Mr. Gold dropped me off at the elementary school just as the final bell was ringing. It was the tiniest school I'd ever seen. Each grade appeared to only have one classroom, and it made me wonder how small the high school was.
Finding Ms. Blanchard's classroom was easy enough. I waited until all the children filed out and then let myself in.
A woman no older than thirty sat by the windows. She was looking up at the sky, holding a blue bird in her hands, stroking its feathers. "Take care of yourself," she said to the bird before letting it fly to the little birdhouse outside. Her voice almost sounded familiar, or maybe that was just Ruby insisting that Ms. Blanchard had been my teacher, but I knew the truth. I had never met this woman.
I cleared my throat to get her attention, and she startled. "I'm sorry," she said when she saw me, "who are you?"
Finally, I thought, someone who isn't going to pretend that she knows me. For some reason, though, I wished she did know me. Everything about her seemed warm and kind. "I'm...I'm Emma Swan," I told her.
"Emma," she repeated my name as if in a daze. "What a beautiful name."
"Thank you," I all but whispered, not understanding why I was nervous all of a sudden. "Sorry to bother you, but Ruby at Granny's Diner told me that I should ask for your help."
Ms. Blanchard looked instantly concerned. "Are you in trouble?"
I wanted to tell her everything that had happened to me over the past two days, from meeting Lily in a grocery store to being recognized by people who I'd never met. Instead, I said, "I accidentally ran into the town sign last night, and now the sheriff wants me to do community service. Ruby suggested that you might have a job for me."
"Oh," she said, "well, I volunteer at the hospital once a week. I'd love some company if you'd like."
I nodded. "Yes, thank you."
"Are you free today?" she asked me.
Not relishing going back to Mr. Gold's place, I said, "Yes, actually, I am. A friend of mine is there as well. Do you think I could drop in to see her?"
"I don't see why not," Ms. Blanchard said with a smile and picked up her purse. She motioned towards the door. "Shall we?"
As I turned to go, I knocked over a stack of books off one of the desks. "I'm so sorry," I said and rushed to pick them up.
"Don't worry about it," she said and hurried over to help me. Our hands met when we both reached for the same enormous brown leather book, and I was taken aback by the way Ms. Blanchard was staring at me, like she was trying to memorize every inch of my face. "You should take this," she said, handing the huge volume over to me.
"Why?" I asked as I turned it over to read the cover. "Once Upon a Time," I said aloud. It couldn't be. "Is this a book of fairy tales?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "These stories, the classics, there's a reason we all know them. They're a way for us to deal with our world, a world that doesn't always make sense."
"Thank you," I said and took the book from her as we both rose to our feet. "But why are you giving them to me?"
Ms. Blanchard motioned for me to walk out of her classroom with her. "I want you to have the most important thing anyone can have." She must have seen my clueless expression, because she clarified. "Hope," she said. "Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing."
Her eyes seemed to see straight into my soul somehow. I purposefully looked away as we headed away from her classroom. "How long have you been helping out at the hospital?" I asked.
"For as long as I can remember," she said, opening the door that led outside.
"Have you always lived in Storybrooke?" I asked.
Ms. Blanchard took her time answering. "I think so," she said, not sounding completely sure of herself. She jolted when the clock tolled. "When did that happen?"
"When did what happen?"
"Someone must have fixed the clock," she said. "It's been broken for so long that I didn't think it would ever work again."
"What caused it to stop?" I asked.
"I'm not sure," Ms. Blanchard said. "It's just always been that way."
Either Ms. Blanchard was an incredibly elusive person, or she had the worst memory of anyone I'd ever met.
The hospital was only a short walk away, and, like the elementary school, it was tiny. Once inside, Ms. Blanchard and I were given visitor's passes.
"Emma would like to see a friend of hers," Ms. Blanchard said to the nurse behind the desk.
"What is your friend's name?" the nurse asked me.
"It's Lily," I said. "I'm not sure what her last name is though."
"Lily Mills?" the nurse asked me. "The Mayor's daughter?"
"Yeah," I said, "I guess that's her."
"You're friends with the Mayor's daughter?" Ms. Blanchard asked me, looking unhappy about the new information.
"Does it count I didn't know that when we became friends?" I asked, and Ms. Blanchard bit back a smile.
"She's in room 108," the nurse said with a frown.
"Thanks," I said and then followed Ms. Blanchard down the hallway.
Lily was awake in her private room, surrounded by flowers and looking miserable with cuts and bruises all over her face. Her right arm was in a cast.
"Hey, Lily," I said as we entered the room.
"Emma!" she said and then winced, seeming to regret her enthusiasm.
"How are you feeling?" I asked as I walked up to her bed.
"I've been better," she said. "Next time we steal my mom's car, I'm driving."
I felt the urge to point out to Ms. Blanchard that I had not knowingly stolen anything. "So," I said, "you got your memories back?"
She gave me a strange look. "Emma, I never lost my memories."
"You couldn't even remember your own name the other night," I said.
She laughed. "What are talking about Emma?"
"Okay, what do you think happened then?" I asked her.
"I was teaching you how to drive on the road out of town when you accidentally lost control of the car and swerved straight into the sign," she said.
"How long have we been friends?" I asked.
"Ever since kindergarten," Lily replied, looking concerned. "Emma, if you can't remember any of this, maybe you should be the one hospital. Did you hit your head?"
"Yes," I said, "but -"
"What are you doing in here?"
I turned towards the door at the sound of a woman's sharp voice.
"She has every right to be here, Mom," Lily said, sounding annoyed as if she'd had the same argument with her mother before.
"No, she does not," her mother said, and then noticed Ms. Blanchard seated in the chair next to her daughter. "And why are you here?"
"I came with Emma," Ms. Blanchard said, rising to her feet and looking nervous. "She's going to volunteer with me here at the hospital for the foreseeable future. I apologize if our being here is an intrusion Madame Mayor."
"It is," the mayor said. "Now leave."
"But, Mom -"
"You need to rest," the Mayor said and glared daggers at me, "and she's the entire reason you're here in the first place. You're lucky, Ms. Swan, that I decided not to press charges."
Ms. Blanchard put a hand on my shoulder. "Let's go. I'm sure there's lots for us to do today."
I nodded. "Bye, Lily."
"Goodbye," Lily said miserably.
Once we were outside, I asked Ms. Blanchard, "How is that woman the mayor. She's not exactly a great people person."
"I don't know," Ms. Blanchard said, "she's been the mayor for as long as I can remember."
That seemed to be her answer to everything. "So you don't remember who was mayor before her?"
Ms. Blanchard shook her head. "I guess our little town here is frozen in its ways."
Frozen, I thought. That was one way to describe it, like the clock had been frozen, like Lily - the Lily I'd met before Storybrooke - had predicted the town would be. "Ms. Blanchard, I think I need to leave. Can I help you next week?"
"Of course, is everything alright?"
"Yes, I just really think that right now I need to read that book you gave me. I need to research."
"What do you need to research?" she asked.
"Curses," I said, "and how to break them."
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