Hey guys. Here's part two. After I started to map this entire fic out I realized it's going to be at least 10-15 chapters long. I will update at least once a week. Also if anyone is interested in doing beta please let me know.
Part Two | The Activities Fair
"This is-" Emma's eyes scanned the bustling crowd and various booths. "Wow. Did you want to-"
The second the bottom of her shoe hit the pavement in the quad, Regina abandoned Emma.
We sure got off to a great start, Emma groaned. She followed the back of her roommate's head until it became lost in the masses. She pushed both her hands into her jacket pocket. The key inside felt foreign, and she spun it along her fingers as she apprehensively approached the first booth. As much as everyone says college is like moving to a bigger high school it absolutely wasn't. There were so many things happening around her that she couldn't fix on one, and that made Emma nervous. With all her years in the system, it was habitual to always know her surroundings. The first thing she did when entering someplace new was locate the exit. With so many people gathering around in such a small space, she couldn't find a distinct exit and that made her worry.
"Right. You can do this, Emma. Activities Fair." She prolonged deep breath allowing her eyes flutter shut a moment to catch her nerves. "Let's see what activities are in Storybrooke."
When reopening her eyes, she caught a girl with long red hair side-eye her as she passed by with her friend. Emma heard them whisper the word weirdo.
"What?" She practically screeched as she turned her full attention at the duo. No response; they went ahead without acknowledging the exasperated blonde fuming behind them. "Is talking to yourself so weird that it deserves the stink eye?"
"S'cuse me. Are you interested in pledging?"
Standing in front of her with a scrunched up nose and unimpressed glower was a short girl with auburn hair. Her eyes started to drift down from her face. Was she sizing her up? Emma winced when she saw the girl's face squint once she found her boots.
Fabulous. Another stink eye.
"Nope. Not interested." She admitted, rolling her tongue against the inside of her cheek. Truthfully she wouldn't have stopped at the booth in the first place if it weren't for the un-called "weirdo" remark.
"Thank God." Emma folded her arms and cocked her head. Was this girl serious? "Can you move." The snark in her voice caught Emma off-guard. She removed a flyer from the clipboard clutched in her left hand and gave it to a girl who seemingly materialized from thin air beside her. "There are people behind you who actually belong here."
What the hell? Emma could sense the heat rising to her face. She had the urge to punch the girl square in the jaw for being so rude.
Sorority girl snickered at Emma's hesitation to move. "There are people behind you. Are you deaf?"
Not worth it. Not worth it. Not worth it. Right? Emma deliberated as she stomped away from Alpha Bitchy Whatever.
So far the people in Storybrooke were real gems. This is exactly how she imagined college to be. It sure was a fairytale; precisely how Mr. Gold testified it would be a year ago when he was attempting to convince her to choose the university.
"NOT!" Emma blurted out rolling her eyes. Several other people glanced her way, but they quickly returned to whatever they were doing. "What are you doing here? Is there ever going to be anywhere I belong?" Emma lamented.
"Mary Margaret what are you doing?" Ruby disapproved as her friend snubbed her nose at yet another girl. Ruby swore she could see steam spouting out the ears of the poor girl as she marched away from their booth in the direction of the High Tones.
Ugh, the High Tones.
Even they were doing better at the moment. Far better than Ruby imagined. Nobody was interested in the Bellas, not after they publicly-
"That girl-" Ruby snapped out of her daze and shook her head at her friend. "You can't be serious, Red!"
"What?" She interrupted placing both her hands on her hips. Ruby leaned in and gave her the same look she had received from Granny the night she caught her and Graham in the dinner's freezer. That look made Mary Margaret tense, and God dammit she was lucky that she was only getting a look right now for how she was behaving. "Mary Margaret what the heck happened to you over the summer? You've never been this mean! Never! Not even to a cockroach!"
