Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or its characters. But I do own the story line since this sadly happened to me last year. Hope you like it more than I did. This is what happened to Emma in the past at some point, I guess.

"I am a victim of circumstance." This is my favorite quote from the classic Three Stooges series as well as the truth regarding an incident that happened last year. Last year during my junior year, I was in the school play, "Cheaper by the Dozen" and during the three months that we rehearsed, we had several hiccups. When we first started, I had thought that the cast was going to actually put in an effort. Unfortunately, I was mistaken.

During the first view days that we spent practicing, I decided to be nice and offered to give some of the guys who lived in the nearby neighborhood a ride home since I passed it on my way. Only one guy took the offer, a guy named John who only showed up to practice eight times throughout all three months. Needless to say, when he didn't show up everyone got mad, and one day when we had the worst practice ever, he really ticked us off.

That day most of the cast members were running around backstage, talking, climbing stage ropes, playing on the nearby piano, playing with props and intentionally messing with peoples' lines. Considering how I was one of the more mature students there, I was livid and it didn't help when John decided to show up after we ended practice at seven o'clock! He was four hours late and thought that he had done nothing wrong after not even showing up for practice after two weeks!

Now, like I said, I was livid. And it didn't help that John asked me for a ride home. This was a guy who rarely showed up for practice even though he knew he was a major character and was four hours late on the day he finally showed up. So naturally I told him no, but it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear so he kept asking me repeatedly on the way to my car which was on the other side of the parking lot.

There were even points where is was yelling the word no in his face but he still kept on asking me. Now, when got to my car there was another car next to it and since it was dark out, John got the two confused. So I said, "Alright, John. I'll give you a ride. But, you have to sit in the back left seat because I've got some junk in the passenger seat."

Thankfully, the guy was dumb enough to believe me and that the car next to mine was actually mine. So, I unlocked my car as quick as I could and got in and as soon as I pressed the lock button, John opens the door behind me and tries to sit down. I then scooted my chair back and tried to push him out, apparently, he thought this was some kind of game because he still had that stupid grin on his face.

I kept telling him to get out of my car as I pushed him but he just kept begging me. With as much time as he wasted asking me for a ride, he could have already gotten home by foot.

"But, it's dark out! What if I get jumped?!" He asked me. My reply was, "I'll go to confession, now get out!"

Then for a moment, he got serious and gave me an offer. "Emma…I don't know if you're into that kind of stuff. But I'll give you some marijuana if you give me a ride."

"My foster dad is the zone sergeant of the county's highway patrol and a Colonel in the National Guard. Do you really think I'm stupid enough to do something like that?"

"Emma…I don't have any marijuana." He admitted. Really?! "But I'll pay for gas!" Apparently, he thought I was an idiot since the turn to get to his neighborhood was about thirty feet from the nearest gas station. I asked him to show me the money and he reluctantly admitted that he had none. Sadly, this continued for another fifteen minutes before he finally got out of being wedged between my car door and for a moment, I thought the nonsense was over.

This was false hope was quickly thrown away after I saw the idiot take a seat on my trunk in my mirror. Having enough of this guy, I turned off my car, got out and was about ready to beat John to his knees and leave him in the parking lot. Fortunately for him, he realized (finally) that I was really going to hurt him and walked away.

The next day when we had another practice, I had about an hour before we started so I decided to stop by the gas station to get a snack. Just before I walked out the door, I remembered what happened the previous night. So, I turned around and called over to the cast members who had already shown up.

"Oh, if any of sees John while I'm gone, tell him that I said if he ever tries anything with me like last night, I'm going to break his nose." And with that, I turned around and headed towards the door.

But then, one of the girls called back to me and said, "You can't just say something like that so calmly and walk away!"

So I looked back to her and said, "Please?"

John never said two words to me offstage for the rest of the year.