"Emma ?" said a surprised Kathryn. "What are you doing here ? Class only starts in fifteen minutes, the bell hasn't rang yet."

"Yeah I know but ... I didn't want to be late. By the way, I wanted to apologize. I know I haven't been really nice to you in the past but I promise I'm gonna change and I won't interrupt you anymore."

"Oh. I'm happy to hear that Emma. I hope you will keep your promise."

Kathryn curiously glanced at Emma. What happened for her to change so suddenly ? Surely Regina couldn't have scared the girl that much. She knew Regina better than Regina herself and as terrifying as she could be, changing Emma Swan's behaviour in only one discussion seemed hardly possible.

Kathryn tried to open the door of her classroom but gave up when she realized that the lock was blocked.

"Do you need help, Ms. Nolan ?" innocently asked Emma when she saw her teacher struggling with the doorknob.

"I don't see what you could do that I can't but sure, go on." replied Kathryn moving away from the door and looking suspiciously at the young blonde.

Emma tried to open the door herself but failed. She then took an old barrette out of her bag and unblocked the lock in less than 10 seconds. She opened the door and told Kathryn to enter first.

"After you, Ms. Nolan."

Kathryn was going from surprise to surprise. First, Emma Swan was puntual, second, she apologized to her and third, she was helping her. I must be dreaming or Emma Swan has a twin sister who's her complete opposite.

"Thank you, Emma."

Kathryn entered in her classroom followed by her now well-behaved student. She went to her desk and turned her computer on after placing her books on the empty corner of her desk. She then sat in her chair and watched Emma carefully as she went to her own desk at the back of the class.

For the first time of the year, Emma actually took her copybook and books out of her bag with the intention to work.

Emma took her red leather jacket off, sat in her chair and opened her book to review her lesson. I can't believe what's happening right now. Is she making fun of me? Because there is no way Emma Swan is studying.

"By the way, where did you learn to do that ? I mean with the door ?" asked a curious Kathryn.

"My friend, Graham, he taught me how to do it. He wants to be a sheriff so, you know, he knows a lot of useful things like that."

"Graham want to be sheriff ? I didn't know that."

"Yeah well his dad worked in the police and ... I guess its his way to honor him." said Emma with a sad smile. Graham didn't know his dad but for a total different reason than Emma : he died in a car crash when her friend was only 5 years old.

"I see." said Kathryn, smiling back to her student. "Also Emma, I just remembered that you are supposed to spend an hour with me on wednesday after class. I don't know if Reg- Ms. Mills told you about that, but I will be waiting for you here. Oh and don't forget your red pen, I only have one."

"Ms. Mills only told me that I would not be staying with her on wednesdays but she didn't tell me who I would spend the hour with. Anyway, I'll be there Ms. Nolan, you can count on that."

It can't be worse than being with Ms. Mills. At least Ms. Nolan doesn't look like she wants to murder me every time she lays her eyes on my face.

Emma knew that her history teacher, and probably her english one too, thought that Emma would skip the hours she had to spend with them, but that was not oing to happen, not now that her mother was involved.

She would live with Ms. Mills if it made her mother proud of her, and after all, being in her presence for that long could lead to some interesting things. At least that's what had happened in Emma's dream from last night.

God, I really need to stop thinking about the Evil Queen like that, thought Emma, blushing.

Emma was torn out of her thought when the first students started to fill in the classroom. Every students stared at Emma as if they couldn't believe that she wasn't late.

As hard as changing was, her teacher's face when she saw Emma waiting in front of the door was totally worth it.

"Good morning" said Kathryn with a really rare smile on her face when all of her students were seated in their usual chairs.

When the bell that indicated lunch time rang, Emma went out of the art classroom as quickly as she could. She really wanted to see her friends but she was also extremely hungry.

Emma spotted Belle sitted alone at their usual table. Where is Ruby? thought an intrigued Emma, she wasn't the type of girl who left her friends alone, even for one hour.

When she finally reached the table, Emma said hi to her introvert friend who wasn't that shy after 2 or 3 drinks, remembered Emma.

"Where is Ruby? I just realized that I haven't seen her today. Is she ok ?" asked Emma, a little bit worried for her friend.

"Oh she didn't tell you? She has the flu. She will come back on wednesday if she feels better."

"Ah ok. I will call her after class then. By the way, how did the night go when I left you too at your house. I forgot to ask you on saturday."

