aaaah I'm soooo sorry! I was in America and personal shit happened (good shit) so I forgot and blabla more excuses. Even though I still don't have a lot of time to write I wanted to get this short chapter out for you guys just to show that I haven't forgotten about it and that I'm definitely still writing.

Also, thanks for all the follows and reviews! you're all awesome!

xxEsmee

"Drink! Come on, Em!"

Emma Swan dropped her empty beer can on the ground and threw her hands up in the air. "I did it!" Her slurred voice spoke.

She felt a hand land hard on her back and stumbled for a second. She really should lay off the alcohol, but then again, these parties were always so amazing. Also, there was the thrill of drinking underage. She didn't have any parents that cared for what she did, at least not really.

"That was impressive!" A man's voice said and she didn't even have to look around her to see who it was.

"Neal." She said, turning around to face her stupid ex-boyfriend.

"Emma." He responded, with a flirtatious wink. She grimaced and turned to walk away from him (which didn't go very smooth), but before she could even take a step towards her friends, Neal grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Come on, why can't we at least still be friends?" His breath smelled like alcohol and the grip on her arm was painfully hard.

"Neal. Just let me go." She managed to say. Right now she hated herself for being drunk, she felt weak and overpowered.

Neal's grip only tightened and she knew that it would leave bruises for sure. Suddenly his lips were pressed against hers and his other arm was reaching for her shirt. She panicked. Luckily Killian stepped in at that point and even though Emma missed most of their conversation, she felt the grip around her wrist loosen and soon she was in Ruby's arms, who was dragging her home to their apartment.

Emma Swan woke the next morning at 8:04. Her head was pounding and her vision blur. She searched around for her glasses, which she found next to her pillow. Thank god she never lost them during the parties. The next thing she noticed was a blue and purple bruise on her wrist that looked pretty bad. What had happened last night?

"Hey! You're up!"

Emma reached for her head. "Don't yell please."

Ruby chuckled. "I'm sorry honey, I can't help that I just don't have hangovers."

"I know, I know."

The brunette noticed her friend holding her bruised wrist with her other hand. "So.. you found it?" She said, motioning towards Emma's hand.

"Yeah. Guess I did." The blonde spoke up "what happened?"

Ruby rolled her eyes before answering. "Neal happened. He tried to make a move on you and when you resisted he grabbed your wrist. Killian eventually got him to let you go."

"Wow shit."

Ruby just nodded before pushing a plate with pancakes in the blonde's direction. "Here, eat up or we're gonna be late for school."

Emma groaned as she let herself fall down in the kitchen chair. "Please remind me to never drink on a school night."

The brunette laughed. "You say that every week."

"I mean it this time!"

It was a surprise they even made it to school on time but they did and before they knew it they were in Archie's phycology class, which was as boring as always and Emma had struggles to keep awake.

"Yo Emma."

"Hey!"

The blonde turned around in her seat and saw Peter and his friend Felix staring at her. She groaned internally because she knew exactly where this was going.

"We were just thinking.. maybe you should pay attention instead of sleeping, since you know.. you're failing pretty much every class."

"Shut up." She said, a little too loud too because she felt everybody's eyes on her. What a great way to start the day.

"Miss Swan, I'd like to see you after class." Archie Hopper's voice spoke up and the blonde quickly turned back in her seat and decided to just sleep through most of this day and hope that it was over soon enough.

Emma waited patiently for class to be over. She didn't really dislike Archie, he was a nice teacher, he just always wanted to get so personal with her.

"So," he started with a deep sigh, "I'm not going to punish you. I saw the guys teasing you and I was just wondering if you were alright."

"I'm fine." She said, not even looking her teacher in the eye. She was going to be late for her second class, which was history from Miss Mills and something told her she wasn't going to be happy with that.

"Are you sure? Because if there is anything that I could do, I do not only teach phycology you know, I could also help you out and maybe talk with you on a weekly schedule?"

The blonde finally made eye contact and shook her head. "No thank you. I really am fine."

She wasn't, of course. She had a lot to worry about, but she had never been one of those girls who talk about their problems. She just kept them all inside and waited for them to be over.

She was indeed late for Miss Mills' class. She could feel the eyes of 30 students on her and one very hard stare that definitely came from Miss Mills herself.

