Late. Emma was late again. Regina Mills had already made more than clear that she hated unpunctuality more than anything on her first day and, ever since, the blonde girl had always tried to be on time, or even ten minutes earlier, since she wanted to avoid any kind of confrontation with her teacher at all costs, knowing she would not be able to resist those chocolate brown eyes that made her heartbeat reach seriously unhealthy levels. But there she was, the morning after her teacher caught her sneaking in the building to take a look at the red moon.
Getting rid of her red leather jacket, that was starting to be rather a burden than a comfortable layer against the heat the girl was starting to feel due to her rushed path, she allowed herself a few seconds to recover her breath, her feet slowing down for a moment before speeding up once more. The girl halted in front of the classroom door and took a look at her shiny phone screen. 8:04.
Maybe she's five minutes late, today. She thought as she held the door open before her.
"Good morning, Miss Swan" she heard as she tried to make her entrance as quiet as possible.
"I'm sorry I'm late, my phone died and I-"
"Strike two, miss Swan" her teacher raised an eyebrow as she slowly proceeded to add a red cross next to Emma's name on the class list. "I guess you already know there won't be a third one".
"It won't happen again, Miss Mills" the blonde could feel the students' eyes on her as she walked to the last row of seats as fast as she could without looking rude or too embarrassed, even if she just wanted the Earth to open up and swallow her small being.
Emma didn't know why, but her teacher seemed tense, different ever since last night. Regina Mills had always been strict but gentle, a polite smile always plastered on her face. But that morning was different. There was no smile, her voice had no trace of gentleness and her eyes were darker than usual. Emma Swan started wondering the reason behind this sudden change, and couldn't help but thinking it was mostly her fault. She knew they didn't do anything wrong. Hell, they didn't do anything at all. Yet, why did her gut tell her otherwise?
"Body language". Regina started her class writing these words on the huge blackboard that presided the classroom. "It is amazing how much we can learn about a person, or how much someone can transmit using just their body language".
The teacher opened a PowerPoint presentation with several pictures of politics and actors, letting the class say out loud what the people in those pictures transmitted them, whether they were tense, happy, forcing a smile for the cameras… Emma looked at the pictures with determination, but she wasn't brave enough to raise her hand and share her thoughts with the rest of her classmates. For her, those people were just memories of past actions, puppets of the paparazzi, the cameras; she didn't care about them or their body language, she just wanted the class to go by as quick as possible so she could avoid Miss Mills for the rest of the week.
"Okay, class" Regina glanced at her students as she intertwined her arms, almost holding herself. "I want you all to pair up-" the students started sending looks to their friends, all of them already knowing who their teammate was going to be "-with someone you've never talked to" the whispers faded as the students looked confused at their teacher.
"I know most of you already know each other, but for this experiment to work, I need you all to choose someone you know nothing about, someone you haven't talked to yet, a stranger. Come on!"
A confused chaos of chars being pulled and students walking around the class, yelling for someone to be their teammate overwhelmed Emma. She was a stranger for everyone, and everyone was a stranger for her and yet, somehow, she still managed to be invisible for the rest of the class since, when the noises faded away, everyone was paired up but her.
"Miss Swan, you're with me" when Emma turned around, she found her teacher looking at her with a smile, a genuine smile. She shook her head and walked towards the brunette as a voice inside her mind told her to run away from there.
"Okay, class, the experiment is very easy; we're all going to look right into the eyes of our partner for one minute and then we are going to share what we felt and what we thought we learnt from that person. Understood?" everyone nodded or replied with a soft 'yes' as Regina set a timer on her own phone, instructing everyone to place themselves in front of their partners. "Okay, her we go".
As soon as Emma looked into Regina's deep brown eyes, she felt shivers down her spine. She couldn't do it, she knew she couldn't just stand there for a minute, placing her green eyes on her teacher's eyes just as those chocolate pits stared back at her, threatening to swallow her whole. In a vague attempt to distract herself from that situation, since looking away was not an option at the time, she decided some small talk could be a fine solution.
"So, are we allowed to talk while we look at each other or is this supposed to happen in silence?" she asked, not really expecting a response from the tall brunette.
