good morning, Regina," her mother Cora said as she walked into the kitchen.
Almost out of instinct Regina straightened out her posture. "Good morning, mother," she told the intimidating woman with the same amount of warmth her mother had greeted her with; hardly any.
Cora scoffed as she looked at what her daughter was eating. "Really, Regina?"
The eighteen-year-old froze, pursing her lips as she cleared her throat and looked up at her. "Is there a problem, Mother?"
"Do you really think that your waistline can afford what amounts to a giant bowl of sugar?"
"Cora, stop," Henry scolded. "She's fine just how she is."
"Stop coddling her," Cora snapped back, effectively shutting the older man up.
Regina glanced down, putting a hand on her flat stomach. She was 5'5 and a whole 110 pounds but apparently that was too much for her mother.
Taking Regina's silence as agreement, not that it would have mattered if she had agreed anyway, Cora walked over to the fridge and got out a brilliantly red apple.
"Here you go." She set the apple down in front of her daughter and took the bowl of cereal from her, dumping the food down the garbage disposal.
Regina opened her mouth before she closed it, her lip shaking slightly. "Mother, I'm not-."
Cora reached down and took her hand like she was any other mother comforting their daughter but Regina knew better.
"You're not what, dear?" Cora asked dangerously, squeezing her hand hard to the point Regina wanted to cry out, that smile that let Regina know she could be so much worse plastered on her face.
The young girl swallowed hard before she shook her head as her mother squeezed harder. "Nothing," she half whispered. "I'm sorry, I'll be good."
"See? That's all I wanted." Cora released her hand and Regina massaged it to try to get some of the pain away. "Now hurry up and eat, or we're going to be late."
Seeing as how Cora was Principal of Storybrooke high, Regina could never escape her mother even at school. The only times she had been able to get away from her was when she had been with her friends or Daniel but last year had changed everything.
Now she had no one.
After Regina ate breakfast and kissed her father goodbye the two women got in the car and began the drive to their school.
…
"Good morning, Regina."
Regina rolled her eyes as she put away her books in her locker, knowing exactly who belonged to the obnoxious chipper voice behind her.
"Go away," she told the intruder as she hung up her jacket still without facing them.
"Come on, Regina, you need to stop this," another more exasperated voice told her. "You don't think it's time to get over this?"
The brunette whipped around, glaring at the two girls who were standing before her.
Emma Swan had on what was more or less her standard 'uniform', a white wife beater and jeans that show cased her athletic body, her long blonde hair pulled into a simple pony tail. She had moved to Storybrooke in her Freshman year with what she referred to as her 'aunt' Ingrid but in reality was her ex foster mother now turned adoptive parent.
Cora hated the blonde, almost as much as she hated Regina. Emma was wild and carefree, she broke rules… Somehow, she was the opposite of Regina and yet they had managed to become friends when she first moved here, after they both got over hating each other for that crush they each had on Graham Hunter who had moved almost as soon as the feud started between the two freshmen of course.
But in the years since Emma moved her, she had grown closest to Mary Margaret Blanchard, known as 'Snow White' to the rest of the school due to the black short pixie cut she had worn since elementary school.
Mary Margaret was a living breathing Norman Rockwell painting. The only child of a happy two parent home, her father was the second wealthiest man in Storybrooke, and her mother was a doting loving housewife who provided the costumes for all the plays, the cookies for all the bake sales, AND headed up the PTA. Her insufferably perfect daughter took after her in every way.
She had been elected student body president all four years of her high school career, she landed the lead in all the plays, she was the most popular girl in school, but she wasn't in any capacity a 'mean girl', she was involved in almost every club the school offered, she was the captain of the cheerleading squad… she was even dating the equally annoyingly perfect captain of the football team.
She was a regular fairytale princess…
Today the black-haired girl had worn a bright yellow sweater and a long billowy white skirt.
"We just wanna talk," Emma said as she stood beside her best friend. "You've been avoiding us."
"Gee, I wonder why that is," she irritably snapped, glaring daggers into Mary Margaret that burned so bright that little miss perfect was forced to looked down at the ground and was unable to look her in the eye.
"It's been almost a year, Regina, you can't keep hating us," the blonde tried again.
"We miss you," Mary Margaret added, her words dripping with sickening sweetness.
