Chapter three
Zelena pulled into the nearest parking space and glanced over her shoulder at the two younger girls sat in the backseat.
It has been four days since Emma had arrived in Storybrooke and Cora had decided that it was time that she left her little cocoon for something other than food or to use the bathroom.
When the mayor told her daughters that she wanted them to take Emma to the mall, they could tell that it was going against all of her instincts to not take her, but she obviously had to weigh this against the fact Emma would benefit from interacting with people her own age.
However, she still refused to hand over her credit card until the pair agreed that they would do everything that they could to make Emma feel comfortable.
Even if Cora had been more than thrilled to discover that Henry and Emma had seemingly bonded over comic books, she was determined that she needed to be better prepared for her first day at Storybrooke High School.
So far, their mother's orders were proving to be far more difficult than she had made them seem at the time.
Granted, Zelena was trying harder than her sister, since she had tried to ask her questions every so often as the car moved towards the mall, mostly about how her studies were going. It clearly wasn't helping since Emma was only giving one word answers.
Zelena was fairly confident that this was because of the presence of a certain brunette in the car. Regina had been basically been texting since she had walked downstairs to get to the car and judging by Emma's glances over to Regina, it was obviously doing noting to help them achieve what their mother had asked them to do.
It was for this reason that the older Mills quickly reached over to snatch the device out of her younger sister's hands, which earned her a look of complete and utter shock as if she had just committed an injustice.
"What the hell, Zelena?!" Regina exclaimed and made to reach forward to grab it back, but her sister shoved it into the glove compartment.
Emma looked up from her lap to watch the scene and she couldn't help but smirk just a little bit, which caused a triumphant grin to form on Zelena's face.
Regina glanced over to Emma and her anger almost disappeared at the adorable little smirk. Unfortunately, her sister wasn't the person who knew that she could possibly have a crush on a girl, so she had to try and remain as indignant as she was a moment ago.
"You can text Daniel later, Gina, mom said you have to get some school supplies for yourself anyway, so you should really be focused," Zelena explained.
"It isn't difficult to pick out some notebooks and pens," Regina huffed.
Zelena tried to take in a deep and calming breath as covertly as possible. She knew exactly what she wanted to say in that moment, but she couldn't very well announce 'stop ignoring Emma' as this would just make the girl withdraw further.
It was for this reason that she tried to give her the message silently, which obviously didn't work since Regina continued to look at her with her expression of indignation.
Zelena rolled her eyes and shot a look over to Emma to see if she was aware of what was happening. She relaxed a little when she just saw amusement playing across the teen's face. Obviously she must be used to this kind of thing, statistically she had probably been in a home with someone as self-absorbed as Regina before now. She just couldn't help but wish that her little sister could at least realise what she was doing wrong right now.
"You can have we back when we get back to the car," Zelena said resolutely and finally opened her car door.
Regina dramatically huffed while she did the same and Emma decided that she could just watch the moment for a few more seconds before she moved to do the same. She could clearly tell that Zelena was trying hard to make her feel comfortable, but she didn't understand that constantly asking someone questions was not the best way to do so. Of course, having people who tried too hard was much better than some of the alternatives that she had experienced in her life, so she really couldn't think of anything to complain about. Plus, in that moment, all she could actually think about was just how cute Regina looked when she was acting so childishly. She had a feeling that she wouldn't make a habit of acting this way when she wasn't in the presence of her family, especially not at school.
A moment passed and she used her good hand to reach over and let herself out to find Regina already standing next to her older sister, refusing to make eye contact with her as she crossed her arms, with the smallest of pouts.
Emma looked over to Zelena who was shooting daggers at her and she wondered just how long this could go on for.
Emma shifted from foot to foot for a second, and asked, "so...which way do we go?"
Regina tilted her head and looked over to the huge structure that was the mall, which was clearly the direction that they should go and she knew for a fact that Emma was smart enough to know that. Almost on instinct, she was about to make a sarcastic comment, but she quickly realised that the girl simply asked because she didn't want to spend her time awkwardly standing in a parking lot while she and Zelena silently argued over a phone that was so unfairly taken from her.
It was for this reason that the cheerleader attempted a genuine smile, despite the mood that her sister had put her in and she gestured towards the mall without making any comments.
Ten minutes of walking in silence later, the three of them stood in front of a map of the mall and Zelena asked, "do you have any preferences?"
