Hello again. Here we go starting round two. I decided since I read a lot of swan queen that I would give it a go. I rated it M for later chapters, and 'll give you a heads up for when they are. I loved the feedback I got from my first FF and this one has been fun to write so I can;t wait to see what you guys think.
Enjoy!
First Day of School
"No running!" Emma called out at a couple of boys sprinting past her down the hall. She shook her head as she stood at her door waiting for the rest of her class to file in and take their seats.
Today was the first day back at Storybrooke High after a seemingly restless and uneventful summer for the blonde. She planned on taking a trip with her son, Henry, to Tallahassee, but between basketball camps and her seemingly depleting lack of funds, they decided to postpone the trip till the holidays. She was grateful that Henry took the news well, seeing as he had been really looking forward to the trip. However the promise of spending a few extra days over the holidays seemed to lighten the bad news.
The final bell rang, signaling the start of first period. Emma waited an extra minute at her door, knowing that there would be a few stragglers on the first day. Storybrooke High School was not large on any scale, and it was pretty easy to figure out your way around, but nevertheless Emma liked to be a little lenient with tardies on the first day.
"Good Morning guys!" Emma smiled when she entered her classroom.
"Good morning, Ms. Swan." The class sluggishly repeated.
"Glad to hear you are all excited about the year. How was everyone's summer? Anyone have any good stories? Go anywhere interesting?" She stepped behind a small podium set at the front of the class next to her projector. She shifted through a stack of papers on the podium as she spoke and looked up when she found her roster sheet. A couple of sporadic hands had gone up around the room. "Yeah, what's your name?" She pointed to a young red-headed girl in the front row.
"My name is Gretel." The girl said enthusiastically. Emma hung on the name for a moment then checked it off her roll sheet.
"Alright, what did you do this summer?"
Emma half listened to the girl's seemingly never ending story about herself and her brother's travels throughout the summer. She was distracted by the thought of not being able to take Henry anywhere for the break. After listening to a few more stories, she felt downright terrible. What kind of parent doesn't let their kid do fun things over the summer?
"Alright well, it seems like everyone is here. So let's get rolling with what's going to happen this year. As you know this class is your Mythical Studies course. We will be studying lots of old tales and stories from all over the world as well as reading a few books. The majority of your grade will come from analysis of those books. You will be required to read them and we will discuss them in class. One book equals one Unit, and we will have four units. Each book has between 3-4 different stories in them, and we will spend an ample amount of time on all of them. I'm hoping at the end of the year we can all be grateful that we live in a time where locking our daughters away in towers is quite unacceptable."
A small mumble spread across the room. Thankfully a few of them got the reference Emma was trying to make. She had never been completely successful with that joke in the past, but it seemed each year she got a few more who enjoyed it.
She passed out the syllabus to everyone and read over all of the monotonous rules for classroom conduct and punctuality. The students seemed thoroughly unimpressed by all the usually boring first-day-stuff they always had to sit through. Emma herself sometimes hated the structured first-day-stuff as well, and was always anxious to get started with the year.
Emma had taken this job a few years ago after moving up from Boston with her son. After working her way through college and struggling to find a job in the bustling city she figured a change in scenery would be good for both of them. Henry was too young at the time for the change to really affect him and after landing the job pretty quickly she was sure she made the right decision. The school system was great for both her and Henry, and the town seemed to love having the new addition.
The bell rang almost as soon as she finished up the last sentence from her syllabus. "Okay, don't forget to go get those books. I expect you to have them by the end of the week. You will need to start reading pretty quick or you will get behind." The class hurriedly packed up their backpacks and left the room into the busy hallway.
When the last student filed out she sighed and plopped down in her chair at her desk. Clicking open her email, she saw she already had a number of unread messages from a few of her coworkers. She didn't have a class for second period so she plugged in her headphones and clicked open a few of them. Before she could get to far into them she heard a knock at her door. When she turned around she saw a dark haired woman sticking her head through the entry.
Emma took her headphones out and waved her in. "Mary Margaret, come in!" She got up and met the fellow teacher halfway, wrapping her in a hug.
"Hey, Emma! How are you doing?" Mary Margaret returned the warm hug and then stood back examining Emma from head to toe. "You look so great. I can't believe it's only been a few months since I've seen you."
"I know. Thank you. You look pretty great yourself. I saw that you tied the knot this summer? Congratulations!" Emma smiled, happy to see her coworker.
"Yes I did. Me and David are doing fantastic. Still in that newlywed phase you could say. We took our honeymoon for a few weeks down in Cancun. Oh, Emma, it was simply gorgeous down there." Her cheeks lit up from their normal shape of pale white. Emma admired the delicate tone of her skin, and always seemed to think that it looked like snow.
"That's great. I'm sorry Henry and I couldn't make it, we have been so busy, and taking the drive down there was just going to be too much." Emma said disappointedly.