"We were so exhausted, we went directly to bed. Why?" Emma stared at Belle as if she could not believe her "Stop looking at me like that, Emma!"

"You're blushing! Oh my god you totally did something after I was gone! Was it good ?" asked Emma, laughing at her friend's angry and embarassed face.

"No, we didn't do anything! I told you, we were both really tired. Now will you stop talking so loudly please." whispered Belle angrily.

"Ok if you say so, but I am definitly calling Ruby later. You two are hiding something from me."

"Who is hiding what ?"

"Graham! I was talking about Belle and Ruby's rapprochement, and don't tell me I'm the only one who has seen it."

"Wait, I actually thought they were dating? They're not?"

"At least that's what they're trying to make us believe. Right, Belle?"

"Shut up. I swear to god if I hear one allusion to me and Ruby being something more than friends again I'm gonna leave this table."

"Ok, we promise we won't say anything about the fact that you're dating Ruby." laughed Graham.

Belle put her lunch back in her bag and leaved the table. "You two are infuriating. You know that right?"

Emma and Graham watched her leave, laughing hard. Embarrassing Belle was and will always be funny.

Kathryn was sitting in the chair in front of her friend's desk for their usual lunch.

"You know, I've seen Emma today."

"Yes. Like every mondays, tuesdays, wednesays and thursdays. Must I remind you that she is your student Kathryn?"

Kathryn shot an annoyed look at Regina. "At least let me finish what I have to say."

"Ok ok, go on." said Regina rolling her eyes.

"So, I've seen Emma and guess what? She was actually nice to me. She wasn't late and helped me open the door. By the way, when do you intend to change it ? Because it's starting to really annoy me."

"I asked my secretary to call someone but she's sick, she probably forgot to do it." said Regina, already missing the presence of her secretary to help her with things such as a blocked lock. "And what do you want me to say? I told you, the girl is going to try to make you like her, because if she does not behave, she knows her mother will punish her."

"I don't think she is trying to 'make me like her'. I really think she has changed. Or at least she's trying. You must give her a chance, Regina."

"I just told you why she is changing. She is scared, Kathryn. I am not going to give her a chance she does not deserve. And I am sure she does not really care about my opinion, anyway."

"Ok but I still think she is becoming more mature."

"If you say so." said Regina rolling her eyes again.

Regina Mills hated Emma Swan and that was not going to change.

They continued eating in silence for 10 long minutes, both too stubborn to start a conversation. Kathryn is the one who decided to stop this silence game and asked Regina about their plans for friday.

"My babysitter can not keep Henry but she told me that she was going to ask one of her friend to replace her for the night." said a still annoyed Regina, putting her fork back on the table and drinking a little bit of water from a small plastic bottle.

"Ok. That's good. Are you ok with leaving Henry with someone you don't know ? The Regina I know would never do that."

Indeed, Kathryn found Regina way too protective with her son. It took her a year before finally finding a babysitter that seemed 'not too bad' for Regina and another year to trust entirely. But Kathryn could understand her friend's protectiveness, after all, Henry is all Regina really have, besides her of course even thought it was sometimes hard for Regina to remember that Kathryn was her best friend and that she would not betray her at the first occasion.

"I do not really have a choice, right ? And Ariel knows me, anyway. She would not have proposed the help of this person if she was not qualified for the job. I am sure that everything will be alright, at least, I hope so."

To be honest, Regina was scared of leaving her son with a stranger. But the restaurant wasn't far away from where she and her son lived and she would not be gone for too long.

The friends finished their lunch in a comfortable silence and then it was time for Regina to go back to work. Kathryn put her handbag on her shoulder and went back to her class to organize her next lesson when Regina turned her computer on and started working on a projet for the school. On mondays, Regina didn't have any classes so she used the free time for her job as a principal.

She has always been a hard working woman and that would not change. Thinking about how busy she was made her go back in time when she and Daniel had an argument about her working too much. He had asked her to leave one of her jobs to concentrate on their family life. How naive of him, thought Regina with tears forming in her eyes at the memory of her deceased husband. She would never quit and that Daniel finished by understanding.

Mr. Hood had decided to try a new experiment for science today and Emma can only thank him for his decision because for the first time of her life, she wasn't bored in class.

She was seated next to one of her best friend, Graham and they couldn't stop laughing at their teacher's idiocy.

He was trying to prove that the combination of two innocents liquid could be deadly but he had miserably failed to do anything the 6 times he had tried.