Regina scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Excuse me, you don't get to decide when, or even if, I stop hating you."
"We're your friends," Mary Margaret said, finally lifting her head up.
"The only thing you are is a badly dressed nuisance."
"Knock it off," Emma told her, this time with that fire in her voice that made Regina's mother despise her.
When it came to Mary Margaret none of their group was as close to her as Emma was. The two were more than best friends, they were practically family to one another. So, when Regina had declared war on the girl in the yellow sweater Emma didn't even blink an eye when it came to choose what side she was on.
"She said she was sorry a thousand times, what else do you want her to do?"
Regina appeared to be in deep contemplation for a moment before she spoke.
"There's a rather short pier on the edge of town." She leaned in close, relishing when she saw the fear in Mary Margaret's eyes, the boots making her several inches higher than her former friend. "Go take a long walk off it."
With a rather effective smirk she stormed off, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she did.
God, she hated that bitch. When it first happened, not even a week had gone by since The Incident and she had already come back to school, trying to pretend like she hadn't ruined Regina's life. She thought she could just waltz right back in here like the little princess she was, and everything would be okay.
It wasn't okay. Nothing was going to be okay ever again, and Regina made sure to let Mary Margaret know that it wasn't.
Regina was so caught up in her anger that she didn't notice the puddle of water someone had spilled in the hallway, and if there was one thing that dagger heels didn't mix well with it was puddles.
She let out a cry as she felt herself falling, reaching out, trying desperately to grab onto something to keep her upright but there was nothing but air. Just as she closed her eyes and braced herself for the inevitable crash she felt someone grab hold of her arm and wrapped another around her waist to keep her from falling to the hard tile.
"M'lady, are you alright?" an unfamiliar thick British accent gently asked her.
Regina opened her eyes and almost gasped at the person holding her. He looked to be about eighteen years old with light brown hair and dazzling blue eyes. He had a light touch of scruff that did nothing to hide his dimples that were evident even without smiling.
She suddenly fell mute as she stared at him, getting lost in those ocean blue eyes. He was so beautiful…
"Are you alright?" he asked again, this time with a touch more worry. "Did you hit your head?"
Regina cleared her throat, finally getting out of the spell that she was under when she realized that everyone was now staring at her waiting for her to say something. Not wanting to be perceived as anything but the harsh 'Queen' as some had taken to calling her, she straightened herself up, casting a fiery look at the man who still had his arm around her waist.
"I didn't need your help, I would have been fine," she snapped at the stranger.
At this response the rest of the students seemed to disappear, not wanting to be in the way of her now legendary anger.
But instead of appearing remotely scared at the black clothing clad woman he merely raised an eyebrow at her. "A simple thank you would suffice."
"I didn't ask for your help."
"So next time do you prefer I just push you down myself then?"
She wanted to stay angry at him but the twinkle in his eye and the hint of flintiness in his comment made it impossible.
"What on earth makes you think you're ever 'pushing me down' anywhere?" she asked, trying like hell to hide the flirtatious tones that unfortunately overtook her words.
The British man shrugged, that twinkling getting even more brighter. "I'm a bit of an optimist."
As hard as she tried a slow smile started to grow on her lips and she realized he was still holding onto her. He seemed to realize it too because he steadied her and took a half step back, holding out his hand for her.
"Robin Locksley. I just moved here last week, todays my first day."
"Regina Mills."
She grabbed the man's hand, thinking he would give it a shake but instead he brought her hand to his lips and placed a kiss on the back of it.
"You're a bit of a scoundrel, aren't you?" she asked, her smile growing.
"I prefer the term 'charmer' actually."
"And just what makes you think I care about what you prefer?"
His smirk grew more pronounced as he took a step towards her, already dangerously close to touching her before there was a loud shrill bell interrupted their game.
Regina cleared her throat and took a step back, readjusting her bag back onto her shoulder.
"I got to get to class," she told him, half wishing that just once she could skip out on class but her mother would have found out the second she was late.
"Yeah, I don't really need to be late on my first day. I'll see you around, Regina?"
The way her name fell form his lips made her weak in the knees and she had to remind herself to breathe.
"Yeah… yeah of course. Bye, Robin."
With one last final smile he turned and headed off towards his first class with Regina staring after him.
Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all…
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