She had dozed off. She had meant to just close her eyes for a second but it proved to be too difficult to fight. When she came back to the world of the conscious she realized, by the vacant desks around her, everyone had left. Why hadn't they bothered to wake her? She thought for sure Miss Mills wouldn't trust anyone to be alone in her classroom. She brushed away the hair plastered to her cheek and groaned.
"Not up to your standards?" She jumped in her seat. Miss Mills was in the back of the room, sorting through some boxes.
"Yeah." She grunted. "Could have really used a Tempur Pedic... "
She rubbed at the uncomfortable crook she now felt in her neck and turned halfway in her seat to properly address her English teacher. Miss Mills eyes were their usual sharp sting but something was different now. There was an unspoken gratitude just barely bleeding through and she wondered why. Then, for a brief second the brunettes gaze flickered to her shirt only to quickly return to eye level. Emma's breath hitched strangely at the small, almost nonexistent tint in Miss Mills' cheeks. Miss Mills was far from modest so it was strange seeing such a sheepish look.
What just happened? She thought. When Miss Mills returned to her task, she followed where her gaze had landed. The white lace of her bra was clearly sticking out of her currently skewed flannel shirt. Her shirt might as well have been wide open. She readjusted the buttons and finally looked up at the big, faced clock on the wall. 6 pm.
"Shit." She hissed under her breath. If Miss Mills heard her she chose not to comment, it was after school hours anyway. She was angry though that the brunette hadn't woke her.
"Why are you still here?" she asked the teacher. "and why didn't you wake me?"
"I am working as for waking you I am not your personal stewardess. Besides, your fellow classmates carried out their punishment awake. I didn't think it fair for you to just… sleep it off."
Miss Mills clicked her teeth together and threw her an I dare you to challenge that reasoning kind of look.
She growled and jumped out of her seat, heading towards the door.
"Oh and Miss Swan. 7 am." she called out casually.
Whatever she thought bitterly. Her mom was probably worried and Henry….oh henry was probably in bed now. Her eyes filled with tears. The kid was missing out on his mom. She reached for her phone in her back pocket to shoot off a quick text but it was missing.
She was beginning to question if this whole high school thing was worth the torture. She blinked away the salty tears and back stepped to Miss Mills room. Please still be here. The lights and door were wide open.
Her pulse skipped a beat when she returned. Miss Mills was...well she couldn't really tell. All she caught a glimpse of was a perfectly round curvy ass bending over. Her boots tapped against the tile flooring and Miss Mills instantly snapped to her full height at the sound. The view was gone.
The first thing she saw in Miss Mills eyes had been fear. This woman kept up a shield all day long to protect herself from the vicious words of others, and to find that the first thing behind it was fear pulled at her heartstrings. What made her this way?
"I..lost my phone. I was wondering if I might have left it in here…" She explained.
Her voice came out in a breathy tone, because she had rushed in she told herself. It definitely hadn't been the way her ass looked, or the way the fabric of her pants suits stretched tightly over it.
"I haven't seen a phone." Miss Mills deadpanned. "You're welcome to search the room."
"Thanks..." She felt the heat rising to her cheeks as the image of her teacher bending over continued to play in her mind. She scanned the classrooms floor before she got too worked up in this woman's presence. Its was a bright yellow case, hard to miss so when she didn't see it she felt at a loss to where it could be. Her heart fell. Henry was going to be upset she hadn't said good night.
"Are you having troubles at home?" Miss Mills tone was so soft and caring she had almost forgotten how callous she could be sometimes.
Swept up in her emotions and the question she easily forgot who she was talking too.
"No. Not really.." She ran a hand through her hair and fought back tears once more. She had already missed so many of his bedtimes. She was such a bad mother. "Just me screwing up again…"
Miss Mills walked over to her desk.
"Perhaps you would like to call it?" She offered her her own cell phone.
"Yes! Thank you!" The sadness she had been feeling was quickly replaced with hope. She punched in her number, oblivious to the searching eyes studying her face. Miss Mills was intrigued by Emma Swan, and her strange behavior to a simple phone had her wondering why it was so important to her.
A dull buzzing sound filled the classroom. Emma followed it and discovered he phone had somehow got kicked beneath the classrooms av cart. She ended the call but not before she caught a glimpse of her teachers background photo. It brought a smile to her face as she handed it over to the brunette.
"He's handsome." she said. A fiery rage took over Miss Mills face as she snatched the phone from her hands.
"That was private." She hissed.
"I'm sorry….thank you. I appreciate the help." She hung her head and began to walk away.
She didn't look back but if she had she would have seen Miss Mills clutching the phone to her chest, and leaning onto a nearby counter for support. A lone tear fell down her cheek before she snapped her phone shut. Into the empty classroom only one word was whispered out in a heart wrenching sob:
"Daniel..."
"Mom. I'm so sorry. I had a detention with Miss Mills and I fell asleep. Nobody woke me."
Her mother looked upset with her and it was troubling. She already felt bad enough, why did she have to look at her like that?
"Henry was asking about you Emma, I told him you needed to finish up some school work and you'd be coming home late. He's asleep now."
