Alice held her breath as the plane landed on the tarmac at the airport in Portland, Maine. This was her first time flying on a plane that she could remember. The only other time she was on a plane was when she and her father had immigrated from England to New York City when she was a baby, which to her didn't count since she had no memories of that trip. She was starting to regret her father's idea to have her visit his friends for the summer with all the open spaces she saw on the flight. It was a drastic change from what she was used to having grown up in New York City with all the skyscrapers and crowded sidewalks.
She grabbed her bags from the overhead and patiently waited for the passengers ahead of her to exit the plane. Alice unlocked her phone to send a text message to her father's friend that she had just landed and would be at the baggage claim in a few minutes. She scrolled back up the message to zoom in on the photo taken by her host so she'd know who to look for soon.
"Miss?" Alice slightly jumped when she felt the tap on her shoulder and dropped her phone. She scrambled to pick it up while giving an apologetic wave to the person behind her for stalling the line.
When she arrived at the baggage claim terminal from her flight Alice didn't see her host anywhere. She stepped onto a bench to get a better view over the crowd waiting for their luggage to no avail at finding her father's friend. Alice pulled her hood over her head and sat down on the bench as she waited. After a half hour had gone by, Alice began picking at the edge of her jacket sleeve anxiously as she was the last one from her flight still sitting at the terminal. She called her father's friend and it went directly to voicemail which she left a message. She hung up and was about to call her father to let him know the situation when two women stormed by bickering.
"I told you the airline number was 714 not 815!" The shorter brunette woman snapped. "We were standing and waiting at the wrong terminal for the last half hour. We'll be lucky she hasn't already called her father."
"Well, it's also not my fault that your car is so old that it doesn't have a way to charge a phone like a more modern car. We had to wait for my phone to charge to look at the message again." The taller redhead countered. "Oh, look! She even left a voicemail probably thinking we've forgotten about her and left her stranded. What are we going to do when we find her? Leave her on a mysterious island with a chance of a polar bear showing up? She'll then have a real reason to call her father!"
"First off, what is with you and that show? Second off, never insult my car ever again. She's a classic and still in perfect working condition."
"Except in times we really need to go somewhere outside of our little gem of a town." The redhead listened to her voicemail before hitting dial to her missed call.
The two jumped slightly when they heard the climatic part of My Heart Will Go On started playing behind them. Alice was blushing furiously as she answered the phone and looked at the redhead in the eyes. "Hi, Zelena. I'm here."
Zelena chuckled as she smiled at Alice and continued talking to her through the phone even though they was less than two feet between them. "I can see that, darling. So sorry for the delay." She hung up the phone and approached Alice. "My phone died on our way here."
"No worries. I haven't called Papa yet. You showed up before I could." Alice teased.
"Well, that's a relief. He would never let me hear the end of it if I couldn't look after his daughter even though you are a grown adult." Zelena grabbed Alice's duffle bag. "By the way this is my sister, Regina. She tagged along since she doesn't trust me with her baby girl."
Alice quirked an eyebrow not understanding what picking her up from the airport would require to have Regina's daughter. Seeing the blonde's confused expression Zelena clarified. "I meant her car. It's an old car that should be replaced."
Regina rolled her eyes. "The only way I get rid of her is when she completely dies and Billy or Michael can't find parts to replace. Again she's a classic!"
"She's ancient in car years. She's the same age as my son!"
"You only hate her because you can't drive her with your lead foot!"
Before she could stop herself, Alice started giggling at the two sisters and their bickering. "Are you two always like this?"
"No."
"Yes." Both replied at the same time before playfully glaring at each other.
"Alice, are you hungry? We can stop somewhere for you to eat before we head out to Storybrooke. It's about an hour and a half from here. Do you need to charge your cell phone?" Zelena asked.
"No, thank you. I'm fine and my phone has enough battery life until we get to Storybrooke."
