After over two hundred years, I'm home Regina Mills thought as she pulled into the high school's parking lot. She wasn't particularly thrilled to be back in Maryland, but her son Henry wanted to come back home saying that he believed it could be better for them. During the few decades after they left, Regina kept having terrible nightmares about what happened. She only agreed to what Henry wanted not because she believed what he was saying, but because she wanted to make her son happy. Despite her being one hundred percent against this decision.
"Why are we even going to high school? Again?" Henry asked once the car was in park.
Regina looked at her son and explained, "It's so we can blend in, Henry. We still technically look like teenagers, so we need to do what teenagers do. This is what you wanted; to be normal. Come on, we'll be late for class."
Henry gave an exasperated sigh as they grabbed their backpacks and stepped out of the car.
"Henry, wait for me!" She yelled as he ran off after her once he shut the passenger door.
"Sorry, mom," he said as he stopped and waited for her to catch up.
"It's okay," She said with a smile. "We should probably head into the school if we want to get our schedules in time for the bell. Besides, look at the bright side, we've been to high school enough and we've lived enough that we won't have to do any studying."
Both mother and son chuckled at that.
As they opened the doors to the school and made their way to the office, Henry asked, "Remember when you said to not use our powers since we're out in the open?" At his mother's nod he continued, "Well, I'm pretty sure we'd get locked up in the looney bin if we put down our actual ages on the legal forms and we don't exactly have immunization records."
Oh, shit. I forgot about that Regina thought and turned to her son. "How about we just amend the rule. We only use our compulsion powers when it's absolutely necessary and I would prefer it if I was the one that did it. Or at least inform me once you handled it. You know I don't like surprises. We should also do it with as little violence as possible. Agreed?"
Henry nodded and said, "Agreed."
As he moved to open the office door, his mother stopped him. "If we are going to stay here as long as possible, we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves, okay? I know how much you want to stay here."
"Of course mom. I like to be a loner anyway."
"That's a good thing as far as people like us are concerned." Regina stated.
Henry scoffed at that. "People like us? We aren't people, mom. We're mons—"
"Excuse me. What can I do for you two today?" The woman behind the desk interrupted with a sickeningly sweet smile.
Pushing aside the fact that her son still hates what he is, she went up to the secretary. "Hi. Me and my brother are new and were wondering if we could get our class schedule?"
"Of course. Did you bring the necessary papers to get you two fully registered?" When Regina gave the woman the folder from her backpack, she then asked, "Do you have your immunization and birth records? Those are the only two that are missing."
In response, Regina leaned forward and looked the secretary in the eye. "Look again. I'm sure you have all the records necessary."
The woman's once glazed eyes blinked and looked through the folder again. "Never mind. It seems I missed it. Let me get your schedules going then."
Regina forced a fake smile on her face as she replied, "Great."
The secretary then printed off a schedule for both Regina and Henry and told them to have a good day. When they left the office, Regina felt there were eyes on them, but chose to ignore it. She wasn't going to be paranoid about history repeating itself and instead listened to her son as he said, "Let's see if we have any classes together."
They both pulled out their schedules and looked at them side-by-side.
Henry Mills: Junior Regina Mills: Junior
1st: AP US History 1st: AP US History
2nd: AP Chemistry 2nd: English
3rd: Health 3rd: AP Psychology
4th: English 4th: Health
Lunch Lunch
5th: Creative Writing 5th: AP Chemistry
6th: Spanish 6th: Drawing
7th: AP Calculus 7th: AP Calculus
8th: Physical Education 8th: Physical Education
Regina pointed at their 8th period and sighed, "So much for wanting to not stick out. Come on. Let's get to our first class, sweetheart."
Robin shot out of his bed and started getting dressed in a frenzied state as soon as he realized he was late. Oversleeping has been a common occurrence with him for a while now since both him and his mother moved to America from London after his father died a few years ago. It seems that neither he nor his mother will ever get over that kind of pain. His mother got worried when all Robin would do was sleep for the first few months of his father's passing. He never forgave her for taking him to a doctor for depression. Robin suspected that now because he is no longer on anti-depressants, he could be going back to his habit of oversleeping.
