Regina was on the corridor when out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Nottingham, smiling smugly as he opened his locker. She ground her teeth together and watched as he leant into it to find something, suddenly she couldn't help herself and before she could stop, her legs were on the move, she grabbed the door to his locker and slammed it into him before turning and walking away again. She knew that to fight violence with violence was never the answer, but she hadn't been able to resist the temptation. It was nothing compared to what he had done to Robin and probably didn't even hurt that much.
"What the fuck?!" She heard him yell and continued to walk calmly down the corridor heading towards her next lesson. She knew that everyone's eyes were on her but she couldn't care less, they could stare all they wanted and if Keith was going to start something she was quite happy to give them a show. "Slutty Mills! What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
She took a deep breath still walking, Robin was off school because of that jerk, he'd beaten him so badly that he daren't even show his face in lessons and it was taking every inch of strength she had not to just turn around and hit this guy.
"Why don't you stop," he growled grabbing her arm and pulling her backwards. Well then maybe it was show time, she whipped around her eyes piercing into his, the anger burning hot.
"Let go of my arm you pathetic bastard," she grit out.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" He snapped literally throwing her arm back at her, obviously because he was aware of everyone watching.
"You, you're what's wrong with me, in fact you repulse me," she seethed, "who the hell do you think you are? Do you think just because you have some stupid jock status you can hurt people? Both physically and mentally? Because if you do you're sorely mistaken. I'm going to warn you once and once alone. You stay the fuck away from me and you most certainly stay the fuck away from Robin Locksley. Otherwise I promise I will end you and you won't play for another team, ever," she finished with a smug smile, before turning to leave him stood there in the corridor as the rest of her students clapped her.
"Oh, go fuck your nerdy boyfriend."
She simply turned her head and rose her eyebrows with a less than innocent smile on her face before pushing the door open to her classroom. She sat at her desk and took a deep breath before letting out a relieved laugh, so Keith Nottingham liked to pray on people when he didn't have an audience but as soon as there was one he became a pathetic coward, really though, that was what he was anyway. He was just an arsehole who thought the only way to prove his manly status was to hurt people.
She had a feeling that wasn't the end of the argument, but for now she had her upper hand and she didn't plan on losing it any time soon.
Regina hurried down the street, she really needed to get to the bakery before it closed at five o'clock and apparently the only parking spot had been a ten minute walk down the road, unfortunately for her it was already five to five. Her legs burnt as she sprinted as fast as she could, glad for her decision to throw her hair up in a bun before she got out. She swore she had never ran so quickly in her entire life, but she had a perfectly valid reason for running so fast.
Rounding the corner, she saw the woman put the closed sign on the door and knocked anyway, giving the woman a pleading look, she rolled her eyes before opening the door, "you're lucky it's you, young lady, I don't open special for anyone you know."
"Thanks," she breathed, trying to catch her breath as she rested her hands on her knees and looked up at the woman, a tall blonde who grinned at her, clearly finding it funny that Regina had just had to run the entire way.
"So, I take it someone is in desperate need of a sugar fix?"
"No actually, it's not for me, it's for my friend, he was involved in an accident and I want to cheer him up," she smiled as she leant against the counter, looking at what was left.
"Well then honey, I can give you anything you want half off, it'd only have to be thrown away."
"Thank you," she chuckled, "well then I suppose I'll have one of everything you have, then an extra brownie and strawberry tart please." It had only been in that moment when she was looking into the cabinet that she realised she didn't actually know what Robin's favourite dessert was, in fact she didn't know much personal stuff. They were study buddies and so far, they had shared minimal information about their lives. Hopefully she could change that, she had a feeling that he needed a friend and maybe she needed one more than she thought.
"Okay then," the woman nodded as she began to put them into boxes.
"Thanks Ingrid," Regina bit down on her lip before taking her phone out of her pocket and texting her mother that she might be late home, not that it would matter. Her mother was probably not at home anyway, it was a very rare occasion that she got back before eight, she usually found something to keep her at the office. Still, she knew that he mother appreciated knowing what was going on, she didn't like to be left in the dark without a clue as to where he daughter was.