The three of them walked to the short term parking garage, the classic vehicle in question was a 1988 black Mercedes Benz. Alice noted the scratches from years of driving and a small dent on the passenger door. "Sorry, it might be a tight space. Good thing you don't have much luggage." Regina apologized as she opened the driver's side and lowered her seat for Alice to get in the back.
"I told you we should have taken one of the trucks or the SUVs." Zelena commented. "At least they have a charging port."
"But couldn't you have charged your phone with a car charger by plugging it into the cigarette lighter port? Papa and I do that all the time with our phones in his car and it's from the 70s." Alice pointed out.
The two sisters looked at each other as they had a silent argument over their main topic of bickering. Regina finally spoke out loud as she started her car. "See, it's not my car. It's you being a technological dinosaur."
"Oh don't even start with me, Gina."
"What did we talk about you calling me 'Gina', Zee?"
Alice leaned back in her seat smiling at the two bicker for the first third of their drive obviously trying to provide entertainment for the blonde and to ease her nervousness. She looked out the window and marveled at the natural scenery the passed them by compared to the concrete jungle she had seen her entire life. The grin on her face kept growing until her cheeks were hurting as they passed lighthouses and the sights of maritime life. Both her and her father had a fascination with pirates and her father was formally in the Irish Navy before he had her.
She jumped from her seat slightly having been woken up feeling someone lightly scratching her knee. Zelena retracted her hand from her own startle. "I'm sorry, darling. I didn't mean to wake you that way. But I thought you'd like to be awake we're almost in town."
Alice looked around now seeing more foliage than when she dozed off. They passed the town sign that read 'Entering Storybrooke' and crossed a bridge where someone wrote a 'R' on the Toll Bridge sign to read 'Troll Bridge'. "This doesn't look like any toll bridge I've seen. Where's the toll booth?"
Regina chuckled. "This town hasn't had one since I was mayor. We kept the sign up because we liked the charm of it being our Troll Bridge since the town is called Storybrooke."
"You're the mayor?" She didn't realize her father knew someone as important as a mayor.
"No, I haven't been mayor since my son went off to college and that was a couple of decades ago." Regina replied.
The blonde gave the brunette a confused look. "The last time you were the mayor was twenty years ago? How old were you when you were mayor? And how long were you the mayor?"
"She was just out of high school when she ran for mayor and won the election." Zelena answered. "My baby sister did a far better job than our previous mayors who almost ran our town to the ground that if it wasn't for Regina Storybrooke would have ceased to exist long ago."
Alice looked at Regina in awe. "That's amazing!"
Regina blushed at the younger woman's praise. "Yes, well our current mayor has done very well herself. I left her some very big shoes to fill and she has done fabulous. You should meet her later tonight since she and her family live on our ranch."
"So how do you go from being mayor to ranch owner? Those seem like two drastically different jobs."
Zelena was the one to answer so Regina could concentrate more on the road. "We grew up on a ranch. There are two ranches in Storybrooke: Storybrooke Ranch and Emerald Acres. Our family owns both ranches, however, Emerald Acres is ours…" She signaled between herself and Regina in reference to the 'ours'. "...while Storybrooke Ranch is our mother's and I guess the Belfrey's now too. The heart of each ranch is different though. We grew up in a very rigorous competition environment with Storybrooke being well acclaimed for its production of well bred stallions and mares for derby racing and equestrian competitions. Emerald Acres is more family and community oriented. But both work together since our ranch has more specialized workers such as carpenters and blacksmiths. We're also slowly getting our own stock of horses to help with the breeding. Our first batch just turned four this year which is exciting since we can now start training a few of them for competition, maybe, we'll see."
Alice looked at Zelena confused. "I thought most horses retired around four in the derby races. That's what I heard at least from some of my Papa's co-workers when they get a little too tipsy over a horse race."
