A/N Sorry for the long wait and also sorry for this probably being bad and that it's short...I lost inspiration and this is hopefully my way of being able to write more of this in the future. Please feel free to send me scene ideas that you would like to see since that would probably help with a quicker update.
Chapter five
Regina sighed as she made her way to the lunch table.
Ever since the whole mall fiasco, she hadn't really interacted much with Emma and it was actually beginning to bother her. She was still trying to put aside the thought that it was because she didn't like how much time Henry was spending with their new foster sister. It just wasn't fair that he seemed to so easily build a relationship with the girl just because of comic books.
As she thought this through, she hadn't even noticed her friends were bickering rather loudly at the table. Kathryn was desperately trying to type something into her phone, but Ruby was also trying to grab the device out of her hands.
"Stop it," Ruby growled as she tried to get through the blonde's raised arm.
"This is important!"
Regina raised her eyebrow at them and watched them continue to bicker for a moment, before she cleared her throat to get their attention.
"What are you doing?" she asked with a frown.
Kathryn swallowed hard when she saw the brunette. The rant she had received after the incident at the mall made it clear that she needed to stop being an insensitive bitch and she was sure that what she was trying to do in that moment fell under that category.
"Well…you wouldn't tell me what happened to Emma, so I thought that I would just see what came up on Google, but Ruby won't let me…"
"Because it is a complete invasion of privacy, how would you feel if your worst life experience was online for everyone to read about?" Ruby defended.
"I would know that people are probably going to read it and prepare myself for it."
"No, you would turn into an emotional wreck and ask how you can have something taken off Google!" Ruby retorted.
"I'm not that stupid," Kathryn pouted.
Regina sighed and fell into the seat opposite the pair and resisted the urge to rub her temples. She really wished that Kathryn's obsession with the new girl would fade, but she could see that when something new happened in such a small town, there was no way that anyone would be able to get over it until they knew practically every detail.
"I didn't tell you anything because I don't know anything. I would have told you anything to stop what happened at the mall…"
"You're overreacting, it wasn't that bad," the blonde replied while rolling her eyes.
"You terrified her," Regina said through gritted teeth. She was just so happy that Zelena had decided to not tell anyone about what had happened, but she still had yet to actually try and apologise to Emma and she knew that it was because she was slightly afraid to talk to her for whatever reason.
"Exactly," Ruby inputted, "you've already done enough to her, you could at least have the common decency to not Google her!"
"So you're telling me that you're not even the slightest bit curious about what happened to the girl you are now living with, Regina?"
The brunette bit the inside of her cheek and looked down at her food. She had of course wondered on more than one occasion what happened that had allowed her mother to hear about a foster child from another state. Plus, the broken arm was a constant reminder that it couldn't be anything good. There was a part of her that was actually afraid to hear what could have possibly happened to such a sweet and beautiful girl. Regina's eyes slightly as that thought occurred to her and she quickly looked between the other two to see if either of them noticed the slight hue of blush that was forming across her cheeks.
"I'm sure that it isn't something she wants to talk about," she said after a moment of silence, "and it isn't as if we're close or anything. We've exchanged maybe a few sentences since she's arrived."
Ruby frowned at her. She could never understand how Regina could seem to be considerate in one breath and then inconsiderate in another. There was obviously something holding her back from simply trying to even talk to the new girl and she was sure that it didn't have anything to do with her status in the social pecking order. Even if Emma was a dork, Regina was popular enough that she could basically decree that the new blonde was popular.
"Do you think that's something that should change?" Ruby asked, while she took the opportunity to reach across the table to snatch Kathryn's phone from her clutches.
The blonde opened her mouth to protest, but the brunette next to her held up her hand to tell her that she wouldn't be getting her phone back until she agreed to stop it.
Regina sighed and shrugged, "I suppose that I will have to interact with her when she starts school…"
"And don't you think that she would be more comfortable if you actually made an effort before then?"
Regina just shrugged again and pretended to be suddenly absorbed by her food, "I guess," she mumbled.
Ruby shook her head in exasperation but quickly turned her attention to slapping Kathryn's hand away.
"What are you doing?"
Regina jumped slightly and looked over her shoulder to see her sister staring at her judgementally.
"Nothing," she replied quickly, before she slammed her laptop shut and turned her desk chair fully around so that she could look at the older girl.
Zelena quirked an eyebrow at her and walked further into the room so that she could close the door behind her.
"Really? Because it looked like you typed 'Emma Swan' into Google," the red-head said with narrowed eyes.
"I…" Regina began, but she decided quickly that there was no way that she would be getting out of this, "I didn't press search," she sighed.
The older of the two frowned at the guilty expression on her face and asked, "why not?"