After that she took her purse from her pocket and got some money from it, trying to work out how much it would be. Once they were all in boxes and then placed in a bag, she paid the baker and left the store. There was one last thing she needed to get before she dropped in to see Robin.
Regina nervously padded up the pathway towards his front door, it had already taken her about fifteen minutes to actually get out of her car and through the little wooden gate at the front of the lawn, what if he thought she was crazy or wanted to be alone. She tried to push all those thoughts aside and think about how she would react if she were in his position and he surprised her, she would be quite over the moon.
With one last deep breath she rose her hand and knocked on the door, waiting for someone to answer, she saw a figure behind the fogged glass and closed her eyes, she was nervous and she didn't like feeling like that.
Before she could even think about what to say the door was opening to reveal a woman with dark blonde hair similar to Robin's stood there. "Can I help you?" She asked, wiping her hands on the flowery apron she was wearing.
"Hello, I'm Regina Mills and I'm here to see Robin if that's not too much trouble," she smiled, cringing on the inside at how formal that sounded.
The woman looked her up and down for a moment before nodding, Regina couldn't help but feel slightly judged, that was until a large smile broke out onto the woman's face, "how lovely of you dear, I'm sure Robin would love some company. Between you and me, he's been sulking all day, not that I can blame him poor lad having that done to him. Boys are cruel."
"Yes, they are," Regina nodded tucking her hair behind her ear, "hopefully I'll be able to cheer him up. I scarcely know what to do with myself anymore not when he's not around for our revision sessions," it was the truth, there had been cheer practice that night but she hadn't been interested in going, she just gave Kathryn the ideas for the routine and told her to run everyone through it. She couldn't concentrate, all she wanted to do was go see Robin and make sure that he would be okay.
"Oh, you're the young lady that Robin is tutoring, he's mentioned you a few times actually. I'll show you to his room," she nodded as she led her down the corridor towards the stairs.
Regina slipped her shoes off and followed the woman, taking the opportunity to look around the house a little, it wasn't as modern as her own, but in no way, was it old fashioned, it was nice and homely, exactly how she would imagine his house to be. They arrived at the door to his bedroom and stopped, "well, here we are, just call me if you need anything," she stated knocking on the door, "Robin, visitor for you," the woman called out before turning around and leaving in the direction they had just come from.
"Visitor? What visitor?" the door opened as his eyes went wide when he saw her stood there, "Regina… hi… um… what are you doing here?" he asked, pushing his glasses up a little bit as he leant against the doorway holding his side. It was still aching, once he got home and his mother saw him, she had practically dragged his ass to the ER, something that turned out to be completely pointless because they only told him what he had already known, that he had bruised ribs and should try and ice them regularly. He'd been instructed not to over excerpt himself or do any strenuous activities, not that he planned to in the slightest, in fact that was the last thing he had in mind.
"I thought I'd come see how you were doing," she smiled, "can I come in or are you very secretive about your man cave?"
"No come in."
"You're not a secret hoarder then," she chuckled as he moved from the door, allowing her to actually step into his room, she moved over to sit on his bed, placing the bags she had brought with her down on the floor.
"Not unless you count books, I have hundreds of them," he laughed shyly as he moved wobblily back over to his bed where he had been pretty much all day trying to actually do any work he knew he would be missing.
"Where are they then?" she furrowed her eyebrows, she couldn't see any books.
"Ah," he picked up something from the side and tossed it across the room at a panel on the far wall. All of a sudden it began moving, turning around to reveal a huge book case.
"Whoa, that's super cool," she breathed, standing from the bed and moving over to it, "did you make this?" she asked in wonder.
"Yeah, it's quite simple once you work out how leavers and stuff like that work, it was kind of a hobby of mine for a while," he shrugged looking down feeling somewhat embarrassed, that probably sounded completely uncool.
"Well I for one think it's amazing, I want one," she chuckled looking at some of the books on the shelf seeing that they were categorised and in alphabetical order. "Neat freak?"
"Maybe a little," he smirked looking up at her, so what if he had a small case of OCD, at least he didn't leave his stuff everywhere, he liked to be able to find things when he needed them. "So, how come you're here? I thought you had practice tonight."