"oh..." she hung her head and shoved her hands into her jean pockets. "Did you read him a story?"
"Yes."
"Which one?"
"The Six Swans." Her brow rose at the name, and she recalled it wasn't a very cheery fairy tale but it was a story nonethelss.
"I'm guessing you picked it because of the name? "
"Yes." Her mother frowned. "I'll stick to the classics from now on. Don't worry."
"Thank you mom. I love you." They hugged and Emma for once, in a long time, needed it more than her mother did.
Her next morning detention happened in the same way as the first but Miss Mills never even looked up at her. She just told her to sit and busied herself with work.
Now Emma didn't really mind this time but the woman's posture told her something wasn't right. She never slouched and the brunette never brought any coffee with her.
"Um...Miss Mills?"
God this wasn't her business ,she knew it ,but her maternal side was coming out now.
"Forgive me for asking but, are you okay? You sort of..." She stopped there. Blood shot eyes now regarded her as if she were the sole cause of all of her problems. Unconsciously she cowered from it.
"I'm fine." She growled. That was scary even for Miss Mills.
She bit her lip and watched the woman return to the paper that had very angry red marks slashed across it. Miss Mills was officially in Juggernaut mode. The first period warning bell rang and she fled to her usual seat feeling sympathetic for Jiminy who had his seat positioned directly in front of her.
Miss Mills didn't even greet them. She hadn't even spoke yet but everyone just knew she wasn't to be messed with.
Except fucking Neal...
"Miss mills." He said. She was writing on the board, her hand stopped mid sentence, where it hovered briefly and fell to her side.
Slowly, she turned to look at the teenager.
"Yes?" She even sounded different.
"I just saw somebody steal Mr. Bugsy's helmet again."
The teacher looked torn, she didn't trust Neal but on the off chance he was telling the truth it was her responsibility to handle the situation.
"Nobody move." She said. Her heels clicked against the floor and she left the classroom to check on their mascot which was just a few doors down the hall.
Neal jumped into action the moment she left.
"Hey what are you doing?" Aurora asked.
"Just play along." He said. "You'll see. It'll be funny."
Emma's stomach toiled with anger but she couldn't see what he was doing and by the time she did it was too late. Miss Mills re entered the classroom clearly not amused.
"Mr. Cassidy the helmet is in fact still-"
That's all she got out before she was hit in the face with a cream pie. Really a fucking cream pie? And to make matters worse, he pushed her backwards catching the woman even more off-guard. She fell into a vacant chair and upon making contact, a loud farting sound erupted into the room. He had placed a whoopee cushion. Laughter erupted and Emma looked around in shock. That wasn't funny. That was mean, embarrassing, and just plain cruel.
How did Neal expect to get out of this one?
"Get out. All of you. Head to the library and stay there until the period's over." Her words came out in a low growl and when nobody moved she bit out the order more forcefully. "Now."
Silent cheers were made and high fives were given to Neal. The little shit wore the biggest, smuggest grin.
She wanted to punch it off him. Miss Mills picked herself up out of the chair, while wiping off some of the pie. She didn't see Emma approach her she was too busy trying to clean herself up. Emma offered her a small towel she just so happened to have in her backpack from a previous mishap of her own. Now she kept one around just in case. Lucky her.
"Thank you." Miss Mills sounded human, small even as she took the towel.
"Neal did that." She tattled and didn't give a shit. "I'll make him pay if you want. I mean like you said I could always just get my GED."
There was a small but sad smile on the brunette's lips.
"Trust me Miss Swan I can handle it just fine. I'm getting pretty good at it actually." Her voice darkened. "Being a bitch makes it easy."
"Miss Mills. You shouldn't say that and You aren't a bitch...not all the time."
"It doesn't matter." She dropped down into the seat at her desk. " Nothing I ever do is good enough. I tried to be the nice teacher and I got stepped on. Now I'm the bitchy teacher and I still get stepped on. " Her face was clear of all the pie now and she angrily tossed the towel on top of her desk. "Tell me Miss Swan who is the villain here? Because it always feels like I am, even when I'm not!"
She couldn't respond to that, what she said resonated too truthfully in her mind to dispute it.
"Just go Miss Swan. I don't need your pity. I need a miracle."
"No just hear me out. For a second."
That surprisingly earned her the full attention of Miss Mills.
"They're jerks yeah but they don't know you... I bet if you just opened up a bit more they might ease up on their antagonism. See you as a person. How about that boyfriend of yours? You two looked happy together I bet if you brought him up every once in a while people might picture you in a different light. More loving and less.. you know bitchy."
Miss Mills shot to her feet.
"You will never bring him up again understood?"
"Hey whoa... I just thought-"
"No. You didn't think." She spat. "Did it ever cross your mind that he may no longer be alive and that your constant need to bring him up just brings me more pain?"
She stepped closer to Emma breathing heavily, eyes dark and full of loathing. "That you mentioning how handsome he is only makes it that much worse. That saying how happy we looked together only makes me wish I could still be with him and stay forever in that moment... Did you? Did you honestly think?"
