Um… I don't know how this happened. I don't not ship Snowing… but I don't exactly ship them, either. Anyway… on goes the Once Upon an AU Kindergarten saga. Enjoy.

"Dabid… Dabid," came the insistent whisper.

"Ssssh," David hissed back, pressing his lips together and quickly straightening as their teacher moved toward their tables. The whole class was busy doing their work at centers, and David was supposed to be doing his math work. Scrunching his brow as he concentrated, his fingers tightly squeezed the green smiley face stamp as he studied the "6" on his paper and tried to remember how many stamps he was supposed to make in the box beside it.

"Everything okay over here?" their teacher asked the art table behind him—Mary Margaret's group was there today, and he wondered if their teacher heard her talking to him. "Woah," the woman quickly spoke before anyone could answer, "Leroy, I think that's plenty of black paint." David snuck a peek to see her peeling up the boy's paper and tucking it into the drying rack.

David turned back to his page and dutifully made six smiley stamps in row. The next part would be easy, it had a "3." Then he would just have "8," "5" and "2" left and he would be finished.

"Dabid," Mary Margaret whispered again.

"Ssssh," he warned. They were 'llowed to talk at centers, but they were supposed to be working, too. And their teacher really didn't like it when they talked to other tables. She said it a'stracted everyone. So they had to work with their group until they finished, anyway.

"Emma wants you to hold her," Mary Margaret spoke up again. She held out her worn little baby, the one that David's had mended lots of times for her. It was the same doll that she had carried with her on the whole entire first day of school, the one that she still took all the time. David knew because sometimes Mary Margaret's dad took them to school, and lots of times his mom took them home. Their teacher had said a long time ago that Emma had to take a nap in Mary Margaret's cubby during school, but she always snuck it out anyway.

He shook his head. "No, I have to do my work," he whispered back. "We're at centers."

"But she'll get messy!" his friend protested, looking at him like his puppy dog did when it wanted people food from the table. She held out the doll again. The doll had its t-shirt with "E-m-m-a" on the front, and it had a pink stain where Mary Margaret had dripped strawberry jelly on it when they had pbj's after school.

David shook his head hard and turned around fast.

"I'll hold it," Viktor piped up.

David whirled around fast and snatched Emma away, clutching at the doll's leg and glaring at the other boy. Viktor was always trying to sit by Mary Margaret, and David didn't like that they were in a group together.

"No!" Mary Margaret shrieked, grabbing at her doll and looking at David like he was the scary monster in the movie his uncle took him to see once—the movie that his mom said gave him nightmares. Mary Margaret pulled Emma close, not even noticing she had the doll upside down as she patted its head. "You don't hold babies by their legs," she added, looking like the pictures in the story time book When Sophie Gets Angry—Really, Really Angry.

Almost everyone was staring at them, and their teacher was coming quickly toward them, her mouth in that tight not-smile. "David, we don't take things from each other. Go pull a stick out of your pocket."

"But I didn't take it!" he protested, mouth falling open in surprise. His eyes flickered to the pocket charts by the door. Everyone had a pocket with their name on it, and his was almost in the middle with "D-a-v-i-d" on it. Inside was a strip of green, one of yellow, and one of red. Almost everyone had all their colors left—well, almost everyone. Ruby almost never had her green one, and Rum lots of times didn't have his green or yellow. If they had to pull the green stick, it was a warning; yellow meant spending five minutes of recess in the thinking spot; red meant a note went home to your family.

"Go, please, David," their teacher ordered. "And Mary Margaret, your doll goes in your cubby. Please pull your green stick, too."

David scowled fiercely at both of them and walked as slow as he could to the chart. He almost didn't pull out his stick, but he saw Mary Margaret watching him, so he did it. But he made sure she pulled out hers, too. It was her fault anyway. Girls. They were always messing stuff up, and she always wanted to play 'castle' with him, even when sometimes he wanted to play army with Sean. He used to play swords with Rum, and Rum was really good at it, and it was really fun. But one time his hand got hurt, and then the recess teacher saw it and said no more swords.

"Finish up your work," their teacher called, and David trudged back to his chair. If he didn't finish now, he had to finish during free play later. Ignoring the table behind him, he took the blue stamp and turned it upside down so the faces weren't smiley. Girls always messed things up.

*ONCE UPON AN A.U. TIME*

Mary Margaret frowned at Ruby and hugged Emma closer. "I don't think Emma wants to play wolves and cubs."

"But it's fuuuuunnnn," the girl answered, her twin pigtails trailing as she twirled in a circle. "She's smiling. Emma likes it."

Mary Margaret put her hand over the doll's mouth. "That's just on the outside. Inside she's not smiling. She tolded me she doesn't wanna play." She held the doll's mouth up to her ear and paused a moment. "She wants to play hide-an-go-seek."

"We can't play with two people," Ruby protested, kicking at wood chips with her big black high tops. She squinted her eyes and looked around quickly. "Let's ask Viktor and David and Ashley and Sean."

They quickly found their friends, and talked everyone into the idea, but only on the condition that David got to seek first. Their group had grown, Happy and Jefferson joining in their group, but it was nice to have lots of people.

Mary Margaret wasted no time finding a spot. Just as soon as David started his numbers, she shot off toward the yellow tunnel and tucked herself and Mary Margaret inside. "Sssh, be quiet, Emma," she whispered to her doll as she watched everyone else scramble for a spot. Hide and seek was her favorite. She was small and had lots of place to hide, not like when the older kids played and Anton could never find anything except trees and stuff to hide behind.

Everything grew quieter, and Mary Margaret curled up in her spot. It was nice in here, cozy, like her on little cottage to play castle in, even if she always liked the wooden one that was bigger. It had the tall high thingies to climb up in, like in her story book. But this little spot was fun, too.

"Found ya!"

She squeaked in surprise and kind of bumped her head against the top of the tunnel when David's face appeared in the front. "You cheated!" she protested, lip trembling. It was a good hiding place, and she could see Ashley running behind him to the tree where she tagged base and was safe. Ashley was terrible at hiding and everyone else always caught her first.

"I did not, Mary Margaret," he protested. "I just guessed really good. And anyway, got you," he said, tagging her softly on her arm. Boys were dumb, and they messed up everything. She was sure of it. And she hoped his mom wasn't taking them home today. She didn't ever wanted to see him again. He made her lose a stick, and he found her first.

With a huff, she slid out of her spot and hugged Emma close, trudging to the tree as he quickly tagged Jefferson and Ruby. Ashley ended up being it because she was first to the base, and in a few minutes they were running to hide again.

She chose a spot behind the loud metal thing they were sort of not supposed to go behind, even though it wasn't actually a rule, not a rule like always walking in the hallway, anyway. It was a little bit scary, but no one looked here.

A second later, something bumped her hard, and Mary Margaret fell on the ground on top of Emma. She rolled over and bit her lip to keep from crying. "Go away, Dabid," she grouched.

"I didn't mean to," he protested, and he reached down to pull her up. "I'm sorry."

She sniffed, and almost snatched away Emma when he picked her up. But he just brushed off their baby and handed it to her.

"Is Emma okay?" he asked as she took her baby and inspected her closely.

"Y-yeah," she sniffled again. "How'd you know where I was? Nobody hides here."

"I'll always find you," he whispered quietly, both of them ducking down as their heard Ashley call "Ready or not, here I come!"