Brenna was not a patient person by any means. Her hands were crossed tightly across her chest and she kept standing on tiptoe to try and pass the time quicker. The bus would show up any minute and Henry better be ready to do some major explaining.

At long last the yellow bus pulled in. A stream of students poured out. Brenna stood on tiptoe once again. It wasn't so much that she was short. There were just a lot of people. Luckily Paige's neon orange cast stood out pretty clearly. It only took a second for Brenna to realize that Paige was alone.

"Well, where is he?"

Paige tugged on her hair. "I'm not sure. He got in pretty late last night. Maybe he stayed home. "

Brenna scoffed. "You really think the Evil Queen would let him."

Paige shot her a look. "Of Course. She'd want to keep a close eye on him. Every mother cares about her child. If Henry isn't feeling well, he isn't going to come to school. "

Brenna looked over her shoulder before leaning in close. "You've seen how she acts around him. You really think she cares. She's not even his real mom."

"Um, yeah. I have been watching and therefore I know she does care. Anyway if Henry's right about the curse, none of us are living with are real parents."

"Let's hope he's right."


A small rock flew in through her window. Gerda quickly got off the bed and leaned out the window as far as she could to shout across the small alley.

"Kay!"

"You'll never guess what happened!" The gleeful little boy shouted back.

"You're going to help your father at the castle!" The two children lived in a small village nearby a very large castle. The castle had once belonged to King Leopold but now it was the domain of the Evil Queen. The Evil Queen was someone you avoided at all costs. If you even so much as looked at her funny, you were dead.

"Better!"

"Your mom's making chocolate cake!"

"Even better!"

"What's better than chocolate cake?"

"Princess Snow White has taken back the castle!"

"You can't joke about something like that. What if the guards hear you?"

Kay laughed. "We never have to worry about them ever again." He raised his voice and lifted up his arms, "PRINCESS SNOW WHITE IS BACK!"


Class was perfectly normal. Right before lunch, Miss Blanchard taught them how to make a birdhouse.

"Just like she does every Tuesday," Paige whispered.

Brenna shrugged. It didn't seem possible that they could have already learned how to make a birdhouse. Her own looked absolutely ridiculous. The roof was hanging at an awkward angle and the left side kept threatening to collapse. Then again, Paige's was picture perfect and she was awful at art, so maybe the curse was actually real.

"As we build our birdhouses, remember: what you're making is a home. Not a cage. A bird is free, and will do what it will. This is for them, not us. They're loyal creatures," Miss Blanchard let the little blue bird fly out the window. It was moments like this when Brenna thought that her teacher might just be Snow White.

"If you love them and they love you, they will always find you." There was something especially sad about those words. Brenna tried not to frown. 'I will always find you' was a phrase repeated over and over again in Henry's storybook. It was like a mushy catchphrase.

The bell rang and Brenna felt like running out of the room. She needed some fresh air. She couldn't be giving Henry's curse idea any serious thought. It would give her a headache. It was just ridiculous. She wasn't a storybook character. And it wasn't like she was missing out. Brenna wasn't anyone interesting, probably some random peasant. She'd rather be in Storybrooke where she had the Internet and friends. In the other land, Henry would be a prince (if he was even there) and Paige would be stuck in Wonderland unless there was more to the story than she knew. The Internet was also so much better than living in some hovel.

Brenna stopped in her tracks when she saw the Mayor enter the room. This couldn't be good. Seeing the Mayor was never a good thing. Some blonde woman was standing next to her. Brenna knew she would have to do something drastic if she wanted to know what was going on and she really did want to know. Despite the Mayor's put together façade, she was frantic and Henry was nowhere to be seen.

Brenna reached into her lunchbox to find anything that would give her more time. She pulled out a pear. Well, some kids gave teachers apples. A pear was almost the same thing. Brenna tapped Paige on the shoulder. Paige stopped staring at the blonde and glanced at her.

"Wait outside the door. It'll look weird if we both take a long time in here."

Paige looked like she was ready to protest so Brenna shoved her in the direction of their classmates. "It's either you wait outside the door or you wait at the special spot. Regina isn't going to say anything if you're in here."

Their special spot was one of the reasons Brenna knew Henry was wrong about the curse. Henry said that they had been frozen in time, that they lived the same days over and over again, that their memories should all blur together so that they never knew that they weren't getting older.