Both sisters scoffed, Zelena rolled her eyes. "We'll cover that topic more in-depth later because we can go on a very long rant about that. Those horses retire because they're put too work before they're fully grown. It's the equivalent of telling a six year old to run like an Olympic athlete. By the time they're twelve they can't run anymore because their legs were damaged from not being fully developed and under a lot of stress."
"It's why our mother's horses win more competitions. It's because we have them trained and grown properly to give them a long and healthy life after competition." Regina added. "But our first generation is mainly for ground work around Emerald Acres or Storybrooke, with a possible few exceptions to go into competition. We already know one of our stallions is staying a ground worker because it's not like we'd be able to have a certain someone part from him if we even tried."
"Yes, well those two are about as close as my husband is with his stallion. You and I both know you can't break a bond like that between a horse and their rider. Even you and Rocinante were close when we were younger. Now enough about horses! At least until we get to the ranch." Zelena winked at Alice. "Quick tour as we pass through town: There is Granny's Diner with her Bed and Breakfast directly behind the diner. Great food for a somewhat fast food place. Also has the best commercial lasagna in town."
"Emphasis on commercial." Regina inserted.
Regina and Zelena were constantly pointing out places of the town to Alice. Her head began to spin realizing the town wasn't as small as she initially thought. As they passed the Sheriff's Station, Alice saw two women, one who appeared slightly younger than Alice and another much older, walking out of the station house. She suspected they might have been mother and daughter with how similar they looked. A small pang pricked Alice's heart thinking how she never got a chance to experience that with her own mother.
"If you look to your left, you'll see the entryway to Storybrooke Ranch." Zelena pointed. "There is of course more to the town than what you saw in passing, but we covered Main Street and probably the places you'd have the most interest during your stay. Which reminds me, darling." Zelena shifted herself in her seat so she could look at Alice better. "Your father told me why he would like you to visit us for the summer. Dinners on the ranch are a pretty big deal as in everyone who lives there eat together in a communal dining area. Which means close to about twenty-five people sometimes more. If it gets too much because you'd be meeting a lot of new people, let me know. While you're here I want you to know you're family. We'll treat you like family. Meaning absolutely no judgement from anyone."
Alice blushed and tucked her head into her chin as she mumbled a 'thank you'. From the moment she met Regina and Zelena she already felt the welcome and free of judgement. If the other people on the ranch was anything like them, she was going to love it here. "How do you feed twenty-five people? Is it a constant potluck every day?"
"It's either a potluck or each family brings their own meals and we eat in a communal dining area, except on Saturdays. Every Saturday one family is in charge of making dinner for everyone and it rotates every week. Like I said, we're all very much like family so we eat together for dinner at least as a huge family." Zelena answered as they turned around. "And here we are Alice! Welcome to Emerald Acres!"
The blonde leaned forward between the driver and passenger seats to look out the front window as they drove towards the ranch's gate entrance. EMERALD ACRES. Below hung another sign that read: THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME. Alice chuckled. "I think I'm sensing a theme with this ranch. Are we going to also be driving down the yellow brick road?"
Zelena shook her head as she chuckled. "Sadly no, Regina drew the line when I suggested we get a brick driveway and paint them yellow."
"Concrete was the better option to not have our vehicles damaged." Regina immediately defended herself.
"Yes, Madame Mayor." Zelena teased.
Alice's breathe was taken away as she took in the sites before her of the ranch. The driveway was lined with log fences on both sides, the posts crossed to form an 'X'. There were trees everywhere providing plenty of shade and was probably a stunning view when the leaves started to change color in the Autumn. "I never seen so much green!" She gasped when she saw the house, if that's what it could be called, it was more like a mansion. A cabin-styled mansion. "You live there?!"
"Everyone does. Don't be deceived, it's large enough that there is still privacy despite six different families living there." Regina answered as she passed the first half of the mansion and parked in the horseshoe driveway where there were already a few other vehicles parked. "Besides it's divided. See? There is a common area on the first floor the separates the west and east wings. That's where we eat dinner or host big parties."
