A/N: Sorry if I say anything that doesn't make sense. I'm English. :P

Also, thanks for the reviews! Please tell me if you enjoy!


All the way through class, Paige hadn't spoken a word to Henry. She'd mucked it up yesterday, for sure. All she could do was cringe every time he looked her way. The sun was shining, as it often was in Storybrooke, but the weather did not reflect how she felt.

"Paige?" she heard, and looked up to see Henry turned round in his chair.

"Yeah . . . ?" she asked, more than a little nervous.

He scrunched up his face and gave her a pathetic guilty look. "Sorry about yesterday," he mumbled. "I was tired."

She smiled a little. "Don't say sorry," she replied, a little awkward.

Paige knew that Henry didn't have any friends, and Henry knew she knew, but that didn't explain to either of them why he continued to block her out. All she wanted was for him to be happy, and maybe she had a teensy little crush on him, but he didn't need to know or anything. She was trying to be a better person, give him a friend. But she didn't understand why he was pushing her away.

Henry, on the other hand, was put on the defensive by Paige. He spent his whole life in the shadow of his mother, the Evil Queen, and people who talk to him scare him. He would like to say his closest friend was Miss Blanchard, but he'd be worried about his mother overhearing. She hates her more than anyone else in Storybrooke, and Mayor Mills hates a fair few people.

But then Paige's suddenly entering his life, the pretty blonde that sits behind him in math, and he can't help but wonder about her. What a girl like her is doing talking to a guy like him. He'd never had any proper friends, anyone to hang out with or take home for tea, but maybe his luck was changing.

"Did you want to talk about anything in particular?" she asked, breaking the silence with pink cheeks and glancing eyes. "Or was that it?"

"No . . . I guess that was it." He gave her a brief smile and turned away, quickly grabbing a pencil to start the work.

He kept his eyes on Miss Blanchard, though. She was definitely Snow White. It worked so well . . . It made sense. The Evil Queen who hated Snow White so bad . . . Mom and Miss Blanchard. He needed a plan, though.

How do you destroy a queen, he thought, when her enemies don't remember who they even are?

He frowned, looking back at Paige. And who is she?


"Okay, class, because you've all been working so hard and you all deserve a treat, and as today's lesson requires partner work, I'm going to let you choose who you work with as long as it's in pairs. Sound good?"

Everyone cheered. Henry's heart sank. Choosing a partner was never easy - nobody ever wanted him.

He sighed and watched everyone grab each other's arms, chattering excitedly, and his eyes focused somehow on a group of girls at the back.

"Jessie, can I work with you?" asked Marie loudly. Eagerly, Jessie nodded and dragged Marie to find somewhere to sit.

"Paige! Over here!" Henry's eyes darted to Sophia on the other side of the classroom, then to Paige.

"Sorry, Soph. I was about to ask –"

"Hey, Paige, have you got a partner?"

"No, Ellie, but I was going to ask He–"

"Hey, Paige, who do you want –?"

"Henry."

Although most of the room continued to chat, oblivious, a silence spread across the previously chatty group of girls. They looked between one another, shrugged, and turned away from Paige, talking with each other.

Paige swallowed her blush, and walked over to him, head held high. "Henry?"

"Yes, Paige?" he replied, voice quiet.

"Can I be your partner today?"

Okay, so he had absolutely no idea as to why she was doing this. She was one of the most popular girls in the class – even talking to him was threatening her reputation. But she stared into his eyes, willing for him to say yes, and he had no other choice, right? Numbly, he nodded, taking a seat beside her at the desk on the front row.

They both exhaled a long sigh at the same time. Paige looked at Henry and smiled weakly. "So, partner, how are you?"

He couldn't bring himself to smile. "Why are you doing this?" he asked, unable to accept it. Unable to accept someone wanted him as a friend.

Paige knew what he meant and she wasn't about to pretend she didn't. "Because you mean more to me than they do. I'd call us friends. I'd call them . . . irritating."

Henry snorted, a laugh rising up inside him. "Okay, that is something I can agree on," he chuckled. "No offence or anything."

"None taken," she replied smoothly, a smile pulling at her lips. She'd never seen him properly happy before and it was a nice change to see him laugh.

"Why do you still hang out with them, if they irritate you?"

Paige giggled. "As of today, I'm guessing they probably won't let me."

There was an awkward silence as they both digested what she'd said. To Henry, that hurt, and also made him feel bad. "I – I'm sorry . . ."

"No! No, don't be. I'd much rather hang out with you than them. All they talk about is boys, girls, trends, and I don't really care. They're . . . shallow."

Paige was over the moon with joy, being able to talk to Henry – but more than that, being able to talk to Henry about things she'd never dare to talk to anyone else about.

Henry shook his head. "Paige, you should be thankful for the friends you get. I'd love to have a best friend." He looked at her, and only then did she see the ultimate loneliness in his eyes. How his mom treated him, how the guys at school teased him, how nobody wanted to be his friend because they were afraid to approach him. In everyone else's eyes he was Henry Mills, the mayor's son, the freak. Henry Mills, the boy at the back of the classroom with the storybook. Henry Mills, the boy who had no friends to talk to about his life. Henry Mills, who saw the councillor twice a week. But he was more than that: he was Henry Mills, a brilliant, clever boy, with so much potential and nobody to see it. Everyone in his life had blown out the spark inside him, and Paige hated that. She hated everyone who had ever alienated him.

Because every kid should have friends. Especially a kid as wonderful as him.

"I'll be your best friend," she said quietly, "if you want."