"Can you believe this man is a science teacher ? Because I'm sure anyone who would enter this class right now would not believe us even if we forced them to." loudly laughed Graham.

Some students had decided to help the teacher and were cleaning his desk even thought they couldn't help laughing at him but the others just stared at him with curious and amused eyes as their teacher scratched his head to indicate that he didn't understand how everything went so wrong.

"I just wish Ms. Mills was there. Last time he tried to do something like that he provoked a really loud explosion and Ms. Mills was passing by the door. She burst throught the door and threatened to fire him, and he pleaded her to not do it, telling her about his family and everything, it was hilarious, mate. You should have been there." said a boy seated on Graham's left.

Graham laughed and started talking with the guy meanwhile Emma just continued to stare at her still extremely confused teacher.

She decided to leave him to his problems and opened her english book to study for a test that she was supposed to have the tomorrow. In fact, Emma was trying to do everything she could to not think about the hour she was going to spend with her infuriatibly hot history teacher in less than 10 minutes.

Emma must admit that her opinion of the woman had changed a lot since last friday. She was scared to see her again as if she was the one who had her lips locked on Regina's. Emma had hated Regina Mills for so long that she didn't realize how human she actually was. If we lived in a world dominated by robots, she would probably be mistaken for one.

When Regina threathened her and asked her to keep what she had witnessed to herself, Emma saw a woman ready to do everything to keep her reputation intact but she also saw a really vulnerable woman. But that, she couldn't admit to Regina. And even if she felt like she will kind of have to bring up the subject someday, she didn't know if she would be capable of doing such thing when she would be in front of the sometimes frightening woman.

The bell rang loudly making Emma jump. She put her books back in her backpack and stood up in the direction of the door.

"Hey Emma! Wait for me!" yelled Graham behind her before running toward Emma. "Are you ready to see the Evil Queen ?"

Emma ignored her friend's comment and went to Ms. Nolan's room to wait for Belle. The door was closed what meant that her brunette friend was still inside. Not so surprising, Ms. Nolan always let her students go after the second bell.

Students finally filled out of the room but as always, Belle was the last one.

She walked past Emma and Graham, not paying enough attention to see them.

"Belle wait!"

"Emma? What are you doing here? Must I remind you that you're supposed to be with the Evil Queen?" said Belle with a smile.

"No, no need to remind me anything. I just wanted to apologize for earlier. You too Graham, right?"

"Me?" Emma looked at Graham intensely and he understood rapidly that he better apologize too. "Oh yeah, that." said Graham scratching the back of his head. "Sorry, we ... we went too far?"

"Yeah, I know you don't like talking about your love life and everything and you can date whoever you wanna date. I promise I- hmm we won't do it again." said Emma with an accentued look at her male friend.

"No problem. I know how you two are." Belle still looked a little embarassed at the mention of their lunch conversation but Emma decided against mentioning it.

"I have to go. I will see y'all tomorrow. I mean, if I am still alive." laughed Emma hugging Belle and Graham.

"Yeah. Good luck! You will need it."

The friends went in the opposites way, Belle and Graham walked slowly to the exit when Emma took the direction of the principal's office.

Emma wasn't ready to see Regina again but she also might never be. As reluctant as she was, Emma also felt slightly ... excited. But she simply ignored her feelings and continued walking.

She looked at her watch and realized that she was going to be more than late if she didn't accelerate. Walking a little bit quicklier, Emma arrived in front of the assistant desk right on time. She sighed heavily when she saw the empty chair. I guess I'm going to have to enter unnanouced.

Emma took a deep breath, pulled the straps of her bag tightlier against her shoulder and looked at her watch one last time. She was about to knock on the heavy wooden door when she heard a woman's voice on the other side.

Regina had stayed in her office the entire day. Usually she had to run throught the school because of her employees idiocy but today everything seemed to be calm. At least no one came to her to complain.

She wasn't lost without her secretary but even if she would not admit it, things were far easier when she was there. Regina wasn't used to do thing such as organizing her schedule but it was an obligation and she had to do it before the end of the day. Her secretary was sick and she would not be able to come back to work until thursday or even friday.

She was currently waiting for Emma to arrive but she was late. Regina had already prepared the lecture she was going to do to the blonde girl about punctuality. When she thought that Emma probably choose to not come, she came back to her work. And Kathryn dares say that she has changed. Rare are the people who can change and Emma Swan surely isn't one of them.

