a/n: if you know me from queens as kings, you will remember a little friend of mine called mr hose. I will mention him when smut be ah-comin' ;) because we all need an icy cold splash of water after reading smut? yes? excellent.
sadly, he will not be required in this chapter but keep your eye out for him soon because oooooh baby.
love, me (Emma)! or ant1ers. tumblr. com :) come say hey, I'm a nice lass, I promise! x

I pulled into the driveway, my heart still thumping a hundred kilometres an hour.

"Well, that went well. I'm pretty proud of you right now, Kid," I smiled and pulled my hair out of the ponytail. Was my hair really that tight all night? Good lord. Massaging my head, Henry smiled at me,

"Thanks Ma,"

"And you've got a few groovy teachers too; I think I'm looking forward to Monday,"

"By groovy, you mean Regina," Henry nudged me in the shoulder as I rolled my eyes,

"Ms Mills to you Henry, but yeah," I sighed as I yanked open the front door, the cream metal frame caught me in the shin.

"Holy shit,"

"Mum!" Henry chastised as I held my shin in pain. I hated this door more than anything in this world. I seriously needed to change it or burn it or… do something.

"I'm allowed to swear if I get hurt,"

"You don't let me do that,"

"That's because you're like twelve," I seethed as I hopped into the kitchen, tugging open the fridge door,

"I'm thirteen Mum, sheesh,"

"Whatever, I was off by like, twelve months," Chucking the spaghetti onto the counter, I grabbed two bowls and some forks, "hope you like cold spaghetti," I chimed as I grated some cheese on top of my overloaded bowl.

"Gross. Can you microwave mine?"

"What am I, your maid? Get in here and do it yourself. You've got two legs," I sat down on the bar stool and ate hungrily. Checking out and assessing hot co-workers really took it out of me. I had assessed most of the staff and it was a smallish school which was good so less kids per class. Maine Falls had a habit of sticking thirty odd kids in each class because the school had such a huge catchment area.

Henry sighed loudly and stuck his bowl into the microwave and pressed go. The bowl whirred around as he rested his forehead against my shoulder,

"What's up?" I awkwardly patted his head,

"Nothing, I just like resting my head on you,"

"Well, that's awfully affectionate,"

"Yeah, whatever; your shoulders comfy and squidgy,"

"Yeah, and I'm trying to eat dinner here," I motioned to the half-eaten bowl in front of me, "your fat head on my shoulder is seriously reducing my fork to mouth ratio by like, more than half,"

He laughed and fetched his dinner from the microwave, "I swear food means more to you than I do,"

I shrugged, "some days, that statement is correct. But right now I'm happy with you and your progress, considering you only moved there at the start of the year,"

"Thanks Mum," Henry shovelled a heaping fork of steaming pasta into his large mouth and instantly sucked in a breath, "hot, hot," he fanned his mouth.

"Tends to happen when you eat straight from the microwave," I splashed cold water onto my bowl to rid the excess sauce and stuck it into the dishwasher, "after you stick your bowl in, can you put it on? Thanks," I kissed him on the head and sidled towards the Mac computer.

"Mum, you're not going to play solitaire all night, are you?"

I woke the computer and clicked the card game, "Maybe,"
"That's such an old person's game,"

"I am an eighty six year old woman stuck inside a thirty three year old woman's body,"

I tucked my leg underneath my other thigh and began to play.

"No, you are a ten year old in a thirty three year old body,"

I poked my tongue out at him just to solidify his statement, "Shut up and do your homework kid. You heard Blanchard, you need to read and stuff,"

Henry sighed and grumbled as he sat down to the dinner table to start his small pile of revision.

Monday came around a little quicker than I originally planned. I mean, it wasn't like I was nervous or impatient or almost constantly checked the clock every two hours.

Henry was doing his typical Monday morning routine; feigning sickness and throwing pillows at me when I tried to wake him. Henry was definitely mine, through and through.