"Well…I really want to know what happened to her…but don't you think that it's kind of an invasion of privacy? And the news isn't going to have the whole story…"
"And what brought this on?" Zelena frowned while she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Kathryn was trying to search for her what happened to her at lunch but Ruby wouldn't let her. She said that it would be an invasion of privacy and that it isn't fair that her worst life experience has to be online for anyone to read about…"
Zelena raised her eyebrows as her sister spoke. The younger Mills was clearly conflicted about the whole ordeal and she couldn't help but feel some pride. The captain of the Stoyrbrooke High Cheerleaders tended to like people to think that she didn't care about anything or anyone, especially if it involved hurting someone's feelings. She was sure that if there was some embarrassing information about another student online, then she wouldn't have even wasted a single second in typing their name into Google.
"So are Kathryn and Ruby your consciences or something?"
Regina frowned but shrugged when she couldn't think of any objection to the comparison.
"Then you know exactly who you should listen to?" Zelena asked.
"I think the answer to the question is to always listen to Ruby…but what if Kathryn is right? Emma might expect people to already know what happened to her which would mean that she would never want to talk about it…and if she doesn't talk about it then she would never deal with it…"
Zelena's eyes widened and she quickly held up her hands to silence the brunette, "wow, okay calm down, Gina," she said quickly. "It isn't your job to be her shrink and if she never wants to utter a word about what happened to her to any of us, then that's up to her. But if she does want to talk about it, or anything else, then it's our job to make sure that she would actually want to go to one of us. Instead of obsessing, don't you think that you should just try and make friends with her?"
Regina flopped back against her chair and let out a deep sigh, "and how am I supposed to do that?"
"Stop treating her like she's an intrusion and maybe actually say more than one sentence to her. And when she gets her cast off and goes to school, don't pretend that you don't know her just because you want to look like you're cool."
"I've said more than one sentence to her," the brunette protested and crossed her arms across her chest petulantly.
"About shopping, but I'm pretty sure that the whole Kathryn bombshell ruined any possible bonding…"
The younger sister nodded and looked down at her lap. Zelena was making complete sense but it was easier said than done. Henry had bonded with their new foster sister almost instantly and she couldn't help but wonder whether she had missed out. She had no idea what their common ground was, so it wasn't particularly easy to start a random conversation that wouldn't be incredibly awkward.
"Why are you in my room anyway?" Regina asked as the thought suddenly occurred to her and she realised exactly where they were talking.
"I need a pen," the red-head shrugged and leaned forward to grab one from the desk.
"And you didn't knock?"
"I couldn't hear any music so I assumed that you were either studying or up to something nefarious…"
The younger sister rolled her eyes. There was no way that she would able to deal with Zelena's unwillingness to knock and she was rather happy that she had just walked in and stopped her from doing something that she would have most certainly regretted. Especially if she and Emma did eventually become friends.
"So what am I supposed to do now?" Regina asked almost pleadingly. She knew that there was nothing that she could do right now since Cora had taken Emma for another meeting with Mr Gold for a progress report on how she had been doing. She was sure that it was just a formality since it was rather strange to allow students to home school themselves for two weeks and her mother had been rather worried about the fact that the blonde teen had very little experience at Storybrooke High. Then again, Cora had been rather worried about almost everything concerning Emma since she had arrived and Regina felt a pang of guilt when she realised that she hadn't been very helpful in her mother's pursuit to make Emma happy.
Honestly, she had no idea why she had been acting like such a bitch; especially after she had met Emma. She was just so sweet and pretty and adorably awkward. As she realised that she had allowed her thoughts to drift again, the teen flushed slightly forced herself to look up at her sister for her reply.
Zelena shrugged, "that's something for you to figure out, I can't just tell you how to make friends with her…"
"Is that because you haven't made friends with her?" Regina asked with a quirked eyebrow.
The red head shrugged again, "I never thought that we would be best friends, we're not exactly in the same age range."
"Henry isn't in her age range either and he's the one who spends the most time with her…"
"But he talks to Emma and they both like comic books…you used to like comic books right? Before you went all air-head cheerleader."
Regina rolled her eyes in exasperation, "I'm not ten anymore, I just grew out of them."
"Keep telling yourself that," Zelena chuckled, "but if you want to find some common ground before you attempt talking to her then you know exactly who you need to talk to…"
"You expect me to go to Henry and ask him to tell me everything that he knows about her?"
"It's that or go for the awkward conversation route," the older of the two chuckled before she began taking steps towards the door. "Just to warn you, you probably won't be getting this pen back."
With that, Zelena disappeared through the door and Regina shook her head to try and get passed the weirdness of her sister. She was sure that she should probably be used to it by now and she felt as though she couldn't really complain.
Turning back to her computer, she took a deep breath and opened the lid so that she could go onto Amazon. Henry would need some incentive for helping her and she was sure that a certain Spiderman would get her exactly the information that she wanted.
A/N Reviews would be very much appreciated :) and once again sorry for the quality issues with this fic so far.