"Sorry I'm late." She said. "I was still at Archie's class."

Regina slowly nodded. "That's fine. Just take your seat please. We were just discussing some of the main topics for next week's test."

Emma tried to pay attention, she really did. But every time she looked at her wrist, flashbacks came back that night. She remembered Neal's breath on her face and the way he had held her so tight. She remembered being really scared and helpless and most of all she remembered how little she had felt. Just four years ago she had promised herself that she would never make anyone feel her like that again.

"Miss Swan."

Her eyes snapped up towards the board where Miss Mills was standing with her arms crossed.

"I asked you if you've already started studying for the test?"

Emma smiled sweetly. "I was planning to start today actually."

Miss Mills returned her smile, even though the blonde (and probably everybody else) could see that it was fake. "Good. That's good."

She noticed how Regina's eyes fell to her wrist them, and she saw the fake smile fade from her teacher's lips. Shit… she thought. Miss Mills made eye contact with her for just a second and only then did Emma see how much her eyes had darkened, almost dangerously. It didn't scare her though; somehow it made her feel… safe. Emma quickly shook the feeling away and Miss Mills seemed to do the same as she turned back towards the class and gave them a new assignment to work on for the rest of the hour.

To the blonde's own surprise she understood the assignment and was able to finish it on time. She was about to hand it in when Regina spoke up again.

"Now class, I'd like you all to give me the assignment, one by one starting from all the way in the back. This way I can practice your names once more. Once you've handed it in you can go have lunch."

Emma dropped her head because she knew exactly where this was going.

Surely enough, she was right. "Thank you Miss Swan." Regina said with an eye on the door. Emma was quick to rush towards it, but unfortunately her teacher was faster and the door was closed behind the last student and right in front of her.

"I think we need to talk."

She sighed in frustration and awkwardly put her hands in her pockets. "About what?"

To both their surprise, Regina took her right arm and pulled the hand from her pocket. She carefully pulled the blonde's sweater up to reveal the now even more purple bruise. "About this."

Emma tried to pull her hand back, but Regina was stronger and it seemed like she wasn't done examining it yet. "Who did this to you?"

The blonde girl shrugged. "No one."

Miss Mills raised one eyebrow and Emma couldn't help but laugh at her teacher's face. It looked cute. Not that she should be thinking that. She really shouldn't. Emma: The dumbest kid in the school who is also an idiot, doesn't have a lot of friends, has a crappy ex-boyfriend, has no family and oh wow is also gay? Not another good thing to add to her list.

"Miss Swan you have to be honest with me here."

"Why?"

"Because it's my job to report it if someone get's beaten up at home."

She laughed dryly. "See, you don't have to worry about that. I don't have a family."

Regina frowned. "Don't you live with your foster parents anymore, Emma?"

She shook her head. "No, not for a while now. I live with Ruby, we have our own apartment."

The brunette seemed to think about this for a while as she walked back towards her desk. Emma didn't even know why she was following her; it was just something about that woman that made her forget about everything else for a little while.

"So then the question remains, who did this?"

She looked down at the bruise herself, causing another painful flashback.

"Is it really that important?"

"Yes. Yes it is. Miss Swan, someone hurt you, I can tell this wasn't some stupid accident because of the way you look at that bruise."

The blonde was quiet for a moment as she fidgeted with her fingers and tried not to make eye contact with her teacher. "What if I promise to tell you if it happens again?"

She knew Regina wanted to refuse, but then they looked at each other and something softened in the teacher's face. "Okay, but only if you agree for after school coaching twice a week."

Emma groaned. "Do I really have to?"

"Unless you're going to tell me who did that to you, but I'm guessing that you're not so yes. You really have to."

"Who will teach me?"

Regina smiled. "Mostly me, probably. Archie maybe."

Emma's eyes widened which caused her teacher to chuckle. "Please, not Archie. He'll just want to talk to me about the sense of life and my biggest dreams and ambitions and seriously I can't do that."

Regina laughed once more and Emma noticed how good it felt, to make someone laugh like this.

"Just step by my classroom once your classes are done and we'll come up with a schedule, okay?"

"Okay."

no, that wasn't a TFIOS reference... at least not intentionally?

please review! :)