As the days go by, Grace and her father finally move into their new house. They held a housewarming gathering over the weekend to celebrate their new beginnings; things were going well. Surprisingly, Henry's mother showed up late, automatically grabbing everyone's attention. Everyone made their jokes about it; "the punctual Mayor showing up late to an event", but they were all smiles.
The night went on, Grace and Henry discussed their latest new edition to their relative collections and the adults spoke about adult things. Of course, nothing that really interests Henry.
It had been a couple of weeks since the housewarming party and a few of the adults were still discussing it. There were a lot of whispers around Henry but growing up as he has; two moms and now separated parents, he's learned to tune out the voices and ignore the faces.
It's been a while since everything had completely changed for Henry, but things have finally come to a reasonable, comfortable routine, which is necessary since everyone is starting to think about what school they want to attend next year. It's a little early in the year, but everyone has their friend groups they want to maintain, and they need the time to try and convince their parents to let them go.
It was lunch time when Henry and Grace were able to talk about where they wanted to go. They had both brought their lunch today, they had taken a few bites before they started talking.
"So do you know where you want to go next year?" Grace asked first.
Henry finishes what was in his mouth before he answers. "Well my parents want me to go to Silver Cove Academy, but I heard that Central College Prep has a really good internship with their local publishers. Aaaand, I looked it up, and they have one of the best art programs." Henry looks around before he pulls out his phone and starts showing Grace the screenshots he saved of the school's website. Pointing out his favorite parts of their campus, the art show they have every year, and reads off interesting articles from their newsletters. Grace engages in the topic of the photos and the articles, but when Henry finishes his info-dumping on the school, Grace goes a little quiet for a moment before speaking.
"It looks really cool, but…it's a little too big for me." Grace shrugs her shoulders, turns back to her lunch, and continues. "I guess I just got used to being in a small town. I never really liked going into the city." Grace goes quiet.
"Oh." Henry also goes quiet for a moment before saying, "Ok, then what about…" Henry rattles his brain thinking about the other schools he researched. "Boscastle High? They only have about 230 graduating seniors each year, they have the option for their students to attend an art class at the community college each week."
Grace remains quiet for a little while longer before she starts to talk again, never turning back to Henry. "I was looking into that school, but you don't have to switch schools for me Henry, we could still see each other on the weekends and after school." This is when Grace finally looks up to see the expression on Henry's face and what she saw was nothing more than a general expression. During their innocent stare down, Henry was thinking. He wanted to make sure his next words didn't upset Grace or send her into her usual spiel of convincing Henry to leave her behind in some way. But after what felt a little too long, Henry couldn't think of anything, all he ended up saying was, "Well we still have a while before we decide." The two go back to their lunches, talking about their other interests instead.
When you begin to have issues with your relationships, most people would turn toward friends and family, but for Henry, those two aren't really an option. To start, the relationship he's having an issue with is with his only real friend and his parents are going through their own issues. So, his only option left is to go to professional help. The small town of Storybrook only had two therapists: Dr. Hopper and Dr. Garcia. With so many options who should Henry choose, but in actuality, this decision was quite a difficult one. He could go to Hopper to ask a few quick questions, no official appointment and he would be glad to help, he's known Henry since the day he was born and it would be extremely easy to talk to him, but on the same side of that coin, would Dr. truly be unbiased about the advice he gives. Until a little over a year ago, Dr. Hopper was the only therapist around, and gossip being the favorite pastime of the town, it was impossible to not know practically everything there was to know about a person, which is why Dr. Garcia would likely be better. He wouldn't know all the secrets about his family and townsfolk, leaving the advice he'd give more specifically for what Henry would tell him and less about what he already knows about the young boy, but more importantly, less likely feeling comfortable going to one of his parents about what they discussed.
Henry spent another week going over the high schools in the city, trying to decide which Grace would like more. Thinking ever so often about which school her father would want her to go to, he would surely know better than Henry, but by the end of the weekend Henry decided to rest the search for a while, he was getting nowhere and overthinking everything.