"What is this, twenty questions?" she rolled her eyes before turning back to him and moving so that she could bounce onto the bed by his side, "I just didn't feel like practice tonight and you know I was really wanting to watch another episode of Outlander," she shrugged.
"You do know we should probably study some since you're here," they had already missed a session the day before and he knew that she would need to get as many in as possible if she wanted to get the grades she needed.
She sighed and rolled her eyes, "you're no fun," she moaned as she tilted her head at him before giving in, "fine, we'll study."
"I'm only thinking of you," Robin stated, standing up to her.
"I know," she smiled, "just like I was thinking of you when I brought these," she picked up the bags of cakes and began taking out the boxes, all except the one with the brownie and strawberry tart.
He watched her in confusion, has she actually brought him cake? No one had ever done that before, hell no one had even come over to his house before, she was the first one and he really liked having her there, "you brought cake?"
"Yep, I didn't know what you liked so I figured I would just get one of everything, that way I couldn't exactly go wrong could I?" she urged him to pick out some of the cakes as she did so herself and leant back against the head rest. She found her notes and everything she would need to revise before turning to look at him briefly, seeing that he was watching her yet again. She winked at him playfully, laughing as she chucked her notes at him, "now you, help me revise, you don't think I'm paying you with cakes for nothing do you?"
"I thought you wanted to watch Outlander."
"I do, but I think you are right, we should definitely do some work first, Claire and Jamie will wait for us."
It was almost another week before Robin came back to school, so every night she had been going to his house so they could revise together and get work done. She was also bringing him his class work that he had missed so he was able to keep up to date, her friends seemed to be getting more and more suspicious about what she was doing. She hadn't exactly told them she was going to Robin's house, but she'd been cancelling plans left right and centre.
She hadn't been turning up to practice and had missed yet another game, in fact she had been bailing on all her extra-curricular activities in favour of going to lessons and really trying to listen, creating her notes in a way that Robin had told her would help and he had been right. If someone had suggested to her drawing her notes before Robin showed her, she would have said it was crazy, but she was finding it really helped, seemingly she was more visual and couldn't remember things from words alone.
Today she decided that she was going to have to tell Robin that she wouldn't be able to revise, she knew she had to give something back to her cheer team otherwise they were going to go crazy at her, she needed to go to practice, make sure they knew their routine before the game on Friday, something she also planned on turning up to. She hated to have to bail on Robin, she felt really bad doing it, she shouldn't do, but she'd found herself becoming more and more connected to him, she loved spending time with him.
"Regina! You actually turning up to practice today?" Emma called as she made her way down the corridor towards her, "because I can't speak for everyone else, but you not turning up is having an adverse effect on the team, we really aren't managing and Kathryn can't teach for toffee."
"Don't worry, I'm coming," she smiled, grabbing her cheer uniform from her locker and walking in step with Emma towards the girl's locker room. They were just passing the library when Regina stopped, "one second there is something I have to do."
"I'll come with," Emma offered her a shrug in response.
"Fine," Regina replied, she was being very cautious because she didn't want people to know how close she was to Robin, mainly because she was scared that would start more rumours and get Robin hurt again, that wasn't going to happen because of her, she wouldn't let him get hurt because of her. She pushed the door open and headed inside, "you can wait here if you want, I'll be like two secs," she dropped her bag in Emma's arms before heading down one of the aisles she knew Robin sat down. "Hey you," she chuckled walking towards him, she was getting to know his habits rather well, she knew where he was going to be at certain times and right now she had been totally right.
"Hey, Regina," he nodded, glancing up from his book and straightening the tie that was tucked under his jumper.
"You look like a professor today," she half giggled as she slid down to sit beside him.
"Really?" he laughed, "well, my mother made me try it on and wouldn't let me take it off so here I am."
"It's kinda sexy," she confessed without thinking too much about it, her fingers moving to push his glasses up a little, skimming over his cheek as she did so. She cleared her throat awkwardly when she realised that her actions had him swallowing and looking totally nervous, "sorry, I came to tell you that I won't be at revision tonight, I have practice for Friday's game, which also means I won't be able to attend revision then either, sorry."