"Oh no, Emma, please don't be sorry. We totally understand. I know it's tough having kids. And you, being a single mother, I know that's hard. Me and David are nervous about having kids." Mary Margaret brushed through her hair and pulled at the ends of her long sleeve sweater.
"Oh they will run your life, that's for sure. But it's great. I couldn't have asked for a better kid."
"Well you're a great mother as well." Mary Margaret smiled, laying a gentle hand on Emma's arm.
"Thanks. How was your first class?" Emma asked leaning up against one of the desks in the front of the classroom.
"Oh you know. Boring as usual. But I think it'll be a good year." Mary Margaret sighed as she spoke.
"Same here. I had a couple kids who seemed enthusiastic, so maybe it will be a fun year."
"Have you talked to Principal Mills yet?" Mary Margaret asked. Emma heard her friend slightly gasp as soon as she asked the question.
Emma paused a moment, biting at her lip before she answered. "Uh… no I haven't talked to her yet. I was kind of hoping to put that off as long as possible."
"I'm sorry, Emma. I shouldn't have asked. I know y'all have had a rough past couple of months." Mary Margaret bit her nails, anxious about where this conversation was about to head.
"A few months? That's putting it lightly. I've been avoiding her since the middle of last year when… it doesn't matter." Emma went and slouched down in her chair at her desk. Mary Margaret walked up to Emma and looked down at her concerned.
"Emma you can't just avoid her. She is the principal of the school you work for. Yeah you and Regina ended on a bad note, but it's bad for morale to just walk around hating each other."
"Yeah I don't think you could call what happened just "bad". And I don't hate her, I'm just… disappointed."
"Well whatever it was, you two need to find a way to get past it. I feel like the whole school is walking on egg shells through all the tension." Mary Margaret waved away the conversation to the relief of both women. The bell rang around them, and Emma could already feel her headache burning between her ears. "That's the call I suppose. I got class this period." Mary Margaret headed out the door. "Come to my room for lunch okay?"
Emma gave a slight smile and waved as Mary Margaret closed the door behind her. Emma forced herself out of her chair as a couple of kids ran past her room into the classroom next door. She put on a brave face and smiled as they ran by. The last thing she needed was for the kids to suspect anything. Nothing spreads as fast as gossip in a small town high school.
If there ever was the longest day recorded in history, today beat it by a couple of hours. Emma hardly had the energy to think, let alone make it out of her classroom and head home. It looked like Henry was going to be having cereal tonight because she didn't feel like cooking anything special, even if it was the first day of school.
Before she could get out of her classroom, she heard another ringing sound. This time from her room phone. "Lord, what now?" She mumbled to herself huffing back into her classroom. She plopped her bags down in her chair and leaned over to pick up the phone. "Hello?" She answered annoyed.
"Ms. Swan, Principal Mills wants to see you in her office before you leave for the day." The other woman on the phone sounded just as tired as Emma, but she hardly noticed passed the mention of Regina's name.
"Okay." Emma slammed down the phone, standing in the darkness of her classroom. She contemplated just leaving and not even going to her office. "Why didn't she just call me herself." Emma mumbled and wondered if what Mary Margaret had said earlier was true and the two of them needed to work things out, even though every bone in her body was telling her to just get in her car and go. She knew she couldn't go the rest of her life working here and avoiding Regina at the same time. She huffed her bags over her shoulder and rolled her eyes to the darkness as she left into the hallway.
"Hey Ruby." Emma waved as she passed by the woman who had called her at the secretary's desk on the way to Regina's office.
"Hey, Emma. Be careful, she is in one of her moods today." Ruby motioned her finger across her neck.
"Isn't she always?" Emma joked turning down the hall.
Emma slowed her pace as she heard the woman's voice, beckoning from an open door at the end of the hallway. She couldn't see her, but she could hear her heels clicking on the hardwood floor of the office. The feelings of the past who-knows-how-long flooded back to Emma. Each click of Regina's heel was like a knife to Emma's heart. She felt uneasy, her stomach twisting into knots. She wanted to just turn around and make up an excuse and go home, but there was something holding her back. The history she shared with Regina was more than she wanted to admit, and more than she ever wanted to spend the time talking through.
The sound of a sniffling boy caught Emma's attention back towards Regina's office. A young boy, probably a freshman sulked out through the doorway, wiping a tear from his cheek. He looked up at Emma and then down at his shoes, embarrassed no doubt by his lack of control over his emotions.
Emma smirked, propping herself in the doorway to Regina's office. "First day and you are already making kids cry?" Regina looked up, unamused by Emma's attitude.
"Ms. Swan, always a pleasure." Regina looked back down to the paperwork stacked in front of her.