I couldn't be bothered dealing with it this morning, not when Ms Regina Mills had sent an email two days ago, stating that I am to meet her immediately in her office when I arrive. She had included a basic outline of what my job entailed and I was extremely relived but also ridiculously anxious at the fact I was taking two subjects and not just Ashley's history class. Turns out, Ashley was one of those weird teachers who trained in two subjects that did not complement each other, at all. So not only was I taking a history class but also a sports class. Not that it mattered; I liked both classes and was glad I was able to get out of the theory based classroom of history with the practical side of sport.

I wrangled myself into a pair of reasonably clean black trousers from the back the big plush chair that I somehow managed to fit into my room. It was my reading chair cross second wardrobe.

Today felt like a messy bun kind of day so I yanked the thick toothed comb through my messy locks and tied it up. I slithered into one of my frilly bras that I kind of used to seduce people. Not that anybody complained.

"Mum, do you want me to make you some toast?" Henry called from the kitchen.

"Yeah, you know how I like it," I yanked a low cut white tank top and tucked it in.

"Lightly toasted with no butter and heaps of strawberry jam, got it," There was a bang from the kitchen as Henry clearly slammed the silverware drawer shut.

I might as well crack out the red leather jacket. I grinned at my pride and joy as I slipped it over my shoulders and strung a thin red belt through the loops of my slacks. Sassy librarian meets red leather. I smiled at my reflection as I slipped my glasses on and checked to make sure my nose piercing was still in.

"Come and get it Ma,"

I grabbed my packed handbag and exited to the kitchen where Henry was dressed haphazardly in his school uniform; his white shirt untucked with his gold and purple striped tie hanging loosely around his neck.

"You know we're leaving soon right?" I shoved a piece of my toast into my mouth and dumped the bag onto Henry's scattered homework from last night.

"Yeah, it's all good," He smiled as he finished his toast, "I just got to brush my teeth and put shoes on,"

"And sort out your homework. I will not have you failing while I am working there,"

Henry sighed and I noticed he didn't even have matching socks on.

"You're never like this,"

"I have to make a good impression with Ms Mills. Now hurry up, I'm not going to be late,"

Henry demanded I drop him at least a block down from the school to save him from the embarrassment. He slammed his door and smiled quickly back at me as I took off and entered the staff car park. Parking beside a pale blue Getz, I panicked slightly when I saw Regina's shiny black Mercedes sitting in the 'Principal' spot just near the school office. Everything was going to be fine. I am not going to embarrass myself and I know that Ruby is here. She's my friend…sort of.
I grabbed my stuff from the backseat and closed the door shut. Checking my appearance in the window, I noticed a man wandering through the cars behind me. I spun around and felt a tug on my jacket. Of course, I had closed my shirt in the door. This man was clearly another teacher and he just smiled softly at me,

"Hey girlie, you ok?" his voice was gruff as he grabbed my bag from my arms as I struggled with the stupid.

"Yeah, I'm cool. I just…" I pulled the door open and my jacket had a nice crease in it, "locked my jacket in the door,"

The short man raised an eyebrow at me, "okay. Uh, hi by the way, I'm Leroy," I snatched my bag from the blushing man and offered him my hand,

"Hey, I'm Emma,"

"New here then, I'm guessing?" He followed me up to the main office and held the door open for me. I thanked him and noticed there were other teachers in here. I took a deep breath to steady myself. I'm sure they're all nice. This is a decent school. Henry hasn't said anything bad about any of them.

"Yeah, how could you tell?" I laughed nervously,

"Well, I've not seen you around so," Of course. Bloody hell, good job me.

"Oh shit, right, sorry. I'm taking Ashley Boyd's classes while she's on leave," Leroy nodded and smiled as another teacher came over.

"You must be Ms Swan," she offered a wide smile, "I am Astrid Nova,"

"Whoa, pretty celestial name you've got," I smiled back and Leroy stood awkwardly beside me like Henry did when I spoke to Ruby. Wait. I glanced at Leroy and realised Nova winked at him. Oh here we go. These two are totally banging.

"My parents were quite the hippies. Mum had a thing for the stars,"
"That's pretty cool though. Uh, sorry I don't mean to be rude, but I need to see Regina before the bell goes,"

"Yeah sure, her office is just down there to the left," She pointed down a white hallway lined with mismatched photographs.