"Don't worry, you can catch up at some point I'm sure of it," he shrugged feeling a little disappointed, he liked to see her, but obviously she couldn't help it if she had practice she was head cheerleader, she was expected to turn up and he knew she hadn't been doing, "I supposed I'll talk to you later then."
"Yes, maybe I could come over after practice?" she smiled, looking down at the carpet they were sat on, "I could bring some pizza or something, or you could even come over to my place if that would be better."
He glanced up at her, seeing the hopeful look on her face, he felt mean to turn her down, but knew he should, "I'm sure you'd rather hang out with your friends, I mean you haven't had much time with them of late and you know… you'd probably rather be with them anyway wouldn't you."
She couldn't stop the smile on her face from faltering as she cleared her throat, "okay then, yeah, that's fine," she was disappointed, she knew she shouldn't be, he was only her tutor after all, but she couldn't help how she felt and what she did feel was disheartened. She wanted to spend her time with him, not with her friends, she didn't know what that meant, but it made her feel nervous. Regina pushed herself up off the ground and dusted herself off, "I suppose I will see you later."
"Yeah, catch you later," he forced a smile, why had he said no? What was he playing at, she wanted to spend her time with him and he had just completely shut it down, rejected her and he felt awful she was the only friend he had.
"See ya," she sighed heading off back towards the exit and taking her bag from Emma who was stood looking rather puzzled, she had a feeling that Emma, like her had never been in the library before either. "Thanks," she huffed before moving out of the place, slamming the door behind her.
"Whoa, what's up?"
"Nothing, let's just go to practice shall we," she didn't want to think about it. It probably meant that he didn't like her, he probably thought she was too dumb to hang out with as a friend and that all she should be was a girl he was tutoring. She really hoped that wasn't the truth.
Practice went well, but Emma had been right, the girls had lost motivation and any co-ordination so it had taken a lot of work on Regina's part to get them back in order in time for Friday's game. By the time they had left the school though, the routine was just about nailed, she felt as though she could rest a little easier, even if she couldn't get Robin out of her head, she wanted to see him again.
"You coming to Granny's Regina," Ruby asked, swinging her kit bag over her shoulder as she locked her locker behind her.
"Is everyone going?"
"Yeah I think so, we miss you, you don't seem to hang out as much anymore."
"Sorry, I just haven't really been feeling like it lately, not when the guys always seem to turn up, I can't be dealing with their bullshit," she sighed, the last person she wanted to run into was Nottingham, especially after what she had done to him the week before, apparently, he had been raging against her, something she didn't mind, but she just didn't want to look at his disgustingly smug face.
Ruby rose a singular eyebrow, "which one was it now?"
"All of them, they are all just so…" she trailed off as she spotted the guy who seemed to haunt her thoughts 24/7 stood by his locker talking to someone, a girl. "I can't," she shook her head, "sorry Rubes, I would have loved to come but I don't really think…"
"You better bloody be coming to Granny's," Kathryn scoffed loudly, "you need to quit all this shit and come out with your friends."
Regina wasn't really listening to her, instead she was staring over her shoulder, watching as the girl placed her hand on his shoulder. Her eyes involuntary narrowed, was that why he didn't want to hang around with her? Because he already had a girlfriend? If he did he'd kept awfully quiet about it and never bloody saw her, she'd never seen that girl before in her life.
"Are you even listening to a word I'm saying to you?"
"No, course she isn't, she's too busy being jealous over the girl who's making a move on her lover boy," Tink teased, seeming to appear from nowhere as she nudged Regina, bringing her out of her daydream.
"Sorry what is it that you were saying?"
"Granny's?"
"Yes, okay, but there is just one thing I need to do first, wait here for me?"
"Sure," they nodded talking amongst each other as she made her way over to where Robin was standing talking to the blonde. She took a deep breath before straightening up and adjusting her hair.
"Robin!" she called out, almost bounding over to him, seeing the girl who had been with him take a step back as she wrapped an arm around his, "hi."
"Hello," Robin chuckled as he looked at her, seemingly his rejection of her plans earlier hadn't knocked her back, something he was grateful for because he had been really worried that he hurt her by saying no, she'd looked deflated and he couldn't blame her, he was quite sure he would have been if he had been the one who was rejected by her. "How was practice?"