Angry tears now filled her teachers eyes and she was finally piecing it all together. Regina Mills was angry and bitter over a lost love. Her heart clenched painfully as she realized how much she must have hurt her by commenting on that photo. The confession suddenly dawned on Miss Mills and she was quickly retreating.
"Please just... Go."
Miss Mills had never sounded so broken to her, and the sound crushed her own heart like a heavy boot meeting gravel. This woman didn't deserve such pain, and these teenagers didn't know how sensitive their teacher actually was. She could see it through every glare, every harsh retort and punishment dished out. Their teacher was falling apart at the seams and they were just accelerating it.
That's why she couldn't leave her, make up smudged and bits of pie stuck in her hair, she even looked broken.
"Miss Mills I'm sorry you can hate me for this later but...I'm not gonna leave you. That's not what you need right now you need a friend." It felt strange saying that word, because really they weren't but she wanted to be. The woman was so obviously lonely. Why else would she stay so late all the time?
"God I've reached a new level of pathetic." Miss Mills mumbled.
Why was she so hard on herself? Miss Mills started picking out clumps of the pie and she desperately wanted to pull the woman into a hug. She was like a small puppy caught out in the rain just wanting to be let inside.
"If Neal hadn't pulled that stunt. What would we have studied?"
She pulled up a chair beside Miss Mills' desk.
"Really Miss Swan? You want to learn?"
"Yes." She laughed at the unbelieving look. "That's why I'm here. And you're here to teach so... Go on teach me."
She stopped fiddling with her hair and considered her words. Then, much to Emma's relief the woman reached inside her desk.
"Emerson." She said, setting down a book full of his works. "His essay self-reliance to be more specific. Its a difficult topic but I had hoped to get into enough depth that you would all be able to comprehend its implications, and Emerson's viewpoint on social change…" She absentmindedly traced the spine of the book, deep in thought which slowly began to pull her away from the incident that happened not to long ago.
Watching such a shift occur in her teacher pulled at her heartstrings. She loved teaching that was more apparent now than ever.
"Which is?"
"Well... To paraphrase he believed that we must trust our own intuitions and be an individual. Be self reliant. Through that social change could occur rather than trying to force change on the general masses. Change is a slow process. When it happens on an individual level then it can be applied on a sociological level because this self reliance has the potential to create leaders capable of greatness..." She was staring at Miss Mills in wonder. What she said seemed to be way over her own level of comprehension, so she couldn't imagine teenagers understanding. She had barely even understood what she just said and Miss Mills hadn't even read the original essay which would be without a doubt more confusing.
"Um..."
The teacher sighed.
"I won't cover this then...He's an excellent writer but its more philosophy than literature. I'll think of something else I suppose."
She put the book away and this inexplicably saddened Emma.
"What about poetry?"
"What about it?"
"Why not read some of it...Its my favorite and I think it would do the class a world of good to get away from the traditional sense of what you call literature. No offense."
"What did you have in mind?" Miss Mills leaned in towards her, a spark of interest taking over the depths of her chestnut eyes.
"Frost, Bishop, Dickenson, you know the big guys." She grinned back at her teacher.
"Maybe." That sounded like a yes to her, and then. "...Emerson is also poet."
"Cool." A smile lit up the features of her face seeing her teacher reopen the previously shut book, and suddenly she was listening to the beautiful reading voice of Miss Mills.
"Thy summer voice, Musketaquit,
Repeats the music of the rain;
But sweeter river pulsing flit
Through thee, as though through the Concord Plain.
Thou in thy narrow banks art pent.
The stream I love unbound goes
Through flood and sea and firmament;
Through light, through life, it forward flows.
I see the inundation sweet,
I hear the spending of the stream
Through years, through men, through Nature fleet,
Through love and thought, through power and dream.
Musketaquit, goblin strong,
Of shard and flint makes jewels gay,
They lose their grief who hear his song,
And where he winds is the day of day.
So forth and brighter fares my stream,-
Who drink it shall not thirst again;
No darkness taints its equal gleam,
And ages drop in it like rain..."
There was a brief moment they let the words wash over them in silence, and Emma felt breathless not from the poem but from the beautiful woman in front of her.
"Its not my favorite..." She said. "But its still touching he's better with prose." Almost shyly Miss Mills regarded her now, as though she were preparing to be made fun of.
"I thought it was too...could I - " she cleared her throat from a sudden lump forming. "Could I bring in my favorite poem to you?"
"Of course." The small smile moving in her teachers voice made her want to stay and listen to her read poetry all day.
"Now if you don't mind dear I'm going to go wash up and pay a visit to principal gold."
"Ah yes. Of course." She lept to her feet as Miss Mills pushed in her desks chair.
"Oh and I still expect you after school."
"About that... How much longer do you think that'll continue?"
"We'll just have to find out." The small glint in her teachers eyes told her she had already determined the length of her punishment, but getting that answer was next to impossible.
Emma fought a sigh, and instead took pride in knowing she had at least somewhat improved Miss Mills day.
A/N: I think its fairly obvious but I'll say this anyway: the poem is not mine, it was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson and is called Two Rivers.