Emma's eyes moved over the list and decided that she definitely hadn't heard of at least 50% of them, she'd never got to chose before. Not that she was ever ungrateful for anything that she was given. She would rather have hand-me-downs instead of nothing to wear.
"I'm…not sure," she admitted.
Regina took in a deep breath and Zelena shot her another dirty look before she looked back at the list and asked, "do you mind if we choose for you? I think I know what you would like..."
Emma wasn't quite sure why, but she felt her cheeks burn at Regina's words and she nodded, knowing that there was no way that she would be able to verbalise her consent without stuttering.
Zelena quirked an eyebrow and briefly wondered whether Regina had spent nearly enough time with Emma to know what she likes. In fact, she knew that her sister hadn't really seen the girl at any other times than at dinner and they certainly hadn't exchanged any words since the first day that Emma arrived.
Regina brought her bottom lip into her mouth in concentration as her eyes roamed over the list of stores and she kept glancing over at Emma at regular intervals.
"Okay I have an idea," she announced.
Without explaining further, she began to walk in the direction of her chosen store and Emma furrowed her brow curiously before she and Zelena moved to follow the cheerleader.
It wasn't long until the three of them were stood in front of Hot Topic and Zelena looked over to her sister questioningly while Emma inspected the clothing articles on display in the window. When Regina noticed Zelena's gaze, she shrugged and muttered, "she gives off a cute nerdy hipster vibe."
Zelena tilted her head at the use of the word 'cute'. She could logically see how it applied to Emma, but the way Regina had said it felt less like an acknowledgement of the obvious and more like she was a little in awe.
The older Mills turned to Emma to see if she had heard it, but the girl was too absorbed in what she was looking at. She appeared to be a little shocked, probably that Regina had actually chosen to the correct store.
A moment passed as they just stood there before Regina rolled her eyes and began to walk towards the entrance, "can we just get this over with?" she asked, gesturing towards the door, hoping that if she stayed in character then her sister would forget about the 'cute' comment, "I have other stuff to do today."
Emma turned and frowned, though she quickly pushed aside the feeling of disappointment. She knew that Regina was reluctant to spend time with her, but it didn't make her feel as dejected as she had when her foster siblings didn't want to spend time with her. She knew that it wasn't because she was the weird orphan girl, but rather it was because she was a socially-awkward dork who barely spoke. It was strange that she couldn't find it in herself to be insulted, but somehow having a cheerleader act such a way made her feel more normal than she could remember.
It was for this reason that she answered Regina's question by walking into the store.
Zelena frowned for a second, before she pulled Regina to follow Emma.
About five minutes later, Regina leaned against the wall and pretended to be interested in one of her nails and her older sister stood next to her with her arms crossed as her eyes flicked over to the blonde who was inspecting a t-shirt decorated with an image of Disney's Evil Queen.
"How much do we have to help her get?" Regina sighed, not looking away from her mail as she droned.
"I don't know..." Zelena replied with a shrug, "I'm pretty sure that she only has like five outfits...I'm guessing that she needs a lot, why? Do you have somewhere you need to be?"
"As a matter of fact, I'm meeting some people at the diner. You act like you want to spend your Saturday waiting for her to pick clothes..."
Zelena rolled her eyes and shook her head at the same time. She had never quite understood how Regina could find a way to be so rude all the time, while avoiding being a complete bitch. It wasn't as if she had actually done anything horrible to their new foster sister, but at the same time, it wasn't as if she had gone out of her way to make Emma feel welcome in their home.
"It isn't going to take that long, she doesn't really seem that picky," she replied as she turned her attention to Emma looking through a rack of clothes. The girl was smiling at whatever she was looking at, but it didn't escape her attention that Emma had yet to actually pick anything up.
"Stay here," she muttered, before she went over to the blonde.
Regina rolled her eyes deeply at her sister's back and continued to pretend to be interested in her nails, whilst Zelena actually went to pick stuff off the racks that she had noticed Emma looking at. She knew that it couldn't be easy to go into a new home and have complete strangers buy you things, but she was also slightly annoyed that the blonde was taking so long. It wasn't that she didn't want to help the girl, it was just that she couldn't see how her being there could possibly be at all helpful, Zelena seemed to better at that staff anyway. She had thought about going to talk to Emma over the past few days, but she stopped herself each time when she realised that she had nothing to say, it wasn't like constantly checking on her was going to make her feel more comfortable in the mansion, after all, she knew that she would go crazy if her mother came to talk to her as often as she did with Emma.