"How does that work with six families? I don't mean to sound insulting, but it sounds like a cult." Alice blushed having not stopped herself from speaking her thoughts so freely.
The Mills sisters looked at each other and then broke down laughing. "I can see where you would get that impression, however, half of us are family members while the other half are long time family friends who requested to live here to make it easier for them and the ranch itself. We live here in the West Wing." The brunette turn off the ignition and got out of the car. She lowered her sit to allow Alice out. "Welcome to home sweet home for the summer."
She barely heard Zelena's comment as she got out of the car. "I hope she doesn't faint once she sees the interior if she was wowed by the exterior and the ranch."
Alice sat in what was to be her bedroom for the next two and a half months. She stared out her bedroom window that looked out towards ranch where she got a chance to watch some of the horses mill about in the fenced field. Her papa was right, she did need to get out of the city. Zelena was also right about her reaction to their home, Alice had almost fainted during her tour because she had only thought places like this existed in catalogues or online. The Mills family home has shown they take great pride in making their home feel like a home and comfortable for everyone.
Her favorite part of the tour was the shower. The Mills had shower heads that allowed the user to choose to use either the standard rainfall spray or a waterfall spray. Even though she would probably find other things around the ranch or Storybrooke she'd miss, she already knew she was going to miss that shower.
She looked up when she heard a knock on her door. The door slowly opened and Zelena popped her head in. "How are you holding up, darling?"
"Amazing! I can't tell you enough how breathe taken your entire home is, Zelena. I'm rather surprised, your home seems more like a mountain cabin than a house on a ranch. I always thought ranch houses were single story and very wide."
Zelena sat down on the edge of the bed. "Our first house was like that until we expanded and made our dream home. It took a while, but we made it. That's why it feels like a mountain cabin than a ranch house. My Robin and I loved the aesthetic of the mountains with the logs and various stone walls, to us it always felt warm and intimate. We also made sure to allow as much natural light in as possible during the daytime to make it not feel as claustrophobic. A lot of meticulous planning."
"Well, it's absolutely wonderful!"
"Thank you. Now come on, dinner is ready. Let's have you meet everyone. Again if it becomes to overwhelming-"
"Let you know." Alice finished. "I think I'll be fine. If anything just point people out to me and I'll meet them all individually during my stay."
"Of course, darling."
Alice followed Zelena to the center common room between the two wings. It functioned as a clubhouse lounge of an apartment complex or gated community. A kitchen to bake and cook, a giant TV with a lounge area, and a dining area. The common room was big enough that even with over thirty people there was plenty of space for everyone to walk about and not be overwhelming like Alice had anticipated from Zelena's words. It warmed Alice's heart that Zelena was being very considerate about her situation that she thought it would have been too much for her.
"Robin, my love. I'd like you to meet our guest for the next several months." Zelena waved her husband over. "Alice, this is my husband, Robin. My love, this is Alice, Rogers's daughter."
The blonde squeaked in surprise when the man enveloped her in a hug when she reached out to shake his hand. "Welcome! And call me 'Rob' otherwise it'll get confusing which Robin is being addressed. I'm surprised you and Rogers never came up to visit in the past despite my wife constantly inviting you two for years." Rob let go of Alice and wrapped an arm around Zelena's waist.
"Um, who is the friend my Papa called and how did you meet my Papa?"
Zelena raised her hand. "That would be me. I met your father by random chance when he was still in the Irish Navy. He got into a fight at the bar I was working at and I bailed him out from getting in trouble. We struck an instant friendship for some odd reason and we kept in contact through the years. My Robin even got a little jealous while we were dating since he thought there was something more between us."
Alice tilted her head side to side at this new information. "Huh, I never knew. I guess Papa has been keeping quite a bit from me."
"There are somethings that are hard for parents to talk to their kids." Rob answered. "Even if they are grown adults, especially about their pasts. I'm sure if you ask him he'll tell you."