"Robin!" his mother, Caroline, called out. "You'd better get out the door now or you're going to be late for the bus for your first day of school!"
As soon as she said that, he came running down the stairs at record speed. He flew past her to put a piece of toast in his mouth and then to shove all of his papers into his backpack. His mother came up and handed him a glass of orange juice. "Thanks mom," he said and chugged it down and hurried to the door to shove his shoes on.
"I think we need to do something about you over sleeping," his mother chastised with her arms crossed and a worried look on her face.
"Can't it wait until after school, mum? I don't want to miss the bus," Robin whined.
His mother let out an exasperated huff and kissed his cheek. "Fine. Have a good day at school. Love you."
Robin gave his mother a quick peck on the cheek before he raced to the bus stop just in time for the bus to nearly miss him. He sat down in the last available seat with a grumbled sigh. If only he had his truck back Robin thought. But no, you idiot. You ended up crashing it into a pole. Luckily he wouldn't be taking the bus for too long as his car would be fixed up by the end of this week. To pass the time, he went over his schedule again.
Robin Locksley: Junior
1st: AP US History
2nd: Physics
3rd: AP Psychology
4th: Health
Lunch
5th: Creative Writing
6th: Geometry
7th: Music
8th: Physical Education
The bus then stopped at the school and Robin bolted out the door as soon as they opened. Once Robin walked through the front doors of Winston High School, he went to find his friends, John and Graham, before he headed to his AP US History class. When he was on his way to where their lockers were, he happened to notice two new students in the main office. They looked alike, so he assumed siblings. The guy was fairly tall with black hair and of decent build. The girl had the same color of hair and Robin had a feeling that before she turned around to head out of the office that she would be the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He even believed that the scar she had above her lip made her all the more attractive. He shook his head to snap him out of his gaze and continued walking to find his friends.
"Hey, Robin!" John yelled. He wrapped his arm around his best friend's shoulders and steered him towards Graham.
"How's your truck doing?" Graham asked with a grimace, remembering how it looked wrapped around a pole after Robin ran off after one of his and his ex's arguments.
"I get it back by the end of this week," he said. "How was the rest of your summer?"
"Interesting to say the least," Graham said. "Marian has been hounding us for a week as to why you broke up with her last month when we were at my family's lake house. She also told me to tell you to give her another chance."
Robin groaned. He didn't think that Marian would be pushing him to change his mind about them. She looked like she understood when he told her that he didn't feel the same as he did when they first met during freshman year. "She didn't want to tell me that in person?"
John shrugged. "I guess she thinks that because it came from one of your best friends you'd be more open to that possibility."
Robin was about to respond when the bell rang to signal that it was time for people to get to class. He said bye to his two friends and headed to his first class. Once he walked into class he noticed that the two new kids were sat in the back of the room. For some reason he felt the need to sit near the girl so he sat one row over and one row up so it wasn't too obvious.
When mother and son walked into their history class, they immediately took a pair of seats at the back of the room so as not to be noticed by anyone. As soon as everyone took their seats, the bell rang and in walked in the teacher.
"Welcome back to another year, students. For those of you who don't already know, my name is Mr. Moretti," the teacher said with enthusiasm that none of the students seemed to share as the majority let out a groan.
"I'm just going to ignore that ungrateful noise and instead focus on what we will be learning today: the entire history behind the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence." the teacher said as he wrote out both of the documents on the board.
Henry then leaned in and whispered in his mother's ear, "Permission to completely ignore?"
"We still have to pay attention. We haven't been to high school in a while," she whispered back.
"What's going on back there? Miss Mills is it?" Mr. Moretti scolded, making Regina inwardly cringe at being noticed.
Regina put on her best fake smile and said, "Nothing, sir."
"So then if it was nothing, you'd be able to give me the answer to the question I just asked?" Mr. Moretti asked, folding his arms and leaning against the desk with a smirk.
I'm not going to rip his throat out. I'm not going to kill him. I'm going to be a good little vampire Regina thought as she counted to ten before she answered. "What question, Mr. Moretti? You asked quite a few."