Henry closed the laptop his mother let him borrow for his search and headed back downstairs. Emma was in the kitchen area leaning on the island going through her phone, whatever she was looking at had her really contemplating something because her face was contorted in all sorts of ways. When she looked up to see Henry headed towards the refrigerator. "Did you finally the 'perfect' school of your dreams?" Henry takes a swig of the water he grabbed, sighing through his nose.
"Couldn't say I have, but you know me, I never turn from a challenge." The usual excitement in solving a puzzle wasn't in his response this time though. Henry heads over to the couch and grabs the Xbox controller, choosing his favorite first-person shooter just as Emma plops herself down right next to him, grabbing the other controller.
In the following days, the topic of high school wasn't brought up again, nor did Henry continue his search for one. He had other things on his mind that he wanted to get through and over with.
Grace Madder has always been a quiet child. Even as a newborn she never cried as much as one would expect as a new life in the world. She would keep to herself a lot growing up, being the easy one to pick on out of her peers, it was what she preferred. But at home, she was the opposite. Despite her minimal number of friends or peer interaction, she always had something she was excited to talk about with her parents; they were her best friends. Her parents owned a small business, so they were home majority of the time, always there for their daughter, it was perfect for them. Grace never cared much for what the other students were saying about her, she never really looked for their approval, until middle school. A couple of years after Priscilla had passed and Jefferson had to make the hard decision to place his business on hold and work a regular job, Grace began to actually feel alone.
Being the quiet type, she was easily overlooked and therefore heard and observed a lot of what was going on. Which secrets weren't kept between best friends, who didn't go to whose birthday party, why someone was crying in the bathroom. She knew more about her classmates than she cared about. But it was a regular day for Grace when Peter was being Peter and started another fight with a student. Most days it's just him and whomever he decided to pick on, but today, in the list of people in trouble that day included Henry, "the mayor and sheriff's kid". Anyone who decided to pay the slightest attention to Henry thought this to be quite the surprise, and those who didn't, didn't think too much of it, thinking him being the mayor and sheriff's kid meant he'd never get in trouble, but that was proven wrong when he was included in the suspension, although for only one day, compared to Peter's 3.
With no one brave enough to face the evil mayor and the mighty sheriff, Grace had decided to be the one to hand Henry his missed schoolwork. Hearing all the rumors throughout the school, she's learned to figure out which were true, and who is more likely telling the truth; most of the ones about Henry and his family were ridiculous and mostly just plain rude, so she saw no harm in helping him out (although she reluctantly said yes to giving Peter his work). Having never been on this part of town before, she never really had expectations, but she remembers thinking how large their house looked while still seeming moderate. It was Henry who had opened the door, his right eye swelled nearly shut and a dark circle forming. Not much was said that day, Grace handed over his work, Henry thanked her, and she had left, that was a Friday. It was Monday when Henry wanted to give Grace another thank you, during homeroom, where Grace is usually in her sketch book, she was in the middle of finishing a forgotten drawing when Henry had walked up to her. He was caught mid-sentence when he was admiring her work. His 'thank you' turned quickly turned into a compliment, surprising the young girl, no one really paid much attention to what she was actually drawing, let alone find it good enough to compliment on it, but it seems like that was the starting point in getting her to engage in a conversation. Henry pulled a seat next to her and they began talking about all the notebooks and sketch books they've each filled up with their writing and drawings, nearly missing the bell to get to their next class. From there they would talk about their most recent project each morning, then during lunch, after school, and before they realized, they had formed a friendship, despite Peter's jokes.
Grace had found her a best friend she could talk to when her dad was away and when she would miss her mom. Henry was the friend she needed and the one her dad wanted her to find, but for Grace, finding something this important to her made her timid, afraid to lose it all again, and for good. She was worried about the same thing as Henry, although neither of them spoke of it. She was afraid to find out what would happen if they did go to different schools. Would they still be as close, would Henry find new friends, better friends? In fear of them drifting apart, but not wanting to hold Henry back, Grace decided to just tell Henry her dislike for large schools instead of just telling him not to worry about her and just go to Central. She knew Henry well enough to know that he would put all his effort and time into finding them the perfect school if that had been what she said, and she knows she has to eventually, but figuring out how was going to be tough.