She jumped on her chair when she heard her phone ringing. She searched for her phone in her expensive handbag and pulled it out of it before responding to the call without looking at the caller ID.

"Hello, Regina Mills speaking."

"You don't have to present yourself Regina, I am the one who's calling you." Regina sighed quietly when she recognized Maleficient's deep voice. Right now really wasn't the good time for her to call Regina but Maleficent probably knew that.

"What do you want Maleficent? I am still at work and I do not need you to interrupt me." Regina really didn't want to talk to her blonde friend. She knew what subject she was going to bring up and Regina was not ready to discuss that yet.

"I want to talk about what happened last friday." said Maleficent making Regina roll her eyes. Oh really, how surprising.

"There is nothing to talk about. I was drunk, you were drunk, that's it." There was obviously more to what had happened but the brunette was not going to admit that. "You know that I am not ready for a relationsh-"

"Regina, a kiss doesn't mean anything. From what I know, I didn't propose. You don't need to panic." cut her off Maleficent. "I would like to see you thought. We could have a coffee or something at my house."

"I can't and I don't want to. I don't want us to be more than friends. I think it's better if we stop seeing each other for a while." Regina hoped that she did not cause any pain to her friend but she knew it was the best thing to do.

"Is it because of the girl who saw us. Who is she? Is she 'more than a friend' to you? replied the blonde, quoting Regina.

"Emma? She is nothing. Actually, she is one of my student. It is not because I do not want to see you that you have to be jealous. Do not blame her, this is my decision. Now I have to go, if you didn't understand the first time, I am working."

Regina didn't let Maleficent respond and hung up. She was already annoyed enough due to Emma's lateness or even absence and she did not need to talk with her infuriating friend anymore.

She put her phone back in her handbag and stood up to go see Kathryn for a much needed break and also to prove to her that she was wrong about the 'change' of their student. She opened the door violently, still angry at Maleficent's phone call.

"Emma!"

She jumped when she realized that Emma Swan was behind the door.

"What are you doing here? Why didn't you knock?"

Emma blushed and tried to avoid Regina's piercing gaze. She knew that she should have made her presence known before but she just couldn't resist listening to the brunette's phone conversation. She took even more interest in what she was saying when she realized that she was talking to a certain Maleficent, name that she remembered hearing at the Rabbit Hole 3 days ago.

"Well I- I didn't want to ... to bother you. You seemed busy and I-"

"Where you eavesdropping?" said an extremely angry Regina. She passed her hand throught her hair and arched a brow, waiting for Emma to explain herself.

"No. I mean ... yes ... maybe? I don't know." I was only kidding when I said that but I may not be aluve tomorrow. First day of the week and I've already made her furious, not a good idea Swan.

Regina rolled her eyes. "You don't know? Is this your final answer Miss Swan. Do you really want to spend not one but two hours with me every day? Because I can make your wish come true." said Regina with a wide fake smile.

Emma finally dared looking at the teacher but decided that the floor was a better option when she noticed Regina's enraged eyes. She didn't know what to reply to the beautiful brunette's last comment.

Regina opened the door wider and turned around. She walked to her chair and sat gracefully on it. She crossed her legs and stared at Emma who was still outside of the office. Regina looked up and down at the young blonde with a bored and hateful expression.

"What are you waiting for, Miss Swan? Come in! I am not going to wait for you all day." And like that, Regina went back to working on her schedule.

Emma slowly entered in the room, holding tightly the straps of her backpack. She looked around the office and noticed that everything looked like it was in its place. How surprising. She sat on the chair in front of Regina and stayed as quiet as she could, waiting for the teacher to tell her what to do.

Emma had been in the office for 10 minutes and Regina still hadn't acknowledged her presence. Emma was getting seriously bored. When Emma couldn't wait anymore she blurted out.

"Is there anything you want me to do, Ms. Mills?"

Regina looked up from her computer and sat back in her chair, sighing. She opened one of her drawer and pulled a paper and blue pen out of it.

"Explain to me why I shouldn't let you get bored to death on this paper. You have the rest of the hour but be careful, if I consider that your answer isn't good enough you will definitly do nothing for the rest of the year and I will explain to your mother that you did not want to do anything I gave you." said the brunette with a smile. "Oh and I will also call my friend about your lack of commitment."

Regina handed the pen and the paper to Emma and continued working in silence with a smirk on her face.

Well, this is going to be a long year, thought Emma, glancing at the white paper. A really long year.