Sarah sat in the secretary's office; waiting for Belle and Mr. Gold to arrive.
How could she have so careless? Sure a lot had changed, but some things never do. She should have been more careful.
Stupid, stupid girl! She kept repeating over and over again in her mind.
She noticed the secretary, sitting behind her desk, giving her distrustful looks. Well, to hell with her. She didn't care about what the bitch thought anyway.
Just then the office door opened, and out came her teacher Mrs. Lyne. Sitting in the chair beside her, Mrs. Lyne angled her body to face the child, only for Sarah to angle her body so she was facing away from her.
"Sarah," she started in her most caring voice, the one Sarah hated, "I know things have been tough for you lately. I know there have been big changes in your life. It can't be easy living with the Dark One." The last part was said in disbelief, but it was Sarah who was disbelieving. Her teacher thought Mr. Gold was difficult to live with? Clearly she was as dumb as Sarah always suspected. "But I thought we were passed all this." She continued.
Sarah remained stubbornly silent; refusing to acknowledge that she even heard the woman.
"You know this is an automatic suspension. This is serious." Oh she had that concerned act down pat. She probably loved the idea of her getting suspended; loved the idea of not having to deal with the weirdo anymore.
She wanted to say all these things: she wanted to challenge the teacher; she wanted to call out the secretary; she wanted to scream that they had no idea, that life was not fair. Instead she stayed silent. She had learned her lesson early on; there was no point in arguing with adults.
"Sarah." Mrs. Lyne tried again. "We can help you, you know."
She still didn't move.
"Fine." Clearly Mrs. Lyne had giving up the pretense. "But remember this girl;" Now she sounded nasty, "No one steals from the Dark One."
Pushing herself up from the chair, she made her way over to the secretary. The two stood gossiping, while they waited; every once in a while, shooting glances over at the child in the chair. The child who refused to be intimidated by the two women, so just stared back mockingly at them.
This standoff between adults and child only ended when young Henry entered.
"Mr. Mills." The secretary was all sugar and spice. "What can I do for you?"
Henry only spared her enough of a glance to smile politely. "Nothing Mrs. Sloan. Thank you. I am here to keep Sarah company." With that he sat next to girl, then took her hand in his.
Sarah was shocked by this. What the hell was Henry playing at? Clearly the women were thinking the same thing.
"Mr. Mills," Mrs. Lyne tried, "Sarah is in trouble."
"I'm aware of the situation." Was his only response; which seemed to take the teacher by surprise. Sarah had the pleasure of watching her teacher open and close her mouth several times… like a fish.
Finally she thought of something to say: "Well I am sure you have a class you must be getting back to?"
"No." Henry responded with his ever polite smile. "I have permission to be here. But thank you for your concern."
Not knowing what else to say, the two women went back to gossiping at the far end of the room.
"What ARE you doing here?" Sarah had to ask.
"I heard you were in trouble. I wanted to make sure you were ok." He gave her hand a squeeze when he said it.
Getting right up so they were face to face, Sarah searched his eyes. For what? Even she wasn't sure. In the end she didn't find anything sinister or mocking, so she pulled away.
"You are an odd boy Henry Mills." She told him.
"You're not the first person to say so." He responded with a laugh.
"Ok then." She settled back into her seat. The weight of his hand around hers, more of a comfort then she would ever admit.
They waited in silence until Mr. Gold and Belle arrived; which, unfortunately, didn't take long.
"Sarah!" It was Belle as she rushed towards the child; instead of reaching out to the woman, the child curled into a ball in her chair; refusing to look at the adults. She knew what was going to happen.
Mrs. Lyne saw the two guardians arrived, and came over to greet the pair.
"Mrs. Lyne is everything ok?" Belle asked worried. She hadn't liked how closed off Sarah was being with them.
"Unfortunately, no." She sounded so upset. "We are just waiting for the sheriff, and then we can proceed."
"Sheriff?" Belle was getting more worried with every minute that passed. Rumpel was silent, waiting, sizing everything up.
"Is Henry involved in this?" He asked cautiously.
"No Grandfather." Henry spoke for himself before anyone else could. "I just wanted to make sure Sarah was ok."
The two adults smiled at the young man. They were never more grateful for his kind and caring personality.
"Thank you Henry." Rumpel shook the young man's hand. "We'll take it from here."
Taking one last look at Sarah, Henry left. He tried not to be too upset when she didn't acknowledge his leaving.
While they waited, both adults tried to get Sarah's attention, but she resolutely stayed curled up in her chair.