She ultimately decided that she could wait until she was the blonde's buddy to try and talk to her properly, not that she wanted to think about why the idea of talking to her made her throat constrict slightly. She had known that she was attracted to her the moment she had seen Emma cross the threshold of her home, but nothing had happened to make that initial crush fade. She had noticed Emma and Henry seemed to spend a lot of time together and she couldn't help but feel ridiculous for being jealous of her little brother. Just because he had something in common with Emma and had actually gone to talk to her about it, she was sure that she could go and have a conversation about Marvel if she really wanted to. So she decided that she would just try and maintain indifference until her crush faded, that was what usually happened when she met someone that she found attractive.
"Regina?"
Said girl finally looked up from her nail as she was pulled out of her thought and forced herself to stop covertly trying to look at Emma, before she turned around to see who had called her name. Though she had a sinking feeling that she knew exactly who the voice belonged to and she knew that this wouldn't bode well.
When her eyes met her fellow cheerleader's she shook her head and sighed, "Kathryn? Why are you here?"
Kathryn shrugged with a smirk playing across her lips as she looked at a random necklace and said, "I like this store..."
"So why have I never seen you wear anything from here?" Regina asked.
"Because..." Kathryn tried, but her friend cut her off with a raised hand.
"You saw me come in here with Emma, right?" she asked with a sigh.
"You know me so well," the other girl laughed as she came over to stand next to her friend, openly looking over to the rack where Zelena was showing Emma some jeans.
"She's kind of cute..."
Regina looked away as she swallowed hard and gave herself a couple seconds to hide her blush. She managed to will the crimson hue to disappear and she looked back at her friend and shrugged as she replied, "I guess so...I hadn't really noticed."
Kathryn raised an eyebrow at her for a second as she tried to figure out why her friend seemed to be so defensive. However, she quickly dropped it when she sensed two people approaching them.
Looking up, Kathryn smiled at the two people approaching encumbered by piles of clothes each, though the blond of the pair was clearly frowning at the amount.
A smile spread across the cheerleader's face and Regina resisted the urge to throw her head back and groan deeply.
"You must be Emma," Kathryn practically squealed, which caused the girl's eyes to widen as all of her muscles tenseat the same time.
Zelena looked at her sister's friend cautiously before she turned back to Regina with narrowed eyes. For a moment, she thought that Regina must have called her here, but it occurred to her that she had taken her phone and they hadn't known what store they were going to until after they left the car. Plus there was the fact that she was in no way surprised that Kathryn would find them just so that she could know the latest gossip.
"Hey Kathryn," Zelena said after a moment and with a very audible sigh.
Said girl offered the older Mills girl the smallest of nods, before she turned back to Emma with an expectant look.
Emma swallowed hard to moisten her throat.
She could practically feel anxiety seeping out of all of her pores as she mumbled, "yeah I am..."
"I've heard so much about you!" Kathryn exclaimed.
Emma raised her eyebrows and glanced at Regina who was shaking head in exasperation.
"Well not really," Kathryn admitted, "Regina was pretty stingy with the details."
Emma tilted her head and tried to figured out what Regina's death glare was supposed to mean. However, she decided that if had trouble figuring out what a smile meant most of the time, this situation was definitely out of her emotional capabilities.
It was for this reason that she just looked down at her feet, willing the girl to stop drawing attention to her.
"What happened to your arm?" Kathryn blurted out after a moment.
Zelena and Regina both gave her a withering look, but she didn't seem to notice.
Emma glanced at her casted arm and she opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out as her mind supplied her with images of what had actually happened. She took a couple deep breaths, as the psychiatrist at the hospital had told her to, and she looked back to her feet, hoping that the other teen would understand that she wasn't going to answer the question, or more accurately that she probably couldn't form words to described what happened.
Apparently, Kathryn didn't notice her inability to form words she shot off more questions, "where did you live before Storybrooke? Do you think it's weird that the mayor fostered you? Is it awful living with Regina?"
"Okay," Regina said louder than necessary and she grabbed her friend's forearm and added, "I think that's enough questions, Kath."
She pouted since she hadn't a single answer to the questions that some of the other cheerleaders had told her to ask. Sure they had the numerous news articles that they could read on the topic, but who was a better source to sate their curiosity than Emma herself.
Regina rolled her eyes and looked over to her sister as if asking for permission for what she was about to do.
Zelena nodded and she pulled her friend away, leaving her sister to finish shopping with Emma.
A/N Reviews are much appreciated :)