"We're supposed to be silence, since we are not supposed to learn anything about our partner. Strangers, remember?" she replied, narrowing her eyes as she spoke.
"Yes, but, we are not really strangers, are we? I mean, I know you from your classes and from the bar and from last night" Emma was not going to give up; silence was not an option for her.
"I thought we were not supposed to talk about that" Regina whispered, clearly mad about the whole situation.
"I know, I was just stating facts."
"Okay, Miss Swan" Regina spoke after a couple of seconds "What do you want to talk about?" she sighed "Not the bar." She added.
"Small conversation, I don't know. Maybe… where are you from?" Emma's eyelashes moved faster than she wanted them to, and Regina noticed.
"Storybrooke, born and raised."
"Weird, I've been here for a couple of years now and I've never seen you around before. Not in town, not at campus." Emma didn't know what was going on with her, why suddenly, she was questioning her teacher, the same one she usually didn't know how to act around of.
"Well, it's a big campus, and a much bigger town too." Regina replied. "But, if you want to know, I moved for a few years to the city for personal reasons and came back right before this academic year started"
"Why?" Emma asked, her mouth and her brain not working together anymore.
"Why did I leave or why did I come back?" Regina rose one of her eyebrows, tilting her head a little to the right.
"Why did you come back? I mean, this town isn't that big, I bet the city was nicer."
Regina's eyes went darker for just a second, as if she was remembering some painful memory she was not ready to let go of. Then, she just smiled wide open.
"I could ask you the same thing. A smart girl like you probably had a lot of options when it comes to universities. Why choosing Storybrooke then?"
"I liked it here, I felt like I needed to start over, and this just seemed like the right place". Emma rose one of her eyebrows too. "Now please don't avoid my questions".
"Well, I needed to start over, too. I needed to get away from some things at the city and going back to my roots just felt right."
Just as Emma was about to reply with yet another question, the teacher's phone started beeping, indicating the minute has finished already and everyone should get back to their seats.
"I would like to know how you feel after this exercise. Do you think you know your partners better than you did before? What were your impressions, feelings?" the whole class remained silent, nobody daring to raise their hand, not sure of what to say.
"Okay, I see you all have a lot to say" all the students laughed at the joke, but nobody replied. "Well, in that case, I'll go first". Regina placed her gaze on Emma for a moment before she spoke again. "I was paired up with Miss Swan and I think I now know more about her. I could see, through her eyes and, Miss Swan, correct me if I'm wrong; I could see a shy girl who cares deeply about her friends, whom she considers family. I could see a wandering soul who hasn't yet found a place to call home. And I could see, above all, a determined woman who knows exactly what she wants and doesn't stop until she gets it. Did I guess something?" Regina directed her deep brown eyes once more to Emma's green ones and waited for an answer.
The blonde woman couldn't think straight right in that moment. How did that woman manage to learn her whole personality just with two conversations and one minute of staring into her eyes? She, herself, had also built some personality traits of her teacher, but she was sure nothing would be as accurate as the description she had just made of her student.
"That was… right" she managed to articulate, almost in a whisper.
"Good. Want to share what you thought of me with the class?" Regina asked with a big smile on her face.
Emma thought about it for a second. She really wanted to share her conclusions with Miss Mills, although she wasn't sure she wanted the rest of the students to be present while she did so, not knowing how her teacher or her classmates themselves would react.
"I would rather not, if possible" she said with a weak smile, hoping her teacher wouldn't think any less of her because of it.
"Okay. So, anyone wants to go next?"
I know this chapter sucks oml, I don't really know why but it's been so hard to write it, I've been trying to deal with it for months and even now, I'm not happy with the results. I really wanted to include this idea, since my teacher also made us do this little experiment in class and it was seriously amazing, I was paired up with this really nice girl and she said some really sweet stuff about me afterwards so I have good memories of it. I thought it could be sweet and interesting for the story but I don't know what happened, words just seemed not to be able to come to my mind and walk to the paper.
For real, I'm so sorry. I hope it won't take me this long to update again and I hope the next chapter will be worth of your time since this one, clearly, is not.
