So I feel like I owe an apology for my lack of briskness when updating this. The main problem is the fact that I have been spending a hell of a lot of my time preparing in advance for exam finals. Yep, and I'm expecting I'll come back home with similar grades to Regina in this story and probably be banished to a distant realm by my parents or something... Anyway, I'm quite determined to do updates every two days, if not, daily, for my different stories, now that the looming strain of major exams are over.
Watching an insect ponder on whether it should go through her window or not, Regina sighed. When Emma said 'tomorrow', there wasn't really a specific time to accompany it. So she had assumed that Emma was referring to around the same time as the previous night. But it appeared the blonde was either busy or was at this current moment snickering at Regina's gullibility with her friends. If Regina was honest, she wouldn't be surprised if it were the latter.
Giving up on staring at the blinding vibrate yellow curtains, Regina sort of melted onto her bed. It was hot enough to do so anyway.
A gentle knocking on her bedroom door startled her as if someone had been pounding it. Hoarsely, Regina called, "Yeah, dad?"
Only her father would knock so gently. Zelena would knock as if her and the door were having a boxing match and her mother would spank it.
Slowly, her father opened the door and came into the room. He carried a tray of food— which from where Regina lay, looked delicious—and smiled at her. Gently, he placed the tray at her desk and wished her goodnight.
"Daddy?" The last time Regina had called him that was when she was ten. Now she was literally sixteen.
"Yes, sweetheart?"
"Thanks."
Smiling in return, her father walked to her and placed a kiss on her forehead. Then he left the room.
After devouring the pizza and guzzling the juice, Regina cast a glare the book. In all seriousness, she had given up trying to comprehend its contents. Something along the lines of 'We are true love and will always find a way,' put her off. There was a certain extent of corniness she could take, and this just crossed the line way too far.
So what was her source of entertainment now? The ceiling. Actually, the sunlight rippling it across it like the waves of a calm summer sea was quite entertaining. Great, Regina. You're now officially going crazy. Her anthology appeared to be coming true; Regina could swear she had heard something like 'psst'. Ya'know, the kind in the movies when someone was trying to attract the other's attention. Deciding that it would be better for her (and her sanity) to dismiss it as one of the whispering strands of wind getting out of rhythm, Regina huffed.
Rolling around so that the window was staring at her back, Regina set her glower to the desk opposite her bed.
"Regina, are you there?" Emma?
Regina quite literally scrambled up to peer through the window. Pathetic, Regina. Are you that desperate? Well, the summer break lasted about two months, so isolation was quite undesirable. And indeed, Emma was sitting at her window, a grin quickly rising on her lips when she watched Regina come into sight.
"Regina, hi! I'm sorry I didn't get here earlier, my hockey coach wanted me to stay back from lesson to teach some titchy kids. She said it would boost my ability in it…" Faltering at Regina expression, Emma's smile slowly faded as well.
"Are you alright?"
Shit, you're doing it again. Regina didn't know why, but she had the tendency stare at Emma when the blonde spoke. Whether it was the bright smile or the glint of her intriguingly mossy eyes, Regina quite felt herself to be in some sort of enchantment. Which sounded utterly ridiculous, but hey, she did 'a lot of ridiculous things', according to her mother.
But the worst part was the way Regina's face seemed to mould into one which expressed no emotion. To Emma, Regina probably looked like she was about to faint.
Swiftly clearing her throat, Regina blamed it on the heat. "Honestly, I prefer the cold to this." To emphasise, Regina indicated her surroundings with her hand. She could have sworn the blonde had arched her eyebrow—for a mere second—before she considered if the heat really was getting to her. Expecting Emma to comment on the subject, Regina inwardly braced herself. Instead:
"Yeah, I get that a hell of a lot," Emma's smile was back, bold and bright as ever. "Especially when it comes to the sports clubs I have to do."
"What kind of clubs do you go to?" Regina found herself asking.
The blonde responded with sigh before listing them out: "Hockey, soccer, swimming, baseball, basketball, football, and, if given the time, I hang out at a car mechanic my parents know—he usually lets me drive, even if I'm technically not allowed." Looking up from her listing fingers, Emma broke into laughter at Regina's face. A way to describe it was perplexed; another way to describe it was dumbfounded.
"All those clubs?"
"That's just the sports ones," Emma informed her, a hint of humour tinging her voice. Awe-struck was all Regina felt. She personally could not in any way be bothered to drag herself to one club, never mind numerous ones at a time.
"Wow. That's all I can really say." Emma laughed again, but this time at Regina's words. Regina noticed that the other girl's cheeks were steadily blossoming to red.
"Gee, thanks." After a while of chuckling to each other, Emma raised a question that really should have remained dead. "How about you? You have any clubs?"
"Nope. In fact, I'm grounded."
"Oh… How come?" When Regina looked up to the person opposite her, she saw a genuine concern. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.
"Well, my mother didn't think my grades were good enough." For some reason, Regina no longer could bring herself to look at Emma. While she drew patterns with her finger onto her palm, Regina continued: "As far as she's concerned, I have no talent." Regina, are you crazy? Are you seriously spouting your sob story to Emma? Really? As the silence ensued, the thoughts chanted in her head.
"Well, I actually don't think that's true," Surprised, Regina raised her head back to Emma. What was that on the blonde's face? Sympathy? Pity? "I remember you slayed in the school play. You got that certificate, remember?" Yes, she did. But her mother claimed it to simply be a piece of paper with prints on it whereas Zelena had medals and trophies.
"You should be doing more at your age." Was her mother's congratulations.
"And in English, when you put your hand up for everything; you're good at that!"
"That's nothing. I can't even answer a proper question in Science."
"Right." Something about Emma's tone was worrying. "I'm coming to your side."
"What?" Regina hissed. "Are you crazy?"
"Yep. That's what I'm well known for."
"Emma, you can't just climb to my window!"
"Try me," the blonde replied, smirking.
"Fine. I'll try you: do you really wish to possess some broken bones?"
"C'mon, it'll be like Romeo and Juliet." At this, Regina's stomach flipped. She wouldn't mind being in a Romeo-Juliet situation with Emma—at all. Her mother would kill her, but who cared? This was her mind and she was perfectly entitled to it. What is wrong with you, Regina? You only talked to the girl yesterday, geez. And every day prior to that, Regina had felt the need to say something—anything— to her.
"Actually, Romeo didn't climb from across, he came from the bottom."
"Oh, bollocks to the accuracy of a play." Emma waved it off whilst she scavenged her room for whatever she was looking for.
"Why d'you even want to come to my room anyway?" Regina questioned, yet another attempt to steer the direction in which Emma picked.
"Well, I want to prove to you that you are something."
"Can't you just do that from where you're standing?"
"Yes, I could." Emma halted, an exhilarated gleam adorning those green, green eyes. "But what would be the fun in that?"
Nothing more Regina said would convince Emma to change her mind. Either her mother would come in, find them red-handed and murder Regina or Emma's parents would kick up a fuss about their missing daughter and Cora would, still, murder Regina. Basically, either way she was in a shitload of trouble. So why was she excited?
I would like to thank Chloejdt for reviewing and to those of you who read my story. I would never say no to a review...