"Probably. I know things happened with him that wouldn't want to bring up. Stuff with his family and my mother. While I'm here would you be able to tell me more about my Papa?"
"Of course." Zelena pulled away from her husband and grabbed Alice's hand. "Now let's give you some name to faces with the extended family."
The redhead guided Alice to the long kitchen island that separated the cooking area from the dining and lounge. She pointed towards her sister and three other people with her. "Over there we have Regina and her family: Her husband, Daniel. They've been married for nearly forty years."
Alice eyes widened in shock. "Forty years?! When did she have time to be the mayor?"
Zelena nodded. "They've been married since Regina was eighteen. Not gonna lie, I was very envious of her when we were younger because she did so many amazing things by the time she was twenty. A wife, a mother, and the mayor of Storybrooke. When I was twenty, I was at Storybrooke College still trying to figure out what I wanted as my major."
The elder Mills sister pointed at the couple standing next to Regina and her husband. "That is Henry, Regina and Daniel's son, along with his wife, Jacinda. In a few more years they'll be celebrating their ten year anniversary."
Sensing eyes on them, Henry and Jacinda walked over to where Zelena and Alice were. Jacinda was the first to reach forward and hug Alice. "Hello, you must be Alice."
"Pleasure to meet both of you." Alice greeted.
Zelena looked around and frowned. "Henry, where are my monkeys and your little one?" Alice looked at her host very confused when she brought up monkeys.
"They ordered a to-go dinner from Granny's since Lucy's ballot dress rehearsal is running late from technical difficulties earlier." Henry replied before holding his hand out to Alice. "Hello, I'm Henry. Sorry I didn't meet you earlier when you arrived, I was in the middle of an intense battle scene."
"Pardon?" Alice questioned.
"Sorry, I'm a writer. Currently writing what would happen if the fairytale characters we knew were suddenly in our world, but the twist is that they're cursed and don't realize they're fairytale characters. That's all I can say since I don't want to give away the full story."
"Curses… of course. Is it just one curse or several?" Henry blushed causing his wife to giggle.
Jacinda rubbed her husband's back. "Guess you'll just have to wait to find out, Alice."
Henry looked over Alice's shoulder as he saw his father waving him over. "We can talk more at dinner, Dad is hailing me."
Alice turned back to Zelena. "What's this about monkeys? Again keeping with the Wizard of Oz theme, does that make you the Wicked Witch?"
The red head chuckled. "My monkeys are my son and daughter. Roland, my son, is 'Big Monkey' because he's the eldest while Robin, my daughter, is 'Little Monkey'. If you asked my kids when they were younger they would probably tell you they thought I was the Wicked Witch."
She cocked her head at Zelena's explanation. "Your daughter is Robin, not your son. Robin junior is a girl."
Both Jacinda and Zelena chuckled. "Don't even let her hear you called her 'junior'. My cousin-in-law hates being called 'junior'."
"We originally thought Robin was a boy and had settled on the name." Zelena began explaining. "We were surprised to find out she was a girl when she was born. We didn't plan for any girl names so we settled on Robin since it's a gender neutral name. Too bad she isn't here. Because if you had both my Robins next to each other, there is no doubt they're related. She's practically a female clone of her father."
Alice nodded following what was being explained to her. "And that's why Papa-Robin goes by Rob?"
"Indeed. You'll probably even hear Roland and my Robin call Robin 'Robbie', but that's reserved only for them." Zelena looked around and saw the next couple for Alice to get to know. "Over there is Sabine and her husband, Drew. They own a food truck out in town and definitely the best cooks on the entire ranch when it comes to the kitchen. But when it comes to open fire cooking and grilling, leave that to my Robin and his friends. While you're here you'll want to have Sabine's beignets and gumbo at least once. We feed everyone well on the ranch."
The blonde was beaming with excitement. "I think I'm starting to understand what you mean about dinner being a big deal. So what are we having?"