Either the teacher was surprised at her confidence or the fact that she was right in that he did ask multiple questions, Regina didn't know. As soon as his shock wore off, he responded. "Based on a person's well-being back then, would they be a patriot or a loyalist? And why?"
Regina debated for a moment if she should play dumb and not answer, give a summarized version, or just cut to the chase and give him a run for his money by providing the answer in intricate detail. The last choice will most likely get her to be noticed so she said, "I don't know, sir."
Apparently the teacher saw her inner conflict written on my face because he raised his eyebrows and responded, "I'm pretty sure you do know the answer, Miss Mills."
Since Regina was beginning to get a little irritated with being put on the spotlight, she went with the last choice anyway. "Well, the Native Americans were mostly Loyalists because Great Britain had promised them that they could keep their land if they remained loyal to them and also if they won the war. Other Loyalists were mainly wealthy citizens in the Southern Colonies that wanted to keep their statuses as well as their slaves. Ending our association with King George would deplete their high standing as we would most likely not be able to trade things like cotton and tobacco in exchange for manufactured goods and slaves. The Patriots were mostly merchants and farmers who were tired of trying to reconcile with Great Britain. When they didn't receive answers on them wanting to be protected by Britain in exchange for their undying loyalty, the Founding Fathers listed grievances on the Declaration of Independence that detailed all of the wrongdoings of Parliament and the crown. Since Great Britain didn't win, I would say only the Patriots were happy about how things turned out." She took a deep breath and asked, "Are there any other questions you would like me to answer, sir?"
"Uh…no. No, that would be all for today," Mr. Moretti stuttered out. After shaking his head in amazement, he resumed with teaching the lesson.
That familiar feeling of being watched came back, so she looked where it was coming from and saw that it was just a teenage boy. What she found to be most interesting about him besides his handsome facial features was the look of awe on his face. That look on any of the other students felt uncomfortable, but on him it felt like a form of praise. After a few seconds, the boy looked away, seemingly embarrassed at being caught.
As soon as Regina started talking, Robin became amazed at the sound of her voice. It was silky smooth despite it dripping with irritation. Same with the expression on her face as he started to stare. It didn't need an expert to see that the new girl didn't like the teacher very much. She has good taste he thought since he didn't like Mr. Moretti very much either. He had him for world history last year and he ended up being Robin's least favorite teacher because he was strict; he coddled his favorite students and either ignored or hounded the others. It was nice to see someone who put Mr. Moretti in his place. It was a rarity to have a student answer one of his questions to his satisfaction.
Robin was so out of it, he didn't notice that the new girl had stopped talking until he saw that she was staring at him. Oh, crap. She's staring he thought. He couldn't think of anything to say, so he looked away and turned straight ahead in his chair. Robin tried to stop thinking about how her brown eyes felt like they were staring into his soul and started paying attention to the rest of the lesson.
Once the bell rang, he sprung out of his seat and out the door just in case Regina decided to confront him about staring.
Physics went by in a blur. He spent most of the lecture on all types of kinetic energy thinking about the brunette. He couldn't understand why he found her intriguing when the only thing she did was talk about Patriots and Loyalists.
As soon as he sat down in his psychology class, the same brunette walked in. Before he changed his mind and chickened out, Robin jumped in her way to sit down.
"I apologize for my earlier behavior."
"What behavior?" Regina asked, looking genuinely confused.
"I…uh…um…I stared at you in class. I just wanted to say that I was sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable." She looked at him with a shocked expression mixed with a little confusion. "I'm sorry. Did I say something?"
"Oh! No! It's just not many people apologize for doing something as simple as being caught staring. Trust me, you're literally the first person to tell me sorry for that kind of thing and actually mean it."
Robin smiled. "I'll take that as a compliment, milady."
"You're an interesting guy," Regina said with a laugh.
Wow, even her laugh is perfect Robin thought.
Regina gestured to the two seats up front. "We should probably take a seat before the bell rings."
As soon as they sat down, the bell rang.
Before the teacher started talking, Robin stuck out his hand. "We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Robin Locksley."
"Regina Mills," she said, shaking his hand.