"Great thank you, I hope you managed without me at our revision session, I really hate that I had to miss it," she sighed as she played with the button on the shirt cuff that was sticking out of his jumper, "I promise that I will make it up to you." She was trying her best to block out the woman, she knew it was rude, but she didn't even want to acknowledge her presence, maybe she would after she'd said her piece. "In fact, do you want to come to the game tomorrow night?"
Robin raised his eyebrows at her, he'd never been to the game before and wasn't really one for sport like that, he didn't think that he would like it all that much. Not only that, but the game stands were usually inhabited by a load of populars, "I'm not all that into sports," he stated before even thinking about it, he saw hurt flash over her face and immediately regretted his answer, she'd wanted him there and yet again he'd gone and put his foot in it.
"Okay, well then, even if you don't come for the sport, you could come and see my routine," she smiled hopefully, she didn't know if she could take yet another rejection from him, "if not for my routine, they sell hot dogs," she was really clutching at straws, she just wanted him there. "Will you come? Please?"
"Sure," he chuckled, nodding his head, "I would love to come and see your routine… but you know I think it was the hot dog that sold it for me."
"Jerk," she laughed nudging him playfully as she turned her head to look at the girl, deciding that it was probably time she actually acknowledged her, "hello, sorry I have been awfully rude."
"Don't worry about it," the girl rose one eyebrow at Robin before turning back to Regina, "I'm glad to see my big brother is making friends," she chuckled and Regina felt her insides shrivel up, she had been so rude and it had been his sister! His bloody sister! In fact now she looked at her properly she did looked extremely young, in fact she was probably a freshman.
"Regina Mills," she smiled, introducing herself. She could feel Robin vibrating next to her, clearly trying to keep his laughter at bay. How was she supposed to know that she was his sister, she clearly hadn't been around whilst she had been over at his place, either that or she had and Regina just hadn't seen her, which was unlikely.
"Poppy Locksley," she half giggled, "so, are you my brother's girlfriend?"
"I…"
"No, she's not my girlfriend Poppy," Robin excused, the last thing he needed was her going spouting off to his mother that Regina was his girlfriend, he knew her rules would be a hell of a lot stricter if she thought they were dating. She probably wouldn't even let them go into his room, never mind go in there with the door shut. They could hardly watch Outlander with the door open couldn't they?!
"Are you actually ever going to get a girlfriend Robin? Or do girls just not like you?"
"Hey, I like him," Regina smiled, tucking her hair behind her ear as she swallowed heavily, "he's a good friend."
"You're really pretty, are you a cheerleader?"
"Regina is head cheerleader," Robin stated proudly as he looked at her.
"That's cool! I think I want to be a cheerleader when I'm a senior."
"Great! Well you could always try out," Regina nodded, she might be over compensating, but she felt guilty and needed to be really nice to his sister not that she wouldn't be anyway, but she'd been totally jealous and she… jealous? Is that what she had been? She almost gasped out loud at the realisation, she was jealous thinking that Robin liked another girl, that he liked someone who wasn't her. "Hopefully I will see you both tomorrow then?" At Robin's confused expression she chuckled and shook her head, "at the game?"
"Oh yeah! Sure… urm, you want me to bring her?"
"Why not," Regina shrugged, "do you want to come Poppy?"
"Sure! I'd love to come," she squealed eagerly. Regina guessed that not only was it Robin's first game, it was Poppy's too and although she might want Robin to herself, she could share him with his sister.
"Great…"
"Regina come on!" Kathryn yelled, "quit flirting and get moving!"
Regina turned her head and glared at her before turning to Robin, "sorry about that, we're going to Granny's. I'll see you tomorrow, bye Poppy, it was nice meeting you."
"You too, and don't worry I won't tell anyone that you like my brother," she giggled before hurrying off in the direction of the entrance.
Regina felt her cheeks heat up, was she really flirting? She glanced up at him, "bye," she smiled.
"Goodbye."
She pressed her lips against his cheek before walking calmly towards her friends, not looking back as the blush invaded her cheeks. She liked him, really like him and not in a friend way, she couldn't pretend that was all it was anymore, she knew there was more to it. In fact, she fancied the pants off him and she was determined to get what she wanted, she always did.