But Brenna remembered things. She remembered little bits about her childhood. She knew she tried to hide her chocolate birthday cake when she was six, so her parents would have to make another one. She knew that when she was eight, she had gotten lost in the forest on the edge of Storybrooke with Paige and that her parents had not let her out of their sight for two weeks. Brenna remembered the bench around the corner from the classroom, squeezed in a little alcove between the displays of Miss Thorne's students' art projects and the backdoor to the kitchen. The bench was the friend's special spot, a place where they could talk about anything whether it was small (pesky siblings) or big (the death of Brenna's cat). These were all the details that made Brenna so sure, Henry was wrong about the curse.

Brenna brushed the thoughts aside once again. Right now, the curse wasn't nearly as important as where Henry was. She approached Miss Blanchard, ignoring the Mayor and Sherriff Graham.

"Here Miss Blanchard. I brought this for you."

"Why thank you!" Her teacher smiled a very genuine smile. Brenna began to trudge away very slowly. She paused ever so slightly when the Mayor began to speak.

"Where's my son?"

So, Henry really was missing again. He better have one incredible explanation.

"Henry…I assumed he was home with you." Miss Blanchard was making what Brenna called the face. The face was slightly concerned but more nervous than anything. It was the same face she made when Anthony needed stitches after he had crashed his bike.

"You think I'd be here if he was?" Regina was absolutely livid. She made a gesture toward the blond woman. "Did you give him your credit card so he can find her?"

Brenna ignored the urge to look at the woman that would only draw attention to herself. They couldn't know she was listening. She silently went back to her desk and bag to search for her coat.

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"I'm…I'm his-" The blonde stammered.

The Mayor cut in "The woman who gave him up for adoption."

Brenna fought a smile as she rummaged through her stuff looking for an article of clothing she knew wasn't there. Henry had done it. He had found his birth mother.

"You don't know anything about this, do you?" The blond woman was perspective. Brenna knew that the woman had probably already noticed her. The door was wide open so she couldn't very well wait there.

"No, unfortunately not." Miss Blanchard began to search through her bag. She gave a small disappointed sigh. "Clever boy. I should never have given him that book."

Brenna couldn't contain a smile at that. Miss Blanchard really had no idea what she unleashed when she gave Henry the book.

"What in the hell is this book I keep hearing about?" The Mayor shouted. Brenna wanted to groan. They had kept Operation Cobra (which in her opinion was a very silly name) a secret for so long.

Miss Blanchard rushed to explain, "Just some old stories I gave him. As you well know, Henry is a special boy: so smart, so creative, and you saw how he was acting after his fight with Paige. He was lonely. He needed it."

Regina began in a harsh voice, "What he needs is dose of reality." Brenna wanted to become invisible at the sound. The Mayor still didn't pay her any attention however. She began to stalk out of the room, knocking over a stack of books in the process. "This is a waste of time. Have a nice trip back to Boston."

Henry's birthmother knelt automatically to help Miss Blanchard pick up the books. Brenna contemplated making her escape now before she decided against it and made her way over to the older women.

Henry's birthmother tried to apologize for the Mayor's actions, "Sorry to bother you."

"No, it's-it's okay, I fear this is partially my fault."

Brenna wanted to shake her teacher. This was not her fault. The Mayor (the Evil Queen her mind added even if she didn't believe in the curse) never understood anything.

"I'm sure it's not. But I'm trying to find him." The woman paused, "What did you mean after his fight with Paige. Who's Paige?"

Brenna contemplated finding Paige now, but was interrupted by the sound of footsteps as Paige all but ran into the room.

"I'm Paige," she said, catching her breath, walking further into the room and linking arms with Brenna. "And we're friends of Henry's"

Author's Note: I wasn't able to stockpile nearly as many chapters as I would have liked. So updates might still be odd. This chapter is brought to you from Xi'an, China (well and a very marvelous person in the United States). I know this chapter is Brenna central but Henry needs to process some things and Regina would notice if Paige was hanging around. Regina knows Paige and Henry are friends, but she doesn't know about Brenna because Henry still considers Brenna to be more Paige's friend than his.

And I hope to clear up any confusion, Brenna is very skeptical about the curse still. Paige has just accepted the curse for what it is. Brenna is overthinking things. She knows that if the curse is real, all her memories and experiences are wrong. She can't really handle that. Brenna thinks that any experiences she's had in Storybrooke are better than those she could have had in the Enchanted Forest, because as of right now, the kids haven't found her fairytale counterpart.

I hope you enjoyed this. We're into some of the more interesting stuff now.

Lynnie76296 Note: As promised, an update from my lovely friend all the way from China! I hope you were as excited about this as I was.

A huge thanks to Leanne and katiek121 for your wonderful reviews! Bookworm really appreciates them!

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