Finally Sheriff Swan arrived, with a quick apology and excuse for being late. The principle must have been watching for her, because as soon as she arrived they were ushered into the office.
"Please have a seat everyone." The principle started. "I have asked everyone here to deal with a very serious situation." Turning to Belle and Rumple he addressed them directly. "I know that you are new to the situation, how much of Sarah's history at the school are you aware of."
The two looked at each other, but it was Belle who answered. "We did not receive a lot of information. Her former guardian was not very communicative with us as you can imagine."
"As you can imagine," explained the principle, "Sarah has had some difficulty in the past. She had been caught on several occasions stealing from other students, and even from teachers." At this point Belle looked at the child, not believing what she was hearing. The child continued to look down at her crossed arms. "We understand that Sarah's home life was difficult before, and we had hoped that things would improve now that she is with you. This, however, does not appear to be the case. In fact, the situation appears to have gotten worst."
"What do you mean by worst?" Belle asked. She didn't notice the looks that passed between Rumpel and Emma.
"Sarah has been accused of stealing some of the other students stuff, since her return. She has also added cheating to her delinquencies."
Belle turned to Sarah about to ask for an explanation, but Rumpel spoke before her.
"Accused?"
"Ah yes." The principle got a little uncomfortable at this point. "We have been unable to locate the objects that were reported stolen."
Belle did not like the look in Rumpel's eyes. It was the look he got when someone broke a deal with him. It didn't bode well for the person involved.
"And why were we not informed of the cheating before today?" He again asked.
This time it was her teacher who answered. "To be honest," she started, but was interrupted when Rumpel said in a low tone: "Please do."
"Ah yes." She tried again. "We have been unable to figure out how she has been cheating. Every time we have tried to get to the bottom of the situation, Sarah has been less than co-operative. She has been downright rude."
Now even Belle could see what Rumpel had seen before.
"So let me get this straight." He started. "You are accusing Sarah of stealing, but you have not located the missing items. Therefore you have no evidence that she took them, let alone that they have simply been lost. You are also claiming she has cheated on a test, or several tests, but have no evidence that she didn't just study really really hard. You have questioned her, without a guardian present, with the intent of having her incriminate herself. Since she has not done so, you have deemed her un-cooperative, and you are surprised that she is unhappy with the situation?"
Everyone looked at the man in surprise.
"That is not quite correct." The principle tried to interject, she looked at Mrs. Lyne for assistance, but the teacher was just staring at Mr. Gold like he had grown a second head.
"Then please continue." Mr. Gold invited sceptically.
"She has a history here." The principle stated.
"And of course people can't change even when their circumstances do." The principle looked between Gold and Belle. He had never met the woman or the Dark One before now, but he had heard their story. Or at least he had heard the story of their romance as told through the gossip mills of the town.
Deciding that this topic was a little too volatile, the principle changed tact.
"Her marks have skyrocketed since her return to school. We could see if her marks had improved in one or two subjects, but not all of them, and not so dramatically."
Handing over a stack a paper work to the guardians, everyone was quiet while the two looked through her old report cards.
After a few minutes he continued. "As you can see the child held steady in the low to mid 70% range. Now she is getting 90%- 100% on all her tests and projects. It just doesn't make sense."
Looking at the years of report cards, Rumpel had to agree; it didn't make sense, but not for the reason they were insinuating.
"We can prove she has been stealing." Mrs. Lyne interjected. "We can prove she stole from you." The teacher actually sounded proud.
Reaching into her pocket, the teacher pulled out Sarah's Lalique necklace.
"Sarah!" Belle admonished the child. "You know you are not supposed to bring the necklace to school. We talked about it."
"Please!" Now Mrs. Lyne was sounding not only displeased, but dismissive. "If the necklace really belonged to Sarah, then why was she going to run away with it?"
With that the teacher threw on the table a knapsack, from the bag a bunch of Sarah's old clothes and a few supplied (like food and toiletries) spilled across the desk. She was so happy and proud that she had made the two guardians speechless. They both looked disbelieving at the child. That was until Sheriff Swan spoke up.
"Enough." She sounded calm, but it was a forced calm. "We thank you for your concern." She stood up, motioning for Sarah, Belle, and Gold to do the same.
"Sheriff Swan," Mrs. Lyne addressed her, "this is why I asked for you to be here. Even if Mr. Gold and Miss. French are not prepared to admit to Sarah's delinquency, you must be aware of it, and act accordingly."
Emma said nothing as the three others gathered Sarah's possessions, and left the room. Before leaving she turned back to the two educators.
"You people are idiots." Was all she said, before she too left; leaving them to wonder what had gone so wrong during the meeting.