"Thanks,"

I followed the hall until I reached a dark brown door with Headmaster etched into it. Clearly they hadn't changed since Gold had left. I gave a tentative knock and pushed the door open,

"Yes? Oh Ms Swan, please come in,"

Somehow Regina Mills had gotten hotter since I last saw her, like ridiculously hotter. She wore a deep red dress that hugged all her glorious curves. Regina's mid length hair sat perfectly in soft waves that framed her olive face. She closed her laptop and pushed it aside, readjusting her crossed legs as I took a seat.

"Well, good morning Ms Swan and welcome to Story Brooke College," I twitched nervously as she pulled the hem of dress over her bare knee. Good grief she was killing me and I didn't even have my hands on her. Not that I would have my hands her, clearly she fancied brunettes and last time I checked, Ruby was a brunette and I was not.

"Didn't get too lost I presumed?" a smile tugged at the corner of her rosy red lips. I'd like to kiss that cheeky smirk right off her mouth. No, Emma, clean thoughts; this is your boss, your very hot, attractive, boss.

"Nope, I had help from Leroy,"

"Good, nice to see you've already met a couple of my staff members," Regina pulled a pair of glasses from the drawer beside her and slipped them on. Holy hotness, please for the love of God, I hoped she pulls them off seductively and flips her hair. Please.

"Now," she glanced at me over the top of her glasses, "down to business. You are taking Ashley Boyd's classes for approximately two months. If she requires more time, I can only assume you will stay for longer," I nodded as she flicked through some papers in front of her, "Ms Boyd has two classes. She runs a History class with Ms Mary Margaret Blanchard and a Sports class by herself. Her schedule is quite bizarre but none the less" Regina passed me two copies of my new timetable. It was easy to understand. She rested the end of her pen on Monday, "Mondays and Thursdays are Ashley's sports days. You are the practical teacher for this, so you won't have to mark much," She smiled softly, her eyes grazing over my low cut top. It felt like someone was hold a flame against my cheeks, I was so embarrassed but also extremely pleased. Regina might be into Ruby but that Art teacher has nothing on my tits. Regina cleared her throat and moved the pen to Tuesday, "Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays are your History days. Ms Blanchard takes the class on Mondays and Thursdays when you have Sport. Now, this class has marking and you will share the work load with Mary Margaret, simple?"

"Yeah, so Monday is Sport, Tuesday and Wednesday is History, Thursday is Sport and Friday is History,"

"Precisely,"

"Easy enough,"

"Now Ms Swan, because you are new, I will be regularly checking on you. Most of the time, I will not let you know and possibly surprise you mid-lesson. You must be on your ball at all times". Regina's said coolly and her brown eyes sparkled as she leaned back against her leather chair. "If you pass my test, I might even offer you a full time position,"

Wow, full time working for this hunk of hotness. I see no problems with that, at all. It's like a dream come true.

"Okay,"

"That's all Ms Swan. Feel free to report back to me at the end of the day. I'd like to know how your first day went," And she did it; that hot as 'pull-off-the-glasses-and-flick-the-hair' move. I'm so glad I was still sitting down because I'm sure I would have fallen over or possibly thrown myself over the desk so my head was right in her lap.

"I, uh, yep sure," I stood up on weak legs and accidentally knocked my timetable from the desk. Shit, good going Swan. They skimmed across the carpeted floor and landed just by the open door.

"Shit, I dropped my timetable," I mumbled as I quickly grabbed the first one which was sitting directly under a large corkboard pinned with a dozen colourful flyers.

"I can see that,"

She's sassy and hot. It's like a win-win combination.

I had to suppress my childish need to eye roll and scooped up the other piece. Glancing over to Regina, I noticed she quickly peeled her eyes off my ass. Clearly caught in the act, she grabbed her laptop and opened it up.

"I look forward to our meeting this afternoon. Can you close the door on your way out," She didn't bother looking at me as she typed away.

"Yeah me too," I shoved the papers into my handbag and slipped quietly out the room, pulling the door closed behind me. Holy shit, Regina Mills was going to kill me and there was no way in hell I was going to stop her.