Using

myohanamylove asked for a oneshot of…another read and see story.

Snow loved being a teacher, but some days she wished she had just stuck to being a stay at home mom with volunteering at the hospital. Not that being a stay at home mom was easy, Snow knew that, but anything seems better on bad days. She didn't even have Emma at school with her any more to make days a little brighter when her fourth graders were being rowdy. She had a particularly difficult class this year, and with Emma now in junior high when they were acting up, Snow found she had less to keep her going during the bad days.

Emma had noticed that her mom seemed pretty bummed out, and she spied an opportunity. Alex was having a party in a couple of weeks. A boy girl party, and the girls were all sleeping over. Alex's parents weren't going to be there the whole time either. They'd be going on a date and probably wouldn't be back until around midnight. Emma knew her parents would never agree to her going to Alex's party. That was unless she managed to sweeten them up a bit beforehand. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

That evening, with her mom still drained from a hard day's work, Emma insisted that she be the one to cook dinner for the family. Her parents had protested, saying they should be looking after her, but Emma insisted and cooked them a lovely dinner of pasta. Then later, she made her mom some hot chocolate with cinnamon without so much as being asked. Snow's heart was well and truly warmed by her daughter's actions…that was until the next day, Emma asked about the party. Snow knew her daughter well, and knew she'd only been so kind to her to get permission for this party. Snow didn't care, she was too hurt, she could go. Charming, on the other hand, was very disappointed in Emma and would not be allowing her to go to this party. He couldn't believe she would be so insensitive towards her mother's feelings. He knew they had to discuss it.

"Emma, how do you think your mother is feeling right now?" Charming asked her, determined to stay calm and level headed. Emma shrugged. "Well if you're going to be immature about it, I'll tell you exactly how she's feeling. She's hurt, Emma. Really hurt. You used her having a bad day and exploited it to try and do something you knew we wouldn't allow you to do. Your mom thought you were being genuinely kind and just doing something nice for her. You used her, Emma." Charming said bluntly. If she was going to be sullen, he would do it bluntly. He could see her bottom lip quivering, so knew she felt bad, but she was refusing to drop the attitude. He sighed. "Well, you know what you have to do to make this right." He told her. "I hope you make the right decision." Charming then left Emma to think about her next move.

Charming thought Emma had made the wrong decision when, just before he and Snow called it a night, she came down the stairs.

"Mom?" She said quietly. Snow looked around. Emma was standing at the foot of the staircase, shuffling her feet uncomfortably. "I'm sorry I did what I did. I shouldn't have used you like that, it was wrong. I don't want to go to Alex's party anymore." Snow smiled at her, and gave a small smile to Charming too, knowing he would have had something to do with it.

"Thank you for apologising, Emma. That means a lot to me. You can still go to Alex's party, if you want to." Emma shook her head.

"I don't want to go now. It's all getting a little out of hand." Emma admitted. Snow nodded, glad to see Emma was making a sensible decision.

"Ok sweetie. Do you want some hot chocolate?" Emma shook her head.

"No, I'm going to go to bed now. Night guys."

"Night Em." They both replied, watching her go back upstairs. Yes, Emma had made the wrong decision in using her mom. But she'd done something to fix it, making her parents proud of her.