"New York happened to me!" She spit back. "I feel like I'm cursed! Ever since Lincoln Center I can't focus. Things have not been going well for me at all. Regina-"
"Regina?" There you go, that was her answer. No more needed to be said. Lincoln Center was a big deal, but it was NOTHING compared to Mary Margaret's baggage with her step-sister Regina. Ruby sighed. "Why do you even bother with Regina?"
"I don't know!" Mary Margaret ran a hand through her hair. "Would it help if I said I'm sorry?"
"No."
Sorry wouldn't cut it. They needed 12 members to even think about competitions this season, and right now it was just the two of them. Nobody wanted to be a Bella after the incident.
"Just let me handle getting people to come and audition. If you wanna move past what happened in New York, you gotta realize we don't have the luxury of being snobs."
Mary Margaret agreed. Snob was never a word anyone would of associated with her before.
"Woah! Three o'clock!"
Mary Margaret's eyes followed her eager friend's fingers. Standing in the distance staring at their booth was a blonde. Torn jeans. A Red jacket. Interesting boots. Alone.
"Hey you!" Ruby called out waving her arms.
"Ruby!" Mary Margaret seethed, but a quick jab in her ribs quieted her. Actually, it made her gasp for air.
"Hey you!"Emma spotted the two girls under the banner of the booth she had been assessing. It was the word music that had caught her eye, but the next word Acappella completely turned her off. Emma looked behind her but saw nobody looking in their general direction.
Me? She thought pointing to herself and lifting her eyebrows. The girl with the long brown hair nodded and mouthed YES YOU. Emma cocked her head to the right again.
Are you sure? She mouthed.
"YES!" The girl squealed. She was smiling from ear to ear, but the shorter girl with the dark bobbed hair -
"Come here!" She was beckoning her over practically jumping as her friend stood with her hands at her side.
What the hell. May as well, Emma reasoned walking forward.
"I love your jacket." Ruby said reaching for her sleeve. "Red is kind of my thing." Emma yanked her arm back; another one of her instincts courtesy of the system. She rarely let people touch her, and at this moment she wished she did because the look on their faces made her feel awkward. "Oh. I'm sorry."
"No." Emma waved her hand. She blew a short breath when the girls shoulders relaxed. "It's okay. Just caught me a little off-guard."
"Okay." Ruby smiled. "I saw you checking out our booth. Do you like music?"
"Yeah, I actually-"
"That's great!" She interrupted clapping her hands together. "My name is Ruby. You can call me Red if you like. The grumpy girl to my left is Mary Margaret, and we represent the Storybrooke Bellas. We're Storybrooke's all girl Acappella group."
Emma didn't know what to say, so she just nodded figuring it was better to let them finish their pitch before declining.
"We make music with our mouths." Mary Margaret chimed in.
"Yeah, I got that from the sign." Emma jostled her hands back into her pocket to find her key once more. The cool metal gripped between her fingers made her feel secure in this sea of strangers. "I don't really sing."
"But you can, right?"
Why were her eyes so big? Emma wanted to look away, but she couldn't. Ruby's face was so full of hope. Because of the way she was staring at her, Emma was going to feel awful turning her down. There was also the fact that this was the first girl who was nice to her since arriving.
"Y-yeah." She stuttered. "But I-"
"Look I get it. No pressure okay?" She pulled out a pink flier from her clipboard and handed it to Emma with a smile. "Just think about it."
She saw the easy out given to her and relaxed a little. "Sure."
"Cool." Ruby turned to her friend and gave her a look.
Mary Margaret sighed. "Yeah, just think about it. We get to travel and do competitions." The look from Ruby intensified before Mary Margaret practically spit out, "it's really fun."
Emma pretended to read the flier to humor them. "I'll check it out. Thanks guys."
She pivoted to the right before hearing Ruby calling out for her.
"HEY! HEY WAIT!"
"Yeah?" Emma asked shifting once more to face them.
"What's your name?" She shouted.
"Emma!"
Her grin was enough to make Emma scamper elsewhere. Anymore guilty looks from that girl's doe eyes and she might actually go audition.
