A/N: Hey ya'll! I've been thinking about this idea for a while, but haven't really had the time to write anything that isn't college assignments lately, and any free time I have had has been filled with other non-writing related things! I'm not really one hundred percent sure where I wanna go with this story, but I just thought it would be a cool idea and it could work! Please review if you like the story, or if you don't, I definitely welcome constructive criticism and it's always good to see what I'm doing well and what I can improve! Happy reading! xo
Chapter 1
It's never really been a secret that I'm not the most organised person in the world, but as a twenty-eight year old responsible mother, forgetting my son's parents evening is a bit far even for me. I rush around my apartment looking for the car keys while sweeping my hair up into a ponytail in an attempt to make myself look presentable, while my rather smug looking 10 year old sits with his feet on the couch, making no effort to help me look, and clearly finding my distress and forgetfulness amusing. "Kid, get your shoes on! We're late enough as it is and your teachers probably already think I'm irresponsible and incapable of parenting!" Henry shrugged, evidently still having no intention of moving anytime soon. "Relax, mom, I doubt they care!" he paused, a thought clearly popping into his head, as he suddenly popped up from his position on the couch and began speaking again. "-actually, we better get going, Ms Mils is your first appointment, and as awesome as she is, she hates when people are late!" I suddenly panic upon the realisation that Henry seems to talk a lot about this 'Ms Mills', she's clearly his favourite teacher and I don't wanna put the poor kid on her bad side. I spot the keys on the coffee table- the one place I forgot to look and quickly pick them up, now heading towards the door. "Okay kid, don't worry I'm ready! Let's get going!" I say, locking the door behind Henry and myself as we rush down the stairs of our apartment building, towards our car. We arrive at the school just 10 minutes later, which is one of the perks of living in a small town like Storybrooke, and head inside the school, I quickly sign us in at the reception desk and rush down the hall towards where my first appointment is, the English department. I look around the room and notice it to be rather busy, hoping this means some of the teachers will be behind on their schedules and my lateness won't have been recognised. I glance down when I feel henry tugging on my arm, in an attempt to get my attention. He looks up at me and points to a desk in the far left corner of the large meeting room that has been set up for parents evening. "Mom, that's Ms Mills! Look, no one is at her desk so you can go have your appointment with her now!" Upon looking over at Ms Mills' desk I notice two things. The first is that her desk is super organised, much more so than any of the others in the room, which means that this woman is clearly the complete opposite of me. The second is that this woman is attractive. Like, really attractive. It suddenly occurs to me that I've been staring, and haven't yet answered my son, so I snap myself out of it and smile down at him. "Okay kid, then I guess we should go over there." I say, he nods eagerly and we head over there. "Ms Mills, Hi!" Ms Mills looks up from her laptop and smiles widely at Henry. "Hello Henry, I was starting to wonder whether you and your mother were coming." She looks over to me and extends her hand "Hello, you must be Henry's mother. Regina Mills." She says, confidently. After a brief awkward second of just staring at my son's teacher, I finally pull myself together and return her smile. "Hi, yeah, Emma Swan" I say, shaking her hand and then pulling out my chair and taking a seat opposite her. "Nice to meet you Miss Swan." I'm not a fan of her formal choice of calling me 'Miss Swan', but I let it slide as I smile at her and then apologise for my lateness to her appointment. "I'm really sorry about how late I am, I kinda lost my car keys!" I say with a chuckle and then continue "I hope I haven't messed up your schedule too much!" she gives me a brief smile and then replies. "It's quite alright, Miss Swan, there's no need to apologise. And no, you did not 'mess up' my schedule, at all, actually, it seems that not many other people apart from yourself took it upon themselves to book appointments with me, I guess I'm just not one of the more popular teachers of this school." She says with a slight laugh, although I do not miss the hurt that flashes briefly through her eyes and my heart goes out to the woman in front of me. "Well, that's not entirely true, you seem to be very popular with my son, he never stops talking about you!" I say with a reassuring smile to Ms Mills. She smiles brightly at this information and it makes me feel relieved that I've made her feel better by telling her this. "The feeling is certainly mutual, you have a wonderful son, and he is a pleasure to teach." She says with a smile towards Henry. The three of us spend the next 15 minutes discussing Henry's progress in class, and I notice that Regina seems a lot more relaxed since the confirmation that my son does not dislike her, apparently unlike most of the other students at this school, although I have no idea why, I can't see anything there is to dislike about the woman sitting in front of me, and the way she is clearly so passionate about her job, and seems to have developed a good relationship with my son over the few months she has taught him warms my heart. At the end of the discussion I smile at Regina, beaming with pride over how well Henry seems to be doing in class and stand to leave. As I'm turning around I'm stopped by the sound of Regina's voice. "Oh, Miss Swan, before you go, if you ever have any questions regarding how Henry's getting on, I'll give you my email address, feel free to email me any time and ask." She says, handing over a piece of paper with what I assume to be her email address written on it. "Thanks, I will do!" I say to her, giving her a last smile before turning around with henry following close behind. "Miss Swan?" she says again. I turn around to her with a questioning look on my face. "Yeah?" "Thank you. You know, for the confirmation that not everyone hates me." She says, the same pained look on her face from earlier, although she still tries to hide it with a smile. I smile back at her. "Of course. It's true, my son really likes you." I pause for a moment and then finish. "And so do I." I say. And, knowing me, I'm probably just imagining things but I swear I see her face light up for a moment. Trying not to think about it, I give her one last smile and then let Henry lead me to our next appointment, trying to ignore the fact that Regina Mills stays on my mind for the rest of the evening.