"Back to formalities already?" Emma strode in, trying to look and sound as confident as possible even though she was crumbling like a piece of useless paper in the wind on the inside. She fingered a couple of decorations on Regina's bookshelf hoping to avoid eye contact.
"Well I am your boss and you are my employee, so yes, formalities are a given." Regina's tone was spiteful, and Emma felt every sting.
"Ouch." Emma smirked under her breath. She didn't bother turning to address the heels clicking toward her. Emma winced as her eyes fell on a picture of a happy couple sitting on the bookshelf in front of her.
"Look I have a meeting in ten minutes I just need you to sign some paper work. Since you don't seem to answer any of your emails, we have had to wait till the last minute to get this done." The clicking stopped behind Emma and her body shivered at the ice coming from the principals attitude. She did forget all about the emails she had received this morning after getting caught up with Mary Margaret.
"How's Daniel?" Emma mumbled.
"Is this really what you want to talk about right now?" Regina squeezed the bridge of her nose and sighed in frustration and exhaustion.
"No." Emma admitted turning to find the woman much further from her than she was comfortable with.
"Good, then just sign the papers and you can go home." Regina turned swiftly and clicked back to her desk. Emma followed like a lost puppy and waited for Regina to hand her the papers. Yet another picture of a happy couple sat on Regina's desk. Emma could feel herself sinking down further than she could stand. Why was she feeling so uncomfortable? The formalities where not something Emma was comfortable with at all, and the fact that she felt like Regina was almost repulsed by her presence made her want to turn on her heels and run out of the office.
"What are they for?" Emma asked taking the small packet from Regina. She flipped through a couple pages but didn't process any of the words on the page.
"They are for the approval of a new program that will be starting at the school next year. I have to get signatures from all of the teachers so we can be approved for a test period sometime this year. Two teachers will be chosen at random to test the program." Regina tapped a finger on her desk as Emma sat down, flipping through a couple more pages.
"What's the program?" Emma asked. Regina rolled her eyes impatiently and Emma remembering they were on a time schedule. Of all the things Regina didn't like, it was to be late..
"It's an after school tutoring program." Regina stated plainly.
"Oh." Emma mouthed. "Can I borrow a pen?" She looked up solemnly at the woman standing over her.
"Here." Emma reached out, their fingers grazing as they exchanged the pen. Emma swallowed hard hoping her slight hesitation from the feelings went unnoticed. She cleared her throat and signed the multiple pages of the document.
The silence in the room felt heavy in the air, and Emma struggled to breathe. She looked up from the papers in her lap and watched Regina who had become enwrapped among the other paperwork on her desk. Emma realized she hadn't been in the same room as Regina since last year. The brunette in front of her seemed to not notice Emma's stare as she kept busy with her work. Emma watched her, her dark chocolate hair falling in her face as she wrote away on a slip of paper. Her face seemed emotionless, unlike what Emma remembered from their past. She could remember when there was life in Regina's cheeks, color to her skin, happiness in her tone. Now, she just looked like a normal person, someone who deserved more than she had.
Emma blinked out of her stare and cleared her throat, standing and placing the paperwork in front of Regina, breaking the concentration of whatever she was writing.
"Thank you. I'll send out an email with more information soon." Regina stood grabbing the packet as well as the papers she was scribbling on and walked around her desk. "Now if you will excuse me, I have a meeting to attend to."
Emma squinted her eyes at the woman, thinking hard about the situation they were in.
"I'm sorry, is there a problem, Ms. Swan?" Regina raised her eyebrow and her eyes studied the woman still standing in front of her.
"No problem." Emma smirked. "No problem at all." She picked up her bags and turned out the door. She didn't wait to see but she knew it drove Regina crazy to end meetings on an improper farewell, but she felt completely satisfied that she came out of the office somewhat ahead of the game. And not only that, she got a full body examination from the brunette as well.
When she reached Ruby's desk she leaned over the secretary's desk and sighed.
"Well you don't look like you are missing any limbs, so I guess it went well?" Ruby checked Emma up and down for any bruises.
"Nah, she was a little short, but I would be too if I had her job." Emma waved her away.
"Oh, already playing the sympathy card on the first day huh? Are you getting soft on me Ms. Swan?" Ruby eyed her playfully.
"No, and don't call me that. She calls me that." Emma darted her eyes down the hall. "Anyway, you want to go out for some drinks? Henry has basketball practice and he is getting a ride home from his friend. I could really use something to help me forget this day."
"Hell yeah… oops! I mean, yes… yes I would love to go get drinks." Ruby stood up enthusiastically and grabbed her purse.
Emma wasn't completely dissatisfied with the day. She was glad to be back at work, seeing as it was hopefully going to be less stressful than the past summer. However, her and Regina still didn't seem to be on the best of terms, and it was definitely uncomfortable to see her that way. Maybe in a few months they would actually be able to spend more than five minutes together without eating each other alive. Only time will tell.