Zelena gently turned Alice around to look at all the food laid out on the island top. "Tonight is a potluck style dinner. So feel free to eat whatever you want. You'll find the note cards that has ingredients listed in case of allergies and who cooked the dish. Too bad my kids ate out. They're missing out on the Mills famous lasagna. Best homemade lasagna in all of Storybrooke."
After dinner Alice retired to the giant balcony above the driveway at the front of the hou- mansion, Alice corrected herself. She was on her phone reading whatever she could find about Storybrooke and kept falling deeper and deeper into the information rabbit hole with each new link she opened to learn more about the town. Alice was so enthralled at what she was learning that she didn't hear a vehicle pull into the driveway below until she heard music blasting from below her. She looked up confused with the silence being interrupted with two people singing a cheesy show tune that sounded familiar to her.
Alice got up from her seat and tried to see what was happening below to no avail. She didn't understand why she even bothered to attempt to look since the balcony was directly over the driveway. The blonde chuckled as she heard the two people below singing a song to High School Musical. Ryan and Sharpay's audition song to be exact. She hummed along to the song, partially reliving her childhood watching that movie on Disney Channel and begging her papa for the CD.
"I told you not to do the jazz squares." Alice heard a woman say after the song finished.
"It's a crowd favorite. Everybody loves a good jazz square." A man replied.
"You two are so weird! What was that? And what's a jazz square." A younger voice perked up.
Alice could hear over dramatic gasps from the two adults. "We have failed you as your nerdy older cousins." The woman replied. "How could we have you be in our vehicle without knowing classic Disney songs or songs that was part of the end of a wonderful Disney Channel era?"
"Robbie, how could she not know what a jazz square is? Mr. Mosby would be so ashamed!"
That caught Alice's attention. The three people below were Roland, Robin, and Lucy. "Who's Mr. Mosby?" Lucy asked.
The blonde placed a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing as the siblings gave another over dramatic gasp. "Roland… she doesn't know who Mr. Mosby is. How is she going to learn the PRNDL and what AM and FM are?"
"PRNDL?"
"Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, and Low." Both siblings replied.
"You mean the gear shift?" Lucy asked.
"Yep! The PRNDL!" Robin replied. "Thank you London Tipton and Mr. Mosby for our first driving lesson."
"Would you like AM or FMMMMMM?" Roland chirped causing both siblings to break down in laughter.
"I'm going inside. I don't know why I like hanging out with you two. You're both so weird." Lucy shrieked.
Alice turned around on the railing to see that Robin had picked up Lucy and tossed her over her shoulder. Robin and Roland had their backs to her and Lucy was busy playfully smacking Robin's back to be put down while they walked to the fence line opposite of the driveway.
"ROBIN! Put me down!" Lucy laughed.
The Hood siblings looked at each other and had a mischievous grin on their faces. Robin hopped a little for Lucy to fall backwards with Roland to catch her by the arms while Robin held Lucy by the ankles. They gently started swinging Lucy and counting down to toss her over the fence.
"Three!"
"Two!"
"ON-"
"No! No! No! Okay, I'm sorry for calling you two weird. You two are amazing and so much fun to be around!" Lucy shrieked while having a giant smile on her face. Robin and Roland put Lucy down and high-fived each other.
"What are you three doing? You're so loud! People are starting to go to sleep because of work in the morning." Alice could hear Zelena's voice wasn't harsh as she playfully scolded her children and great-niece.
"Sorry mom."
"Sorry Aunt Zee." The three apologized.
Robin and Roland walked back under the balcony and into the mansion. Lucy followed them, but stopped and looked up to see Alice. Ecstatic to see someone new, Lucy gave Alice a big smile and waved vigorously. Alice returned the smile and waved back until Lucy ran towards her great-aunt.
"Who's the girl on the balcony?" Alice heard Lucy ask. The blonde smiled excited for what tomorrow will have in store for her. She was loving Storybrooke already.